A recent McKinsey survey of global companies found that as of 2020, only 15% of respondents “are scaling automation techniques across multiple parts of their business.” So, even though the last few years have forced organizations to adopt new technology, there is still a significant blue sky for leaders when it comes to AI and how it can help them drive business decisions.

Yet the adoption of AI & related technologies is set to witness a seismic shift across industry verticals. Our guest, Babak Hodjat highlights the importance and advancement of technology in today's day & age. 

Babak with all his expertise in the field of natural language processing, machine learning, genetic algorithms, distributed AI, and more, discusses a host of issues with Aaron Shagrin. 

This discussion focuses on:

• The recent developments in AI
• The disruption caused by generative language models like GPT-3
• The debate around ethics & privacy in AI
• Possibilities around Self-learning AI
• Cognizant's push in advancing AI across multiple industries

 
In this interaction, Babak talks about the Pandemic Response AI System which illustrates the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that the AI generates for different countries and regions over time and their predicted effect. Click on the link to access this demo - https://evolution.ml/demos/npidashboard/

Babak Hodjat
CTO for AI, Cognizant

Babak Hodjat is the CTO for AI at Cognizant where he leads a team of developers and researchers bringing advanced AI solutions to businesses. Babak is the former co-founder and CEO of Sentient, responsible for the core technology behind the world’s largest distributed artificial intelligence system. Babak was also the founder of the world's first AI-driven hedge fund, Sentient Investment Management. Babak is a serial entrepreneur, having started a number of Silicon Valley companies as the main inventor and technologist.

Babak has published many papers in the fields of Artificial Life, Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, and Distributed Artificial Intelligence, and has 31 granted or pending patents to his name. He is an expert in numerous fields of AI, including natural language processing, machine learning, genetic algorithms, distributed AI, and has founded multiple companies in these areas. Babak holds a Ph.D. in Machine Intelligence from Kyushu University, in Fukuoka, Japan.

Aaron Shagrin
General Manager, North America Jio Haptik

Aaron Shagrin is Senior Vice President of Revenue & Partnerships for North America. Based out of Austin, Texas, Aaron is leading all go-to-market activities including revenue, sales, marketing, and partnerships for North America

He brings over 20 years of experience in global sales, business development, product management, and corporate strategy at multiple startups, Fortune 500 companies, and investment firms. Most recently, Aaron was General Manager at Evolv Technologies, AI and ML-powered conversion optimization SaaS company.

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Haptik is an artificial intelligence company powering conversational assistants for brands to transform customer experiences. The platform has enabled over 100 virtual assistants, reaching close to 100 million devices and processing over 3 billion end customer interactions. Haptik is backed by Reliance Industries, a $100 Billion+ conglomerate, with close to 500 million customers.