Working Smarter

On our final episode this season of Working Smarter we talk to Sophia Wang, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University. 

Wang leads the school’s ophthalmic informatics and artificial intelligence group, which uses the latest machine learning techniques to analyze electronic health records. In practice, that means looking at disparate sources of data—from doctors’ notes and eye exam data to diagnostic imagery and billing codes—and finding the sorts of patterns that can be difficult for humans to spot.

Hear Wang talk about using AI to extract useful information from a sea of unstructured data, and how to make better decisions with the data you already have—which, in Wang’s case, means improving outcomes for glaucoma patients and providing a better quality of care.

Show notes:

• Learn more about Sophia and her research
• Visit Stanford University’s Ophthalmic Informatics and Artificial Intelligence Group

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

For our seventh episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to Drew Houston, the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. 

If you’ve been online long enough, it’s likely Dropbox was your introduction to the cloud. The goal is still more or less the same—give you one organized place for all your stuff—but it’s no longer just about storing and syncing files. A hundred files on your desktop is now a hundred tabs in your browser, and Houston believes AI is what will finally bring calm to the chaos that’s been created by the tools of modern work.

For Houston, AI’s potential is so great that its arrival feels like a civilization shift. It’s also not just a professional preoccupation; AI is a personal interest too. A few years ago he decided to teach himself machine learning in his spare time—and some of the AI tools Houston now uses to run Dropbox are ones he built himself. 

Hear Houston discuss why it’s gotten so hard to find the information you need to do your job, the types of tasks we'll increasingly offload to our silicon brains, and what Dropbox is doing to help make modern work more meaningful and fulfilling.

Show notes:

• To learn more about Dropbox Dash and try Dash for free, visit dropbox.com/dash
• The two books Houston mentions are “High Output Management” by Andy Grove and “The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

For our sixth episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to Pascal Weinberger, the co-founder and CEO of Bardeen, an AI-powered automation platform. 

Weinberger wants to help people effortlessly automate repetitive tasks in the apps they already use for work—no code required. His hope is that by removing some of the friction that makes it hard for people to do their jobs, they can use the time they save on more rewarding, impactful work.

Hear Weinberger talk about what people are already automating, how automation can benefit teams as much as individuals, and why he doesn't want to build tools that replace us.

Show notes:

• To learn more about Bardeen, visit bardeen.ai

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our fifth episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to sports scientist Natalie Kupperman. She’s an assistant professor of data science at the University of Virginia where she studies the use of biometrics, wearables, and AI-powered tools for athlete monitoring in sport.

Whether it’s a machine learning algorithm trained on video footage from practice, a force plate sensor in the weight room floor—or some combination of the two—Kupperman is interested in how new technology can help reduce the risk of injury and optimize athletic performance for professional athletes and amateurs alike.

Hear Kupperman discuss a day in the life of a sports scientist, the importance of getting all of your data into one place, and why there will always be some injuries we can’t prevent.

Show notes:

• To learn more about Natalie and her work, you can visit her website or her University of Virginia faculty page
• Find Natalie’s research on Google Scholar

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our fourth episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to Babak Hodjat, the chief technology officer for AI research at Cognizant. If you’ve ever used Apple’s smart assistant Siri, then you’re almost certainly familiar with his work.

Hodjat has been doing AI research for nearly four decades, and if there’s one thread that runs through his career, it’s how to make working with digital agents feel as natural or effortless as working with a colleague. At Cognizant—an IT services and consulting firm—Hodjat’s team puts this work into practice by helping other companies integrate AI tools into their workflows.

Hear Hodjat discuss why it’s still so hard for machines to understand exactly what we want them to do, the problems he’s helping his customers solve, and how the latest generation of workplace assistants can help us make better decisions and improve the way we do our jobs.

Show notes:

• Learn more about Cognizant's Advanced AI Lab
• Links to Hodjat’s research
• The Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL)
• The Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO)

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our third episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to May Habib, the co-founder and CEO of Writer, a generative AI platform for businesses. Writer helps streamline the writing parts of people’s workflows, so they can get to the “thinking part” of their jobs more quickly.

For Habib, AI isn’t just about automating mundane or repetitive tasks, but a way to amplify the talent and intelligence of a team. There are some types of writing, such as an RFP or a JIRA ticket, where it doesn’t always make sense to start from scratch. By using AI to learn how a company works and the knowledge a person needs to do their job, Writer aims to make those kinds of writing-related tasks faster, easier, and more efficient. 

Hear Habib talk about how AI-powered tools like Writer can help increase the amount of time you spend in flow, supercharge your existing workflows, and create more space for insight, creativity, and inspiration in your job. 

Show notes:

• To learn more about Writer, visit writer.com
• Follow May Habib on LinkedIn

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our second episode of Working Smarter, we’re talking to University of Toronto law professor Abdi Aidid about AI, the law, and the “possibility of an intelligent division of labor between human and machine.”

Aidid is interested in how AI can help legal professionals be better at their jobs and improve the delivery of legal services. He’s also the former vice president of legal research for Blue J—a legal tech company that uses machine learning to help lawyers review, analyze, and synthesize information faster and more efficiently than they could on their own—and the co-author of The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better.

Hear Aidid talk about using AI to spend more time on the things humans do best, how lawyers are already using AI-powered tools, and why he thinks AI could actually make legal services more accessible and better able to meet people’s needs. 

Show notes:

• To hear more from Abdi Aidid, read our previous interview on Work in Progress.
• Visit the University of Toronto website to learn more about Abdi Aidid and his work.
• The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better by Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie is available now.
• Read the full transcript of this interview on our website. 

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our first episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to Kate Darling, a research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and author of The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots. 

Darling has spent more than a decade studying human-robot interaction through a social, legal, and ethical lens. She’s interested in how people relate to robots and digital constructs, socially and emotionally—whether it’s an AI-powered chatbot or one of the many robotic dinosaurs that Kate has in her home. 

Hear Darling talk about the bonds we’re already forming with our smart—and not-so-smart—devices at work and at home, and why our relationship with animals might be a better way to frame the interactions we’re having with increasingly intelligent machines.

Show notes:

• Visit katedarling.org to learn more about Kate Darling and her work.
• The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots is available now.
• The two papers mentioned in this episode are "Bonding with a Couchsurfing Robot: The Impact of Common Locus on Human-Robot Bonding In-the-Wild" by Joost Mollen, Peter van der Putten, and Kate Darling, and "How does my robot know who I am?: Understanding the Impact of Education on Child-Robot Relationships" by Daniella DiPaola.
• Read the full transcript of this interview on our website.

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to Working Smarter! In this new podcast from Dropbox, learn how people are already using AI at work to collaborate, find focus, and get stuff done—not at some point in the future, but today. Hear founders, researchers, and engineers talk about the problems they’re solving with the help of new and emerging AI tools, and how AI can help you spend more time on the work that matters most.

Our first episode lands May 1.

---

Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox. We make AI-powered tools that help knowledge workers get things done, no matter how or where they work. 

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson,  technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!