If you’ve read many of the recent issues of Startup Life, you’ll know that I’ve been thinking a lot about AI.
The more I speak to people, the more I hear about distinct brackets appearing: there’s some who are AI-native, get the tech, think about it all the time and have had little friction rolling out AI in their organisations; some who are starting out with AI, testing things and hoping they stick. And some who don’t know where to start and are “flailing around and spending a lot of money,” as Pleo CTO Meri Williams told me in our interview last week.
Interestingly, OpenAI’s usage report shows use of ChatGPT for work-related purposes has decreased, while personal use has increased.
Milda Bayer, VP of marketing and new business sales at Lepaya, thinks this is because very few leadership teams know “which AI tools fit their business needs, how to deploy AI across domains and make it stick and how to make sure it’s being used for the right purpose.”
She adds that companies not paying for their employees to use the right tools are unlikely to see high levels of AI adoption, as most won’t want to pay out of pocket.
If you’re like me and simply trying to keep up with the latest AI happenings, I’ve put together a list of tips and recommendations from operators in Europe. Got any more? Send them my way.
Yenny Cheung, VP of product engineering at BlueFish AI
My personal approach to keeping up to date.
Get plugged into the community. Half the learning comes through osmosis. Here’s a few ways to find and join communities.
- Join WhatsApp or LinkedIn groups where AI enthusiasts share what tools they’re using.
- Find peers who share a focus on AI applications, devtools and enterprise automation. Attend meetups, conferences and community dinners to get your foot in the door and start building real relationships.
- Another way is to use social media like LinkedIn to share value-add takes in the domain where you have expertise. It's another channel for people to recognise the contribution you'd bring to the community they are creating.
- And if these all don't work out, create your own and be the centre of the party, and put in the time to keep the community alive.
Join or host a hackathon. I set up the ‘Speed AI Build’ hackathon with Siddhi Mittal, cofounder at Yyhangry. It forces you to scout sponsors, test the newest tools and surround yourself with builders. Hackers are always the first to prototype with the latest releases, putting you right at the forefront of AI innovation.
Build side projects. Whenever you hear about a new tool, try it out for yourself during the weekend. You’ll understand its strengths and limits far faster than by just reading a blogpost.
Milda Bayer, VP of marketing and new business sales, Lepaya
A big part of working with AI is learning how the technology works: its advantages and limitations. Here’s a list of podcasts to follow.
How I AI, by Claire Vo
A podcast by engineer, three time product officer and founder Claire Vo, which gives listeners case studies looking at how people are using AI tools in their day-to-day lives, as well as tips and workflows you can copy to get started.
Me, myself, and AI by MIT Sloan
The me, myself and AI podcast has really diverse guests, which I like. Easy to listen to, digest and learn. Episodes I found useful:
- Rafa Sadun, professor at Harvard Business School, on how AI can improve and even substitute for team collaboration and bridge capability gaps.
- Linda Yao, chief operating officer and head of strategy at Lenovo, discusses her model of speed, ease and expertise when it comes to AI implementation.
20VC, by Harry Stebbings
For everything related to AI in business trends — the realities, the valuations, the craze.
Vjera Orbanic, cofounder and director The Coaching Body and consultant for Ethical Intelligence
Get AI literate. AI is currently a hot topic with lots of hype — and its trends, as in any field, get old with velocity. Every day we hear about a new technology or tool being built and see hundreds of articles that range from overly excited, to fear-mongering and sci-fi. Having a deep understanding of the timeless foundations of AI is crucial to distinguish between all of them, to make informed choices and navigate this age of tech.
Get educated on what AI is and isn’t, what its capabilities and limitations are and how the tech works. We have to stop relying on those with a tech background (engineers, developers, insiders, tech billionaires, etc.) to tell us how the world will go forward. Democratisation of this knowledge is key and its prioritisation crucial.
My recommendations include:
In Pursuit of Good Tech. A newsletter and podcast by AI ethicist, strategist and author of Responsible AI Olivia Gambelin. They offer a human approach to AI innovation.
She Shapes AI. An organisation centred around championing female leadership in AI for social impact. It hosts events and award ceremonies, and has an accelerator — as well as a global community of entrepreneurs, partners and investors. The founder Dr Julia Stamm also writes a weekly AI news series called ‘Beyond the Hype’.
Luiza’s Newsletter, by Luiza Jarovsky, PhD. It covers AI governance, AI literacy and the future of work and its legal and ethical challenges. I like it as it covers all the latest news from the week. Jarovsky also hosts an AI book club and a YouTube page with podcast-like interviews (all links on Substack).
The TED AI Show. A podcast hosted by creative technologist Bilawal Sidhu with well known guests who discuss the future of AI.
One Useful Thing. A newsletter by professor Ethan Mollick which focuses on research-based views on the implications of AI. He also has a resource page called ‘More Useful Things’.
Through No Man’s Land, by Jeroen Franse. A newsletter from an astrophysicist turned data scientist and AI professional. The premise of the blog is what Franse calls ‘the new ethics of AI.’
How to AI, by Ruben Hassid. You can learn about using AI without the need to code.
The Skeptic AI Enthusiast, by Rafe Brena, PhD. A newsletter from the perspective of someone who used to work in AI, decades before it became a thing.
Anisah Osman Britton, tech commentator and director of operations at unlock VC
There’s so much content on AI right now. Just like in other hype cycles — think crypto, Covid, Brexit — suddenly everyone’s an expert. But I don’t think AI is a hype cycle. That’s why I spend a lot of time trying to understand where we actually are: What’s real? What’s speculation? What’s just fear-mongering?
In addition to reading documentation from product releases and updates (like those from Anthropic and OpenAI), I find it helpful to curate a list of people I regularly follow and read — either because I trust them, or because they have radically different views to mine and help me spot trends outside my bubble.
There’s the big names like Lenny’s Newsletter, Peter Yang, Nicolas Colin, and Not Boring — all excellent. But below are a few lesser-known sources I keep coming back to.
I think it’s super important to curate your reading list to include voices from outside Europe and the US — or at the very least, to read global majority voices who live and work in Europe/the US. It helps give a more complete picture of where things are heading, what needs aren't being met, and what trends the mainstream conversations might be missing.
Reading:
Listening:
- Superhuman AI YouTube Podcast – hit or miss, but some gems
- Complexity – older, but I loved this series.
Following:
- Dan Parry, cofounder at Cluso
- Cien Solon, founder and CEO of launchlemonade and an AI transformation expert
- Maria Rosaria Taddeo, professor of digital ethics and defence technologies at the University of Oxford — for AI in defence
- Bethnal Green Ventures — to see what impact companies are being built
Gilles Backhus, founder and VP of AI and product at Recogni
To stay up to date with the latest on AI infrastructure, listen and read anything with Dylan Patel, founder, CEO and chief analyst of SemiAnalysis, a research and analysis company specialising in semiconductors, GPUs, CPUs and AI hardware. A particularly good listen is Patel on Lex Fridman’s podcast.
The Diary of a CEO podcast by Steven Bartlett also has a few good episodes on AI, like this one with Geoffrey Hinton, a British-Candian computer scientist, cognitive scientist and cognitive psychologist often referred to as the Godfather of AI.
The OpenAI podcast — a series of conversations with employees who are building and shaping technology at OpenAI.
