
Mapping Dark Matter with Bayesian Neural Networks w/ Yashar Hezaveh - TWiML Talk #250
Today we’re joined by Yashar Hezaveh, Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal. Yashar and I caught up to discuss his work on gravitational lensing, which is the bending of light from distant sources due to the effects of gravity. In our conversation, Yashar and I discuss how ML can be applied to undistort images, the intertwined roles of simulation and ML in generating images, incorporating other techniques such as domain transfer or GANs, and how he assesses the results of this project.
11 Apr 201934min

Deep Learning for Population Genetic Inference with Dan Schrider - TWiML Talk #249
Today we’re joined by Dan Schrider, assistant professor in the department of genetics at UNC Chapel Hill. My discussion with Dan starts with an overview of population genomics, looking into his application of ML in the field. We then dig into Dan’s paper “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Convolutional Neural Networks in Population Genetic Inference,” which examines the idea that CNNs are capable of outperforming expert-derived statistical methods for some key problems in the field.
9 Apr 201949min

Empathy in AI with Rob Walker - TWiML Talk #248
Today we’re joined by Rob Walker, Vice President of Decision Management at Pegasystems. Rob joined us back in episode 127 to discuss “Hyperpersonalizing the customer experience.” Today, he’s back for a discussion about the role of empathy in AI systems. In our conversation, we dig into the role empathy plays in consumer-facing human-AI interactions, the differences between empathy and ethics, and a few examples of ways empathy should be considered when enterprise AI systems.
5 Apr 201940min

Benchmarking Custom Computer Vision Services at Urban Outfitters with Tom Szumowski - TWiML Talk #247
Today we’re joined by Tom Szumowski, Data Scientist at URBN, parent company of Urban Outfitters and other consumer fashion brands. Tom and I caught up to discuss his project “Exploring Custom Vision Services for Automated Fashion Product Attribution.” We look at the process Tom and his team took to build custom attribution models, and the results of their evaluation of various custom vision APIs for this purpose, with a focus on the various roadblocks and lessons he and his team encountered along the
3 Apr 201950min

Pragmatic Quantum Machine Learning with Peter Wittek - TWiML Talk #245
Today we’re joined by Peter Wittek, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto working on quantum-enhanced machine learning and the application of high-performance learning algorithms. In our conversation, we discuss the current state of quantum computing, a look ahead to what the next 20 years of quantum computing might hold, and how current quantum computers are flawed. We then dive into our discussion on quantum machine learning, and Peter’s new course on the topic, which debuted in Februar
1 Apr 20191h 5min

*Bonus Episode* A Quantum Machine Learning Algorithm Takedown with Ewin Tang - TWiML Talk #246
In this special bonus episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Ewin Tang, a PhD student in the Theoretical Computer Science group at the University of Washington. In our conversation, Ewin and I dig into her paper “A quantum-inspired classical algorithm for recommendation systems,” which took the quantum computing community by storm last summer. We haven’t called out a Nerd-Alert interview in a long time, but this interview inspired us to dust off that designation, so get your notepad ready!
1 Apr 201940min

Supporting TensorFlow at Airbnb with Alfredo Luque - TWiML Talk #244
Today we're joined by Alfredo Luque, a software engineer on the machine infrastructure team at Airbnb. If you’re interested in AI Platforms and ML infrastructure, you probably remember my interview with Airbnb’s Atul Kale, in which we discussed their Bighead platform. In my conversation with Alfredo, we dig a bit deeper into Bighead’s support for TensorFlow, discuss a recent image categorization challenge they solved with the framework, and explore what the new 2.0 release means for their users.
28 Mars 201940min

Mining the Vatican Secret Archives with TensorFlow w/ Elena Nieddu - TWiML Talk #243
Today we’re joined by Elena Nieddu, Phd Student at Roma Tre University, who presented on her project “In Codice Ratio” at the TF Dev Summit. In our conversation, Elena provides an overview of the project, which aims to annotate and transcribe Vatican secret archive documents via machine learning. We discuss the many challenges associated with transcribing this vast archive of handwritten documents, including overcoming the high cost of data annotation.
27 Mars 201943min





















