‘Speed and Precision Alone Don't Define Intelligence’
July 17th, 2024
Interview with Alex Polovian, serial AI Startup Founder
In this interview, Alex Polovian shares real nuggets for startup founders and gives realistic insights into AGI.
Alex is an entrepreneur and founder of various startups, which are always built on AI or Machine learning. Among his projects are Luften.ai, an AI meeting scheduling tool for IT project managers, and his own chatbot, Mediapanicbot. His company, ZebraML, uses artificial intelligence for preclinical drug trials.
Sounds like a clever guy at the heart of AI? Absolutely! And it sounds like the best person to ask about the future of AI too.
The Interview
What's your job and how does it involve AI?
I am building startups. Most of my past projects employed AI/ML. It was either a core of the product or one of the MVP features.
Which AI tool do you personally use the most?
I use Ollama for code completion. For emails I interchangeably use ChatGPT or Llama3, which I run locally on my laptop via LMStudio.
What area should AI enthusiasts keep an eye on in the near future?
Legal and regulations, unfortunately. Having lived in an authoritarian state, I've seen how quickly regulations can create a mess. It can sometimes defy the law of conservation of mass - creating problems out of thin air, almost instantaneously. Hopefully, EU regulators will step back, rather than inadvertently eliminating all progress in AI development.
Any tips, tricks or hacks regarding the use of AI?
When working on an early-stage startup, avoid premature optimization. Instead, start with the best tools available, and then scale down your expenses with smaller models if needed once you've got an MVP. Or, better yet, at a later stage.
In the midst of development, ignore press releases and resist the urge to jump on the latest trend. Don't compare your current approach to the next big thing – time is more valuable than a slightly better response during prototyping.
Love or hate: Technology smarter than humans aka AGI?
Yes, in certain cases, a LLM can provide answers faster and more accurately than a human. However, speed and precision alone don't define intelligence. Just as a Casio calculator outperforms humans in arithmetic without being considered smarter, tools like the abacus and shovel excel in specific tasks without embodying intelligence.
The discourse on AGI often stumbles upon the question of consciousness and the concept of a new form of life. To claim that AGI embodies a "spark of life" in our GPUs, we must establish rigorous criteria for such a claim. The famous Turing Test has displayed significant limitations — apparently, the bar was too low to begin with.
Do you believe AI will bring a bigger technological revolution than the internet?
AI is not a bigger revolution, it is the next one. The Iron Age followed the Bronze Age. Electricity replaced steam as a medium of energy. These were consequential milestones, each building on the foundations of the previous one. We’re just lucky to live in a time when several such revolutions happen in a single lifetime.
Who'll make the race for spearheading AI in 10 years?
Yours truly.
Alex Polovian's Startups
ZebraML is a company that uses artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret the behavior of animal models, such as mice, rats, and zebrafish, in preclinical drug trials, enabling more scalable, unbiased, and reproducible data processing compared to traditional human observation methods.
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About the interview series:
‘Spilling the digital beans on AI’ allows you to listen in on CEOs building AI tools and learn from AI enthusiasts who are already leveraging the technology every day.
Whether you are looking for tips using AI or want to take a glimpse into the future of AI with us, get the popcorn out because we translate the technical chit-chat into a language we all understand.