Navigating the AI Surge: A Conversation with Jeremiah Owyang
A Silicon Valley veteran shares his experience on tech cycles, community engagement, and sensemaking tools for business.
On this episode of the Cohere podcast, co-hosts Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas sit down with Silicon Valley veteran Jeremiah Owyang to discuss the evolution of digital technology and the rise of AI.
Owyang traces his career back to community leadership roles in tech, emphasizing the importance of transferable skills acquired over decades-long technology cycles. He attributes his pivot to AI as a natural progression in tech, noting that we are amid a surge of interest in AI technologies.
Owyang shares how he stays updated in the field, cultivates space for him and others to explore exponential technologies through gatherings like Lllama Lounge and discusses how businesses can leverage AI to improve communities and engagement. The conversation also touches on Owyang's recent collaboration on sensemaking tools, specifically an AI classification framework that ties into the theory of multiple intelligences. He addresses businesses' fundamental misconceptions about AI, which hinder its adoption and closes with advice for business leaders keen to transition from basic AI experiments to meaningful strategies.
“(In San Francisco) this month in August, 2023, there are slated to be over a hundred events. That’s three per day. Two per Saturday, two per Sunday on average, not including the private events that also exist. There’s been numerous Accelerators launched. There’s half a dozen hackathons over the weekends.
The entire world has turned towards AI, both out of amazement and fear, and rightfully so.
We have never seen this level of attention, even compared to .com, which was a slower ramp over multiple years. ”
In this episode, we discuss the following:
[02:04] Introducing Jeremiah Owyang and tracing his career journey
[03:37] Discussing the 10-year cycles of technology
[09:01] Showcasing the power of gatherings like the Llama Lounge
[14:20] Exploring the recent explosion of interest in AI
[21:16] Considering how to make sense of AI
[25:12] Examining the intersection of community and AI
[37:18] Sharing advice for leaders who are ready to move beyond the “LLM 101” experiments
Mentioned in this episode:
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/jowyang
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jowyang/
Jeremiah's Tech + Business Newsletter https://jowyang.beehiiv.com/
About our guest:
Jeremiah Owyang has successfully navigated the evolving landscapes of business and technology throughout his career in Silicon Valley. Jeremiah began his journey as an analyst at Forrester Research, leading to pivotal roles as a Founding Partner at Altimeter Group and later establishing Catalyst Companies. In 2022, he took the role of CMO at the web3 project, RLY Network Association, supported by notable names like a16z and Coinbase Ventures. Jeremiah’s insights have been shared in print, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and on the stage at prestigious conferences like TED and Web Summit. Jeremiah is an active investor, analyst, and event host with his AI-focused Llama Lounge series regularly selling out in San Francisco.
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If you liked this episode, check out: Responsible AI: Appropriate Trust and LLM Fabrication with Mihaela Vorvoreanu, PhD and Making Sense of Crypto with Kent Langley
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