344. The AI Tipping Point: Entrepreneurs at the Crossroads

Susan Sly 00:00
Hey everyone, Susan here. Today on this episode, I'm going to be talking about AI, the tipping point and our entrepreneurs in the Crossroads. We're gonna talk about the Elon Musk lawsuit against Open AI and the call for a moratorium on AI development and how it affects us as entrepreneurs. And before I get into the show, today, I am going to be doing a solo show, I'm also going to be doing something different at the end. And I'm starting a segment within the segment. For many of you, you know, I have started my own AI startup. And for entrepreneurs, there are, you're in three categories. Right now you're either thinking of starting a company, and I want to give shouts out to you, if that's you. Or you are starting a company and there's a you know, there's some good days and wall kicking moments. Or you're a seasoned founder, we have everyone who listens to the show all over the world, so lots of love to everyone. But at the end of every show, I'm gonna do something very different. I'm gonna give you a look into what is going on with my startup, where we're at, and almost like a diary, and I'm gonna just put everything out there, and you can come along for the journey. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. But before we get into the show today, just a couple of quick announcements. Number one, if you are not leveraging your LinkedIn, I really I don't know what to say to you. LinkedIn has done so much for me for my personal brand. I've gotten paid speaking events. From there, I've gotten investors from there, I've made amazing, amazing connections. And so if you need help with your LinkedIn profile, go to agency8.com. They are amazing, they will help you everything from your photo to your banner to your description, they can do it for you. So go over there to agency8.com. And the other announcement that I have for you is if you are not following on social, I would encourage that you do my new company, thepause.ai. We're on all of the social. Everywhere, we're on X, we are on LinkedIn, we're on Tik Tok, we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook. And if you would do me a favor and share it with any of the amazing women in your life who are aged say 45 to 60. Our platform is going to be launching this year and we're inviting people who are subscribers to be the first ones to get to use the platform. And this announcement just came out, I am so pleased to say we are part of the Microsoft startup ecosystem. So how freaking cool is that? So check it out at thepause.ai or go to triple www.thepause.ai. So let's go ahead and get into this episode. This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, the show that brings the no nonsense truth of what is required to start, grow and scale your business. I am your host, Susan Sly. Well, what is up, ladies and gentlemen, and wherever you are in the world, I hope you are having an amazing day. And let's talk about all things AI. For those of you who are new to the show, you might not know that for the last five plus years, I have been working at the bleeding edge of AI first in computer vision at the edge, which is where we're using devices like computer cameras, security cameras, and we're able to use AI to be able to detect how humans interact with objects and all sorts of cool stuff like that. And I did a stint with that. And both retail a little bit of healthcare. And now I have started my own AI company. And I have been told that I am apparently one of the top computer vision women in the world to watch this year. And I have also won an award in AI. So lots of great stuff going on there with AI but I wanted to talk to you just as friends and in people on this journey because there's a lot of confusion about AI, there's a lot of misinformation about AI. AI is in the media every single day. And guess what it is not going away. I know what you're thinking, I wish I could just go hide, you know, under the covers, and I wish AI would go away. It's not. There, there are a lot of bright spots about AI and there are a lot of turbulent waters and we are going to be looked at as the generation who essentially give birth to AI. And because March is Women's History Month, I also want to say that the representation of women in AI is very, very small, it makes up less than 22% of all AI workers are women. And in the United States, the the number of female founders in AI specifically is very, very small. And then it gets even smaller as you look at women who are you know from different cultural backgrounds like I am. And so, you know, we look at AI as something that is touching all aspects of our lives. But at the same point, we are also really subjected to a small group of people who who are creating the AI with not a tremendous amount of oversight. So what you're hearing about right now, there's a government regulation, even the president United States said, I have an executive order on AI, there is an attempt at global policy on AI, World Economic Forum, they are producing documentation on AI. And yet, can you really regulate AI? So what we are seeing right now, in the news are individuals taking it upon themselves to say, hey, I want to do something about that. And that's where I'm gonna draw, dive in right now. Right now to unpacking the first piece of information around AI is the Musk versus Open AI controversy. And on the show before, you've heard me talk a lot about Open AI, and I do use GPT. I use GPT Four, the builder. I love it. I have been interviewed publicly about that. And there's a lot of fun things that you can do with it. It's fantastic. I've created images on Dalle, myself, and and that's all well and good. But the question really has come about is, you know, what is Open AI doing? Do they have guardrails? And is are they in alignment with what they say they are doing? Which is to better humanity? So what happened? The

Susan Sly 06:20
heart of the lawsuit is Elon Musk said, no, no, I've, you know, been with you guys from the beginning. And I think that you are violating your foundational mission, which is developing and sharing AI ethically and transparently. And so part of the the allegations here are that he claims that there have been breaches of Open AI as nonprofit origins and a shift toward a capped profit model. And the interesting thing about this whole lawsuit, is that there are ramifications for entrepreneurs. And in terms of, you know, as you're setting up your company and saying, these are our core values, could someone essentially sue you and say, You're not living into those core values? You're not living into your core mission? Yes. Could someone sue you and say, Hey, you're not living into the core values and core mission? Because now we think that your AI is damaging? Yes. So what this really means for entrepreneurs is being number one is very clear. What is your intent with your company, and in being very honest and transparent about it. Transparent with your investors, transparent with your consumers and, and also transparent within your team. And because the the interesting thing about AI and and for the past several years I have studied at MIT Sloan, and one of the things when you're creating an AI model, is you've got inputs, right? This is basics if you're in AI or data science, and this is very, very general for you. But if you're not, that's cool, you're everyone is welcome here. We have a lot of different folks listening this show. So you have inputs that you put into your models, and those create whatever output it is what you want your model to do. So the part of this piece is that there's there's some controversy around Open AI and especially they released Sora which is their, their new model, which is a text to video model, which if you haven't gone on YouTube, on Open AI's channel, and seen the Sora video you need to. It is jaw dropping, what it creates, it looks so incredibly real, whether it is a they have a text, a video, like a spaceman and a red knit helmet who create a Movie Preview and it looks like a Movie Preview. It's incredible. Puppies playing in the snow. Some of you've seen it a bunch of folks have that if you haven't go to YouTube and definitely check it out because it is mind blowing. And they haven't released it as of the time I'm doing the show to the general public yet but at some point, they probably will. And there are a lot of ethical questions, especially from say Hollywood - like could this replace actors, could this replace screenwriters? Could this replace the you know anyone in the entertainment industry? And the answer is yes, yes. And yes. And I've been saying for a while that it's you know, things like influencer marketing, what is the future of that? Because if I'm a company, why would I pay an influencer when I can create an AI, one that's going to work 24/7. And once I pay to have that AI influence created, I don't really have to do anything more. Right? I don't have to keep paying them, I don't have to deal with the you know, any disputes or what have you over compensation. And so the world is shifting and this is the first text video model that I have seen. That is so flexible and so realistic. So going back to Elon what he is saying is you guys are chasing profit, you, do you not care about humanity? And as much as I admire what Elon Musk has created and shout out to Elon Musk, and he did a stint at Queen's University, I took a course at Queen's University, I took calculus a million years ago there, my husband is a grad of Queen's University in Canada.

Susan Sly 10:20
He is also setting up his own AI company called xAI, which technically could be a competitor. And we've seen Elon historically before, be very vocal about certain industries, where he is like the space industry, for example, where he is actually making a profit. So this is going to be one to watch. But it does affect all entrepreneurs and start to think about, do you have your AI code of ethics? Do you have your own internal AI guardrails in place, because basically, every company, if you're going to use AI, regardless of the kind of startup you have, you, in effect are an AI company, and you need to have those in place. Alright, number two, we have a call for a pause on AI development. So over 100, Ai, top AI researchers signed a letter calling for generative AI companies to have transparency. So we're talking again, about open AI, we're talking about Meta, and the the the regulators are saying that you're creating things that we don't even know how you're creating them. And we're very deeply concerned, we want to see how it is that the, you know, these models are producing the outputs that you have. And as part of this, the, it's really interesting, because although some of the people who have signed this are more in the academia side, it has ramifications for all AI startups. And I've been in a lot of meetings with my own startup talking about AI and transparency, especially for things like health care. And so what this could do, again, we're seeing private sector, demanding from private sector, that there is this level of, of transparency with AI. And so what what both of these aspects have in common, not just the Open AI piece is that people are stepping up and saying, I want to know, I don't want to just be a user of this technology, I actually want to know how it is coming to these conclusions. We saw with Google's AI, and it was it was very startling. And this is received a lot of media coverage, that their generative AI was actually changing history, it was changing the colors of people skin, it was very, very biased. And so the bias is bias. And I'll just be very bold and say that and as someone who has spoken on many stages about AI bias, that the bias is embedded by the people who create the AI. And so the challenge with that is that as humans, we are naturally biased. If you and I go to a restaurant, I don't eat gluten, I am bias that I am not going to eat gluten. Well, sometimes if I'm in Europe, I might eat gluten, but I don't generally gluten. And so I have a bias. And that's just me personally. So we all have our biases, we all have our ways in which we think the world should operate. And when you are creating code, which is almost like you know, creating art and being an artist that you will inherently as a human, often put your bias in to that code. And that is going to bias the output. So Gemini has created some images, you can go and see them online that some people have said are quite bias. And so we there is a call and people, entrepreneurs are not waiting for the government to come and rescue them and say, Hey, be transparent. It's such a big topic. And one of the things if you follow me on LinkedIn, and go to my LinkedIn @SusanSly, I have been quite vocal about, is creating a sweeping legislation for all of AI is like taking a Barbie size umbrella out in a rainstorm. It's not going to do anything for you. And here's why. Some of the AI legislation that could be helpful might actually be harmful to parts of AI. So we're seeing a lot of progress. For example, with AI and healthcare where AI is able to do too early prediction, I read an article that came across my desk on prostate cancer and AI was able to determine that prostate cancer is actually not one disease, it's actually a combination of two diseases. And so we can see where AI can be beneficial for super, super, super early detection. If you detect something very early, then you are much more likely to be able to survive it right. There are some challenges with prediction because the AI can still be wrong there. But in terms of early detection, it is a bright spot. So some AI legislation, especially around generative AI images might be helpful in terms of protecting humans in general, but it might be harmful, if you're that person where the generative AI is being beneficial in super early detection. So one of the this is not an easy issue to solve. It's not like suddenly we all pick up placards, and we go hey, yes, everyone, this is the AI legislation. It's all well and good. It really, my vanguard opinion is we have to take a look at different segments. And we have to be smart. Here, let me give an example. Because the the other issue that we're seeing is around this concept of social media, and they're comparing, they're saying, hey, the the mistakes we made in social media, we want to prevent those mistakes from happening again. But with the generative AI like, hey, the you know, we saw that, but social media isn't changing, right? So are these guardrails actually going to have any impact? I really don't know the answer to that. But hey, that's, that's the least we are seeing a demand and a call for the transparency, I think that's fantastic. The third thing I want to talk about are really down and deep in terms of entrepreneurs. And what does this mean? So the first thing is that you want to internally, think about your ethical frameworks for AI, and transparency in your own AI operations. And that means documentation, whatever it is, you're building, and even if you're not building a tech company, I don't care what kind of company it is, be transparent about the tools you're using, especially the AI enabled tools. If you're using open source API's, take a look at your architecture, and, and be transparent. Don't don't have anything to hide. I mean, you have proprietary information, obviously, guard that, but be very clear. That's the first thing. The second thing is take a step back. And I want you to think about

Susan Sly 17:48
how you want your company to be positioned in this AI revolution? And where do you want to sit? And are you a company, for example, that is creating technology? Or are you a company that's using technology? And regardless, how do you want to position yourself and if you are going to position yourself and say these are our core values, this is how we use AI, then consider putting that right on your website, and just being very, very clear and make sure it's embedded in your culture. And the third thing I'm going to say is that whoever is on your bus, whoever is in your company, who are your leaders, your managers, the people you're bringing on, your co founders, maybe your super early stage, that whoever they are, that they're very clear and be very clear what AI tools are, are they allowed to use? Why are they allowed to use them? Are they not allowed to use? Take a look at all of the outputs that are coming out of any of your AI tools, and make sure those outputs align with who you are, as a company. And I know it's a lot to really think about and and my rally call for all of you is that we are going to see a lot more. In terms of the demand for transparency, we're going to see a lot more in terms of taking a look at the effects of AI. We won't know what all of those are, for perhaps quite some time or, you know, thinking about, as I said, how it compares to social media. And even though we know social media is damaging, especially for young people, there's, you know, a lot of statistics out there, it hasn't really changed anything. So is this going to change? Or is this a lot of peacocking? I don't know. But one thing I do know is that again, we can control how we show up in the AI revolution with our companies as entrepreneurs. So as I promised you the last part of the show is dedicated to what in the world is going on with you, Susan, and your company. So I have been reading an amazing book called 10x is easier than 2 x by Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. And the premise of the book is not about this, this discussion around 10x like oh, you have to grind, you have to work 10 times harder. And I'll tell you, I, I, you know, I know a lot of people, myself included, who did that years ago, and then ended up burning me out, right. So that's not how I want to operate, I want to operate smarter, I want to operate with grace, with poise, I want to make sure I'm intentional. And one of the things the book is talking about is that it isn't necessarily about being 20, 10, 20% better than anyone else in your category. But it's about being 10 to 20% different. And I was inspired by that, because I listened to a lot of podcasts there. A lot of people, interviewing folks are there a lot of people talking solo shows, they're not really sharing what's going on for them. And because this is a show on entrepreneurship, I am going to be very candid. So at the end of each show, I'm going to record a diary for you to hear. And so here it goes. This is the one. So where we're at right now, when I'm recording the show, we are still in q1 of 2024. And this company that I have spun up The Pause was, it's moving a lot faster than I had anticipated. And you may say, wow, yeah, that's a really good thing, Susan. But I mean, one day, I had 10 meetings, and we have a lot of people who are interested in investing, we have a lot of people who are interested in partnering, we are looking at our technical architecture, we're looking at who we are bringing on and to help us build this out. We have the these partnerships that are absolutely amazing people who believe in what we're doing, who believe in me, and it's it, you know, I sat there and I'm, I really thought that I would have the space of time to kind of go reflect and you know, sort of spin things up. But, you know, move perhaps initially a different pace, knowing that as a startup founder, once you get into the throes of momentum, like you are just going, going, going. And so we're probably three months ahead of where I thought we would be at this time. And so I'm sitting here, and number one, I'm I'm really grateful. And number two, I'm working longer hours than, you know, working just as long as I was when I was the Co-CEO, and Co- founder of another AI company. And so my days are spent. We've already had people interested in our Series A round that isn't even going to be until next year, my days are spent having those conversations, we're in a lot of technical meetings, we're looking at things like our you know, how our models are going to be built? What our outcomes, what is our minimum marketable product or MMP? What does that look like? I I've been talking about menopause to so many people, I've had men come up to me. And you know, there's one guy came up, his eyes are a little teary, his wife went into chemopause, which is instant menopause when you go into chemotherapy, and, unfortunately, his wife passed and, and so all of these conversations, and it's, it's fascinating, because I know, we're on the right track, and we have a lot of traction. And at the same time, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, okay, we're raising money. And there are people to hire, and they have to be the right people. And are they the cultural fit? And can they actually deploy and, and so all of those things are going on. And so that's where we're at. And happy to say we're ahead of where we want to be, by the end of this year, we want to have our platform fully up and running with the paid users on the platform in a subscription model, available on the App Store and the Play Store. And then we have plans beyond that, to scale even more, but that's where we're at. And I just want to thank all of you for coming along on the journey. And if you have questions for me, by all means, go to Susansly.com You can ask me a question. I'd love to answer it in this component of the show. So with that, God bless. Go rock your day. Check out some of our previous shows amazing founders that I have interviewed and I will see you in the next episode. Hey, this is Susan and thanks so much for listening to this episode on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. If this episode or any episode has been helpful to you, you've gotten at least one solid tip from myself or my guests. I would love it if you would leave a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts. After you leave your review, go ahead and email reviews at Susansly.com. Let us know where you left a review. And if I read your review on air, you could get a $50 amazon gift card and we would so appreciate it because reviews do help boost the show and get this message all over the world. If you're interested in any of the resources we discussed on the show, go to Susansly.com That's where all the show notes live. And with that, go out there rock your day. God bless and I will see you in the next episode.