#12 AI to expand our collective potential – with Arjun Chandra

In this episode, we meet Arjun Chandra, a computer scientist, entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of the AI-tech company Brua.io, who has extensive experience building machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. 

Arjun has a human-centered vision for AI, in which the technologies we make can contribute to closing the gaps between us rather than competing with us. In this episode we discuss the depth of his journey of combining his interest in math, programming, robotics, and natural computation; his interest in the employment of algorithms for the optimization of natural phenomena in the real world and generalization in general; the creation of neural network systems and the use of principles of social and human behavior; educational and personalized technology; his work on the frontier of AI with Large language models and reinforcement Learning from human feedback; the questioning about his motivations in the field of AI, and the deployment of technology built on mindsets and adoption strategies that reflect social responsibility, which lays the ground for his new company, Brua.

I hope Arjun’s intentions can inspire other developers and stakeholders in the AI field to think more explicitly about how we can, in his words, “sculpt more socially responsible roles for AI” and develop technologies deeply aligned with human-centered and democratic, prosperous visions for the future.

Thank you to our sponsor: Nomono: https://nomono.co/

Also check out the Brua website: https://www.brua.io

Timestamps: 01:15:02

[00:00:00] Intro.

[00:01:45] Sponsor: Nomono Podcasting Kit.

[00:02:39] Introduction to math, programming, robotics, and natural computation.

[00:05:26] Natural Computation and neural networks.

[00:13:45] Generalization part of ML and the study of socio-economic games.

[00:25:03] Working with educational and personalized AI assistant technology.

[00:27:20] Working at the frontier of AI with LLMs and RLHF.

[00:31:50] The relationship between hardware and software development.

[00:36:15] Reexamination of inner motivation to develop and deploy AI technology built on mindsets and adoption strategies that reflect social responsibility.  

[00:40:05] Establishing a story of what AI is for.

[00:46:40] What is Brua?

[00:49:41] The special long-term case of education.

[00:55:13] The core ethos of bringing people together for human thriving.

[01:06:27] Alignment of partnerships and funding with the mission.  

[01:14:12] Outro and concluding remarks.