Humans of AI: Stories, Not Stats

About

I am Devi Parikh, and welcome to Humans of AI: Stories, Not Stats.

In this series, I interview AI researchers to get to know them better as people.

Our interaction with prominent AI researchers tends to be through the lens of their work. I believe it is valuable to see the human behind the work.

I will not ask them any questions about their work or AI or technology. I also won’t ask them questions about the “stats” of their life like where they went to college.

I will ask questions to try and understand who they are as a person, what their life is like, what they think about, what they are insecure about, what they get excited about. Questions that reveal the story of their day-to-day life.

Starting October 20th, 2020, I will release two interviews every week, for a total of 18 interviews.

These interviews will be available here as videos as well as podcast episodes.

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[Re-sliced] Humans of AI: Stories, Not Stats

We have collated answers from all guests to the same question. All thanks to the efforts of Varshini Subhash and Mukul Khanna! Check them out below.

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Episode 18: Jia-Bin Huang

Episode 17: Jeff Dean

Episode 16: Rahul Sukthankar

Episode 15: Anima Anandkumar

Episode 14: Derek Hoiem

Episode 13: Timnit Gebru

Episode 12: Ayanna Howard

Episode 11: Aishwarya Agrawal

Episode 10: Bill Freeman

Episode 9: Noah Smith

Episode 8: Joelle Pineau

Episode 7: Hugo Larochelle

Episode 6: Jitendra Malik

Episode 5: Y-Lan Boureau

Episode 4: Antonio Torralba

Episode 3: Vladlen Koltun

Episode 2: Meg Mitchell

Episode 1: Dhruv Batra

Episode 0: Welcome

Collated answers from all guests to the same question

1. What were you doing just before this call? video podcast
2. What is your daily routine like? video podcast
3. What is the favorite part of your day? video podcast
4. What is the least favorite part of your day? video podcast
5. What one chore do you dislike the most, and why is that? video podcast
6. Do you struggle with procrastination? video podcast
7. Do you struggle with time management? video podcast
8. Do you set an alarm in the morning? video podcast
9. What are three adjectives your friends would use to describe you? video podcast
10. Are you happy with the number of close friends you have? video podcast
11. What is one thing you are worse at than people around you? video podcast
12. What is your single biggest strength? video podcast
13. What’s is a recurring moral conflict that you struggle with? video podcast
14. Is there a specific instance where you distinctly recall feeling privileged? video podcast
15. What are you insecure about? video podcast
16. Do you feel like an impostor? video podcast
17. What is something you are trying out these days, and how is that going? video podcast
18. What is a tool or hack that makes your life more convenient, efficient, or fun? video podcast
19. What is something surprising about you that the rest of us might not guess? video podcast
20. What do you think about most when not intentionally trying to think about something? video podcast
21. What is something about the world that surprises you? video podcast
22. What is the most recent unexpected thing that happened? video podcast
23. What is one way in which you wish your life was different? video podcast
24. What are you looking forward to, tomorrow or next week? video podcast
25. Do you think you are above, below, or average happy relative to people around you? video podcast
26. When was the last time you danced? video podcast
27. What was your most recent dream that you remember? video podcast
28. Are you more optimistic than people around you, or more pessimistic? video podcast
29. Do you think there’s a point to life or our existence? video podcast
30. What do you struggle with in life? video podcast
31. How do you decide what to work on? video podcast

32. What are some traits in your best collaborators? Are you good at spotting them? video podcast

33. Oceans or hills? video podcast
34. What is something that you love doing that you’re terrible at? video podcast
35. What is something you did recently that surprised people who know you well? video podcast
36. When was the last time you felt like a kid in a candy store? video podcast
37. What do you easily get nostalgic about? video podcast
38. What is something you did not like at the time, but you are glad happened? video podcast
39. What is something that made you smile today? video podcast
40. [New] What is some of the best advice you’ve gotten or given? video podcast
41. [New] Why did you agree to do this interview? video podcast
42. [New] Is there anything you’d like to talk about, that we haven’t covered? video podcast