as a former programmer, unless your code is actually writing code, then it ain’t machine learning. I had code that was writing code for Bullhorn, we did that back, like, in 2002. That’s not new. But it’s also not really artificial intelligence. It’s a hack.
Most people that say they’re doing things around machine learning and A.I. are really just making rules engines. If the user says, “Hey Alexa,” then you respond. And if they mention Uber, they probably want to hail a ride. That’s not artificial intelligence, that’s just if/then statements.
I used to program, so I try to avoid claiming that we’re doing science-related experiments when we’re really just building user interfaces for customers to interact with data.
X: Is that a good thing that for all companies, there has to be an A.I. component? At least, that’s where it seems like it’s heading. I can’t tell if it is just branding, or if they really are going to be using it in useful ways.
AP: If you break it down, what’s going on is we had this big push to get all of this data on the Web. So now, customer data is all in one place and everybody can access it from any device. That was sort of the first wave of the power of the Internet.
The second, I think what’s going on now, is people are saying, “Let’s derive insights from the data and let’s derive patterns; and let’s use all of that data to make better-informed decisions for our customers.”
And the other thing is this natural language processing—let a user speak to the software in the way they normally would. You can use, call it artificial intelligence, but you can make it more efficient for the user. I think that is real. But it’s couched in these fake terms that are meant to mystify and make it seem like magic. But at the end of the day, it’s a real thing and it’s going to provide real value to customers and users, but it’s just over-hyped.
And I see the amount of venture dollars going to A.I. companies, and I say, this feels a lot like the Internet 1.0. There was a lot of hype, and a lot of venture dollars went into companies that actually didn’t do anything, and really didn’t have true product-market fit. They just had eyeballs. Or they had fleeting clicks on the Internet.
And the second wave of companies that survived and came out in 2001, 2002, ‘03, ‘04, ‘05—those companies were real. And that’s where we are with A.I. right now. There’s a bunch of hype, way too many dollars chasing too few practical applications, but there will be some fantastic companies that emerge from it and great innovations that will actually make life incrementally better.
X: Switching gears back to music… How many instruments do you play?
AP: I really only play guitar now. I can play piano, but I’m not really that good at it anymore. I played piano for 10 years, and then my uncle gave me a guitar. I stopped playing [piano] five years ago and just focused on playing guitar.
X: Who is your music idol?
AP: I love Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. He’s an incredible musician. Nirvana and the Foo Fighters? That’s pretty cool.
X: What’s the best song in Stampede’s repertoire?
AP: It depends who you ask. We have a couple originals, and
