The New Albany Lecture Series - Exploring Artificial Intelligence

The New Albany Lecture Series brings experts in AI together to discuss the new frontier of Artificial Intelligence. The conversation between tech innovators Tom Gruber and Zack Kass will be moderated by longtime technology and business journalist Molly Wood.

Tom Gruber
Tom Gruber is an innovator in technologies that augment human intelligence, individually and collectively. Applying ideas from Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Design, his work has explored how connecting people and machines can foster collaboration, learning, knowledge sharing, and getting things done.

Tom was co-founder and head of design for the company that created Siri, the intelligent personal assistant. Siri was started in 2008, launched in early 2010, and was quickly bought by Apple. Now an integral part of the latest Apple products, Siri represents a new mode of interaction with devices and the information services they can reach. At Apple for 8 years, Tom led the Advanced Development Group, which developed new capabilities for Siri and future products.

Throughout his career, Tom has explored the intersection of AI and the UI between humans and computers. In the 1980’s he built AI models for communication prosthesis systems that gave voices to the speechless, and interfaces for experts to build their own expert systems. At Stanford University he developed the first interactive documents on the web that generated natural language answers in response to questions about how things work. His AI research, particularly ontology engineering, helped lay the groundwork for semantic information sharing and the Semantic Web.

Zack Kass
Zack Kass stands out as one of the brightest minds in AI today, with a robust 14-year journey at the epicenter of technological evolution. His significant tenure as Head of Go To Market at OpenAI put him front and center building AI strategies with many of the biggest companies in the world. His role in converting state of the art research into real-world business applications has positioned him as one the foremost thinkers in Applied AI.

His mission is to ensure that businesses and governments are active participants in the AI-powered future, equipped to enable a future of abundance. Zack aims to do this by demystifying AI, making it accessible and understandable for everyone, and helping leaders navigate the rapidly evolving environment.

Beyond the corporate world, Zack is a staunch advocate for AI’s potential to revolutionize local governance. He works tirelessly to promote AI as a tool that can significantly enhance community service and overall societal welfare. His efforts seek to guarantee that the advancements in AI transcend commercial benefits and work towards the betterment of communities and societies at large.

Molly Wood
Molly Wood is a longtime journalist turned climate tech investor. She spent more than 20 years covering technology and business as a writer, serving as a tech columnist at The New York Times and an executive editor at CNET. She is the founder and CEO of MWM, where she writes and podcasts about, advises, and invests in tech solutions to the climate crisis.

Molly's podcast, Everybody in the Pool, covers climate solutions and the people who are building them, from investors and corporations to individuals who are overhauling their lives. Molly is also the host of Microsoft's WorkLab podcast, where she is joined by economists, technologists, and researchers to explore the future of work in the age of AI. She is sought-after to discuss business, technology, climate storytelling, and capitalistic solutions to climate change.