Interview with Jordi Torras, CEO, Inbenta - Speaker at Global Artificial Intelligence Conference - Jan 2017 Posted on : Nov 28 - 2016

We feature speakers at Global Artificial Intelligence Conference Jan 19 - 21, 2017 to catch up and find out what he or she is working on now and what's coming next. This week we're talking to Jordi Torras, CEO, Inbenta.

Interview with Jordi Torras

1. Tell us about yourself and your background.
I'm the founder and CEO of Inbenta, a company using AI and NLP to implement online customer support applications with chatbots and semantic search.
I am from Barcelona, where most people are bilingual, and where I started Inbenta. I believe this has influenced the particularly multilingual capabilities of the technology of Inbenta. 

2.  What have you been working on recently?
We have recently raised our second investment fund, a $12m Series B, also the company has moved headquarters from Spain to the US, that needed more work than I thought! 

3. Tell me about the right tool you used recently to solve customer problem?
I bought some tickets for a concert in Ticketmaster, and I used Inbenta to have some of my questions answered! 

4. Where are we now today in terms of the state of artificial intelligence, and where do you think we’ll go over the next five years?
Recent advances in Neural Networks and Deep Learning are an important breakthrough in AI, and these advances are now available in the cloud offered by Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Still, AI and deep learning per se are not a guarantee of success, the right balance of architecture and good implementation play the most important role to make an AI solution a success. In the next 5 years we will see more and more applications in AI solving complex problems and mission critical applications. However, I don't think the "general" AI will be available any time soon. "General AI" is a term used to describe a system that is intelligent not only in a specific task, but in all the tasks a human can be efficient with training. 

5. There is a negative perception around AI and even some leading technology folks have come out against it or saying that it’s actually potentially harmful to society. Where are you coming down on those discussions? How do you explain this in a way that maybe has a more positive beneficial impact for society?
The use of Neural Networks mimics how a "natural" brain work. The more neurons a system has, and the more data a system has to learn, the more accurate and efficient the results are. The problem with neural networks is that they often cannot "explain" why a decision was taken. That sounds might sound scary, as machines might take decisions that are not the output of any previously-design algorithm, potentially leading to unexpected results, some remarkable thinkers have expressed their concern about that. I believe this danger is largely exaggerated, although I wrote an article as early as 2014 on how AI could actually take over the world! [more here https://www.inbenta.com/en/blog/entry/can-artificial-intelligence-cause-human-extinction]  

6. When you’re hiring, what types of people are you hiring? The job market for traditional programmers, engineers is  very difficult to get into AI space. Are you hiring from that talent pool or is that a different talent pool? In terms of talent, how do you go about ensuring you get the best AI people at your company?
Even with AI, there are different specialities that have to be covered. At Inbenta we hire experts in machine learning and big data, but also we have a big pool of computational linguists, software architects and specialists in natural language processing. Although it is not easy to get this talent, it makes sense to think in terms of different specialities, and break down the requirements in different directions. 

7. Will progress in AI and robotics take away the majority of jobs currently done by humans? Which jobs are most at risk?
We have seen how jobs are already gone in many industries. Jobs today performed by humans on the basis of repetitive tasks and little creativity involved, are doomed to disappear and being replaced by automatic systems. This process started long ago, but now with AI, the range of jobs in danger has just got bigger. 

8. What can AI systems do now?
Interestingly enough, the most difficult task for a computer are the most easy ones for humans. A human will have a hard time computing by hand the first thousand digits of Pi, but no problem finding a friend in a group of 20-100 people. The opposite is true for computers. The Visual System that is given for granted in all extant mammals, is actually very complex to replicate using computers and AI, that's why self-driving cars are constantly in test process, and still not in the market. 

9. When will AI systems become more intelligent than people?
Today computers play chess better than most humans. That was the test used long ago to asses when computers would be more intelligent than humans. That sounds now ridiculous, but the question "more intelligent than" makes actually no sense. For sure though, we will see jobs disappearing and replaced by digital systems in the coming decades. 

10. You’ve already hired 140 number of  people approximately. What would be your pitch to folks out there to join your Organization? Why does your organization matter in the world?
Being at Inbenta is being a witness on how the world will change thanks to AI! Our mission is, one day, make the job "call center agent" part of the past, and at the same time make customers feel happy with the companies they interact with. We will also witness new jobs being created, like "knowledge ninja", "customer workflow manager" and many others! 

11. What are some of the best takeaways that the attendees can have from your "Why is AI back in the spotlight?" talk?
For those folks who wonder what is really behind all the AI buzzword, my pitch is a must! 

12. What are the top 5 AI Use cases in enterprises?
There are so many more than 5! but to mention a few: security, customer support, business intelligence, cash management and credit scoring. 

13. Which company do you think is winning the global AI race?
There are so many applications now being developed, that this question is difficult to answer. I believe different applications and use cases will produce different champions [for example, the best virtual assistant will not be manufactured by the best self-driving car, probably]. 

14. Any closing remarks
Excited to share my thoughts and have an interactive session!