ai – GST Media

Jan 07

Jeff Burningham

By Chrissy Bernal Author, Podcast No Comments

What happens when the machines get smarter and we have to get wiser?

This week on Here’s What We Know, we welcome Jeff Burningham, author of The Last Book Written by a Human. We talk about AI, fear, failure, and the power of being present.

Jeff shares how building companies, losing a run for governor, and slowing way down changed how he sees success and identity. This is a human conversation about wisdom, humility, and staying grounded while everything around us speeds up.

If you are curious about AI but even more curious about what it means to be human, this episode is for you.

This episode is sponsored by:

(Use code “Gary” to get $89 off any service!)

License #: 679261

In This Episode:

Artificial intelligence and its impact on human identity
What The Last Book Written by a Human is really about
Why wisdom matters more than intelligence in the AI age
Fear, uncertainty, and how people are responding to rapid technological change
Doing versus being and how success can disconnect us from ourselves
Public failure and the lessons learned from losing a gubernatorial race
Leadership, ego, and redefining what success actually means
Presence, attention, and slowing down in everyday life
What makes human connection irreplaceable
How to stay grounded as technology continues to advance

Quotations:

“The key to doing ‘quote unquote successfully’ is actually being. It’s bringing your being, as much of it as you possibly can, to all of your doing.” ~ Jeff Burningham

“So my encouragement in the age of AI for all of us as intelligent machines is to continue to do more and more of what we’re used to doing. It is to make sure that we bring our whole being, our whole heart and soul, to every present moment and to all of our doing, whether that’s writing a book or podcasting or being a dad or building a business or doing the laundry. It doesn’t really matter what we’re doing as long as we bring our being into it; if we bring our being, it can be rich and fruitful and meaningful no matter what it is.” ~ Jeff Burningham

“Your existence, mine, and all of ours is a never-ending cycle of life, death, and rebirth.” ~ Jeff Burningham

“The future is a fiction. It never actually happens. It’s made up in our minds until we get there in the present moment.” ~ Jeff Burningham

“Everyone tries to avoid pain, but it is through that pain that we can transform.” ~ Jeff Burningham

Bio:

Jeff has started, run or been an early investor in over 15 companies in tech & real estate valued at over a billion dollars, lost a challenging race for Governor amidst COVID in his home state, is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship, served on 20+ boards, lived in the Middle East & traveled to over 60 countries while earning two degrees.

He is a Founder and Chairman of Peak Capital Partners, a $5B+ real estate investment firm located in Provo, UT, which was named the 2nd fastest growing company in Utah and one of the 500 fastest privately held companies in the United States by Inc. Magazine. Jeff also launched Peak Ventures, which has three early-stage funds that back the brightest and most inspiring entrepreneurs in Utah and throughout the US. In 2014, Jeff was named The Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mountain West Region.

Guest Contact Info:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffburningham/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeff.burningham.252321/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-burningham-15a01a7b/

Mar 05

Love32

Chia-Lin Simmons

By Chrissy Bernal Education, Leadership, Personal Growth, Podcast, Technology No Comments

This week on Here’s What We Know, we’ve got the perfect episode to inspire you—just in time for International Women’s Day! Meet Chia-Lin Simmons, CEO of a NASDAQ company, AI startup founder, licensed New York State attorney, and all-around powerhouse. From dreaming of a publishing career to leading at Google, Audible (Amazon), and Harman, her journey proves that success isn’t always a straight line—and that’s more than okay.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, unsure, or just needed a reminder that your path is yours to create, this episode is for you!

This episode is sponsored by:

(Be sure to tell them Gary sent you!)

(Use code “Gary” to get $89 off any Mike Counsil Plumbing and Rooter service!)

License #: 679261

In this episode, we dive into:

Taking unexpected career turns (and why they often lead to the best opportunities)
Why soft skills—like adaptability and resilience—are just as important as hard skills
AI, creativity, and why human innovation still matters
The future of work and why treating employees like adults is the way forward
The power of finding your people and learning from every step of the journey

Quotations:

“College is a really great place. You will find your tribe, you’ll find your place, whatever college you go to.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“Whatever you study doesn’t mean that that’s what you’re going to do in life. And eventually people find the space that’s really an area, a place that they feel like they can contribute to.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“Whatever you do, you want to do something that hopefully will make somebody’s lives a little better.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“We always need people who are creators in the world.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“Work experience is one that they’re building together. Work culture is a live thing. It’s not a static thing that we impose on other people.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“If they can get their work done, do I care if they’re doing it like in another state? Do I care if they’re doing it on the beach? Are they delivering what they need to deliver? You know, the reality is I don’t care so long as the work gets delivered; meetings are had so that we can actually get things done together.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“With really good managers, they’re looking for opportunities; they can see what you can do, and they’re looking for opportunities for you to feel like you can stretch. And if you pick a really great person, they can stretch to in ways and learn in ways that you cannot imagine.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“I do believe in putting in practice and working at something; there’s no overnight success in many ways. Like you’re putting in your time, you’re learning, and you’re applying, right? It may not be always directly the same thing, but whatever you’re learning in business, it’s you’re putting in the hours and times to basically be proficient at being in business.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“Working skills and practicing is important. And then being at the right place at the right time also makes a difference.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“When you take a new job, you’re looking at it the way that an investor would look at an opportunity because you’re investing your time.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

“I always tell people shareholders and boards do not hire me to basically, the words of Gretzky, right? And in ice hockey, I shouldn’t be skating to where the puck is. I have to skate to where the puck is going to be. And so you may not see it now, but I see where the puck is going to be and that’s where I need to drive towards, not where it is today.” ~ Chia Lin Simmons

Bio:

Chia-Lin Simmons is the CEO of LookyLoo, a technology startup that brings together social, big data and machine learning AI to help identify fit in apparel, increase conversion, increase customer confidence and drive down return rates for apparel and online retailers. Chia-Lin is active in the automotive, transportation, digital media ande-commerce technology space as a consultant and advisory board member for a number of companies in the space. Her interest and expertise in the automotive technology space stems from her role as the former VP of Marketing & Content for Harman International’s (NASDAQ: HAR, now a Samsung business) Connected Car business. Chia-Lin helped build and launch Harman’s Connected Car service Aha which is featured in Honda, Subaru, Porsche and other automotive partners and availability in millions of vehicles and more than 50+ countries worldwide. Prior to her starting her own company, Chia-Lin was an executive at a number of high visibility technology companies. She was the former Head of Global Partner Marketing for Google’s digital business Google Play Music and the Google Play Store, the VP of Marketing and General Manager of Playphone North America, a senior business development executive at Time Warner/ AOL, as well as the VP of Strategic Alliances at Audible (an Amazon company). Chia-Lin serves on the Board of Directors for Servco Pacific, a $1.3B global automotive / goods company, and recently gave presentations on Autonomous Vehicles and legal concerns to more than 400+ autonomous car experts in Silicon Valley. In her free time, Chia-Lin founded the #bindersproject, which helps connected women tech founders with global funders looking to accelerate female founded startups. Chia-Lin graduated Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from U.C. San Diego and received her MBA from Cornell University, where she was a Park Leadership Fellow. Chia-Lin is a licensed New York State attorney and earned her JD from George Mason University School of Law.

Guest Contact Info:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csimmons/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chialinsimmons/

X: https://x.com/chialinsimmons

Mar 13

Love13

Chloe Duckworth

By Chrissy Bernal Community, Leadership, Personal Growth, Science No Comments

This week on the Here’s What We Know Podcast, our host Gary Scott Thomas had a thought-provoking conversation with Chloe Duckworth, the co-founder and CEO of Valence Vibrations, an AI startup delivering emotional classifications in real-time conversation, aiming to augment emotional perception across different neurotypes, languages, communication styles, and cultures. They delve into how her company is revolutionizing the way we perceive and interact with emotions in digital spaces, especially for neurodivergent individuals. Join us for fascinating insights that spark ideas about where humanity and technology converge. Tune in now!

This episode is sponsored by:

(Be sure to tell them Gary sent you!)

In this Episode:

Learn how Chloe’s startup aims to make virtual environments more accessible by helping users better understand social cues via haptic feedback.
Hear about the creation of an Apple Watch app designed for autistic, ADHD, and neurodivergent individuals to assist in reading room vibes through vibrations.
Discover how emotion AI can minimize misunderstandings caused by cultural differences or atypical neurological wiring.
Discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on digital communication and the need for tools that bridge emotional perception gaps in virtual environments.
Find out about new tools that could transform our approach to video conferencing by adding layers of emotional context.
Discussion around ethical considerations when implementing emotion detection technologies in sensitive areas like courtrooms.
Hear personal stories about self-discovery and improved communication skills as a result of engaging deeply with emotional data analytics.
Get excited about the potential future developments where emotional AI could serve as an ’emotional subtitle’ for internet communications globally, fostering greater empathy online.

Quotations:

“Every time there’s a mismatch of accents, cultural backgrounds, or in this case, neurotypes, it makes it a lot harder to perceive emotions.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“The way that we all express emotions is different.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“It’s helping people better gauge how each person is feeling within this group on a real-time level, but then also a larger conversational understanding of the highs and lows points of that conversation and how successful that conversation was.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“The way that we think about the technology that we’re building is that it’s really powerful in improving human communication and connection across people. And that’s really what we care about as a company is like, how can we use this technology and the most pro-communication, pro-humanity use cases.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“People get very good at hiding their emotions from themselves. So because it feels like if I don’t acknowledge that I’m feeling a certain way about a situation, then I don’t need to sort of deal with the repercussions of that emotion. And I think oftentimes we’re trying to find a level of equanimity that requires us to understand our reactions to things in order to get back to our baseline.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“Our moonshot is building the emotional subtitle of the internet.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“I think that what’s important in the next wave of AI technologies is to consider what is left that’s distinctly human and how can we highlight that in a digital environment.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“I think that being able to empathize and connect across people is something that is distinctly human and will not be able to be automated away. The human will always be in that loop, in emotional connection. And so using AI to actually improve our ability to do that really well, while keeping humans in the loop is a pro-human application of the technology. And I think we see the technology serving as an emotional passport to help people gain access to the emotional patterns of types of people they’ve never encountered before or situations they’ve never encountered before • to be able to improve that connection.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“I think people feel so entitled to have an opinion on other people’s lives because we now have such unprecedented access to the mundanity of other people’s lives and being able to criticize very specific types of interactions that we just didn’t know about before.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

“It’s like, how can I check in with myself? My emotional reactions to things? How can I understand other people’s emotional reactions to things? And in particular, their emotional reactions to me.” ~ Chloe Duckworth

Bio:

Chloe Duckworth is the co-founder and CEO of Valence Vibrations, an AI startup delivering emotional classifications in real-time conversation, aiming to augment emotional perception across different neurotypes, languages, communication styles, and cultures. Chloe is personally motivated by democratizing access to wellness in every facet of being well. In the wake of the pandemic, she co-founded Hope Hearted, a Bay Area-based nonprofit that has provided PPE to thousands of unhoused and low-income people.

Chloe has worked as a Program Manager and an Advanced Special Projects Team Intern at BrainMind and was involved in managing programs and special projects related to neuroscience. Additionally, Chloe has served as a Research Assistant at the University of Southern California, where they contributed to the development of a model of neuronal circuits and created a graphical flatmap heat map tool for visualizing brain data. Chloe has also completed a Cognitive Neuroscience Internship at Stanford University School of Medicine and worked as a Research Assistant at Stanford. Chloe Duckworth has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Southern California.