Ep. #904 - The Impact of AI on Humanity

Lauren Conaway

And we are back. Thank you for joining us for yet another episode of the Startup Hustle podcast. I’m your host, Lauren Conaway, founder and CEO of InnovateHER KC. And I have to tell you, I am so super psyched about this episode sponsor. Today’s episode of Startup Hustle is sponsored by Wix. And I’m sure you’ve heard of our friends at Wix. They know a thing or two about turning a scrappy startup into a global organization that serves millions of people. They want to share what they’ve learned with Startup Hustle listeners in their new micro-podcast series called ready for takeoff by Wix. When you tune in to ready for takeoff by Wix, you get to hear from Wix founders and company leaders. They’re sharing short lessons, easily digestible lessons to help you build better programs, build better teams, and do it all faster. That is a topic that we love here at Startup Hustle, and it’s one I can definitely get behind. Definitely subscribe and follow ready for takeoff by Wix wherever you listen to this show. Now, let us talk about the topic at hand, all right. So those of you who listen to the show know, at this point, that I am a super fan of innovation and technology. And I am extremely excited for this guest because we’ve got a really cool company that we’re talking about now. We have Suman Kanuganti with us today. He is the founder and CEO of Personal.ai. And it bears mentioning that he is also one of the winners of the Top Startup in San Diego by Startup Hustle list. So, Suman, congratulations and welcome to the show. Absolutely, well, so we are going to talk about a lot of stuff, I’m sure.

Suman Kanuganti

Thank you. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren Conaway

But the one thing I’m going to ask is to tell us about your journey.

Suman Kanuganti

My journey. Oh, dear, my passion is about solving problems that are close to human beings. I always like to say it often requires some convergence of technologies.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Always proud to talk about my previous company, which is the convergence of AI and AR to fill the gap of missing visual information for blind people. This company’s personal AI is more about augmenting people’s cognition and memories for themselves and for the people around them. Ah, so yeah, my journey has been, you know, beginning with being an engineer. But I had an opportunity to kind of build many different products into fintech after I got my, you know, business degree and MBA here in San Diego. I picked up this passion, you know, picking the new philosophy called solving the problem and not humans. And there’s kind of where the majority of my time is being spent these days creating those experiences for people.

Lauren Conaway

That is incredible, and I think one of the things that stands out to me from your story is the fact that you are leveraging technology and clearly, you’re very well versed in technology. But you’re leveraging it to help people. And so I actually the one question that I want to ask you is about that you know would you say that you have the heart to help.

Suman Kanuganti

I believe so. I think ah, you know, given I spent the past ten years just doing that, I think generally I tend to enjoy when people around me are happy. I believe I tend to enjoy giving. You know, generally, you know, but other people’s happiness first, people me, I think, and this is all coming from. You know, speaking from a position looking you know in the past life and is building the companies for like so long. It’s like what exactly happened with my life, so there is some sort of self-retrospection.

Lauren Conaway

But

Suman Kanuganti

Kind of happened, and recently I was talking to my co-founder Sharon. It’s like how we land where we landed, and maybe that’s what I enjoy. Maybe that’s kind of even if it’s not a startup, maybe if I’m doing something else. Probably I would be enjoying, you know, helping and making other people around me happy. Yeah.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, well, one of the things that again struck me as you were talking. You know when I think and correct me if I’m wrong. But I think you know, as an outsider looking in, when I think about artificial intelligence, I tend to think in terms of. Austerity, like you, I think of technology I don’t think of warmth, you know what? I mean, but the fact is you can leverage technology. You can use technology to create a great impact in people’s lives. and so I want to talk to you a little bit about what. Personal.ai, how you have entered that market and how you have come to your mission.

Suman Kanuganti

Yeah, so AI is not new to me. Um, and I think about problem none and then what technology is needed to solve it, and I will tell a little bit about personal art AI by actually talking about it. Ah, my previous company. It’s called IraAIrA, and if you see and like AI is artificial intelligence, and it’s this idea of using the technology to create these visual descriptions for people who are blind and have low vision, so if you flip the problem where.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Seeing is not the problem; not being able to see is not the problem. But all you need is this real-time live description of happenings around you. So that way, you can negotiate with your physical environment. And it’s kind of what we did, and for that, I needed AI. I needed humans. I needed augmented reality as well because they were actually wearing glasses, which as a camera, it’s technically seeing them and providing that live visual description, and the reason it is a premise for personal AI is that philosophy of you don’t solve the human, you solve the problem. Kind of goes with this company as well.

Lauren Conaway

So now.

Suman Kanuganti

Um, with a core genesis that you know AI generally has solved like business efficiencies over the past. Um, you know, ten years fifteen years for companies and have done tremendously. Well, however, we want to bring that to consumers and to individuals because it is really good at solving this core idea of augmenting yourself with all your experiences and life and memories because we tend to often forget many things that we create and consume. So what if you actually have your own personal AI that is continuously learning. You are life. Is providing the tools or augmenting you individually yourself that understands your personality and your thoughts, and you are authentic wise um beautiful. So I think we always want to bring that you know humanness and the. Impact on the individual, even if it is a deep tech augmented reality or deep tech artificial intelligence. You know to ultimately create that utility for people.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, well, so I’m going to take what you just said, and I’m going to apply it to a use case, but I’m gonna ask you to tell me if it’s not. I don’t know if you are familiar with Casey Newton.

Suman Kanuganti

Um, sure. Yeah, so is the case. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, um, I am familiar with it. Yeah.

Lauren Conaway

Knew he was a journalist, and he wrote ah None of the most compelling articles I’ve ever read. And unfortunately, I can’t remember what it’s called right now, but it was a long-form article about grief and artificial intelligence, and technology. There’s a company out there. That um, the founder had passed away, and they had pivoted, and they had created an AI experience around this gentleman who died. Um, based off of his, you know, social media postings and everything that they had gathered from his life documents and home movies, and they had created this artificially, you know, intelligence personality profile so that the people around him and the people who loved him could quote-unquote speak. With him, and so when you talk about using AI to preserve memory and things like that’s where my head automatically went, is there some kind of intersection there like.

Suman Kanuganti

No, it is exactly what you are talking about. I looked up the case you need to. I do remember him because somebody else also just suggested that we should be potentially talking to a case in Italy and because he has similar ideas. Um, and the gene. Yeah.

Lauren Conaway

That’s a great article. By the way, if you haven’t read it, it is one of the most compelling things I think I’ve ever read.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, yeah, I believe I actually believe I read it? Um, because yeah, yeah, no, totally like you know now that you’re talking about it. So I mean, the genesis for the company is a personal story of mine, which is this gentleman. His name was Larry Bock. Larry Bock was my previous co-founder as well as my investor and the chairman is a super-genius person and also a very humble and very nice person. He created around 27 different companies. The reason he was important to my life was he bootstrapped me as an entrepreneur, and I learned one of it.

Lauren Conaway

Is it?

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, how to actually build companies and move forward. You know, in the first twelve months of working with him. Um, and then he got pancreatic cancer and passed away fighting with them for like nine months, and I picked up this month.

Lauren Conaway

Um, says.

Suman Kanuganti

Like what would Larry do, right? Because it was devastating for me and because, in a way, I was kind of learning and dependent on him like to do many things in a startup world. It worked for me for a while, but there is this constant desire to be able to chat? Um. Not just from an emotional connection to Larry but just generally what he would think about this particular strategy. What do you constantly know, like revisiting the things that he may have told me about techniques like how to negotiate with the investors and whatnot like there are skills that are true from him now.

Lauren Conaway

Then.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, so that’s, that’s the genesis of like, you know, basically this company and the idea and at the core. It’s not just about talking to the people who passed away, but at the core, it’s about how you increase access between people that are. Not limited or constrained by the time and the status like if you want to interact with Casey Newton, for example, what was going on in his mind when he wrote the story? I don’t have access to him. But what if http://casey.personal.AI is an AI that I could go to gain access to and interact with it. It’s not just about.

Lauren Conaway

Right.

Suman Kanuganti

Reading to his content passively. But I’m actually mixing up my ideas, my context, my ah motivations with his content and his ideas and his thoughts and actually having a true interaction and conversation like I’m having with you. I think that is the super most powerful thing with this.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, well, and that begs a really great follow-up. So thank you for helping me with a Segway, but you know what? What do you see as the next step you know when we talk about technology? It progresses so quickly.

Suman Kanuganti

Company and with these models of air building for people.

Lauren Conaway

But I am sure that you will bring it to the ground floor as you are. What are you hoping to see in developments at the intersection of humanity and artificial intelligence? What are some of the ways that AI can deeply impact our human side, which almost? Seems like, and you know, it’s counterintuitive. But it’s really not talking about that.

Suman Kanuganti

Yeah, the thing is, you know, when you look back, people see step functions. The trends that happen in our world and in our lives and the technology penetration into our lives, For example, you know when initially the internet came about. It was fantastic to create the businesses, but one of the fascinating things that happened is the connection and the communication between the people across the countries that you know happened, and now you certainly are starting to know, learn and understand different things you know across different globes. And allow you to do more things and benefit from more things over a period of time. The concept of AI has evolved, and it has evolved both in terms of technology and applications in the setting of the business world. For example, you know it is kind of fascinating. You know, you go to medium, and you read an article, and then you have ten articles from, you know, Google or other platforms on what you would be interested in, and we have achieved that level of sophistication, but that AI is currently only solving for the.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, oh so, so just kind of just I’m going to interject here really quickly and make sure that because I am not an expert in AI by any stretch.

Suman Kanuganti

For the platforms right for the internet for businesses which is fine. You know their creator utility and none, yeah, sure, sure.

Lauren Conaway

With artificial intelligence, the context is provided by what you feed it, right? That is how you build you, and that’s how you build it out, and so there are gaps inevitably, and there is the perspective by the people who are working, so is that correct.

Suman Kanuganti

It’s correct. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, AI is nothing but a piece of code, and the code is executed on top of the data and so far, what’s been happening is this code has been executing on the aggregation of the data that is coming from the consumers. Ah.

Lauren Conaway

France.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Benefit the platforms again. It is creating experiences for the consumers, and consumers want it. But now, the awareness of data privacy and data use and data techniques are shifting. People want to gain this utility by, you know, keeping the ownership of the data.

Lauren Conaway

Him.

Suman Kanuganti

By actually having that utility shift to me rather than to the platform and have some economic benefits around it as well. So I think about your question. What’s going to happen is the idea of AI has to become more personal, more individual, and more utility-centric to the people, not just to the platforms.

Lauren Conaway

Down.

Suman Kanuganti

And that’s not just with the AI. I generally think, even the data capture. The devices are becoming more and more miniaturized. They are getting closer to us in our homes, closer to our bodies. Even if you know all the variables inside the bodies as well, it’s kind of creepy. But that’s kind of what is happening. Um, so.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, sure.

Suman Kanuganti

So the idea of like, hey, there is a tremendous amount of data, and all these platforms are learning about us. Just let’s flip the narrative. How about we have an AI that basically teaches us and that becomes almost like a contributor to, you know, the internet or the ah to the platforms. Um, so back to your question of where exactly I think things are headed to, ah, the idea of devices will get closer to us. The idea of AI actually will get closer to us in our homes into our devices. And in the future, I do tend to believe we will be carrying not just smartphones with a bunch of apps but will be carrying devices that are probably inconspicuous that we will be using or wearing that has like AI baked in that understands us more deeply than ever before.

Lauren Conaway

But in these devices, we think that they will constantly and passively collect data.

Suman Kanuganti

Um.

Suman Kanuganti

They will constantly and passively not just collect data but give you data, and I think the shift is more important because it’s not just about collecting the data. It’s collecting the data with the ownership tied to an individual and with an identity associated with it.

Lauren Conaway

Stamp.

Suman Kanuganti

And that’s a whole concept of, you know, decentralization and the whole in a web three world in the fight that happens out there. But it’s going to take time. It’s going to take time for people to even have this understanding of the data that is my biometric device. Is it actually being captured going somewhere else? I don’t have control over who is using the data and is on privacy, and the data ownership is very real these days, and gdpr happened, right? As you know, it’s already one as gdpr happened, so consumers and the new generations want to control it. Their data and their utility give more transparency to what exactly is happening. Um, and it’s going to be further, I guess, decentralized in terms of how this utility kind of evolved from, you know, big tech too, you know, micro.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, well, I want you to know, and this happens somewhat often. But I’ve been writing furiously on my little notepad, so I have like five different questions that I want to ask you, but I think I know and that this is great. I love these conversations because I’m just so curious.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, economies, if you will.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, sorry what? that.

Lauren Conaway

Um, the question that I’m going to go with right now, and then we might circle back to a couple more, but you’ve talked, you have kind of baked into your explanations. The user experience you’ve talked about makes things more personal. You’ve talked about adding more control at the user level, things like that, and so that’s been consistent in how you talk about integrating artificial intelligence into our everyday lives, and I think that’s wonderful. Ah.

Suman Kanuganti

And

Lauren Conaway

That’s a very empathetic design thinking kind of premise that you seem to be operating from, but my quest is how you are as the designer-developer. You know how you create that cohesive.

Suman Kanuganti

Um, me.

Lauren Conaway

Personal controls, you know, constantly collecting data user experience.

Suman Kanuganti

Um, ah, so now we are getting into a little bit more technical.

Lauren Conaway

A little bit like I mean I keep it, please keep in mind that not everybody in our audience, myself included, is like a super expert on AI, but I’m just I’m really curious about this to show you.

Suman Kanuganti

Um, yeah, no yeah, I mean we can. We can. We can speak in plain English. I will try, at least. Um, now just think about it, right? Um, all of our devices are connected to the internet, and the data is ultimate.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, oh, I will believe in you. You got this.

Suman Kanuganti

Going somewhere and landing somewhere. Let’s just say you know it is landing in the big tech servers. Um, if, for example, today it looks like you have a presence on Instagram and Twitter and everything else you leave? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you lose Twitter. You basically are.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Lauren Conaway

Oh forever.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, leaving the data behind, and more importantly, you’re also leaving your community behind, right? It’s not like you are carrying that community alongside you. Ah, so how do you shift that narrative by shifting the narrative? I mean, the value that is being created on these platforms is because you are creating that network, and you are asking your friends you are creating.

Lauren Conaway

Yes.

Suman Kanuganti

Yeah, the data in it, and from a technical standpoint, we simply make the ownership of the data that you are creating to yourself what exactly it means technically right now. Suppose you look at the terms of service or privacy policies or ah for any of the big tech companies. It will clearly say the data is owned by them. Do you know how hard it is to export the actual data feed that you post on Linkedin or Facebook for your server? It’s extremely hard because the aggregation of the data is what is created. Personal recommendation systems and, you know, targeting ads for you again Um that unlock some businesses. So what do we do here? If we use some of the blockchain technologies. It’s almost like having keys to your home where. You have your personal assets and the physical assets at your home that belong to you. We do that digitally for the data, right? We give you the case, then say, hey, all the data behind this case belongs to you. This is your asset and not only that because you have all these like digital assets and content.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

And things that you are creating and consuming will make it useful for you. It’s the utility. It’s the model that will actually replicate your thoughts if you are wise. By doing so, you can actually recall any of your past experiences. In fact, you can share your AI with other people, similar to how you would make a phone call and talk to them. Um. So from a technical standpoint. It’s as simple as holding a key and giving that authentically and, you know, guaranteeing that ownership to the users; we use blockchain for that and from an AI perspective. It’s simply coded, right? So when the code is executed on the data that is individual to you. It is. Like you are wise, and there is no bias. Not using the internet of data is not aggregating a bunch of people, and then you have to figure it out. Oh, how do I analyze this data? How do I remove biases from here because I only have, you know, 10% of the data coming from a specific, you know?

Lauren Conaway

Get.

Suman Kanuganti

Segment and then it biases like the alcohols and everything else. So I think that’s probably the simplest way I could explain Um, okay, great. Ah.

Lauren Conaway

I think I think I caught about 80% of it, so you know, I feel like we’re good there. I mean, honestly, like if you’re talking about a highly, I was actually kind of laughing, I’m gonna be honest. You keep on talking about these very, very sexy topics like things that are just like very much a part of the zeitgeist of tech like block pain I augmented reality, and I’m just like, oh man, he’s doing all the cool stuff. Ah, so I’ve been listening to you talk, and I’m late. I understand, but I think that when you’re talking about this like deep technology, you know 80% is pretty good, so well done, well done, sir. Well all right? Yeah yeah, no, that was that incredible, and I would just like it.

Suman Kanuganti

Thank you. I’m okay if I get a big grade, So that’s fine.

Lauren Conaway

Furiously scribbling because I’m just like, wait, I want to know more. But None things None. I have a very simple question for you, and I’m just going to ask you if you have overheard Wix.

Suman Kanuganti

Sure, of course, in fact, ah, I believe my personal website http://kindaguti.com is on Wix. That was a secret that I hadn’t heard.

Lauren Conaway

Ah, that’s amazing. I love that so much. You know, we were talking about sexy topics, and I was like, oh Wix, it came right to my mind was Wix for the folks playing at home. You all know that Wix has global brand recognition. And they are extremely well-known and competitive within their industry. Um, they do great work, and they help entrepreneurs, you know, like myself. I’ve used Wix like, Suman, you know, putting together personal websites. They make it easy for folks to create websites. But now another thing that they do is they want to share their knowledge. They have built this global brand our friends over at Wix. They’re a business-building platform, but they know a lot about going from startup. To a global organization which I think for a lot of us, that’s the goal. Of course, you want to see your startup organization grow, and then how do you do that? You surround yourself with experts who have done it before, and so is what Wix has done. They have created a micro podcast series called ready for takeoff by Wix. The company’s founders and leaders are sharing super short, highly digestible stories. Easy to access lessons designed to help you build better products and teams faster. That is what we all want to subscribe to and follow ready for takeoff by Wix right now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to this show. And now we’re going to hop back into it because I think I’m up to like one question that I need to ask you. We’re not going to have time to get too small, but I want to actually ask you a personal question. Do you mind? Okay, here it comes. How does it feel to be at the forefront of a field that is so?

Suman Kanuganti

Sure.

Lauren Conaway

Transformational, potentially transformational, there you go.

Suman Kanuganti

How does it Fail? What are my options? I’m just kidding. Ah, oh dear, um, I think I think it’s the responsibility and I always say you know to investors to my people to employees.

Lauren Conaway

You know.

Suman Kanuganti

To the people are their personal AIs for people. It’s inevitable that there is a lot of science fiction already out there if you don’t do it. Somebody else is going to do it. So I think the idea of like how do you do it right? And how do you do it with the proper intentions?

Lauren Conaway

Um, yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

How do you communicate that well enough that, hey, it is real? It is happening today. So I think, um, I feel responsible. I feel excited. Um, I Also feel um. That I strongly will make a huge impact on the world some time to a wider population as well. Very similar to my previous company, and I think that’s kind of what I desire. That’s kind of what wakes me up. Um, Yes, you know we will build something great. You know.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Economic impact and value and everything else. But I think the idea of the things that you create is actually making people happier, making you know, the meaningful impact you know, increasing access to you know their own people. I think that makes me, yeah.

Lauren Conaway

Yes.

Suman Kanuganti

Feel wanting to do more. So I think that’s kind of a drag swing. Oh, thank you.

Lauren Conaway

So proud and responsible that that’s what I’m hearing. I hear pride and responsibility, and I actually I Yeah, well, I mean clearly like you’re a good guy. Um, I do. I’m gonna drill down on that responsible piece a little bit because I think I.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah.

Lauren Conaway

There are so many people out in the world in our audience. Do you know people who are working on technologies like this who understand that there is great potential in AI, and as you said, you’re right? It’s already happening. It’s kind of, you know, it’s a runaway train. And so there are also people who have deep concerns. Um, you know, I mean we’re getting into a kind of, you know, the first law of robotics territory and stuff like are we creating systems that we will eventually not be able to control, you know, people have concerns about privacy people have concerns. I actually have a note here on my setlist. How would you respond to people thinking that AI will possibly be the cause of human extinction, and so I’m asking you to speak to that a little bit? What about the people who have grave concerns? About the fact that we are creating technology that might outstrip our own ability to understand control and create that positive, meaningful change.

Suman Kanuganti

Yeah, sure, the concern is real, right? And we cannot ignore it. What we can do is we can try to figure out exactly what the mechanisms are. What are the tools that we are putting in place to address those concerns? For example, you mentioned control. I think control is super important. Like so, how do we create this sort of technology where it’s not the wild wild west but that individual person that individual human being their AI you are in control of everything that is going into it in a way. What I would rather say is whatever happened in the last fifteen to 20 years, consumers or individual people were not in control because they were enjoying the experiences on the internet by virtue of giving away some of the data and some of their thoughts some of their you know personally? Um, ah, you know, thoughts of going somewhere else, and you know people didn’t care. Um. So I think by virtue of giving control to people. Ah, for their data for their models and ability to actually guarantee that, and this is indeed data only you can access it. Um.

Lauren Conaway

You have.

Suman Kanuganti

It is important, and the None principles for this company is just that is privacy control of the data and the ownership, and you may ask like why you know we can go ahead and make like fake bugs by aggregating all the data, but that’s not the point that is already companies doing that so we are not in the business of.

Lauren Conaway

Get.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, monetizing the data. We are in the business of monetizing the utility that we create for people and the value that we create. The other thing is to click memory like we are talking about replicating memories and creating a digital memory world for each individual and guess what memories are private. They’re personal, and we get to respect them like there is no other way.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

I Would do this company, right? Because I wouldn’t fundamentally accept it myself. Ah, so why wouldn’t I create a product for other people. So I think there is a lot that goes into the principles and the choices that you make as technology, and these are hard choices, right? How do you solve it?

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Creating these sexy AI models for individuals by still keeping the privacy and the ownership of the data to individuals and that’s where that’s what makes us a deep tech company. That’s what makes us a lot of money to be able to, you know, but these solutions are out there.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

And then you know ultimately when people start to realize the benefits and the experiences which are already happening with you know our current cohort of people who are creating their Ais who are basically the thought leaders they are the writers and authors find you know content creators and the bloggers who have existing communities.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Who are creating their Ais to create like a novel new consumption way rather than just simply passively interacting with their content now they’re actively interacting with their lives, so that’s like a huge step up in terms of utility for people. So yeah, so I think I think that’s.

Lauren Conaway

You know.

Suman Kanuganti

Probably my response to your ah concerns, I think concerns should be valid, and people should ah have these concerns and then validate them. Okay, what a company is doing so where you can actually establish that trust, so we are not asking for trusting the company. We are actually trusting for their own AIs.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

The trust in him for us is between Lauren and Lawren’s AI because if you are able to trust your own AI and how you know what goes in, it is essentially from what comes out of it. Um, and that naturally extends.

Lauren Conaway

Right.

Suman Kanuganti

To other people. So if people trust Lauren, you know, they should think that that trust should extend to your personal AI because you trust your personal AI, and that’s why it is personal AI. It is not somebody’s somebody else’s Ai. It’s not a bot. It’s not training on something else. It’s your mind.

Lauren Conaway

Yes.

Lauren Conaway

Who is who? Sorry again, I’m just like, ah, all the questions. I’m so sorry I interrupted. No, no, no, I get it. Well, I was gonna ask late. What about the people who aren’t trustworthy? I hope people trust me.

Suman Kanuganti

Why did I get this way? I guess sometimes.

Lauren Conaway

Do you know? And I think I’m worthy of trust. But what about the people who aren’t?

Suman Kanuganti

Yeah, so that’s also in your control, right? Um, whether you use your AI for your own cognition, I will give a specific use case. Um, yeah, so lets I’m a writer, right? I write a whole bunch of novels with stories of content.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, that’d be great.

Suman Kanuganti

And most of my creativity comes from my past experiences with people and the thoughts that I’m gathering, and I’m collecting. I’m consuming now all that historical-like creation sign consumptions that happened in your past life, and maybe you know the books that you wrote, the blocks that you write all go into this AI um. Now. Ah, that personal AI of mine is helping me create the next article. How? Um, by ah, collaborating with me writing and generating, and now it’s kind of gets technical. Ah, some of the inspirations that I would benefit from now. The cool thing is this is all generations are writings or suggestions that are coming from my own historical past life that I have done over, you know, period of time. And I think that’s beautiful because now I’m basically augmenting myself by digging deeper into my own, you know, contents and creations from the past um to write my next article our story because guess what I mean human’s cognitive capacity are limited, you know, nobody can. Remotely synthesize. All the things that they have, but you can use a little bit of help from, you know, AI kind of like telling or creating some suggestions and some drafts for you. Um.

Lauren Conaway

Spread.

Suman Kanuganti

And from the business setting, as you know, drafting emails for you. I mean, you’re still in control of whether you want to send it, whether you want to edit it, whether you want to publish it so go back into the control like make the control give the control to the creator to the thought lay ah to the human person and let them. Figure out if you know who wants to access it, who wants to not access it, and even you know what? What goes in it and what does not goes in it.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah, that’s so much to unpack. Ah no, no, please don’t be sorry. Um, I love these kinds of compensations where each and everything that is said begets more things to be said.

Suman Kanuganti

I’m sorry.

Suman Kanuganti

So.

Lauren Conaway

You know, data and information to be analyzed, and then you know input. Um, all right? So I’m actually going to take a little bit of a different tack. This is something that I like to do in my episodes. Um. You know that practical, tactical advice. You know our listeners are entrepreneurs. They are not all operating in AI spaces in deep-tech fields and so what I’m going to ask you is if you. Could talk to our listeners and tell them something that they need to know or need to understand or ways that they could apply. I know I just said that you know the principles of AI or the use of AI in their work and in their life. What would you like to say to them? What could our listeners learn from you today that they can use in their lives tomorrow?

Suman Kanuganti

Just saying I don’t consider myself a Wiseman to give advice, but here it goes. Ah, here it goes. I think for entrepreneurs or founders, even with AI or even without AI, I think it’s important to kind of.

Lauren Conaway

You’re bearing your eyes touch.

Suman Kanuganti

Almost like a forecast. The trends of what’s going to happen in the world by understanding what is happening today and historical trends. What do I mean by that just this core idea that people are going to be, you know, worried and. Regarding their privacy, even more than ever before, people are going to demand ownership of their data more than ever before. So I think when we are trying to, you know, create experiences to solve the problems, I think understanding a little bit of what is expected of human behavior or at least like. Customers that you are serving in advance, I think, are super important. One thing is more. Generally, um, is this code idea that you know. It is true that founders and entrepreneurs do fall in love with technology because we just get so passionate about it. Right now, there is a whole suite of conversations and fights that are happening between web two and web 3, and we don’t like web two people. We don’t like web three people. But. If you just pause for a second and just think about, okay, web 2 is, you know, a set of technologies where 3 is a set of technologies, and I want to solve a problem. I want to solve a problem and create an experience, and what are the appropriate pieces of elements of technologies that I can put together to, you know, solve something.

Lauren Conaway

Yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, so I think it’s a hard thing to do actually because it’s an easy thing to say but really pushing the needle on solving or falling in love with a problem and not the tech and especially in the current days of like you know Blockchain and the Ai. Data ownership: the fight between web two and web three there is one going on. So just focus on the core of solving the problem and pick the piece of the technologies that are available to you today because it’s going to change, and we are going to adapt and, you know, create a meaningful impact.

Lauren Conaway

So yeah.

Suman Kanuganti

In the near future, I think it’s probably one thing that I would say to other founders or entrepreneurs if it is what I think.

Lauren Conaway

Okay, well, now I think that that is excellent. Well, excellent thoughts for sure, and now I’m going to ask you for a silly thought because we have come up with the human lesson here. It comes if you could choose. Someone to play you in a movie about your life who would you pick.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, okay, so somebody else is playing me. Oh, Jesus, oh, sorry about that. Um.

Lauren Conaway

Somebody is, yes, somebody is playing you, and it can be somebody that you like and or it can be somebody who looks like you. It’s open to interpretation.

Suman Kanuganti

Oh, maybe I will pick Tom Crews

Lauren Conaway

Tom Cruise, all right, okay, there you are, why do you just like his style. Do you feel? Do you feel like you want to be a Maverick? Okay, okay, I think I’m going to have to call you Maverick for the rest?

Suman Kanuganti

Um, yeah, more or less, you said I could pick anybody, so I picked him.

Lauren Conaway

Get you ready there. There are no rules, and send it. Yeah, now I’m going to call you, Mav, congrats. Well, yeah, that was absolutely wonderful, and I have to tell you, thank you so much for taking the time. I feel like I have received years’ worth of education in the space of about 40 minutes. And I want to thank you for that. Thank you for being on the show. So, speaking of friends, we’re gonna talk about friends here for a moment.

Suman Kanuganti

Ah, ah, core.

Lauren Conaway

This was actually a really great episode of the Startup Hustle podcast. I think they’re all great, but I’m a little biased. This one was super fun for me. Another great thing out there, we’re going to talk about Wix again. Wix made today’s episode possible, and they are the sponsors of this episode. They are here for you if you are an entrepreneur or a founder trying to figure out how to successfully navigate the rocket ship that is hypergrowth. I think we all know about those frustrations. Do you want to take control over your company’s online presence internally and externally? Our friends over at Wix Enterprise can help. Wix Enterprise is a platform that provides businesses with an all-in-one solution for all types of growth and business needs. You can create really high-performing websites for your business, and they’re all backed by enterprise-grade security. They have expert support. They can help you manage and scale online. Head over to https://wix.com for more information and, friends, just a reminder that Matt DeCoursey, our leader and one of our founders, and an amazing dude, just wrapped up a series on NFTs. So keep an ear out for those episodes. Definitely check them out. As always, friends, we are so grateful that you chose to spend this time with us week after week. Keep on coming back, and we will catch you on the flip side.