The Culture at Salesforce

When asked about the culture at Salesforce, Stephen replied that it is great and emphasizes research and advancing AI. He believes that the company's focus on machine learning capabilities excites him the most, as it allows people to accomplish tasks that were previously impossible without an entire workforce of people.

Stephen shared a personal anecdote about his experience being a master student at Harvard, describing it as one of the most stressful but truly pleasurable experiences in his life. He learned so much during this time and reflected on how different his academic career would have been if he had not experienced such rigorous training.

In terms of his favorite website to spend time on, Stephen mentioned Twitter, which he uses frequently for both work and personal purposes. He also expressed admiration for the Favorite machine learning paper of 2017, which was a mixture of Softmaxes.

Stephen's conversation about meeting one person who would be ideal was met with Shannon from entropy, followed by his experience celebrating after his AI startups got acquired by Salesforce. The celebration involved having drinks at a nearby bar with his team.

When asked about doing research as a full-time job, Stephen described it as an amazing experience that allows him to focus on the exact problem he is interested in and work tirelessly on it. He also shared his bravest moment, which was probably leaving friends and family behind when traveling to the US.

Stephen revealed that his greatest fear is heights, but acknowledged that he does not think he will ever be able to overcome this phobia. He expressed a strong affection for the movie Inception and mentioned that playing piano, trombone, and guitar are his favorite hobbies.

When asked about whether physics or neuroscience was more interesting, Stephen replied that physics is because they can understand it better at present. He also shared a heartwarming story about receiving a computer from his parents when he was nine or ten years old, which became a life-changing gift.

To unwind, Stephen enjoys watching television shows and movies with friends. He revealed that he is probably one of the pickiest eaters you will ever meet, with chicken nuggets and frozen Kerkar being his go-to meals.

Stephen's favorite operating system is Linux, and he does not enjoy playing sports. However, he did share an adventurous moment from hiking through the Australian outback.

For staying up to-date in machine learning, Stephen relies on fast.ai by Jeremy Howard and Rachel Thomas. He aims to compose an entire orchestra without having to think about it in the next ten years and reflected on his favorite subject in school when he was growing up as Latin.

In terms of being a superhero, Stephen would choose Iron Man for developing everything himself. His spirit animal is probably a sloth due to his laid-back nature. When asked what comes next after deep learning hype, Stephen hopes that it does not die down but instead leads to connected devices becoming the next big thing.

Finally, Stephen expressed his preference for Ethereum over Bitcoin and shared his dislike for Google Home or Amazon Alexa, as he values his privacy above all else. He also showed a preference for unsupervised learning over supervised learning and attended NIPS last year as one of his favorite conferences.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey Stephen how's it going? Hey Siraj not bad. Do you mind if I ask you 67 questions?Sure! All right let's do this! What is the culture like at Salesforce?The culture is great, it's realemphasis on research and really I guessadvancing AI. What excites you the mostabout machine learning I think it's thecapability for people to do stuff thatno one had really been able to do beforewithout like an entire workforce of people.What is something you miss about where you grew up? Okay, onething about Australia is eucalyptusleaves they are beautiful and they smellso nice you can look just treeseverywhere and luckily we have a few ofthem in California. What time do you wake up?I wake up oh gosh more like 10:00a.m.What was it like to be a master student at Harvard?it was one of the most stressful buttruly pleasurable experiences in my lifeI learned so muchWhat website you absolutely love and spend time on?I would have to say Twitter is my mainvice and also virtue. Favorite machine learning paper of 2017?Oh.. Mixture of SoftmaxesIf you could meet one person who would it be? Shannon from entropyYour last AI startups got acquired by Salesforce. How did you celebrate?Well the whole team went out and had drinks at one of the nearby bar... so pretty normal.What is like doing research as a full-time job? As afull-time job it's amazing because youactually get to hurt in on the exactproblem that you're interested in andjust stay there and keep working at it.Bravest thing you've ever done?Umm...probably more to the US away fromfriends and family. What is one thingthat scares you? I would say Heightshonestly that's something that I don'tthink I'm ever gonna be able to workpast.Favorite movie? Ohinception! Do you play any instruments?Yeah I'll actually play piano andtrombone and guitar. What's moreinteresting physics or neuro science?Physics only because we canunderstand it better at the moment.Best present you've ever received?When I was like I think nine or ten myparents actually gave me a computer butthey set it in the middle of thecorridor and I didn't even realize ituntil I go to the room. What is somethingyou do to relax? best thing is usuallytelevision shows or movies with friends.What is something surprising about you?I am probably one of the pickiest eatersyou'll ever meet and chicken nuggets andfrozen Kerkar basically my life. Do you prefer cats or dogs? HorsesWhat's a machine learning model that doesn't get enough attention?I think studyingI think starting with like the simplestbaseline models is the best way to go sojust stick with multi-layer perceptronsfor the starting point. What's yourfavourite operating system? I gotta say Linux.Do you play any sports? Not really no. Most adventurous thing you've never done?A multi-day hike through the AustralianoutbackWhat's one source you use to stayup-to-date in machine learning?Honestly, it's Twitter again like thepeople you find there is just amazing!Programming language of choice formachine learning? Python.Favourite professor?Dr. James carne from the University ofSydney Australia.Why do you think programming is fun?I think programming it enables you to dosome completely and utterly tremendousthings that again you'd never be able toyourself you can control a machine thatcan run billions calculations a secondWhat's the most amazing thing in the world?human society because I don't see wherethe end point is for it. Favorite comfort food?Chicken nuggets. Name one person youreally admire? one of my curve of mycolleagues James Bradbury. What was your first program? Oh sorry...first program it was a hello world appthat literally just read in my name andthen spat it out back at me. Last person you talked to on the phone? Oh Brad from nvidia.You get an all expenses paid trip to 1 city for free, where do you go?Back home to Australia. Would you live onMars? Yes! What is one thing you can't live without?Unfortunately my laptop.What is one skill you wish you had?Honestly, i don't know. What is the last thing you do before bed?Ok, so I actually play the same set of four songs from a soundtrack every night fromEnder's Game. What text editor you use? Vim. What open source library do you really like?PyTorch is beautiful. What was a hard problem you recently solved?So most recently language modellingWhat's the meaning of life? Friendsfamily and I guess science.Who is one author you really like? I love Isaac Asimov.What is one thing that excites you?That we are getting back into space.Best advice you've ever received?Just go for it even if you have no clue of what you're actually doing.What is one piece of advice you give yourself 10 years ago?be less worried about making mistakes.You spend more time on the internet orreal life? Internet well and truly. Do you have any pets? Yes if youcount my parents sir it's three dogs onecat and three horses. What's somethingyou've learned in the past month?how difficult audio is in terms ofactually processing with deep learningDo you like spicy food? No not at all!What is the movie that made you cry?Up the beginning of. If you run the world what is one law you would enact immediately?oh I'm gonna try and stay away frombeing too controversialA very soft Universal income. Is the singularity near? not near enough to worry about yet.Who is one person you looked up to when you were in collegejohn jo... who basically toldme a good chunk of the programming i know.What deep learning library do you use the most? PyTorch.If you were to start from scratch today what is a learning resource you would use to learn machine learning?fast.ai by Jeremy Howardand Rachel Thomas. What is one goal youhave in the next 10 years? In the next10 years I want us to be able to composean entire orchestra without having tothink about it. Favorite subject in school when you were growing up? Oh Latinif you could be a superhero who would itbe?this filming to be said about iron man forthe fact that he had to developeverything himself.What's your spirit animal?Probably a sloth I'm kind of lazy. What doyou predict comes next after the deeplearning hype?Well hopefully the deep learning hypedoesn't die down but I think everythingconnected devices. Bitcoin or Ethereum?Ethereum. Did you delete your Facebook?Nope.Google home or Amazon Alexa? Neither!I don't want anything listening to me youDo you prefer supervised or unsupervisedlearning? unsupervised.Favorite conference you've ever been to? probably nips last year. Awesome Steven well thanksfor answering those questions thanks manall right have a good one\n"