The Story Behind Mosaic ML's $1.3 Billion Acquisition with Davis Blalock #35 Artwork

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Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science and Deep Learning are completely changing the world we live in today. Companies around the world start to make sensible use of big data to influence business decisions and create our future. From video recommendations to autonomous driving, from stock prediction to weather forecasting, the AI revolution is everywhere. The AI stories podcast brings together some of the best Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, Business leaders and researchers that are at the front of this revolution. They are here to talk about their career, how they arrive where they are, give advice and share their vision. They explain how they make use of AI in their daily routine, how they use algorithms to solve business problems and make the world a better place. They are here to share their stories: their AI stories. Hosted by Neil Leiser, Data Scientist at Iwoca. Follow Neil to learn more about career, Data Science, AI and Machine Learning. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeiserNeil

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AI Stories

The Story Behind Mosaic ML's $1.3 Billion Acquisition with Davis Blalock #35

October 10, 2023 • Neil Leiser • Season 3 • Episode 1

Our guest today is Davis Blalock, Research Scientist and first employee of Mosaic ML; a startup which got recently acquired by Databricks for an astonishing $1.3 billion.

In our conversation, we first talk about Davis' PhD at MIT and his research on making algorithms more efficient. Davis then explains how and why he joined Mosaic and shares the story behind the company. He dives into the product and how they evolved from focusing on deep learning algorithms to generative AI and large language models.

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Follow Davis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblalock/

Follow Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/

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(00:00) - Intro
(01:40) - How Davis entered the world of Data and AI?
(03:30) - Enhancing ML algorithms' efficiency
(12:50) - Importance of efficiency
(16:37) - Choosing MosaicML over starting his own startup
(25:30) - What is Mosaic ML?
(37:34) - How did the rise of LLM aid MosaicML's growth?
(46:54) - $1.3 billion acquisition by Databricks
(48:52) - Learnings and failures from working in a startup
(01:00:05) - Career advice