The Data Stack Show - The PRQL: Synthetic Data and Self Driving Cars with Omar Maher of Parallel Domain

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

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Welcome to the Data Stack Show prequel, where we replay a snippet from the show we just recorded. Kostas, are you ready to give people a sneak peek? I am, of course. Let's do it. Let's do it. Wow, Kostas, what a conversation with Omar from Parallel Domain. I mean, it's almost impossible not to have fun if you're talking about synthetic data to train, you know, AI models that are driving, you know, learning for self-driving cars and

other imagery use cases. I mean, just unbelievable. So I loved it. I think one of the biggest things that stuck out to me was when you scan Hacker News, when you see news headlines, especially related to chat GPT and all these other AI technologies, they tend to be extreme, right? AI is taking away jobs or, you know, we need to stop AI. You know, we need to slow down. You know, we have all these people who signed a letter. Omar was so balanced.

You know, he just, It almost felt personal to him where he felt like he could stop a self-driving vehicle from hitting someone in the street because he can provide better data. It felt very personal. It felt very practical. There was no mystery. And he had a level of confidence that I think, you know, just really, to me, invalidated just a lot of the headlines that we see. I mean, he's really doing work on the front lines with, you know, companies who are building cars that are trying to drive themselves, you know, and what was that encouraging to me? I think that's my big takeaway is that he's balanced, he's

brilliant, obviously, but he's very confident that this is a way to make things safer, even using synthetic data. We shouldn't be scared, we actually should be excited. That was a big takeaway for me. Yeah, 100%. I think the big difference between

what Omar is doing and what is happening with things like sub-GP GPTs that in Omar's case, like the use case is very explicit, right? It's like, we know, like, we understand exactly what's the output of like improving these models, right? It's like more safety. It's yeah. Like we're not going to have so many accidents. We are not going to be worrying,

like, if a child is going to be hit by a car, and, like, all that stuff. And, by the way, it's not just the self-driving cars, right? Like, as he said, many of these models are used, like, today as part of, like, other sensors that cars have, like the regular cars that we all drive, to make sure that if an accident is going to happen, the car can help you react faster and stuff like that. So it's not just the extreme of having a fully autonomous car. And on the other hand, you have chat GPT, which is a and very accessible technology, right? Everyone can go and type on this thing. You don't easily go and get a fully autonomous car and like see it like moving, right?

So, but people at the same time, they see something big, something great there, but they don't necessarily understand what the impact is going to be. We are still trying to figure out this, right? And that generates fear. So I think that's like one of the reasons that you see like such like a diverse, let's say reaction between like the different technologies. And I mean, at the same time,

I agree with Omar, like at the end, like we are going to see like something similar happening with all like the chat GPT like kind of technologies that's one thing the other thing that i'm going to keep like from this conversation that we had is that there's so much overlap between like the state of the art that's in omar's domain and things like virtual reality cgi games all these things and like I can't wait to see how these industries are going to be using

whatever is happening like in synthetic data today and generative AI to create even more innovation. So at least we are going to have fun. That's the feeling I get.

At the minimum, we're going to have fun. That's the feeling I get. At the minimum, we're going to have fun. Yeah. And I think people like Omar are the right people to be working on this because of their disposition and value system. So thank you for joining us again on the Data Stack Show. Many great episodes coming up. If you like this one, just wait. Thank you for joining us again on the Data Stack Show.

Many great episodes coming up. If you like this one, and just wait, we have so many more good ones coming out soon. If you haven't subscribed, subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever your favorite network is, and tell a friend if it's valuable to you. And we will catch you on the next

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