This episode of My Interface Podcast, features an insightful conversation with Xi Peng, an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia and head of the DeepReal Lab. The discussion tackles the urgent need for "Explainable AI" and how the current education system must adapt to the new AI World.

Just as you would question a calculator that suddenly says 12 times 10 is 121, Xi Peng explains why it is critical to understand how AI models arrive at their conclusions, especially in high-stakes fields like healthcare and autonomous driving. The episode also explores the limits of AI in the physical world and why human connection, emotion, and physical sensation remain irreplaceable.

What You Will Learn

• Explainable AI (XAI): Why treating AI as a "black box" is dangerous for high-stakes industries like radiology, and how researchers are looking inside neural networks to build human trust.

• The 100-Year-Old Education System: Why our current educational models are obsolete in the age of AI, and how schools need to shift from testing answers to teaching students how to ask the right questions.

• Physical AI and Its Limits: Why an AI might know everything in a textbook but can never be your ski coach, highlighting the gap between text-based knowledge and physical-world interaction.

• Prompting as Problem Solving: The essential future skill of breaking down massive, complex problems into sub-tasks that an AI can manage, leaving the high-level design to humans.

Chapters

• 00:07 Introduction to the Interface Podcast and its mission.

• 01:21 Guest Introduction: Professor Xi Peng of the University of Virginia's DeepReal Lab.

• 01:56 The Classroom Dilemma: Students using AI to write bug-free code.

• 03:22 Explainable AI: The "broken calculator" analogy and opening the black box.

• 04:08 Reinventing Education: Adapting a century-old learning system for an AI-native generation.

• 08:04 Physical AI: Why AI struggles to interact with the real, tangible world.

• 11:37 The Ultimate Skill: Breaking down complex problems and asking the right questions.

• 12:15 Advice for Students: Why the internet might be better than textbooks for learning rapidly evolving AI.

• 13:03 Turning the Tables: Xi Peng asks the hosts about their own AI usage and school policies.

• 14:41 Host Reflections: Yvonne and Miya discuss AI detection, critical thinking, and the necessity of human connection.

Quotes from the Episode

"Today's AI is more like a black box... My research interest is to open this black box to figure out how the AI thinks to solve the problem internally."

"We still need to educate the kids... We can't forbid people to use AI, but the question is how to use it while the student can still learn."

"One job that AI probably never can replace human is being a ski coach... because this needs a sensation. You need an interaction with real world."

"Learn from internet, rather than learn from textbooks, if you want to learn AI."

About the Hosts

Yvonne and Miya are high school sophomores on a mission to educate students and professionals on the impact of AI across multiple subject matters by providing insights from top experts.

Where to find Professor Xi Peng and the DeepReal Lab:

• Xi Peng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xi-peng-74b540b6/

• DeepReal Lab: https://deep-real.github.io/

  
  

New episodes drop every Friday at 3:00 PM.

This new episode of My Interface Podcast, featuring an interview with Ni Lao, an expert in machine learning and natural language understanding at Google DeepMind.

In an era where AI models are rapidly evolving, how do we distinguish between helpful tools and unreliable outputs? In this episode, Ni Lao joins hosts Yvonne and Mia to share his journey from electrical engineering to leading efficient model training at Google.

Ni explains the technical reality of AI hallucinations, the importance of deep theoretical foundations, and why he never trusts AI results without verifying the source. This conversation bridges the gap between high-level academic research and the practical challenges of managing complex production systems in the real world.

What You Will Learn

• The Learning Paradox: Why AI can help you find what to read but can never replace the actual process of human learning.
• Understanding Hallucinations: A deep dive into how probabilistic models "guess" information and why verifying sources is a non-negotiable skill.
• Foundational Skills for the Future: Why statistics, coding, and hands-on project experience are the three pillars of a successful AI career.
• The "Magic Desk" Vision: How the long-standing dream of instant knowledge access—dating back to the Manhattan Project—is finally becoming reality through AI.

Chapters

• 00:00 Welcome to the Interface Podcast.
• 00:33 Guest Introduction: Ni Lao’s background in machine learning and Google DeepMind.
• 00:54 Academic Influence: From electrical engineering to robotics and AI.
• 02:40 The Complexity of Large-Scale AI: Managing production systems and prioritizing knowledge.
• 03:45 The Truth About Hallucinations: Why probabilistic models "fake" information.

• 06:50 Essential Skills: Statistics, coding, and the feedback loop of projects.
• 07:50 AI Ethics and Regulation: Protecting intellectual property in art and code.
• 09:00 The History and Future of Information: From the Manhattan Project to AI-driven inference.
• 10:50 Post-Interview Analysis: Collaboration, fact-checking, and human responsibility.

Quotes from the Episode

"AI can never replace the learning part. You have to do the learning by yourself, but it helps you to find stuff to read."

"For me, I don't trust any AI... I just treat them as a way to find sources of information. I will read the source by myself to verify that it's actually true."

"You need AI to help you understand the world... but still you need theory of how AI works. Statistics, coding, and also projects."

"Making decisions will be much faster now than before... what might need minutes or hours can be reduced to minutes or even seconds."

About the Hosts

Yvonne and Mia are high school sophomores on a mission to provide insights from top AI experts and entrepreneurs to help educate the next generation of innovators.

New episodes drop every Friday at 3:00 PM.

This episode of MY Interface Podcast features an in-depth conversation with Kristina Fan, the co-founder and CEO of 7 Chord, exploring the high-stakes world of financial technology and how AI is revolutionizing market data pricing.

Traditional taxi meters charge a fixed rate per mile, but Uber uses dynamic pricing based on weather, demand, and car availability . Kristina Fan explains how her firm, 7 Chord, applies this same concept to the complex world of fixed-income markets through their flagship product, Bondroid AI .

While many are familiar with "pre-trained" AI like ChatGPT, the financial world requires models that can adapt to "regime changes" and sudden global events—like earthquakes or political shifts—on a moment's notice . This episode dives into the necessity of real-time adaptability and the ethics of using historical data to predict the future .

What You Will Learn

The Startup "Swiss Knife": Why founders must be able to wear many hats, from product design to customer acquisition, transitioning from the narrow roles of large organizations like BlackRock and JP Morgan .

Bondroid AI Explained: How a dynamic pricing engine empowers institutional traders with accurate prices for thousands of financial instruments .

AI’s Biggest Danger: Understanding that AI primarily sees patterns in existing data and lacks the "smarts" to make independent, unusual decisions, which can lead to bias in lending or university admissions .

Foundational Education: Why Kristina advises students to study physics and math to learn how to think, rather than just chasing a specific career path .

Entrepreneurship as a Human Right: A unique perspective from a founder born in the former USSR, where owning a business was prohibited and starting a company is seen as a foundational way to self-express .

Chapters

00:07 Introduction to the Interface Podcast and its mission .

01:21 Guest Introduction: Kristina Fan of 7 Chord .

02:35 The Career Pivot: Wall Street to the startup world .

04:00 Dynamic Pricing: The "Uber analogy" for financial instruments .

05:56 Real-time Adaptability: Why finance needs different AI models than ChatGPT .

08:33 Use Cases: How traders use Bondroid AI feeds and software .

10:34 Ethics and Bias: The dangers of unregulated AI in decision-making .

12:15 Data Ownership: Corporate data vs. consumer-facing AI challenges .

13:32 Advice for Students: Why math and physics are the ultimate foundations .

14:55 The Freedom to Build: Reflections on life in the USSR vs. the USA .

16:00 Host Reflections: Key takeaways on innovation and adaptability .

Quotes from the Episode

"As a startup founder, you wear a lot of different hats... you sometimes should be kind of like a Swiss knife."

"Pricing of financial instruments is a bit more complex than pricing a cab ride... markets can really change on the moment notice."

"Build a solid foundation right now and don't skip the hard parts. Learn math, learn foundational subjects and then see where life takes you."

"The right to own property and the right to own a business... is very foundational human right and it should be cherished."

About the Hosts

Yvonne and Miya are high school sophomores on a mission to educate students and professionals on the impact of AI across multiple subject matters by providing insights from top experts.

Where to find Kristina Fan and 7Chord:

Kristina Fan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinafan

7Chord: https://www.7-chord.com/

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

New episodes drop every Friday at 3:00 PM.