Johannes Otterbach — Unlocking ML for Traditional Companies

Johannes Otterbach — Unlocking ML for Traditional Companies

Author: Lukas Biewald May 12, 2022 Duration: 44:50

Johannes Otterbach is VP of Machine Learning Research at Merantix Momentum, an ML consulting studio that helps their clients build AI solutions.

Johannes and Lukas talk about Johannes' background in physics and applications of ML to quantum computing, why Merantix is investing in creating a cloud-agnostic tech stack, and the unique challenges of developing and deploying models for different customers. They also discuss some of Johannes' articles on the impact of NLP models and the future of AI regulations.

Show notes (transcript and links): http://wandb.me/gd-johannes-otterbach

---

⏳ Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

1:04 Quantum computing and ML applications

9:21 Merantix, Ventures, and ML consulting

19:09 Building a cloud-agnostic tech stack

24:40 The open source tooling ecosystem

30:28 Handing off models to customers

31:42 The impact of NLP models on the real world

35:40 Thoughts on AI and regulation

40:10 Statistical physics and optimization problems

42:50 The challenges of getting high-quality data

44:30 Outro

---

Connect with Johannes:

📍 LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/jsotterbach

📍 Personal website: http://jotterbach.github.io/

📍 Careers at Merantix Momentum: https://merantix-momentum.com/about#jobs

---

💬 Host: Lukas Biewald

📹 Producers: Cayla Sharp, Angelica Pan, Sanyam Bhutani, Lavanya Shukla

---

Subscribe and listen to our podcast today!

👉 Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcasts​​

👉 Google Podcasts: http://wandb.me/google-podcasts​

👉 Spotify: http://wandb.me/spotify​


Lukas Biewald hosts Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI, a series that moves beyond theoretical discussions to examine how artificial intelligence is actually built and deployed. Each episode features a direct, unscripted talk with a leading practitioner-you’ll hear from engineers and researchers at places like NVIDIA, Meta, Google, Lyft, and OpenAI. The focus is on the tangible challenges and breakthroughs they encounter, from initial research to the complex reality of putting models into production. This isn't about abstract futures; it's a grounded look at the decisions shaping the field right now. Biewald, bringing his perspective from Weights & Biases, steers conversations toward the practical trade-offs and collaborative efforts that define modern AI work. For anyone in technology or business who wants to understand the mechanics behind the headlines, this podcast offers a rare, candid window into the process. You’ll come away with a clearer sense of how ideas become functional systems and what it really takes to operate at the cutting edge.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI
Podcast Episodes
What a $42B Software Co. Really Spends on AI Tools [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:46
“I don't worry about being replaced by AI. I worry about being replaced by someone who's really good at using AI.”Atlassian has 10,000+ engineers currently split-testing the world’s top AI coding tools, from GitHub Copil…
Inside the $41B AI Cloud Challenging Big Tech | CoreWeave SVP [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:19
The future of AI training is shaped by one constraint: keeping GPUs fed.In this episode, Lukas Biewald talks with CoreWeave SVP Corey Sanders about why general-purpose clouds start to break down under large-scale AI work…
Why Physical AI Needed a Completely New Data Stack [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:52
The future of AI is physical. In this episode, Lukas Biewald talks to Nikolaus West, CEO of Rerun, about why the breakthrough required to get AI out of the lab and into the messy real world is blocked by poor data toolin…
The Engineering Behind the World’s Most Advanced Video AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:50
Is video AI a viable path toward AGI? Runway ML founder Cristóbal Valenzuela joins Lukas Biewald just after Gen 4.5 reached the #1 position on the Video Arena Leaderboard, according to community voting on Artificial Anal…
The Startup Powering The Data Behind AGI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:15
In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Lukas Biewald talks with the CEO & founder of Surge AI, the billion-dollar company quietly powering the next generation of frontier LLMs. They discuss Surge's origin story, why tradit…
Arvind Jain on Building Glean and the Future of Enterprise AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:41
In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Lukas Biewald sits down with Arvind Jain, CEO and founder of Glean. They discuss Glean's evolution from solving enterprise search to building agentic AI tools that understand internal…