#114 James Hodson + Lacey Hunter - AI for Good, AI trends, TechAid

We discussed a few things including:1. Their career journeys  2. How James founded AI for Good3. Lacey's unique path to social entrepreneurship4. TechAid Vision5. AI trends, opportunities + forecastsAs CEO of the AI for Good Foundation, James Hodson is responsible for building economic and community resilience through technology. Since 2015, the AI for Good Foundation has worked with national and municipal governments, the UN, OECD, and many others to design, develop, and deploy tech-enabled policies/solutions for social, economic, and institutional transformation.  AI for Good works extensively in Ukraine with more than 40 staff on the ground and strategic partnerships with Ukraine's Presidential Administration, Ministry for Digital Transformation, Ministry of Culture, and every regional government, providing sanctions recommendations, infrastructure resilience, deployed technology expertise, and real-time aid intermediation for regions covering more than 8M civilians.  Hodson completed doctoral studies in Artificial Intelligence as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, holds undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy from Princeton University, and previously founded and led the AI Research Group at Bloomberg in New York from 2012-2015. His academic work spans complex network analysis, natural language processing, labour economics, corporate finance, and accounting, as well as holding multiple AI patents and being an active angel investor in the "tech for good" space.----Lacey is the CEO and Co-Founder of TechAid, an application that enables a data-driven approach to humanitarian aid, reconstruction and local economic resilience.  Lacey believes dignified access to proper nutrition, medicine, hygiene and shelter are fundamental human rights for families everywhere, that should not be dictated by the arbitrary nature of one's birthplace or gender. She is passionate about the potential of combining existing technologies to facilitate the connection of food supply with demand, and turning the tide of the escalating global hunger crisis.  Previously, Lacey led Finance and Strategy as a Co-Founder at Proxi.co, a Techstars ‘21 interactive mapping software startup that she joined after 5 years at Amazon as a Principal Product Manager and Finance Manager leading multinational teams in Customer Loyalty, Operations, WW Prime and Hardlines. Her other work in the private sector includes Category Finance at Starbucks, leading Espresso & Brewed North America, as well as working her way up from a rotational Financial Analyst to Vice President/Relationship Manager during the first eight years of her career at Wells Fargo, where her lending experience spanned verticals including: SaaS, hospitality, gaming, restaurants, healthcare and commercial real estate.  #podcast #AFewThingsPodcast