Amen Ra Mashariki

Yeah, it's really interesting that you ask that question, because sort of my pathway to the Bezos Earth Fund is almost polar opposite to how we think about our pathway to adopting and using AI to accelerate climate and nature solutions, and I'll explain why really in some quick points.

I, undergrad, master's, doctorate, computer science.

Computer scientists, research labs, did the whole thing.

I was one of those computer scientists that believed in computer science, you know, algorithm optimization.

Through a couple of personal things that took place, I realized that that was only a mechanism by which I could do other things, which is have an impact.

So then I began to chase problems.

You mentioned here I was the chief analytics officer for the city of New York.

How do we solve problems here?

And then, you know, coming to the Bezos Earth Fund, how do we use AI, computer science, to solve climate and nature problems?

And so I was AI in search of a problem.

At the Bezos Earth Fund, we think about starting with the problem first and understanding that problem, and then looking for ways to use modern AI in order to scale solutions in that space.

Yeah, so internally, we have a mental model that we use to really get there.

We think about this difference between inventions and discoveries, right?

And the way you want to think about that is a telescope is an invention,

looking through the telescope to notice that Jupiter has moons is the discovery, right?

And so for us, when we look at it, it's how do we identify big, big innovations, grand innovations that have an impact such that you can have discoveries that then have an impact in climate and nature?

And so we look for projects and efforts that sort of go across that mental model.

Yeah, so I could spend hours talking about digital twins, Earth observation models, edge AI and all of those things, but one of the things that have resonated with me is this concept called Move 37.

So move 37 was this move that AlphaGo, when playing against Go Champion early on in the game, in its 37th move, did a move that was counterintuitive to all experts.

It made no sense to any Go expert