The AI landscape often pulls us between the allure of cutting-edge models and the quiet necessity of foundational work—yet how do these extremes actually connect to deliver value?Join Conor Bronsdon as he welcomes Denny Lee, a self-proclaimed "data nerd" and Product Management Director, Developer Relations at Dataricks, to unpack this very spectrum, from AI's core infrastructure to its most advanced applications. Denny explains why robust logging, tracing, and data lineage are indispensable for credible AI evaluation and feedback, ultimately making AI systems more affordable, accessible, and impactful.The discussion ventures into strategies for democratizing AI, exploring the "GenAI ladder" from efficient inference and retrieval-augmented generation to deciding when to fine-tune or pre-train models. Denny also tackles the industry's pressing hardware bottlenecks, the critical role of open standards, and the imperative of navigating data privacy in an increasingly AI-driven world. Listen for grounded advice on moving beyond the hype and making practical, value-driven decisions in your AI journey.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome01:31 Diving into AI Foundations02:25 Importance of Logging and Tracing08:40 Challenges in Data Quality and Lineage14:49 Strategies for Cost-Effective AI19:52 Partnerships and Collaborative Opportunities22:10 Hardware Bottlenecks in AI24:56 China's Power and Networking Advantage25:26 Nvidia's Super Chip and Network Fabrics26:39 The Growing Demand for Power in AI29:26 Practical Advice for Data Governance35:47 Understanding Privacy in AI36:25 Differential Privacy and Its Challenges41:57 ConclusionFollow the hostsFollow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Atin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Conor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Vikram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Yash⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Today's Guest(s)Website: Databricks.comPodcast: Data Brew by Databricks (available on major podcast platforms)YouTube: @DatabricksLinkedIn: Denny LeeReadSemiAnalysis Blog: https://semianalysis.com/Check out Galileo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Try Galileo⁠⁠⁠⁠Agent Leaderboard

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