The End of Human Driving? with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi | On With Kara Swisher
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
So if an AV is provably 50 times safer than a human being, do you think we should allow human beings to drive?
Hi, everyone, from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is On with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher. Today, I'm talking about applied artificial intelligence with Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber. While a company that's known mostly for ride shares and food delivery may not seem like an obvious AI pioneer, the truth is almost everything Uber does is powered by AI. I've known Dara for years. In fact, I was the first one to tell him he got the CEO job at Uber. And since then, he's steered the company through tough times and into profitability. And now he's leading the charge as they move aggressively into autonomous vehicles. Uber has partnered with almost every global AV company in the world.
And although the transition will take decades, Dara expects that eventually all Ubers and potentially all cars will be driven by software. I want to talk to Dara because he's very straightforward and very clear about where he wants Uber to drive to, get the joke. But it's also critically important to understand other issues around AVs like safety and the importance of AI in creating the ability for these cars to do the things they do, which is miraculous in many ways. This is the fourth installment of the Discovery Series on AI, which is jointly presented by Johns Hopkins University and Vox Media. It was taped live at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. Our expert question comes from David Plouffe, who was the campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, a senior advisor to Kamala Harris's 2024 campaign, and a former chief advisor and board member at Uber.
Stick around.
Support for this show comes from me, Kara Swisher, and Johns Hopkins University. This week, I interviewed Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in the fourth live episode of On with Kara Swisher that I've recorded at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. In every episode, I've hosted timely discussions on AI, policy, copyright, and intellectual property, more as a part of the Hopkins Bloomberg Center's Discovery Series. Listen to my conversation with Khosrowshahi in this week's episode, And stay tuned for more live discussions to come from our partnership with Johns Hopkins University.
Thank you for joining me here at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. for this special live conversation. I want to focus with you on beginning with artificial intelligence because Uber uses it in a myriad of ways. There's so many applications where AI changes the equation of a business. And one of the things that I think isn't getting enough discussion is applied AI, where it actually works in companies that are not AI companies. Everything from ride matching, route optimization, surge pricing, improving search results on Uber Eats. You're doing a good job, by the way. I like Uber Eats a lot. You become a platform.
Thank you.
Uber's also become a platform for workers to do AI labeling, and it's partnered with almost every global autonomous vehicle company. So are you an applied AI company or a company that uses a lot of AI? Because a lot of companies are trying to work their way through this issue.
I mean, AI has been part of our genetics for a very, very long time. Now, AI is a big word, so... in the time it was like deep learning or machine learning. But you're right, which is most of the aspects of how Uber touch you in terms of the price that you get presented with, the price that we pay drivers, whom we match you up with, the routing that you take, even the algorithms that recognize your driver's license to make sure that you are the right person, all of that has been driven by AI. And so we have been an AI, applied AI company, I guess you'd call us. One of the cool things about Uber that I love is we're a technology company, but we're a technology company that operates in the real world.
We don't just... Like Amazon.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–12:56
2
How does Uber define applied AI and where is it used across the platform?
12:56–22:54
3
How are large language models and data improving Uber Eats personalization?
22:54–33:52
4
How is AI boosting developer productivity and on-call incident response at Uber?
33:52–41:20
5
What were Uber’s early lessons using AI in customer service and how did they adapt?
41:20–47:15
Speakers
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