Obi Felten

Moonshot Journeys in the Age of AI

From working on AI projects at Google and Google X to founding a mental health startup blending human- and AI-delivered care, Obi brings a rare combination of technical expertise and human-centered thinking to help leadership teams navigate the AI revolution.

In this talk, Obi lays out a framework of four different types of AI capabilities that build on each other: from “The Brain” (machine learning) to “The Communicator” (generative AI like ChatGPT) to “The Doer” (AI agents) and “The Muscle” (physical AI). Drawing on her experience with Google Translate, Waymo’s self-driving cars, Wing delivery drones, and AI for healthcare, she demystifies AI and shares innovation principles that show how any organization can harness its transformative potential.”

Drawing from real projects that changed millions of lives, Obi shares the innovation principles that turned science fiction into reality and shows how any organization can apply them to harness AI in their business.

Key Takeaways:

• The Four Waves of AI: How to apply the four types of AI capabilities, with real-world case studies
• Tackle the Monkey First: Focus on the hardest, riskiest problems early rather than wasting time on easy problems that won’t matter if the hard ones prove impossible
• Set Stop Criteria: Define not just success metrics but also clear criteria for when to shut down a project—making it less emotional to pivot or quit
• Innovation is a Team Sport: Build multidisciplinary teams that include humanities majors and team members from across the business, not just technical staff
• Launch Early, Iterate Often: Get products and projects into the real world to get feedback – especially important in AI
• Humans + AI: The future isn’t AI replacing humans, but thoughtfully designed collaboration that gets better results than either could achieve alone

Daring Greatly: Failing Gracefully on The Path of Innovation and Success

Felten discusses how to deal with failure and embrace it as necessary and inevitable on the path to innovation. She shares stories and lessons from her own failures and successes at Google, and and her startup, and how they shaped her mindset and approach to leadership. In this speech the audience will learn:

• How to deal with the failures that are inevitable on the path to success, such as setting “kill criteria”, celebrating lessons learnt, and separating personal from project success
• How to lead with vulnerability and honesty when things go wrong
• How to encourage teams to work on the hardest things first

Igniting Innovation: Disruptive Ideas, Diverse Teams, and the Power of Collaboration

Many organizations yearn for innovation, yet often struggle to truly unlock its potential. They hire diverse individuals, but fail to create the environment where they can truly thrive. Obi Felten is a seasoned leader who has spent her career building high-performing teams in the face of uncertainty. Felten’s secret weapon? Embracing disruptive ideas and nurturing diverse talent.

With a career in leading teams through uncertainty, Felten credits her success to embracing disruptive ideas and diverse talent. She’ll share actionable insights from her experiences at startups and innovative companies on fostering teams that excel amidst uncertainty:

Key Takeaways: 

• The Key: Psychological Safety
• Leading with Humility: The Power of Questions
• Launch Early, Iterate Often
• The Symphony of Diversity: Respectful Disagreement

Moonshot Thinking: A Radical Approach to Unleashing Innovation and Creativity in Organizations

Obi Felten led teams at Google X that employed “moon shot thinking”- the framework that led to the creation of some of the world’s most radical breakthrough technologies. In this speech, Felten introduces the audience to the principles of moonshot thinking and how to implement it in their organization: 

• How to incorporate a culture of moonshot thinking throughout the organization
• How to bring the brightest, most diverse people to the table, help them learn fast and invent the future
• How leaders play a role in overcoming resistance and skepticism from those who are comfortable with the status quo
• How challenging widespread assumptions is essential for innovation, since they often lead to breakthrough thinking

The Future is Now: Embrace AI or Be Left Behind

Obi Felten’s AI journey started in the 1990s at Oxford University, studying the link between minds and machines. She later joined Google, contributing to AI advancements in areas like machine translation and search optimization. At Google X, her projects spanned climate change to healthcare applications. Currently, her mental health startup leverages AI to enhance human well-being.

Felten shares how AI is becoming a powerful tool poised to revolutionize every aspect of our lives with the advent of large language models, including the way we do business and even write our holiday cards. She will start by debunking some myths about AI and addressing the elephant in the room – the fear and skepticism that often surrounds this technology: 

• Myth #1: “AI will kill us all/save us all.”
• Myth #2: “AI will eliminate jobs and increase wealth inequality.” 
• Myth #3: “AI is for tech companies, not businesses like mine.”

In the second part, Felten will help you dive into the exciting possibilities that AI holds for your business. She will guide you through practical steps you can take to leverage AI and gain a competitive edge:

• Identify areas where AI can add value
• Start small and experiment
• Use technology to augment your team, not replace them.
• Embrace transparency and ethics

The Healthcare Revolution: AI, Mental Health, and the Future of Patient Care

Imagine a healthcare system with 99% accurate diagnoses, personalized treatment plans, and accessible mental health support for all. This isn’t science fiction, but the future powered by AI and big data. Leading this charge is Obi Felten. Through her work at Google X (applying machine learning to mental health assessments), board roles at healthcare companies, and founding Flourish Labs (a mental health startup using AI to scale support), Obi exemplifies the passion and expertise driving the digital health revolution.

Key Takeaways Include:

• The Digital Health Revolution: Healthcare is rapidly adopting digital innovations through transformative advancements through AI and big data, which promise significant improvements in diagnosis, treatment, and care. However, challenges such as privacy and fairness present important hurdles.
• Curbing Healthcare Costs: Soaring healthcare costs in the US are unsustainable. Felten will explore how AI can be used to streamline processes, reduce errors, and ultimately bring down costs.
• AI and the Future of Doctors: AI won’t replace doctors; it will empower them. Doctors who leverage AI tools will offer better care and stay ahead of the curve.
• The Mental Health Crisis: Millions of Americans suffer from mental health issues, yet over half of those with a diagnosis lack access to proper care. Flourish Labs, Felten’s own venture, uses AI to increase provider productivity, ensure quality, manage risk and measure outcomes.