Inside the AI Revolution: New realities for software, startups, and the future

Happy weekend, GeekWire readers. There’s a new way to pay for public transit in Seattle with your (Android) phone; classified ads still have value; and we learn how AI is impacting teams and products inside various companies. 

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we’re featuring a panel discussion from the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, with three technology and business leaders offering first-hand insights into the new era of artificial intelligence: Bridget Frey, Redfin CTO; Inbal Shani, GitHub chief product officer; and David Shim, Read AI CEO (left to right above, with GeekWire’s Todd Bishop). 

Frey, Shani and Shim share real-world examples of AI impacting their teams and products. They address topics like privacy, bias, education, and the future of work. They also discuss the changing nature of technical jobs; advice for aspiring engineers; protecting proprietary corporate data; and the prospects for improving work-life balance as AI increases productivity.

• "AI has created this wave of innovation,” Frey says. “I just encourage you to look through your business, look at parts of your business that you thought technology could never touch. Maybe now there is a way that you could make that part of your business better.”

• A big focus right now should be on education across the board, “to make sure everyone is ready for the revolution that is happening right now,” GitHub’s Shani says.

• And ReadAI’s Shim offers his advice for startup leaders: “Embrace AI. Go as fast as you can. But make sure you have a moat, because this is going to be a period of time where everything is condensed. Things are moving faster today than they ever have.”

Listen here, or subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Public transit riders in the Seattle area will soon be able to access their ORCA Cards for digital payments via Google Wallet on Android – but not yet in Apple Wallet on iOS. Read more.

Classified ads still work! Who needs Craigslist or Tinder? One of our favorite talks at this week’s Ignite Seattle event at Town Hall was the hilarious story of three brothers whose dad took out an ad in a New Zealand newspaper in advance of their trip to the country, asking his fellow parents to help “introduce our sons to some nice NZ daughters.” Watch the video.

• Ignite, a Seattle invention gone global, features a series of 5-minute talks with auto-advancing slides. The next Ignite Seattle event is March 21, 2024.

Interestingly weird indie games: The theme at this year’s Seattle Indies Expo is passion projects. Check out a list of 20 games developed in the PNW. 

Hot Links:

• Microsoft is shedding some of its Bay Area office space as part of a broader effort to reduce its footprint and costs. (San Francisco Business Times, sub. required.)

• The lack of hype-chasing in Seattle is a feature, not a bug, says startup investor Kirby Winfield, citing early-stage fundraising data in U.S. cities. (X)

• Looking for a weekend project? CNET has a primer on how to set up Amazon’s new passkey passwordless login on your phone or browser.