Chip Huyen
AI Engineer & Author at NVIDIA / Netflix / Stanford
Core developer on NVIDIA's NeMo platform, AI researcher at Netflix, Stanford ML lecturer, two-time founder; author of AI Engineering, the most-read book on O'Reilly since launch; works with enterprises on AI strategy.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Chip Huyen, author of AI Engineering and a builder across NVIDIA, Netflix, and Stanford, provides a practitioner's perspective on AI product building. She identifies an 'idea crisis' where powerful AI tools exist but people don't know what to build, argues that talking to users matters more than chasing AI news, and reveals the disconnect between managers and executives in valuing AI productivity tools.
Leadership Principles
- → Stop asking how to keep up with AI news — if you talk to users and look at feedback, you'll improve your AI application way more than chasing the latest model releases
- → We're in an idea crisis — we have amazing tools to build everything from scratch, but people don't know what to build
- → Managers prefer headcount over AI tools, but executives prefer AI tools over headcount — the gap reveals how poorly we measure AI productivity
Notable Quotes
"A question that gets asked a lot is, 'How do we keep up to date with the latest AI news?' Why do you need to keep up to date with the latest AI news? If you talk to the users who understand what they want or don't want, look into the feedback, then you can improve the application way, way, way more."
— On the counterintuitive advice for AI product builders
"We are in an idea crisis. Now, we have all this really cool tools to do everything from scratch. In theory, we should see a lot more, but at the same time, people are somehow stuck. They don't know what to build."
— On the paradox of powerful AI tools and a lack of direction
"If you ask managers, 'Would you rather give everyone expensive coding agent subscriptions or get an extra headcount?' Almost every manager will say headcount. But if you ask VP level, they would say AI assistant."
— On the disconnect in how different levels perceive AI productivity
Want to know how you compare?
Take the Assessment