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Dr. Jennifer Prendki
Head of AI Data @ Google DeepMind | Data-Centric AI, Data Governance, Data Science, AI Infra, MLOps/DataPrepOps
Dr. Jennifer Prendki is a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence and data science. She currently serves as the Head of AI Data at Google DeepMind, where she leads the development of production-grade data infrastructure for Generative AI.12
Professional Background
Dr. Prendki has an extensive career spanning 19 years in research and industry, focusing on enabling AI for data and data for AI.3 Her professional journey includes:
- Head of AI Data at Google DeepMind (Current role)
- Founder and President/CEO of Alectio (January 2019 - August 2023)
- VP of Machine Learning at Figure Eight
- Senior Data Science Manager at Atlassian
- Senior Data Science Manager at Walmart Labs
Expertise and Contributions
Dr. Prendki is recognized for her expertise in several areas:
- Data-Centric AI: She has been a pioneer in this space, contributing through inventions and numerous conference talks.2
- DataPrepOps: A term she coined in January 2021, focusing on using MLOps and AI to automatically prepare and optimize ML training datasets.3
- Data Governance and Quality: Her current work at Google DeepMind involves a wide range of initiatives in these areas.2
Education and Qualifications
Dr. Prendki holds a Ph.D. in Particle Physics from Sorbonne University.2
Thought Leadership
She is an accomplished speaker who addresses both technical and non-technical audiences on topics related to AI and data science.2 Dr. Prendki has also been involved in advising various startups and has served as an expert for the International Institute for Analytics.3
Personal Mission
Dr. Prendki's personal mission is to prepare society for the future. She is passionate about attracting more women to careers in STEM and sees herself as a role model for the younger generation of women in tech.1
Highlights
I have a confession: I am neurodivergent. Very few people, even among those closest to me, know that about me.
Maybe I shouldn't use the term "confession" here: I am not "guilty" of anything. This is just one of my attributes. I was just born that way.
I have what experts call "Asperger's Syndrome", also sometimes referred to as high-functional autism. Making eye contact with people is incredibly challenging to me, and when in a social setting, I often need to withdraw and isolate for a few minutes to regain my cool. Yet, over the years, I have mastered the art of hiding my symptoms and making them almost invisible to others.
That said, neurodivergence also gives me superpowers: I can spend 10+ hours on the same problem without any pause if I'm passionate about it. I'm "obsessive", which in the context of work means I'm relentless.
In many ways, my Asperger's makes me the perfect entrepreneur: I never give up, I can think outside the box and have mastered the art of controlling my emotions in the most adverse situations.
The reason why I am sharing this now, is that I'd like to bring awareness to the challenges neurodivergent women go through every day.
It is widely accepted that the top scientists and technologists that have ever lived are often neurodivergent. Einstein was autistic. Entrepreneurs are practically expected to be neurodivergent. In fact, Elon Musk (who is open about his Asperger's) almost made it cool.
That is sadly only true of neurodivergent men. Neurodivergent woman, on the other hand, are never be considered proper leaders. Neurodivergent women never "smile enough": remember that women have to be social butterflies, while men are forgiven for being awkward and "shy".
A colleague at my previous company started bullying me when she learned my daughter was autistic (which made her extrapolate I had to be autistic too), and HR condoned. So much so that it gave me the boost to leave and start my own company. But goes without saying that no investor would have taken a bet on me knowing I was autistic - so the struggle did not end there.
Being a neurodivergent woman in this industry is a constant challenge. It's a tough world out there for women leaders and founders (especially solo founders like me) - just imagine how hard it can be for an autistic solo woman founder in Deep Tech (!!)
So please stop stereotyping women who don't smile enough and those who don't like being the center of attention at a party. Let us be what we need to be, and just sit back and watch how much we can contribute to Science, Research, Tech and Society. You'll thank us later.
#Neurodivergence #WomenInTech #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #TechCommunity
This is the sanest, most pragmatic explanation on the "cognitive" limitations of LLMs. Autoregressive LLMs are not good at building mental models and at reasoning on abstract concepts.
cc: Yann LeCun
#LLMs #GenerativeAI #AI #AGI
