Episode 15 - Artificial Intelligence and Content: The Basics with Megan Gilhooly & Rob Sylvester

AI is a groundbreaking technology disrupting nearly every industry, especially the content field. Services like ChatGPT are making writing many forms of content exponentially faster than traditional methods, and similar tools are being integrated into products like Dropbox and social media platforms to improve their usefulness and efficiency. Because of the explosion of interest and implementation into AI, terms like generative AI, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning are assumed to be referring to the same concept. What are the differences between these terms? And how can a content specialist without a background in computer science start to learn how to utilize this revolutionary new tech?

Kevin called on his friends from Reltio, Megan Gihooly and Rob Sylvester, to help answer these questions. They explore AI's definitions and use cases, particularly in content development. Megan and Rob expound on the importance of machine learning in AI and how it can solve customer problems. They emphasize the need for clear and structured content to train AI models effectively, as these models are only as valuable as the information fed into them. Lastly, the episode concludes with a reminder to approach AI tools cautiously and focus on solving specific problems rather than relying on plug-and-play solutions.

As a Sr. Director of Self-Help and Content Strategy at Reltio, Megan Gihooly, leads innovative initiatives that help customers unify their data autonomously using the Reltio platform. With over 20 years of experience in technical and marketing content, change management, e-learning, and process development, she is passionate about creating engaging and effective content experiences that drive business outcomes and customer satisfaction. She has successfully launched an award-nominated documentation portal, adopted a new content tech stack that supports publishing in minutes, and secured executive support for a generative AI assistant inside the doc portal and the product. Megan also has a strong background in customer experience, having worked at Zoomin, a SaaS content delivery platform, where she delivered customer insights, collaborated with cross-functional teams, and impacted revenue and growth.

Rob Sylvester, a Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Reltio based in San Francisco, was born and raised in Alaska. He's pretty good with computers but much better at working with people, and he enjoys it a lot more. His background is in full-stack web development and linguistics, but nowadays, his professional interest is centered almost entirely on NLP and deep learning. He has a degree in Italian and is an avid fan of Italian cinema.

Megan's Info:

Megan's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/megangilhooly 

Rob Info:

Rob Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/robmsylvester 

Kevin's Info:  

Kevin's Website and Blog: https://bit.ly/3in284l 

Kevin's Twitter: https://bit.ly/3jhscNG 

Kevin's LinkedIn: