In episode 109 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Russ Maschmeyer.

Russ is the Product Lead for AI and Spatial Commerce at Shopify. At Shopify, he leads a team that looks at how AI can better empower entrepreneurs, with a particular interest in how image generation can help make the lives of business owners and merchants more productive. He previously led design for multiple services at Facebook and co-founded Primer, an AR-enabled interior design marketplace.

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Outline:

(00:00) Intro

(01:50) Russ’s background and a hacked Kinect sensor

(06:00) Instruments and emotion, embodiment and accessibility

(08:45) Natural language as input and generative AI in creating emotive experiences

(10:55) Work on search queries and recommendations at Facebook, designing for search

(16:35) AI in the retail and entrepreneurial landscape

(19:15) Shopify and AI for business owners

(22:10) Vision and directions for AI in commerce

(25:01) Personalized experiences for shopping

(28:45) Challenges for creating personalized experiences

(31:49) Intro to spatial commerce

(34:48) AR/VR devices and spatial commerce

(37:30) MR and AI for immersive product search

(41:35) Implementation details

(48:05) WonkaVision and difficulties for immersive web experiences

(52:10) Future projects and directions for spatial commerce

(55:10) Outro

Links:

Russ’s Twitter and homepage

With a Wave of the Hand, Improvising on Kinect in The New York Times

Shopify Spatial Commerce Projects

MR and AI for immersive product search

A more immersive web with a simple optical illusion

What if your room had a reset button?

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