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  • >> Announcer: Live from Austin, Texas, it's The Cube.

  • Covering South By Southwest 2017.

  • Brought to you by Intel.

  • Now, here's John Furrier.

  • >> Hey, welcome back, everyone,

  • we're here live in Austin, Texas,

  • for South By Southwest Cube coverage

  • at the Intel AI Lounge,

  • #IntelAI if you're watching, put it out on Twitter.

  • I'm John Furrier of Silicon Angle for the Cube.

  • Our next guest is Alison Yu who's with Cloudera.

  • And in the news today, although they won't comment on it.

  • It's great to see you, social media manager at Cloudera.

  • >> Yes, it's nice to see you as well.

  • >> Great to see you.

  • So, Cloudera has a strategic relationship with Intel.

  • You guys have a strategic investment, Intel,

  • and you guys partner up,

  • so it's well-known in the industry.

  • But what's going on here is interesting,

  • AI for social good is our theme.

  • >> Alison: Yes.

  • >> Cloudera has always been a pay-it-forward company.

  • And I've known the founders, Mike Olson and Amr Awadallah.

  • >> Really all about the community and paying it forward.

  • So Alison, talk about what you guys are working on.

  • Because you're involved in a panel,

  • but also Cloudera Cares.

  • And you guys have teamed up with Thorn,

  • doing some interesting things.

  • >> Alison: Yeah (laughing).

  • >> Take it away!

  • >> Sure, thanks. Thanks for the great intro.

  • So I'll give you a little bit of a brief introduction

  • to Cloudera Cares.

  • Cloudera Cares was founded roughly about three years ago.

  • It was really an employee-driven and -led effort.

  • I kind of stepped into the role

  • and ended up being a little bit more of the leader

  • just by the way it worked out.

  • So we've really gone from, going from, you know,

  • we're just doing soup kitchens and everything else,

  • to strategic partnerships, donating software,

  • professional service hours, things along those lines.

  • >> Which has been very exciting to see

  • our nonprofit partnerships grow in that way.

  • So it really went from almost grass-root efforts

  • to an organized organization now.

  • And we start stepping up our strategic partnerships

  • about a year and a half ago.

  • We started with DataKind, is our initial one.

  • About two years ago, we initiated that.

  • Then we a year ago, about in September,

  • we finalized our donation of an enterprise data hub

  • to Thorn, which if you're not aware of

  • they're all about using technology

  • and innovation to stop child-trafficking.

  • So last year, around September or so,

  • we announced the partnership

  • and we donated professional service hours.

  • And then in October, we went with them to Grace Hopper,

  • which is obviously the largest Women in Tech Conference

  • in North America.

  • And we hosted a hackathon and we helped mentor women

  • entering into the tech workforce,

  • and trying to come up with

  • some really cool innovative solutions

  • for them to track and see what's going on with the dark web,

  • so we had quite a few interesting ideas coming out of that.

  • >> Okay, awesome.

  • We had Frederico Gomez Suarez on,

  • who was the technical advisor.

  • >> Alison: Yeah.

  • >> A Microsoft employee, but he's volunteering at Thorn,

  • and this is interesting because this is not just

  • donating to the soup kitchens and what not.

  • >> Alison: Yeah.

  • >> You're starting to see a community approach

  • to philanthropy that's coding RENN.

  • >> Yeah.

  • >> Hackathons turning into community galvanizing communities,

  • and actually taking it to the next level.

  • >> Yeah.

  • So, I think one of the things we realize

  • is tech, while it's so great,

  • we have actually introduced a lot of new problems.

  • So, I don't know if everyone's aware,

  • but in the '80s and '90s, child exploitation

  • had almost completely died.

  • They had almost resolved the issue.

  • With the introduction of technology and the Internet,

  • it opened up a lot more ways

  • for people to go ahead and exploit children,

  • arrange things, in the dark web.

  • So we're trying to figure out a way to use technology

  • to combat a problem that technology kind of created as well,

  • but not only solving it,

  • but rescuing people.

  • >> It's a classic security problem,

  • the surface area has increased for this kind of thing.

  • But big data, which is where you guys were founded on

  • in the cloud era that we live in.

  • >> Alison: Yeah. >> Pun intended.

  • (laughing)

  • Using the machine learning now

  • you start with some scale now involved.

  • >> Yes, exactly, and that's what we're really hoping,

  • so we're partnering with Intel in

  • the National Center of Missing Exploited Children.

  • We're actually kicking off a virtual hackathon tomorrow,

  • and our hope is we can figure out some different

  • innovative ways that AI can be applied to

  • scraping data and finding children.

  • A lot of times we'll see there's not a lot of clues,

  • but for example, if we can upload,

  • if there can be a tool that can upload

  • three or four different angles of a child's face

  • when they go missing,

  • maybe what happens is someone posts a picture

  • on Instagram or Twitter that has a geo tag

  • and this kid is in the background.

  • That would be an amazing way of using AI

  • and machine learning-- >> Yeah.

  • >> Alison: To find a child, right.

  • >> Well, I'll give you guy a plug for Cloudera.

  • And I'll reference Dr. Naveen Rao,

  • who's the GM of Intel's AI group, was on earlier.

  • And he was talking about

  • how there's a lot of storage available,

  • not a lot of compute.

  • Now, Cloudera, you guys have really pioneered

  • the data lake, data hub concept

  • where storage is critical. >> Yeah.

  • >> Now, you got this compute power and machine learning,

  • that's kind of where it comes together.

  • Did I get that right?

  • >> Yeah, and I think it's great that

  • with the partnership with Intel

  • we're able to integrate our technology directly

  • into the hardware, which makes it so much more efficient.

  • You're able to compute massive amounts

  • of data in a very short amount of time,

  • and really come up with real results.

  • And with this partnership,

  • specifically with Thorn and NCMEC,

  • we're seeing that it's real impact

  • for thousands of people last year, I think.

  • In the 2016 impact report,

  • Thorn said they identified over 6,000 trafficking victims,

  • of which over 2,000 were children.

  • Right, so that tool that they use

  • is actually built on Cloudera.

  • So, it's great seeing our technology put into place.

  • >> Yeah, that's awesome.

  • I was talking to an Intel person the other day,

  • they have 72 cores now on a processor,

  • on the high-end Xeons.

  • Let's get down to some other things that you're working on.

  • What are you doing here at the show?

  • Do you have things that you're doing?

  • You have a panel?

  • >> Yeah, so at the show, at South by Southwest,

  • we're kicking off a virtual hackathon tomorrow

  • at our Austin offices for South by Southwest.

  • Everyone's welcome to come.

  • I just did the liquor order, so yes, everyone please come.

  • (laughing)

  • >> You just came from Austin's office,

  • you're just coming there.

  • >> Yeah, exactly. So we've--

  • >> Unlimited Red Bull, pizza, food.

  • (laughing)

  • >> Well, we'll be doing lots and lots tomorrow,

  • but we're kicking that off,

  • we have representatives from Thorn, NCMEC, Google,

  • Intel, all on site to answer questions.

  • That's kind of our kickoff

  • of this month-long virtual hackathon.

  • You don't need to be in Austin to participate,

  • but that is one of the things that we are kicking off.

  • >> And then on Sunday,

  • actually here at the Intel AI Lounge

  • we're doing a panel on AI for Good,

  • and using artificial intelligence

  • to solve problems.

  • >> And we'll be broadcasting that live here on The Cube.

  • So, folks, SiliconAngle.tv will carry that.

  • Alison, talk about the trend that, you weren't here

  • when we were talking about how there's now

  • a new counterculture developing in a good way

  • around community and social change.

  • How real is the trend that you're starting

  • to see these hackathons evolve from

  • what used to be recruiting sessions

  • to people just jamming together to meet each other.

  • Now, you're starting to see the next level of

  • formation where people are organizing collectively--

  • >> Yeah. >> To impact real issues.

  • >> Yeah. >> Is this a real trend or

  • where is that trend, can you speak to that?

  • >> Sure, so from what I've seen from the hackathons

  • what we've been seeing before was

  • it's very company-specific.

  • Only one company wanted to do it,

  • and they would kind of silo themselves, right?

  • Now, we're kind of seeing this coming together of

  • companies that are generally competitors,

  • but they see a great social cause

  • and they decide that they want to

  • band together, regardless of their differences

  • in technology, product, et cetera, for a common good.

  • And, so.

  • >> Like a Thorn.

  • >> For Thorn, you'll see a lot of competitors,

  • so you'll see Facebook and Twitter or Google

  • and Amazon, right?

  • >> John: Yeah. >> And we'll see all these

  • different competitors come together,

  • lend their workforce to us,

  • and have them code for one great project.

  • >> So, you see it as a real trend.

  • >> I do see it as a trend.

  • I saw Thorn last year did a great one with Facebook

  • and on-site with Facebook.

  • This year as we started to introduce this hackathon,

  • we decided that we wanted to do a hackathon series

  • versus just a one-off hackathon.

  • So we're seeing people being able to

  • share code, contribute,

  • work on top of other code, right,

  • and it's very much a sharing community,

  • so we're very excited for that.

  • >> All right, so I got to ask you

  • what's they culture like at Cloudera these days,

  • as you guys prepare to go public?

  • What's the vibe internally of the company,

  • obviously Mike Olson, the founder,

  • is still around, Amr's around.

  • You guys have been growing really fast.

  • Got your new space.

  • What's the vibe like in Cloudera now?

  • >> Honestly, the culture at Cloudera hasn't really changed.

  • So, when I joined three years ago we were much smaller

  • than we are now.

  • But I think one thing that we're really excited about

  • is everyone's still so collaborative,

  • and everyone makes sure to help one another out.

  • So, I think our common goal is really more along the lines

  • of we're one team, and let's put out

  • the best product we can.

  • >> Awesome.

  • So, what's South by Southwest mean to you this year?

  • If you had to kind of zoom out and say, okay.

  • What's the theme?

  • We heard Robert Scoble earlier say it's a VR theme.

  • We hear at Intel it's AI.

  • So, there's a plethora of different touchpoints here.

  • What do you see?

  • >> Yeah, so I actually went to the opening keynote

  • this morning, which was great.

  • There was an introduction,

  • and then I don't know if you realized,

  • but Cory Booker was on as well, which is great.

  • >> John: Yep.

  • >> But I think a lot of what we had seen was

  • they called out on stage that artificial intelligence

  • is something that will be a trend for the next year.

  • And I think that's very exciting

  • that Intel really hit the nail on the head

  • with the AI Lounge, right?

  • >> Cory Booker, I'm a big fan.

  • He's from my neighborhood, went to the same school

  • I went to, that my family.

  • So in Northern Valley, Old Tappan.

  • Cory, if you're watching, retweet us, hashtag #IntelAI.

  • So AI's there.

  • >> AI is definitely there. >> No doubt, it's on stage.

  • >> Yes, but I think we're also seeing a very large,

  • just community around how can we make our community better

  • versus let's try to go in these different silos,

  • and just be hyper-aware of

  • what's only in front of us, right?

  • So, we're seeing a lot more from the community as well,

  • just being interested in things that are not

  • immediately in front of us,

  • the wider, either nation, global, et cetera.

  • So, I think that's very exciting people are

  • stepping out of just their own little bubbles, right?

  • And looking and having more compassion

  • for other people,

  • and figuring out how they can give back.

  • >> And, of course, open source at the center

  • of all the innovation as always.

  • (laughing)

  • >> I would like to think so, right?

  • >> It is!

  • I would testify.

  • Machine learning is just a great example,

  • how that's now going up into the cloud.

  • We started to see that really being part of

  • all the apps coming out,

  • which is great because you guys are in the

  • big data business.

  • >> Alison: Yeah.

  • >> Okay, Alison, thanks so much for taking the time.

  • Real quick plug for your panel on Sunday here.

  • >> Yeah.

  • >> What are you going to talk about?

  • >> So we're going to be talking a lot about AI for good.

  • We're really going to be talking about the NCMEC, Thorn,

  • Google, Intel, Cloudera partnership.

  • How we've been able to do that,

  • and a lot of what we're going to also concentrate on is

  • how the everyday tech worker can really

  • get involved and give back and contribute.

  • I think there is generally a misconception of

  • if there's not a program at my company,

  • how do I give back?

  • >> John: Yeah.

  • >> And I think Cloudera's a shining example of

  • how a few employees can really enact

  • a lot of change.

  • We went from grassroots, just a few employees,

  • to a global program pretty quickly, so.

  • >> And it's organically grown,

  • which is the formula for success

  • versus some sort of structured company program (laughing).

  • >> Exactly, so we definitely gone from

  • soup kitchen to strategic partnerships,

  • and being able to donate our own time,

  • our engineers' times,

  • and obviously our software, so.

  • >> Thanks for taking the time to come on our Cube.

  • It's getting crowded in here.

  • It's rocking the house,

  • the house is rocking here at the Intel AI Lounge.

  • If you're watching, check out the hashtag #IntelAI

  • or South by Southwest.

  • I'm John Furrie.

  • I'll be back with more after this short break.

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