The Age of Humanistic AI
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In this episode of Not Just AI, hosted by Pranay Agrawal, Co-Founder and CEO of Fractal, we sit down with two of the most influential pioneers in modern artificial intelligence. Tom Gruber, the co-founder and inventor of Siri, joins Pranay to reflect on how conversational AI began, what it took to build Siri before deep learning and large language models, and why “humanistic AI” should augment human intelligence rather than replace it. Ben Vigoda, a pioneer of probabilistic programming and probabilistic computing hardware, shares his path from early neural-network research to building foundational AI chips and creating probabilistic programming as a more interpretable, data-efficient alternative to brute-force scaling.
Together, Pranay Agrawal, Tom Gruber, and Ben Vigoda explore the evolution of AI from the early days of symbolic reasoning to today’s LLMs, and what comes next for enterprise AI, explainable AI, and human-centered AI systems. You’ll hear why inductive bias and architecture matter as much as data, how probabilistic approaches compare with large language models like ChatGPT, and how AI can be designed for transparency, universal access, and real user agency. The conversation also tackles AI’s energy footprint, applications in renewable energy markets, and the fast-changing relationship humans are forming with conversational agents, especially in high-stakes areas like mental health.
If you’re building, deploying, or leading AI strategy in business, this discussion offers rare historical context and practical guidance from the builders who shaped the field. Watch to the end for concrete habits and norms the guests recommend to keep human-AI relationships healthy as these systems become more agentic and persuasive.
Leaders info
Tom Gruber is an AI product designer, inventor, and entrepreneur best known as co-founder, CTO, and head of design for Siri, the first widely adopted intelligent assistant, acquired by Apple in 2010. He has a deep research background in knowledge representation and ontology engineering, having worked at Stanford’s Knowledge Systems Lab. Over his career, Tom has founded multiple companies, led Apple’s Advanced Development Group for Siri, and is now a global advocate for Humanistic AI, technology designed to augment human intelligence rather than replace it.
Ben Vigoda is a pioneer in probabilistic programming and AI hardware. He earned his Ph.D. at MIT, where he developed architectures for probabilistic computation. He co-founded Lyric Semiconductor, which created the first microprocessor architectures for native statistical learning; Lyric was later acquired by Analog Devices. Ben founded Gamalon, a DARPA-backed startup advancing interpretable AI, and has authored over 120 patents and publications. He also co-founded Design That Matters, a nonprofit responsible for medical innovations that have saved thousands of newborn lives.
Pranay Agrawal is the Non - Executive Director of our Company. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of our Material Subsidiary, Fractal USA. He is responsible for, among others, strengthening client partnerships, delivering overall revenue growth and increasing the visibility and scalability of Fractal. He holds a bachelor’s of commerce degree from Bangalore University and a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He received the Young Alumni Achievers Award in the field of entrepreneurship from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in Fiscal 2019. He has over 25 years of experience in the technology sector. He is one of the founders of our Company and has been associated with our Company since its incorporation.
