Doing what others say you can’t do is an extremely powerful motivator for most entrepreneurs.

And for today’s guest, Phaedra Boinodiris, this mindset has been integral to her story. While she was a graduate student at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, she was working on a case challenge sponsored by IBM so she decided to create a game that taught “business process management to non-technical people.”

She remembers one of her classmates telling her “games are for kids and IBM isn’t going to buy it.”

Well, turns out Phaedra was right and her classmate was wrong. IBM loved her idea so much that they hired her on. And ever since, her career has been focused on gamification and artificial intelligence — and today she leads IBM’s Trust in AI division.

However, she isn’t simply promoting the benefits of AI, she is equally passionate about helping people understand the potential consequences. As she says during our conversation:

“If you pick any industry, AI is already disrupting it. So we need to market it in a way that makes it appealing for everyone. We need explainability, transparency, robustness, and accountability.”

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!