545: Generative AI: How to Leverage its Power and Mitigate the Risks

Since its inception in 2017, Sema has been improving outcomes for users, companies, and developers by providing automated tools to assess code. During this episode, we are joined by Sema Founder and CEO, Matt Van Itallie. Matt discusses five reasons why you should know how much generative AI is used in your code, from the capacity to increase the quantity, quality, and maintainability to intellectual property risk. These also include exit risks. Next, we explore how this is detected, how it can be solved, and the advantages of looking at code. Next, we explore the origins of Sema and how Matt sourced his co-founders, consider his thoughts on open source, and why it matters to know how much generative AI is used in your code. Hear advice on where to begin, how much to prioritize precision, and why it is imperative to make generative AI your own. Tune in today to hear all this and more.

Key Points From This Episode:

Introducing Sema CEO and Founder Matt Van Itallie.
How the work is distributed among different target customers: companies, financial and strategic buyers.
Why Sema is language agnostic and what it does instead.
Matt’s belief that the fundamental health of a software product depends on the team.
Understanding key person risk and the concept of golden handcuffs.
How Matt’s background set him up to easily understand the world of coding.
Why the combination of manual implementation and automation via Sema is most effective.
The process behind turning the idea into a product with the University of Michigan and a Founder from AngelList.
Why he does not recommend using his approach.
The single biggest focus: code inspection and due diligence.
Using open source code and the risks involved.
Five sets of reasons why it matters to know how much generative AI is used in your code.
How this is detected and how it can be solved.
Advice on where to begin, how precise to be, and more.
Leveraging the expertise of Co-Founder Brendan Cody-Kenny to build Sema.
Why it is imperative to make generative AI your own.
Free advisory AI counsels that Matt and Sema have set up. 


Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Matt Van Itallie on LinkedIn
Matt Van Itallie on X
[Matt Van Itallie Email](mvi@sema.com)
Sema
University of Michigan
AngelList
CoPilot
Chad Pytel on LinkedIn
thoughtbot
thoughtbot on LinkedIn
thoughtbot on X
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