“I like things to be done right. If you're doing something, do it right."

The global era we live in today inspires Yorai Fainmesser, general partner at Disruptive AI. It amazes him that through his computer he was able to meet and collaborate with groups in the UAE and Turkey for example, to build bridges between people. He has spent much of his career in the military and in the field of cyber, but he was quick to understand that AI would make a big impact in the future and changed his focus. Fainmesser uses his experience and understanding to guide startups and entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the world with AI. Though he says there are big differences between the bureaucracy of the military and a startup, he shares that the process of working on solutions with a group of smart people is much the same because everyone has the same goal of creating something new and helpful.

 

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Tell me about yourself and your journey from cyber to AI.

The first time I did something with a statistical algorithm is when I led the area of speech analysis. It was a successful project from technological matters with some achievements. But the clients didn't like that it was a statistical outcome. Like I say, "I'm sure in 80%.” They wanted it to be all or nothing. Even though in intelligence, it's never all or nothing.

At the Gulf War, the whole world wanted to know “Is Saddam Hussein alive?” We got some samples, and asked to decide whether it's Saddam Hussein or not. We actually proved statistically that he was the one that speaks. We demonstrated it to the Chief of Staff, and then the next day it was in the paper. But it was never absolutely certain.

Years later, when I took command of the unit, this group from R&D came to me, "We have a great idea to do facial recognition, combining the regular methods but with deep learning."

I said, "Stop there. Our customers don't like probability. They want accuracy. And you know you can never get there." Then they told me, "But you promised us some freedom of research. And this is the field that we want." Because I promised them some freedom, I agreed. I said, "Let's do it. But I'm going to review this project every week." Two years later, it won the Israeli defense prize. From that point, I’m an AI enthusiast.

Why was it important to you to be very meticulous with this project?

I felt that I can bring to the table my experience, even from failures but also from things that I've done and succeeded in. I wanted to be sure that something will come out of it and not just a nice technology. You always have to know that the people that come after you are probably better than you because they had you and your experience and they can bring something else and do something newer. It was the first time the army did something like that, saying, "We are going to let AI be part of our life." I understood that this is the time for AI.

You spent decades in the world of cybersecurity. What made you do this switch?

I suddenly understood that AI is the tool for the future that will most impact the way we live, the way we act, the way we take decisions, and how life is going to be in the next few years..

Sometimes I try to explain what AI is, "It's like teaching your child how to walk in the streets. You can teach him to walk, but then you have to train him to make decisions along the way: when to cross the road, when to look right, when to look left, when to run, when to stop. You can only train by demonstrating with enough examples."

Suddenly, we can do that with computers. We no longer have to know everything in advance and write all the rules and all the options. This is the key for creating technologies that might be more involved in our life. It's like magic. I decided to move forward with that.

Today, you're doing it in the private sector with an early-stage VC fund. You said you have a pension and can have a comfortable life. Why come here every day and work so hard?

The real passion was when I looked at the private sector and what happened with cyber. We established schools, and we have great high tech around that. There are a few places that people with cyber innovation can go.

I said, "If I'm an AI guy, where's the next place for me?" I saw that there is no home for those people. Telling myself, "Let's build a home for the AI innovation community." Innovative AI startups need to see people that understand deep tech but also with execution record and an experienced way of looking at things, that understand how to leverage their ideas to great things.

In my daily manner, I meet so many entreprenurs that feel they want to do something with AI because they understand what it can bring to their ideas, the pain point they deal with, and their solution for it. I can sometimes help them to strategically build the vision around it.

What was the shift like from a very bureaucratic system to the other end with no real limitations and nobody to report to?

Where I had my service, it was bureaucratic. But the ritual, that you are sitting with sharp young minds with some ideas or needs that you have to find a solution for, is the same. Everyone around the table wants to create something new. Of course, in the private sector, you're looking at the different angles to make sure it will be scalable and profitable.

Tell me about the personality of the entrepreneurs that you enjoy working with in the AI space.

I think they bring to the table two things. One is a deep understanding in a specific domain. I don't really care which domain. The other thing is they feel that taking all the data around this domain and doing something with it, will open doors to scale, to impact, and many great things.

Let's take, for example, this company that I'm invested in, Staircase. They understood taking some ideas from the intelligence way of thinking and allowing the personmanaging a customer success department to see and understand the B2B personal relationships using the big data. You can do something with that using AI to leverage it to our daily manner. We are building together ways to use the right technologies for the right purposes, with all of the other aspects, of course.

What sparked your curiosity as a child?

I was a technological geek. The first course I took in programming, I didn't know English. I didn't know the difference between capital letters and small letters. I made so many mistakes. I liked physics a lot. I was interested in airplanes. I was sure that I would be a pilot.

When you wake up in the morning, what inspires you in what you do?

What inspires me the most is that we're in a global era. You can send a bit from here to any place in the world. You can create a network from here to every place in the world. And this is amazing. It was never like this before.

When the Abraham Accords took place, I somehow connected virtually with Mohammad from UAE. We created AI-SQUARE. It's an Arab-Israeli Artificial Intelligence forum. With series of webinars and meetups on virtual. Suddenly, I got a phone call from this group from Turkey wanting to cooperate with us. I said, "Why not. People are people." We started collaborating and tried to build a bridge for people to engage. I never expected it. It just happened with the computer. I think that is what inspires me the most.

What are a few words you would use to describe yourself?

I'm kind of a hacker, like strategic hacking. Not accepting the basic formats and rules, trying to find the holes and leverage them. I think it's part of the Israeli spirit or culture, but I found out that I'm doing it pretty well. My friends used to call me Mr. Line. He always wants everything to be straight and fixed. I like things to be done right. If you're doing something, do it right.

Michael Matias, Forbes 30 Under 30, is the author of Age is Only an Int: Lessons I Learned as a Young Entrepreneur. He studies Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University, while working as a software engineer at Hippo Insurance and as a Senior Associate at J-Ventures. Matias previously served as an officer in the 8200 unit. 20MinuteLeaders is a tech entrepreneurship interview series featuring one-on-one interviews with fascinating founders, innovators and thought leaders sharing their journeys and experiences.

 

Contributing editors: Michael Matias, Megan Ryan