Lesson 3: How to Unlock AI’s Potential for Your Business
January 23, 2026
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6:04Now PlayingLesson 3: How to Unlock AI’s Potential for Your Business
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelThe tech panic of Y2K was a problem of shortsightedness. Computer programmers originally configured systems to represent years in 2 digits, not 4. This brevity was useful — until, of course, 1999 was about to become 2000. It was only then experts realized that computers wouldn’t be able to handle a rollback to the year “00.” To avert worldwide technological disaster, billions were spent reconfiguring systems. The lesson? Not simply to avoid cutting corners, but to design technology with its future use in mind.
In this video lesson, insitro CEO and AI expert Daphne Koller shares her recommendations for deploying AI thoughtfully.
Update your infrastructure
In earlier technological revolutions, deployment was constrained by existing systems. For example, irregular fields limited tractors.
The same thing is happening with AI. Our systems are designed for human intelligence. To get the most impact from this new technology, re-engineer your systems for AI.
Test realistic use cases
AI can latch onto data artifacts and hallucinate. For example, if you train AI on one context, it might anchor on those specific use patterns and struggle to generalize.
Train your AI on multiple contexts until you have confidence it generalizes well from use case to use case. Ask:
How far would I like the AI to generalize?
What did I train it on?
What are the use cases where I expect it to be deployed? Have I tested it in those contexts?
Ensure quality prompting
Research shows that AI’s performance can vary if it’s not prompted intelligently.
Before deploying AI, ask:
How will it be used in practice?
Will we have expert prompters who can give us the accuracy we need?
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About Daphne Koller:
Daphne Koller is the founder and CEO of insitro, where machine learning is applied to drug discovery and development. She also co-founded the digital learning platforms Coursera and Engageli. Koller spent 18 years as a professor of computer science at Stanford University, earning the Stanford Medal for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research, and now serves as an adjunct faculty member. She was previously chief computing officer at Calico.
She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2004. She's also been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Society of Computational Biology, and the National Academy of Sciences. She has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Science and Cell and was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in AI in 2024.
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