Building blocks to the future

Over 80% of the internet traffic is represented via image and video data. Despite the overflowing amount of information presented by these data, for many companies leveraging those insights proves to be difficult. Mehul Smriti Raje, a Machine Learning engineer, describes how Coactive is building the infrastructure necessary for companies to be able to learn from the data they already have - importantly, in an efficient manner. Read on to see how we’re architecting the future for companies of all sizes.

Mehul! The pleasure is all ours. Let’s start by having you tell us how you came to this arc of your career.

I’m equally as excited to chat! There’s so much to discuss.

I actually came to learn about Coactive, because Cody and Will reached out to me via email. It was the perfect time, due to some life changes, and upon hearing about the mission of Coactive I was sold almost right away.

What about the mission ramped you up to explore more about Coactive?

Well, I have had a passion and aptitude for computer science since I was very young. In fact, I was awarded the All-India Rank of 10 in the National Cyber Olympiad when I was just in the 6th grade. I have always been enamored with the creativity afforded to me by this field. Between graduate school and independently conducted research, I have found that ML and AI allows me the opportunity to continuously operate “outside of the box,” because they almost always demand that I keep looking at things from different angles.

So, even before Coactive I was dabbling with the ideas of how do we make sense of all of the data that exists in the world. Further, how do we even store it all? Because we don’t know how to manage it, so much of it is useless - just sitting there with insights that we can’t touch. The fact that not only Coactive recognizes the problem, but is looking into developing creative solutions was really appealing to me.

Oh wow! Forgive us, but we’re still impressed by “National Cyber Olympiad”... It sounds like you’ve been working towards a career in computer science for quite some time.

Actually, for the longest time I thought I would be an architect! I come from a family of architects, to even include my brother-in-law, and worked toward a career in architecture most of high school. I took the architectural exams at the end of grade 12 and achieved one of the highest scores in the country. So, while I have been working with computer science for some time now, it was truly a difficult decision for me to make. Architecture or CS?

Ultimately, everyone knows which one I picked by nature of me working at Coactive, but what I valued deeply about both areas was the ability to work creatively. However, I saw computer science as a way to be a bit rebellious and explore the world in a way that was different from what I had grown up around. Architecture is an amazing field, but computer science definitely has my heart.

Good thing there have been hints of architecture in the questions along the way. Tell me, what are you most excited about with regard to what Coactive is building?

Sneaky, sneaky! “Arc,” “ramped”... I see what you were doing!

There is a lot to be excited about happening at Coactive. Probably my favorite is that we’re building something that will enable a lot of smaller businesses to be AI-first in a really core way. Rather than just seeing how we can add ChatGPT-esque on to a company’s functionality, we’re thinking about how to impact business with AI in a more central way. So many companies, especially the smaller sized ones, have a bunch of videos and images that they don’t know what to do with.

Coactive is truly positioned to help companies of all sizes leverage all of the unstructured data they have and catapult themselves into harnessing the power of the stories their visual and image data have to tell.  

Sounds like you’re saying that Coactive is well positioned to help companies move into the more contemporary era of AI - rather than continuing to remain in the postmodern era (which architecturally speaking was 1950-2007)?

Correct! Being stuck with systems of analysis that are a better fit in 2007, instead of charging full speed ahead into the future is a tragic mistake to make. I see understanding the full landscape of what Coactive has to offer businesses to be a critical component for facing the future head on.

But there are so many companies touting AI these days, how is Coactive different from others, in terms of offering a bridge to the future?

A lot of companies want to be AI-first, but you would be surprised how many of them, even right here in Silicon Valley, are several steps behind where you would expect them to be. To be fair, it is a very tall task to productionize things (put things into production and develop a business behind them) in the artificial intelligence field. It is one thing to think of ideas, but it’s quite hard to make those ideas viable business functions for others.

Coactive is very focused on productionizing our big ideas. We are always thinking about how we can create the best solutions for our customers, so that they can optimize their own functions. At Coactive, we really are concerned about moving our customers forward in ways that truly meet their needs.

What do you feel has been an instrumental pillar in supporting Coactive with achieving its goals?

Oh, definitely the people on our team. This is a company filled with incredibly smart people who work hard and bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table every day. That’s probably because, in part, I have never seen this diverse of a team at an engineering company anywhere. Certainly no where I have ever worked. I was the only woman on a previous team, so I know firsthand that many places view diversity as an afterthought. Not at Coactive. We’ve built a supportive workplace filled with people from many different walks of life, and are concerned with helping each team member become the best version of themselves. That’s definitely supercharging our ability to achieve our ambitious and innovative goals.

Sounds like Coactive’s value of building products, but developing people is being put in action. One last question, what would people be surprised to know is in your tool belt?

Well now that you know about my architectural past, I’ll let you know that I still exercise my creative muscles outside of computer science. I love acting. Theater is something that I’ve wanted to do for a really long time, and venturing into that field definitely has made me more fun around the office!

I’m ecstatic to say that I can officially call myself a theatrical actress now that I have performed several shows on stage.

[Mehul in a Bay Area Drama Company’s stage adaptation of Indian author Mohan Rakesh’s renowned 1969 play Adhe Adhure.]

Well we can’t wait for the chance to see you light up the stage! Thank you, Mehul, for helping us to frame Coactive’s value to the world!

It's been my pleasure!

Culture is our number one product at Coactive AI, and the first thing we launched. We pride ourselves on having a truly collaborative, diverse, and ever-learning team. We’re also the industry leaders for analyzing unstructured image data. Are you ready to join the next revolution in machine learning? Check out our job openings.