Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: It does feel like everything that was connected with AI
Speaker 2: was often running. It became the buzzword on corporate earnings calls.
Speaker 2: Yet Nvidia, it's your top performing name in the S
Speaker 2: and P five hundred, two hundred and twenty percent. They
Speaker 2: make the chips that are needed in the massive amounts
Speaker 2: of calculations. Just today we had syrup Tech. It's a
Speaker 2: startup that makes AI tools to help fashion retailers plan
Speaker 2: and manage their inventory. They raised about seventeen and a
Speaker 2: half million in a funding round. So it's just all
Speaker 2: in on AI. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 1: And it's everywhere. I was talking to a banker this
Speaker 1: morning and she was saying that when we think about AI,
Speaker 1: you can't just think about it as generator AVAI or
Speaker 1: the chip makers, the foundations. This is something that every
Speaker 1: company has to have an answer to, and investors are
Speaker 1: asking that question because the way she put it, either
Speaker 1: going to be a winner, you're going to be roadkilled. Right.
Speaker 2: That's a really interesting and people are building out their
Speaker 2: infrastructure to support it. So our next guest definitely all
Speaker 2: in on AI. Delighted to have with us Mandy Long,
Speaker 2: CEO and board member a Big Bear AI joining us
Speaker 2: on Zoom in Chicago. Mandy, it is I feel like
Speaker 2: the topic there's two topics this year. It's weight loss,
Speaker 2: drugs and AI, no doubt about it. Tell us about
Speaker 2: what this year has been like for you.
Speaker 3: Guys, absolutely, and thank you for having me. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: has been a huge year for AI, and in no
Speaker 3: small part because of the rollout of chat GPT, which
Speaker 3: did celebrate its birthday yesterday. I think is what it's
Speaker 3: meant for us right in Big ba AI. You know,
Speaker 3: we've been well we've only been a publicly traded company
Speaker 3: for a couple of years. We've been at this for
Speaker 3: a while, and we apply artificial intelligence to national security
Speaker 3: missions right and enterprises. I think something that has been
Speaker 3: a big catalyst for us, and I heard the comments
Speaker 3: earlier around the fact that it really isn't just about
Speaker 3: generative AI, right, artificial intelligence in general, right in the
Speaker 3: application of it, particularly the operational application of it right,
Speaker 3: the use in production, in helping people is what has
Speaker 3: been a big game changer for our business, and as
Speaker 3: we look towards the future, it's what makes us incredibly
Speaker 3: excited about where we're headed.
Speaker 2: You are a small market cap two hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: two million. You've had quite a run this year, like
Speaker 2: a lot of names in the space, up one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty seven percent. About fifteen percent of the float
Speaker 2: is shorted, so investors are watching it very carefully considering
Speaker 2: the run up. Dig a little deeper and tell us
Speaker 2: exactly what you guys are doing and who your customers are,
Speaker 2: because from what I understand, it's a lot of the
Speaker 2: US government, if not all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so our entire business is not all federal government.
Speaker 3: We work about twenty federal agencies, about one hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty commercial customers in the private sector, and how our
Speaker 3: business breaks down is really into three verticals. We do
Speaker 3: work in supply chain and logistics, we do work in cybersecurity,
Speaker 3: and we do work in autonomous systems. And when you
Speaker 3: think about those three markets, there's actually a high degree
Speaker 3: of complementary nature because we're securing supply chains the same
Speaker 3: way that we're in introducing autonomous technology, and AI plays
Speaker 3: a role in all three of those. The big difference
Speaker 3: maker for us is that we combine very deep subject
Speaker 3: matter expertise or the vast majority of our employees who
Speaker 3: are supporting our customers come directly from those customer environments,
Speaker 3: regardless of whether it's in the public or private sector.
Speaker 3: And we pair that with a really open architecture approach
Speaker 3: associated with solving customer problems. And when it comes to
Speaker 3: the competitive landscape, where there's still a lot of players
Speaker 3: who live in proprietary, closed system pay me support forever,
Speaker 3: we take a pretty different tactic because for us it's outcomes.
Speaker 1: Well, man, you mentioned competition. How do you view the
Speaker 1: evolution of Big Bear AI within what still is a
Speaker 1: very much nascent part of the market.
Speaker 3: AI is absolutely still in the early days because the
Speaker 3: difference maker and those who will survive versus those who
Speaker 3: I think the words you use for b roadkill, which
Speaker 3: I think is fair, is going to be you know,
Speaker 3: whether or not you can do it in production at
Speaker 3: scale and you can work in an environment that is
Speaker 3: imperfect for us, right, I think because of our roots
Speaker 3: in national security and in working in highly complex and
Speaker 3: imperfect environments, we have a bit of a leg up there, right,
Speaker 3: that causes us to stand out relative to the competition.
Speaker 3: A lot of how we also apply the technology, right,
Speaker 3: I mentioned open architecture before. That's a really big tenant
Speaker 3: of how we operate as a business, and I think
Speaker 3: it plays a big role as you start to think
Speaker 3: about the implications of applying AI in production, right as
Speaker 3: you start to get into those questions of how do
Speaker 3: you know how do you monitor in an ongoing basis?
Speaker 3: As these technologies mature.
Speaker 2: Andy, you know what's interesting is the conversation and narrative
Speaker 2: has evolved over the year and everybody getting so excited
Speaker 2: about AI. You know, I laughed, but it truly was.
Speaker 2: On the earnings call, we would just search for AI
Speaker 2: because every CEO is dropping it in to their press
Speaker 2: releases or somehow bringing it up for a while. Having
Speaker 2: said that, help me understand practically whether it's supply chains
Speaker 2: or cybersecurity or autonomous systems. Give me a for instance
Speaker 2: of what you guys do using advanced AI generative AI
Speaker 2: to help a company.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, so, a couple of really specific things that we do.
Speaker 3: One is we have a very mature portfolio and computer vision. Right,
Speaker 3: so it's an area that I think for the technology
Speaker 3: industry has been somewhat out of reach for a long
Speaker 3: time because you needed the compute. We have a solution
Speaker 3: called arcis. Right. We're partnered with L three Harris in
Speaker 3: supporting their autonomous surface vessel fleet, so we do the
Speaker 3: computer vision at the edge on those vessels to help
Speaker 3: with vessel identification, weapons, etc. Right. Associated with deployments and
Speaker 3: missions where you're working in really disconnected and difficult to
Speaker 3: process environments, we provide CV there. Over on the supply
Speaker 3: chain side, a really good example of some of our
Speaker 3: capabilities are associated with what we do from predictive analytics.
Speaker 3: We have a solution that we call Dominate that's very
Speaker 3: focused on geopolitical and macroeconomic forecasting.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: That's applied in an environment today, Right, incredibly relevant as
Speaker 3: you look at the global landscape and your suppliers who
Speaker 3: are working through very difficult capital deployment decisions associated with
Speaker 3: still having to deliver end product to a customer and
Speaker 3: an environment where you can no longer rely on the
Speaker 3: same turnaround times associated with the assembly process.
Speaker 2: What's interesting is I hear you talk and I'm thinking,
Speaker 2: were you laughing at everybody in January when they're like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, AI. I mean, we know AI has
Speaker 2: been around for decades, but in terms of this more
Speaker 2: advanced level, it sounds like, I mean, how long have
Speaker 2: you guys been working on that? Although it does sound
Speaker 2: like the processing power, right, has been a newer thing
Speaker 2: to kind of take it to another level. So I'm
Speaker 2: just curious connect the dots for me on that if
Speaker 2: you would.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the answer is no, by the way, in
Speaker 3: terms of whether I was laughing and everyone, right, I
Speaker 3: think this year has been as a technology it's it's
Speaker 3: a liberating year because I've talked about previously, you know,
Speaker 3: this idea that I think AI is the new literacy, right.
Speaker 3: You know, previously literacy for a long time was held
Speaker 3: at a high priest and priestess level. It was inaccessible
Speaker 3: to the masses. And what changed, right is the idea
Speaker 3: of literacy empowers and liberates people. I think what's happened
Speaker 3: this year is the exact same thing is happening with AI.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: We've democratized the ability to interact with these advanced models
Speaker 3: in a way that it didn't exist right a little
Speaker 3: over twelve months ago. And you know, whether you're talking
Speaker 3: about empowering creativity, right. An example of you know how
Speaker 3: even I use gender tove AI and tools like that
Speaker 3: is I, you know, I play with my kids, and
Speaker 3: I asked them, you know, who's the main character and
Speaker 3: what's our bedtime story going to be? And we you know,
Speaker 3: you work with technology to change the way that people
Speaker 3: can think about being creative. And I think that for
Speaker 3: me is you know, it's why I love what I do, right,
Speaker 3: And I think that what we're going to see on
Speaker 3: a go forward basis is that because the level of
Speaker 3: understanding of what is just what is possible associated with
Speaker 3: kind of technology is now becoming more mainstream, we're going
Speaker 3: to see the applications of it become widely adopted because
Speaker 3: it shouldn't be limited to those who can speak the
Speaker 3: technical language, right, it's humanity that's going to decide where
Speaker 3: this goes.
Speaker 1: And Mandy, we only have about thirty seconds before a break,
Speaker 1: but quickly when you look at Big Berry eye, is
Speaker 1: the growth prospect within the private or public sector? Like,
Speaker 1: what is more attractive and where do you see that
Speaker 1: growth for the company?
Speaker 3: The answer is both right, And I would say that
Speaker 3: because what has changed, particularly over the past two years,
Speaker 3: as we've seen massive disruption in the global supply chain
Speaker 3: and we've seen a geopolitical climate, right, that looks like
Speaker 3: we could be in a new face of a conflict
Speaker 3: in the coming years. Means that both sides of my
Speaker 3: business are very busy because one needs the other right
Speaker 3: in order to look into the future and be successful.
Speaker 2: Talking with Mandy Long, CEO and board member at Big
Speaker 2: Bear AI, still with us on Zoom in Chicago. Mandy,
Speaker 2: you were talking about just before we went and did
Speaker 2: some news about the importance of both the public and
Speaker 2: private worlds in terms of your business going forward. Talk
Speaker 2: to us a little bit more about that, and I
Speaker 2: know you also made a recent acquisition. Tell us about
Speaker 2: that and how that kind of feeds into your business
Speaker 2: and fits into the business growth.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I think the best way to break down
Speaker 3: the importance of the relationship between the public and private
Speaker 3: sector side of what we do is that there's an
Speaker 3: incredible amount of collaboration that happens between both sides today,
Speaker 3: and I think Big Bear in particular sits at an
Speaker 3: intersection point between the two of those. Right in the
Speaker 3: private sector side, right, we support with a lot of
Speaker 3: the technology we have in not only in the autonomous
Speaker 3: system side of our business, but also supply chains a
Speaker 3: lot of capabilities that then get delivered right into the
Speaker 3: federal government through those providers in addition to the work
Speaker 3: that we do in for example, you know healthcare, right,
Speaker 3: I spent fifteen years in healthcare, I was early days
Speaker 3: in machine learning and vision AI.
Speaker 1: There we do.
Speaker 3: A lot of work with hospitals and health systems supporting
Speaker 3: patient flow optimization. Right, So if you have a patient
Speaker 3: that presents an eed, how do you make sure that
Speaker 3: you get them to the right place at the right time.
Speaker 3: Those patterns right in the ability to apply advanced technology
Speaker 3: to that means that both sides of our business right
Speaker 3: are growing right and relevant because we're solving problems that
Speaker 3: cross the chasm of both sides. And when we look
Speaker 3: forward to where we're headed, the anticipated acquisition that we
Speaker 3: announced recently with Pangam bolsters our vision AI portfolio because
Speaker 3: you heard me talk you know a lot about arcists
Speaker 3: right in the work that we do in horizontal imagery
Speaker 3: right in satellite. Pangaum has a remarkable portfolio that does
Speaker 3: advance biometrics right facial you know, IRIS based work, and
Speaker 3: it provides a really comprehensive solution that we can bring
Speaker 3: to our customers.
Speaker 1: And Mannie kind of balancing though the utilization of technology
Speaker 1: AI streamlining things helping, you know, working in healthcare and
Speaker 1: better treat people. But on the flip side, buying a
Speaker 1: facial recognition company, how does that play into some of
Speaker 1: the security issues and getting customers and consumers kind of
Speaker 1: on board with that. Just given as you mentioned, biometrics
Speaker 1: is something that's very hotly.
Speaker 3: Debated, it very much is right, and I think it
Speaker 3: was an important strategic decision right and it was not
Speaker 3: made lightly Right At Big Bear, we play a very
Speaker 3: big role and we use our voice very openly as
Speaker 3: it relates to talking about the safety and security of
Speaker 3: AI technology. We're very active right in the responsible innovation category,
Speaker 3: the input associated with how to do regulation at scale,
Speaker 3: And so when we think about these of biometrics, I
Speaker 3: think one of the things that's really important to keep
Speaker 3: in mind, right is that in many ways as a society,
Speaker 3: we've we've crossed over a lot of the chasm associated
Speaker 3: with putting information out there because of the widespread use
Speaker 3: right and multi year at scale use of social media.
Speaker 3: Now from a kind of where we sit on that
Speaker 3: spectrum and the role that we play right, most of
Speaker 3: the capabilities that when we think about our vision portfolio
Speaker 3: today where we're very focused on is not in making
Speaker 3: autonomous decisions, right, It's in helping to distill and provide
Speaker 3: decision support for the ultimate cost.
Speaker 2: Believe, so you'd be working side by side with a
Speaker 2: human might come up, oh in terms of one of
Speaker 2: your systems saying hey, here's what we've come up with,
Speaker 2: but you need to look at it and kind of
Speaker 2: make some kind of decisions maybe off of it. Correct,
Speaker 2: because I think we're very human in the loop, because
Speaker 2: I think we get we get worried. You know, our
Speaker 2: David Weston we talked with, who had talked with Henry Kissinger,
Speaker 2: very concerned about AI in war time or in war specifically.
Speaker 2: And I think about the role that you know, you
Speaker 2: guys are going to be. You know that you already
Speaker 2: do work with the government. I mean, what are some
Speaker 2: of the oversights that we need to have though in
Speaker 2: place to make sure that there isn't some kind of
Speaker 2: runaway technology. And I'm not trying to be silly and
Speaker 2: sci fi, but these things could happen.
Speaker 3: It's not an unfair question. Yeah, And I think it's
Speaker 3: you saw in the executive order that came out. You know,
Speaker 3: the top item is safety and Security of AI technology,
Speaker 3: and that is not for no reason. One of the
Speaker 3: things that I think we have to keep in mind
Speaker 3: as a society as well, is that we have already
Speaker 3: passed through the gates of a human being able to
Speaker 3: individually manage and provide oversight of this kind of technology
Speaker 3: at scale. We're already an augmented species, right. You know
Speaker 3: you have I'm sure a phone right on you at
Speaker 3: all times, or a computer at home. Leveraging technology to
Speaker 3: help keep those guardrails in place is going to be
Speaker 3: what's important here, because the traditional processes in paperwork is
Speaker 3: not going to get us there.
Speaker 1: Mandy. One of the things that played out with Opening
Speaker 1: Eye going too fast, too soon. I think back to
Speaker 1: you know, Facebook, with Cambridge Atalytica, there is this the
Speaker 1: government was not kind of in the know and regulating
Speaker 1: these things, and technology companies were able to run rampant.
Speaker 1: How do you balance that because obviously that seemed to
Speaker 1: be playing out at Opening Eye with Sam Altman.
Speaker 3: So the rate and pace of innovation today has no
Speaker 3: historical precedent. So I think even looking at those examples, right,
Speaker 3: it's different. Now, look at what has happened with Chat
Speaker 3: GPT in terms of adoption over the last year right,
Speaker 3: there's nothing like it. So as you think about regulation
Speaker 3: and oversight, you know, I go back to the same
Speaker 3: core issue, which is that I don't think we're going
Speaker 3: to get there without tech regulating tech, and that tech
Speaker 3: needs to be architecture right, and it needs to include
Speaker 3: the open source and it needs to evolve the way
Speaker 3: that these models are going to evolve, or we can
Speaker 3: get in trouble.
Speaker 2: But aren't you worried a little bit about open source
Speaker 2: getting into the wrong hands?
Speaker 3: There is a philosophical discussion to have around the role
Speaker 3: of open source versus closed source and the relationship between
Speaker 3: the two of them. There is power in the open
Speaker 3: source and the community level of effort associated with the
Speaker 3: oversight of that provides a scale that does not happen
Speaker 3: when you have a closed source system with a tight
Speaker 3: R and D budget. I'm a promoter of the open source.
Speaker 3: I think that we're finally getting to the place where
Speaker 3: it's going to become a really relevant part of how
Speaker 3: we operate as a society because of this pace of innovation.
Speaker 3: But it doesn't come without the need to have guardrails.
Speaker 2: Well, listen, this was a really cool conversation and I
Speaker 2: hope you'll come back because guessing in twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: will still be talking about generative AI AI and all
Speaker 2: that it can do, because, as you said, we're really
Speaker 2: kind of early on in this whole process. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much. Have a great week in great holiday season.
Speaker 2: Mandy Long, CEO and board member at Big Bear AI
Speaker 2: joining us on Zoom in Chicago. We covered a lot,
Speaker 2: but I have like a million more questions.
Speaker 1: I know, I wish we had two more blocks to
Speaker 1: kind of really dig into other things.
Speaker 2: We'll come back. We'll have her back, all right, folks,
Speaker 2: you are listening and watching Bloomberg Business Week right here
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg Radio.