Launching Upstart’s AI Certification Course

0:02 You are listening to Leaders in Lending from Upstart, a podcast dedicated to helping consumer lenders grow their programs and improve their product offerings. Each week, here decision makers in the finance industry offer insights into the future of the lending industry, best practices around digital transformation, and more. Let's get into the show, all right, Welcome back Jeff as a guest to the podcast. So Jeff and I are two of the instructors and an exciting new AI certification course that Upstart is launching. Happy to have you back on Leaders Lending, Jeff, Thank you. What's the saying? Every does a long time listener, first time caller, I guess, longtime host, first time guest. But it's fun to be back in front of the microphone, so to speak.

0:51 Well, great, Well, I'm looking forward to talking about the AI certification. I know we've all been spending a lot of time working on it internally and exciting to get it out out kind of in the public, so, you know, for any of the listening, Like, you know, can you give us some background and like why did you decide to make this course, Like what was the what was the intent ofment, and how did kind of how did it come about as an idea? I think, you know, we kept talking to banks and credit unions and various people in the industry. You said, look, the AI thing is coming and I don't understand it that well. And it seemed to us like there was so much educational content, but it tended to either be at like fifty thousand feet or five hundred like either for people wanting to build models and you quickly go, I don't understand what this means, or there was content that was like very how to use chat GPT to write better sales emails, and the idea of wanting to help people better understand at a business level, at a functional level, how these things work. Not to be a to be a developer, but to be a good consumer, a good user, a good buyer, or a good overseer of the models felt to us like a gap in the good educational content. That's what we were hearing from from partners and customers, and we thought, well, I mean, it seems like something we could do, and maybe it'd be useful if we just went out there and tried to help people better understand this space a little bit. So that was really once it was my idea, I think a number of people and I started, we're seeing this and said, hey, I wonder if we could do something valuable and contribute to the space and help people understand a little bit better.

2:15 Sure, so, you know, I definitely think there's no shortage of at least content of various levels of AI out there. But who who's the who do you see as the ideal user of this course? Like, what's the right persona of people who may really get something out of taking this class from the team? Yeah, well so I guess really, really anybody in financial services, you know, and really focus on business people. I don't want to I don't want to start with who the course isn't for. But we really didn't want to design a course that's intendo like how to build a model, how to pick the right model form. We wanted to say for those of you who are maybe looking at an internal team building a model and trying to understand can this be used in a process I run or in a program I manage. Anybody in risk or compliance or that runs a line of business within a financial institution or oversees some functions and wants to be able to ask better questions understand the model. That's really what it was for. So really targeting that community of bankers, of credit union executives, anybody in the kind of business side of that who wants to have a functional understanding of AI, that's really who we built it for. Not that it's limited to those people, but if you think about who is the audience, it's people who are interfacing with AI models, with teams building AI models, but aren't people actually building models themselves. And that was who we wanted to really empower and educate through the course. That was our kind of focus in terms of the audience.

3:34 So really to help kind of the non technical maybe business owners have a better grasp of the technical background of what is happening with the AI models and thinking about how they could use them to improve or enhance their business. Absolutely, And if you think about I mean, I hear some people in compliance that go these teams brought me an AI model, and like, I don't know what they're They're using these words to describe what it is, and they're not words that I'm familiar with, or they're described things in different ways. How do I get a better grasp on what questions should I be asking or how do I evaluate if this is an appropriate model for this use that kind of thing. We thought, that's that's the audience we want to empower. There's a lot of content if you're building models that's out there, and if you're kind of a consumer level user of models, I think there's a lot of content out there as well. But at that kind of buyer, overseer, you know, manager of a function that's using an AI model in some way or evaluating one, that's really the audience we wanted to reach out and give some better structured content to sure, so kind of the decision maker really at the business who's going to be kind of owning the business outputs of these things. So, you know, can you give a little bit of an overview of the kind of maybe the modules or kind of key learning objectives that are covered in the certification course. Yeah, we can go through the modules, but if I think at a higher level about what we wanted people to walk away with, it's really an understanding of how these models work, how they're built, how they function internally, how to assess the suitability of a model for a given purpose? Right, So, not so much so I use an XG boost model or a neural in that model. But hey,

5:06 given this model, like does it have the right kinds of inputs, does it have the right kinds of outputs of the accuracy metrics on par with what I might need in this context? And how do I think about how to use that model in my world? What kind of guardrails might I might put on? So really starting with how how do the models work? How do I assess the appropriateness of a model? How do we manage and oversee there's a whole section with any our chief compliance officer talking about governance and oversight and model risk management and all those regulatory concerns, And then there's there's a little section at the end where we kind of get into, like i'll calm brain ticklers on how is THEI being used in financial services? What are ideas for where this might be applied? And also what can I be doing to help my organization get ready for an aipower future? How do I build the foundation?

5:51 So kind of running the spectrum from a little bit. There's a little bit of technical content in there, and so we wanted that to be available, But then there's a lot that builds on that in terms of how you manage or oversee or evaluate and assess a model, and then how's it can impact financial services? And where do I think about getting started and building an organizational capacity to leverage these technologies moving forward? Hey there, former host Jeff Kelner here to let you know about an exciting opportunity to strengthen your understanding of artificial intelligence and financial services. If you want to better understand the fundamentals of how AI models work and how they will impact the financial services industry, your in luck. Upstart is launched an online course and certification designed to do just that. This course will give you the knowledge you need to lead the conversation about how your organization can best leverage and manage this revolutionary technology. If that sounds interesting, check out the course as it's currently free for a limited time.

6:45 You can learn more at upstart dot com slash AI Certification. Again, that's upstart dot com slash AI Certification. Thanks, and now back to the show. I definitely think that a lot of the content really kind of demissed find some of the areas. So I think there's a lot of great explanation of various areas of creating a model using it and as you said, real like practical tools. What can you do with this? How can you use these these AI models to potentially drive your business forward or create new opportunities? So I know where we were doing the recording and putting the material together. We had a studio set up in our office and had a team in uh recording each of us kind of talking through our various topics. What was your experience as an instructor in the course, Like, what did you uh uh, what did you find interesting about it? Well, I answer, but I want to hear your answer because you're you're instructor in this course too.

7:46 I mean I got to see the whole thing, soup tons, which is I was really involved in structuring a lot of the content, what are the things we want to cover, what should the modules look like? And then writing a lot of the words. And it was always surprising to me. I think it's too funny to if it's one like reading your own words and hearing them out loud. The number of times I got in there and went, oh my god, that doesn't sound the way I thought, or the producers would go, can you give us another take? Would sound more podcasting and less professory and I got, I don't know what that means. I don't really know how to voice act in that way. So that was a really kind of odd experience to be in there. And then the second really funny one, and I felt bad for some of our our Upstart team members because you know, there was hair and makeup. You guys got hair and makeup for the ladies. But the guys they just brought in a little bit of foundation for us and there was no one to apply it. And the ladies that were looked at me and go, do you know how to put makeup on? I said, I said no. So these poor these poor people were like a coming in putting foundation on my face. And they weren't producers Upstart. You know, Ana was there, and so they were trying to get my face to not shine so much, which I guess I'll have a problem with. So that was kind of a funny moment. But I'm curious what your experience was because you more got content that had been written, so you were both reading to some extent someone else's words, although I'm sure slightly edited, and then you had your own experience in studio. Definitely, I think the you know, it was interesting reading the scripts, and I think one of the things that I learned the most is what sounds and sounds logical and makes sense on paper. Things like bullet points are numbered items.

9:16 You have to say that a lot differently as you're talking about it. You can't just read through it or referring back to the previous section. That doesn't work in audio, And so going through that and you know, rewording things. And then as you said, the producers put more inflection on this, have a little bit more excitement here. And I told them, I'm like, well, you know, we're all kind of probably relatively type A in some ways, we can only be so exciting. You know, we're not actors, and the material is pretty pretty serious. But I think my probably my favorite one that I think if you take the course, you'll see me probably laugh a little bit as I'm reading it, was it was obviously a clear Jeff wrote this section of the script. There's a whole section on a cal Tech and a fish study done and and the different i think patterns of fish migration. As I'm reading this, I'm thinking, I definitely didn't write this, but I know who wrote this. Uh, Materials issue of the cal Tech that gave me away that I have. Yeah, it was a little bit of both. And so I think when I watched the video back, I see myself kind of laugh as I'm talking about fish and cal Tech and like, this is great story. But it was a great analogy, but definitely not one that that came to my mind. And you know, I do think Anna was very excited and very happy to be there and produce, so it was it was. It was a fun time as well as is just getting really a lot of really great content out there that I think will be really, really valuable. I was surprised how different. I mean,

10:46 I've done a lot of presentations in my day, but usually a lot and so there's there's no retakes, there's no hey, you stumbled over these words? Have you slurred a little bit? Here? Let's go. And I was a little i won't say taken aback, but I was a little surprise at how often the priestser goes that was that was all right, but let's uh, let's try that again. And I'm just not I'm used to having to deliver once and just live with the results and being confident with that delivery, and then having the once they stop me a few times to go back and try something again. Then it got in my head like, man, you gotta stop doing these stupid things, and then it would happen more and they go, well, you know, I think you can do better, said okay, okay. That was an interesting It's just a very different experience than being on a live call or doing a webinar or speaking at a conference, where you it just it's going to be your delivery, is your delivery, and then it is what it is, and here they're like, you know, we can take it again and do it better with a little different voice exactly now. And I think we spent a lot of time sitting in front of the camera and working through it. And I think during during a number of my sessions, there were we think it was either planes or construction that kept kept making noise, and so I'd be talking and then they'd say hold on and they'd put the hand up and we'd pause, and we'd wait about ten minutes until until something came else came out and h and then reached art. So definitely takes a lot longer to get through through something like that than a just kind of a live live presentation. But I do think.

12:09 I think the content's great, very excited for it. I think, are what are you most hoping that students who take the course, like, what would you like to see people take away from it that where they really feel it adds value? Yeah, it's I really want people who take the course to come away feeling empowered to not just engage intelligently in the conversation about how and where to use AI and what the risks are and what the upsides are, but to really feel empowered to lead those conversations. I remember when I first got into AI stuff. I'd be sitting in the room going, I don't don't understand what they're saying, and I didn't feel able to contribute or question. Or I might but that didn't make sense to me. But I feel like I don't have enough background to question what is being said about this, Or they say this risk metrics okay, and I go, I don't see why. But I also didn't feel comfortable saying saying that in the room, And so my real goal is that people walk away going, hey, I feel informed enough on these topics. When the executive team is discussing this, or we're debating if this fraud model is working effectively or not, or what the risks might be that I'm informed enough to go and have an opinion, to ask a smart question, to call in to question something maybe a technical team is saying. And really, I mean it feels to me like an inflection moment in the usage of AI. And so I want people to feel empowered to help lead the charge and how and where to use AI effectively in financial services. And I hope that's what they come away from this course with absolutely so, and I'm glad we can be part of empowering hopefully a large audience of people to feel that and to learn more about AI and

13:39 how it can benefit them. So, you know, for anyone who's listening, where can they go if they want to find more resources and then enroll in the course, where can they go to get that information? Yeah, So the course just give the real basics. The course is online video based. It's a couple of hours long, I think four or five total hours of content, but it's broken up into pretty short videos on the order of I have the ten minutes that are very topical, so our goal was digestible, and then there's a PDF takeaway with a lot of the key points that I really push the team to think of as a job aid, something that you would have and go, hey, I learned these things. But now I'm in the moment, I'm in the meeting. I'm prepping for this meeting about an AI model, Like what was that framework for evaluating appropriateness or for what were those accuracy metrics? And how to think about it. I want to have that on my desk to be ready to really engage in the conversation.

14:28 And so a couple of short you know, got the videos that are digestible, link the pdf, and then there's an online community that people have as well. Will be a LinkedIn group that you can engage that. We will have instructors available to ask questions of if you want to dive deeper or to understand something. And then our goal is really community of practice that people who take the course and are doing this in the field and running it. Hey, here's how we talk to our compliance officer about this. Maybe that'll work for you, or hey, i'm struggling with getting a certain stakeholder on board. Has anybody else seen that? And so we're hoping to really support that communit. You can find out about the course at upstart dot com slash AI certification so you can see the information register for the course. It's free for a limited time, so I recommend if people are interested or find this topic interesting or useful for themselves, it's a great time to check it out because it won't be free forever, but it is for now. Great Well, thanks Jeff for joining us today. I think we're definitely excited for all of you listening to register and to learn more about AI alongside our instructors.

15:30 Absolutely, it's been a lot of fun making it, but I think the real fun starts once it gets out into the world and we get to start hearing from actual learners and students and interacting with the community. So we're very much looking forward to phase two because Phase one has been a lot of work and a lot of fun, but I think Phase two is going to be a lot more fun. So we're looking forward to talking. Everybody wants a good chance to see all the content. Upstart partners with banks and credit unions to grow households and expand consumer lending. Through its leading AI lending platform. Upstart powered banks and credit unions leverage AI to offer higher prooval rates and experience lower loss rates while simultaneously delivering the exceptional digital first lending experience that consumers demand. Whether you're looking to grow and enhance your existing personal and auto lending programs, or you're just getting started, upstart can help. Upstart offers an end to end solution that can help you find more credit worthy borrowers within your risk profile. With all digital underwriting, verification, loan closing, and servicing, It's all possible with Upstart in your corner. Learn more about finding new borrowers, enhancing your credit decisioning process, and growing your business by visiting upstart dot com slash Lenders. That's upstart dot com slash Lenders