Welcome to GeekWire, I'm GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Coming up this week, AI For Good, with the leader of a Microsoft initiative using artificial intelligence to address some of the world's biggest challenges.

First, the quick preview of the upcoming month on the show.

Next week we'll be talking more about the potential of AI with Werner Vogels, the Amazon

CTO.

On April 20th, my colleague John Cook and I will have a preview of the GeekWire Awards and a look

back at the event's track record of predicting some of the region's tech titans.

And on April 27th, I'll have a conversation with Dana

Matioli, Wall Street Journal reporter, and author of the upcoming book The Everything War,

Amazon's ruthless quest to own the world and remake corporate power.

It's going to be a big month, so be sure to subscribe to the GeekWire Podcast to catch all those episodes

if you haven't already, and help us spread the word by raiding and

reviewing the show on your favorite podcast app. Okay, let's jump in with this

week's episode. Computer scientist Juan Laveista Ferris is the corporate vice president and chief data

scientist at Microsoft and the lab director of Microsoft's AI for good research lab

leading a team of data scientists and researchers in AI, machine learning, and statistical modeling,

focusing on global challenges like health, climate change, and digital literacy.

He's one of the editors and authors of the new book AI for Good,

Applications in Sustainability,

Humanitarian Action and Health

featuring case studies from Microsoft,

which will be published by Wiley on April 9th.

Juan, it's great to have you here.

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