Sabri Sansoy once put Chuck Yeager's name into a hat for karaoke.
Sansoy, who was born in Kentucky but raised in Las Vegas, New Mexico, was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in California at the time. Chuck Yeager, the famous pilot who became the first to break the speed of sound, was at the same bar when the younger airman threw in the famous name.
Eventually, they pulled out "Yeager."
"He gets up, goes to walk out [of the bar], so I chase after him," Sansoy said. "I said, 'Sir, they just called you.' He said, 'Son, I don't do that.'
"So then I said, 'I'll sing with you.'," Sansoy continued. "He looks at me and he goes, 'Son, you have the wrong body parts.'"
That was early in Sansoy's career. Before he worked on a team in New Mexico that tried to fly around the world by balloon — without stopping. Before he went back to California to work with an early internet startup that eventually folded which led to a new job with Sony Pictures in Los Angeles. And it was before Sansoy took a job in advertising — a decision he said "was probably the best career move I've ever made."
That advertising job introduced Sansoy to machine learning and artificial intelligence. His first AI project, for Volkswagen, involved figuring out how to drive a car by voice. He also worked on an AI project with IBM Watson to create a dress that used Tweets to change color.
It seems, at least for Sansoy, that you really can use AI to do anything.
Now, Sansoy is bringing AI innovation to New Mexico through a new nonprofit he helped found late last year. Called New Mexico A.I. Labs, the organization is working with a few small businesses in the state to teach them how to use artificial intelligence and machine learning, he said.
Albuquerque Business First recently caught up with the tech-savvy Renaissance man to learn more about his passion for AI and what brought him back to the Land of Enchantment.
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Albuquerque Business First: What was it like growing up in Las Vegas, New Mexico?
Sabri Sansoy: My dad was a doctor to a lot of the families [in Las Vegas], so we got a lot of respect from a lot of folks growing up. It was an amazing time. I still have close friends and go to Las Vegas often to visit.
Is there one distinct memory you have of growing up there? There's an ice skating pond near Montezuma Castle. My sister went out and she fell through the ice. I panicked — I'm only a year older than she is — and I ran after her and I fell in. My poor mom, she's trying to get help because there was no one out there. But I had some Cub Scout training so I helped my sister get out first and then got myself out. It was all over the news. Talk about a memory, that's one of them.
How'd you end up in California? I went to undergrad at [the University of New Mexico]. My dad, being a doctor, wanted me to be a doctor. I was not having it. My passion was rockets, the space shuttle at the time. So, I enrolled and got into [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] for graduate school. Then from there, I joined the Air Force, and the Air Force sent me to California, to Edwards Air Force Base working on rockets.
That was a fantastic experience. I mean I got to meet some of the future astronauts for the space shuttle program. Chuck Yeager, he was probably the highlight of the whole thing.
What brought you back to New Mexico most recently? I moved back here because of my mom three years ago. She's now 81, but she needs help, so the real reason I moved back here was to help her and take care of her. Since I've been here, I've been doing all sorts of stuff. I met with chile farmers down south [and] worked with New Mexico State [University]. I met with Los Alamos and Sandia Labs, I met with the governor's office. It's been tough, and then the pandemic hit.
Looking at your work with AI and machine learning, what do you think has pulled you to this work? Artificial intelligence has been around since the '50s. I've seen it come and go. Now to see it work, the reason is [that] we have so much data. Think of AI as a rocket engine, but back then we only had a cup of fuel. Now, we have massive pools of data [that are] making these engines come alive. That's why I got excited.
What do you think is in store for the future of AI in New Mexico? I think the state's being undervalued in terms of the resources and the opportunities here. I mean, come on, we have these big labs here, but I just don't know why the private sector is not taking New Mexico seriously. People that are here in New Mexico are big fish in a small sea. For me, there's a great opportunity. I know we're going to become a big player in the AI space.
