Decoding brain patterns to nurture mental health – Alena founder Mandana Ahmadi
UKTN | The Podcast
UKTN
5.0 • 6 Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr Mandana Ahmadi, the founder and CEO of mental health app Alena, discusses how technology can be a tool to support mental health, her journey as an Iranian immigrant to a UK-based startup founder and how artificial intelligence has yet to replicate real human emotion.
Ahmadi moved to the UK from Iran with a joint passion for technology and psychology. London-headquartered Alena is harnessing computational neuroscience to decode the mental patterns that drive social anxiety. It has raised $3.6m in funding since it was co-founded by Ahmadi in 2019. Before Alena, she co-founded and served as CTO for TAINA Technology, a regulatory technology company that helped financial institutions comply with requirements.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Artificial intelligence and machine learning and the fields such as computational neuroscience, |
| 0:11.0 | they have always coexisted. |
| 0:18.0 | We know very little about the brain. |
| 0:20.0 | We might know more about the nature around us or the physics of the universe than we know about the biological brain. |
| 0:26.6 | AI systems right now, they don't have the kind of understanding needed so they can generate language or communication that is rooted in human-like concepts. |
| 0:43.3 | But first, a quick message from our sponsor. |
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| 1:12.2 | www.sage.co.uk slash intact. |
| 1:22.5 | Hello and welcome to the UKTN podcast, a weekly chat with the founders of some of the UK's |
| 1:30.5 | high growth tech companies and other key stakeholders. In this series, we'll be exploring what |
| 1:35.6 | entrepreneurship looks like in the UK right now, as well as getting tips from some of our |
| 1:40.3 | most innovative business leaders and discussing the hot topics in the tech world. |
| 1:44.9 | I'm your host, Jane Wakefield, and I'm joined today by Dr. Mandana Armadi, the CEO and founder |
| 1:51.0 | of Alina. |
| 1:52.4 | Hi, Mandana, how are you today? |
| 1:54.6 | I'm Venn. How are you? |
| 1:56.0 | Excellent stuff. |
... |
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