Humanizing AI: Meet the Kim Scott Google Portrait 7 | 27

Radical Candor: Communication at Work

Radical Candor

Business, Management, Careers

4.7 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most leaders learn on the fly—and Kim knows the bruises that come with it. In this episode she joins longtime Google Distinguished Designer Ryan Germick to discuss the innovative "Kim Scott Portrait," an AI-powered tool designed by Google Labs (and trained by the real Kim) to scale Kim's expertise and deliver Radically Candid advice 24/7. Discover how this new technology aims to humanize AI, free authors from the burden of answering repetitive questions, and foster more productive communication in the workplace. Get all of the show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠RadicalCandor.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Episode Links: Transcript Now You Can Talk Radical Candor 24/7 With the Kim Scott Portrait Google Portrait | Kim Scott Ryan Germick - Google | LinkedIn Connect: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Chapters: (00:00:00) Introduction Kim and Ryan Germick introduce the “Portrait” collaboration—an AI version of Kim designed to scale her coaching. (00:01:33) Live Coaching Demo Kim’s Portrait answers a tough management question. (00:03:36) Why the Portrait Matters How the Portrait helps Kim reach more people and free up time for writing. (00:05:38) Kim’s Next Book A look into Kim’s upcoming optimistic novel set in 2070. (00:06:30) Family Interactions with the Portrait Funny and revealing story of Kim’s son debating the AI. (00:08:10) The “Automated Kim” Origin Story How a team joke at Google inspired the Portrait concept. (00:09:29) Coaching at Scale Why books and AI scale Kim’s message better than 1:1 coaching. (00:11:41) Personalized vs Generic AI The value of expert-driven Portraits over average LLM responses. (00:12:57) Training the Portrait Kim explains her hands-on role in fine-tuning its responses. (00:14:44) Solving Repetitive Questions How Portraits provide patient, consistent answers to FAQs. (00:16:07) Productive Disagreement Through Portraits The vision for AI-facilitated, respectful debates. (00:17:26) Expanding Globally Plans for multi-language and international Portrait availability. (00:17:48) Real-World Use Cases The ways Portraits support work, life, and social media decisions. (00:20:23) Empathy-Driven AI AI as a personal board of directors, with lived-experience expertise. (00:23:51) Empowering Creators Portraits can be embedded on creators’ own platforms—no lock-in. (00:26:19) Lived Experience as Research Kim defends storytelling as a valid path to truth and insight. (00:28:24) Supporting New Managers Portraits offer guidance during the lonely transition into leadership. (00:31:11) Navigating Difficult Bosses Portraits can help employees manage up with empathy and agency. (00:33:30) Changing Workplace Culture Helping people shift from silence or aggression to Radical Candor. (00:36:17) Personality Extenders Portraits as scalable human touchpoints for the future. (00:38:51) Creating Your Own Portrait How to create your own Portrait and scale your voice. (00:39:48) Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	exclusively on Disney Plus.
0:02.4	It's hard and it's brutal and that's what makes it special.
0:06.2	The multi-award winning series, FX's The Bear, is back for a brand new season.
0:11.4	Upon my signal, unleash hell.
0:15.4	And every second counts.
0:17.8	When that shows zero, this restaurant ceases operations.
0:21.8	FX is the best.
0:22.7	New season now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
0:27.0	18 plus subscription required.
0:28.6	Teas and C's apply.
0:34.7	Hello, everybody.
0:36.7	Welcome to the Radical Kander podcast slash stream. I am here with Ryan from Google, and Ryan and I and his team and the Radical Kanner team have been collaborating to build a portrait, what's called a portrait of me. I am the first. So Ryan, tell
0:57.9	folks what was on your mind when you launched this project, which I have been, it's been so
1:03.1	much fun to work with you when you're doing. Thank you for having, thanks for being an amazing partner.
1:07.4	Ryan, tell folks about you. So I'm Ryan Germick.
1:11.6	I've been at Google for 500 years and have lived many lives.
1:15.6	But the through line is humanizing technology, you know, whether it was with the Google
1:19.6	Doodles or the Google Assistant and now in Google Labs, finding ways to take my art school
1:25.6	education, my liberal arts education and apply apply it in the world of technology.
1:28.8	How do you take this awesome power of large language models and voice technology,
1:33.4	even some of the cool imagery things you can do with generative AI,
1:37.0	and bring voice to people and have an opportunity to surface the expertise of folks like you, Kim,
	...

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