Human-centered AI: Ovetta Sampson on design risks and rewards

2025-05-05

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This episode of AI Product Builders is a must-listen. I’m joined by Ovetta Sampson, founder of Right AI and one of the sharpest minds in the AI and design space. With a career that spans leadership roles at Google, Capital One, and IDEO, Ovetta brings a powerful, context-driven lens to the hype around generative AI.We get into:* Why she left Google to build Right AI* The risks no one’s talking about in AI product development* What MoviePass, the Black Death, and Silicon Valley have in com...

This episode of AI Product Builders is a must-listen. I’m joined by Ovetta Sampson, founder of Right AI and one of the sharpest minds in the AI and design space. With a career that spans leadership roles at Google, Capital One, and IDEO, Ovetta brings a powerful, context-driven lens to the hype around generative AI.

We get into:

* Why she left Google to build Right AI

* The risks no one’s talking about in AI product development

* What MoviePass, the Black Death, and Silicon Valley have in common

* The real environmental and economic costs of running LLMs

* What design leaders need to unlearn now

* Her “Mindful AI” framework for building responsible, people-first experiences

* Why systems thinking beats wireframes, and what it really takes to design for the future

Ovetta breaks it all the way down, history, economics, tech, and the human cost of innovation. This one’s part philosophy lesson, part design critique, part wake-up call.

Timestamps

02:09 Origins of Ovetta's company Right AI

05:15 Moving fast and breaking things...again

10:20 The risks of funding with no business models

18:56 Enviornmental sustainability

30:18 Principles of building a responsible experience

34:01 What's top of mind for design leaders?

43:24 Closing

Mentions

* Right AI

* LinkedIn - Follow her on LinkedIn for hot takes and sharp truths

* The Philosopher’s Zone (Podcast) – She references a philosophy podcast about the Dark Ages

* Gutenberg & the Printing Press – Used as a metaphor for today’s AI hype

* MoviePass – Referenced extensively as an analogy for unsustainable business models

* Black Death / Plague – Referenced in historical parallel to today's societal reset

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