♪ >> we are going to do a live demo. what are we about to see, and why do we care? >> what you are about to see something that no one else has ever seen, other than those deep in my research labs. many of you remember watson, the artificial intelligence machine on the game of "jeopardy." at the time he was an open domain question and answer system. fast-forward to today, what you're going to see is watson has adjusted all of wikipedia, and not answers questions, but reasons over that and conform opinions on any subject. >> so the tech guys can make it turn on for us.

the recount. i believe it has in introduction going on first. watson? >> is he going to do with? -- to do it? is it going to happen? >> watson? please start. >> hello and welcome to the imb research demonstration. today we will research some of her keep abilities and generating argument for or against specific topics. to proceed, please select a topic. >> okay, let's go ahead and do on speech. >> skinning for one million wikipedia article. returning 10 most relevant articles. scanned all sentences. ready to deliver. thank you for the opportunity to share my view about this interesting topic. it is always good to start with

some background. the reliability of wikipedia compared to other encyclopedias and more specialized sources has been assessed in many ways, including statistically through comparative review, analysis, and historical patterns, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in the editing process unique to wikipedia. my opinion is that wikipedia is reliable. i would like to say a few simple reasons for that. contributors provide identification. another reason is that wikipedia provides better coverage and longer articles in general. these claims are supported by the scientific literature. for example, an early study conducted by ibm researchers in 2003, two years following wikipedia's establishment, found vandalism is usually prepared -- repaired so quickly that most users will never see it. wasoncluded that wikipedia surprisingly effective at

healing. i hope i have convinced you to support my view, wikipedia is reliable. thank you for listening. >> that is going to make high school kids everywhere so happy. >> so that is good. i am curious, when you in just that much data -- when you ingest that much data, had you formulate questions and answers? do you train it, or does it automatically understand how to pull up different topics from a data set? >> all you do is give it a topic. what you just saw, watson was not trained in that domain. we gave him the corpus of information and wikipedia. we gave him a topic and said, for many opinion on this topic. it went through an organized all the information. it understood the context of all of the passengers in wikipedia, took apart all the syntax and reassembled it and machine generated the language. >> how does it understand a

concept like honesty or accuracy? how does it understand this concept so that you can actually pick how to argue for some position? >> it looks for multiple scenarios and reinforcing information. for instance, i was surprised to hear a reference to imb research working in that area. found some was it passage in wikipedia, then it went off and validated it was legitimate scientist from ibm research before it would say it. it's constantly looking for verification of what it's about to say. >> is that piece of technology, is that currently something people can use in the market? is it more of a forward-looking thing that you have not released yet? >> its forward-looking which will be available as a service. let me remind you all that i see time of it jeopardy, watson was a large computer system in a room. since that time, we have taken watson apart, if you will,

lifted it up to the cloud. it's available as a set of services and apis. everyone in this room cannot go out and start to compose their own mini-watsons, if you will, in the application space. >> is it a six-month question, three-year question? how far a week away from having that out? >> this is probably 12-18 months from being in the market. that is a trivial example of the beauty of. remember that in the area of health care, watson has ingested almost all of the world's medical domain. if you give watson a disease topic, it will go into all andished pubmed journals form opinions on diagnoses or drug discoveries. >> i was doing research today and found a funny story. nikita khrushchev actually came to an ibm facility in san jose. this was back in the 1950's.

they rigged up a computer to ask questions. have you solved it? is it done now? or are you still making progress? >> that is a great question. prior to watson, everyone in the artificial intelligence community had tried to solve open to me question and answer by writing a month of rules. rules based learning, or organizing research. that had very limited success. it wasn't until we took a full open to me statistical approach -- open domain statistical approach that watson was able to answer questions in open domain. >> on that point, i have heard more about ai and computing in the last six months than the last six years. it seems that there is a moment going on in this space. why are we seeing innovation and growth so quick now?

what has changed in our approach? >> we are at the proverbial perfect storm. much of the world's information is now digitized, including natural language and areas like health care, law, etc.. computers can now access it. we now have the computing power to do something like you just saw. we did not have met a few years ago. >> just the raw capability. >> yeah, and what has really changed in the area of artificial intelligence is areas like machine learning, statistical analysis are now advanced to the point where we can do things like you saw there. that was not the case a few years ago. >> machine learning is one of the things watson can use. it's one of its building blocks. >> that is right. think of watson as a whole series of statistical learning engines. it's not one thing. and it's constantly computing and trying to learn over information. we do not program watson.

we give watson data were better data -- or better data, but we do not reprogram it. we give it better algorithms, but we don't reprogram how it operates. >> you give it a stronger brain over time, but you don't tell it what to think. >> no, it learns over the information. >> i brought some with us today. when you got to pitch developers watson in new york, what is your core pitch? >> the interesting thing is that it's such a powerful technology, i don't have to give a sales pitch. they immediately go into, how can i use this? can you give me an api to do a certain set of services? i was up at mit and they are blown away by it. they have been working at ai and machine learning for decades. they are just using the services that are coming out of this. we have opened up the platform.

there are hundreds of start up companies. ibm informed a $100 million fund to bring additional players onto the platform. >> so if you want a check, you should grab you offstage. >> middle of a progress in watson over the last 18 months. been impressive, has it been slow, or what you have expected? >> it has been exponential. we're running as fast as we can to keep up with demand. not just for developers, but for investors. even large enterprises are using it to transform areas of their business. old respectedry company. the history, lots of work. it's not snapped at or facebook. -- snapchat or facebook. do you think you have the share you need in silicon valley to

attract other developers to your company? or are you still fighting off that stodgy pocket protector kind of image? no offense. >> we do not have the mind share here. it's growing exponentially. but if you listen carefully later this week, you will hear things from us that will reinforce our commitment to the developer community. i would also remind you that when you think about the arrows of computing, the first was tabulating machines. -- the eras of computing. that was in the early 1940's. then we had programmable systems. every computer today, every device today is programmable. watson is not a programmable system. it's a learning system. it's the first of a third era of computing. i will remind you that ibm played an important role in the first and second eras of computing.

we will play a key role in the third era of computing. >> this is a good segue. who is her main come edition -- who is your main cover edition? >are there any big players tryig to encroach on your territory? there are a lot of great people working in the area of ai and cognitive computing. most are developing single algorithms for solutions to solve some problem, to improve search. >> a very narrow solution. >> they are narrow solutions. we are the only company that has developed a complete platform, open api, that ability -- the ability to innovate on top of this. if i had to make a prediction, for every innovation coming out of ibm research and development labs, there will be 100 or thousands of pieces of innovation that will occur on top of it. that is what we want. yes, we are in old company.

for watson on a regular basis? >> we do a value share platform. >> aws charges by usage. why did you pick that model? >> the first decision we made, we still could sell lots of watson boxes. but we decided we wanted to open a platform up and make it as a service, knowing where the club is going. -- were the cloud was going. that was a strategic decision for us. then it came to, do you charge by the click or not? because this is a learning system and is becoming smarter, it's important that we share the value with our partners and customers. >> have you had any pushback from developers? we want to pay on more of a click basis? >> no, it is a shared risk.

for developers, you come on for free, develop your business. as you are you revenue, then we sure that. but we want an easy on-ramp. we want to get going. we think is very fair. >> is watson going to be a key revenue driver for imb going forward? >> we have a set of strategic initiatives in the company. watson is part of our analytics business, which is part of a $17 billion double-digit high-growth business. watson is the fastest-growing component of our analytics business. >> now we can talk about the future. >> thank god. >> i'm going to presume that you don't think that ai is going to end mankind as we know it. there has been some talk about what this looks like, and should we be worried. do we build defense against this? this seems relatively benign and more industrial than progressive. >> when any new technology comes

along, people get scared. technology can do great things were not so great things. it depends on how we use and control it. whether that was the steam engine, automobiles, x-rays, you name it. this is a brand-new technology. it's going to change the world. there is no question in my mind. we think about what this technology can do, fundamentally if you look at decisions that human beings make, we make decisions with a bias. we make decisions on incomplete information. i believe that nearly or perhaps every decision that would make of any importance in the future will be made with a watson by our side. >> does not letting the computer making our own choices, it's giving options that we can select from. it's more of a addition. >> that is right. didsimple demonstration we around wikipedia. think about watson where it has ingested all the world's

information on drug therapies for cancer. i don't know about you, but if i had cancer, government, and the cancer board was meeting to decide what chemotherapy they were going to give me, i would want watson to have gone through it. to be sitting at that cancer board to augment the decision. say hey, guess what, you may want to rethink that based on this piece of information. or, here's a new con to the procedure. >> as watson gets smarter will they be more leaders in our lives? will we handle off stuff to watson? -- hand off stuff to watson? >> there will always be moral decisions, labor death, where it will be a joint decision. we as humans will always have the control of position. as time goes on, more and more decisions will allow the system to make. think about the internet of

things when we need constant responses in milliseconds. making that in real-time versus waiting for me to digest something in seconds or minutes. >> in our daily lives, in 5-10 years, does watson power experiences we already use? or is it a standalone product that i would talk to? >> it's going to be a combination. it will be literally everywhere. it will be powering things that you just take routine in your daily life. if you are buying something, watson will be behind that, enhancing your experience. it will also be visible in many of your applications. you are "if, or you want -- you are being creative, and you just don't have the time. it will be both visible and highly invisible, both ubiquitous in every thing we do. >> but to be fair, you want

watson to be a brand name and technology. will i have a watson sticker on my phone? >> watson is already the premier brand in ai. not something we set out to do, but through the demonstrations in jeopardy and whatnot, they have already had brought -- broad recognition. as we move forward, we will decide whether we want to do "powered by watson." we opened up a new division of ibm around watson. >> health care vertical. >> stand up a new divisions around education, the internet of things. as watson becomes capable of operating in those domains, we will bring him into those areas. >> before we go, humor me with this last question. was there a moment where you and wow,team were like "oh that actually works." how did i come to be?

-- did that come to be? >> on the journey to jeopardy back in 2001, there was a point of time -- in 2011, there was a point in time in 2009 when watson made a quantum jump in its ability to learn questions. at that point, i remember sitting in my conference room looking at the demonstration. i said, we have something that is going to change the world. it was shocking. >> did people you back then? -- people doubt you? they they agree with you at the time that this would be a watershed moment? >> yes. obviously my research team had hydrogens. they were very focused on the q&a machine. -- had high ambitions. this is not just another computer system. this is a new era of computing. >> but no zombies, no apocalypse, no matrix? >> it's only going to help us

with complex decisions. >> thanks. [applause] >> man, this room is filling up. you are here to hear the investor talk, aren't you? how many on maneuvers are in the room? so all of you. listen up all of you. maybe you can shut your laptops and learn something. these are the folks that are going to give you money. please welcome our guests. big round of applause. [applause]

♪ >> i am so glad to have this great panel. i will roll into things and ask you a hypothetical. say i am this supersmart entrepreneur. i have a great product, i live in maybe austin. everyone is telling me i have to move to san francisco. is that true? money if you're raising from greg croft. >> why is that? >> i think 82% of our investments have been outside silicon valley. we are finding opportunities everywhere. i think there are great growth pockets in austin, new york, ellie, seattle, all over the world. >> i think it depends. if you are based in austin or

l.a. and you have a network with a recruiting advantage, then it might make sense to stay. like there is expertise that you need that doesn't exist in the market you are in, the bay area is quantitatively the best place to found companies. >> is not getting too expensive though? -- isn't it getting too expensive though? being based in san francisco at this point cuts your runway in half. he said, if you live in san mateo, oakland, you can get so much more mileage out of your fundraising. does that change things? spendlong as you don't all of your money on candy bars, you are fine. do think you can found a company anywhere. the challenge is scaling back company to the next level. you can find great individual

contributors. you can find great designers, great product people in any country, in any city, in any town. once you start to scale, let's say it's working and you starts to hit 100 people on the team. you have folks that are not up from theut 2 frontlines. back is difficult the further you are from the bay area. -- that gets difficult the further you are. experiences,t of especially on the consumer side. it only exists here.

there are certain cities in the l.a.,-- new york, increasingly in europe, you are starting to see some of that second generation experience. if you are in tuscaloosa, you are going to have a tough time finding that locally. more importantly, a tough time attracting someone who has that experience to move there. if you're in a global city where people are willing to move, and i think l.a. and new york counts. austin i think is on the edge. it has some livability that makes it attractive to people. it doesn't have the same ecosystem for what people do next. that is something people care about. that is the key question. if you can't attract people who are willing to move to your city, you have to consider moving your headquarters to a place where those people already are.

network --ou have a i would argue l.a. might have the most talented people in the media business out of anywhere in the world. dynamics ofand the that market better than anywhere. if you are starting a digital media company in san francisco, you will be creating -- you would be recruiting executives from l.a. it depends on the network you bring. any great entrepreneur has to be a pied piper and be able to recruit people anywhere, whether you are in reykjavik or in chicago. we have seen great companies in both of those places. that is a huge part of it, to pick a vision and tell a story that attracts people anywhere. >> what about new sections of technology? maybe i will segue into asking what you're looking at that you

were not a couple of years ago. i don't know if there is a virtual reality headquarters. >> john. we just announced this morning, we and disney: an investment in john, the virtual reality company based in palo alto along leadcmc, a chinese investment platform. it's the combination of both technology and innovation that you find here any specific expertise on related to content and distribution that you would find in disney. caa.n the a combination of l.a.-shanghai media landscape married to the technology

innovation here. most of the most interesting technology innovations are happening here. channels areng happening elsewhere. it is the combination of both. funded anything in the last couple of years that you were not have imagined funding a couple of years ago? >> we are looking at a lot of things that, 2-3 years ago, we would not be looking at. the food category known was looking at 3-4 years ago. now it is a $1 trillion plus market. looking at drones. , we have been starting to look at more health-care related things. capital,akes a lot of it's probably not a great fit for us. when things become increasingly consumerized, i think it can

make more sense for investment. that is been challenging for us. i have been hearing a lot more about health care and a core sciencies. holland is a take for you to get up to speed on a new sector? -- how long does it take you? haven't done anything in it, so i can't speak to it. but what are the big sectors that we see? i think that the punch maneuvers --entrepreneurs see opportunities. it's hard to predict the future. it's easier to just observe the present and see what is working, then trying to suspend judgment.

"oh, that is just for kids, oh, that is not going to scale." predicting the future is very difficult. insultingd recently that is given us tremendous growth on the back of social media. it was not tell you going to be a big driver, that this was the right time. none of that made sense. the point is, all we need to do is recognize it, see who the leaders were, and suspended judgment. saying, it's not silly, it's

actually a meaningful thing. having the context matching and say, okay, this fits into a lens of self-expression at has a truth matter of e-mail signature files through aim buddy icons and myspace propos pages. you can start to see that connection. that is where having a sense as to where things are going based on where things have come from is important. here is whereing, the opportunities are going to be. >> we have a slightly different model. we work with investors as partners along with the entrepreneurs that they back. we invest with industries with a long track record. we are the largest health-care investor in the world. biotechnology companies, drug discovery companies, ally, format, etc.. it gives you a different

perspective and allows us to be a strategic partner to companies. we tend to find ourselves not competing with venture firms or earlier stage investors, but rather coming and when we can be a real partner. we got involved with uber and airbnb, we can and because the object newer wanted a partner that was global and had deep industry capabilities. allowednally they have us to scale. we are jumping in the boat and helping them row as opposed to being particularly wise at where things are going to unfold at the earlier stage. >> a lot of people don't realize tbg growth was a large investor in airbnb and uber. cbg asf people think of one of these firms that drives valuations. what do we do here?

it is obviously a problem. are you writing bigger checks? are you writing fewer checks? we are at the beginning of the supply chain of venture capital. for us, this year we have been slower to invest. are yearslysis, there that have lots of great new ideas. last year and the year before were better ideas. ideas are looking for higher valuations. the punch newer -- entrepreneurs that are looking for rich valuations to realize they could be setting themselves on the wrong trajectory for the rest of their life. we try and balance the fact that

sometimes the valuation doesn't matter if you are in on some thing big. you don't want to set the company up for failure because it started out too expensive. this year seems like a great year for companies starting a couple years ago. we have not been super active this year. we are looking for bright ideas at the right valuations. >> agreed. there has been a significant increase in number of violations, but those levels are relatively constant. -- in number of valuations. today, theo pre-money valuations have essentially doubled. that is not healthy for the overall ecosystem. that is where you sit back.

when you look at average exits going back 30 years, 90 plus percent being at $105 million, the math gets tough. there is the reality factor that plays in. we think about that a lot. in the markets where we invest more heavily, some geographies tend to have more valuation discipline, just a lower supply of capital. >> are there any factors that are better deals? certainly people are interested in synthetic biology, something relatively undiscovered. >> we have continued to invest in e-commerce companies at a time when he has been relatively out of favor. never been a has

better time to start a new brand. when you look at the market and look what millennial's are driving, it's a completely different brand message. you can just change your messaging. marketing through a completely different channel. is not television and newspaper. you can't spend at big volume on a lot of each other channels. evenook and instagram are old now. no better time to start a new brand. if they have great economics and a great value proposition and a great brand, we think they are a great opportunity. >> there has never been a better time to be an object newer -- entrepreneur. >> were talking about ipos.

he said there was a private-public confluence. you said that when i change. -- that would not change. at the same time, everyone on this panel wants their public -- their company to go public and julie. are we deluding ourselves? question. a big you are talking about $50 billion that has entered the market to invest that was not here before. so far this year, $7 billion of capital invested from historically public investors. $11 billion invested last year. all of which allowing companies to raise capital at a scale that is unprecedented. which allows for it deferral, the ultimate public reckoning, if you will. >> there was a time when this happened before. >> except even then, if you look ipo's9, 29% of all

doubled in value the first day of trading. 1% of ipo's have done that this year. 29% versus 1%. this isn't a public double today. --bubble today. the bubble is largely private. if the gas gets let out of the bubble, it will be in a slow way. the public market has not been participating. do we see public investors to speak? of course. -- public investors participate? of course. there is liquidity. ipo's have happened at corrective values. >> in this case, is the correction hitting a wall? >> it's a funny thing. if you are a private company and see this correction happening,

it's much worse for founders and employees to have a correction happen as a private company then a public company. you have preferences from all these investors that have put in all this money, who are looking to get made whole before any proceeds go to employees and founders. if you're public, the math changes a little bit. all of the preferences go away. everyone has the same stock. if there are fluctuations, everyone shares in them equally. markets,y private where folks with preferences and those that might you like they have overpaid -- might feel like they have overpaid are going to have much different preferences. now you have better access to

additional capital as a public company. and you have employees and founders in a more beneficial situation if there is a correction. it's interesting there has been this reticence to go public for companies able to do so. [yelling in background] >> sorry, i'm having trouble hearing you. >> we have to get that guy up on the panel. >> i was at a talk last week bout sometalked a companies whose unit economics he didn't understand. he did not imply they were doomed. there are 150 companies evaluated at more than $150 billion. are there any names that you can offer? a company that you don't know what its fate will be, but you don't understand it's economics.

>> i will not name a name, because that would be indiscreet. but we have to try to make investments where 100% of the investments work given the scale of the checks we are providing. if you look back at 1992 and you made 100 investments and it was in the tech sector, unit of making a 20% return on your capital by the time you exited 10 years later in 2002. but it would be-concentrated in a microsoft and intel. if you could invest across a basket of unicorns, as eileen contended in 2013, you would do just fine. you have a few of these companies that do extraordinarily well, but there will be a lot of roadkill and companies that don't survive.

their unit economics don't work. ultimately in rising markets, people don't ask the hard questions about cash flow generation, unit you know, leverage of scale, etc.. they focus on revenue. and we have all learned this lesson before. ultimately, they have to get to a place to generate cash, and valuations are ultimately about cash flow. i have about 20 more questions, and we have to get going. thank you so much. [applause] ♪ anchor: and we're going to go to lunch. just kidding. you guys are all here. what are you excited about? i'm going to do this part of my job and relish it.

please welcome to the stage snoop dogg. ♪ snoop: what's up? anchor: we go way back. wherever you like. actually, you are going to sit in the middle. you are here. snoop yes. anchor: it is all happening. live, and in the flesh. you have been investing a while now. first of all, if i invest, it has to be something that is fun and amazing. i associate myself with it, and that is what i am looking for

when i do invest. of your in terms investing, are you reinvesting with some plan in mind? are you seeking something out? in the beginning, it was investing for creativity, and then there were things that i like. for example, the cannabis industry. i saw things in that field and saw that there are things that were missing, so i thought the best thing i could do was to develop my own system and get in on that side. something, and you might want to tell us a little bit about that? snoop: it is called mary jane. helpn watch a video to show. if you do not mind, we would like to show you a little clip. [video clip]

snoop: in the world, mainstream cannabis. let's modernize and communicate. people all around the world use cannabis, and there is a global scale. in 2015, cannabis was named the fastest growing industry in the united states, set to reach $11 million per year by 2019. -- $11 billion per year by 2019. fashion, global music and sport, and today, mary jane cannabis. mary jane cannabis 2.0. for thew generation cannabis culture for all. jane has the global

cultivation of cannabis. jane for everyone as the center of cannabis lifestyle. jane haslly, merry tools to bring together consumers and businesses in a streamlined fashion online. it is a revolutionary way to discover all products for a new era of consumption, and it is for main street to find premier locations. has that cannabis is part of our daily lives. merry jane is at the helm of the move. [end video clip] [applause] a whole new world ♪ ok. what kind of partnerships are we going to see or the network

effects are we going to see? think this is probably the priority we are doing in the cannabis space. obviously, we have been at the helm of this movement globally, and the time is just right. we saw, and as you mentioned, a huge tranche with the way that the conversation is around cannabis and what is provided for the community, and for those who are touched by cannabis and want to learn more about it. it just was not available, and it was not done authentically. there was a certain sophisticated standard of content, which is really our expertise, along with some of the partners that we have in this space, like my good buddy joining us in the content space. he will provide us with

some content, and you can find some great content from mr. ch ung on the merry jane site. the and then there was miley cyrus helping brand merry jane during one of the gets, so it is getting the top-tier theuencers and sharing modern situation around cannabis. jordan: this seems like an obvious question, but, snoop, why do you like cannabis so much? i mean, it has been such a huge part of your brand. i want to know why? snoop: for one, i enjoyed it for

medical reasons. [laughter] jordan: trouble sleeping? snoop: every time i have been around it, i have seen beautiful things happen. love, peace, happiness, and i have always been an advocate for it. it is more educational and and it gives off more than just me trying to smoke and to give you an explanation. ityou want to learn about come we provide you all of the information. it is an encyclopedia to the cannabis world. jordan: well, what kind of we expect to see? i know you said there would be celebrities, but there are editorials, videographers.

what you expect from this kind of content? ted: there really is a diverse range and we are talking about cultural content. we have a cooking show, food, and a bunch of series coming out, and to kind of expand further, the great thing about the cannabis industry beyond its medical benefits and social benefit, the job creation -- we're talking about a business that is going to be in the $19 billion range, and that is just in a few years. there was over a billion dollars in colorado last year alone. and then the board of education. where else in america are you going to see a cultural revolution like with cannabis, and that is a beautiful thing about what we are doing. it is a movement, and the integration into what and as far as,

series, we do have one thing to show you really quick. opportunity to meet captain mike owens and a sergeant from a charity that helps veterans reintegrate into is aorkforce, and this very cool, one on one interview series, where people enjoy cannabis and share a new life experience that they have, so if we could roll that, we will show everyone. [video clip] mike: i am mike, a former marine captain. marine am a former infantry sergeant. ♪

mike: i can tell you the first time i pre-much discovered alternate medicine. being in the military, you have to operate. coming home, that white noise is deafening. there is the transition to the out of military, and i did not properly transmission. path and went to the veterans administration. here is what has been given to you. here you go. i went into a diabolical downward spiral. i saw it was not a route i wanted to take. him and, the same pathway. i was taking a significant amount of medicine for anxiety.

i could not function on a daily basis. i was not in the gym. i was not healthy. i knew that i had to change what i was doing because i was not going to be around for too much longer. mike: i went on a retreat down in asian beach. and one of the things i saw teaches you about how medical cannabis with massage there be and healing, all of that for stress, and it is extremely beneficial. matt: there is so much medicine that veterans are on these days, it is overwhelming. mike: i would not say drug.

the only medication that has beneficial results. >> and being able to take control of your own mental health. ♪ [end video clip] jordan: wow. awesome. congrats on that. i do want to move to a slightly lighter in it. my mind onsly said money, money on my mind. what is the terms of the business model for merry jane? is the more to be expected? advertising is definitely a part of the model and content integration. the huge opportunity here beyond, and most importantly opening up the doors to the real

discussion for serious content and news, and then we have lighter content and humor content. there will be music videos. others are helping us curate that and put it together. the business itself, which is multi-billions, does not have a definite destination to share. sharing what they want to communicate, and the retail locations really do not have a place that has repeat usage, where they can accurately provide that information and medical staff and expert staff on the products that they offer, so we will definitely be at the helm of that when we launch. it sounds like legalization, right, but the

industry and the country is changing pretty rapidly. you support legalization, i would assume. stand very high on legalization around america. it is necessary. thing.doing their you look at all of the medical studies, people saving their lives, and the kids, helping with seizures. it is just doing a lot of great things. it, and i just want to see it legalized. jordan: even though the costs are going up for the end user? they are making so much money, and they are putting it back into the schools and the community. the crime rate is dropping. it is helping out with the situation we have right now, just staying alive, staying strong. i am looking at what it is doing for colorado. what kind of what would we be living in? jordan: you have a channel on

youtube, and it is very, very successful. you have been kind of a media mogul for a long time. jane,ou launched merry what you learned for being so embedded in that space, especially youtube, and what content is going to be brought over to merry jane? snoop: just the connection, the ability to get feedback. what they like and what they do not like. a hotline, and information hotline for the people without a wall in the way. that is the benefit of social media these days. they are more like my family. i do not call them fans. jordan: in terms of getting jane,rt for merry obviously, you are a huge brand on your own and can do your own promotion, but what about that?

ted: -- snoop: we do what we do. we want get with some of the top people who know what they are doing. there is the information hotline. the cannabis. what it is for me. the grand professor. the face of the game. do you day? jordan: i dig, snoop. ted: you look at the competitive space, there are a few companies out there who have tried to enter into the marketplace, and arer page view totals numbers that we're going to crush within the first six months, so even today, you can e. and wec are

inviting about 420 people in dayom, into our site. and we have tens of thousands of sign-ups. i think the interest level and the demand is there. it is just about people coming ,o the forefront, like snoop and providing the site in the media platform to take cannabis to the next level. you guys have been smoking, it feels like, forever, and your brand is high up in marijuana. merry jane,e with the whole idea is the mainstream version of cannabis, right, whether cooking or use a or whatever it might be, but it is tied up in other things, not as a standalone kind of product. andn your history with it, the fact that you seem to be prepping for the future, what does the future look like in

five or 10 years with regards to cannabis? it gives me great pride and honor to say that merry jane will bring people out of the closet, because there are so many people in the closet right now that do what we do. they really want to come out, so now we are going to give them the opportunity to come out. show, watching this, are just being down with the site in general. a world where everybody comes out of the closet admits that they like to smoke. admit it. my name dispute.com, and i am a stoner. dogg, and is snoop am a stoner. jordan: how many here? be proud? in the closet, that is ok. it is ok. we are going to make a way to get you all out of the closet.

jordan: snoop, you have conquered a number of articles. you have built an empire. stay on an island and get yourself a nice treasure chest full of green? why do anything, right? snoop: it is a challenge. i have always felt like i am a genius, and i have wanted to challenge myself. the right opportunities for me and my team. longe been pushing for so to make people understand what it is and why i love it so much. and around the whole world, international, 24/7, seven days a week. and to see if i am still great

at what i do. jordan: other day when we were e wouldg, that merry jan be influential not just to those who smoke but it would touch everyone's lives. does not have any interaction with cannabis ever. like how does it affect her life? ted: well, she might want to ask you about it. as long as you inspire communication in any vertical, bennett some point you in your mother can have that conversation, and if she does ne is themerry ja perfect place to be while learning about it. flexible and connects over onlye database, not flowers, but what we call

marijuana induced products, and we provided oil, and an experience. it is interesting you talked about your mother. and if she is interested. all of the other sites or apps that do exist, they are from a vantage point that might even be a little standoffish for a female fan or consumer, and with that in mind, since we started out, we had kind of our initial women,r the site, in yesterday i was walking around, and what is the name of the program? shorten: it is built by girls. especially the female audience, because they are actually at the highest rate,

and this will bring everyone into the discussion so that we can really kind of elevate the presentation and do something cannabis 2.0 that no one has ever done before. jordan: time for my last question. snoop or snoop dogg. we are just going to go with snoop. we are going to leave the last name out until i can figure out this tech. merry jane launches in october. is that correct? ted: we are letting people into the beta site. by the way, you know the address of this location is 420. we plan to that. we planned that. yes, we launched in october. come check it out.

we want to make the experience better and better, it will be available online. author. guys, a big round of applause for ted and snoop. and i will get to you in a minute. ♪ jordan: all right. i am feeling good. you guys feeling good? absolute silence. you guys were laughing at everything snoop said. all right. whatever. our next guest was at the techcrunch, the first one that we did, and he was working on a context, a russian word i cannot say, but please welcome him and our moderator, mike. ♪

yes. hello. my name is mike, and i am out of london. he created a telegram that is the facebook of russia. and it is like me what's at. and you have about 60 million users. guest: i checked, and it was 12.

mike: 12 million messages a day by telegram. in a world where there are so many other messaging platforms. avel: that is a good question, but to put it simply, it does not matter how many messaging apps are out there. : what about for you? sucks?whatsapp pavel: i can elaborate on that. mike: sure. in 2016, and we were supposed to have flying cars and that by now. mike: jet packs. pavel: it is over.

you cannot send documents with big media. , with your communication, so i am not sure i was a big fan of whatsapp. mentioned privacy, and you made a big claim about telegrams, their ability to be encrypted. amean, that is obviously laudable claim, especially with , butoing on in the world it a sense, where is the business proposition in encryption? pavel: i had a friend. back when i was living in russia, i had a friend, and she was talking about the whatsapp messages in the police department, so they lifted her

, and she told me that they tried to use it to blackmail her, so privacy is not just for businesses. ,hich people can be blackmailed and their information is more valuable. mike: so you're saying that you retain users because they trust you. pavel: that is just one of the things that makes the telegrams different. mike: describe that to us and how that might become such a significant part of what it is. this is a third-party developer. developer third-party

, you could communicate with telegram, and on the other and of medications, there is a machine that is doing all of the and someon that side, have appeared using that paradigm or communication, , and ion, productivity that onenly yesterday of the most successful parts of digitatform had eight acquisition attempts. it is only like three months old. so you are saying -- in other words, there are

startups launched on the platform that could end up being acquired in their own rights? pavel: they can break out. mike: and like telegram. that eventually current third-party developers might make money in this way? pavel: all of the third-party could do it easily with users in telegram. mica: it is something new in , withof advertising channels for brands. pavel: that is already happening, unfortunately. i am not a big fan of ads. receiving messages. it is already happening.

there are third-party ad agencies dealing with this. mike: what you are developing. pavel: it is only three months old. what we have seen, we are happy about. pavel: you have clearly made you have clearly made some compromises on the platform and there have been reports that you have met with and shutan government down some porn bots. can you confirm that for us? mica pavel: i cannot confirm the first part. tsdo say that we block porn bo where it is prohibited. the ones we block start to

reappear in the form of bots. mica: this is happening in iran ? arabia.ran, iraq, saudi we got users we did not want. we are not big fans of porn. so, we do block these kinds of things. mica: you make a is there a secret behind the negotiations with these governments? pavel: no. we do it for business decisions and we do not do it in confirmed markets and we do not want to be perceived as something with porn . this is the same reason behind apple's decision to block porn.

decision toram's block porn. we think this is the right thing to do. we can speak about privacy, freedom of speech. we have adamant principles about it. we have over two years of existence and we have not disclosed a single piece of data to third parties, including governments. it was not easy. as for freedom of speech, like i that if there is a bot criticizes government or opposition activity, we would never block such a bot. aca: you famously credited contact in russia at the facebook of russia. you, controversially, were told to get out of that by forces

aligned with the government. is that the case? pavel: that is roughly true. mica: roughly true? which part is true and which is not. --is not? is not? pavel: it is true and rough. mica: there are incredible stories that you were framed for a car accident and that you are put under political pressure. nothing out of the ordinary in russia. believe me. and i am no different from the rest of them. mica: you have now become a resident and go around the world dressed in black, living a nomadic lifestyle. how'd you managed to continue to

run a company in this way, moving around the planet, trying to evade authorities? you feel like a target? pavel: not so much. that, when ifeel go in and out of the country, that, it is a good question. we are a small team. we cannot afford to rent houses in the short-term all over the world. we spend a summer in finland. pavel: you rented a house -- mica: you rented a house in finland. pavel: yes. it was absently great. some of the guys say that we outsourced some of this by supportnd the customer was through europe and, other

than that, there is a small team of 15. we like to travel and we want to use the opportunity. mica: you had to raise money. you took $300 million from the sale of the share. is that correct? cannot confirm the number. i was very lucky. mica: higher or lower? pavel: i was able to get out before the market crashed and it was before the events broke out and it was extremely fortunate. mica: that would have affected the value. that, the events broke out in the local currency went down. the value of the company was 3-4 times slower than it used to be. mica: facebook would eventually take over.

pavel: i am not sure. struggling to remain relevant because of the mobile apps protecting users. trap -- snap chat and apps like that. mica: any board meeting you have with outside investors might, you know, the in shambles, because you move around the planet so much. pavel: we like to be independent, at this point. we think there is more than market shares and revenue streams. mica: i mean, do you have enough money to last for a while? pavel: yes. definitely. mica: you can build out the platform as you see it. pavel: yes. -- i mean, in a

way, is this a revenge on putin? secure messaging. i'm not focused on revenge. it is ironic that a lot of high-profile people use telegram . i am happy with that. russia is the number seven market for us, in terms of size of the telegram echo system -- ecosystem. it is not important if we are big, small, or blocked in russia. we have been there as a company that owns the russian market. this is not a new challenge. mica: can you go back to russia? pavel: i can. i was in russia for my mom's

birthday. i can go in and out of the country. nobody seems to care, these days, because they have other things to be worried about. mica: so, you are not so high profile. pavel: not anymore. d my rights to a social network in russia. they should not be worried about me, at this point. i try to spend as little time as i can in russia because i want to see other places. pavel: you like to travel -- mica: you like to travel. does it concern you that isis uses telegram? pavel: they do. mica: does that concern you? pavel: that is a good question. mica: do you sleep well knowing that terrorists use the platform? pavel: you know, that is a good

question. i think that privacy, ultimately, and the right to thancy, is more important our fear of bad things happening, like terrorists. there is a war going on in the middle east with a series of tragic events. will alwaysisis find a way to communicate. and, if any means of communication turns out to be not secure, they will switch to another one. so, i do not think we are action taking part in these activities and i do not think we should be guilty or feel guilty about it. i think we are doing the right thing, protecting privacy. mica: you think they would be using something else? pavel: absolutely.

there is open source you can build and making christian and install them. and thel available technology is there. it is up to us how we use it. kik raised millions of dollars to build out more of an asian-style messaging platform, where you can order a car or purchase goods. you can order pizza on chen -chen. is that where you want to go with telegram? platform, notg just messaging, but also, other services, as well. pavel: yes and no. you have to have high penetration in markets.

you have to be socially relevant for everybody. caseit is not always the with apps like telegram and kik, like you mentioned. we are big in some of the markets and number one in a couple of them. we do not have the dominance that is in china, japan, or korea. so, we will experiment with a payment system and a third-party application to build on top of telegram. we do not feel it is going that way in the near future. pavel: isn't there 8 -- mica: isn't there a danger that you become an also-ran? it is useful for messaging and there is not much more. yeah, the interesting thing that we noticed is that

ram lastho sold teleg year and this year used it as the primary messaging application and that is why we see a huge increase in the activity. andave them delivered daily this is an indicator that people really love telgegram. more often than not, they start their day on the messaging app. that we should be happy we are definitely in the right place. what are the next big points you want to get to? when will you be at 100 million?

pavel: we are getting there. something that is discouraging about getting the users is that you always get compared with the older messaging apps. this, theyovering say you have 70-100,000,000 and this is a far cry from 800-900,000,000. they do not take into account that we are that old. if you start comparing telegram companies, these are huge numbers. we are not big fans of announcing numbers. we will look with interest on the next moments of announcements. thank you very much. pavel: thank you.

>> our next panel focuses on funding the health sector. it brings experience from being a doctor to the investments. welcome them. >> you are a medical doctor and a trained immunologist. years --been for a 10 for the last 10 years. it is not a common thing to be someone with a medical

background and get into vc. in medicine and did not know what a venture capitalist was. i had a long way to go. my career andd in developed new therapies for diseases that are in better en and i ended up at amg the board members were venture capitalists and they started to teach me about what they did, introducing me and the rest was history. i love building companies and ing entrepreneurs. >> there is interest in things that it biology. -- in synthetic biology. what have you seen from interest with co-investors? know, in the world, there has been a specialized space to invest in and there are

a lot of people who are traditional biotech investors to come out of banking, business development, science degrees. we are seeing some of the tech firms investing in traditional biotech. there was an announcement we could go with peter keele, who inch -- who invested in a a tremendoushas opportunity to change the way diseases are treated by using technology. it is easier to relate to now. >> you have said before that this is the last industry for technology disruption. what do you mean by that? >> if you look at everything else that we do in our lives, whether it is paying for things andrdering our goods transportation, there has been

health care, which is the last biggest industry to be disrupted. we spend 3 trillion a year on health care. when you go to a physician, you see computers and it is still really behind the times. it is a green field now. >> why do you think there is such an interest in a more wild science? insertinge, ,harmaceutical drugs, opiates why do you think this is a time when it is happening? >> it is about the tools and it has always been about the tools thehave to understand

levels going on and the human and wewas sequenced understood what we did not understand before, taking it to the next level. parts ofsert different genes that allow them to behave differently in areas, like cancer, with something called t-cells. andare taking a t-cell engineering it with a new receptor that goes to where the cancer is and cures patients with diseases like a cute looking -- acute leukemia. it is a dream as a physician to have the impact on disease. i am not sure -- i was not sure

we would see it in my lifetime. now, i imagine what else we could see. >> people go through chemotherapy and lose the hair. we have a barbaric way of getting rid of cancer. >> the way we have treated cancer is a blunt instrument. we used a giant hammer to kill the disease. you are killing all the cells. now, it is targeted. if feels like a tumor at a time. we are learning about the origin of the tumor and the genetic profile of the cancer. it allows us to engineer specific drugs and therapies to treat the diseases. it is remarkable. which you focus on focuses on their piece that

do not affect everybody. the are you seeing that has ability to change medicine overall? >> let's take it from different levels. if we look at therapeutics, there is an area where people are interested in and i have no idea if it will change medicine. it takes advantage of what we asw is living in us individual organisms and how it affects health and disease. there are people who think about how we use the data and the analytics to understand how the micro biome can impact. it is early and it could be something impactful. if we think about how medicine is practiced and how it is going to the future, where you get the doctor, it, see the

is changing. we to think about the doctor's office, the hospitals, the emergency room. we think the cell phones and smartphones. we think of retail, going into target. there is a clinic waiting. engagementout social that allows understanding diseases. consuming think about health care is different and is changing. >> it is interesting. the smartphone becomes the clinic. you can hook in your smartphone and there are certain things out there. on a stick and you said it's your doctor. -- you send it to your doctor. there are ideas that we are waiting on for approval. >> there is an idea we are looking forward to. it is a thermometer.

it is the most common medical device use in the country and it is a technology that allows you to have on demand at the moment you need. it is transformative. they have an interaction with the physician, instead of running their kids to the emergency room. they have the local cbs or rite aid pharmacy and they can understand what is going on in the community, doing crowdsourcing of the diseases. it changes the way that we think about dealing with illness in the community. a small example. these beforelot of we even see them.

what are some of the wilder ones we are starting to see? >> we see a lot of things data toto using discover things that, i am not sure are a big data problem. what drug will work for what disease? it would be nice to think that you could analyze a set of data and figure it out. to me, it goes away from basic biology and assumes it is all computational. >> we have talked about this. it is a huge problem that no one knows how to fix. patches to thef problem and not a solution. what needs to happen for us to actually have a solution

integrated in the hospital and people truly communicating with their doctors in an on-demand the wholeughout country? >> there is a lot that needs to happen. the first is building the pipes. you have to have places for data flow and have it he ubiquitous. it cannot be interpreted. it is still in silos. the government is doing that and they are saying that every hospital and practitioner has to have electronic medical records. get the data out there. it is then ubiquitous and we have access to it on our phones and computers. the analytics are up in the clouds and that is where we will see the changes. we are seeing hundreds of pitches from entrepreneurs who are unencumbered with the old

carel nature of the health , the hospitals, and the provider offices. they are basically ignoring that in a good way and they are coming off with different technologies that you can use that allow you to understand your health. hopefully, it will be communicated back. >> you will have this opportunity in a few short years where you have people communicating with their doctors about all sorts of things, rather than waiting on bureaucratic hospitals to get back the results. we see what happens and we will keep things more instant. >> let's lose another example of tackling onet is

of the most important and highest priced diseases in the nation, diabetes. you want it to go up and you think about onstar for your health. you have to measure glucose multiple times a day. if you do not, you have terrible consequences. it is a pain to do. systemvelop a integrated and they go up instantly. they have diabetic nurses who will call you the moment the glucose is too high and too low and they will give you the information you need. instant where you are

immediately connected at the moment that you need it, as opposed to waiting for an appointment. this is onstar. we have it in the cars. why should we not have it for diseases? living forevert and curing cancer. you hear about being beautiful at all times. what is your level of optimism on whether or not we will actually live forever in our lifetime? >> living forever is a flawed concept. the human body is going to age over time. at what was done with levinsohn and calico. thise are trying to tackle

. the problem with the "live forever" concept is, let's say we can do a better job with cancerer's, diabetes, or , you still have bones, muscles, hearts, everything else that is going to age. i think we are pretty far off and i always ask if i want to live forever. not know that i want to. maybe extend life in little bit or live comfortably? >> that is the key. you want to be healthy and active until you drop dead. >> it happens to everybody. >> it does. knows? how close are we to finding a chair for cancer?

>> it will not be a single chair. we are curing a cancer at a time and we are doing a good job at that. i talked about the leukemia and the diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer. i do not know if you sure this. you can make it a chronic disease. there is more behavioral moonshotd it is not a .live forever" type why is that? do both.e to -- wheren cases like we are trying to cure cancer in those companies, it is a step at a time. there is definitely a moonshot

idea with digital health. we are trying to transform the entire way health care is administered to get health care on the smartphone. we are doing all sorts of investments. >> what is something that is not in the portfolio that is under the radar and we should pay attention to? think -- you know, talking about disrupting health care, companies that are changing the way insurance is administered, whether it is , thesecloverhealth companies take the old-fashioned that anhinking executive is putting together a plan that is right for you and

that is not the case. you need technology and analytics. these are companies that are going to transform and a lot of what we think about as health care. >> i want to talk about someone on everyone's mind. now is the sentiment right about how long we have to be the firm? we are happy it is over. wouldse is done and we love to look at it and we are happy to talk about it. a lot of good came from this. there is always good that comes

from adversity. you think about the levels and theincreased awareness with companies in the valley and it has really been incredibly positive. >> what is different? had the best track usord for hiring women with being the most forward-leaning firm. i do not know that we are different. there is more awareness and we are really excited about the partners we are hiring, focusing on a number of initiatives. class were women. underrepresented minorities and we are more

focused on it. it is great for business in the right thing for society. it is great for the firm and the entrepreneurs. what company do you see as a unicorn? are a few unicorns already. hope that, instead of unicorns, we have public companies that are billion-dollar companies. excited aboutlly a number of our companies that are going public. so, i want to shift the unicorns -- from unicorns to rainbows.

there is a pot of gold at the end of the robe -- the rainbow. hasoes public and liquidity. raincorn. billion-dollar companies in health and the biotech sector. >> thank you. >> thank you. appreciate it. [applause] coming up on c-span, statements from obama and jeh johnson on security. a debate on minimum wage raising. later, the defense department briefing on the accidental bombing of a doctors without borders hospital in afghanistan. onrsday, a graphic artist women aviators who receive the

congressional gold medal for the world war ii service. >> another great thing about the nation is that we may not show much for our men and women in uniform or those who have done great service and achieved great things for humanity. after 60-70 years, we come around and we give credit where it is due. women, they these namedarauders "widow-makers." the male pilots they were standing in for, so they could