Why Diverse Thinking Builds Better AI | Biotech Leadership with Fernando Bardella

Why Diverse Thinking Builds Better AI in Biotech #aiinbiotech #pharmatech #leadershipinsights

In this episode, Fernando Bardella shares why diversity in experience and thinking plays a critical role in building better AI systems and stronger business outcomes in biotech and the pharmaceutical industry. Please visit our website to get more information: https://swangroup.net/ 

With experience across more than 40 countries, Fernando explains how global exposure shapes leadership, improves decision-making, and helps organizations scale effectively. The conversation explores how teams with different perspectives create more reliable AI, reduce bias in data, and improve real-world results in healthcare and life sciences.

We also discuss the importance of trust, collaboration, and aligning technology with people when implementing AI in organizations. From global biotech hubs to leadership challenges, this episode gives a practical view of how innovation actually works beyond theory.

If you’re working in biotech, pharma, or AI in healthcare, this conversation offers clear insights into leadership, strategy, and building better systems through diverse thinking.

Links from this episode:

✅ Get to know more about Steven Swan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swangroup 

✅ Get to know more about Fernando Bardella:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandobardella 

✅ Learn more about Bardella PhD: https://bardella.phd  

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https://www.youtube.com/@Biotech_Bytes/?sub_confirmation=1 

🔗 Stay Connected With Us.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-swan-group/ 

Website:  https://swangroup.net/   

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#aiinbiotech #pharmatech #leadershipinsights #healthcareai #biotechinnovation #artificialintelligence

Transcript

Steve Swan [00:00:00]:
Up next on Biotech Bytes, join me for a spirited discussion with Fernando Bardella, where we dive into the diversity of backgrounds and how that can help any leader, IT or business, to eliminate their blind spots. Welcome to Biotech Bytes. I'm your host, Steve Swan, where we chat with IT leaders within biotech about their thoughts and feelings in the industry. I'm really excited about our conversation today. Today, I have the pleasure of being joined by Fernando Bardella. He's my guest, truly unique perspective on leadership, one that spans continents, cultures, scientific disciplines. Um, Dr. Bardella is a PhD scientist, global technology executive who's operated in over 6 continents, 40 countries, helping biotech pioneers such as Shire and Alnylam scale into Fortune 500 companies.

Steve Swan [00:01:05]:
He's joining me, um, after a big move, which we'll get into soon, relocating from the biotech hub of France to one right here in Boston. And he has some powerful insights, um, that will take you know, he's been operating across different cultures and building global playbooks that actually do travel. So welcome, Fernando. Thank you for being with us.

Fernando Bardella [00:01:26]:
Thank you, Steve. It's really a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Steve Swan [00:01:29]:
Sure thing. Sure thing. So I'd like to go back to what I just said. I'd like to start with that current move that you just had, you know, that you just had rather. Um, how's the transition been and, and what have you learned from your experience?

Fernando Bardella [00:01:44]:
Steve, for one second you got me scared. I thought you would ask me which country makes the best wine.

Steve Swan [00:01:49]:
We'll get to that.

Fernando Bardella [00:01:53]:
We'll get to that. Steve, my transition from Paris to Boston has been truly fantastic. I have done this a few times in my lifetime, moving from a different country, getting to experience a different culture at at this deep immersive level, it's truly a privilege. And while I've been working for Boston-based biotechs most of my career, I feel very privileged, truly privileged to be here today, and I really mean it. And, but Steve, you know, moving from France to the US is not just a change of scenery or wine list, right? For me, it's truly about the change of perspective. It's, uh, the location, of course, but it's also the language, the culture, the people that makes all of this happen. And change like, uh, uh, uh, change like these gives you a complete different view. You start to understand how people think, how they behave, how they work, why they do what they do, and, and, and, and so on, you know.

Steve Swan [00:03:03]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Fernando Bardella [00:03:05]:
So for example, look at Paris and Boston. These are two of the largest biotech hubs in the world. My colleagues and friends, they do have this incredible appreciation for process, precision, and this very French long-term view of things, right? While Here in Boston, my colleagues have these magnificent, almost religious devotion to speed and efficiency and disruption. They're both right. And they are, or better say, they can be both very effective, but depending on the problem you're trying to solve, If these different views of the world are left unbalanced, both of them can fail. Just to conclude, I think that being a global leader here isn't about picking which country or which culture is the best or better. There's never such a thing. Perspective isn't a zero-sum game.

Fernando Bardella [00:04:17]:
It's the opposite. It's a multiplier. You keep adding up. Your entire life. Work with a French team and you become a little French. Partner with Germans, Mexicans, or your neighbor from a different state, you just keep adding up, you just keep growing those experiences inside of you. So for me, it's really about understanding and appreciating views that are very different from my own and using that to really connect the right mindset to the right challenge and at the right moment. Keeping this balance, Steve, is, is, is very difficult.

Fernando Bardella [00:04:55]:
It's truly an art really, but connecting maybe to the conversation we had this other day, I think that's the true meaning of partnership and it's the true meaning or the true lesson I'm taking from this movie.

Steve Swan [00:05:09]:
Yeah, no, that's great. And you know what's funny, you talk about regional different regional perspectives. Um, you even see, or I even see, right? Because I recruit all over the US. Boston's perspective, Boston Cambridge area, is totally different than the New York area. And here's what I mean. It's almost along the lines of what you just said. When you're dealing with somebody in the New York region, they're used to the big motherships, right? J&J, Sanofi, Novartis, Merck. So I guess maybe they're less risk-averse and they're slower, a little bit slower.

Steve Swan [00:05:42]:
Like you just said, the Boston folks, they're ready to go. So if I called somebody in the New York area about a startup of some sort, somebody that's about to come to market with a product, hold on, Steve, let me do my homework. Can we talk in a week? Can we talk in 4 days? Cool. Call somebody in Boston, same conversation. Yeah, I'm good. Let's go. You know, No, no hangup. We're not, we're not calling in a week.

Steve Swan [00:06:07]:
We're talking about it right now. Let's get this thing moving. So it's even regional, uh, Fernando in the US, what you just said. So it's, it's, it truly is where you are up there in Boston and Cambridge area unique in that respect, in my opinion. That's from where I sit. So anyway, just thought I'd throw that in there. Now, one, another thing that leads to your, your, your unique, in my opinion, background. Is, you know, you have this background dealing with, with, you know, nuclear physicists, right? And, and then, and then you got into the lab, right? You know, leading a group of technology and, and kind of what's the common thread between those and how did you go from one to the other? Because I don't see that.

Steve Swan [00:06:46]:
Actually, I never see that. So talk to me about that real quick, if you can.

Fernando Bardella [00:06:51]:
Absolutely. So Steve, I started in a lab and I mean, a real lab, a nuclear research reactor, more precisely. Yeah, think of me wearing a white coat, radiation badge, and I had full of questions. Yeah, certainly I had with a lot more hair back then. I think I will share a picture with you, and I, I, it's a really cool picture where, you know, I'm describing this, this, this, this scenario, you know. Yeah, curiosity has really been the engine Maybe that's the better word, behind my career, my, my whole life, actually. And it has been that curiosity that pulled me into entrepreneurship early on. Steve, I was very fortunate to have started and exited two companies.

Fernando Bardella [00:07:40]:
It was my personal crash course into how to turn abstract science into a real-world purpose, but also how to build teams, technical teams, that function as engines for growth. That builder's mindset is really what brought me to biotech. And over the years, I've helped pioneers like Shire and Alnylam, as you mentioned, to scale from pretty much a lab idea into Fortune 500s that they are today. I was always that guy, the only guy sometimes, sitting in an office very, very far away. It was me opening new geographies, launching new markets, scaling new technologies, but most importantly, I was also that guy leading the transformations that would actually make sense for those people outside of Mothership Boston. And let's be honest, Steve, that's biotech. You need that entrepreneurial DNA or RNA maybe, to literally launch an incubated idea into a global market like that. That's why I say biotech is one of the very few fields, if not the only one, for guys like me.

Fernando Bardella [00:09:02]:
It sits right at that intersection of science, strategy, and technology. And that's my life. Science is the why, Technology is the how, and strategy, which I've learned, is mostly about culture and the people. It's the bridge that makes it all happen. So Steve, although I have a lot less hair today, that curiosity from the lab days, it never, never really left me. And I, I'm still very close to research and innovation communities, and I, I'm still building, just at a global scale where stakes are higher and the impact is real.

Steve Swan [00:09:42]:
So when you say you're building, what are you building today? What are you working on today?

Fernando Bardella [00:09:46]:
Yeah, so I'm currently building my own company, Bardella PhD. It's my hands-on advisory. Steve, I basically help growing life science companies do 3 things really well: open new geographies, launch new markets, and turn strategy into execution globally. So, from EU-compliant AI to Japan-ready vendor orchestration, right? I basically help them scale. You can call me your international man of mystery, if you will, right? Now, the.phD that you see on my company there, it isn't a flex. It's also, as also a scientist, it's my promise of rigor. It's a reminder to bring evidence over opinions, clear choices over long decks, and playbooks that run just like good experiments. It's universal at its core, local at its edges, and reproducible anywhere in the world.

Fernando Bardella [00:10:52]:
And it's also very personal, just like science. I truly believe that technology must serve people, or it doesn't serve us at all. So in practice, all of these means building human-centric launch kits with the right local privacy and regulatory maps, or deploying responsible AI that respects local laws and ethics, or creating data platforms that are truly unified across borders. It's all about making sure that global technologies and global plans work across 40+ countries and not just Boston HQ.

Steve Swan [00:11:31]:
Sure. Yeah, of course. And so as you, you know, map that out for me, what's— do you have an overarching philosophy that you're following, or tell me about that? What are you thinking about when it comes to sort of globally with that?

Fernando Bardella [00:11:44]:
Yeah. So Steve, most of my conversations with senior executives and boards, they all boil down to to one word. How do we scale something remarkable without diluting impact or starving innovation, right? And when it comes to technology, I truly believe there's only one way forward. It's building technology that brings people, cultures, and ideas closer together and not further apart. So that's the bridge in building.

Steve Swan [00:12:16]:
That is. That's awesome. You know, and, you know, I know that earlier, you know, you talked about, you talked about some things as far as diversity, right, in your strategies and things like that. And you talked about, I think what you were talking about was leading into it was all the different cultures and all the different countries and all really all the things you've done too on top of all that. Right. So it's all kind of coming together. And I think there's a place for that. Right.

Steve Swan [00:12:41]:
I mean, because I think when you can hit and you and I had this conversation, When, when, when you look at something through the same lens, you're going to keep solving it the same way. But if you have a lens that has, you know, different colors, different experiences, different angles that you can look at it through, you get that diversity of, of, of, of strategy, thought processes. Expand on that because you and I talked about that and I think you had some great insight on that.

Fernando Bardella [00:13:04]:
No, thank you. So as we've spoken before, right, it just, it just keeps adding. It's something that, you you add to your personal library. It's something that you add to your personal experience, right? So, I think it's very rich in that sense. But, when you look at my company, Bardella PhD, and how it's structured, how it's set up, did you notice anything in particular there? Is that what you're saying?

Steve Swan [00:13:36]:
Well, yeah, I think we had a, um, we were talking about the coloring that you chose, right? When, when you call it—

Fernando Bardella [00:13:45]:
no, I'm actually glad. I'm actually glad you noticed that, Steve. So, um, yeah, no, it's very, it's very rare, right? It's very unique. So this color, you know, this visual identity that you mentioned, it's, it's not, it's not by chance. Um, it's actually a reference that, that's very close to my heart. Actually, it, it comes from a a classic, a beautiful Brazilian children's book by an author called Ziraldo. And this book is called Flicks. So this book is a tale about a color, this color, which is a kind of brownish, earthy orange color, named Flicks.

Fernando Bardella [00:14:27]:
And Flicks, just like, you know, you notice it's a rare or a very unique color trying to find its place in the world. But Flix, it just doesn't fit in, right? So Flix is not in the rainbow. It's not in any flags of the world. So all the other normal colors reject Flix. You know, Flix is completely alone. So having no place on Earth, Flix actually looks up, and that's when it finds its place. Flix becomes the color of the moon. Right.

Fernando Bardella [00:15:07]:
The fascinating part of the story is that many years later, Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, right, he actually got to meet the author, Geraldo. And Neil was just fascinated about this story. He was just absolutely fascinated about the story. And they exchanged autographs. Can you imagine that? And Neil signed, "Yes, the moon is flickered." So if you look at the card that you mentioned, that's the reason why. Neil actually said that on his autograph to Géraldine. That's cool. Yeah.

Fernando Bardella [00:15:50]:
And see, for me, this story, this whole development is the whole ballgame. Diversity powers innovation. It does. So, when people and ideas from, you know, as we were talking before, different backgrounds, different cultures, different experiences, when they come together, creativity really takes off, right? And I really think that's the bridge, that's the bridge that we were talking before. It's that diversity is the only pathway to build technology that's aligned with human needs and human values.

Steve Swan [00:16:37]:
Because the needs come from a lot of different angles, right? And I think you and I, last time we were kind of hitting on this, you know, I'm super simple, man. I'm really simple. You know, I will never, God bless you, I'll never be a PhD. I'll never be a scientist. You know, I mean, I'm a recruitment doctor, right? You know, that kind of thing. A lot more art than science in what I do. But what I like doing is I like boiling things down in my head to sort of simple things that are relatable to me. And one of the things that came to mind as you were talking about this diversity is I thought to myself, how many times have we all said to ourselves, man, I wish more people just thought like me.

Steve Swan [00:17:16]:
Life would be so much easier. And then it brought me right back to this show. My oldest brother, who God rest his soul, he's no longer with us. But he, um, he, he showed me, um, uh, The Twilight Zone and there was a particular Twilight Zone. It's the only one I remember and it has to do with one guy saying that then all of a sudden the whole show changes, right? And everybody's doing everything he does, you know, wearing the same stuff, doing the same thing. And, you know, and the world's not, nothing's getting done. So to your point, there's a lot to be said for that. And I'm not just saying from a fictional perspective, from The Twilight Zone.

Steve Swan [00:17:50]:
I'm saying from reality. I mean, I can tell you right now, if one person's the bottleneck and they're running the whole show, there's nothing's going to get done because everybody's got to do that one thing, you know? So, I really, I think a lot of folks will and probably do appreciate the diversity in decision-making and the perspectives that you've gotten from your global, your science, and your technology. Anyway, I'm stealing your thunder.

Fernando Bardella [00:18:14]:
No, no, thank you. Thank you. And I think this is the whole ballgame, as we were saying before, right? And this matter of perspective, it really puts us into thinking from the other's point of view, right? For us in biotech, I really think it's a constant reminder that at the end of every workflow, there's a patient, right? There's a human being. It's not only about systems. It's, you know, when we get it right, we won't just ship features, right? We won't just get a box done. We're actually changing a life, we're actually impacting a life, you know? So, Flix is a color, but for me, it's much more than that. It's my chosen identity. It's to build inclusive environments, to empower people, and really let their best ideas win, especially when those ideas are called rare and weird and—

Steve Swan [00:19:13]:
Those are the ones that are always the best, right?

Fernando Bardella [00:19:16]:
Exactly. That's exactly, that's exactly what this is all about. Yes.

Steve Swan [00:19:20]:
The person that invented the car, they were called crazy. Jeff Bezos invented, I'm just thinking of things of the day. Bill Gates, software, not hardware. He was, they were all, they were all crazy, right? You know, um, Michael Bloomberg who invented the, the, what he invented, he was called crazy, you know? So again, to your point, you know, let's, let's absorb all those crazy ideas and, and, and integrate them, right? You know, so now what about, so we've got all these ideas, we've got all these folks, we've got this diversity of decision-making, right? But we all know our industry is highly, highly regulated, right? There's a lot of regulations. There's a lot of standards, but it's different around the globe. Again, you've got that diversity of seeing all those standards, but how do you integrate all that as you go through and do your thing and respect both the cultures and the standards of of all that stuff, right?

Fernando Bardella [00:20:13]:
Yeah. So you're right. I think on paper it looks like an absolute contradiction, right? But here's the thing. You don't just mail HQ plan global v3.pdf, right? And pray for adoption, right? It doesn't work this way. Yeah, it doesn't work this way.

Steve Swan [00:20:35]:
So laughable, right?

Fernando Bardella [00:20:36]:
Yeah, exactly. But, you know, a lot of people actually do that? And so the answer is very simple, right? It is co-creation. You participate the regions, you co-create the plans that they will have to live with as part of your process, you know? So in other words, you don't just send a memo. You get on a plane, you bring your IT, your R&D, your commercial leads from Asia, Europe, Latin America, You get all of them in the same table and you guess it right, you have this conflict of ideas before you actually build the technology, right? And a key lesson I've learned is in many cultures, in most of the cultures in fact, trust is compliance, right? So, what I mean by this is in a new market, in a different country, those teams, they will only follow you, your global standards, your global framework only if they trust you, only if they believe you listen to their concerns first. Because if you don't or if they think you don't, they would just find workarounds. And this is really when your data is going to be compromised. Your launch is going to fail, right? So maybe back to your question, the paradox here is really that investing 6 weeks to fly to Tokyo, sit down and listen to the leadership and take the time to build that trust, it actually accelerates you. It accelerates your project instead of wasting, you know, 6 whole months trying to fix a failed launch or, you know, just because you missed a data privacy law that your Japanese colleagues flagged since day one, you know.

Fernando Bardella [00:22:37]:
So it's about building a playbook, yes, that leverages your universal core, absolutely. But it's also about empowering your local people, their best ideas, and co-creating its local edges. So this is how global playbooks travel. Yeah.

Steve Swan [00:22:55]:
And I, you know, I mean, just thinking about all that, right? You know, I mean, trust is what everything's built on, you know? And when I try and talk to my, you know, I'm gonna, I always, again, I boil things way down to a low level. When I talk to my kids about going out there looking for a job or working with their bosses or working with their coaches as they were growing up, right? Again, it's the, the base level is trust and to have that interaction, like you just said, like I came up to Boston and saw you guys, right? That I couldn't have done that by way of Zoom, you know? I just think you need to do those things like you just said, flying to, flying to Tokyo to press the flesh, shake some hands. You know what I mean? It's what the world is built on. And you can do this stuff through Zoom and through technology, but it doesn't have the same, the same level. And once you get to that point where you do build that trust and you do embed yourself with those folks for a day, 2, 3, a week, 6 weeks, whatever the number is, you get to learn that culture and that's where your diversification comes in.

Fernando Bardella [00:23:59]:
Correct. Correct. And Steve, to the skeptic, right? I'd say this, business won't escape laws of physics or nature, right? So in biology, a homogeneous specimen is the single largest risk to its wider population in nature. Teams, teams and boardrooms included here, right? Yeah.

Steve Swan [00:24:22]:
So, yeah, right.

Fernando Bardella [00:24:23]:
You're talking about the Twilight Zone episode, right? That's a class. I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I, that's a class. That's a classic. That's a classic Twilight Zone, you know, thing. But because a homogeneous group has that shared blind spot, right? You, you do have these intrinsic bias, right? I mean, in biological terms, you call it reduced adaptability, right? But it's purely biological. It's the law of nature, right? In a diverse team here, and I mean diversity in culture, yes, but I wanted to specifically point out diversity in function or diversity in experience or thinking style, right? A different perspective. Just to clarify, that's what I mean by diversity when I talk about diversity. I can, I can guarantee you, Steve, that a diverse team, right, by its very own nature, they will see the same problem from 10 different angles and will completely disagree about all of them the same meeting, right? So the R&D guy, he will see, you know, a molecule.

Fernando Bardella [00:25:37]:
The IT gal, a data structure. You know, the commercial lead from France will see potential reimbursement hurdle or the regulatory lead in Japan, he will see a compliance trap. Every single one of those guys, they will see something very unique. And just like how we started our conversation, they are all right. They are all, you know, they're all in their own senses, in their own perspectives. They all have, you know, they're all right. Partnership here, and I wanted to go back to the conversation we had that other day around what it means to be a business partner, right? Means to be a partnership is about understanding and appreciating, but more importantly, balancing those different views of the same problem. You know, it's connecting the mindset, the challenge, and the same moment for that specific circumstance, you know?

Steve Swan [00:26:36]:
Yeah. Yeah. No. And, you know, we did talk about that. It's been coming up a lot more recently, that business partner and that business partner really does need to understand, I think, more so than anybody in the IT world, right? Because the IT business partners has to sit down with business and has to make it transparent to the business folks that they're an IT person. They need to walk, talk, look, think, act like a well-rounded business person, but then take that back to IT and say, this is how we're doing this, or tell business, this is how we're not doing it. You know, however you want to frame it. But, you know, there's a lot of components, a lot of pieces that go in there.

Steve Swan [00:27:15]:
And the, like you just said, you know, the diversity of decision-making with those different backgrounds is huge. You know, I preach a lot to some of these managers that, you know, if we If you have a position description and you have 8 must-haves and 4 nice-to-haves, you know, you know, if you find somebody with all 12 of those things, how excited are they going to be to do that? They've already been there, done that, you know. But if you get somebody, maybe they're out, maybe they're in the insurance industry, another regulated industry, or the finance industry, and maybe they've done 7 of the 8 and 2 of the nice-to-haves, how excited are they going to be to come to your office every day or work remote, whatever the case is, they're going to be really excited. And again, Steve Swan being Steve Swan brings everything down to the lowest common denominator. I've coached a lot of kids' teams, right? And I'll tell you right now, all the kids that want to show up on my team next year, Coach Swan, I want you to coach me. Why? I had fun and I learned something. That doesn't change when you're 45, 55, whatever. It's the same.

Steve Swan [00:28:18]:
We're the same people. From when we were this, this high to, you know, so diversity leads to a steep learning curve for everybody. And it also in decision-making leads to a, you know, steep learning curve for everybody. And we can learn from the folks around us. We always do. We're human.

Fernando Bardella [00:28:34]:
Yeah. You know, I think this is a great theme, right? Uh, what, what does it mean to be an inclusive leader? Uh, and I think it's very, uh, it's a very good discussion at this point in time that we are and world's history, right? So being an inclusive leader here is not about politics, just to make it clear, you know, and it's also not about looking good on that HR deck, right? Or, you know, awards or magazine covers. It's not about that. The job of an inclusive leader or my job as an inclusive leader is really to find the seats for all of those different perspectives at the same table or arena, as I like to call it, right? And ring that bell. Fights. It's really safely and respectfully, but incentivize, stimulate the debate, the positive conflict, or as I like to call the intellectual UFC in between those participants. That's really what I think allows teams to step over landmines before the company actually steps into one. And when the company steps into one, they blow up.

Fernando Bardella [00:30:02]:
Budgets and timelines, they blow up. So diversity here, and this is really why I wanted to talk about the role of diverse leaders and inclusive leaders, diversity here isn't charity. It's really insurance. It's our corporate phase one for big bats. You want to take those punches at the table called an arena, but not in the market. You don't want to talk this space on the market. And for an important decision like that, if a team agrees, Steve, or a board agrees within 15 minutes without a fight, watch out. That's not efficiency.

Fernando Bardella [00:30:44]:
That's a, that's a class job.

Steve Swan [00:30:47]:
And, you know, I think, again, I'm going to summarize. This is what I do. So I think that to, you know, with that diversity from a corporate perspective, from a business perspective, you've now created a well-rounded, like you just said, decision-making process to eliminate those blind spots. And when you eliminate those blind spots from a business perspective, you're more impenetrable, you're more well-rounded, you're more addressing all the needs as opposed to a certain set and forgetting about these, right? So, you know, and, but then it all, so, so it all leads into, right? What, what we, you know, Biotech Bytes, we talk about technology here, right? One of the big things a lot of our leaders want to talk about is AI, right? So give me a quick, you know, your thoughts and, and, and with your philosophy, which we've learned all about, right? How does it all lead into AI? What are your thoughts there?

Fernando Bardella [00:31:38]:
Steve, I, I really think it's, that's the most important question for our industry future. And I also think it connects everything we've been discussing so far, right? Uh, so for me, the single biggest risk of AI, it isn't a technical risk. It's a human risk, right? It's just as we've spoken, it's bias. It's intrinsic bias baked in at the source. You can't fight physics. You can't fight laws of nature, right? So AI or AI model is just a reflection of its data, but more importantly, is a reflection of the people who put that data in there, right? So if you train a drug discovery model using only genomic data from European populations, for example, that model will fail. Or even worse, it will do harm if you apply that model to Asian or African populations, for example, right? Or if you train a commercial AI model using US market dynamics, it will completely misunderstand the trust-based, relationship-driven reimbursement systems that, you know, you have in countries like France or Germany, for example, right? So this is really where and when I think that my Flicks philosophy and that intellectual UFC approach with us we just discussed becomes a hard-nosed, technical, and ethical necessity. Diversity is the most important AI guardrail you can possibly have.

Steve Swan [00:33:28]:
I agree. I agree. You know, because of all those inputs that go into it, you know? And when I talk to— boy, I mean, I can't even tell you how many CIOs I've talked to on this podcast, you know? They've all got a bit of a different angle on it, you know? There are, though, a bunch that will say to you, you know, when you're testing your AI or when you're, when you're not validating, but when you're taking your AI through its, its QA and such, you got to run it through the, the, the QA model as an employee for the company, right? I mean, you've got to be, you, you, you own that. That's an employee and that's somebody that's making decisions on your behalf as a corporation. You can't just write it off. And so to your point, we got to have those guardrails there, right? And that's got to be established in the QA process.

Fernando Bardella [00:34:13]:
Absolutely. Find your data scientist, right, from your Tokyo office and putting him into that seat at the table. Well, call it an arena.

Steve Swan [00:34:23]:
Yeah, right.

Fernando Bardella [00:34:24]:
It isn't just a nice to have. This guy is the only person who can raise his hand and say, look, doctors in Japan, they're not measured on this data point. This model will fail, right? And just as you mentioned, that's corporate phase one for AI. It's the human check. It's putting a human soul on artificial AI, right? So I really think it's the most important guardrail for artificial intelligence for sure.

Steve Swan [00:35:00]:
Yeah, I don't disagree. I think you're spot on there. Well, this was awesome. This is good stuff. Thank you. I mean, boy, maybe someday we get to do it again. Anything else you want to leave with our audience or chat about before I get to what's always my final question in my conversations with folks? I have one final question, but anything else you want to talk about?

Fernando Bardella [00:35:22]:
Yeah, no, I think we've spoken a lot about AI at the end, but maybe just my finale here. Diversity, as I said, is the the central guardrail for AI, but also for any technology we build, right? So diversity is what ensures as we build these powerful tools, including AI, real human purpose. And for us in biotech, it's truly a compass pointing out to our patients and hopefully making their lives better.

Steve Swan [00:35:57]:
Yeah. Well, that's, that's what we're all here for, right? To make sure that effective medicines are delivered to patients that need them and we're, we're helping their lives and everybody's lives, right? To be better. Uh, rising tides raise all boats, you know, that sort of thing. So, well, so, okay. One final question. I always ask everybody the same question. So I, I see a lot of bands. I see a lot of live music.

Steve Swan [00:36:21]:
I like concerts, you know, and one part of that is because for me anyway, when you go to see a live show, you're outside, you're not reading the newspaper or the internet or whatever, and you're kind of, you're in the moment, you're watching your band, you're thinking about maybe what they, what they, uh, uh, thought about when they wrote that music or whatever. And you're in a room with 200 people or 100,000 people, whatever it is, and everybody in that room is going to have a different experience. But so, you know, I see a lot of live bands, I like live music, and there's different acts that I've liked along the way for different reasons. But the thing that I like to ask my guests is Is there a live band that you've ever seen that you would say stands out as your, you know, number one? I loved seeing— I remember that concert was great, or I remember that live act and it's awesome and I love seeing them, or I've seen them several times, whatever it is. But what would you— do you have an answer for that or do you have a thought around that?

Fernando Bardella [00:37:07]:
I do. I do. Yeah. It's a band. It's a Canadian band called Rush. I'm not sure you, you, you're familiar. Yeah. It's a progressive rock too.

Steve Swan [00:37:17]:
Yeah.

Fernando Bardella [00:37:17]:
I have two.

Steve Swan [00:37:18]:
You're the second guy that said that. And I've done, I don't know how many podcasts I've done. I don't know, 60 of them. Yeah, Rush is awesome. Love Rush.

Fernando Bardella [00:37:25]:
It's awesome. I used to spend a lot of time in Canada, actually. And word of mouth is that they would in Montreal do like pop-up shows, right? So they would, you know, show up in venues like secretly. And then, you know, you wouldn't even know, is that a cover band? Is that, you know, real Rush? So the word of mouth is that, you know, they would show up. On the street and just do a pop-up show. So I remember on my old days going around in the Canadian winter just to see her. That's awesome. That's great.

Steve Swan [00:38:00]:
That's good stuff. So did Rush. So truth be told, I'm one of 4 boys. My brothers have all seen Rush multiple times. I've seen them zero. Never seen them. Why? I don't know. Just never.

Steve Swan [00:38:11]:
But I love them. Love them, love them, love them. My question is, do when they— so you saw them several times, it sounds like more than many times. Is it always a different show? Do they, do they put on different shows? Do they follow the same setlist when they're on a particular tour? What do they do?

Fernando Bardella [00:38:26]:
Always very different. Oh, okay, cool. They have this force of creation, creativity.

Steve Swan [00:38:33]:
Yeah, yeah.

Fernando Bardella [00:38:34]:
Every show was solos, drum solos, guitar. I mean, completely different. And that's honestly a signature of great musicians, you know?

Steve Swan [00:38:44]:
Oh, 100%. Yeah. Being able to improvise like that. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Now you heard they're going on tour next year, right? Did you see that? Rush?

Fernando Bardella [00:38:52]:
Really? I didn't know that.

Steve Swan [00:38:53]:
Yeah. So 2026, they decided they're going to do a tour. They announced, I don't know, initially they announced Illinois, obviously Canada, New York City, Ohio, and maybe California. The demand was so high, they added a full-blown tour. They have a female German drummer joining.

Fernando Bardella [00:39:13]:
Oh my God.

Steve Swan [00:39:14]:
I guess when we're done, check it out.

Fernando Bardella [00:39:15]:
Yeah. Wow. Wow. Thank you. You just made my day again.

Steve Swan [00:39:20]:
But then they came down because they added more shows. Boston. They're coming to Boston, right? So.

Fernando Bardella [00:39:25]:
And wow.

Steve Swan [00:39:25]:
Each place they go, they're spending several nights, you know, like, I think New York City, they're spending like 5, you know what I mean? So they're just— and they've sold everything like they're selling everything out, you know? So check it out.

Fernando Bardella [00:39:35]:
Check it out. I just made my day. The second time you made my day.

Steve Swan [00:39:41]:
Oh, well, good. Well, listen, hey, I appreciate this. This was great. This is awesome. I love doing this stuff and maybe we'll do it again sometime, but I definitely want to get up there and see you guys again. Um, you know, Fernando, I can't thank you enough. This was great. Appreciate it.

Fernando Bardella [00:39:56]:
Steve, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for your audience and for this amazing exchange. Thank you.