At Georgetown’s 2026 Venture in the Capital Summit, Emma Shaich (MSB’26) and Mandy Vogel (MSB’26) moderated a panel on AI built to feel human. Panelists were Dara Ladjevardian, a Georgetown graduate and co-founder and CEO of Delphi; Hassaan Raza, co-founder and CEO of Tavus; and Sumeet Singh, a fellow Hoya and founder of the venture firm Worldbuild.
Ladjevardian described starting Delphi after training a model on his grandfather’s book so he could ask for advice, and said trust and explainability guide the product. Raza explained Tavus’s work teaching machines to see, hear and respond the way people do, and named latency and cost as the biggest constraints. Asked what matters when AI can do much of the work, the panel pointed to taste, which one speaker called “a deep understanding and appreciation of nuances.” Singh described his role as an investor as helping founders reach clarity on their own questions.