Studies say you can prevent about 50% of mental health challenges if you catch and address them early. Doctors from Cincinnati Children’s hospital are using the world’s second-most powerful supercomputer to help solve mental health right at the start: when we're kids. This is a big deal. About 13% of us suffer from some form of mental health disorder ... that’s 971 million people globally. And it’s only gotten worse since Covid. In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, we meet and chat with Dr. John Pestian, who is leading the effort. Links: Cincinnati Children's hospital: https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Thinking to type sounds interesting to most of us. Crazy and futuristic, yes, but also freeing and fast. But for those with massive spinal cord injuries or degenerative diseases, it's an absolute lifeline. In this TechFirst, we chat with Marcus Gerhardt, CEO of Blackrock Neurotech, about a brain-computer interface they've invented, "installed" for people who cannot use their arms or legs anymore, and enabled typing, speech, and the use of robotic arms to feed themselves and more. Blackrock's tech enables thought-to-text typing at 90 characters per minute with 94% accuracy (just imagine what Dr. Stephen Hawking could have done with this) and gives tetraplegic patients the power to move a prosthetic arm, grab a glass of water, and drink by themselves again for the first time since their tragic accidents. Links: Blackrock Neurotech: https://blackrockneurotech.com Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Can we save the coral reefs by 3D printing more? Not reefs themselves, of course: those are built by living creatures, the coral ... but by 3D printing the substrate that corals can attach to and kickstarting the process of reef construction. In this TechFirst, we chat with marine biologist Astrid Kramer and 3D printing expert Nadia Fani about their crowdfunding startup, Coastruction. Scientists say we've lost half the world's coral reefs, and that puts a quarter of the world's fish at risk. Astrid and Nadia are trying to help reverse that, with the help of 3D printing and local groups all over the planet. Their proposed 3D printer uses sand and other local materials, and can adapt the size and shape of the substrate to local needs as determined by depth, tide, waves, shoreline, and more. Links: Coastruction: https://www.coastruction.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Have you taken a flying Uber yet? We're in the middle of a flight revolution. In the past two years, there's been $5 billion of investment in personal drones, multicopters, autonomous helicopters, and vectored thrust aircraft. 129 different companies are developing almost 170 different air taxi, cargo, vertical takeoff or landing craft. Many of these, 65%, are doing electrical power and 25% are going with hybrid power models.  So what's happening here? Why has investment almost 10X'd in a little over a decade? And why is cargo drones so hot, while air taxis are so cold? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we're chatting with Daniel Shaposhnikov, partner at Phystech Ventures. Links: Phystech: https://phystech.vc Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

What if plants could tell us when pests are attacking them, or they’re too dry, or they need more fertilizer. One startup is gene engineering farm plants so they can communicate in in fluorescent colors. The result: a farmer’s  phone, drone, or even satellite imagery can reveal what is happening in hundreds of acres of fields …  That leads to better food, fewer crop failures, and more revenue for farmers. In this TechFirst with John Koetsier we meet Shely Aronov, CEO and founder at InnerPlant, and chat about what plants say, and how farmers can understand their messages. Links:  Innerplant: https://innerplant.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Five days ago, gaming giant Take-Two bought Zynga for $13 billion. But before that, Zynga bought Chartboost for $250 million. What's going on? Why is a gaming company buying an ad network? And what does this say about the future of games and media? In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Zynga Chief Product Officer Scott Koenigsberg and Chartboost CEO Rich Izzo. Questions we discuss: Zynga bought an ad network for $250M. A decade ago that would have sounded insane. Why? We know Zynga for games. But you’re not the only combination of gaming and adtech. What’s driving this merger frenzy and consolidation? How does having Chartboost make Zynga better? How does having Zynga make Chartboost better? Are there downsides? Competitive issues? What’s evolving in tech and platforms that is changing the competitive landscape? What kind of platform that you can build will be well-optimized for the future state? Zynga has acquired other gaming studios as well. What’s the goal? Mobile was a phase-shift in technology that privileged some platforms and networks and deprioritized others. What’s the next one … do you have metaverse bets, and what kind of timetable to you envision there? How will this change your business? Planning to still be acquisitive? Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Livestream shopping is a $66 billion business in China, but only a $1 billion business in the U.S. That’s likely to change soon if Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, TikTok, and many other massive platforms have their way. Tech giants are investing huge sums in building live-streaming shopping in the web. Will it work? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Elma Beganovich, 50% of the iconic influencer duo Amra & Elma. Former lawyers and economists, now entrepreneurs, they started their own influencer marketing agency and have over two million followers. A major focus now: livestream shopping. We chat about why it’s happening. Who does it. Why people shop via livestream. And where it’s likely to go. Links: Amra & Elma: https://www.amraandelma.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Quantum computing currently costs $10,000 a qubit: just one of the reasons why it's hard and expensive to scale. SEEQC is taking a different approach to building scalable million-qubit machines that can actually deliver on the promise of quantum computers and revolutionize computing. Will they succeed? Hard to say, but SEEQC just announced that they are building a commercially-scalable, application-specific quantum computer for pharmaceutical drug development. Merck has bought one, and the company is partnering with Riverlane and Oxford Instruments to make it a reality. The real challenge here is to take quantum computing from a V2 rocket era, CEO John Levy says, and bring it into the SpaceX era. In other words, to generate real, massive, lasting, and provable value from quantum computers ... which, let's be honest, we haven't really seen yet. Links: SEEQC: https://seeqc.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Drones are super-cool and fun. They could also be a terrorist's favorite weapon, allowing them to strike from a distance in safety. But how do you defend against tiny, almost invisible flying machines that fly fast, elevate over fences, and can carry explosives or toxins into dangerous proximity to infrastructure and people? In this episode of the TechFirst podcast, I chat with the CEO of Dedrone, which "dedrones" sensitive airspaces using sensors, AI, machine learning, and orchestration of defense and interdiction activity via lasers, jamming, and yes ... "putting lead on it." Links: Dedrone: https://www.dedrone.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Billions of people have jobs that require heavy lifting, and most of them will lose health and ability over years of repetitive stress. German Bionic thinks its Cray X bionic exoskeleton, powered, by AI, will not only help workers do their jobs safely, but also help others: sick, injured, or old. Cray X helps workers lift with 66 pounds of lifting support, and uses rechargeable batteries so you can wear it all day. It's built with carbon fibre so it's light, and it's built-in AI learns your patterns to assist better. Best part: at the end of the day the AI tells you how many tons you've lifted and what you've done ... essentially gamifying work. Links: German Bionic: https://www.germanbionic.com/en/home/ Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier