Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

Engineering biology holds the key to improving the lives of people across the world. It promises solutions to disease, food production, and pollution amongst other deep-seated problems. But this engineering is immensely difficult. CEO of LabGenius James Field, partner at NFX Gigi Levy-Weiss, partner at the investment firm Episode 1 Carina Namih, and science writer Oliver Morton come together to discuss the merging field of bioengineering. Carina, James, Gigi, and Oliver also discuss: How machine learning is improving life sciences and healthcare. Experiences of fundraising and hiring for biology companies in the UK and the U.S. The role of bio-engineering in solving major global problems, including pollution. Further reading: “35+ Companies Using Synthetic Biology To Rethink Everything From Plastics To Fabrics To Fertilizers” (CB Insights, Nov. 8, 2018) “Where Are All the Biotech Startups Raising?” (Tech Crunch, 2019) “The New Era of Life” (CognitionX, June 24, 2019) Carina Namih @CarinaNamih Oliver Morton @Eaterofsun James Field @jejfield Gigi Levy-Weiss @GigiLevy www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Artificial intelligence is a powerful technology with capabilities that are open to use by state and non-state actors. In this conversation Azeem Azhar, De Kai, and Joanna Bryson discuss how governance should adapt as our institutions are challenged by unintended consequences of the technology and its creators. Joanna, De Kai, and Azeem also discuss: Why rule-based systems fall short of protecting us against the unintended consequences of technology. The value of cross-cultural dialogue in establishing common values to guide the governance of AI globally. The role of the leading technology companies in regulating the industry. Further reading: “Designing Responsible AI” (The Exponential View podcast, April 10, 2019) “Google Needs to be Treated Like A World Power” (Business Insider, June 12, 2019) “Translation: Chinese Expert Group Offers ‘Governance Principles’ for ‘Responsible AI’” (New America, June 2019) “Governance and Accountability in an AI World” (CognitionX, June 12, 2019) Joanna Bryson @j2bryson De Kai Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“At a fundamental level, insurance is a social good. It’s about a community of people pooling their resources to help the weakest members in their hour of need. That should be the most loved industry, but it’s 180 degrees away from that,” says Daniel Schreiber, the cofounder and CEO of the InsureTech startup Lemonade, in conversation with Azeem Azhar. Daniel and Azeem also discuss: How insurance is a business of probability theory, which is why the sector as a whole will only get more susceptible to transformations through AI, big data, and machine learning. Why the corporate cultures of legacy insurance firms are well-adapted for preservation, but ill-adapted for business transformation, innovation, and the transition from a policy-centric to customer-centric business model. Integrating AI into behind-the-scenes processes, including regulation, feature development, and production. Further reading: “First, Fire All The Brokers: How Lemonade, A Millennial-Loved Fintech Unicorn, Is Disrupting The Insurance Business” (Forbes, May 2, 2019) “Insurers in UK and US lagging behind in divesting from coal” (The Guardian, Dec. 3, 2018) “Why Lemonade Won’t Invest In Coal” (Lemonade, Sept. 11, 2018) “How A.I. Is Transforming the Insurance Industry” (Bloomberg, April 9, 2018) Daniel Schreiber @daschreiber Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 2015, computer scientist and AI pioneer, Stuart Russell, became the first signatory of an open letter calling on researchers to ensure “that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial.” Stuart joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the possible AI futures and how to ensure technology serves the good of humanity. Stuart and Azeem also discuss: The nature of intelligence and re-creating intelligence in machines Algorithmic fairness and regulating AI Embodied intelligence Using AI to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals Further reading: Stuart Russell, “The Long-Term Future of AI” (Berkeley) “Moral technology” (Aeon, March 21, 2019) “Concerns of an Artificial Pioneer” (Quanta Magazine, April 21, 2015) “Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence” (Future of Life Institute) Stuart Russell Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Shoshana Zuboff coined the term “surveillance capitalism” to describe the new way companies claim private human experience as products. Shoshana joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the emergence of surveillance capitalism, its pernicious and beneficial aspects, and the future for human autonomy and agency. Shoshana and Azeem also discuss: The evolution of the first surveillance capitalist. The economics of scale, scope, and action as forms of harm. How we can safeguard the beneficial aspects of technology, while preventing its covert use by surveillance capitalists. Further reading: “The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 2016) “Beyond Surveillance Capitalism: Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty” (Decode, October 2018) “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks” (PNAS, June 2014) Shoshana Zuboff @shoshanazuboff Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For Jürgen Schmidhuber, a recognized pioneer in AI, artificial intelligence is much more than another technological revolution. He sees it as the opportunity to transcend humanity and biology. In this conversation, Jürgen and Azeem Azhar discuss what the next thirty years of AI will look like. Jürgen and Azeem also discuss: The role of Long Short-Term Memory architecture in recent AI breakthroughs. Why the next AI wave will see machines actively shaping the data that they perceive. The second- and third-order consequences of bringing these more sophisticated artificial neural networks into our world. Further reading: “An AI taught itself to play a video game – for the first time, it’s beating humans” (The Conversation, May 2019) “Moving Beyond Cloud Computing to Edge Computing” (CableLabs, May 2019) “An All-Neural On-Device Speech Recognizer” (Google, March 2019) “Google’s head of translation on fighting bias in language and why AI loves religious texts” (The Verge, January 2019) Jürgen Schmidhuber Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One of the founders of complexity economics, W. Brian Arthur, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how artificial intelligence is ushering us into the age of the autonomous economy with radical implications for our society. In this podcast, Brian and Azeem also discuss: Why the decision-making ability of AI will have a different class of impact on the economy than previous ‘landmark’ technologies like the printing press. Whether it is possible to have publicly available decision-making enabled by artificial intelligence outside the proprietary enclaves of Silicon Valley monopolies. Increasing Returns Theory and how to generate good governance in a digital economy with dominant market actors. Further reading: “A Short History Of The Most Important Economic Theory In Tech” (Fast Company, December 2016) “Where is technology taking the economy?” (McKinsey Quarterly, October 2017) “The second economy” (McKinsey Quarterly, October 2011) “Increasing Returns and the New World of Business” (HBR, July-August 1996) W. Brian Arthur Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Artificial intelligence is unlocking new value in the banking and finance industry, but incumbents are struggling to keep pace. Azeem Azhar discusses what this means for the industry and its customers with Citi Research’s Global Sector Head for Banks Ronit Ghose, and the founder-CEOs of two leading innovators: Daniel Schreiber of Lemonade Insurance and Rishi Khosla of OakNorth Bank. Paul and Azeem also discuss: The huge role technology debt plays in obstructing legacy banks from innovating. How social networks, the smartphone, and AI grew exponentially and converged to mount a challenge to the traditional banking industry. The ways AI is cutting friction on the customer side. The ability to identify the sources of client or third-party data that can generate an algorithmically-powered image of the client and provide an insight into their ‘real’ level of risk. Further reading: “Digital Disruption: How FinTech is Forcing Banking to a Tipping Point” (Citi Velocity, March 2016) “Bank X: The New New Banks” (Citi Velocity, March 2019) “The Future Of Banking: Fintech Or Techfin?” (Forbes, Aug. 27, 2018) “Bank 4.0 Will Be All-Digital, Low-Overhead, Mobile-First” (Forbes, April 19, 2019) Ronit Ghose @ronit_ghose Daniel Schreiber @daschreiber Rishi Khosla @rishi_khosla Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AI is the fastest-growing industry that Accenture’s CTIO Paul Daugherty has ever experienced. He joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how AI can help businesses across a broad range of industries enhance the value they offer customers. Paul’s 2018 bestselling book Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI laid the foundations for companies that want to harness AI to help innovate and grow quickly. Paul and Azeem also discuss: AI as a general-purpose technology and how to set priorities for its application. How critical it is to have data at the heart of your business. Can you use AI effectively if you don’t utilize the “data network effect?” The difference in an AI system that can interact with and modify human behavior from a company that puts out services or products that are highly addictive. How the rush to individualization moves us into “The Trust Age.” What are the practical steps companies can take to (re)build consumer trust? Self-regulation vs. external regulation, and the challenges of appropriately balancing regulation and innovation. Further reading: “The Future of AI Will Be About Less Data, Not More” (HBR, Jan. 14, 2019) “Accenture Interactive Launches Groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence Solution to Tackle Elderly Loneliness” (Accenture, April 30, 2019) “Using AI to Make Knowledge Workers More Effective” (HBR, April 19, 2019) “Hey Google, sorry you lost your ethics council, so we made one for you” (MIT Technology Review, April 6, 2019) “From Principles to Action: How do we Implement Tech Ethics?” (Industry Ethicists, April 17, 2019) Paul Daugherty @pauldaugh Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke University and one of the first female fighter pilots, professor Missy Cummings debates the current state of autonomy with Azeem Azhar. Taking a stance of techno-realism, Missy explains why we’re not even close to developing Level 5 autonomy in driving and why robotic surgery is still not safe. In this podcast, Missy and Azeem also discuss: The nonlinear upward movement across levels of automation. While early developments may take similar amounts of time and money, the final advancements demand exponentially more. The psychology behind why we will almost certainly always have human pilots on commercial flights. Why the United States’ certification system, based on equivalence, has never been suitable for autonomous systems — and how training regulators and policymakers alongside engineers might spark regulatory improvements that would foster safe innovation. Parallels between the cultures of Silicon Valley and the U.S. military and thoughts on why gender equality still hasn’t been achieved. Further reading: “Technological, Regulatory Innovation Needed to Ensure Safety in Autonomous Vehicle Research” (Duke, April 9, 2018) “FDA clears new robotically-assisted surgical device for adult patients” (U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Oct. 13, 2017) “Robotic Surgery: An Example of When Newer Is Not Always Better but Clearly More Expensive” (The Milbank Quarterly, March 2016) “‘I Don’t Know How Professors Teach Without Fighter-Pilot Experience'” (The Atlantic, April 26, 2018) “Ex-pilot: I understand Martha McSally’s pain” (CNN, March 8, 2019) Missy Cummings @missy_cummings Azeem Azhar @azeem www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.