Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

Former Greek Finance Minister, economist, and bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis joins Azeem Azhar to discuss his speculative novel Another Now. In that book, he presents a world where mass organization, technological progress, and an overhaul of companies and markets have made society more equitable. Like all great science fiction, the book is as much about the present as the future. Yanis is an advocate of blockchain technology and “one person, one vote” structures, as measures to redistribute power. He and Azeem discuss how tech could change our world for the better – if we use it judiciously.They also discuss: How Yanis’s proposals for a Greek digital currency ran aground. Where COP26 fell short. How equitable technological progress could lead us to a “Star Trek”-like utopia. Further resources: How Taiwan is Using Technology to Foster Democracy – Exponential View Podcast, 2020 ‘A Central Bank Cryptocurrency to Democratize Money’ – Yanis Varoufakis, Project Syndicate, Jul. 2021 ‘Cop26 is doomed, and the hollow promise of ‘net zero’ is to blame’ – Yanis Varoufakis, The Guardian, Nov. 2021

Artificial intelligence had a breakout year, with major new developments in disparate fields, from medical biology to defense. AI investors Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth, who co-author the annual “State of AI” report, join Azeem Azhar to explore why AI is thriving in those sectors. In addition, they offer their take on the flood of new investments in AI and how we can best keep this technology safe for humanity. They also discuss: Why AI is fundamentally changing how we research medical science. How an AI system developed to learn the English language can be adapted to understand gene sequences. How the bottlenecks in AI deployment are being exploited by states for competitive advantage. @azeem @exponentialview @nathanbenaich @soundboy Further resources: State of AI Report 2021 (Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth) AI’s Competitive Advantage (Exponential View podcast, 2021) How To Practice Responsible AI (Exponential View podcast, 2021)

Renewable energy is the future of power, but relying on solar, wind, etc. will require a more reliable and resilient grid. Effective energy storage would make it possible to smooth out discrepancies in supply and demand, and harness renewable power more efficiently. A range of technologies are being developed and refined with that mission in mind, including large-scale lithium-ion batteries and clean hydrogen storage. Former Alphabet X moonshot spinoff Malta Inc. uses established industrial processes and molten salt to store energy and pump it back into the grid as demand requires. Malta CEO Ramya Swaminathan joins Azeem Azhar to discuss why energy storage is so crucial to fighting climate change, how it could affect the economics of energy, and why the electric grid of the future will be more technologically diverse and complex than today’s. They also discuss: How progress in energy storage could hit an exponential inflection point. Working with established companies to revolutionize power distribution. The market mechanisms necessary to optimize the grids of the future. @azeem @exponentialview @maltaenergysto1 Further resources: “Energy Storage to Steal $277B From Power Grids by 2050” – BloombergNEF, Mar. 2021 “Energy Storage Grand Challenge: Energy Storage Market Report” – U.S. Department of Energy, Dec. 2020 Bloomberg New Energy Finance ARES Energy Vault

Hopin is one of the fastest-growing startups in history. Founder and CEO Johnny Boufarhat joins Azeem Azhar to talk about how he grew the virtual events company from six employees in February 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, to more than eight hundred, and a valuation of almost $8 billion, a year and a half later. Johnny explains how he seized the opportunity presented by the pandemic, what it was like learning to lead at one of the fastest-growing startups in history, and why he dreams of a future in which a founder’s location is no impediment to success. They also discuss: Hopin’s future, beyond the world of work. The promise of the metaverse, and the limits of VR. Barriers to entry for founders from developing countries, and how to lower them. @Johnnyboufarhat @Azeem Further resources Making Venture Capital Work for Entrepreneurs – Exponential View Podcast, 2020 ‘Scaling Innovation’ (with Elad Gil) – Exponential View Podcast, 2018 ‘The Challenging Political Economy of Silicon Valley’ (with Reid Hoffman) – Exponential View Podcast, 2018 Building Unicorns in Europe (with Reshma Sohoni) –  Exponential View Podcast, 2019  ‘Events scaleup Hopin raises at $7.75bn valuation’ – Sifted, August 2021 ‘CEO Secrets: “My billion-pound company has no office”’ – BBC, June 2021

The transition to a greener economy is absolutely essential for the future of life as we know it. Governments and companies have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050, but it’s not clear how they plan to get there – or how much it will cost. Today’s guest, though, has some idea. Michele Della Vigna runs the Carbonomics research program at Goldman Sachs, which looks at the economics behind a transition to net-zero emissions. On the eve of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Michele joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the importance of carbon pricing, market pressure, and new technology in accelerating a shift to net-zero. They also discuss: Why the American consumer makes carbon taxes trickier. The role of oil majors in the shift to renewables. How corporate commitments to decarbonize could surprise at COP26. @azeem @exponentialview Further resources: Funding Innovation to Fight Climate Change (with Dawn Lippert, Elemental Excelerator), Exponential View Podcast, 2021 ‘Carbonomics: Five Themes of Progress for COP26’ – Goldman Sachs Research

Ford has been making cars for 118 years — nearly all of them with internal combustion engines. It now faces the biggest challenge in its history. As the electric vehicle (EV) revolution accelerates and people rethink their relationships with cars, both automotive incumbents and upstarts are planning for a radically different world. Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer Hau Thai-Tang is ideally placed to discuss what that shift looks like. He and Azeem Azhar explore how EV uptake will transform what a car is and what it means to own and drive one, as well as what it will take to retool Ford to thrive in the technology age. They also discuss: How doing away with combustion engines will revolutionize car design. Why exponential uptake of EVs could happen within the next five years. Why carmakers will start to look more like Netflix and Apple. @azeem @exponentialview Further resources: ‘Ford, SK to invest $11.4 bln to add electric F-150 plant, three battery factories’ (Reuters) ‘Trends and developments in electric vehicle markets’ (IEA) ‘Levels of Autonomous Driving, Explained’ (J.D. Power)

The climate crisis is the defining issue of our age, and to fight it effectively, we’ll have to redesign our world. That requires money and technological innovation – but it also demands knowledge of local communities, and policymaking. Dawn Lippert works at the intersection of all of those issues. She’s the founder and CEO of Elemental Excelerator, a non-profit incubator that helps climate-focused startups deploy their technologies. In September 2021, Elemental spun out a $60m venture-capital fund that will help entrepreneurs tackling climate change to scale their solutions more rapidly. She joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how innovative climate tech companies can make it to market, and why workers at Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are flocking to the fight against climate change. They also discuss: The real-world challenges climate tech investors need to understand. What Silicon Valley investors need to learn to work in climate tech. Why climate impact investing is about more than reducing greenhouse gases. @elementalexcel @azeem @exponentialview Further resources: Elemental Excelerator: global non-profit at the intersection of climate, innovation and equity Ampaire: electric aircraft with real utility Dimensional Energy: transforming CO2 from waste to resource

Google, Facebook, Apple, and Uber are just some of the enormous companies that derive part of their value from network effects: The more users they have, the more value they provide. Network effects aren’t new. The basic principles that underpinned faxes and phone lines also underpin social media. But rapid technological change has made network effects more prevalent and more powerful than ever before. Serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor James Currier is one of the world’s foremost experts on networks, and on the companies that use them best. He joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how companies with network effects dominate markets, and why their influence will likely continue to grow. They also discuss: Why network-effects companies dominate global markets, and how they can recast the way we think about the world. Why networks can become harder to manage as they grow – and harder to do without. The problems globe-spanning networks can cause – especially when the motives of dominant corporate players don’t align with what’s best for our societies. How we should govern those networks in the coming decades. @JamesCurrier @azeem @exponentialview Further resources: NFX’s Network Effects Bible (NFX) “How to Regulate Facebook, with Nick Clegg” (Exponential View Podcast, 2021) “Messi joins crypto craze as gets part of PSG fee in fan tokens” (Reuters, 2021)

Kim Stanley Robinson, the legendary science-fiction novelist, has a private utopian hope: “to dodge a mass extinction event.” He joins Azeem Azhar to explore his recent novel, The Ministry For the Future, and what it would take for institutions, individuals, and emerging technologies to save millions of lives. They also discuss: When civil disobedience and direct climate action may become a moral necessity. Why central banks and a radical shift of economic incentives are vital to drive decarbonization. What climate restoration is and why it offers better prospects than climate engineering. @azeem @exponentialview Kim Stanley Robinson Further resources: “Applying the Pandemic Mindset to Climate Change with Cory Doctorow” (Exponential View podcast, 2020) “What can climate tech do for us?” (Exponential View newsletter, 2020) “The Ministry For the Future” (Hachette, 2020) “It’s Not Science Fiction” (The New York Review on The Ministry For the Future, 2020) “Top central banks identify nine ways to make their policies greener” (Financial Times, 2021)

Facebook serves 34 percent of the world’s population and decides who to block and what to censor. How should governments regulate this startling power? Nick Clegg, the UK’s former deputy prime minister and now vice president of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, joins Azeem Azhar to explore how governments might reassert control in the exponential age. They also discuss: The major regulatory legislation coming down the pike in the U.S., the EU, and India. Why allowing data portability between networks could be good for competition but a challenge for privacy. Whether Facebook’s Oversight Board could be used to regulate other tech companies. Why Clegg is pushing Facebook for increased transparency of its algorithms. @nickclegg @azeem @exponentialview Further resources: “Fixing the Social Media Crisis” (Exponential View podcast with Sinan Aral, 2021) “A bipartisan approach to break the deadlock on internet regulation” (Nick Clegg, Medium, 2021) “Facebook must not be allowed to dictate how it gets regulated” (Wired, 2020) “Battle commences A formidable alliance takes on Facebook” (The Economist, 2020)