The Times Tech Podcast

Naveen Rao, founder of MosaicML, discusses the efficiency of the human brain, slashing the cost to train AI models, the evolution of the car, selling to Databricks, the future of the AI market, and more.

Dan Siroker, founder of Rewind AI, discusses recording everything you do, see and read, living life on a “hot mic”, bringing Black Mirror to life, AI as cognitive butler, growing up in Palo Alto, working on the Obama campaign, making mistakes at other companies, Sam Altman, how he uses Rewind, and dealing with the hallucination problem.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hugh Harvey, managing director of consultancy Hardian Health, to talk about his time at Babylon Health (4:30), his first look at the company’s “artificial intelligence” (7:00), why it’s hard to build a medical chatbot (11:30), the siloed nature of the company (14:30), its regulatory loophole (16:20), Ali Parsa’s obsession with creating an “AlphaGo moment" (21:10), the gong (24:15), how the company became more brazen with its marketing (27:10), why getting chatbots certified as medical devices is so hard (29:45), and why the Silicon Valley way often doesn't work in medicine (33:00). Link to The Sunday Times' investigation: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-and-fall-of-babylon-healthcare-the-doctor-in-your-pocket-3p6q6jjfx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests to talk about artificial intelligence. The first is Vinod Khosla, the legendary tech investor and founder of Khosla Ventures, to talk about how the rise of AI compares to previous breakthroughs (4:00), how it is like the Manhattan Project (8:00), why universal basic income may be necessary (16:20), and the culture war aspect of AI (20:25). Then, Tyler Cowen, the George Mason University economist, blogger and author, comes on to talk about this moment in history (26:00), AI doomerism (28:40), the open v closed debate (31:50), why he’s not too worried about misinformation (35:25), why AI will save crypto (40:30), the return of ‘moving history’ (42:50), how he has changed how he teaches (45:20), the end of the smartphone (47:20), the future of work (51:50), AI as a doomsday weapon (55:30), why he published the world's first “generative’ book (1:00:15), and the end of the browser (1:05:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Krishna Rangasayee, founder and CEO of Sima.ai, to talk about why we need to remake the tech infrastructure for the AI age (5:10), what the “edge” is (8:30), why he started the company (11:00), the problem with the cloud (15:00), developing a new architecture (19:00), growing up in India (20:45), coming to Mississippi (25:20), starting the company at age 50 (30:00), why being the boss has been so challenging (34:40), the future (37:00), and why AI is like teenage sex (41:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alex Colville, co-founder of Age1, talks about funding longevity science, studying the biology of ageing, the rise of geroscience, healthspan, the potential of metformin, working on an anti-ageing treatment, and how long he thinks we'll live.

Pascal Lamy, chairman of the Climate Overshoot Commission, discusses climate migration, adaptation costs, solar geoengineering, termination shock, carbon takeback obligations, pollution removal, and Britain's role in the fight against climate change.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson rings on Alex Blania, chief executive of Worldcoin developer Tools for Humanity, to talk about launching its iris-scanning orb around the world (5:00), testifying in Nairobi (9:40), signing people up (12:45), what problems it is trying to solve (16:10), proof of personhood in the age of fakery (19:20), the role of cryptocurrency (22:30), not offering crypto in America (26:10), the guiding philosophy (28:20), universal basic income (30:30), growing up in Germany (34:40), getting an email from Sam Altman (36:00), his worst day (40:10), privacy (42:45), and having their orbs seized (45:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ranit Aharonov to talk about this moment for artificial intelligence (3:15), studying the brain (6:30), Project Debater (8:30), neural networks (11:30), language’s AlphaGo moment (14:50), the big idea at Pangea (19:20), getting it into the hands of doctors and drug communities (23:25), the role of AI in this tool (26:15), the regulatory limits (32:15), and why she didn't debate the AI she created (37:25). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Elon Musk, to talk about his new book (3:10), Musks’ “heartlessness” (6:15), his maniacal sense of mission (10:50), his approach to pro-creation and children (18:00), his fear of loneliness (21:55), and why he can’t smell the flowers (25:00), the reaction to the book (28:35), why Isaacson doesn’t make judgments (30:10), “demon mode’ (34:30), the Twitter deal (38:45), and his political tack right (40:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.