This week, we welcome our new reporter Ben Wodecki – and make him defend his favorite news stories of the week in a public forum. Because we’re nice like that. We also discuss Microsoft, after the company’s early bet on augmented reality finally paid off in a military hardware contract with the US Army worth up to $22 billion. A lot to unpack here. We start with the epic story of super-helmets for American super-soldiers. The US Army is going to have 120,000 of these, courtesy of Microsoft and i...
Apr 12, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 24
This week, we look at Boston Dynamics as it faces the dreary task of commercializing its incredible robot tech, and the amazing career of Eric Emerson Schmidt – who has just donated $150 million to fund a center dedicated to AI for biological research. We begin by the latest from Boston Dynamics: having recently charged ownership, the robotics wunderkinder have launched what could be considered their first true commercial product – Stretch the warehouse robot . Next we talk about a brand new res...
Apr 07, 2021•28 min
This week, we talk massive shifts at at Intel, poke gentle fun at Peloton, and explore the not-so-wonderful world of robot poetry. Peloton has purchased three AI-powered startups, namely voice assistant developer Aiqudo, smartwatch company Atlas Wearables, and interactive workout mat startup Otari. But will it be enough to keep the company competitive? Can Peloton hang on to the market niche it created? Dramatic stuff.
Mar 29, 2021•32 min
Welcome to yet another episode of the AI Business podcast in which we discuss the chip shortage and new AI hardware with special guest Rodrigo Liang, co-founder and CEO of silicon design startup SambaNova. We start by talking about the ongoing chip supply crisis which has sent server component prices skyrocketing, and saw American auto-makers having to idle plants as tech-heavy cars have been stuck on production lines. Scaling chip production is an extremely capital-intensive process and the tra...
Mar 25, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We return after a short break, to talk about empathy, advertising, and Palantir, an AI company that built a business worth $15 billion with 30 salespeople – now featuring in its very own drinking game! We begin by talking about Moods, a service from Vevo, the company that owns and manages most music videos on the Internet. Moods now uses AI to identify the tone and emotion of music in order to help advertisers more effectively target their campaigns – initial options include ‘fun,’ ‘heartfelt,’ ...
Mar 16, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 20
This week, we ask whether automated moderation tools can help recover the toxic wastelands of the Internet, and debut a new segment called ‘ Fast & Autonomous. ’ We look into the origins of Google’s Jigsaw, analyze some of the social implications of moderation tech, and remember how an AI-based system once tried its best to prevent Sebastian from joining ISIS. We also cover: The Iraq war! Virtual driving! Jared Cohen! Corporate culture! As always, you can find more stories about AI and busin...
Feb 15, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 19
We talk Jeff Bezos and the Breakfast Octopus philosophy We talk about Jeffrey Preston Bezos – the man who has reshaped the world to an extent preciously reserved for empires and great military leaders. Bezos is leaving the CEO post at Amazon, the company he founded, and will instead become executive chairman. What better time to look back at his career, the importance of Amazon Web Services, and the potential impact of the new CEO, Andy Jassy, formerly in charge of AWS? We start with the origin ...
Feb 08, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 18
This week, we talk about Google: one of the world’s largest IT companies is frequently in the news, and not always for the right reasons. We find out what happens behind the scenes from our guest Roland Szabo , a software engineer who started his career by developing machine learning services at Google, before striking out on his own as an ML consultant. Also in this episode: Reasons to like Google+! Unexpected benefits of GitHub! The horrors of Terms of Service!...
Feb 04, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Machine learning has its sinners, and its saints... This week, we look at surprising crimes of machine learning experts, investigate the role of AI in manufacturing, and ask whether Pat Gelsinger can save Intel (from itself). We also mention: Inauguration! The new administration! Taiwan! Regulation!
Jan 26, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 16
A failed coup is a godsend to journalists: this week we discuss civil liberties, digital dissent, online publishing, and the surprising artificial intelligence legacy of Donald Trump. We also mention all the good stuff: Gab! Hate Mail! Deplatforming! Censorship! Alex Jones! Vint Cerf! (Even job openings at AI Business).
Jan 20, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 15
This week, we will look at the potential of artificial intelligence to revolutionize financial planning and analysis (FP&A) - the budgeting, forecasting and analytical processes that support an organization's financial health and business strategy. Guiding us on this journey is Amaresh Tripathy – senior vice president and Analytics Business Leader at Genpact, and expert on data science for enterprise applications.
Jan 11, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 14
This week we look at the major scientific breakthrough achieved by DeepMind’s AlphaFold, consider some of the some of the first commercial use cases for neuromorphic computing, and learn the secrets of dataset creation with Aristotelis Kostopoulos, VP for AI product solutions at Lionbridge. Also in this episode: Zombies! Queen’s Gambit! Detecting COVID-19 by smell!
Dec 08, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Welcome to another episode of the AI Business podcast, in which we anxiously await the news of a vaccine, and continue to slander robots in the workplace. We are cranky, but maybe that’s because the pubs in the UK are closed. And a robot once broke Sebastian’s arm, but that’s a story for another time... We also cover: Lockdown! Nice drugs! Retail therapy! Minimum wage! The gig economy!
Nov 24, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Welcome to another episode of the AI Business podcast, in which we are not going to talk about the US election . But we are going to discuss the accuracy of the polls, the power of advertising, and QAnon. Meanwhile, in our ongoing Chip Wars segment, we talk about the recently announced mega-deal in which AMD is buying FPGA chip designer Xilinx , bringing its decades-old rivalry with Intel to a brand new arena – since Intel owns Altera, the only other major FPGA vendor....
Nov 13, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Welcome to another episode of the AI Business podcast, with your (almost) weekly dose of AI news and editorial chaos. This time, we discuss defense contractors, cyber security of chastity belts, and the challenge of keeping up with the robots in the workplace. And finally, we reveal our favorite depictions of AI in movies – the line-up includes War Games, Alien, and… Terminator: Salvation?
Nov 02, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Some AI models are trained on great works of art. Others are trained on images of violence. If they were people, which one would you like to meet? Today we're talking about the different kinds of data that can be used to train an AI model. Covering the story of Facebook’s Red Team, tasked with hacking the company’s AI systems in order to make them more resilient, why we hope AI will take the jobs of content mods, and a positive story about Saint George on a Bike! PS: You might have noticed that ...
Oct 08, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 9
After a brief hiatus caused by a certain baby, Max, Tien and Sebastian are once again ready to share their cynical take on the lastest AI news. Including an essay by a robot, Cavanue – an ambitious organization hoping to build intelligent, connected roads for autonomous cars and two stories AI Summit London: Rolls-Royce (the engine people) giving away their ethics framework for AI; and GSK predicting a major genomic breakthrough within two years, driven by AI, and opening a new AI research hub i...
Sep 21, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 9
This week we're taking pleasure in misfortunes of others; discussing Intel’s technical difficulties, Elon Musk encroaching on our turf, and robot poetry. We start with Intel, which is having problems with the 7nm process that are causing delays across its lineup and could put an end to a long tradition of self-reliance in silicon printing. Then Elon Musk we don’t like, for a whole assortment of business-related reasons. Last week, the living legend made some dubious claims about AI – likely inte...
Aug 05, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 7
This week's episode looks at robot workers, the reasons why Nvidia is worth the big bucks, and virtual personalities in China. Helping us on this mission is special guest Tate Cantrell, CTO at Verne Global, an expert on data centers, HPC, renewable energy, and all matters related to Iceland.
Jul 23, 2020•28 min
This week we discuss AI in space, spacesuits, Amazon ASS, and space as a billionaire hobby. It used to be the US versus USSR, now it’s Musk versus Bezos - we know who’s got the most phallic rockets. And for the first time ever, the podcast features “A machine says whaaaat?!” - our very own game show where Max and Seb go head-to-head, trying to guess whether a quote belongs to a human, or an AI system. Find out whether we can tell the difference between InspoiroBot and Adolph Hitler. We also disc...
Jul 08, 2020•31 min
In the second part of this episode, the AI Business editorial team talks to Katie King, CEO of AI in Business; founder and MD of Zoodikers Consulting; and member of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group Taskforce on AI. We chat about educating the next generation of AI professionals, artificial intelligence through the eyes of politicians, the impact of Brexit, and the importance of international partnerships on AI. We also find out what the House of Lords, the second chamber of UK Parliament, ...
Jul 01, 2020•12 min
This week, we focus on facial recognition. The AI Business team takes a look at the embodiment of futuristic evil that is Clearview AI, and the efforts by companies like Microsoft, Amazon and IBM to limit the sales of facial recognition to police – at least for a while. Remember Enemy of the State, the 1998 film with Will Smith? They built that space camera. They named it Gorgon Stare, and it’s out there, somewhere, hovering above our heads. With a 40 gigapixel camera. And it’s now starting to u...
Jun 24, 2020•23 min
'The world seems crazy right now, but don’t worry, it’s always been crazy'. This week, Max Smolaks and Tien Fu take look at the ongoing tech war between the US and China. Having run out of Chinese goods to tax, the Trump administration is going after individual AI companies, while increasing domestic funding for scientific research. Meanwhile, Chinese cloud juggernauts are investing billions in new infrastructure projects, with full support of the state. We also discuss MSN replacing humans with...
Jun 09, 2020•25 min
In this episode, the editorial team talks automated warehouses, the enduring problem of picking stuff up, and pandemic essentials. We discuss Microsoft’s Project Bonsai, best described as a virtual labor camp for machines, delve into Nvidia’s chonky chips, and OpenAI’s shiny new supercomputer, which, in the absence of a memorable name, was christened the Shrugging Atlas. Plus, weird stuff you find on government procurement websites, the sins of Elon Musk, the timeline for mapping the brain, and,...
May 28, 2020•26 min•Ep. 2
In the AI Business Podcast our aim is to present an intriguing section industry news from the past two weeks, discuss the stories we are working on, while always looking out for the strangest, most cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence out there. In the first episode, we talk about two use cases for AI in fighting COVID-19 – in drug development and medical image processing (and there are more). We delve into the project Gamebreaker – DARPA’s initiative which will use AI models tra...
May 20, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 1
