Developing and scaling AI systems brings new security challenges, and companies are scrambling to figure out just how to handle some of the more pressing ones. I was recently joined on stage by co-founders from two Canadian unicorns, Cohere and Tailscale, to dig into these challenges at Web Summit Vancouver. We Meet: Avery Pennarun, Co-founder & CEO, Tailscale Ivan Zhang, Co-founder, Cohere Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was m...
Jul 09, 2025•18 min•Season 2Ep. 35
What if instead of software coaching you on how to use it–what buttons to push and what file menus to open–the software could just use itself, once it knew what you wanted? We explore Intuit's new AI agents in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Alex Balazs, CTO of Intuit Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco....
Jul 02, 2025•16 min•Season 2Ep. 34
This is part two of a special series documenting the race to build superintelligent AI systems. The Race to Superintelligence is a deep dive into the rapidly expanding world of artificial intelligence. Join us as we explore the groundbreaking, mystifying and world-changing potential of the next machine age. Support for this program comes from The Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network, supporting and bringing together journalists reporting on AI, and with AI, globally. Credits: The Race to ...
Jun 25, 2025•19 min•Season 2Ep. 33
We join the MIT community in New York for an event focused on AI, innovation, and the evolving role of tech in society. SandboxAQ is a Google spinout that combines AI Large Quantitative Models and deep expertise in physics, biology, and chemistry in order to work on a wide range of hard problems, such as the prototyping of new materials and chemicals for manufacturing. Andrew McLaughlin is the company’s chief operating officer. We sat down to chat after he made the case to the room that the futu...
Jun 18, 2025•17 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Most geospatial data is gathered by satellites and cameras attached to planes, but a new decentralized network is helping amateur drone pilots capture and contribute ultra high resolution data. In this week's show, we go fly a drone and learn how that data is helping power next generation apps for things like disaster response. We Meet: Alec Wilson, COO Spexi Bill Lakeland, CEO Spexi Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Gar...
Jun 11, 2025•17 min•Season 2Ep. 31
What might the future of AI look like? Robert Brunner is responsible for some of the most iconic industrial designs of this century, and Matt Biilmann coined the phrase AX, which considers the user experience for AI agents. They joined me on center stage for a live conversation about what it means to design for AI at the Web Summit Conference in Vancouver, Canada. We Meet: Matt Biilmann, Co-founder & CEO Netlify Robert Brunner, Founder of Ammunition Group Credits: This episode of SHIFT was p...
Jun 04, 2025•19 min•Season 2Ep. 30
The Race to Superintelligence is a deep dive into the rapidly expanding world of artificial intelligence. Join us as we explore the groundbreaking, mystifying and world-changing potential of the next machine age. Support for this program comes from The Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network, supporting and bringing together journalists reporting on AI, and with AI, globally. This episode first published in October 2024. Credits: The Race to Superintelligence is created and produced by Jenni...
May 28, 2025•18 min•Season 2Ep. 29
The application of artificial intelligence to help discover new medicines could become one of the more transformative ways we use this tech in the near term. Recursion Pharmaceuticals CEO Chris Gibson takes us on a tour of the world's largest phenomics lab. We Meet: Recursion Co-Founder & CEO Chris Gibson Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco....
May 21, 2025•18 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Frank McCourt is an American executive and philanthropist. He’s also the author of a new book about the internet, called Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age . We talk to him about that fight before a live audience in New York City at a gathering held by the responsible technology non-profit, All Tech Is Human. We Meet: Frank H. McCourt, Jr., civic entrepreneur and executive chairman of McCourt Global, founder and executive chairman of Project Liberty C...
May 13, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Whether you're on a dating app or playing a game, how do you know if you're interacting with another human? We meet someone working on a possible solution to this problem in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Adrian Ludwig, Chief Architect of Tools for Humanity Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco....
May 07, 2025•18 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Browsing online reviews when you’re shopping for a new product or service can be incredibly helpful, but only if they’re real. We Meet: Trustpilot CEO Adrian Blair Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Apr 30, 2025•16 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Astro Teller, Alphabet’s Captain of Moonshots, joins us for a conversation about the importance of failure, workplace culture in a moonshot factory, and not throwing away your shot. We Meet: Astro Teller is the Captain of Moonshots at X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco....
Apr 23, 2025•35 min•Season 2Ep. 24
What if voting in a primary could be as simple as reaching for your phone? We explore mobile voting in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Bradley Tusk, Founder & CEO of Tusk Holdings Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Apr 16, 2025•15 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Meet the CEO of Cerebras Systems in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Apr 09, 2025•13 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in the way new drugs are discovered. It’s radically changing how this process works, and speeding up the development of new therapies. We Meet: Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO at Insilico Medicine Mike Nally, CEO at Generate Biomedicines Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco....
Apr 02, 2025•22 min•Season 2Ep. 21
We know that kids spending time on social media are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Less clear, and far more contentious, is the role we expect of schools, governments, and tech companies, and some parents are starting to organize. It's the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA) Founder Julie Scelfo Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, w...
Mar 26, 2025•14 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Anyone who’s had a job, knows what it means to have co-workers, but what happens when your colleague is an AI agent? As AI enters the workforce, we explore this question and more in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Lattice CEO Sarah Franklin Credits: SHIFT is produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens. It’s mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Mar 19, 2025•17 min•Season 2Ep. 19
We meet a founder questioning the wisdom of the Turing Test as he works to address the loneliness epidemic among the elderly, in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Intuition Robotics Founder Dor Skuler, maker of the ElliQ digital companion Credits: SHIFT is produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens. It’s mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco. This episode first published in August 2024....
Mar 12, 2025•23 min•Season 2Ep. 18
A live conversation about the state of the space economy with the first Arab woman to fly to space and with a leading space investor. This episode was taped at the Middle East's largest tech event, with 25,000 attendees, from the mainstage of Web Summit Qatar. We meet: Astronaut Sara Sabry, CEO & Founder Deep Space Initiative Adam Niewinski Co-Founder, General Partner OTB Ventures Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens, and it was mixed by Garret La...
Mar 05, 2025•16 min•Season 2Ep. 17
In the not too distant future we might use AI agents for all sorts of things, though for now payments remain an obstacle because they can’t spend money without human help. We Meet: Amir Sarhangi, CEO of Skyfire Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Feb 26, 2025•13 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Despite our best efforts, sometimes what we say we want isn’t precisely what we mean. Nowhere is that felt more acutely than when we’re giving instructions to a machine, whether that’s coding or offering examples to machine learning systems. We unpack the alignment problem in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Brian Christian, University of Oxford researcher, and author of The Alignment Problem Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help fro...
Feb 19, 2025•19 min•Season 2Ep. 15
We chat with Organic Valley in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Joshua Krzych, interim CIO at Organic Valley Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Feb 12, 2025•12 min•Season 2Ep. 14
In this encore episode, we tour Google's Project Starline at the 2024 TED Conference in Vancouver. We Meet: Andrew Nartker from Google’s Project Starline Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens, and it was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Anthony Green.
Feb 05, 2025•9 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Certain things about the development of artificial intelligence were generally taken as fact, until Silicon Valley woke up to the rise of a small Chinese startup called DeepSeek. We Meet: Tech Editor & Neuroscientist Daniela Hernandez Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Jan 29, 2025•16 min•Season 2Ep. 12
A look at industrial cybersecurity, and why it matters, in the latest installment of our oral history project. We Meet: Ian Bramson, Vice President of Global Industrial Cybersecurity at Black & Veatch Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Jan 22, 2025•19 min•Season 2Ep. 11
We catch up with cognitive scientist Gary Marcus on his list of predictions for what to watch in AI this year, and beyond. We Meet: Author & Cognitive Scientist Gary Marcus Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Jan 15, 2025•22 min•Season 2Ep. 10
A live conversation about the state of the space industry with serial space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian, a co-founder of Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, Quantum Space, and more, from the mainstage at Collision Conference in Toronto, Canada. This episode first published on June 26th, 2024. We meet: Dr. Kamal "Kam" Ghaffarian Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens, and it was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg...
Jan 08, 2025•18 min•Season 2Ep. 9
We’re taking a break for the holidays but given the recent quantum news with the unveiling of Google’s Willow, we think it’s a great time to revisit a chat I had with the man who founded and leads Google’s Quantum AI Lab. We’re back with a new episode next week. Until then, Happy New Year, and thanks for listening! We Meet: Google Quantum AI Lab Founder Hartmut Neven Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with or...
Jan 01, 2025•21 min•Season 2Ep. 8
When North Korea hacked Alejandro Caceres, he expected the U.S. government to rush to his defense. When they just shrugged, he took matters into his own hands. This week we bring you an episode of the CLICK HERE podcast from Recorded Future News and PRX. Credits: CLICK HERE is hosted by Dina Temple-Raston and this episode was produced by Sean Powers, Cat Schuknecht and Jade Abdul-Malik, edited by Lu Olkowski and fact checked by Darren Ankrom. It contains original music by Ben Levingston, with so...
Dec 25, 2024•24 min
A question I was asked to explore at this year’s Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech conference, is whether AI has broken the media. We Meet: New York Times Editorial Director of AI Zach Seward Financial Times Head of Digital Matthew Garrahan Credits: This episode of SHIFT was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens. It was mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from him and Jacob Gorski. Art by Meg Marco.
Dec 18, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 7
