Saima Fancy, a privacy specialist, returns to the show for a discussion on the emerging concept and benefits of designing technological processes that keep the “Human in the Loop.” Now, when the complexities of algorithms are multiplying with every new feature and every new interface, it’s critical for good and safe outcomes that humans are able to oversee and, if necessary, override automated processes. Saima calls for a global discussion that focuses specifically on Human in the Loop, and it’s...
Jan 28, 2025•55 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast 2024 was a record-setting year for elections, with nearly half the world’s voters eligible to cast ballots in over 60 nations and the European Union. In some cases, social media and other technological tools have been used to enable bad actors, misinformation, and other challenges to the fairness and transparency of democratic processes. This increases the importance of election monitoring, pioneered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter who established the Carter Center in 1982. Dr. Ian Batista...
Dec 22, 2024•49 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Adio Dinika is a political scientist and researcher for DAIR, the Distributed AI Research Institute that was founded in 2021 by Timnit Gebru after her termination as technical co-lead of the company’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team. Adio takes us behind the scene to give us a sense of the working conditions of many thousands of people, mainly in the lower-wage areas of the global south, whose task it is to filter massive data sets for machine learning and software applications that we use ...
Oct 20, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Federico Carollo is a researcher at the University of Tübingen who is exploring a new, dynamic phase of matter called time crystals. First theorized by Nobel Prize laureate Frank Wilczek a dozen years ago, time crystals are quickly becoming practical reality. Federico explains how they operate, the different varieties of time crystals, and their potential uses for sensing, measurement, and other applications as a new platform for probing physics. Although time crystals aren’t perpetual motio...
Sep 23, 2024•57 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Twesh Upadhyaha takes us on a tour of the science of thermodynamics as it has developed over two centuries, exploring the latest discoveries in the changes of energy and its various forms of heat and work at the smallest quantum level of atoms and molecules. Twesh is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, where he's a researcher in the Quantum Steampunk Laboratory. Join Twesh in exploring the frontiers of thermodynamics in the hidden world of energy at the microscopic level, the fascinat...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Joe DeMartini is the first recipient of the Schweickart Prize, awarded by the B612 Foundation for his innovative proposal to detect and track asteroids during twilight hours. Joe’s proposal could significantly enhance planetary defence by locating asteroids in the large section of the sky that’s difficult for telescopes to observe because of the sun’s light. Joe talks about the details of his proposal, about meeting Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart who founded the B612 Foundation, and about ...
Aug 15, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Arushi Nath is a high school student who developed a passion for asteroid research when she attended the biennial Planetary Defense Conference in 2021. Since then, Arushi has been applying her coding skills in hunting for asteroids and contributing many new findings to the objects that astronomers are tracking as potential hazards to our planet. Arushi explains her work around NASA's DART mission, which successfully tested the ability of a probe to impact and redirect a moonlet orbiting a farawa...
Jul 29, 2024•50 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Why do animals communicate, and why and how did their many different methods of communication evolve? It's fascinating to learn from Dr. Arik Kershenbaum about such a crucial part of everyday living in the animal kingdom that we humans tend to overlook in our daily lives. A zoologist at the University of Cambridge, Arik studies vocal communications in animals, including wolves, dolphins, and gibbons. Arik speaks with us about his new book, Why Animals Talk, coming out this August, and we discuss...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast We sat down with Jessica West, who is a senior researcher in space governance with a depth of experience in a rapidly evolving and crucially important field, to talk about the challenges and opportunities for humanity beyond earth. With competing military and commercial activity in space, and large numbers of satellites and objects to track, Jessica has said that the situation is becoming tense and requires a lowering of the heat. Jessica explains the history of space governance, beginning with ...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast With his decades-long experience in virtual reality technologies, Louis Rosenberg talks about a new technological paradigm designed to facilitate a collective human superintelligence. Called Swarm AI, it's modelled after natural swarm intelligence among fish, bees, and other species, and aims to amplify the decision-making capacity of groups of people instead of the machine making the decision for them. Louis' new book, Our Next Reality, and his role with the Responsible Metaverse Alliance, high...
Mar 22, 2024•59 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Saima Fancy is a Privacy Specialist whose two decades of experience have spanned the explosion of AI and a series of privacy breaches of global consequence. With the profit-driven development of artificial general intelligence now underway, and large language models like GPT-4 in the forefront, why does privacy matter? When many believe technology leaves them with few options to protect their privacy, Saima provides a forceful answer to the question, encouraging a greater understandi...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Professor of Physics and Astronomy Dr. Marcelo Gleiser shares a remarkably philosophical perspective on humanity’s relationship with the cosmos as we discuss his latest book, The Dawn of a Mindful Universe . Incorporating centuries of accumulated scientific knowledge, Marcelo’s book highlights the rarity of conditions for life in a vast universe, and our duty to protect the natural world that sustains life on Earth. Marcelo makes a passionate case for a biocentric perspective that apprecia...
Feb 07, 2024•1 hr•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Mathematician and acclaimed playwright Dr. John Mighton discusses the JUMP Math charity that has, for over two decades since he founded it, provided learning resources in mathematics used each year by hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. Math is an essential skill in a technological world, particularly in understanding probabilities and risks, and Dr. Mighton explains JUMP Math's unique approach to engaging students and making math learning a positive experience with results that spea...
Dec 13, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Alec Koumjian, Head of Software Engineering for the Asteroid Institute, talks about the pioneering efforts underway to defend Earth from asteroids and other space objects. The Institute’s innovative use of multiple data sources and software to predict and analyze trajectories includes inputs from the public and partnerships with other organizations. Alec relates the challenges of tracking objects in the solar system over long periods of time, the Asteroid Institute’s many achievements, and plans...
Nov 20, 2023•39 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast The Quantum Feedback Loop welcomes neuroscientist Dr. Burcin Ikiz, who describes her new initiative, EcoNeuro, to study the effects of climate change on the brain in different areas and environmental conditions around the globe. Burcin is a pioneer in investigating the effects on brain health from pollution, extreme heat, and other environmental stresses. As both a scientist and a mother, Burcin’s goal is to raise awareness of the issues so that action can be taken both locally and globally to r...
Oct 29, 2023•44 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast In a joint production with the Plato’s Pod podcast, we explore the relevance of ancient philosophy to modern technology with the question, “What Would Socrates Say About ChatGPT?” We take Socrates to the offices of OpenAI to meet the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, and imagine the questions that Socrates would have after the technology is explained to him. In the course of the imagined meeting, we address some crucial errors that ChatGPT makes in its outputs on Socrates, as an example of the technolo...
Sep 25, 2023•41 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Elisa Torres Durney is a high school student in Chile whose organization Girls in Quantum has attracted young participants around the planet. Hear how Elisa and her group are educating youth on quantum computing and quantum mechanics, and connecting with scientists in the field. Their ambitious plans for the future are helping to prepare for the technology and work of tomorrow.
Jul 24, 2023•25 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Lindsay House is a PhD candidate and astronomer whose citizen science project uses light that took 9-11 billion years to reach Earth to search for signs of dark energy. Lindsay explains what we know so far about this force, which can't be directly observed but appears to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. Learn how you too can become a Dark Energy Explorer.
Jul 24, 2023•32 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast NOIRLab astronomer Dr. Aaron Meisner discusses a new citizen science project, "Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors," searching for brown dwarfs in our solar system. As volunteers hunt for signs of elusive brown dwarfs in data from NASA's NEOWISE space telescope, what more will we learn about these astronomical objects as well as the process of star formation?
Jul 24, 2023•30 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast 
