The Times Tech Podcast - podcast cover

The Times Tech Podcast

The Sunday Timeswww.thetimes.co.uk
As The Sunday Times’ West Coast Correspondent, Danny Fortson has witnessed the technological whirlwind coming from Silicon Valley first hand. The Times' Technology Business Editor Katie Prescott has reported on how digital technology is transforming businesses and society around the world. Now, 'Danny in the Valley' meets 'Katie in the City', with a podcast presented from San Francisco and London. Each week sees a fresh interview with pioneers in tech, from the brightest start-ups to the tech giants, as Katie and Danny chronicle the AI revolution.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

The AI newsroom & Intel's fall from the top

How can we trust the news in a world with artificially created content? Thomson Reuters CEO, Steve Hasker, joins the podcast to discuss the use of their information, and the future of journalism. Plus a look at Intel as the battle for chip supremacy goes on. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 06, 202444 min

Google vs The Feds & Quantum computing for babies?

What's the point of quantum computing now we have generative AI? Will quantum computing change the world? And just what is quantum computing anyway? Raj Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum, joins the show to explain. Plus the Bluesky debate continues, and should we use Google to find out what a monopolist is? Clip from BBC Radio 5Live Breakfast used by permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 29, 202439 minSeason 1Ep. 9

Bluesky is getting bigger but how big?

Danny and Katie take on two big issues of the week - finding out from social media analyst Dan Whitmarsh just how big new social media platforms need to be. And software security expert Joe Levy talks about where crypto is taking us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 23, 202444 min

Are flying cars the future?

The future might finally be here! Danny visits the headquarters of Joby Aviation, the company possibly furthest along in commercialising "flying cars" - just don't call them that! Plus, more on how the tech world is reacting to Donald Trump's victory and Elon Musk's new job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 15, 202447 min

Big tech and big politics

Danny and Katie look at the implications for Tech with the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the Whitehouse. And media analyst, Renée DiResta joins Danny and Katie to talk about how the new digital media has changed politics - and what you can do to be heard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 08, 202436 min

What if robots thought like animals?

If we made robots think more like animals, how clever could they be? This week we hear from David Rajan, CEO of Opteran, a pioneering AI company which is reverse engineering biological brains to create a "radical new scientific approach to doing AI". And, Danny, the cat and the Tesla. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 01, 202445 min

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's Chairman and Chief Executive

Satya Nadella is only the third boss in the tech giant's 50 year history, but he has pivoted Microsoft towards accelerating technology, and forging partnerships with leading companies including OpenAI. On a whistle-stop AI tour of the world and in his only UK interview this year - this exclusive conversation with Satya Nadella covers the dangers, pitfalls and growth of AI. What better time to sit down with the Microsoft supremo than almost two years after the public launch of ChatGPT? He tells K...

Oct 25, 202453 min

Al Gore, Tech and Climate

Katie and Danny are joined by Al Gore for big thoughts on how to take on the big challenges. Outside of AI, there is one area that is still getting a good amount of venture capital dollars and that's tackling climate change. But what's the right way to invest and will it work? Who decides the way forward, the investors, the tech giants or the politicians? And who better to answer these questions than Al Gore, former US Vice-President and now guru to climate campaigners worldwide. He's our guest ...

Oct 18, 202452 min

Robinhood's Vlad Tenev (Plus, Nobel Prizes for A.I.)

This week - money, invention and regulation as we delve deep into the mind of Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, a hugely influential App designed in their words to “democratise finance”. And did Danny cleverly predict in our first episode, that Sir Demis Hassabis would indeed win a Nobel Prize? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 11, 202450 min

The First Episode: Google DeepMind's Sir Demis Hassabis

Danny joins Katie in London for the Times Tech Summit, where the co-founder and boss of Google DeepMind Sir Demis Hassabis sets out his startling view that AI has the potential "to cure all diseases" and could 'have general human cognitive abilities within ten years." But fundamentally - do we really understand what AI is? Professor Neil Lawrence, the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at Cambridge University, Faculty AI CEO, Marc Warner, and Naila Murray, Director of AI Research a...

Oct 04, 202435 min

Coming soon: The Times Tech Podcast with Danny and Katie

Danny Fortson in California - 'Danny in the Valley' - joins Katie Prescott in London to talk to the people changing tech across the world. As The Sunday Times’ West Coast Correspondent, Danny Fortson has witnessed first hand the technological whirlwind coming from Silicon Valley. Katie as Technology Business Editor at The Times has reported on how digital technology is transforming businesses and society around the world. Now ‘Danny in the Valley’ meets ‘Katie in the City’ - with a podcast prese...

Oct 01, 202422 min

Danny in the Valley meets Katie in the City

'For nearly seven years Danny Fortson has made the Valley his own, interviewing the newcomers and the established; the inventors and the entrepreneurs; the brightest minds and most daring doers in Silicon Valley. Now the show gets an extra dimension as he is joined by London Technology Business Editor, Katie Prescott for the new Times Tech Podcast as they look at who is shaping tech not just in Silicon Valley, but around the world. It will be with you very soon, but first a special edition of Da...

Sep 27, 202440 min

Tech legend John Chambers: “Don’t do the right thing for too long”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on John Chambers, former chief executive of Cisco, to talk about artificial intelligence (4:30), why booms are necessary (8:00), coming to Silicon Valley (12:15), Cisco (14:15), buying 180 companies (19:00), the dotcom bust (23:00), how the old startups have grown up (29:15), whether founder shares are a good thing (31:00), still working at 75 (34:00), competition (35:40), why he has bet on the startup Humane (40:45), spending his own money (45:00), ho...

Sep 20, 202457 minSeason 8Ep. 4

HourOne’s Natalie Monbiot: “Building the virtual human economy”

The gig economy is coming for your soul. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Natalie Monbiot of HourOne, to talk about the digital clone company starting before the ChatGPT moment (4:15), turning 5 minutes of footage into a digital clone (7:10), the hunt for the “killer app” for virtual humans (13:25), how the company started (18:20), Hollywood (24:00), bringing the dead back to life (27:20), your rights over what your clone does (32:40), and virtual human marketplaces (...

Sep 13, 202441 minSeason 8Ep. 3

Hebbia’s George Sivulka: “Bots will be most of the economy within decade”

Artificial intelligence “agents” will create more economic value than humans within ten years. Sound outlandish? That is the prediction of this week’s guest, George Sivulka, founder of AI startup Hebbia, who comes on to talk about building AI that actually works for business (3:20), AI orchestra conductors (9:15), coral reefs and why he called the company Hebbia (10:30), why he started the company (19:30), being a “disappointment” to his athlete parents (29:30), working at NASA as a teen (33:00)...

Sep 07, 202446 minSeason 8Ep. 2

Captura’s Steve Oldham: “Removing a drop of ink from a swimming pool”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Steve Oldham of Captura, to talk about why sucking CO2 out of the air is not a bad idea (6:30), using the ocean (10:00), their contraption (11:15), whether it can be done at scale (16:45), the maths of climate solutions (19:00), paying for it (21:00), the evolution of carbon removal tech (26:00), moving to Canada from England (30:00), how the space industry is like climate (31:45), the role of regulation (34:15), raising $60m (37:45), ...

Aug 30, 202445 minSeason 8Ep. 1

Refactor's Zal Bilimoria: “I am the investment committee”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Zal Bilimoria to talk about being a solo venture capitalist (3:15), how he decided on investments (6:30), happening into climate tech (9:30), raising $50m every three years (10:45), learning at his dad’s business (12:20), bouncing around the tech industry (14:30), his first job as a kid (21:40), focusing on hard tech (28:00), where he won’t invest (31:00), hunting for the “fund returner” (35:30), why venture is not glamorous (37:00), r...

Aug 09, 202447 minSeason 7Ep. 30

How lab-grown meat company SciFi Foods failed - and why many others may soon follow

It wasn’t long ago that lab-grown meat was booming. Startups raised billions of dollars. Investors boldly predicted the large scale slaughter of cows, chickens and fish would soon end. Then it all went pear-shaped. This week Joshua March and Kasia Gora come on to talk about how their startup, SciFi Foods, failed after raising more than $40 million on how the market turned against their company and the industry broadly (3:30), being affected by the downturn in plant-based meat (7:30), the Gamecha...

Aug 02, 202445 minSeason 7Ep. 29

Mike Lynch’s first post-acquittal interview

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch faced potentially dying in a federal prison. But in a 12-week trial in America, he beat all the odds and was found “not guilty” last month on 15 counts of fraud brought by the Department of Justice. He comes on the show to talk about the insight gleaned from a 12-year legal fight (5:30), the need for a British “Innocence Project” (11:30), going back to the origin of the case in 2011 (16:15), how the Autonomy sale went pear-shaped (18:45), why the boring nature of t...

Jul 27, 20241 hr 16 minSeason 7Ep. 28

Conservation X Labs’ Alex Deghan: “Why go to Mars? it’s a failed version of earth”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Alex Deghan, founder of Conservation X Labs, to talk about avoiding the sixth mass extinction (3:00), getting near a tipping point in the Amazon (11:40), raising money from tech billionaires (14:40), growing up in northern Idaho (17:50), almost dying from malaria (20:00), rebuilding science in Iraq (23:30), close calls (30:40), setting up the first national park in Afghanistan (33:10), optimism (39:15), air conditioning (42:15), and bu...

Jul 19, 202451 minSeason 7Ep. 27

UC Berkeley’s Hany Farid: “AI is a misinformation amplifier”

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hany Farid, a digital forensic professor, to talk about launching a cybersecurity startup called Get Real Labs (3:00), the growing capability of AI to create totally believable images (6:45), and video (9:00), the Slovakia election example (12:00), the end of shared truth (15:30), why we might learn the lessons from social media regulation failures (20:50), how AI could make things far worse, pre and post election in America (23:45), an...

Jul 12, 202434 minSeason 7Ep. 26

Deep Sky’s Fred Lalonde - Holiday replay!

Happy July 4th! Running back one of our favorite episodes from last summer - Fred Lalonde of Deep Sky, who speaks eloquently about the need to bury every ton of CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 06, 20241 hr 15 minSeason 7Ep. 25

PagerDuty's Jennifer Tejada: "Going public is the wedding, staying public is the marriage"

When a website goes down, companies lose an average of $500,000 per minute. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jennifer Tejada, chief executive of PagerDuty, a company founded to keep that from happening (2:45). She talks about growing up in a small town (8:00), using supercomputers in the 1990’s to sell consumer products (12:30), coming to the West Coast via Australia (14:00), working around the world (16:30), operating as an outsider (18:15), defending DEI (21:00), th...

Jun 28, 202434 minSeason 7Ep. 24

Limbic’s Ross Harper: “AI won’t replace doctors, it will enhance them”

The world is aflutter with talk of "AI doctors". A UK company has actually built one. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr Ross Harper, co founder and chief executive of Limbic to talk about creating a clinical AI chatbot (4:30), how it works (6:40), starting out four years ago 13:40), getting in with 40% of mental health care providers in Britain (17:40), being certified as a medical device (22:40), targeting America (24:40), studying computational neuroscience (27:00...

Jun 21, 202447 minSeason 7Ep. 23

Galvanize's Tom Steyer: "We're winning the climate fight"

The climate fight is going far better than you realise. So says this week’s guest, Tom Steyer, former presidential candidate and founder of Galvanize Climate Solutions. He comes on to talk with Sunday Times correspondent Danny Fortson about why doomerism doesn’t work (4:30), beating Big Oil (8:45), when theory meets reality (15:10), whether the climate argument has been won (21:30), his life before dedicating his career to climate (30:20), dabbling in politics (36:30), running a climate investme...

Jun 14, 202455 minSeason 7Ep. 22

X Prize's Peter Diamandis: "Talking to your dog and extending life"

Do you want to talk to your whales? Monkeys? Your dog? AI will make it possible. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Peter Diamandis to talk about why he set up an $111m longevity prize (2:30), using AI to prevent death from “something stupid” (8:30), growing up in the Bronx (11:50), falling in love with space exploration (14:00), launching the X Prize (19:50), doing 30 of them in 30 years (26:30), his approach to AI innovation (29:15), speaking to animals (30:00), the p...

Jun 08, 202459 minSeason 7Ep. 21

Renaissance's Tom Kalil: "Transforming philanthropy"

There are about 1,200 billionaires in Europe and America. Why don't they do more good with their money? This week's guest reckons he can get them to do just that. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Kalil, founder of Renaissance Philanthropy, to talk about why he created the organisation (4:15), nationalism (8:00), the problem with the current philanthropy model (11:15), leveraging tech and science (16:40), his background in Washington DC and the White House (22:20),...

May 31, 202445 minSeason 7Ep. 20

Tortus' Dom Pimenta: "AI is the answer to NHS doctor burnout"

AI will save the NHS - but not the wya you think. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dom Pimenta, a cardiologist and co-founder of Tortus, to talk about the potential of its artificial intelligence interface (AI) for doctors (5:00), preventing burnout (11:00), naming the tool OSLER (18:30), how it works (20:45), why he became a doctor (26:00), founding a charity during Covid (29:15), quitting the NHS (32:45), getting Khosla Ventures to invest (35:35), trying to get the ...

May 24, 202449 minSeason 7Ep. 19

Gigascale's Mike Schroepfer: "From building Meta to investing in climate"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on MIke Schroepfer, Meta’s former CTO, to talk about why he left Meta (3:00), growing up working his parents’ radio station (9:00), going to Stanford (12:00), getting into tech startups (14:15), the dotcom boom (17:15), going to Mozilla (21:15), joining Facebook when MySpace was bigger (23:00), Mark Zuckerberg (26:30), lessons from scaling to a giant company (31:40), the climate opportunity (35:10), focussing on hardware (39:40), using hi...

May 17, 202458 minSeason 7Ep. 18

Openwater’s Mary Lou Jepsen: “We'll save your mind - then read it”

Imagine if you shrunk all of the machines in a hospital and crammed them into a single device the size of an iPhone that could diagnose and treat hundreds of diseases. That is what this week’s guest is trying to do. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mary Lou Jepsen to talk about building a mobile device to diagnose stroke at her startup Openwater (4:30), killing cancer cells with infrared light (8:45), how it takes 13 years to create a new medical device (14:45), why M...

May 10, 20241 hr 4 minSeason 7Ep. 17
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android