Worldcoin's Alex Blania: "Proof of personhood in an age of AI fakery”
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.
29 Sep 202348min
Pangea Biomed’s Ranit Aharonov: “Cancer-hunting AI”
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.
22 Sep 202338min
Walter Isaacson: “The light and darks strands of Elon Musk”
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.
17 Sep 202345min
Air Company’s Gregory Constantine: “Turning CO2 into vodka”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Gregory Constantine, co-founder of Air Company, to talk about turning CO2 into fuel, booze and perfume (2:30), why they chose to do consumer products first (5:05), growing up in Australia (6:20), landing in New York (9:15), starting the company (12:00), its first product in 2019 (15:15), raising the first round of venture capital (20:40), shooting for fuel (21:40), their years couch-surfing (25:50), scaling up the technology (28:10), and the immigrant mindset (31:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
8 Sep 202333min
Pinecone's Edo Liberty: "AI is infrastructure"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Edo Liberty, founder of Pinecone, to talk about the state of artificial intelligence (4:00) the ‘hallucination’ problem (7:10), giving AI’s memory (10:30), starting out in Israel and in academia (17:15), starting pinecone in 2019 (20:30), raising money (24:05), creating a “handshake” between LLM’s and specialised knowledge (26:30), the AI bubble (30:20), and why he chose the name pinecone (39:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 Sep 202343min
Just Climate's Shaun Kingsbury: "We've never built a rainforest"
The Sunday times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Shaun Kingsbury to talk about the Green Investment Bank (3:40), whether he is optimistic (9:15), taking on harder-to-clean industries at Just Climate (13:30), teaming up with Al Gore (16:30), why he is not focussed on climate change adaptation (24:00), trying to create the Tesla of green finance (29:30), what he wants to crack (32:00), why carbon removal is hard (35:30), and the importance of the IRA (39:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4 Aug 202344min
Deep Sky's Fred Lalonde: "We need to bury every ton of CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Frederic Lalonde, founder of Deep Sky, to talk about why it is already too late to address climate change (3:10), terraforming earth (14:00), the terrifying math of exponential systems (19:45), the breakdown in insurance models (23:05), what Deep Sky is doing (27:00), starting companies before Deep Sky (33:35), draught and famine (37:50), the waking up of capital markets to the climate crisis (42:00), sea level rise (47:00), why he is an optimist (51:20), how he talks to his kids (1:01:20), raising 470m (1:07:15), Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
28 Juli 20231h 13min
IRL415’s Philip Rosedale: “Heading toward software’s Hiroshima moment”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life and IRL415, to talk about the Apple’s Vision Pro augmented reality goggles (3:30), digital eyes (6:40), the weight challenge (7:50), on whether there is a key breakthrough that will lead to adoption (11:50), how artificial intelligence and goggles come together, or not (16:10), starting a community lab (19:20), AI girlfriends and matchmakers (22:00), on whether software development is heading toward a “Hiroshima moment” (24:20), why he is optimistic (28:00), and why phones will be the dominant interface for the next decade (30:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
21 Juli 202335min
