The Times Tech Podcast

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.

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 Katie that his major worry is that nations miss the opportunity to take advantage of AI and technological innovation for economic growth "ultimately the benefits of it being much more broad spread are, I think... the real dream." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 this week. Follow us now for more big interviews coming up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

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 at Meta share their views. And Danny and Katie ponder whether AI mania could be more about money than the mind? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 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 they chronicle the AI revolution. Sounds good, but what will it sound like? Here's a taste. 'What Occurs' by Islands is used by permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'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 Danny in the Valley, where Danny talks Katie through the people and the themes from the journey so far. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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), how AI will change everything (48:15), and his worst day (53:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 (37:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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), meeting Peter Thiel (36:45), and how AI is going to revolutionize the economy (42:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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), and politics (41:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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), reinventing IVF (43:20), and the potential backlash (46:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Gamechangers documentary (10:30), being transparent with staff (15:10), the importance of failing well (19:30), the progress they made (27:30), Big Meat’s lobbying efforts (30:45), whether they would do it again (32:45), the Silicon Valley machine (37:00), venture debt (40:30), and the next thing (42:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the case may have helped (23:15), what he would say to HP’s former chief executive Meg Whitman (26:15), getting smeared (29:15), how he won (36:30), most deals fail (43:30), getting extradited (48:20), his family (53:00), spending tens of millions of pounds on his defence (56:00), his treatment in British business and society (58:30), advising startups and the public conversation about AI (1:01:15), acquittal day (1:03:00), overhauling the US extradition treaty (1:04:30), how his wife managed (1:08:00), watching the Super Bowl (1:10:30), and feeling like he has won a second life (1:13:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 building their own products (47:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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), and how he managed to start a company while also being a university professor (27:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

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), the crossover of pro sports and tech (25:00), and going public (28:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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), starting the company (33:40), the future of AI in medicine (38:00), and the comparison to self-driving vehicles (41:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 investment firm (41:00), running for president (44:00), and the possibility that the oil industry will transform (51:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.