This week journalist and bestselling author of The Guttenburg Parenthesis, What Would Google Do? and Geeks Bearing Gifts, Jeff Jarvis joins us to talk media and content in the AI age. Jarvis is considered one of the Top 100 most influential media leaders (WEF/Davos). He believes AI’s impact on our society will be as impactful as the printing press, and helps us understand how institutions and society will likely adapt. We forget the lessons of the past at our future’s peril.
This week we get into AI in health care, generative and personalized medicine, the cure for cancer and why CoVID helped supercharge that and how AI is helping us live longer, healthier lives. Alex Zhavoronkov, the founder of AI-MedTech player Insilico joins us on TF to talk how health care is going to radically change over the next decade or two. An amazing deep dive. Don’t miss it!
In this week’s show Bestselling Author Michael J Casey, the chairman of DAIS (Decentralized AI Society), senior advisor on MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency initiative, and previous Chair of Consensus at CoinDesk, joins Brett to talk the reality of decentralized and open source AI. The intersection of DeFi and DeAI appears to be a logical path if not for the hundreds of billions being invested in big tech efforts to create AGI. Is it possible to really make AI less centralized and still deliver the promise of a highly automated world? You’ll need to tune in to find out!
Is DeepSeek a massive disruption of the AI landscape? Or just another entrant in a brutal contest between Big Tech and feisty startups? In this episode, Brett and Rob examine the advent of DeepSeek R1 from all angles: China’s rising AI prowess, the new Cold War, the myth of American exceptionalism, protectionism and export controls, the power of open source software, the winners and losers, and some surprising insights about the massive 17% drop in Nvidia’s market cap.
What’s next in robotics with Marc Theermann, the Chief Strategy Officer of Boston Dynamics. Known as “the Bell Labs of robotics”, this firm is famous for its mechanical menagerie of legged robots that includes Spot, Atlas, Stretch. These autonomous robots can go anywhere a human can go, and to many places humans cannot, including mine fields. And now they are equipped with artificial intelligence. Autonomous robots are beginning to develop a semantic model of the world.
In this episode, journalist, technologist and entrepreneur Marshall Kirkpatrick joins hosts Brett and Brian to discuss the way AI might change our lives, thinking and philosophy as a species. Marshall dives deep into the way we are learning to integrate AI into our conscious processes, and where it might be useful, and where it might be contentious. In the midst of arguments about the safety of AI and the role it will play in our society, this is a fascinating debate on how your personal AI might change your world.
Andrew Hessel believes that biology is the first technology because it created all living things, including us. And it’s also the most mysterious technology because we still do not understand exactly how the cells in our bodies convert molecules into new materials at room temperature. In this episode of the Futurists, Andrew explains how the science of synthetic biology enables humans to harness the phenomenal generative power of nature to accomplish incredible goals: curing cancer; devising personalized medicine; growing novel proteins; designing new materials and clean fuels. Biology is technology; synthetic biology confers the immense creative force of nature onto humans. Topics include genome sequencing, genome synthesis, how to write DNA, and the role of AI in reprogramming life.
In this week’s episode we interview author, AI theorist and researcher David Shapiro. Shapiro is part philosopher, part theorist with a fair bit of practical wisdom thrown in. With a hit YouTube channel Shapiro travels the globe as a speaker and advisor musing on the longer-term impacts of AI, technology and human adaptability. In this deep conversation with host Brett King, we delve into the ways in which advanced AI might completely transform our way of life, including economics, politics and what it means to be human itself. This is not one you’ll want to miss.
This week hosts Brett King and Katie “Miss Metaverse” Schultz join a returning guest Thomas Frey to talk about the state of the future. In our last session Thomas gave an excellent demonstration of futurist thinking in real time. But in this week’s show we get Thomas talks about how AI, climate and conflict are already impacting us. He also opines on the likelihood that if you are not working with AI you’ll likely be replaced by someone who is. Once again he shows us why he’s Google’s highest rated futurist speaker.
Josh Bernoff’s entire career as an analyst and author has been focused on the future. In this episode The Futurists discuss forecasting: What is the difference between strategic insight and tactical decisions? Why is it so difficult to predict the timing of forecasts? Why organizations have a bias towards the status quo, and why futurists have a bias towards change. Josh explains how summarizing “What It Means” can bring a liberating clarity to forecasts and strategic plans.
In this week’s The Futurist we interview a key attorney representing AI companies in current copyright battles taking place in courts in the US and around the world. Amir Ghavi is an Intellectual Property and Tech attorney for Fried Frank. We get into policy, precedent, and the likely future of AI from a legal perspective. It might surprise you.
AI safety pioneer Roman Yampolskiy believes that artificial intelligence presents a challenge unlike anything humanity has ever faced. He says we have just one chance to get it right. A single AI model can cause an existential crisis, and there are already more than 500,000 open source AI models available. In his view, the AI arms race is creating an infinite range of possibilities for catastrophe. Roman returns to The Futurists to share perspectives from his new book, AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable, delivering a devastating critique of the current state of safety in AI and an urgent call to action.
Tech entrepreneur Byron Reese has a pragmatic approach to the future. He has launched several startup companies, exiting three via M&A and two via IPO. He’s also the author of several books, including his newest, Agora. Byron spoke to the Futurists about superintelligence, collective intelligence, super organisms, and emergence. What can human organizations learn from bee hives? The conflict between AI Doomers and the Accelerationists. Why humanity is going to be all right!
In this week’s show we authors and industry commentators Irena Cronin and Robert Scoble. Their new book The Immersive Metaverse Playbook for Business Leaders gives us a glimpse into the post Apple Vision Pro world with Spatial, AI and Metaverse startups and investments taking off, and the paradigm shift required to move into this contextual world. We talk digital twins, Ai-based assistance in the AR space and how interface design will have to adapt to these new technologies. This is a masterclass in Spatial Computing, join Katie Schultz and Brett King as they host this amazing pair of spatial specialists..
In this weeks episode Brett King is in London talking the future with renowned OG futurist JP Rangaswami. JP was the Chief Scientist for Salesforce and the Chief Data Officer for Deutsche Bank, way back before that was a thing. In this interview he talks about the philosophy of the future that is redrawn by AI and technology. A great discussion from a great learned mind and a modern philosopher. Bio – https://confusedofcalcutta.com/about-me/
The hosts of the are back to talk emerging Artificial Intelligence regulation from Biden's latest executive order, the UK and EU positions, and China's take on AI. We also discuss Marc Andreessen's TechnoOptimist Manifesto and why the Tech Giants aren't necessarily the best people to be defining AI regulation.
In this week’s The Futurist episode we get into the world where venture capital and futurism collide, with hacker, inventor and technology futurist Pablos Holman. Whether it’s working on early crypto, 3D printing tech, spaceships with Blue Origin, or early Tesla engineering, Pablos has been involved in putting together some of the most leading edge technology deals on the planet. This week he joins Brett King and Miss Metaverse to talk how VCs and investors view emerging tech in AI, Climate and Genetics to name a few. Buckle up!
This week Ross Dawson and Brett King sit down for an unscripted conversation about AI, Energy markets, climate survivability and resilience, mass migration, collaborative intelligence, advanced healthcare and other great topics for a futurists conversation to end out the week. Ross Dawson is one of Asia’s top ranked futurists and advises companies and governments around future-proofing and AI readiness. The future is closer than you think.
Boaz Ashkenazy is the CEO and founder of Simply Augmented. He’s on a mission to equip small and medium sized companies with AI superpowers. Boaz talks to the Futurists about the prospect of fully automated corporations, digitally augmented workforce, and how every company can get started on the process of AI reinvention.
In this episode Fabrice Grinda joins host Brett King to talk about his tech investing is changing and how angel investors make bets in a radically changing environment. How soon will AI impact? What about smart glasses, how soon will they be mainstream? A wide ranging discussion on tech investments and the players behind them.
In this week’s episode Brett King and Robert Tercek, Brett’s The Futurists cohost, interview two-time presidential candidate, entrepreneur, journalist and futurist, Zoltan Istvan. We dive into how the species might evolve to adapt to living with AI, a changing climate and even to life off-planet. It’s controversial, dynamic and the philosophy and ethics of humanity are front and center in the debate. We’ll see you in the future!
In this episode our resident futurists make bold forecasts for 2023. Joined by Miss Metaverse, Katie King, the trio discuss what to expect in the global economy, defense and military, health care, climate change, extreme weather and the hottest summer in human history. A special focus on Open AI, ChatGPT, DallE2, Microsoft, Stable Diffusion, Metaverse, VR/AR/XR, gaming and media, software automation, artificial intelligence and robotics. Which industries are ripe for disruption? Plus a bold forecast about Elon Musk’s tenure as CEO of Tesla and looming competition from the electric vehicle industry.
This week on the Futurists, Dan Jeffries, Managing Director of the AI Infrastructure Alliance and CIO at Stability.AI talks the doomsayers attacking ChatGPT, and the overblown fear over AI. Jeffries argues there are historical precedents for human adaptation to the disruptive technology of AI, but that learning to live with another intelligence might be a bit more challenging.
Theo Priestley is a Futurist based in Scotland and he's mentored Silicon Valley startups, has written hundreds of articles on AI, IoT, Web3, Metaverse, Fintech and he's the author of "The Future Starts Now". He has a habit of making some big bets on the future, but also he's not afraid to put out his thoughts on the future as they develop. Priestley is a contrarian at heart though, and his futurist lens comes from the conflict between technological advancements, policy development and human nature. It's not always clear which of these will win out as the future unfolds, and Priestley is not afraid to play off this uncertainty.
Society has grown more complex and more polarized. That increases the likelihood of complicated disputes. How is the legal industry evolving to deal with hyperconnected society? Dr. Cain Elliott tells the Futurists how the legal profession is digitizing to move faster and operate more efficiently. But the motivation to change is coming from clients, not from attorneys. Topics: the broken business model of legal services, the political and regulatory barriers to change, the transformative potential of legal tech.
In this weeks episode of The Futurists Dr. Harry Kloor talks us through the process of working with Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis and others in creating Beomni - a remotely teleoperated, AI-enhanced humanoid robot built for semi-autonomous operation. Kloor has consulted on the X-Prize, written for and directed sci-fi series like Star Trek Voyager, and worked with world changers like Elon Musk.
The future of healthcare and machine intelligence, featuring Dr Phillip Alvelda, the founder and chairman of Medio Labs. The pandemic accelerated the introduction of direct-to-consumer healthcare with clinical grade accuracy. Phillip explains how AI will amplify this process by reducing cost to scale. But the prospect of constant surveillance raises other concerns, and that leads to a lively Futurists debate about China’s advances in AI and a new round of US export controls.
This week Brian Solis joins Brett in the hosting chair as Srujana Kaddevarmuth from Walmart labs joins the Futurists to delve into the future of in store and online interactions for the retail giant. From future store design, warehouse robotics through to data science and AI, we cover the gamut of possibilities of 21st century commerce.
Julian Bleecker of the Near Future Laboratory has developed a novel way to forecast: he constructs prototypes, products and artifacts from future scenarios. Then he designs the marketing material, including ad campaigns and brochures and catalogs, to interrogate the wider impact on consumer society and human behavior. These techniques are set forth in Julian’s book, The Manual of Design Fiction: A Practical Guide to Exploring The Near Future. https://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/
This week on the Futurists we catch up with Fox/CNBC tech commentator Shelly Palmer as we dive into the implications of ever pervasive technology in our lives. Shelly, has been following consumer trends for 2 decades and is a mainstay at events like CES, but he says AI is a different sort of beast. We dive into how technology will augment and change our lives moving forward.
Recording artist Imogen Heap incorporates advanced technology in her music and live performances. On this episode of The Futurists, Imogen describes her creative process and explains how she improvises with emerging tech to achieve spontaneous artistic breakthroughs in composition, collaboration and live shows, including her digital twin “Mogen”, an AI-personality. Topics discussed in this episode: haptics, generative AI music, the future of live interaction and participatory media, procrastination and inspiration, geolocating songs, blockchain for music metadata, how fans and artists can collaborate with artificial intelligence.
Are you certain that every attendee in your Zoom meeting is the person they claim to be? Deep fakes have improved. VFX expert Carl Bogan demonstrates to The Futurists how easy it is to fabricate a persuasive fake persona. Politics and remote work will never be the same again.
In every work environment, from factories, hospitals, retail shops to elder care homes, the future workforce will include robots. Dr Harry Kloor, the founder and CEO of Beyond Imagination has blazed a trail toward building reliable, strong robots that can operate safely alongside human workers. Harry tells the Futurists how to design a robot for a variety of workplaces at an affordable price, and what type of artificial intelligence is best for autonomous robot workers. Harry also answers key questions: why insurability for robot co-workers is a challenge; how to create a friendly-looking robot; the best places to put robots to work; why legless robots are superior; robots for elder care; how hydraulic robots compare to electronic systems; and why it’s so difficult for a robot to open a bottle of soda.
Michael Clark data scholar and futurist joins The Futurists this week to talk the critical misalignment of our global data infrastructure when it comes to AI and the future of the planet. He argues that data is more valuable than water, more valuable than money but can’t be just an asset used by corporations, that it must be owned but each individual from cradle to grave. How? You will need to listen to find out.
Brett and Rob on the latest moves against Big Tech. The Writers Guild strikes a blow against imposed AI. Organized labor versus EVs. The US government brings antitrust suits against Amazon and Google. And a look at what the infamous “Pause AI” petition did and didn’t accomplish.
Is AI good or bad for artists? Contrary to conventional wisdom, Bay Raitt believes that artificial intelligence confers immense power on artists. A prolific artist across film, games, print and other media, Bay speaks from deep experience. He tells The Futurists what he has learned by embracing AI in every aspect of his artists pursuits. According to Bay, AI must be embraced by creative people in every walk of life to reach its full potential.
Journalist and media pundit Jeff Jarvis returns to The Futurists to discuss the strategies deployed by newspapers and magazines to prevent technology firms from dominating journalism. It’s an uphill battle. Jeff describes the growing rift between independent journalists and big publications controlled by private equity; the role of government and new legislation; and the future of journalism in a media market shaped by artificial intelligence.
Monica Anderson returns to the Futurists to share a radical concept: future AI models based on Darwinism. The “AI epistemologist” shares provocative opinions about where the current crop of generative AI systems went wrong, and why generative AI is computationally expensive and energy intensive, and why scaling AI with hardware will not achieve general intelligence. Instead she offers a radical alternative: a design for machine intelligence that is inspired by biology, and in particular by the Darwinian process of selection. Topics include: why generative AI is not a plagiarism machine; syntax versus semantics and why AI needs both; there is only one algorithm for creativity; and how to construct an AI that consumes a million times less energy.
In this week’s episode hosts Brett and Katie interview Zuzanna Stamirowska, the CEO and co-founder of a deep tech startup that is working on AI that can unlearn and process new data in real-time. We also dive into industrial level AI and how shipping lanes, Amazon package delivery and autonomous supply chain is likely to be impacted by AI. The smart world will be powered by many different forms of AI.
In this weeks episode of The Futurists, cognitive scientist and AI researcher Ben Goertzel joins the hosts to talk the likely path to Artificial General Intelligence. Goertzel is the founder of SingularityNet, Chairman at OpenCog Foundation, and previously as the Chief Scientist at Hanson Robotics he helped create Sophia the robot. Goertzel is on a different level, get ready to step up.
In this week's episode we talk to Dave Birch, the author of 'Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin', The Currency Cold War, and Identity is the New Money about all things identity, digital assets and the future of Crypto. Dave is one of the world's preeminent experts on payments tech globally as well. But when we get into how AI's will make payments and hold bank accounts, it gets very interesting indeed.
In this episode, David Mattin, creator of New World Same Humans, talks to the Futurists about his simple but phenomenally powerful technique for forecasting: he uses fundamental human needs as the lens that brings emerging technology and behavior trends into crisp focus. Our discussion topics include: generative AI, the value of human creativity, virtual humans, digital companions, large language models, Meta’s struggle to control Galactica, storytelling and trend forecasting, the four big story templates that describe the future, and the eternal quest for status as a driver for human behavior. Learn more at New World Same Humans https://newworldsamehumans.com/
This week on the Futurists our four hosts, Brett King, Robert Tercek, Katie King, and Brian Solis join a live stream with a bunch of listeners and at least one surprise guest to get into the first year of our world beating podcast. We discuss our favorite guests, what we learned and some of the recurring themes. A fantastic look back at a phenomenal year on The Futurists.
This week Brett and Robert are joined by Futurist, Founder and Author Terence Mauri as he gets ready to launch his new book, The UPside of DisrUPtion. We talk long term disruptive potential of AI, how it will impact employment, economies and corporations. But we also get into future proofing strategies for businesses and individuals alike. One thing is for sure, you’re going to want to be as adaptable as possible for the future that is coming! Terence's Bio - https://www.terencemauri.com/#Bio
In this week’s show returning guest Shelly Palmer (CNBC, CNN, Fox5) dives with Rob and Brett into what it will take for corporations to stay relevant in the AI-age. This is a wide ranging discussion on the way AI-based commerce, agency and automation will disrupt many of our current industries and institutions. Not one to be missed! Shelly’s BIO – https://shellypalmer.com/shelly-palmer-bio/
Jim Rutt solves complex future problems by taking action. When we say complex, we mean very complex!. A pioneer of networked society since 1980, Jim launched the world’s first online community, and later led Network Solutions and the Santa Fe Institute. In this episode of the Futurists, the discussion moves fluidly from theory to practice as Jim explains his Game B initiative with colorful language and fresh insight. Topics include: complexity science, applied artificial intelligence, the importance of the number zero, the failures of governance mechanisms, the doom loop of money-on-money return, and why we need a system that is focused on optimizing human wellbeing within planetary limits.
Technology strategist Shelly Palmer returns to The Futurists to demystify abstruse concepts of quantum computing in practical terms with his characteristically sharp insights about artificial intelligence. Shelly explains: why code and content will be free; why quantum encryption won’t create jobs for humans; what happens when Moore’s law compounds with Metcalfe’s and Cooper’s Laws; why we can bank on the proliferation of good ideas; and how to separate hype from reality in the realm of Big Tech research.