Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

Latest Episodes:

Creating an AI-First Business with Andrew Ng Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

Artificial General Intelligence won’t be with us for at least another 100 years, but former Baidu chief scientist and Google Brain cofounder Andrew Ng argues that AI will radically alter most industries within the coming decades. Ng joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the progress of AI and how it’s altering businesses and the future of work.

They also discuss:

How billionaires decide to invest in overly ambitious and unrealistic ideas.
What makes a company an AI-first business.
Why you shouldn’t start with strategy first when implementing AI into your business.

Further reading:

“How to Choose Your First AI Project” (HBR, February 2019)
“AI Guru Andrew Ng on the Job Market of Tomorrow” (Wall Street Journal, October 2018)

@andrewyng
@azeem
@exponentialview
www.exponentialview.co

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Tony Blair: Governing in the Age of AI Oct 02, 2019

Show notes

If the UK’s former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was in the government today, he says that he would mobilize his whole office around the technology revolution. Tony Blair and Azeem Azhar discuss why the tech leaders must collaborate with policy makers — whether they want to or not — and why regulating big technology is only a small part of the solution.

In this podcast, Tony and Azeem also discuss:

Why Silicon Valley needs to share societal responsibility with the public sector
How the government needs to change to be at the forefront of the technology revolution
How the power of the technology industry has become its greatest liability

Further reading:

“Tony Blair Foreword: Technology for the Many” (Institute for Global Change, November 2017)
“Regulating Big Tech” (Exponential View, September 2019)
“Majority Worldwide Say Their Society is Broken — An Increasing Feeling Among Britons” (IPSOS, September 2019)

@InstituteGC
@azeem
@exponentialview
www.exponentialview.co

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Introducing Season 4 Sep 25, 2019

Show notes

In the new season of the Exponential View podcast, Azeem Azhar speaks to an eclectic group of leaders in technology, business, politics, economics, and science to help us break through the complexity of our world and understand how it’s changing. The world’s top AI researchers discuss what the technology is really capable of, a 4-star general shares his concerns about the future of war in the AI age, and a leading economist untangles what economics has got wrong about the tech revolution. Azeem digs into nano-tech, the future of work, and the nature of complexity.

Coming on October 2, 2019!

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Engineering Biology Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

Engineering biology holds the key to improving the lives of people across the world. It promises solutions to disease, food production, and pollution amongst other deep-seated problems. But this engineering is immensely difficult. CEO of LabGenius James Field, partner at NFX Gigi Levy-Weiss, partner at the investment firm Episode 1 Carina Namih, and science writer Oliver Morton come together to discuss the merging field of bioengineering.

Carina, James, Gigi, and Oliver also discuss:

How machine learning is improving life sciences and healthcare.
Experiences of fundraising and hiring for biology companies in the UK and the U.S.
The role of bio-engineering in solving major global problems, including pollution.

Further reading:

“35+ Companies Using Synthetic Biology To Rethink Everything From Plastics To Fabrics To Fertilizers” (CB Insights, Nov. 8, 2018)
“Where Are All the Biotech Startups Raising?” (Tech Crunch, 2019)
“The New Era of Life” (CognitionX, June 24, 2019)

Carina Namih @CarinaNamih
Oliver Morton @Eaterofsun
James Field @jejfield
Gigi Levy-Weiss @GigiLevy
www.exponentialview.co

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Governance in the Age of AI Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

Artificial intelligence is a powerful technology with capabilities that are open to use by state and non-state actors. In this conversation Azeem Azhar, De Kai, and Joanna Bryson discuss how governance should adapt as our institutions are challenged by unintended consequences of the technology and its creators.

Joanna, De Kai, and Azeem also discuss:

Why rule-based systems fall short of protecting us against the unintended consequences of technology.
The value of cross-cultural dialogue in establishing common values to guide the governance of AI globally.
The role of the leading technology companies in regulating the industry.

Further reading:

“Designing Responsible AI” (The Exponential View podcast, April 10, 2019)
“Google Needs to be Treated Like A World Power” (Business Insider, June 12, 2019)
“Translation: Chinese Expert Group Offers ‘Governance Principles’ for ‘Responsible AI’” (New America, June 2019)
“Governance and Accountability in an AI World” (CognitionX, June 12, 2019)

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson
De Kai
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

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Disrupting the Insurance Industry with AI Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

“At a fundamental level, insurance is a social good. It’s about a community of people pooling their resources to help the weakest members in their hour of need. That should be the most loved industry, but it’s 180 degrees away from that,” says Daniel Schreiber, the cofounder and CEO of the InsureTech startup Lemonade, in conversation with Azeem Azhar.

Daniel and Azeem also discuss:

How insurance is a business of probability theory, which is why the sector as a whole will only get more susceptible to transformations through AI, big data, and machine learning.
Why the corporate cultures of legacy insurance firms are well-adapted for preservation, but ill-adapted for business transformation, innovation, and the transition from a policy-centric to customer-centric business model.
Integrating AI into behind-the-scenes processes, including regulation, feature development, and production.

Further reading:

“First, Fire All The Brokers: How Lemonade, A Millennial-Loved Fintech Unicorn, Is Disrupting The Insurance Business” (Forbes, May 2, 2019)
“Insurers in UK and US lagging behind in divesting from coal” (The Guardian, Dec. 3, 2018)
“Why Lemonade Won’t Invest In Coal” (Lemonade, Sept. 11, 2018)
“How A.I. Is Transforming the Insurance Industry” (Bloomberg, April 9, 2018)

Daniel Schreiber @daschreiber
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

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Beneficial Artificial Intelligence Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

In 2015, computer scientist and AI pioneer, Stuart Russell, became the first signatory of an open letter calling on researchers to ensure “that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial.” Stuart joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the possible AI futures and how to ensure technology serves the good of humanity.

Stuart and Azeem also discuss:

The nature of intelligence and re-creating intelligence in machines
Algorithmic fairness and regulating AI
Embodied intelligence
Using AI to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Further reading:

Stuart Russell, “The Long-Term Future of AI” (Berkeley)
“Moral technology” (Aeon, March 21, 2019)
“Concerns of an Artificial Pioneer” (Quanta Magazine, April 21, 2015)
“Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence” (Future of Life Institute)

Stuart Russell
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

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Surveillance Capitalism Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

Shoshana Zuboff coined the term “surveillance capitalism” to describe the new way companies claim private human experience as products. Shoshana joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the emergence of surveillance capitalism, its pernicious and beneficial aspects, and the future for human autonomy and agency.

Shoshana and Azeem also discuss:

The evolution of the first surveillance capitalist.
The economics of scale, scope, and action as forms of harm.
How we can safeguard the beneficial aspects of technology, while preventing its covert use by surveillance capitalists.

Further reading:

“The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 2016)
“Beyond Surveillance Capitalism: Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty” (Decode, October 2018)
“Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks” (PNAS, June 2014)

Shoshana Zuboff @shoshanazuboff
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

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AI’s Near Future Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

For Jürgen Schmidhuber, a recognized pioneer in AI, artificial intelligence is much more than another technological revolution. He sees it as the opportunity to transcend humanity and biology. In this conversation, Jürgen and Azeem Azhar discuss what the next thirty years of AI will look like.

Jürgen and Azeem also discuss:

The role of Long Short-Term Memory architecture in recent AI breakthroughs.
Why the next AI wave will see machines actively shaping the data that they perceive.
The second- and third-order consequences of bringing these more sophisticated artificial neural networks into our world.

Further reading:

“An AI taught itself to play a video game – for the first time, it’s beating humans” (The Conversation, May 2019)
“Moving Beyond Cloud Computing to Edge Computing” (CableLabs, May 2019)
“An All-Neural On-Device Speech Recognizer” (Google, March 2019)
“Google’s head of translation on fighting bias in language and why AI loves religious texts” (The Verge, January 2019)

Jürgen Schmidhuber
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

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The Autonomous Economy Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

One of the founders of complexity economics, W. Brian Arthur, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how artificial intelligence is ushering us into the age of the autonomous economy with radical implications for our society.

In this podcast, Brian and Azeem also discuss:

Why the decision-making ability of AI will have a different class of impact on the economy than previous ‘landmark’ technologies like the printing press.
Whether it is possible to have publicly available decision-making enabled by artificial intelligence outside the proprietary enclaves of Silicon Valley monopolies.
Increasing Returns Theory and how to generate good governance in a digital economy with dominant market actors.

Further reading: