Big Technology Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis + Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin: Scaling AI, AGI Timeline, Simulation Theory May 21, 2025

Show notes

Demis Hassabis is the CEO of Google DeepMind. Sergey Brin is the co-founder of Google. The two leading tech executives join Alex Kantrowitz for a live interview at Google's IO developer conference to discuss the frontiers of AI research. Tune in to hear their perspective on whether scaling is tapped out, how reasoning techniques have performed, what AGI actually means, the potential for an intelligence explosion, and much more. Tune in for a deep look into AI's cutting edge featuring two executives building it.

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Google DeepMind CTO: Advancing AI Frontier, New Reasoning Methods, Video Generation’s Potential May 20, 2025

Show notes

Koray Kavukcuoglu is the Chief Technology Officer of Google DeepMind. Kavukcuoglu joins Big Technology to discuss how his team is pushing the frontier of AI research inside Google as the company's Google IO developer event gets underway. Tune in to hear Kavukcuoglu break down the value of brute scale versus novel techniques and how the new inference-time “DeepThink” mode could supercharge reasoning. We also cover Veo 3’s sound-synced video generation, the open-source-versus-proprietary debate, and what a ten-percent jump in model quality might unlock for users everywhere.

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Is ChatGPT The Last Website?, Grok’s System Prompt, Meta’s llama Fiasco May 16, 2025

Show notes

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) ChatGPT ranks No. 5 among all websites worldwide 2) ChatGPT is the only website among the top ranked by SimilarWeb that is growing 3) How do chatbots get information if they replace the web? 4) Grok's 'white genocide' messaging campaign 5) What's in a system prompt, with a look inside Grok's 6) The truth about Timothée Chalamet 7) Filing stories directly into ChatGPT? 8) Meta slams into big problems in its Llama AI program 9) Does it matter if scaling is done? 10) IBM survey shows generative ROI is hard to come by despite interest 11) Cohere's revenue trouble 12) Perplexity integrates with Paypal 13) A look at the event calendar ahead

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AI’s Drawbacks: Environmental Damage, Bad Benchmarks, Outsourcing Thinking — With Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna May 14, 2025

Show notes

Emily  Bender is a computational linguistics professor at the University of Washington. Alex Hanna is the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute. Bender and Hanna join Big Technology to discuss what their new book, “The AI‑Con," which they describe as the layered ways today’s language‑model boom obscures environmental costs, labor harms, and shaky science. Tune in to hear a lively back‑and‑forth on whether chatbots are useful tools or polished parlor tricks. We also cover benchmark gaming, data‑center water use, doomerism, and more. Hit play for a candid debate that will leave you smarter about where generative AI really stands — and what comes next.

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OpenAI’s New Structure, Apple Replacing Google With AI?, Cheating With ChatGPT May 09, 2025

Show notes

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI has another new top executive structure 2) What is Sam Altman's role now? 3) Who is Fidji Simo, OpenAI's new CEO of Applications 4) OpenAI abandons total for-profit conversion 5) Microsoft's demands on OpenAI 6) Could Apple replace Google as the default search with AI? 7) Is it an either or decision? 8) Could Apple make AI companies bid for the default search position? 9) Everyone is cheating using ChatGPT in college 10) Do people need to change or does the education system need to change?

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Is AI Scaling Dead? — With Gary Marcus May 07, 2025

Show notes

Gary Marcus is a cognitive scientist, author, and longtime AI skeptic. Marcus joins Big Technology to discuss whether large‑language‑model scaling is running into a wall. Tune in to hear a frank debate on the limits of “just add GPUs" and what that means for the next wave of AI. We also cover data‑privacy fallout from ad‑driven assistants, open‑source bio‑risk fears, and the quest for interpretability. Hit play for a reality check on AI’s future — and the insight you need to follow where the industry heads next.

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The ‘AI-First Company,’ Big Tech Mega Earnings, NVIDIA vs. Anthropic May 02, 2025

Show notes

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) What an 'AI-First Company' is 2) Aaron Levie's AI-first memo to Box. 3) Luis von Ahn's AI-first memo to Duolingo 4) Tobi Lutke's AI-first memo to Shopify 5) Can non-tech company be AI-first? 6) Apple earnings 7) Apple's federal government issues 8) Microsoft earnings 9) Amazon earnings 10) Meta Earnings 11) NVIDIA vs. Anthropic 12) More on AI consciousness 13) The very handy Mag2

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Amazon's Head Of Prime on Tariffs, Alexa Plus Rollout, and AI Differentiation — With Jamil Ghani Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

Jamil Ghani is Amazon’s Vice President of Prime. Ghani joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss Amazon's position in the ongoing trade war and how Alexa Plus combined with Prime will appeal to its customers. Tune in to hear Ghani debunk the headline about tariff price labels, walk through Alexa Plus’s rollout, and outline why Amazon believes its approach to a contextually-aware assistant will work. We also cover Prime Day strategy, supply-chain regionalization, warehouse robotics, and Amazon’s growing AI alliance with Anthropic. Hit play for a fast, candid look at how the world’s largest online retailer is positioning itself for the next era of commerce and consumer tech.

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Is Anthropic’s Claude AI Conscious?, Shopping in ChatGPT, Systrom vs. Zuck Apr 25, 2025

Show notes

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Anthropic researcher's assertion that there's a 15% chance Claude is conscious 2) What happens if people believe AI is sentient? 3) Why consciousness and intelligence are different 4) Hey, is this all just marketing? 5) Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's push for AI model interpretability 6) China's robot half-marathon 7) Tesla's wild earnings week 8) Why Google is thriving despite the ChatGPT threat 9) Are we going to shop directly within ChatGPT? 10) Kevin Systrom's flawed testimony against Facebook 11) Washington DC thinks Big Tech is getting broken up.

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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

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Generative AI 101: Tokens, Pre-training, Fine-tuning, Reasoning — With Dylan Patel Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

Dylan Patel is the founder and CEO of SemiAnalysis. He joins Big Technology Podcast to explain how generative AI work, explaining the inner workings of tokens, pre-training, fine-tuning, open source, and reasoning. We also cover DeepSeek’s efficiency breakthrough, the race to build colossal AI data centers, and what GPT-5’s hybrid training approach could unlock. Hit play for a masterclass you’ll want to send to every friend puzzled (or excited) about the future of AI.

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