Ayush Prakash Podcast

AI could expand access to mental-health support, but a convincing conversation doesn’t establish that a chatbot is safe. Tristan Glatard explains why mental-health AI needs evidence, evaluation and human supervision, and how its potential extends from conversational tools to predicting treatment responses and identifying crises. Tristan is Scientific Director of the Krembil Centre for Neuroinforma...

A Canadian frontier model alone won’t give Canada control over its AI future. Anna Jahn explains why AI sovereignty also depends on data, energy, compute, talent, and governance, and why countries may need to combine their strengths to reduce dependence on the biggest AI powers. Anna is Executive Director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University. She previously led pu...

Nicholas Nadeau argues that the AI most people use is a bootleg of human expertise: a confident statistical average built from scraped public data, without the judgment, consent, or unpublished knowledge that makes an expert worth consulting. Nicholas is the CTO and Co-Founder of Onix. He holds a PhD in human-robot interaction and previously served as CTO of humanoid-robotics company 1X and data c...

Renée Sieber explains why schools and public institutions are adopting generative AI before confronting its effects on learning, judgment, privacy, and civic life. Her central warning: when AI substitutes for the struggle involved in thinking and writing, students may become dependent on systems they were never given a meaningful choice to refuse. Renée is an associate professor at McGill Universi...

Nidhi Hegde explains why giving the public access to chatbots does not make AI democratic when users have no control over how the systems are built, trained, or deployed. Her central argument is that agency, representation, privacy, fairness, and technical robustness must be treated as connected design and governance problems. Nidhi is an associate professor of computing science at the University...

Fenwick McKelvey joins the podcast to explain why Canada’s AI problem runs deeper than research funding or regulation. Canada helped sustain the ideas behind modern AI and launched an early national strategy, yet it still struggles to turn that history into independent industry, enforceable public accountability, and a clear position between the United States, China, and the European Union. Fenwic...

Dr. Matthew Guzdial joins the podcast to break down how (and if!) AI is reshaping video game design, and why the gap between what's being promised and what's actually shipping is bigger than anyone wants to admit. We also get into VR as a cautionary tale; basically what happens when hype outruns infrastructure, why that pattern is playing out again, and what it means for anyone building or...

Nick Hunt joins the podcast to break down why the stories our civilisation tells itself are broken, why progress is one of the most limiting and overlooked myths holding humanity back, and what it means that most of us are sleepwalking through a collapsing world. We also get into the uncivilised frameworks that can expand the way you think and feel, and what Nick believes it will take for humanity...

Adam Dickinson joins the podcast to break down what intuition actually is, why logic alone is one of the most limiting and overlooked barriers to human potential, and what it means that most of us are operating from only a fraction of our true consciousness. We also get into the spiritual frameworks that can expand the way you think and feel, and what Adam believes it will take for humanity to evo...

David Roberts of Mara Labs joins the podcast to break down what microplastics are, why air is one of the biggest and most overlooked sources of exposure, and what it means that most of us are consuming the equivalent of a credit card's worth of plastic every week. We also get into concrete lifestyle changes you can make right now to reduce your intake, and what Mara Labs is building to tackle...

For this episode, I'm joined by Professor Matthew Taylor, an Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii and a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is the Director of the Intelligent Robot Learning (IRL) Lab and a Principal Investigator at the Reinforcement Learning & Artificial Intelligence (RLAI) Lab, both at the University of Alberta. In this episode, we basical...

For this episode, I'm joined by Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation and one of the most influential figures in the commercial space industry.  In this episode, we slice the conversation into four categories: the social history of the space movement and how we got here; the business of space and the astropolitics shaping who controls the final frontier; the genetics and ethi...

For this episode, I’m joined by Alex Hernandez Garcia, a core academic member at Mila (the Quebec AI Institute) and a professor at the Université de Montréal. In this episode, we move past the hype to expose the friction between corporate monopolies and open science, the massive disconnect between research progress and commercial deployment, and why current tech policies are failing to address our...

For this episode, I’m joined by Alistair Alexander, a researcher specializing in the ecologies of technology.  In this episode, Alistair and I discuss the underlying physical architecture of AI—specifically how the digital world isn't ethereal, but a massive industrial system bound by the hard limits of energy, physics, and planetary boundaries. Connect with Alistair:  LinkedIn: https://www.li...

I'm joined by Dr. David Alter, a clinical health psychologist and neuropsychologist who's spent over 30 years studying the intricate connections between mind, brain, and body.  Dr. Alter reveals the underlying architecture of human experience, specifically how chaos and unity aren't opposing forces but fundamental patterns that shape everything from our neural networks to our relational dynamics a...

Dr. Karl Friston is Professor of Neuroscience at UCL and one of the most cited scientists alive. His work on the free energy principle has transformed our understanding of the brain, consciousness, and intelligence. Probably the coolest thing that's happened to me, the world's most influential neuroscientist talked about my book, AI for Gen Z, and interviewed me on it. We ended up in this wild con...

I’m joined by Zoltan Istvan, the world’s most influential transhumanist and candidate for Governor of California.  Zoltan reveals the radical, high-stakes shifts occurring in the minds of the world's most powerful disruptors as they prepare for a world where biology is no longer the limit. We dive into Zoltan’s vision for a post-scarcity world where Universal Basic Income becomes the foundation of...

How is the boardroom actually preparing for the year 2026? I’m joined by Shashank Tiwari, the CEO of Uno. AI and a seasoned Silicon Valley executive. We discuss the massive transition from the "AI experimentation" phase of 2024 to the "operational reality" of 2026, and he reveals the high-stakes conversations happening behind closed doors in the world’s most influential C-suite...

How has the internet actually changed humanity?  In this episode, I’m joined by digital anthropologist Giles Crouch to go deep into the "Human-Tech Intersect." Giles has spent over 20 years decoding the invisible cultural forces that dictate how we buy, believe, and belong. We discuss the massive shift of humanity living in two worlds at once (the physical and the digital) and how the internet has...

Alexandra Goldwell, MA, RCC, is a therapist, clairvoyant healer, and consciousness educator with over 35 years of experience bridging Western psychology with ancient wisdom traditions. In a world where technology is rewiring human consciousness at unprecedented speed, where children and young people are experiencing neurological ruptures from constant digital stimulation, and where humanity's rela...

Dr. Maya Ackerman is a world-renowned AI researcher, generative AI pioneer, and CEO and Co-Founder of WaveAI. She is an Associate Professor at Santa Clara University and the author of "Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us."  In a world where artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming every creative domain, from music and visual art to writing and design, and where fear about AI repla...

Jamie Meyer is the founder of Nine Carat, a social architect, and a dear, dear friend. This is episode 150 of the Ayush Prakash Podcast.  What a run it's been. And we shall continue!  In this episode, we cover:  - What is attachment vs love?  - The grey areas between attachment and detachment - Understanding spiritual growth and figuring out the best course of action - Late-stage capitalism an...

Dr. Ashleigh Rankin holds a doctorate in psychology. Recently, she’s been diving into how new technologies, AI included, are shaping the ways Gen Z and the rest of us understand ourselves, relate to others, and navigate an increasingly digital world. Her perspective brings together human behavior, financial wellbeing, and the everyday impact of technology. In this episode, we cover:Why vulnerable...

Jeff Burningham is a tech entrepreneur, investor, and author of the book "The Last Book Written by a Human: Becoming Wise in the Age of AI." In a world where artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing to outperform humans at nearly every measurable task, threatening to render human creativity, labor, and even consciousness itself obsolete, how do we reclaim what truly makes us human before we ha...

Brian Sachetta is an author, anxiety recovery advocate, and someone who has personally navigated the debilitating cycles of panic and fear. He is the author of the book "Get Out of Your Head: Stop Letting Anxiety Run Your Life." In this episode, we cover: - Why millions of people suffer from anxiety and panic attacks by spending too much time trapped in their own heads trying to "solve" feelings t...