GeekWire

Our guest this week is Kristi Coulter, whose latest book is Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career . It’s a memoir about what she learned in her 12 years at Amazon about work, gender bias, and herself. Exit Interview is Coulter's second book. Her first, Nothing Good Can Come From This , is a collection of essays about quitting drinking. As you’ll learn from this podcast conversa...

GeekWire's reporters have spent the past month profiling a group of six “Uncommon Thinkers” : Seattle-area inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs transforming industries and driving positive change in the world. This editorial series, presented in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners, was based on the deliberations of a panel of outside judges who chose the Uncommon Thinkers f...

AI was the big theme inside the long-running Amazon Web Services re:Invent cloud conference in Las Vegas this week, where the company's announcements included a new AI assistant for work called Amazon Q. We spoke with Matt Wood, AWS vice president of product, about the new service and the new era of AI for business.  Related Coverage: Sphere of influence? Google’s big Vegas ad buy clouds the lands...

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we assess the outcome of the drama at OpenAI, considering what the removal and ultimate return of its CEO Sam Altman, and everything that happened in between, means for Microsoft. While Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned kudos for masterfully navigating the mess, the situation also showed how the company was vulnerable to being blindsided due to OpenAI's convolut...

The  surprise removal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman  is the buzz of the tech industry — raising questions about the company’s role in the AI revolution, the ambitions of Altman and his team, the impact of his exit on the rest of the tech industry, OpenAI’s complex corporate structure, and its unusual partnership with Microsoft. This week, we recap the latest developments in this fast-moving story, and...

Fei-Fei Li 's new book is the story of her journey from China to the U.S., from small business to Big Tech, and from academic research to corporate life, and back again. But more than that, it's the story of the dawn of artificial intelligence, as told through her experience as one of the people summoning this new day and standing there awestruck, excited and concerned about what it will mean for...

What should we make of Jeff Bezos' decision to move his primary residence from Seattle to Miami ? That's our first topic on this week's episode. Plus, Convoy's final destination; a new AI feature from Seattle startup Yoodli that helps startup founders hone their pitches; and Amazon tests Bluetooth earplugs for warehouse workers . Related stories and links ‘Seattle, you will always have a piece of...

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we're featuring a panel discussion from the recent GeekWire Summit in Seattle, with three technology and business leaders offering first-hand insights into the new era of artificial intelligence. Bridget Frey, CTO at Redfin , the tech-powered real estate company that operates in more than 100 markets in the U.S. and Canada. Inbal Shani, chief product officer at G...

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we examine the market forces, debt, and other dynamics that put the digital freight marketplace Convoy out of business, bringing one of the Seattle region's top startups to the end of the road. Related coverage:  ‘The markets crushed us’: In tearful farewell to employees, Convoy execs reflect on shutdown Convoy collapse: Read CEO’s memo detailing sudden shutdown...

Our guest this week is Geordie Rose , co-founder and CEO of Sanctuary AI. The global conversation about robots and the workforce has shifted substantially in recent years, from concern about robots taking jobs to questions about how quickly they can fill gaps in the labor market.  One of the ventures at the forefront of this issue is Sanctuary AI. It's a Vancouver, B.C.-based company that has rais...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified this week in Google's antitrust case in Washington, D.C., supporting the U.S. Justice Department's contention that the search giant unfairly leverages its market power to stifle competition, a charge that Google vehemently disputes.  On this episode of the podcast, we reenact portions of Nadella's testimony, explain the positions staked out by Microsoft and Go...

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we dive deep into the landmark lawsuit filed by the FTC against Amazon with insights from former Amazon seller Jason Boyce , co-author of "The Amazon Jungle," host of the Day 2 podcast, and CEO of Avenue7Media , an agency that works with online sellers. We discuss the implications of the lawsuit for Amazon, consumers, and sellers in the context of the chang...

Kate Johnson is based in Denver in her role as Lumen Technologies CEO and president, but she has been spending a lot of time in the Seattle area recently, and not just because one of the local stadiums bears the company's name. Johnson sees the Seattle region an ideal test bed and proving ground for Lumen's offerings, including consumer and business broadband, voice, and data services. Yes, it hel...

It was a big week for Microsoft, with the unveiling of the company's latest Windows and AI features and new Surface devices at a special event in New York City on Thursday. This was preceded, by only a few days, by the surprise resignation of Panos Panay , the chief product officer in charge of the company's Windows and Devices division. Shortly after that announcement, Bloomberg News reported tha...

Chris Pirillo is an entrepreneur, creator, event organizer, and online community leader who has been a guide to the world of tech for everyday users since the early days of the web. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we catch up with Chris about his latest project, CreatorTech.net , an email newsletter and monthly meetup focused on the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence....

Our guest on this special episode is journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, whose new book about Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla founder and X (Twitter) owner, was published this week . Isaacson addresses the question of whether Musk is "calculated or crazed," as one anecdote in the book puts it; discusses Musk's role in some of the world's most vital infrastructure, including SpaceX's Starlin...

Tye Brady, chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to talk about the company's latest warehouse robots, explaining how they represent the emergence of the larger vision that prompted him to join Amazon more than eight years ago. Our conversation at Amazon HQ in Seattle followed a trip by GeekWire's Todd Bishop to Austin and San Marcos, Texas, to see...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy made it clear in a recent internal meeting that he wants employees to "disagree and commit" to the company's policy of working three days in the office, and find somewhere else to work if it doesn't work for them. We discuss the news in our first segment this week, and ponder why Amazon seems to be getting a bigger backlash than other big companies implementing similar polici...

On this week’s GeekWire Podcast, we're featuring an episode of Shift AI , a podcast hosted by Boaz Ashkenazy , CEO of AI solutions provider Simply Augmented , with guest Matt McIlwain of Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group .  A thriving tech hub requires access to ideas, people, and experiments that produce collective lessons sooner and with greater fidelity than anywhere else...

How can startups differentiate themselves in the new era of AI? We've been discussing that question a lot recently on the GeekWire Podcast, and on this episode, we'll get a first-hand look from business and technology veteran Pete Christothoulou, who has been immersed in this world for many years. Christothoulou is the former CEO of Marchex, the call and conversational analytics company, who is no...

How can baseball embrace technology and new traditions while honoring its legacy and listening to its fans? Those were the questions at the heart of the Seattle Mariners CEO's conversation this week with Taylor Soper, at the GeekWire Rooftop BBQ and Mariners Day at the First Mode headquarters in Seattle.  Stanton brings his experience as a longtime business and tech leader to his role with the Mar...

This week on the GeekWire Podcast , we look at how Amazon is positioning itself in the emerging era of generative artificial intelligence. We play and assess clips of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explaining the company's AI strategy on its earnings call this week. We also discuss the history of AI usage by startups, and consider advice from investors and startup leaders at Seattle Tech Week for emerging...

Blake Resnick built a fusion reactor in his garage at age 14, and interned at McLaren Automotive, Tesla, and DJI, before dropping out of Northwestern University in 2017 to launch drone startup Brinc . Now, at age 23, he oversees a team of nearly 100 people making drones and other technology for public safety agencies, serving more than 400 customers. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, record...

Microsoft staked its financial claim in the AI gold rush this week, announcing the pricing for its upcoming Microsoft 365 Copilot technology: a whopping $30/user per month on top of its existing enterprise subscription license fees. Wall Street loved it. One analyst called it "eye popping." Investors sent the company's shares to a new record on the day the pricing was announced. The upcoming produ...

This week, we take a closer look at Amazon's Alexa in a world where generative AI is enabling increasingly sophisticated conversations with digital assistants.  How does Alexa stack up against ChatGPT? Is that even a fair comparison? How will privacy play into all of this? And what's Amazon's commitment to Alexa in this era of corporate cutbacks. Those are some of the topics we discuss with Rohit...