Tech'ed Up

Head of Public Affairs for DeepMind, Dorothy Chou, is in Washington from London and joins Niki in the Tech’ed Up Studio to talk about the massive impact AI is already having on science, work, and the future of our economy. They cover the hard questions we all should be asking as this tech develops at breakneck speed, discuss the role of government in shaping this emerging tech, and highlight the i...

Cybersecurity veteran and VP of Global Security at IBM Consulting, Debbie Taylor Moore, joins Niki in the studio for an eye-opening discussion on the future of cybersecurity threats, the need for cyber literacy, and practical advice on how to protect yourself, your data, and your home online in the event of a critical breach or outage. "On the flip side, the bad guys or threat actors can use...

Block Party CEO & Founder, Tracy Chou, joins Niki remotely to talk about what her team is doing to make the internet a safer place and why she’s passionate about their mission. Her app puts control back in the hands of social media users using block lists, lock-out filters, and other tips and tricks to combat trolls. The conversation covers why the social media giants aren’t incentivized to do...

Bloomberg reporter Emily Birnbaum visits Niki in the Tech’ed Up studio for a rollicking conversation about online speech and the U.S. Supreme Court’s forthcoming opinion on Gonzalez v. Google . This conversation covers the Justices’ overall vibes, the limitations of Section 230, Niki’s observations from inside the courtroom, and Emily’s assessment of the stakes for tech companies.  …it's inte...

Denise Zheng, Managing Director for Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the CEO at Accenture, joins Niki in the studio to highlight ways the metaverse is already being put to work in business.  She goes beyond the jargon of XR, AI, and web3 and explains what the metaverse is and why she thinks right now is a pivotal moment in the development of a tech that is sure to shape our future.   "W...

Former Congressman and presidential candidate, John Delaney, joins Niki in the studio to discuss bipartisanship, practical policymaking, and answering the call to serve.  From investing in de-carbonization projects to crafting AI policy, from banning gas stoves to TikTok, they cover it all in this wide-ranging conversation. "I think technological improvement, by any measure, has improved the...

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) joins Niki from Capitol Hill to take a deep dive into tech issues facing the 118th Congress. Specifically, Sen. Warner lays out the national security risks the United States faces from the Chinese Communist Party’s involvement in one of America’s favorite apps: TikTok. This conversation includes a look back at last year’s passage of the CHIPs Act and a look forward to hi...

Taped live from the main stage at the CES conference in Las Vegas, CEO of Crypto Council for Innovation Sheila Warren and Niki chat about all things crypto. After the crypto earthquake of FTX and the beginning of another crypto winter, what aftershocks does the industry face? Sheila shares why she’s still a true believer in the blockchain. "It [blockchain technology] is an architecture. It is...

Security start-up Prescient's VP of Cyber, Stefanie Drysdale,  joins Niki in the studio to talk insider threats, whistleblowers, and bug bounties.  She gives a pulse check on developments inside and outside the security business, including her fears for the future of the cyber industry if we lose focus on who the bad guys are. "I always tell people that if you touch technology, that you...

CEO of MG Equity Consulting and New America Fellow, Malcom Glenn, joins Niki in the studio to talk about the role businesses can play in promoting mental health and equity for employees. They touch on some popular misconceptions about Gen Z, why “quiet-quitting” is a misnomer, and the business case for doing right by people. Malcom shares some insights from his days at Uber and Niki explains why s...

Former Ambassador and Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Karen Kornbluh, joins Niki in the Tech’ed Up studio for a rollicking conversation about whether tech policy is passé, the ongoing Twitter implosion, and misinformation being a loser. This conversation covers the erosion of trust in institutions, cynicism as a by product of social media, and the power of storytelling to combat both. &...

Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle joins Niki in the studio hot on the heels of the FTX meltdown in this episode of Tech’ed Up.  They discuss the need for regulation, the role of stablecoins, and the argument for optimism about the future of crypto.    "…you cannot say as a representative of the people that you care about protecting consumers and market...

Washington Post reporter Nitasha Tiku joins Niki remotely to discuss the latest innovations in AI. We get to know LaMDA, the AI a Google engineer believes is conscious, and discuss the brand new text-to-image generator, DALL-E. We also wax philosophical about the impact of sci-fi on our understanding of AI technology.  Nitasha dives beneath the fun and viral consumer developments in AI to explore...

Bloomberg reporter Mark Bergen joins Niki remotely to discuss his new book “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination.”  We dive into the behind-the-scenes impact Google has had on shaping YouTube into the search juggernaut it is today.  Mark details the outsized influence YouTube has on the social media landscape while remaining a “sleeping giant” largely ignored...

General Counsel of Ripple Labs, Stu Alderoty, joins Niki in the studio to discuss the need for Washington to establish regulatory clarity for digital assets.   He takes listeners on a deep dive into how blockchain can simplify cross-border payments, the crypto industry’s appetite for clear regulations, and Ripple’s engagement in D.C. – including litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commissi...

VP and Head of Global Communications at Grindr and long-time tech veteran, Patrick Lenihan, joins Niki remotely to talk about the iconic dating app. The company is both a “start-up” and one of the first-ever geospatial social networking applications…and now it’s preparing to go public. The conversation ranges from Grindr itself to the company’s business, mission, and current work to bring public h...

Washington Post reporter Tory Newmyer joins Niki in the studio to discuss his coverage of the crypto lobby’s full-court press in Washington. Tory’s watched and reported as the crypto lobby exploded within the last year. In this episode, he joins Niki to discuss what’s working, what’s not, and what’s coming next for the industry’s expanding influence campaign. "…it  [the infrastructure bill] w...

Commissioner Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) joins Niki in the studio to discuss his concerns about the viral video app TikTok. Do TikTok’s data practices pose a threat to our national security by collecting and sharing information with the Chinese Community Party? In this episode, Commissioner Carr gives his take on the situation and the stakes. "…that just expose...

Physicist and Rhodes Scholar, Sean Gourley, founded Primer, a start-up building mission-critical AI capabilities for the United States and its closest allies. He joins Niki in the studio to discuss Silicon Valley’s ambivalence about building and selling defense capabilities necessary to protect democracies. He explains how artificial intelligence is a “third offset” – following nuclear weapons and...

Co-founder of venture capital firm Dynamo ,  Santosh Sankar, joins Niki from Chattanooga to explain how the supply chain became everyone’s business during the pandemic - and the solutions his portfolio companies are building to fix it. “In the background has been this thing, supply chain, and when it works, we don't think about it. When it breaks down, there's a lot of concern, and there...

Co-founder of Tezos, one of the first blockchains, Kathleen Breitman joins Niki from London to tell the story of the network she founded and her commitment to democratic governance in crypto. She also shares her thoughts on the risks of building a business dependent on a charismatic leader. "Cryptocurrencies allow for something very unique to happen that we've been trying to solve for hu...

CEO of Equal AI and White House technology advisor, Miriam Vogel, joins Niki in the studio to discuss her work to reduce algorithmic bias in the deployment of artificial intelligence. In this episode, Miriam explains why this is a critical moment to make sure we are using AI as a solution to increase fairness and build trust, and not as a scaling function for harms that already exist. “We have thi...

Venture capitalist and AgTech (aka agriculture technology) investor, Connie Bowen, is raising capital to help fix some of the toughest challenges facing food systems and farming. She has some straight talk for Silicon Valley investors who are pouring money into agri-farm tech that just isn’t going to work.  "I think you’ll see a lot of venture capitalists investing in robots that are gonna fu...

Bumble's Americas public policy lead Payton Iheme joins Niki Christoff in the studio to discuss the company campaign to criminalize cyberflashing.  More than half of women between 18-24 years old have received an unwanted, unsolicited lewd digital image, but that behavior is only illegal in two states. In-person flashing is a crime in all 50 states and it's time for laws to update to pro...

New York Times technology reporter , Kate Conger, covers social media and the gig economy based in Silicon Valley. She joins Niki in the studio in D.C. at the height of the Twitter drama to discuss what’s going on with Elon Musk, his bid to buy the social media platform, and what it’s like to report on tech during high-stakes moments. "...we're talking about sort of an ideological shift...