TechFirst with John Koetsier

AI has mastered language, sort of. But the real world is way messier. In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Kirin Sinha, founder and CEO of Illumix, to explore what comes after large language models: world models, spatial intelligence, and physical AI. They unpack why LLMs alone won’t get us to human-level intelligence, what it actually takes for machines to understand physica...

Quantum computers usually mean massive machines, cryogenic temperatures, and isolated data centers. But what if quantum computing could run at room temperature, fit inside a server rack — or even a satellite? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Marcus Doherty, Chief Science Officer of Quantum Brilliance, to explore how diamond-based quantum computers work — and why they...

Will AI kill your job? What happens to your job as AI gets smarter and companies keep laying people off even while profits rise? Will you still have a job? Will the job you have change beyond recognition? Scary questions, no? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Nikki Barua, co-founder of Footwork and longtime founder, executive, and resiliency expert, to unpack what wor...

What if someone actually built TARS from Interstellar—and discovered it really could work? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Aditya Sripada, a robotics engineer at Nimble, who turned a late-night hobby into a serious research project: a real, working mini-version of TARS, the iconic robot from Interstellar. Aditya walks through why TARS’s strange, flat form factor isn...

AI is already reshaping the workforce. What about teenagers? Turns out, they might be more impacted than anyone else. After all, they're usually in low-skill entry-level jobs that AI can replace. The problem ... teens are losing their first experience with working, making money, and establishing an identity outside of their homes. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier speaks with Ka...

Are we about to create real life Terminators? Humanoid robots built for war? In this episode of TechFirst I talk with Sankaet Pathak, founder and CEO of Foundation, a California-based humanoid robot company that is not afraid of the defense market. We dig into why he is building humanoid robots that can work three shifts a day, how they plan to scale from dozens of robots to tens of thousands, and...

Is AI the secret sauce that lets the West deglobalize supply chains and bring factories back home? In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Federico Martelli, CEO and cofounder of Forgis, a Swiss startup building an industrial intelligence layer for factories. Forgis runs “digital engineers” — AI agents on the edge — that sit on top of legacy machinery, cut downtime by about 30%, and boost produc...

AI agents can already write code, build websites, and manage workflows ... but they still can’t pay for anything on their own. That bottleneck is about to disappear. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we sit down with Jim Nguyen, former PayPal exec and cofounder/CEO of InFlow, a new AI-native payments platform launching from stealth. InFlow wants to give AI agents the ability to onbo...

Are we ready for a world where everything is smart? Not just phones and apps, but buildings, robots, and delivery bots rolling down our streets? Windows ... doors ... maybe even towels. And don't forget your shoes. In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Mat Gilbert, director of AI and data at Synapse, about physical AI: putting intelligence into machines, devices, and environments so they c...

Are humanoid robots going to decide which countries get rich and which fall behind? Probably yes. In this TechFirst, I talk with Dr. Robert Ambrose, former head of one of NASA’s first humanoid robot teams and now chairman of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at Alliant. We dig into the future of humanoids, how fast they are really advancing, and what it means if China wins the humanoid race bef...

Is AI empathy a life-or-death issue? Almost a million people ask ChatGPT for mental health advice DAILY ... so yes, it kind of is. Rosebud co-founder Sean Dadashi joins TechFirst to reveal new research on whether today’s largest AI models can recognize signs of self-harm ... and which ones fail. We dig into the Adam Raine case, talk about how Dadashi evaluated 22 leading LLMs, and explore the futu...

We’ve digitized sound. We’ve digitized light. But touch, maybe the most human of our senses, has stayed stubbornly analog. That might be about to change, thanks to programmable matter. Or programmable fabric. In this TechFirst episode, I speak with Adam Hopkins, CEO of Sensetics, a new UC Berkeley/Virginia Tech spinout building programmable fabrics that replicate the mechanoreceptors in human fing...

AI is devouring the planet’s electricity ... already using up to 2% of global energy and projected to hit 5% by 2030. But a Spanish-Canadian company, Multiverse Computing, says it can slash that energy footprint by up to 95% without sacrificing performance. They specialize in tiny AI: one model has the processing power of just 2 fruit fly brains. Another tiny model lives on a Raspberry Pi. The opp...

Can AI give every creator their own virtual team? Maybe, thanks to a new platform from RHEI called Made, which offers Milo, an AI agent who becomes your creator director, Zara, an AI agent who is your community manager, and Amie, a third AI agent who takes on the role of relationship manager. And, apparently, more agents are coming soon. The creator economy is bigger than ever, but so is burnout....

What happens when Amazon, NVIDIA, and MassRobotics team up to merge generative AI with robotics? In this episode of TechFirst we chat with Amazon's Taimur Rashid, Head of Generative AI and Innovation Delivery. We talk about "physical AI" ... AI with spatial awareness and the ability to act safely and intelligently in the real world. We also chat about the first cohort of a new accele...

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) could be humanity’s greatest invention ... or our biggest risk. In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO and founder of SingularityNET, about the future of AGI, the possibility of superintelligence, and what happens when machines think beyond human programming. We cover: • Is AGI inevitable? How soon will it arrive? • Will AGI kill us …...

What changes when robots deliver everything? Starship Technologies has already completed 9 million autonomous deliveries, crossed roads over 200 million times, and operates thousands of sidewalk delivery robots across Europe and the U.S. Now they’re scaling into American cities ... and they say they’re ready to change your world In this episode of TechFirst, I speak with Ahti Heinla, co-founder an...

Imagine a quantum computer with a million physical qubits in a space smaller than a sticky note. That’s exactly what Quantum Art is building. In this TechFirst episode, I chat with CEO Tal David, who shares his team’s vision to deliver quantum systems with: • 100x more parallel operations • 100x more gates per second • A footprint up to 50x smaller than competitors We also dive into the four key t...

Are humanoid robots distracting us from the real unlock in robotics ... hands? In this TechFirst episode, host John Koetsier digs into the hardest (and most valuable) problem in robotics: dexterous manipulation. Guest Mike Obolonsky, Partner at Cortical Ventures, argues that about $50 trillion of global economic activity flows through “hands work,” yet manipulation startups have raised only a frac...

Are humanoid robots the future… or a $100B mistake? Over 100 companies—from Meta to Amazon—are betting big on humanoids. But are we chasing a sci-fi dream that’s not practical or profitable? In this TechFirst episode, I chat with Bren Pierce, robotics OG and CEO of Kinisi Robots. We cover: - Why legs might be overhyped - How LLMs are transforming robots into agents - The real cost (and complexity)...

The future could be much healthier for both farmers and everyone who eats, thanks to farm robots that kill weeds with lasers. In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Paul Mikesell, CEO of Carbon Robotics, to discuss groundbreaking advancements in agricultural technology. Paul shares updates since our last conversation in 2021, including the launch of LaserWeeder G2 and Carbon's autonomous t...

Can robots reduce herbicide and fertilizer use on farms by up to 90%? Probably yes. In this episode of TechFirst we chat with Verdant Robotics' CEO Gabe Sibley about SharpShooter, the company's state-of-the-art farm tech that precisely targets herbicide and fertilizer application, massively reducing chemical use. That's huge for the environment. It's also huge for farmer's pock...

Will your next browser be AI-enabled? AI-first? Perhaps even an AI agent? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Henrik Lexow, Senior Product Leader at Opera, to explore Opera Neon, a big step toward agentic browsers that think, act, and create alongside you. (And buy stuff you want, simply hard problems, and do some of your work for you.) Opera’s new browser integrates real AI...

Can nuclear waste solve the energy crisis caused by AI data centers? Maybe. And maybe much more, including providing rare elements we need like rhodium, palladium, ruthenium, krypto-85, Americium-241, and more. Amazingly: - 96% of nuclear fuel’s energy is left after it's "used" - Recycling can reduce 10,000-year waste storage needs to just 300 years - Curio’s new process avoids toxic...

Neura Robotics officially launched shed 4NE-1 this week. It's the leading European humanoid robot and it's the most powerful humanoid robot in existence right, as far as I'm aware, able to life 100kg or 220 pounds. Neura also released a plan to build 5 million robots by 2030, a new home service robot named MiPA, a new 'Omnisensor' technology platform for integrating input from...