The AI in Business Podcast

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is a neuroscientist and renowned researcher at Harvard University. Selected as one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015 for his groundbreaking alzheimer's research, Dr. Tanzi also serves as the Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In this interview, Dr. Tanzi shares his perspective on the relation of thought,...

Dr. Steve Omohundro earned degrees in physics and mathematics from Stanford University and a Ph. D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Today, most of his best-known work   In this interview, Dr. Omohundro shares his thoughts about how we might "scaffold" our security measures to match the intelligence of our machines in order to prevent them from getting out of hand.        

Vivek Wadhwa began as a software entrepreneur and now is a well-known speaker, writer, and Vice President of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University. In this interview, Mr. Wadhwa shares his heartfelt predictions about what he sees as the complete overhaul of healthcare and education in the coming decades ahead - and the widespread benefits of emerging technology for what he sees as a h...

Dr. Steve Fuller is philosopher and professor at the University of Warwick in the UK. After writing "Humanity 2.0" in 2011, Steve has received increasing attention for his ethical perspective on human enhancement and the transhuman transition. In this interview, Dr. Fuller covers covers what he considers to be the most important present considerations of transhumanism - namely - the potential econ...

Juan Enriquez gave a TED talk in 2009 called "The next species of human," and video went viral - and is now one of the most popular futurist talks in TED history. In addition to previously founding the Life Sciences Project at the Harvard Business School, Juan is now managing partner in Excell Venture Management in Boston, MA.   In this interview we discuss Juan's thoughts about the most relevant...

Decades ago, Cornell's Dr. Joe Halpern wrote a book called "Reasoning with Uncertainty." In this interview, we discuss alternative approaches to handling large-scale uncertainty - as might be applied to broad concerns such as environmental policy, or the management of hard-to-predict emerging technologies.   Through thought experiments and some philosophical exploration, Prof. Halpern explains som...

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor became remarkably well-known following her TED talk called "My stroke of insight," where she explained her experience of having a stroke from her perspective… that is to say: perspective of a neuroscientist. Since then Jill has been featured on Oprah, and her book (with the same title as her TED talk) is available in over 30 languages worldwide. In this interview, Dr. Taylor...

Dr. John MacCormick is the author of the book "Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers," and in this interview, he shares some of the fundamental algorithms that support modern artificial intelligence, and his optimistic views on the future of AI.  

Dr. Gregory Hickok is working on modeling brain circuits related to hearing and auditory information at the University of California, Irvine. Listen into this interview to hear what Greg believes might be the grandest application of cognitive neuroscience in the coming decade, and why - when asked about modeling the human brain in the coming decades - he says "I don't see the brain giving up it's...

Dr. Nils Nilsson was one of the early researchers in emerging technology back in the 1960s - graduating with his doctorate from Stanford before it had a computer science department. In this interview, Dr. Nilsson joins me from his retirement residence in Oregon and shares his overview of the history of artificial intelligence - and his thoughts about it's most meaningful impact in the coming 10-20...

Zoltan Istvan doesn't believe that issues of life extension, genetic modification, and neural prosthetics are the problems for the president in the year 220, but that they're among the most important considerations of the future of America, and of human life in general. In this interview, I ask Zoltan what kinds of technology and health initiatives he'd get behind as a president, as well as his ow...

Gray Scott's mission is to bring the concerns of the future to the public - and with recent coverage in Psychology Today, New York Post, and the World Future Society, he's picking up steam. In this interview, Gray and I discuss the most important societal shifts that he believes are opening up our generation and culture to take issues like life extension and brain-machine interface. We discuss how...

Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is no slouch when it comes to understanding the human mind - particularly the diagnoses and treatment of mental illness. In addition to being chair of psychiatry at Columbia University, Dr. Lieberman sits on the advisory board of many of the world's largest drug companies. In this particular interview, Dr. Lieberman shares his thoughts around the most transformative technolog...

There are "techno-optimists" and "techno-pessimists"… and there's those who just don't know what they're talking about. Skeptic Magazine's founder Michael Shermer shares his thoughts on what's hyped-up and what's worth considering in the human race to the future.

It's called "transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS)," haven't you heard about it? The process involves zapping your brain through subtle electrical stimulation on the outside of the head - and though research has been going on in this field for decades, the mechanisms for it's effects on mood, memory, and more, are still mostly unknown. Dr. Brent Williams   is the director of the iTeach Ce...

Dr. James McLurkin works with swarm robots at Rice University, and his unique work on robot communication has landed him on PBS's "Nova," in addition to speaking engagements at events like TED and Singularity Summit. In this episode, Dr. McLurkin discusses how swarm robots have been inspired by insect behavior - and exactly swamp robots are best suited for. In many cases, argues McLurkin, a group...

David Brin is recognized as one of the most iconic futurist fiction writers of our time. With huge bestsellers like "The Postman" (later turned into a movie starring Kevin Costner), David's work explores the ramifications of human choices of our collective future.   In this interview, David talks about fiction's unique role in helping humanity find a beneficial future - a job done in large part by...

Regis Kopper runs the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment, or "DiVE." His research focuses on the interactions of virtual and real humans. In this interview, he discusses his predictions for the non-gaming applications of virtual reality - and the surprising evidence that virtual reality humans might "relate" to us in much the way that real humans do. What happens when we can't tell the difference?...

Ofer Leidner is co-founder of Happify, and app aimed at supporting behavior change for well-being. In this interview, Ofer explains his views on the potential for technology to influence habits, and where he feels this particular kind of technology might mold our wearable / technologically immersive future. For More Information, Visit the HUB of Startups / Business in Emerging Technology. From Rob...

Sean Ellis is recognized as the originator of the term "growth hacking," and is widely recognized as one of the world's best startup and technology marketers. Heading up growth at companies like DropBox and LogMeIn, Sean has gone on to found Qualaroo, a qualitative data collection startup. In this interview, Sean discusses the proper use of qualitative data, polling questions, and customer intervi...

Tool creates cool digital experiences for big companies all over the world (including UX work for online giants like Google and Facebook), and when they created a virtual reality experience of South Park - they couldn't have imagined how fast it would catch on.    After tremendous coverage on sites like TechCrunch and WIRED (and many lessons learned), Matt speaks to us about how to create a unique...

Current brain-machine interface technologies like MUSE or Mellon detect your mental activity with a headband, and represent it in unique apps. Thync is aiming to actively stimulate your mental activity, creating a more excited or tranquil mental state at your discretion.   In this episode, we explore the possibilities of cranial stimulation, and the bigger trend of how technology and psychology ar...

Our podcast frequently covers the business and research sides of emerging technology, but in this episode we talk about some of it's direct applications. Alisa Brownlee of the ALS Association has been working with assistive technologies for decades, and she explains what truly works best to help weakening ALS patients communicate and live full lives and what kind of developments she'd love to see...

Ketan Joshi and Vishal Shah of Atheer Labs share their ideas about the immediate future of augmented reality, and how interactive computing can be facilitated though an augmented experience. We explore use-cases of the near future, as well as applications underway now. For More Information, Visit the HUB of Startups / Business in Emerging Technology. From Robotic Limbs to Getting Angel Investment,...

Dan Ostrower gets to work with some amazing and innovative companies at Altitude (a creative consultancy), and has a keen eye for for the future. A writer for WIRED and a myriad of other publications, Dan shares his thoughts about the pros and cons of our increasingly digital future, and how companies can keep relationships and interaction alive with technology that doesn't make us lose what's "hu...