

The Times Tech Podcast
The Sunday Times
From Silicon Valley to The City, tech journalists Danny Fortson and Katie Prescott bring you the inside track on the new industrial revolution.Co-hosted from San Francisco and London, this weekly podcast delivers the latest news and freshest interviews with the people creating the future.As West Coast Correspondent for The Sunday Times, Danny is on the ground to witness the technological whirlwind that first roared out Silicon Valley. From London, working as The Times' Technology Business Editor, Katie has seen the waves of boom and bust rolling through one of the world's financial capitals. Together they explore this strange new world of high finance and tech giants, explaining how we got here and what is just around the corner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 19, 2024 • 46min
Khan Academy’s Sal Khan: “Building an AI tutor for every student”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, to talk about how he started tutoring family members (4:30), doing startups in the dotcom boom (5:50), starting to do videos in 2006 (10:15), building a business from his closet (14:15), linking up with openAI (16:30), building an AI tutor (19:40), dealing with hallucinations (22:30), moving from text to voice and video (25:55), the Covid effect (30:30), an education co-pilot (33:45), the relationship with schools (38:00), and his new book (42:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 12, 2024 • 47min
Metaphysic’s Martin Adams: “Copyrighting humans”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Martin Adams of Metaphysic to talk about using artificial intelligence in entertainment (3:20), the Tom Cruise moment (5:50), how the technology is accelerating (9:20), what it means for Hollywood (13:10), scaling humans (17:35), how much data is needed (22:40), copyrighting people (25:20), the election (30:10), his early days running raves in London (34:35), growing up in Essex (37:40), going to Harvard law (38:45), and the first AI feature film (40:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 22, 2023 • 37min
Common Sense's Jim Steyer: "I'm more worried than ever for our democracy"
Jim Steyer, Founder of Common Sense Media, talks about the pivotal year for democracy in 2024, concerns over Facebook's readiness, the impact of TikTok as a news source, AI-powered misinformation, and the need for regulation outside of Washington. Steyer also discusses Elon Musk's actions at Twitter and the best and worst case scenarios for 2024.

Dec 15, 2023 • 41min
Babson’s David Stein: “Succeeding where Theranos failed”
David Stein, CEO of Babson Diagnostics, discusses the importance of blood testing, how Babson differs from Theranos, their success, using a tiny amount of blood, fighting against the Theranos effect, and the new age of biological data.

Dec 8, 2023 • 1h 9min
Apeiron’s Christian Angermayer: “AI, psychedelics and living for hundreds of years”
Christian Angermayer, founder of Apeiron Investments, discusses psychedelics in Oregon, the spiritual experience of a 'trip', FDA approval progress, societal acceptance, new approach to ageing, breakthrough in life span, AI dovetails with psychedelics and longevity.

Dec 1, 2023 • 41min
Founders Fund’s Keith Rabois: “The joy of missing out”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Keith Rabois of Founders Fund to talk about leaving San Francisco for Miami (4:00), why San Francisco is a “black hole” (7:00), why remote work is broken (11:00), staying on the AI sidelines (16:30), running Openstore (18:40), the Paypal story (26:50), hiring well (30:00), shrinking their fund (33:50), and why big venture capital funds won’t make money (38:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 24, 2023 • 34min
Stories of our times- Five days of chaos at ChatGPT HQ: The Sam Altman saga
Former CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, discusses the recent leadership turmoil at OpenAI and the conflicts over AGI development. The firing of Altman is explored, along with the aftermath and potential impact on the company. The speaker reflects on AI's power and skepticism surrounding its hype.

9 snips
Nov 17, 2023 • 45min
MosaicML's Naveen Rao: "Bio-inspired AI"
Naveen Rao, founder of MosaicML, discusses the efficiency of the human brain, slashing the cost to train AI models, the evolution of the car, selling to Databricks, the future of the AI market, and more.

Nov 10, 2023 • 50min
Rewind AI’s Dan Siroker on honesty through AI eavesdropping
Dan Siroker, founder of Rewind AI, discusses recording everything you do, see and read, living life on a “hot mic”, bringing Black Mirror to life, AI as cognitive butler, growing up in Palo Alto, working on the Obama campaign, making mistakes at other companies, Sam Altman, how he uses Rewind, and dealing with the hallucination problem.

Nov 3, 2023 • 36min
One doctor's experience inside Babylon Health
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hugh Harvey, managing director of consultancy Hardian Health, to talk about his time at Babylon Health (4:30), his first look at the company’s “artificial intelligence” (7:00), why it’s hard to build a medical chatbot (11:30), the siloed nature of the company (14:30), its regulatory loophole (16:20), Ali Parsa’s obsession with creating an “AlphaGo moment" (21:10), the gong (24:15), how the company became more brazen with its marketing (27:10), why getting chatbots certified as medical devices is so hard (29:45), and why the Silicon Valley way often doesn't work in medicine (33:00). Link to The Sunday Times' investigation: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-and-fall-of-babylon-healthcare-the-doctor-in-your-pocket-3p6q6jjfx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


