AI Australia Podcast

Because we loved talking to Roo and Danielle SO much in our last episode, we are delighted to bring you another installment of that conversation. In this episode of the A.I. Australia podcast, Kobi and Nat host Roo Harris from Scale Investors and Danielle Haj-Moussa from Main Sequence Ventures to continue our discussion on responsible AI investment in startups.   We explore critical topics such as the importance of responsible AI practices, the challenges startups face in integrating AI, and the role of VCs in setting ethical standards.   The conversation also covers the significance of early-stage AI due diligence, the benefits of explaining AI technologies accurately, and how embracing ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principles can add value.   Key issues such as AI's environmental impact, transparency, and the role of regulation in AI development are also discussed.   Links:

Danielle Haj-Moussa (Main Sequence Ventures)

Roo Harris

Scale Investors

In this episode of This Week in AI brought to you by the AI Australia podcast, Kobi and Natalie dive into wide-ranging discussions covering recent political events, traversing:

• The implications of the French and UK election outcomes, and their relation to technology.
• AI's role in the U.S. presidential elections
• Tech sector developments like Meta's Llama models, and the economic and environmental impact of AI advancements
• The intersection of AI with job markets, wealth distribution, and universal basic income studies, while also considering the cultural and ethical impacts of technological integration in corporate settings
• The recent global technology outage caused by CrowdStrike on Microsoft Windows

Links:

The Grimy Residue of the AI Bubble

Toby Murray: What really happened at CrowdStrike...

Business Insider: CrowdStrike CEO Has Twice Been at the Centre of Global Tech Failure

Lawfare: The CrowdStrike Outage and Market-Driven Brittleness

This episode of AI Australia features a discussion with Danielle Haj-Moussa, a deep-tech investor at Main Sequence Ventures, and Roo Harris, a partner at Scale Investors. The conversation spans the different investment types, the importance of inclusive and ethical AI, and the differences between deep tech and general tech.

Danielle shares insights into Main Sequence's focus on decarbonisation, industrial productivity, and the commercialisation of groundbreaking research.

Roo discusses Scale Investors' mission to fund female-led startups across diverse sectors, emphasising the need to support underrepresented voices in innovation.

Both speakers explore the evolving landscape of AI, the impact of democratising AI through open-source models, and the critical role of diverse and ethical investment in shaping the future.

We hope you enjoy this thought-provoking conversation as much as we enjoyed having it - we enjoyed it so much we have decided to make this a two-parter and delve even deeper into this topic in our next episode.

Links:

Danielle Haj-Moussa (Main Sequence Ventures)

Roo Harris

Scale Investors

 

We're back after a bit of hiatus, and a rebrand - the AI Australia podcast is now brought to you by Mantel Group (formerly a house of brands including eliiza).

This was recorded a couple of weeks ago, which is a lifetime in this age of AI, but hopefully you still enjoy the conversation as much as Nat & Kobi enjoyed having it. In this episode of 'This Week in AI', we discuss the continued rapid developments in AI, such as:

• The lack of transparency and accountability within organisations like OpenAI, which led to significant internal conflicts and questionable practices such as unauthorised voice usage and staff contract clawbacks.
• The broader implications of AI on personal identity, regulation, and the importance of maintaining ethical standards in the industry.
• We address the global impact of political developments and election outcomes influenced by AI, as well as the real-world consequences of algorithmic manipulation in social media. 
• We highlight the necessity for greater transparency, robust governance frameworks, and regulatory actions to ensure AI technologies are developed and utilized responsibly.

Look out for our upcoming episode(s?) on how AI is shaping the Venture Capital landscape today.

We have rebranded! The AI Australia is now brought to you by Mantel Group (Eliiza's parent company). 

Please join us this week as we discuss AI in education with Professor Andrew Maynard from the Arizona State University.

Andrew's fascinating takes from the front line of educating in the age of AI show a vision of the future and interrogates some of the common misconceptions of AI in education.

Welcome back to the AI Australia podcast for 2024, with your hosts Natalie Rouse and Kobi Leins.

We are joined by two experts in the field of cybersecurity - "The Voice of Cyber" multimedia journalist Karissa Breen and internationally recognised cyber law expert Emma (EJ) Wise.

We start off learning about Aboriginal Birthing Trees, then talk about the ethics of self-driving cars, international regulation & frameworks, education, the use of autonomous technology in the military, cyber law, the use of AI in manipulating upcoming elections, information warfare, the naming of the Russian hacker responsible for the Medibank hack, and the opportunity for AI to drive innovation on both sides of the fence - for organisations protecting themselves and for hackers. We make it clear we do not condone cyber criminality!

Unfortunately we did lose the last half of EJ's audio, which is a technical travesty because she did have many fascinating things to say - we will get her back to share more of her great thoughts and experiences at a later date. 

 

Links:

Karissa Breen

Emma (EJ) Wise

Aboriginal Birthing Tree

Missy Cummings on Tesla Autopilot

Automating the Banality and Radicality of Evil

Moral Machine

 

In our last episode for 2023, Kobi & Nat discuss the following recent developments around the world and how they relate to Australia:

• The EU AI Act, which has made it another step closer to reality, albeit with some conditions for regulating foundation models that not everyone is happy with.
• Kobi has been reading Nancy Levison's new book, which looks at large historical accidents and unpacks what that looks like from a human perspective.
• We wonder how the Act will plug into the new international standards coming out, and whether that might result in some more granular teeth for the Act.
• Microsoft has been quietly talking to industrial organisations in the US, leading us to wonder how the Hollywood Writer's strike will impact other union negotiations around the world.
• The attribution of job losses to AI or automation is proving difficult, and will make future union negotiations even more interesting.
• Kobi talks about the history and evolution of boards over time, which leads us to circle back to the Open AI board purging and reflect on recent information that has come out about why exactly Sam Altman was fired in the first place.

This week join Kobi and Natalie as they discuss some perhaps seemingly-unrelated global trends, and ponder how AI may or may not impact or amplify them in the future.

We raise questions about:

• There are around 40 upcoming elections happening around the world in 2024; have we already seen advancements in AI play a role in driving a shift to the right, and what might we expect to see in the next year?
• There is a trend where local media is becoming increasingly scarce - what does that mean for our local collective understandings & conversations, and global polarisation?
• The lack of diversity (gender and otherwise) in technology media (and the technology industry in general) presents a major hurdle for language models of the future as it leads to a lack of variety in the type of voices on record today, and hence in training data tomorrow. 

Links:

Where are all the godmothers of AI? In the Guardian

A 'Trump moment' in the Netherlands shows that Europe still has a populist problem - CNN

Brace for elections: 40 countries are voting in 2024 - Bloomberg

The Guardian view on local journalism's decline: bad news for democracy

This week in AI has been a week like no other - join Natalie & Kobi to mull over the back and forth at OpenAI over the last week as we delve into what happened and what might it all mean. We are saddened about the departure of all the women on the OpenAI board, but wonder if the previous academic-focussed board had found themselves out of their depth as the value of the company grew. We are more than a little curious about the eventual movie that will no doubt be made about this highly dramatic saga!

We also talk about the importance of governance around not just data but AI, including processes & accountability rather than just technical aspects.

No links this week because there is not enough space on the internet to link to all of the articles covering the happenings of this last week.

Welcome to another episode from the AI Australia podcast, with your hosts Natalie Rouse and Kobi Leins.

Continuing the conversation from our last interview on the importance of Indigenous data rights, this time we cross the ditch to Aotearoa New Zealand, discussing Maori data sovereignty and artificial intelligence with three special guests: Megan Tapsell, Associate Professor Maui Hudson, and Dr Karaitiana Taiuru.

They discuss their roles and responsibilities in advocating for indigenous data rights, the challenges and opportunities they face in this area, and the importance of data sovereignty for Maori communities.

Towards the end, they call upon corporations to involve and fairly pay Indigenous people when working with data that impacts their communities.

Apologies for some audio quality issues at times - we experienced some technical difficulties in recording, but are very pleased to be able to bring you most of what we felt was an important & valuable conversation.

Links:

Megan Tapsell on Linkedin

Maui Hudson on Linkedin

Karaitiana Taiuru on Linkedin