Beyond the Hype

In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined by colleagues Oliver Cronk, Chris Price and James Heward for a lively debate on whether the latest advances in generative AI are going to threaten our jobs – are we going to be made redundant by our own creation?

The discussion starts with a quick summary of the latest advances in AI, and considers the nascent reasoning capabilities these models exhibit. The discussion then explores the various tasks and roles required to build software applications, and considers the impact this technology will have.

Links from the podcast:

• AI is morphing from tool to platform (and the next technology epoch begins) – some personal reflections on the impact of this technology
• Catching up with OpenAI – a quick update on the most recent advances and research from OpenAI
• An OpenAI API primer – a three-part series that covers explores the API, explaining concepts such as few-shot learning
• Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO on GPT-4, ChatGPT, and the Future of AI – Lex Fridman and Sam Altman chat about the future of AI
• Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4 – Researchers find that GPT4 is more than just a text generation engine

In this episode – the second of a two-parter – Oliver Cronk and Colin Eberhardt talk to Denis Mandich, CTO of Qrypt, a company that creates quantum-secure encryption products.

Their conversation covers the perils of bad random number generation, which undermines our security protocols, and the growing threat that Quantum Computers will ultimately render our current cryptographic techniques useless – an event dubbed 'Y2Q', in a nod to the Y2K issue we faced over twenty years ago.

Links from the podcast:

• Qrypt – the company where Denis is CTO
• A 'Blockchain Bandit' Is Guessing Private Keys and Scoring Millions
• Y2Q: quantum computing and the end of internet security

In this episode – the first of a two-parter – Colin Eberhardt and Oliver Cronk talk to Denis Mandich, CTO of Qrypt, a company that creates quantum-secure encryption products. Denis is also a physicist and has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Quantum Computing.

Their conversation covers the physics that underpins this technology, including the strange concepts of superposition and entanglement. They cover the practical aspects of cloud-based Quantum Computers and what can be achieved today through circuit design. Finally, they look to the future to discuss the impact this breakthrough technology is likely to have.

Links from the podcast:

• Qrypt – the company where Denis is CTO
• Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe – a fantastic lecture from the Royal Institution that gives a detailed, yet accessible, introduction to Quantum physics
• Einstein's "Spooky Action at a Distance" Paradox Older Than Thought – some good background on the Einstein quote
• Qiskit – IBM's open source toolkit for creating quantum circuits

In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined by his colleague, Oliver Cronk, and Chris Booth from NatWest for a lively discussion about the much-hyped ChatGPT.

They discuss the origins of this technology and the recent advances that contributed to its success. From there, they look at the new discipline of prompt engineering, and how this approach has democratised access to cutting-edge AI. They also consider the emotive response they feel towards this technology, and the shared belief that this is going to be huge!

As this podcast aims to look 'beyond the hype', they also talk about practical applications and the limitations of this technology.

Links from the podcast:

• ELIZA - one of the earliest attempts at creating a conversational AI
• Attention Is All You Need - the paper that describes the GPT-series architecture
• An OpenAI API primer - a three-part series that covers explores the API, explaining concepts such as few-shot learning
• Prompt Engineering
• GitHub Copilot – an AI programming pair, based on a large language model
• WebGPT - Improving the Factual Accuracy of Language Models through Web Browsing

In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined by colleagues Oliver Cronk, Peter Chamberlin and Chris Price for a lively discussion about blockchain. They start by looking at the mechanics of bitcoin and the economic incentive model formed by proof of work consensus. From there, they discuss enterprise or permission blockchain, which leads them to discuss some specific use cases – for example, the oil market supply-chain challenges. They also discuss technologies which are blockchain-like, but prefer not to use that term.

Finally, they ask themselves the question, is blockchain just hype? Spoiler alert: for the most part the answer is yes – this is hype!

Links from the podcast:

• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System – Satoshi Nakamoto
• The DAO
• Video: Streamlining physical energy post-trade processes – Etienne Amic (CEO Vakt.io)
• Building the first enterprise blockchain platform – Lucy Kurian & Shodhan Sheth
• Certificate Transparency

In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined for a discussion about Web3 by his colleague Oliver Cronk, and guests Johanna Eiramo from the Finnish National Gallery, and Lilly Pencheva, a Blockchain & Web3 Specialist. As it's quite a challenging and volatile topic, we should state that the opinions raised in this podcast are personal views rather than the views of any current or former employer.

In the discussion, they ask the question "What is Web3?" and explore what it means to be a decentralised technology. They discuss the metaverse, Roblox and other virtual environments, and very briefly touch on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). But for the most part, they talk about exploration and innovation.

They begin the discussion with Johanna talking about bringing digital artwork into the virtual world of the metaverse, and the Finnish National Gallery's motivation for experimenting with technology.

Links from the podcast:

• Our (museum) eyes are focused on the future
• The Finnish Metagallery
• Decentraland
• What is Web3 and why is it important?
• The Ethereum Merge
• Can Web3 beat public cloud?

In this episode, Simon Martin, Chris Price and Rob Pilling share their interest and insights into Rust. This relatively new programming language has caught the attention of the development community, being voted the 'most-loved' language seven years in a row in the StackOverflow survey.

They discuss a wide range of topics, including what it means to be a system-programming language, and what brought each of them to Rust. They ponder what it is that makes a programming language successful and, given this, consider what the future might hold for Rust.

We pick up the conversation where Chris is trying to describe the nature of Rust through a bicycle metaphor. Yes, really… and we find out later in the podcast that this metaphor works surprisingly well.

Links from the podcast:

• Nerd Sniping - xkcd webcomic
• StackOverflow 2022 Survey - most-loved language
• WebAssembly
• Asynchronous Programming in Rust

In this month's episode, we tackle a wide range of topics relating to the role of technology innovation, and the perils of hyped technology, within Digital Government.

Colin is joined by colleagues Jess McEvoy and Alex Segrove, who have both spent many years working in technology roles in the UK Government. They discuss how citizen-facing services have some challenging technology constraints simply because they must be usable by everyone.

We also touch on the fascinating dynamic that exists between the government and technology vendors and partners. These suppliers have a lot of expertise and IP to offer that can solve some of the gnarly problems that exist on government-scale systems. However, care must be taken to avoid outsourcing your entire technology strategy. It is vital that the government remains an intelligent buyer.

Finally, we consider the sheer scale of government spending, £3.7 billion per annum, and the positive impact this has through stimulating innovation and creating opportunities. This investment has contributed to the UK Government's success in claiming the number 2 spot in the OECD Digital Government Index.

Links from the podcast:

• G-Cloud & DOS Spending Review to December 2021 – Advice Cloud
• GOV.UK – The best place to find government services and information
• UK claims number 2 spot in OECD digital government rankings – Jess McEvoy

In this month's episode we talk about Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), a testing practice where system behaviours are captured in a human readable Domain Specific Language (DSL), which are automated and executed.

Colin is joined by colleagues Daniel McNamee, Xin Chen and Jack Arnstein who bring their many years of testing experience to a lively debate on this topic.

They discuss the essence of BDD: is it the DSL, the automation frameworks, or is it more simply the conversations that take place as part of writing these scenarios/feature files?

There are also limitations to BDD, so they discuss when it provides value, and when it might not. And they consider the question 'just how expensive is it as an approach?'. Finally, they wrap up by considering whether BDD is simply misunderstood.

Links from the podcast:

• Introducing BDD – Dan North
• The Tragedy of Given-When-Then – Chris Matts
• The Three Amigos
• The Value at the Intersection of TDD, DDD, and BDD – Darshan Satya

In this month's episode, we talk multi-cloud. This is a challenging topic, even the first step—nailing down what the term actually means—isn't easy. How does it differ from hybrid-cloud or poly-cloud? Does the term refer to the deployment approach for a single application or an entire organisation?

We discuss the challenges of creating a multi-cloud architecture, dealing with multiple cloud vendors, and why you might follow this path.

Colin is joined by colleagues James Heward and Robert Griffiths to compare thoughts and experiences gained from many years of architecting solutions for the cloud.

Links from the podcast:

• Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report – Brian Adler
• Decoder: Polycloud – Thoughtworks
• White Paper: Thinking differently - the cloud as a value driver – Scott Logic