The Weekly Briefing podcast: The U.S. election dragged on far longer than usual, in part to count mail-in ballots, and in part because of the controversy regarding mail-in voting. This week we talk with the company that safeguards mail-in ballots with AI-based signature verification technology, and also with a policy expert about the ramifications of using that technology.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: It is almost impossible to create a modern product in a reasonable amount of time without models of hardware, or models of software, or – increasingly – models of both before anything is actually built or coded. How that works in practice is one of the marvels of modern engineering. A discussion with Altair SVP Pete Darnell. Also, Leti in France just began collaborating with Intel on advanced chip packaging. A discussion with EE Times newest contributor, Don Scansen.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: AMD is buying Xilinx for $35B. Does the deal make sense? A chat with Tirias Research analyst Kevin Krewell. Also, a discussion with execs from IBM and Synopsys on their ambitious plans to create an entire ecosystem for artificial intelligence research. With IBM Research VP Mukesh Khare and Synopsys VP Arun Venkatachar.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: It is the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the word “robot.” This week, a free-wheeling conversation with science fiction author Mark Niemann-Ross about robots, fictional and real. Also, EE Times has just published a book that we’re rather proud of. Called “Sensors in Automotive.” We talk about that.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: Uri Adoni has been a CEO of MSN Israel, a partner in one of the more prominent venture capital funds in Israel, and is the author of the new book “The Unstoppable Startup; Mastering Israel’s Secret Rules of Chutzpah.” We talk about why startups succeed – or fail, why some countries are better at supporting startups than others, and (of course) what “chutzpah” actually means.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: An interview with Keith Jackson, who in 2002 was named CEO of On Semiconductor, basically the shell of what had been Motorola’s Semiconductor Component Group, and grew it into a Fortune 500 company. He just announced his retirement. Also, we talk with Intel Mobileye executive Jack Weast about a new formalized approach to safer autonomous driving. And, what to expect at the IoT Security Virtual Conference & Expo.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: Congress is trying to figure out how to shore up the U.S. semiconductor industry. We talk with renowned economic historian Chris Miller about the best way to do that. Also, a discussion with IBM Research VP Jeff Wesler about five enormous global challenges that stand a good chance of being solved in the next 5 years.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: We interview Georgia Tech professor Ayanna Howard. Howard is an expert in AI, in robotics, and in how people relate to technology. Also, there’s been a lot of innovative new semiconductor memories, which have not seen a lot of sales – at least not yet. EE Times contributor Gary Hilson covers the memory market; we talk to him about emerging memories. Also, EE Times Editor Nitin Dahad on what to expect from the Boards and Solutions Conference coming up in October.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: There are scores of companies making AI chips, but Mythic stands out with its approach to AI inference that relies on analog computing techniques – an interview with Mythic co-founder and CEO Mike Henry. Also, Nvidia finally announced it will be buying Arm, a few weeks after the first reports that such a deal might be pending. We weren’t sure if it was a good deal then, and we’re not sure it’s a good deal now – a conversation with Tirias Research analyst Kevin Krewell.

The Weekly Briefing podcast: Within 10 years, there will be 50 connected devices per person on earth, most estimates agree. In this episode, we speak with Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs, about the Internet of things and the prep work the electronics industry is doing to get the IoT ready for a significant expansion. Also, the automotive market is making some incredible advances with machine vision systems. We talk with Rob Stead, the guy who has been helping to teach the automotive industry how to see.