Exponential View with Azeem Azhar

By HBR Presents / Azeem Azhar

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What's Exponential View with Azeem Azhar about?

How will the future unfold?
What is the impact of technology on business & society?
As technology reorders the world in which live, who will be the winners and who will be the losers?

Azeem Azhar, curator of the Exponential View newsletter, in deep conversation with the world's leading thinkers and practitioners exploring these and other important questions.

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Mapping AI’s Societal Impact

04.14.2021

AI is not just code and algorithms. It’s an industry built on a global network of resource extraction, human labor, and data collection. Kate Crawford, senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research and research professor of communication and science and technology ...

Exponential View with Azeem Azhar episodes:

04.14.2021 Mapping AI’s Societal Impact AI is not just code and algorithms. It’s an industry built on a global network of resource extraction, human labor, and data collection. Kate Crawford, senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research and research professor of communication and science and technology ...
04.07.2021 Making Quantum Computers a Commercial Reality IonQ is the first company solely focused on quantum computing to go public, with its quantum computers accessible via the cloud today. The company’s co-founder/chief scientist Chris Monroe and president/CEO Peter Chapman join Azeem Azhar to explore how they turned ...
03.31.2021 Bitcoin and the Future of Decentralized Finance Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the potential and politics of cryptocurrencies: from the ideological origins of Bitcoin to the new wave of decentralized financial products that could disrupt traditional finance.
03.24.2021 The Evolution of Teamwork (with Atlassian CEO Scott Farquhar) Atlassian, the enterprise software innovator, is helping to drive disruption across the world of work. Co-founder and co-CEO Scott Farquhar joins Azeem Azhar to explain how, during a global pandemic, they nearly doubled the size of their workforce, why the ...
03.17.2021 The Architects of AI Cade Metz, technology correspondent at The New York Times, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss his new book Genius Makers. In it, he tells the story of the pioneers who brought AI out of academic labs, sparking a Big Tech arms ...
03.10.2021 Universities and the Innovation Landscape What are universities for? Are they an elite pipeline for elite jobs, or can they meet the needs of societies transforming amid technological advances? Azeem Azhar explores the role of higher education in research, innovation, and progress with Geraint Rees, ...
03.03.2021 Engineering a Driverless Future Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO of the self-driving technology startup Aurora, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the state-of-play of self-driving technology, the criticisms the tech must address, and the huge challenges to be overcome before we trust a computer to ...
02.24.2021 Fixing the Social Media Crisis Social networks polarize communities and spread misinformation. Professor Sinan Aral, director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and author of The Hype Machine, joins Azeem Azhar to explore what makes these networks so powerful and how we can engineer ...
02.17.2021 Investing in Deep Tech for an Abundant Future Could deep tech bring about an age of abundance? Matt Ocko, co-founder and managing partner of Data Collective Venture Capital, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the art of investing in startups that aim to transform entire industries with radically cheaper, ...
02.10.2021 From Insurance Giant to Tech Platform: The Story of Ping An From an insurance giant to an incubator of cutting-edge tech companies, Ping An’s evolution is impressive and unique. Chief Innovation Officer Jonathan Larsen joins Azeem Azhar to explore how the China-based holding conglomerate has managed such agility at immense scale.
02.03.2021 Building A Quantum Computer with Light “Quantum computing is to conventional computing what a warp drive is to a bicycle,” says Jeremy O’Brien, CEO of PsiQuantum. He joins Azeem Azhar to explore the exponential advantage quantum computing will bring to problems across science and industry, and ...
01.27.2021 Bringing DARPA’s Innovation to Health Regina Dugan, CEO of new biomedical non-profit Wellcome Leap and former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the U.S., joins Azeem Azhar to explore how she approaches delivering breakthrough technologies and why she has now set ...
01.06.2021 Big Tech and a Decade of Antitrust with Cory Doctorow Cory Doctorow, award-winning author, technologist, and founder joins Azeem Azhar to explore the power of big tech monopolies and how a future wave of antitrust lawsuits could unleash innovation across the sector.
12.30.2020 Learning from 2020: Azeem’s Takeaways Azeem Azhar reflects on how Covid-19 has affected technology and our lives in 2020 and why the effects of the pandemic will be felt for many years to come.
12.23.2020 Applying the Pandemic Mindset to Climate Change with Cory Doctorow Cory Doctorow, award winning author, technologist, and founder, joins Azeem Azhar to explore how we can harness massive collective action and exponential technologies to mitigate climate change.
12.16.2020 Making Venture Capital Work for Entrepreneurs Leila Rastegar Zegna, general partner and co-founder of Kindred Capital, joins Azeem Azhar to explore a new model for venture capital, where startup founders become partners in the fund. This new approach aims to align incentives for entrepreneurs and investors, ...
12.09.2020 IKEA: Making a $40 Billion Company Climate Positive Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group, joins Azeem Azhar to explore IKEA’s goal to be a net reducer of carbon emissions by 2030 – while still growing its business.
12.02.2020 China’s Technology Transformation with Kai-Fu Lee Kai-Fu Lee, AI pioneer and investor, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the evolution of China’s vibrant tech sector, the rise of consumer-facing robots, the consequences for labor, and the future of educational technologies.
11.25.2020 Materials Built by Microbes: A Revolution in Materials Science Zymergen CEO Joshua Hoffman joins Azeem Azhar to explore how cutting-edge bioengineering, robotics, and machine learning are helping create a new generation of high-performance, environmentally sustainable materials for the 21st Century.
11.18.2020 Silicon Valley Needs a Shakedown with Chamath Palihapitiya Investor Chamath Palihapitiya joins Azeem Azhar to explore the dysfunctional relationship between capital and companies, why he loves a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company), and why he’s championing a new wave of climate change innovators. Note: Portions of the conversation ...
11.11.2020 How AI and Genomics Are Reshaping Farming “The time for vertical farming is here,” says Mike Zelkind, co-founder and CEO of 80 Acres Farms. He joins Azeem Azhar to explore what’s broken in the food supply chain, and how a new breed of high-tech, indoor farms could ...
11.09.2020 Understanding the Enduring Consequences of Covid-19 Yale professor Nicholas Christakis argues that we can expect this current phase of the Covid-19 pandemic to end in 2022. In conversation with Azeem Azhar, Christakis explains why we need to brace for what comes next.
11.04.2020 Should We End the Data Economy? Ownership of personal data is a form of power – and that power is concentrating in the hands of governments and big tech. Should we be worried? Dr. Carissa Véliz, from the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University ...
10.28.2020 Facebook’s Tech Chief: How We Built It and Where We’re Going Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer joins Azeem Azhar to explore how they built the infrastructure powering the social network, why AI and virtual reality are the core of its future, and how the company approaches content moderation.
10.21.2020 DeepMind’s Journey from Games to Fundamental Science DeepMind’s co-founder and CEO, Demis Hassabis, joins Azeem Azhar to explore his company's progression from gaming to accelerating scientific discovery.
10.14.2020 How Taiwan is Using Technology to Foster Democracy (with Digital Minister Audrey Tang) Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s first digital minister, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how the Taiwanese Government is using the Internet as a space for civic participation, dialogue, and consensus building.
10.07.2020 How GPT-3 Is Shaping Our AI Future OpenAI stunned the world with the release of the world’s most impressive language-generating AI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joins Azeem Azhar to reflect on the huge attention generated by GPT-3 and what it heralds for the future research and development ...
07.01.2020 Season 4 Finale: Azeem’s Favorite Episodes and Trends to Watch As we wrap up the season and head off to a short summer break, Azeem Azhar reflects on what he learned from his conversations with technology and business leaders on the podcast -- and how those insights may help us ...
06.24.2020 Reimagining Capitalism for a Broken World A thriving global economy depends on more than just free markets. Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson offers a fresh vision of purpose-driven capitalism, where companies can make good profits by doing the right thing.
06.17.2020 Engineering Biology: The Next Frontier Drug discovery, novel materials, and genetic engineering are some of the topics under the microscope in Azeem Azhar’s discussion with Andreessen Horowitz general partner Vijay Pande. They explore the extraordinary possibilities that are opening up at the intersection of biology, ...
06.10.2020 Rethinking the Innovation Ecosystem Starting a company with a stranger is not the traditional path for many entrepreneurs, but this is one of the basic principles of Entrepreneur First (EF), the world’s leading talent investor. Matt Clifford, EF’s CEO and co-founder, joins Azeem Azhar ...
06.03.2020 Using AI to Decentralize Organizations As the Covid-19 pandemic forces companies to rethink their workflows and structures, Azeem Azhar speaks with Daniel Hulme, CEO of Satalia, whose company runs as a decentralized swarm. There are no managers, no strict job roles, and no vacation limits. ...
05.27.2020 Empowering Workers in the Digital Future Companies increasingly use digital systems to hire, fire, and monitor their employees. But who is keeping employers in check? Former union leader and AI ethics expert, Dr. Christina Colclough joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how to empower employees in the ...
05.20.2020 Building Better Cities After Covid-19 How do we build better cities after the coronavirus crisis? The World Bank’s Sameh Wahba joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how the World Bank partners with technologists to help cities on the frontline of the pandemic, and how the dynamism ...
05.13.2020 Fei-Fei Li’s Mission to Transform Healthcare AI After ImageNet transformed AI vision, superstar Stanford computer science professor Fei-Fei Li has turned her attention to advancing healthcare. She joins Azeem Azhar to discuss her new approach to AI development, which incorporates interdisciplinary collaboration and focuses on ethical, real-world ...
05.06.2020 How Nasdaq is Growing the World’s Digital Marketplace Nasdaq has evolved from being the world’s first digital marketplace to a global technology company. CEO Adena Friedman joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how their digital operation has become the model for markets around the world, the surprising importance of ...
04.29.2020 The Digital Future of the Supply Chain The Fung Group coordinates some of the world’s largest and most complex supply chains. Pamela Mar, EVP for Knowledge and Applications at Fung, joins Azeem Azhar to explore how developing digital connectivity can help to counteract the devastating repercussions of ...
04.27.2020 Lessons for an Aging World For the first time in history, there are more people on the planet over 65 years old, than under five. How do we adapt to this demographic transformation? Camilla Cavendish, award-winning journalist and former Director of Public Policy for UK ...
04.22.2020 The New Science of Aging Harvard geneticist David Sinclair joins Azeem Azhar to discuss his pioneering research into the pathways and processes responsible for aging, and the new treatments that could keep us younger for longer.
04.20.2020 Navigating Covid-19 in a Digital Republic (with President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid) President Kersti Kaljulaid joins Azeem Azhar to explore how legal and technological innovations have helped Estonia create the most advanced e-government in the world, and how this digital republic is navigating the Covid-19 pandemic.
04.15.2020 The Drive to Decarbonize Ramez Naam, clean energy investor and technologist, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the economic and industrial forces that are accelerating us towards a zero-carbon future, as well as the major challenges that remain.
04.08.2020 Inside Alphabet’s X: Nurturing Radical Creativity Alphabet Inc.’s X (formerly Google X) creates the most daring innovations to tackle the world’s biggest problems. CEO Astro Teller joins Azeem Azhar to explain how he creates a culture of radical creativity and nurtures the audacity to fail.
04.01.2020 The Next Trillion-Dollar Market Softbank Vision Fund Senior Managing Partner, Deep Nishar joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how the confluence of AI, genomics, and automation are opening up new possibilities in biotech and materials science.
03.30.2020 Technology Companies and the New Recession The COVID-19 pandemic will cause an economic crisis never seen before, says equity analyst Pierre Ferragu. He joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how this crisis will affect the technology industry, in particular, in the short and long term.
03.24.2020 Science Fights the Coronavirus How effective is science at tackling COVID-19, and how will the pandemic evolve next?
03.18.2020 The Redecentralized Web Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Blockstack, a decentralized computing network, joins Azeem Azhar to discuss rebuilding the internet to give control back to users.
03.11.2020 Welfare in the Exponential Age Hilary Cottam, social entrepreneur and author of the acclaimed book, “Radical Help,” joins Azeem Azhar to discuss the future of welfare in the exponential age.
03.04.2020 How Humans Judge Machines Physicist and author, Cesar Hidalgo joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how understanding knowledge leads to insights on everything from the economic value of megacities to how to moralize machines.
02.26.2020 Can Airtable Democratize Software Development? Airtable founder Howie Liu and Azeem Azhar discuss what it means to create a new $100 billion market category.
02.19.2020 Geopolitics, Technology, and Risk Geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how the forces of technology are shaping and threatening global stability.

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