Good Disruption

As we end our third season, Yael and Mike reflect on the disruptive technologies explored over the last year. It was an interesting mix of good, bad, and no disruption calls. Do they feel the same now about disruptive potential that they did when each episode first aired?  What’s coming in 2026?  Don’t miss this recap and send the Good Disruption team your ideas at [email protected].

Large language models (LLMs) offer powerful opportunities for automation, creativity, and knowledge access. With 800 million people using ChatGPT alone, LLMs are drastically changing the way we interact and operate as a society. No question, this is one of the biggest disruptions of our lifetime; but is it a good one?

We’re LIVE from DC Tech Connect, Batten Institute’s flagship tech event that brings students and alumni together to talk about digital tools and career paths. In this episode Yael and Mike explore LLMs with Dr. Ronnie Chatterji, OpenAI’s first Chief Economist. Chatterji is also the Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor of Business and Public Policy at Duke University and has held previous roles with the Biden and Obama Administrations.

Imagine ordering food from Door Dash and it’s delivered to your doorstep within minutes, not by a driver, but a drone. For residents in Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, this became reality this past summer. And customer delivery isn’t the only industry being disrupted by drones. From precision agriculture to precision battlefield strikes, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is changing the game.

Mike and Yael talk with Mark Hahn (MBA ’20) a career Naval Aviator and previous operations lead for drone start-up company Zipline about the UAV landscape and the pros and cons of using this technology.

Serena Williams recently made headlines for her promotion of GLP-1 medications. The tennis super star is one of a growing list of celebrities turning to GLP-1s, drugs originally developed to treat patients with Type II diabetes and obesity, to help with weight loss.

Off-label use of these medications is rapidly expanding, disrupting a fitness industry built on helping people lose weight.  In May, Weight Watchers filed for bankruptcy. Questions also loom over any long-term disruptions to the human body.

Mike and Yael talk with Dr. Sandhya Chhabra (MBA’17) about the benefits, cautions, and unknowns surrounding the drug that is making headlines and changing lives. Dr. Chhabra led an endocrinology practice for 20 years and is currently a Senior Medical Advisor for Springbok Analytics. 

AI requires data, lots of it. Tech companies are rapidly building new data centers to house it, which will require massive amounts of electricity. How do we power them and stay on track with our emission reduction goals?

An unlikely candidate is emerging – nuclear energy. But it’s not the reactor of the 60s that is being built.  Small modular nuclear reactors are dispatchable, site-flexible, and safe but can they overcome the regulatory, financial, and public perception hurdles to more broadly scale?

Mike and Yael speak with Stephen Leff (MBA '20), a Project Manager at BWX Technologies and expert in nuclear energy sources about the promise and challenges of this clean tech solution.

If you ask Marvel Comics fans about quantum physics, they might reference time travel, multiverse, quantum realm, and Dr. Strange. Ideas of science fiction. Yet, for decades we have used quantum physics to power MRI machines, solar panels, and lasers.  More recently, big tech companies have entered a race to quantum supremacy, where quantum computers surpass silicon-based super computers in speed and complex problem solving. But what is it? 

You won’t want to miss this Quantum 101!  Mike and Yael have a fascinating discussion about quantum computing with Joab Rosenberg, Founder and General Partner of QBeat Ventures, a venture capital fund that specializes in early-stage investments in quantum technologies.

Imagine testing a new medical device without putting someone on an operating table. Or experimenting with new autonomous capabilities without placing a car on the road.   

Computer simulations have been used for decades to predict outcomes but now, digital twins create virtual environments that not only mirror their real-world counterparts but respond to real-time data to yield more confident decision making.

Yael and Mike discuss digital twins with UVA Darden Professor Sam Levy, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Darden. Levy holds a Ph.D in Marketing from Carnegie Melon and his dissertation introduces a novel concept of “digital marketing twins” to better understand individual-level customer satisfaction. 

Look for new episodes of Good Disruption on the first Monday of each month!

From Wall-E and the Iron Giant to I Robot and Terminator, Hollywood has portrayed robots as friendly and misunderstood but also a technology to be feared if left in the wrong hands.  Society has been fascinated with the idea of robots, ever since the term was introduced in the 1920s science fiction play “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.  Today, humanoid robots are being designed not only to carry out simple tasks but also, display a broad range of emotions and react to people in real-time.  But just because we can build it, should we?

Yael and Mike are joined on this episode by Professor Frank Li, an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the UBC Sauder School of Business, a digital fellow at Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Digital Economy Lab, and a visiting fellow at NYU Stern Center for the Future of Management.  Professor Li’s research stands at the nexus of the economics of information technology, focusing on AI and robots, technical skills and future of work, and organizational changes.

In their end-of-year wrap-up, UVA Darden School of Business professors Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Mike Lenox discuss the impact of AI, and the rise of digital keys and AI in household use. They also discuss the future of cryptocurrency, the rapid adoption of autonomous vehicles, the increasing popularity of electric vehicles, and revisit the potential of digital fashion and vertical farming. The Good Disruption Podcast wishes all of our listeners a safe and happy holiday season!

From “hanging chads” to claims of “rigged” Dominion voting machines, the technological improvements to voting technology aimed at improving efficiency and securing trust in the electoral process have been marred in controversy. 

Yet, more countries around the world are shifting to electronic voting.  In the U.S., most votes will be counted using a touch screen or optical scanner on-site.  In the United Arab Emirates and Estonia all votes are submitted online.

David Nemer, UVA Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies, joins Yael and Mike for this special early edition of November's Good Disruption episode as we head into the U.S. Presidential Election. Together they discuss how culture and trust plays a critical role in the acceptance of electronic voting and the need to protect the entire electoral process from beginning to end.