Tech Seeking Human

Why are we trying to fly to Mars, when outside our window there is an amazing ecosystem of everything that we know next to nothing about? What happens when you turn your most powerful machines and minds to understanding the genetic make up of everything? This conversation is, just like the study of our planet, will make you stare in amazement, laugh uncontrollably and sit in awe at what we have recently discovered, and what we are yet to know.

Kevin Slavin is a rare individual. On stage he has presented Ted Talks on algorithms and stock markets, which has been viewed over 2 million times. He has been a game developer, founded a spatially aware technology platform company, and now has been focused on helping humans make sense of the smallest matter in the world - metagenomics.

We could go on and on, because this conversation does that. It does it because the topic is so damn interesting, it was impossible to cut anything. Listening to the end will reward the patient listener.

Sean Plankey is a cybersecurity consultant working for Boston based AI firm DataRobot. In his past, he has worked under the Trump Administration as a cybersecurity expert, helping shape US foreign policy on both defensive and offensive cyber initiatives.

Some of his policies formed in his time in government, exist to this day. In this podcast we delve into all forms of interesting commentary including the right for the US Defence Department to attack cyber criminals, the usual China and Russia debate, and we end the discussion talking about his current role and why he is so excited about the potential of AI.

t’s David vs Goliath. They say take care to take on Goliath, but in the tech world that’s just what companies have been doing, differentiating their service offering through superior CX/UX, agile delivery and AI.

This story is a cool one, where we are joined my Co-Managing Director Matt Heine. What did and didn’t surprise me, was that Matt naturally found himself talking about AI and Microservices. These are topics that are naturally suited to me, but not often that suited to a business leader.

It’s also local to us Melbourne folks, so local in fact we recorded this in a room, all together, for the first time in what felt like years.

This is the tech seeking human podcast brought to you by DataRobot.

Jana is the CEO of AI company Nara Logics. Having worked in software dev and AI for more years than she cares to admit, this is an extremely insightful conversation around the why behind AI, how to approach it, and the value that AI brings. Importantly the difference between explainability and understandability. Jana brings a simple methodology to a complex topic.

Gene Kim is the co-author of the Phoenix Project and the Unicorn Project. Anyone involved in software development has read his books, or have heard him speak. Those that haven't, probably haven't fully appreciated the effort it takes to ship quality software that we use everyday.

In this podcast Gene talks about the evolution of DevOps, his favourite inspirations, how enterprises are evolving into software development houses, and how to benchmark your DevOps maturity.

His story telling includes a fantastic 'mind altering' reflection on running, maintaining, and developing the software that runs the Navy, as well as 'software updates that can be deployed' whilst a car is driving.

You will buy his book, or one of the books he recommends during this podcast.

Gene talks fast, is super resourceful, so it's awesome to have this recorded so you can hit pause and reflect!

Cade Metz is a New York Time Journalist and author of Genius Makers, which details the modern history of AI. This conversation covers a number of interesting topics;

1. The ethical ideology of AI leaders including Google, Microsoft and Facebook. How they acquired AI, what they've done with it, what they might do with it.
2. Why did everyone choose to sell their AI to Google? Ethics?
3. Facebook - Ethical AI or not?
4. The difference between the US Government access to AI and China.

It's a fascinating chat for anyone that is interesting in AI, social media, privacy, ethics and the rise of big tech.

Ellen Broad joins the Tech Seeking Human Podcast to talk about elements of her book "Made by Humans, the AI Condition", including the future of AI, the limitations of AI, bias, explainability, and electric vehicles that are not yet ready for Kangaroos.

She is an advisor on the Australian Governments Data Advisory Council, hails from Perth, Western Australia, and despite nearly giving birth on the podcast, holds a conversation around AI with charm.

Your personal data is safe and sound. Protected by ethical companies with no real reason to sell it, manipulate it, and extract it. It's grouped into categories, for which ads are served, decisions are made, benefits are realized and options are offered. These companies are governed by ethical foundations, with principles around what should and shouldn't be done with your information. Leveraging AI that is unbiased, and explainable, you feel confident in all decisions, and how your data is used.

You following?

Pay attention because this is exactly what is not happening, and Nathaniel Raymond, a thought provoking professor and TED Talk activist, is going to help you realize that the 'wild west' of data governance needs to end. It's life threatening, it's a threat to democracy and it's a threat to our way of life.

This podcast is long. But if you are patient, you'll leave enlightened.

BBC Presenter, Podcaster, Author, Mathematician, and self confessed geek, Hannah Fry joins the podcast to talk about renovations, super computers, 5G connected cows and whether scientists (or farmers) can predict the sex of calves. Eventually we move onto serious topics topics like tracking cookies, facial recognition, and the future of AI. There just always seems to be a touch of class when Hannah is in the room, or zoom for this one.

The world knows Siri. It revolutionised how we interact with AI.

Adam Cheyer is the co-founder of Siri. In this conversation, Adam shares his story on being approached by Steve Jobs, turning down and offer to join Apple, and eventually partnering to bring Siri to the world. He shares the origins of Siri, his vision for it, and more generally his thinking around open AI, and the future of AI.

Many associate Steve Jobs with revolutionising computing, the iPhone, music and the Apple ecosystem. But perhaps his greatest accomplishment, was bringing AI to the masses.

In this podcast you will, for the first time, hear Adam Cheyer open up about how Steve felt about Siri.

The fact is, Siri was launched the day after Steve Jobs passed away.

"Steve Jobs was clinging to life to see the launch of Siri." According to Steve Jobs', Personal Assistant.