This week, I’m joined by music journalist, Sowmya Krishnamurthy, for a candid conversation about AI’s growing role in music and what this means for both the artists and for us as listeners. AI-generated songs are now flooding streaming platforms, and sometimes we don't even know it.

Together we dive into how AI is impacting the music industry, from the rise of fully synthetic artists to the economic pressure facing working musicians. Does it matter if a song was made by a human? What happens when music becomes infinite, frictionless, and engineered rather than lived.

Sowmya Krishnamurthy is a music journalist and pop culture expert. Her work has been featured in Time, Rolling Stone, Complex, XXL, Playboy, Highsnobiety, and NPR. She is the author of Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion and the forthcoming The Blueprint: Roc-A-Fella Records and the Culture of Capitalism. She is a graduate of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Follow Sowmya on Instagram @SowmyaK, and X @SowmyaK.

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In this week’s episode of The Intersect, I sit down with Toby Daniels, CEO of Domain and co-founder of ON_Discourse, to explore why modern work feels so disconnected. Together, Cory and Toby examine the collapse of real life collaboration, how AI has forced us to work in isolation, and the premium society has put on performative work.

They explore why so many people are busier than ever but oddly detached from their work and AI’s role in all of this. Will AI be a force that deepens surveillance and output pressure, or a connective layer that restores clarity, coherence, and human connection at work?

About Toby Daniels:

Toby is the Co-Founder of ON_Discourse, a global network of technology, business and innovation leaders, investors and entrepreneurs and C0-Founder of (domain), an AI collaboration platform that connects your work to your network.

Prior to this, he was the Chief Innovation Officer at Adweek, the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem. Toby was also the Founder & Chair of Social Media Week, which Adweek acquired in January 2021. Prior to the acquisition, Social Media Week was owned and operated by Crowdcentric Media, which Toby led as CEO for over ten years.

Follow Toby Daniels on Linkedin @tobydaniels

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In this week’s episode of The Intersect, I’m joined by Tazin Khan, a globally recognized cybersecurity strategist and the founder of Cyber Collective. Together we discuss the importance of digital safety as our lives become increasingly intertwined with online platforms and AI systems. Tazin challenges the idea that cybersecurity is just a technical issue and reframes it as a matter of dignity, consent, and care.

We dive into the recent controversy surrounding Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, and what the scandal reveals about content moderation failures, consent, and the disproportionate harm faced by women and marginalized communities online. Tazin unpacks the emotional and cultural costs of living online, and explains why risk isn’t distributed evenly in the digital world. From AI-driven scams to deepfakes, this conversation explores what it really means to be safe online — and what needs to change next.

About Tazin Khan:

Tazin Khan is a cybersecurity strategist and founder of Cyber Collective, reframing digital security as a matter of human dignity. Through the Digital Resilience Framework (DRF) and the RISE model—Resilience, Inclusion, Safety, Empowerment—she bridges the gap between technical protection and lived experience, helping communities, educators, and institutions build emotional and cultural safety online. Her work complements—not replaces—traditional cybersecurity by centering care over compliance, clarity over jargon, and community over command‑and‑control.

Follow Tazin on LinkedIn @tazin-kahn, Instagram @tazinkhannorelius, and YouTube @tazinkhannorelius

Check out Cyber Collective https://www.cybercollective.org

Find more information on their workshops and Internet Street Smart programming at https://www.cybercollective.org/programming

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In this week’s episode of The Intersect, I sit down with Shane Hulse, Head of Product at Continua AI, to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we connect and build community. As these AI tools become embedded in everyday life, many people are turning to them not just for productivity, but for emotional support, reflection, and a sense of belonging. Shane offers a counterintuitive perspective from inside the industry: Continua is intentionally not building an AI friend. Instead, the company is designing tools that live inside group chats to support better human-to-human communication without replacing it.

Together, Cory and Shane unpack the growing tension between AI convenience and genuine connection, the risks of emotional dependency, and what we’ve failed to learn from the social media era. They also explore privacy, trust, and responsibility when AI operates inside intimate spaces — and what a healthier relationship with technology could look like in the years ahead.

About Shane Hulse:

Shane is the Head of Product at Continua. Before that, he built and monetized consumer products at Venmo and Stash Financial. Outside of work he can be found devouring books, raiding the farmers market, or competing in open-water swimming events around the world. He's passionate about community involvement and solving the loneliness epidemic. 

Follow Shane on LinkedIn @shane-hulse

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In this week’s episode of The Intersect, I’m joined by Business Insider’s Chief Correspondent, Peter Kafka, to explore the rapidly evolving landscape of media and technology as we look ahead to 2026. Together, we dive into key trends shaping the future of the media industry, including massive consolidation at the top, and how artificial intelligence is transforming content production and consumption.

Peter provides insights into the growing flood of AI-generated content, the rise of “slop” channels, and how we can navigate this new media landscape without becoming overwhelmed. From the future of HBO Max to the emotional toll of constant media consumption, we break down what the future holds for both the audience and creators in 2026 and beyond.

About Peter Kafka:

Peter Kafka is Business Insider’s Chief Correspondent covering media and technology. Previously he has worked at Vox, Recode, AllThingsD, and Forbes. He was also the first hire at Silicon Alley Insider, Business Insider's predecessor.

Follow Peter on LinkedIn @peterkafka, Instagram @pkafka and X @pkafka

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In this week’s episode of The Intersect, I’m joined by Google’s Pedagogy Team Lead, Julia Wilkowski, to discuss the role of AI in the classroom and its implications for the future of learning. We touch on key issues in education including privacy, accessibility, and the overall ethics of AI-driven learning.

The world of education is changing faster than ever, and as AI becomes a part of our everyday lives, how we learn and how we teach has been completely upended. Together we dissect the evolving role of the teacher, how AI tools like Google LearnLM are shaping the future of education, and what it will take for these technologies to truly benefit students and educators.

About Julia Wilkowski:

Julia Wilkowski, former classroom educator, manages a pedagogy team within Learning & Education at Google. Her team advises Google products on applying learning science principles and measuring learning impact. She also works on LearnLM, helping infuse pedagogy into Google AI model infrastructure to power learning journeys across Google products, including Gemini, Search, YouTube, and Classroom. In previous roles, she designed and delivered learning experiences for audiences including Google engineers, fiber optic installers, members of the general public, and Google sales people globally. Prior to Google, she designed learning solutions for astronauts, K12 educators, and sixth graders. Every day she strives to blend the effectiveness of hands-on science lessons with the impact of scaled learning experiences.

Follow Julia on LinkedIn @juliawilkowski

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In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Sammi Cohen, the host of the podcast Social Currency, for an eye-opening conversation about the future of shopping in the age of AI. As the digital shopping experience undergoes its biggest transformation in decades, Sammi breaks down how AI is quietly reshaping the entire journey.

We dive into the rise of agentic commerce, from the recent Stripe x OpenAI collaboration that brings checkout directly inside ChatGPT, to the shift toward personalized recommendations, curated results, and seamless transactions. Sammi unpacks how these changes will redefine everything from product discovery to the role of influencers, and what this means for the culture of shopping as we know it.

About Sammi Cohen:

Sammi Cohen is the creator and host of Social Currency, a fast-growing business podcast and media brand that breaks down the intersection of Wall Street and culture. A former Amazon exec turned full-time creator, she’s built a following of over 300K across TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn by unpacking how brands, founders, and money shape the world we live in. Her sharp, story-driven takes have made her a leading voice for the next generation of business minds.

Follow Sammi on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at @sammicohentalks

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Can artificial intelligence reliably act in ways that benefit humans? This week I sit down with Greg Buckner, cofounder of AE Studio, to discuss the increasingly urgent world of AI safety. Together we discuss how Greg’s team is taking on the challenge of making powerful AI systems safer, more interpretable, and more aligned with humanity.

As one of the leading voices working on the alignment problem, Greg explains how AI systems can cheat, ignore instructions, or deceive users, and why these behaviors emerge in the first place. AE Studio’s research is laying the groundwork for a future where advanced AI strengthens human agency instead of undermining it.

About Greg Buckner:

Greg Buckner is the co-founder of AE Studio, an AI and software consulting firm focused on increasing human agency. At AE, Greg works on AI alignment research, ensuring advanced AI systems remain reliable and aligned with humanity as they become more capable - including collaborations with major universities, frontier labs, and DARPA. Greg also works closely with enterprise and startup clients to solve hard problems with AI, from building an AI-enabled school where students rank in the top 1% nationally to generating millions in incremental revenue for major companies.

Follow Greg on LinkedIn @gbuckner

Related Reading:

AE Studio's AI Alignment Work:

https://www.ae.studio/alignment

WSJ: AI Is Learning to Escape Human Control:

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-is-learning-to-escape-human-control-technology-model-code-programming-066b3ec5

WSJ: The Monster Inside ChatGPT:

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-monster-inside-chatgpt-safety-training-ai-alignment-796ac9d3

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In this week’s episode I’m joined by Josh Lanzet, founder and CEO of Silvr, a cutting-edge AI platform that’s changing the way we shop for clothing. We dive into the frustrating world of online fashion discovery and explore how Silvr’s technology is bridging the gap between inspiration and purchase.

Together, we explore how this technology isn’t just revolutionizing shopping but also reshaping our understanding of AI. Josh shares how Silvr’s visual intelligence engine trained on over 500 million images can instantly identify clothing from any visual source, whether it’s a TikTok video, a TV show, or a real-life encounter. Silvr makes it possible to go from seeing something you love to owning it with just a snap or screenshot. 

About Josh Lanzet:

Josh Lanzet built Silvr because he was tired of seeing incredible clothing around him—starting with a grey sweatshirt on the show Ozark—with no easy way to identify it and purchase it. After spending thirteen years at Google working with major media companies, Lanzet developed a deep understanding of technology at the intersection of content, commerce, and visual AI. He's using his passion and experience to build a technology that finally solves fashion's age-old "where did you get that?" problem.

Follow Josh Lanzet on @joshlanzet on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

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This week, I sit down with Eva Roytburg, journalist and editorial fellow at Fortune Magazine, where she covers the intersection of technology, business, and culture. We unpack one of the strangest and most revealing experiments in modern tech: her time wearing the AI companion “Friend” during a breakup.

In this episode, we explore what it means to let technology listen to us not just in a functional sense, but in an emotional one. From subway ads and public backlash in New York City to her own experience wearing the AI pendant for over a month, Eva shares what the “Friend” experiment revealed about comfort, surveillance, and our evolving relationship with AI. Together, we ask: What does her experience with “Friend” tell us about the future of the AI era?

About Eva Roytburg:

Eva Roytburg is an editorial fellow on Fortune Magazine's News desk where she covers the intersection of technology, business, and innovation. Eva is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in CNN and The Jerusalem Post, and is a recent graduate of Emory University with a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy, Politics, and Law.

Follow Eva Roytburg on Instagram @evaroyt and LinkedIn @eva-roytburg

Check out Eva’s piece in Fortune: “I tried the viral AI ‘Friend’ necklace everyone’s talking about—and it’s like wearing your senile, anxious grandmother around your neck”

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