The Premise

A common marketing schtick with Silicon Valley startups is that they're making the world a better place, but here's a company that may actually fit the description: it gives people hidden cameras to record human-rights abuses. Oren Yakobovich explains how he dropped out of the Israeli army to spend a decade flipping the idea of Big Brother on its head. Parmy and Alex discuss the pros and cons of technology's power to change the world, in the 50th and final episode of The Premise.

Parmy and Alex are joined by Forbes staff reporter Alex Konrad to talk about the increasingly important role that universities play in the tech startup world by turning their research into marketable products. Alex Knapp interviews Charlie Lewis, Senior VP of Venture Development at Arizona State University's tech transfer arm, about how universities empower both students and faculty to become entrepreneurs.

Parmy and Alex discuss the implications of increasingly isolationist policies from the U.K. and U.S. on the technology industry, with issues like immigration and free trade now more at stake than ever. Britain's first female consul general to San Francisco, Priya Guha, also speaks about the art of wooing tech startups to London from Silicon Valley.

Will artificial intelligence take away jobs, or just change the nature of how we work? Parmy and Alex discuss some of the arguments and fears around automation, while Alex interviews Joe Lobo, chief bot master at startup Inbenta, who says people will simply need to be retrained for jobs impacted by AI.

Parmy interviews Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica, about their work doing data mining and analysis for the Trump campaign; Parmy and Alex discuss the company's efficacy despite the outcome of the election.

Parmy and Alex discuss the theory that tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, collectively known as GAFA, are having an increasingly powerful impact on the world as they vie to become a hub for all aspects of daily life. The show features Jeremy Ghez, a professor of international affairs at HEC Paris who says consumers can keep these companies in check... but will they?

Forbes reporter Kathleen Chaykowski speaks to Thibault Duchemin, Founder & CEO at Ava, who grew up as the only hearing person in a deaf family and built an app that helps them join in the world around them. Parmy and Kathleen discuss how tech originally built for the disabled has become fundamental to the gadgets most people use everyday.

A new report for the U.S. army claims future cyber attacks will increasingly affect the real world around us. "We need to think beyond cyber," says author and futurist behind the report, Brian David Johnson, in an interview with Alex. Alex and Parmy discuss the implications for both businesses and consumers.

Parmy and Alex are joined by Forbes Editorial Producer Matt Perez to talk about the burgeoning business of professional competitive video gaming (eSports) and dive into the different ways that people are able to make money playing video games in front of crowds. Alex also talks to attorney Mike Strauss from Reed Smith about some of the benefits (and risks) for investors who want to get their money in the game.

Parmy and Alex discuss the market for "in-ear computers" spearheaded by a little German startup called Bragi. Its founder, Nikolaj Hviid, tells us why his earphones are better than Apple's AirPods and why just like the main character of the movie 'Her,' we might one day have an artificially intelligent voice in our ear at all times.