Azeem Azhar's Exponential View – Details, episodes & analysis

Artificial Intelligence is on every business leader’s agenda. How do we make sense of the fast-moving new developments in AI over the past year? Azeem Azhar returns to bring clarity to leaders who face a complicated information landscape.

This week, Azeem speaks with Richard Socher, CEO and founder of You.com, an AI chatbot search engine at the forefront of truthful and verifiable AI. They explore approaches to building AI systems that are both truthful and verifiable. The conversation sheds light on the critical breakthroughs in AI, the technical challenges of ensuring AI’s reliability, and Socher’s vision for the future of search.

They also discuss:

• How AI’s future is tied to advancements in natural language processing.
• The role of scientific rigor in large language models’ current and future developments.
• The founding of You.com and its mission to revolutionize search.
• Predictions for the next big breakthroughs in AI.

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Further resources:

• Why AI is humanity’s mirror — and what we can learn from it (Richard Socher, TED, 2023)
• The Promise of AI with Fei-Fei Li (Azeem Azhar, Exponential View, 2020)
• AI is the real web3 (Azeem Azhar, Exponential View, 2023)

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As 2024 begins, leaders are facing increasing uncertainty and a host of difficult decisions. Azeem Azhar returns to bring clarity amid a complicated information landscape, with his analysis of 12 core themes that will shape the year ahead, including AI adoption, geopolitics, decentralization, the energy transition, and more.

The discussion specifically touches on:

• What will drive widespread corporate adoption of AI.
• How to think about the emergence of new business models around AI.
• What you need to know about the new wave of decentralization technologies.
• How leaders should think about an electrified world of stable and declining power prices.

@azeem

Further resources:

• The Horizon for 2024: The Biggest Questions on the Horizon (Azeem Azhar, 2024)
• Notes from a Ski Resort, 2024 Edition (Azeem Azhar, 2024)

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on every business leader’s agenda. How do you ensure the AI systems you deploy are harmless and trustworthy? This month, Azeem picks some of his favorite conversations with leading AI safety experts to help you break through the noise.

Today’s pick is Azeem’s conversation with Joanna Bryson, a leading expert on the questions of AI governance and the impact of technology on human cooperation.

They discuss:

• The concept of intelligence and AI as a “cognitive prosthetic.”
• The scale of development and the benefits of developing AI.
• The problem of explainability in AI systems.

Further resources:

• A Very Short Primer on AI & IP, including Copyright (Joanna Bryson Blog, 2023)
• Inside the Loop: AI May Launch a Race No-one Can Afford to Lose (Azeem Azhar, 2023)

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Operating a company with no managers, where everyone chooses their work, salary, and holiday entitlement may sound like chaos. But Daniel Hulme, CEO of Satalia, and his team of 250 people are making it productive. Daniel joins Azeem Azhar to discuss what a company that runs as a decentralize swarm looks like in practice.

They discuss:

• The role of artificial intelligence and open innovation in a swarm organization.
• How a decentralized business creates accountability to ensure strong output.
• The potential for the model to scale to larger organizations, and even countries.

Further reading:

• “Swarm Intelligence: How Can We Harness Collective Human Intelligence?” (Exponential View, 2019)
• “Making the Decision to Decentralize” (Harvard Business School, 2004)
• “Idea: Decentralisation” (The Economist, 2019)

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@azeem
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Companies increasingly use digital systems to hire, fire, and monitor their employees. But who is keeping employers in check? Former director at the service workers union, UNI Global, and one of the most influential thinkers in the ethics of AI, Dr. Christina Colclough joins Azeem Azhar to explore how to ensure that the increasingly digital workplace of the near future protects workers.

They also discuss:

• How Covid-19 has affected the most vulnerable members of the global workforce.
• How management by algorithm erodes trust in the workplace.
• Why trade unions should employ data analysts and digital experts.

Further reading:

• “When algorithms hire and fire” (Equal Times, 2018)
• “Welcome Back to the Office. Your Every Move Will Be Watched.” (Wall Street Journal, 2020)
• “Time to Deliver Justice to Delivery Workers” (New York Review of Books, 2020)
• Related EV discussions mentioned in this episode: Laetitia Vitaud, Mariana Mazzucato, Meredith Whittaker, Binyamin Applebaum.

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Cities drive prosperity. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, they also have become crucibles of disease. Sameh Wahba, the World Bank’s Global Director of Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience, and Land, 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 of urban density can be harnessed to build livable and inclusive cities of the future.

They also address:

• Why the inexorable trend towards urbanization will not be stopped by Covid-19.
• Why more densely populated cities are not necessarily the worst affected.
• How satellite imagery, 3D maps, and AI are helping cities manage transmission hotspots.

Further reading:

• “Now Is the Time to Embrace Density” (New York Times, 2020)
• “Cities are on the front lines of COVID-19” (World Bank Blog, 2020)
• “Competitive Cities for Jobs and Growth: What, Who and How” (Global Urban Lecture, 2017)

@SamehNWahba
@azeem
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Note: We updated one sentence in this interview for clarity.

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After ImageNet transformed AI vision, superstar Stanford computer science professor Fei-Fei Li has turned her attention to advancing healthcare. Fei-Fei Li, co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, is leading the next generation of interdisciplinary technologists.

She joins Azeem Azhar to explore her journey from pioneering AI vision to her current focus on healthcare, and to discuss the need to craft AI systems that enhance human flourishing.

They also discuss:

• How AI technologies could support the isolated and elderly during the pandemic.
• Why machine values must mirror human values, and how to embed that connection.
• What allowed Li’s — and the industry’s — early naivete to the dangers of facial recognition.
• Why Li’s health technologists must work with doctors and patients, not just medical data.

Further reading:

• “Fei-Fei Li’s Quest to Make AI Better for Humanity” (Wired, 2018)
• “AI Pioneer Fei-Fei Li on Building Benevolent Machines” (Wall Street Journal, 2019)
• “AI, Accountability, and Power” (Exponential View podcast with Meredith Whitaker, 2019)

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@azeem
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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 regulation as a driver of innovation, and how Nasdaq prepared to keep functioning during the pandemic lockdown.

They also discuss:

• The infrastructure that allows Nasdaq to reliably maintain data rates thousands of times faster than the internet and traffic volumes many times higher than Google searches.
• How smart regulation played a vital role in the evolution of Nasdaq’s resilience.
• Why the Nordic states exemplify a healthy balance between government and business.

Further reading:

• “What’s the Future of Capitalism?” (TED Talk, 2019)
• “Interview with Adena Friedman on COVID-19” (The Economic Club of Washington DC, 2020)
• “Technology Companies and the New Recession” (Exponential View podcast, 2020)

@adenatfriedman
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Global supply chains are efficient, but fragile. How can we make them more robust, flexible, and sustainable? Pamela Mar, EVP for Knowledge and Applications at the Fung Group, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the technological and economic changes needed to improve these vital networks of production and distribution.

They discuss:

• The lessons about mass production and specialization we’re learning with the Covid-19 crisis.
• How digitization can build trust along the supply chain.
• Why automation is an opportunity to move from mass production to mass customization.

Further reading:

• “Reinventing Fashion” (Chatham House Panel Discussion, 2018)
• “Meet the Eco-Business A-Listers: Pamela Mar” (Eco-Business, 2020)
• “The State of Fashion – Coronavirus Update” (McKinsey and Business of Fashion, 2020)

@azeem
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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 Prime Minister David Cameron, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the immense cost and new potential of this brave old world.

They discuss:

• The huge wealth gap opening up between older and younger people.
• What we can learn from the Okinawan concept of “ikigai” or “life purpose”.
• Why meaningful relationships are the single most important factor in long-term wellbeing.

Further reading:

• “The New Science of Aging” (Exponential View podcast, 2020)
• “Extra Time: 10 Lessons for An Ageing World Camilla Cavendish” (2019)
• “We are prioritising the old and will have to make it up to the young” (Financial Times, 2020)
• “The Three Cleavages” (Azeem Azhar, 2020)

@CamCavendish
@azeem
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