Working Smarter – Details, episodes & analysis

The world record for fastest pit stop—a mere 1.8 seconds—was set by the McLaren F1 Team at the Qatar Grand Prix in 2023. It’s an incredible feat of speed and choreography; a pit stop that fast can’t happen without a team of people operating at peak human performance. But as Dan Keyworth explains, AI plays a crucial role, too. As the Director of Business Technology at McLaren Racing, Dan is responsible for helping the whole team perform at their best—and that starts with having the right tools. Whether it’s the firehose of sensor data coming off a race car, video analysis of the pit crew in action, or marketing analytics for the next Grand Prix, AI helps the McLaren F1 Team make the right decisions—and make them fast.

On this episode, Dan talks about the importance of getting simple answers from complex data, how they use Dropbox Dash, and why we shouldn’t think of AI as labor replacement so much as laborious replacement.

You can learn more about the McLaren F1 Team at mclaren.com/racing/formula-1. And if you haven’t already seen it, be sure to watch their world record pit stop at youtube.com/watch?v=tRBOiq-Q6_s. Seriously, it’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fast.

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Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox Dash—the AI universal search and knowledge management tool from Dropbox. Learn more at workingsmarter.ai/dash

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard: producer Dominic Girard, sound engineer Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to our illustrators Justin Tran and Fanny Luor, marketing consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and editorial support from Catie Keck. Our theme song was composed by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!

Iain Thomas is a poet, author, and the Chief Innovation Officer at Sounds Fun—an advertising and creative agency that he co-founded with the belief that human creativity could be enhanced, rather than diminished, with the help of AI. It’s a realization that actually began to dawn on Iain a few years prior, after his mother died. He wasn’t sure how to explain death to his children, so he turned to an early version of ChatGPT for help—and was so impressed by the poetry of its responses that he came away convinced of AI’s immense potential as a thought partner for his creative work. 

On this episode, Iain talks about using AI to make more space for the creative parts of your work, and why, in a world where everyone has access to the same tools, it’s never been more important to lean into the skills, context, and experiences that make each of us most unique—and most human.

Learn more about Sounds Fun soundsfun.co

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Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox Dash—the AI universal search and knowledge management tool from Dropbox. Learn more at workingsmarter.ai/dash

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard: producer Dominic Girard, sound engineer Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to our illustrators Justin Tran and Fanny Luor, marketing consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and editorial support from Catie Keck. Our theme song was composed by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!

For our fifth episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to sports scientist Natalie Kupperman. She’s an assistant professor of data science at the University of Virginia where she studies the use of biometrics, wearables, and AI-powered tools for athlete monitoring in sport.

Whether it’s a machine learning algorithm trained on video footage from practice, a force plate sensor in the weight room floor—or some combination of the two—Kupperman is interested in how new technology can help reduce the risk of injury and optimize athletic performance for professional athletes and amateurs alike.

Hear Kupperman discuss a day in the life of a sports scientist, the importance of getting all of your data into one place, and why there will always be some injuries we can’t prevent.

Show notes:

• To learn more about Natalie and her work, you can visit her website or her University of Virginia faculty page
• Find Natalie’s research on Google Scholar

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Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our fourth episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to Babak Hodjat, the chief technology officer for AI research at Cognizant. If you’ve ever used Apple’s smart assistant Siri, then you’re almost certainly familiar with his work.

Hodjat has been doing AI research for nearly four decades, and if there’s one thread that runs through his career, it’s how to make working with digital agents feel as natural or effortless as working with a colleague. At Cognizant—an IT services and consulting firm—Hodjat’s team puts this work into practice by helping other companies integrate AI tools into their workflows.

Hear Hodjat discuss why it’s still so hard for machines to understand exactly what we want them to do, the problems he’s helping his customers solve, and how the latest generation of workplace assistants can help us make better decisions and improve the way we do our jobs.

Show notes:

• Learn more about Cognizant's Advanced AI Lab
• Links to Hodjat’s research
• The Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL)
• The Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO)

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Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our third episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to May Habib, the co-founder and CEO of Writer, a generative AI platform for businesses. Writer helps streamline the writing parts of people’s workflows, so they can get to the “thinking part” of their jobs more quickly.

For Habib, AI isn’t just about automating mundane or repetitive tasks, but a way to amplify the talent and intelligence of a team. There are some types of writing, such as an RFP or a JIRA ticket, where it doesn’t always make sense to start from scratch. By using AI to learn how a company works and the knowledge a person needs to do their job, Writer aims to make those kinds of writing-related tasks faster, easier, and more efficient. 

Hear Habib talk about how AI-powered tools like Writer can help increase the amount of time you spend in flow, supercharge your existing workflows, and create more space for insight, creativity, and inspiration in your job. 

Show notes:

• To learn more about Writer, visit writer.com
• Follow May Habib on LinkedIn

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Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our second episode of Working Smarter, we’re talking to University of Toronto law professor Abdi Aidid about AI, the law, and the “possibility of an intelligent division of labor between human and machine.”

Aidid is interested in how AI can help legal professionals be better at their jobs and improve the delivery of legal services. He’s also the former vice president of legal research for Blue J—a legal tech company that uses machine learning to help lawyers review, analyze, and synthesize information faster and more efficiently than they could on their own—and the co-author of The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better.

Hear Aidid talk about using AI to spend more time on the things humans do best, how lawyers are already using AI-powered tools, and why he thinks AI could actually make legal services more accessible and better able to meet people’s needs. 

Show notes:

• To hear more from Abdi Aidid, read our previous interview on Work in Progress.
• Visit the University of Toronto website to learn more about Abdi Aidid and his work.
• The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better by Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie is available now.
• Read the full transcript of this interview on our website. 

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Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

For our first episode of Working Smarter we’re talking to Kate Darling, a research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and author of The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots. 

Darling has spent more than a decade studying human-robot interaction through a social, legal, and ethical lens. She’s interested in how people relate to robots and digital constructs, socially and emotionally—whether it’s an AI-powered chatbot or one of the many robotic dinosaurs that Kate has in her home. 

Hear Darling talk about the bonds we’re already forming with our smart—and not-so-smart—devices at work and at home, and why our relationship with animals might be a better way to frame the interactions we’re having with increasingly intelligent machines.

Show notes:

• Visit katedarling.org to learn more about Kate Darling and her work.
• The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots is available now.
• The two papers mentioned in this episode are "Bonding with a Couchsurfing Robot: The Impact of Common Locus on Human-Robot Bonding In-the-Wild" by Joost Mollen, Peter van der Putten, and Kate Darling, and "How does my robot know who I am?: Understanding the Impact of Education on Child-Robot Relationships" by Daniella DiPaola.
• Read the full transcript of this interview on our website.

~ ~ ~

Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done.

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga.

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to Working Smarter! In this new podcast from Dropbox, learn how people are already using AI at work to collaborate, find focus, and get stuff done—not at some point in the future, but today. Hear founders, researchers, and engineers talk about the problems they’re solving with the help of new and emerging AI tools, and how AI can help you spend more time on the work that matters most.

Our first episode lands May 1.

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Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox. We make AI-powered tools that help knowledge workers get things done, no matter how or where they work. 

You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai

This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard, namely: our producers Samiah Adams and Aja Simpson,  technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to Benjy Baptiste for production assistance, our marketing and PR consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and our illustrators, Fanny Luor and Justin Tran. Our theme song was created by Doug Stuart. Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!