Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish author and human rights activist. She has published 16 books, 10 of which are novels. The New York Review of Books called her latest novel, Three Daughters of Eve, a “marvelous lesson in multiculturalist angst, the clash between modernity and tradition, and the vicissitudes of personal struggle.” Elif and Azeem Azhar discuss the polarization of culture springing out of the foundations of the open internet, and the ways to tackle the pervasive issues in today’s digital technology sphere. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marietje Schaake is a Dutch politician and member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Netherlands. The Wall Street Journal called her “Europe’s most wired politician,” and Politico named her the “ultimate digital MEP.” Marietje is a member of the Committee on International Trade and the vice chair of the Delegation for Relations with the U.S. She established a Digital Agenda intergroup, gathering members of the Parliament who are interested in addressing the future of digital technologies. Marietje and Azeem Azhar discuss the governance of cyberspace, the responsibility of technology companies, and the new era of geopolitical competition in cyberspace. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Emil Eifrem is the CEO and cofounder of Neo4j, the graph database platform powering some of the largest companies today. Emil is the creator of the property graph model, and he coined the term “graph database” to describe the technology that would change how we understand big data. Neo4j’s technology was used to reveal the rogue offshore financial relationships in the largest journalist leak ever, the Panama Papers. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jack Clark serves as the policy director at OpenAI. He has contributed to the development of the AI Index, an AI forecasting and progress initiative that is part of the Stanford One Hundred Year Study on AI. Azeem Azhar and Jack discuss the state of artificial intelligence development, the geopolitics of technology, and the implications of automation on society. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gina Neff is a senior research fellow and associate professor at the University of Oxford. She studies innovation, the digital transformation of industries, and how new technologies impact work. Gina has published three books: Self-Tracking in 2016, Surviving the New Economy in 2015, and Venture Labor in 2012. Gina and Azeem Azhar discuss technology development from a sociological perspective, as well as the implications of self-tracking for the individual and society. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Michael Liebreich is a leading global expert on clean energy and transportation, smart infrastructure, technology, climate finance, and sustainable development. He founded New Energy Finance in 2004, which was acquired by Bloomberg in 2009. Michael and Azeem Azhar discuss the significance of the U.S. National Climate Assessment and IPCC’s report, the importance of staying below two degrees, and the role of exponential technologies in transitioning to renewables. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Casper Klynge is the world’s first tech ambassador, with a global mandate and staff in Copenhagen, Silicon Valley, and Beijing. His appointment as the Danish tech ambassador in 2017 marked a new phase in diplomacy and international relations, and was the first time a nation-state deployed an ambassador to represent its citizens to the world’s most powerful technology companies. Casper and Azeem Azhar assess the current alignment between some of the largest technology companies and nation-states, and discuss the role of technology in fostering democracy and innovation. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kate Raworth is a senior visiting research associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, where she teaches environmental change and management. She is also a senior associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Kate is focused on exploring the economic mindset needed to address the 21st century’s social and ecological challenges. Kate and Azeem discuss the Doughnut economics framework as the essence of rethinking economics for a world inhabited by 10 billion people and hit by climate change and social justice struggles. Kate sets a vision for an equitable and sustainable future. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Anousheh Ansari is the world’s first female private space explorer and the first Iranian astronaut in space. She is the CEO of XPrize Foundation, an organization that supports radical breakthrough solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. Azeem Azhar and Anousheh discuss the ways space development could help us tackle climate change and pollution and achieve sustainable crypto mining. Anousheh shares about her journey to become a space explorer and her time at the International Space Station, as well as her role as the CEO of XPrize. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lisa Witter is an award-winning executive, a serial entrepreneur, and the cofounder and executive chairman of Apolitical, a network that helps public servants around the world share inspiring ideas, solutions to challenges, and the best professional resources and opportunities. Azeem and Lisa discuss reviving trust in government, the road map for building the public service workforce of the future, and the role of agile in governance. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Matthew Taylor is the chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, a UK organization committed to finding practical solutions to societal problems. Before leading the RSA, Matthew was the chief adviser on political strategy to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Azeem and Matthew Taylor discuss the well-being economy, the meaning of good work in an age of automation, and the state of democracy. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar speaks with Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and author who is running for president in the 2020 U.S. election. At the heart of Andrew’s platform is the “freedom dividend,” a universal basic income of $1,000, payable to all Americans every month. Azeem and Andrew discuss the core ideas behind Andrew’s platform, why they are necessary, and how to get there. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem speaks with Reid Hoffman, “the sage of Silicon Valley.” Reid is an internet entrepreneur, executive, and investor best known as the cofounder of LinkedIn. Reid and Azeem discuss the business culture of Silicon Valley, in particular the concept of “blitzscaling.” They dive deep into Silicon Valley’s attitudes toward government, the role of the state in innovation, and maintaining techno-optimism. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar speaks with entrepreneur and investor Elad Gil about Silicon Valley, scaling companies from 10 to 10,000 employees, the state of blockchain, and how blockchain and artificial intelligence will overlap. Elad is a serial entrepreneur, an operating executive, an investor, and an adviser to private companies including Airbnb, Pinterest, Square, and Stripe. Elad was the VP of corporate strategy at Twitter, and previously was on the mobile team at Google. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar speaks with Dr. Mariarosaria Taddeo, deputy director of the Digital Ethics Lab at the Oxford Internet Institute. Dr. Taddeo is a philosopher, an ethicist, and a researcher focusing on cyber conflicts, cybersecurity, and the ethics of data science. Cyber attacks are escalating in frequency, sophistication, and impact. Azeem and Dr. Taddeo unpack the state of cybersecurity and warfare, the complex symbiosis between governments and criminal actors, and the ways digital technologies are changing cyber warfare. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar speaks with venture capitalist Bill Janeway about the three-player game between the mission-driven state, financial speculators, and markets in the innovation economy. Are we stuck on the dark side of this configuration? How do we move forward? www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar speaks with Kai-Fu Lee, a VC investor, technology executive, and one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese internet sector and AI. They discuss the Chinese government’s techno-utilitarian approach to technology, the ambition of China’s technology founders, and the future of job automation. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View podcast is back, exploring the intersection of political economy and exponential technologies. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A recording of an Exponential View salon held in London in May 2017. “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter,” said Winston Churchill. But whatever you think of it, democracy has served us well. An increase in democracy is almost always matched by an increase in GDP. According to MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, a country that switches from autocracy to democracy achieves about 20% higher GDP per capita over roughly a 30-year period. Yet data from the end of 2016 suggests that in several advanced economies, including the U.S. and the UK, those born since the late 1980s value democracy less than older cohorts. We’ve witnessed something driven by the underlying shifts in media, technology, the expression of state power, cultural values, and big money funding data. We’ve experienced a manifestation of new behaviors around the democracy process: the transition from broadcast media to niche media moderated by dominant social media platforms. Have these behaviors hacked our democracy? For better or for worse? Azeem Azhar discusses these questions with Carole Cadwalladr, Luciano Floridi, Hari Kunzru, and Tom Loosemore. www.exponentialview.co Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With more than 40% market share in mobile games, 1 billion monthly active users, and 2.6 billion unique devices, the game development platform Unity has a profoundly important role in booming gaming and VR markets. Azeem Azhar talks with Dr. Danny Lange, VP of AI and machine learning at Unity, about the role of these technologies in revolutionizing the ways games are developed and monetized. Dr. Lange talks about the significance of the undergoing paradigm shift in computing, the OODA loop in machine learning, and what happens to software engineers when their trade becomes obsolete. Before joining Unity, he led the machine learning efforts at Uber, Amazon, and Microsoft. Through his work on General Motor’s OnStar Virtual Advisor, Danny provided the foundation for the development of one of the largest deployments of an intelligent personal assistant until the arrival of Siri. Prior to joining General Magic, Dr. Lange served as the visiting scientist at IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory from 1993 to 1997, where he is known for his invention of the Java Aglet, a lightweight mobile agent for the Java programming environment. In addition to his software agent work, he has made significant contributions in the areas of hypertext technology, object-oriented database modeling, and design pattern visualization techniques. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For the tech community, code has an almost exclusively uniform meaning: a set of instructions, until recently written only by humans, that specify any action a computer should execute. In his most recent book, The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand-Year History, Philip Auerswald talks about “code” in a broader meaning of the word — it is the “how” of human productivity, the manner in which we create, refine, and implement the infrastructure that forms a human society. The advancements of code, from the Neolithic era to the modern times, have driven identity and work reinvention. Philip argues that we are at one of those crucial stages now, and his book offers a guide to the future. Auerswald is an associate professor of public policy at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government and a coeditor of Innovations, a quarterly journal about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. He currently leads the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network, an initiative of the Kauffman Foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Scott Santens is a writer and an advocate for universal basic income. His articles have been featured in TechCrunch, the Boston Globe, and Politico, among other places. Scott has coauthored two books: What Do We Do About Inequality? and Surviving the Machine Age: Intelligent Technology and the Transformation of Human Work. He also moderates the sub-Reddit /r/BasicIncome. Scott talks about why he believes “citizen’s salary” is a necessary measure for our societies to deal with tech unemployment by providing an independent income floor. He finds it paradoxical that we keep on developing technology to help us do more, while also being afraid of tech taking over our jobs. In these circumstances, he notes, a new model of ownership needs to be implemented, with everyone starting from the same point. For further reading on Scott’s work and UBI, visit: FAQ about Universal Basic Income Basic Income sub-Reddit Basic Income Earth Network Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marko Ahtisaari is the CEO and cofounder of The Sync Project, a collaborative venture of scientists, musicians, technologists, and patients, working toward developing functional music that responds to each individual body and serves as precision medicine. Marko is also a director’s fellow at the MIT Media Lab, working on the Open Music Initiative to develop a new distributed ledger system to identify and compensate music rights holders and creators. He was the executive vice president of design at Nokia and worked on award-winning N9 and Lumia products. His startup Dopplr was acquired by Nokia. Marko presents ideas and undergoing projects born out of the vision that in the near future people will use non-drug modalities to heal, enhance well-being, and assist in therapy. He guides us through the recent experiment Unwind.ai, which uses your heart rate to select the tracks that will bring you peace of mind — at least for 5 minutes. For further reading on the Sync Project and music in medicine, please see: Understanding Music as Precision Medicine Sync Music Bot (cutting-edge music recommendation technology) UNWIND.AI (using biometric data to generate music for sleep) Studies in neuroscience reveal music’s effect on the reward system Using music to manage pain Using music to support physical activity and sports training More on music recommendation/analysis technology in general Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A discussion with Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs. Jeff is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on economic development; he advises the UN and a host of governments. In a wide-ranging podcast, he and Azeem Azhar talk about how technology has improved the lives of countless humans. They explore how automated systems will increasingly replace both routine and high-skill jobs. How will our societies cope with those changes? What will we do with the inequalities that will be increasingly produced by the technology revolution? What is the role of basic income? They even have some time to talk about Aristotle. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kate Devlin, computer scientist and robot-sex expert, on robot intimacy and a new age of sex, relationships, and social life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A conversation between Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Yuval Harari and Azeem Azhar. They cover the compelling insights in his new book, Homo Deus. Where are we, as a species, going now that we have conquered much of what ailed preceding generations? How will the twin advances of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence come together to transform humans and human society? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Philosopher and investor Dr. Shamil Chandaria investigates how we might live much longer lives and how we can make them more meaningful. He dives into the emerging medicine and science of life extension in a deep but accessible way. He explains how we should consider super-longevity and super-well-being in tandem. And in discussion with an audience we explore the motivations for — and ramifications of — much longer lives. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A wide-ranging conversation on technology with Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review. He touches on gene editing, Moore’s Law, artificial intelligence, Facebook and fake news, and what ties all these disparate strands together. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A powerfully prophetic discussion about the meaning of work in the 21st century as technology transforms all areas of the global economy. Ryan Avent, economics columnist at The Economist, and Azeem Azhar, curator of Exponential View, explore issues around how digital technologies will continue to exponentially change the relationship between capital and labor. They discuss what new social contracts will ensue and how we will see the reshaping of social and cultural capital in a dramatically reordered world. What role will humans play in this altered landscape? How will they find meaning and purpose in redefined and irrevocably renegotiated relationships to productivity and the market? This conversation was recorded as a fireside chat in front of a live audience at a private Exponential View event in London. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.