Business Lab

[Sponsored] From 1999 to 2012, Marissa Mayer was one of the most public faces at Google, where she helped to build the company’s core search and advertising platforms. From 2012 to 2017 she steered Yahoo! through its final years as an independent business. In other words, she’s spent a long time at the center of the Silicon Valley whirlwind. In this special episode, Business Lab host Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau asks Mayer how conditions for women technology leaders have changed during her career. The conversation quickly turns to the thinking behind Mayer's 2013 decision to put an end to Yahoo's fairly permissive policy around working from home and how she dealt with the blowback from that decision on social media and the technology press. Mayer sys that if a leader is trying to foster a stronger culture inside their company, they can’t worry too much about what everyone outside the company is saying about them. Mayer goes on to speak about her new company, Lumi Labs, where she says engineers are looking for everyday consumer applications for the latest artificial intelligence techniques. And ultimately the conversation returns to the question of how technology companies can move closer to gender parity, and why the drive to recruit more women into technical roles has to come from the very top. This episode is sponsored by (ISC)2. With more than 140,000 global members, (ISC)2 is the world's largest non-profit membership association of certified cybersecurity professionals. It offers a portfolio of credentials that are part of a holistic programmatic approach to security.

[Sponsored] The development of cyber security is interwoven with the evolution of the hacker community. Keren Elazari, cyber security analyst and senior researcher at the Tel Aviv University Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center, educated the world in her 2014 TED talk on the importance of cultivating friendly hackers for the protection of the internet. Today, she researches the most pressing cyber security threats, and how to prevent these breaches. In this episode, Elazari shares her story of becoming a hacker as a young woman in Israel and speaks of the empowerment she gained through becoming an important player in the global community of hackers. She explains how businesses, organizations, and governments now collaborate with helpful hackers by creating bug bounty programs and other initiatives. Elazari explains tips for what companies should be looking for in way of cyber threats. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Katherine Gorman, with editorial help from Emily Townsend and Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: How the development of cybersecurity arose and how that history created a world rife with invasions. Chris Wysopal, CTO and cofounder of Veracode, sat in the first row for the advent of cyber defense. In fact, as the Vulnerability Researcher at the seminal hacker think tank the L0pht, he has worked for decades to demand more secure technology from influential tech companies. In this episode Wysopal shares his work in the early years of cybersecurity, including when he testified in front of the 1998 Senate on computer security. At that time, he urged the adoption of regulations on large companies like Microsoft in order to enforce accountability and the development of thoughtful,safer code that protects consumer privacy. These initial concerns have only grown, as there is still little enforcement against code and firmware that allows for breaches. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Collective Next. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] The rise in ransomware incidents; hacking attacks and data breaches have become a scary reality for organizations and individuals worldwide. Increasingly, the issue of cyber security and what organizations need to do to better protect their people and their systems now sit at the top of the priority list for business leaders. In this episode, Martin Giles, the San Francisco Bureau Chief of MIT Technology Review, shares his view that the widespread dangers of a cyber attack have become a guarantee for organizations in all sectors and regions. Giles describes how cyber attackers are most likely to penetrate a company’s defenses, including through cloud storage, cloud services and even hardware. He discusses some of the most striking trends in cyber security strategies, including the “death of the perimeter” —how the type of robust firewalls and strong anti-virus programs that were keeping companies safe, no longer work. Giles shows how business leaders can focus on effective cyber hygiene and cyber health to help protect both organizations and society as a whole. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Collective Next with editorial help from Emily Townsend and Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates talks with Gideon Lichfield, MIT Technology Review’s Editor-in-Chief, about the magazine’s new list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, which Gates curated. The magazine has been publishing its list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies (formerly 10 Emerging Technologies) annually since 2001 as a way to highlight the recent advances that could have the biggest impact in the near future. Usually the magazine’s expert editors and reporters put together the list, but this year we invited a special guest curator, Bill Gates, to share his own perspective on which emerging technologies could make the biggest difference for the largest number of people. Gates stepped aside as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus, in part, on running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With more than $50 billion in assets, the foundation supports programs to address global problems like poverty child mortality, the spread of infectious disease, and limited access to healthcare and education. Befitting his practical outlook, Gates chose a few seemingly low-tech items for the list, such as better sanitation for cities without sewer systems and materials for sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But he also included recognizably high-tech items like more dexterous robots, more conversational robots, and advanced fission reactor designs. Technology Review’s editor-in-chief, Gideon Lichfield, interviewed Gates at his Seattle office. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. The Bill Gates interview was produced by Daniel Lovering. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: Emotion-tracking AI is starting to help machines recognize our moods. Are we ready? Personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Home can parse our spoken words and (sometimes) respond appropriately, but they can’t gauge how we’re feeling—in part because they can’t see our faces. But in the emerging field of “emotion-tracking AI,” companies are studying the facial expressions captured by our devices’ cameras to allow software of all kinds become more responsive to our moods and cognitive states. At Affectiva, a Boston startup founded by MIT Media Lab researchers Rosalind Picard and Rana El Kaliouby, programmers have trained machine learning algorithms to recognize our facial cues and determine whether we’re enjoying a video or getting drowsy behind the wheel. Gabi Zijderveld, Affectiva’s chief marketing officer and head of product strategy, tells Business Lab that such software can streamline marketing, protect drivers, and ultimately make all our interactions with technology deeper and more rewarding. But to guard against the potential for misuse, she says, Affectiva is also lobbying for industry-wide standards to make emotion-tracking systems opt-in and consensual. Business Lab listeners are invited to apply to join the MIT Technology Review Global Panel, our exclusive forum of thought leaders, innovators, and executives. As a member of the global panel you can examine today’s tech trends, see survey and study results, have your say and join your peers at business gatherings worldwide. Text Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: Why there will never be another “AI winter,” and what IBM and MIT are doing together to ensure that. More times than almost any other field of innovation, artificial intelligence has weathered recurring cycles of overinflated hope, followed by disappointment, pessimism, and funding cutbacks. But Sophie Vandebroek, IBM’s vice president of emerging technology partnerships, thinks the AI winters are truly a thing of the past, thanks to the huge amounts of computing power and data now available to train neural networks. In this episode Vandebroek shares examples of real-world applications enabled by this shift, from image recognition to chatbots. And she describes the mission of the new MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a $240 million, 10-year collaboration between IBM researchers and MIT faculty and students to focus on the core advances that will make AI more useful and reliable across industries from healthcare to finance to security. This episode is brought to you by Darktrace, the world leader in AI technology for cyber defense. Darktrace is headquartered in San Francisco and Cambridge, UK, and has nearly 2,500 customers around the world who use its software to detect and respond to cyber threats to their businesses, users, and devices. Darktrace has built innovative machine learning technology can spot unusual activity using an approach modeled on the human immune system. In the second half of the show, Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan explains how Darktrace’s technology works and why companies need to bring new defenses to today’s cyber arms race. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: Why researchers at the year’s biggest AI conference focused on how to keep human bias out of computer algorithms. Both the progress and the hype around cutting-edge machine learning techniques were on vivid display at the December 2018 NeurIPS Conference in Montreal, Quebec, says Will Knight, MIT Technology Review’s senior editor for artificial intelligence. One big question hanging over the meeting, Will says, was how to detect and reverse the sexism, racism, and other forms of bias that seep into machine-learning algorithms that train themselves using real-world data. Participants also previewed the coming generation of chips designed specifically to support deep learning—a field where US manufacturers face growing competition from China. Separately, Will looks to the most exciting AI trends for 2019, including the generative adversarial networks (GANs) being used to generate authentic-looking photos and videos. This episode is brought to you by PwC, a global consulting firm in 158 countries with more than 250,000 people. PwC transforms business outcomes and results, helping companies use digital and emerging tech to reimagine their business from strategy and operations to tax and finance. In the second half of the show, Scott Likens, PwC’s New Services and Emerging Tech leader, shares details from a new PwC study on the main trends in artificial intelligence that business leaders need to know about in 2019. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: How the right AI algorithms can help organizations evolve into “superminds” that are smarter than their individual members. Thomas Malone is a professor of management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, and author of the 2018 book Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together. The book explores the different ways groups of people make decisions, and how new forms of artificial intelligence, especially machine learning, can help. Malone predicts that AI, robotics, and automation will destroy many jobs—including those of high-skilled knowledge workers—while at the same time creating new ones. By investing in the right kinds of AI, he says, organizations can help keep workers productive and happy—and make sure our “superminds” are actually smarter than our regular minds. This episode is sponsored by Citrix, the company powering the digital transformation inside organizations of all sizes. In the second half of the show, Citrix's global chief technology officer Christian Reilly explains why machine learning is now a “force multiplier” making all kinds of consumer and enterprise applications more useful. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: What new kinds of sensor data can tell us about the merits of open offices and remote work. Do open offices foster more collaboration, or just more frustration? Should managers encourage employees to telecommute, or is a scattered workforce less cohesive? The conventional wisdom on these issues swings like a pendulum, and for managers the only constant seems to be anxiety that they’re not getting it right. But new technology may offer some real answers. Ben Waber, a former MIT Media Lab doctoral student, is president and CEO of Humanyze, a Boston startup making software and sensors that give companies a better picture of how people actually work. He says the data the company gathers can predict employee performance and fuel a new form of “people analytics.” This episode is sponsored by Citrix, the company powering the digital transformation inside organizations of all sizes. In the second half of the show, Citrix's chief security strategist Kurt Roemer says technology can help sustain work environments and policies that serve workers of all backgrounds and needs. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

[Sponsored] In this episode: How Google is working to make life in the cloud less confusing and more productive. Google’s Chrome browser and its related operating system, Chrome OS, are among the main on-ramps to “cloud work” for millions of office employees and students. Eve Phillips, Google’s group product manager for Chrome Enterprise and Education, helps to make sure people who use Chrome always have access to the apps and the data they need to get their tasks done. She also thinks a lot about how to make web-based software more user-friendly, and how to minimize the potential for distraction when all the software we use is just one browser tab away from our favorite news, social media, or shopping sites. This episode is sponsored by Citrix, the company powering the digital transformation inside organizations of all sizes. In the second half of the show, Citrix's global chief technology officer Christian Reilly talks about the company’s work to create a seamless digital workspace where knowledge workers can access all of the cloud applications they need. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.