Between Worlds
by Mike Walsh
Between Worlds is a technology podcast that takes you over the horizon and beyond borders, to bring you the global thinkers, innovators and troublemakers whose ideas challenge the world as we know it. From a courtyard cafe in Paris, to a busy sidewalk in Tokyo - each week futurist and global nomad, Mike Walsh, will share his personal conversations with some of the most fascinating people on the planet, recorded live in the field.
Episodes
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Charles Sansbury on data, AI, and the rise of the Exascale Organziation
I recently caught up for a morning coffee with Charles Sansbury, CEO of Cloudera. We spoke about how AI is changing how leaders view data infrastructure and the significance of organizations capable of operating at exascale. Charles shared how his conversations with Fortune 50 companies have...
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Tom Chatfield on philosophy, analytical thinking and how humans have co-evolved with technology
For Tom Chatfield, a British technology philosopher and author, there is nothing inevitable about technological progress. In his latest book, ‘Wise Animals: How Technology Has Made Us What We Are’ he explores how humans have co-evolved with technology throughout history. In our discussion, Tom...
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Yao Morin on trust, AI world models and the future of commercial property
On a recent trip to Toronto, I caught up with Yao Morin, the global CTO of JLL, a commercial real estate company. We discussed JLL's early adoption of generative AI technology, despite the real estate industry's traditionally conservative approach to new technologies. Yao explained how JLL has...
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Von Wolfe On Redefining Art in the Age of Machine Intelligence
Ahead of the London Frieze Art Fair, I spoke with one of the world’s most fascinating artists, Von Wolfe, who for a number of years now has explored the intersection of art, technology, and artificial intelligence. As we sat in his studio in front of an oversized oil canvas and a sophisticated...
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Tim Fu on how AI is reshaping architecture
Tim Fu, founder of Studio Tim Fu, is one of the world’s leading experts in leveraging AI in architecture and construction. Fu established his practice in 2023 after working at Zaha Hadid Architects, and now heads a diverse team of architects and technologists, creating innovative workflows and...
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Matt Barrie on the AI-powered future of global talent
How will AI change jobs? There are a lot of theories, and as of yet, scant conclusive evidence. However, if you did have to pick a 'canary in a coal mine' to understand the impact of generative AI on the future of work, one place to start would be the global freelance workforce. To understand how...
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Virginia Damtsa on the influence of AI and technology on contemporary art
We are familiar with the rise of AI generated art, but what impact will these emerging technologies having on more traditional forms of artistic expression? To explore that question, I spoke with Virginia Damtsa, a renowned curator of contemporary art, who has worked with everyone from Peter...
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Marco Bertini On AI and the future of dynamic pricing
On a recent visit to Barcelona, I sat down with Marco Bertini, one of the world’s foremost experts on dynamic pricing. Bertini is a professor of marketing at Esade University and the author of the book, ‘The Ends Game: How Smart Companies Stop Selling Products and Start Delivering Value,’ which...
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Ben Waber on why LLMs are not a silver bullet for boosting organizational innovation
Ben Waber is one of the world’s leading experts on people analytics and organizational culture. He is the founder of Humanyze and a professor at MIT. We caught up in Tokyo to discuss the future of work and the impact of large language models (LLMs) on productivity.
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Pierre-Yves Calloc'h on AI-driven transformation and the future of consumer engagement
I sat down with Pierre-Yves Calloc'h, Chief Digital Officer at Pernod Ricard, to discuss the company's journey in embracing AI, algorithms and automation to drive marketing effectiveness, sales performance, and consumer engagement. Pernod Ricard, known for its extensive portfolio of brands such…
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Byron Reese on emergence, superorganisms and our co-evolution with AI.
Byron Reese, an acclaimed author, futurist, and entrepreneur shares his insights on the concept of ‘Agora’, a superorganism formed by the collective interactions of human beings. Drawing parallels complex adaptive systems like beehives, Reese argues that just as individual bees come together to...
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Matt Hervey on navigating the legal implications of generative AI
What are the new challenges that generative AI is creating for copyright law? In this episode, I speak with Matt Hervey, the head of AI law at Gowling, to explore the legal intricacies surrounding the creation of content and ideas by large language models. In our discussion, Matt sheds light on…
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Mikko Hyppönen on the future of cybersecurity in an AI-driven world
Mikko Hyppönen is a renowned Finnish cybersecurity expert and the Chief Research Officer at WithSecure. In our discussion, we delved into the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, particularly focusing on the impact of artificial intelligence and large language models
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Building the digital biotech of the future with Dave Johnson, Chief Data and AI Officer at Moderna
Dave Johnson is Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer at Moderna, where he is responsible for all enterprise data capabilities from data engineering, data integration, data science, and software engineering. Johnson holds a PhD in Information Physics and has over 15 years of experience…
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AI Genomics. Is this the future of health? Jo Bhakdi
- What if within the span of the next decade, we could live for an additional ten years or more? A hundred years ago, advances in infection control and public health led to a near doubling of the human life span. For us to achieve a similar feat today, we will need more than just scientific...
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Algorithms, AI and the alignment problem with Brian Christian
Brian Christian is one of my favorite writers on AI, with a unique perspective that is very much at the intersection of computer science and philosophy. He is the author of the acclaimed bestsellers ‘The Most Human Human’ and ‘Algorithms To Live By’, which have been translated into nineteen...
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Disinformation wars, robot uprisings and differential privacy with Harper Reed
A US election is far more than just a struggle for the most powerful job in the world, they also provide a glimpse into consumer attitudes and emerging technologies designed to influence opinion. It was during the 2012 US election, for instance, that social media, online data and e-commerce...
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How Mastercard uses their innovation lab to co-create with their customers with Ken Moore
Despite all the talk about fintech disruption - banking, finance, and payments remain highly regulated industries with well-established competitors who are not standing still - even in this moment of rapid change and digital reinvention. Mastercard is one such company. They created Mastercard…
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The future of education with Dr Shawn Smith
This new age of smart machines will still need humans - but arguably, they will need to be ones who can think, create and make decisions in very different ways than the workforce of today. As with the first Industrial Revolution, reinventing education will be a priority going forward, especially…
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Using AI in the war against fake news with Tim Tangherlini
Professor Tim Tangherlini calls himself a computational folklorist. Like many fields of research lately, folklore is a field where both the tools and objects of study are being profoundly reimagined by AI. I came across Professor Tangherlini's work after reading a research paper that he and his...
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What leaders get most wrong about disruption with Charlene Li
We talk about disruption all the time, but are we really ready to make the profound changes that come with true transformation? Many companies set disruption as their goal, and even believe that by shaking up their market, they will achieve high levels of growth. For Charlene Li, leaders have all...
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Rodrigo Mendoza on the future of open source in an AI-powered world
Rodrigo Mendoza is co-founder and CEO of Quine, a company building hyper-fluid interfaces between software developers and the labour markets. Previous to Quine, Rodrigo was an academic, a venture capital professional, and a freelance data-scientist. Rodrigo holds a PhD in Mathematics from the...
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Nick Walton on AI and the future of gaming
Nick Walton is CTO and Co-Founder at Latitude, and creator of AI Dungeon. He has been working on deep learning technology for the last several years, working at autonomous vehicle companies and in a deep learning research lab at Brigham Young University. What makes AI Dungeon so interesting and...
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Adam Fraser on how to design a culture of transformation
Workplace transformation has never been more important than now, in this time of crisis. So what does it take to build and sustain a culture that is not only innovative and creative, but capable handling constant reinvention? Is the fact that it is difficult and uncomfortable, the very reason we...
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Austin Grossman on XR, the future of experiences and a world without screens
Austin Grossman is one of my favorite authors. His books (including my personal recommendation, ‘Crooked’) typically reveal an alternate version of the reality you thought you were living in. Given that, his side gig as a design consultant to the video games and mixed reality industry makes total...
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Wade Foster on how to run a remote company
While for many of us ‘working from home’ has been a new and unexpected challenge, for some companies, remote is how they were designed from the beginning. Zapier, a leading software automation platform, is one such of these. However, what makes Zapier a fascinating case study is not just their…
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Raffaella Camera on the coming XR revolution
Our experience of reality is about to change. XR, which incorporates augmented and virtual reality, has shifted from a niche technology to consumer prime time. Now the question is how do we start to design compelling experiences, commercial partnerships and digital ecosystems to unlock the...
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Sandeep Dadlani on how to increase the internal clock speed of your organization
Mars, Incorporated was already well advanced in their plans for digital transformation before the crisis hit. However, when I spoke to Sandeep Dadlani, the company’s Chief Digital Officer, he explained that the pandemic led Mars to embrace a new internal clock speed. Sandeep Dadlani joined Mars,...
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Didier Elzinga on how to build a culture of distributed work
Now that the pandemic has plunged us into the world's largest remote work experiment, what are we learning about the kind of culture that supports distributed organizations? And how do leaders build a cultural operating system for a time of crisis and change? To answer this question, and to also...
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Dr Roman Marchant on why AI is the key to reimagining the social sciences
Regardless of your profession, one of the most important steps to becoming a better decision maker is knowing how to quantify uncertainty. That applies if you are a scientist, a poker player or a business leader. And while it is not unusual to apply probabilistic approaches to applications like...
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Danila Medvedev on frozen heads, multidimensional interfaces and the challenges of immortality
If freezing your severed head is part of your plan to live forever, then Danila Medvedev is one of the few people on the planet who may be able to help you. In 2005, he founded KrioRus, a cryonics company, and has also worked as Vice-President of the Science for Life Extension Foundation, based…
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Flynn Coleman on why we need more human algorithms
Flynn Coleman has led a fascinating life. An author, international human rights attorney, professor, social justice activist and a former competitive athlete she has spoken and written on a wide range of issues from war crimes to behavioral economics. Her wonderful new book, A Human Algorithm...
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Enass Abo-Hamed on why the energy revolution begins with smarter storage
Dr Enass Abo-Hamed is working on one of the most challenging and intriguing energy problems today: efficiently and safely storing clean energy. While on a trip to Africa when studying for her PhD, Enass realised how much of a luxury electricity was, with some hospitals only receiving power for…
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Piotr Spaczyński on building the algorithmic law firm of tomorrow
If you were to start a law firm today, leveraging all available technology and new ways of thinking - how would you do it? That, among other questions, is what I asked Piotr Spaczyński, managing partner of SSW, the only independent law firm from Poland, and one just shortlisted in the prestigious...
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Ben Pring on the future of jobs
So finally some good news: according to Cognizant’s Jobs of the Future index, since early 2017, the index's jobs of the future have been growing faster than all jobs. I strongly believe that the Algorithmic Age will create as many interesting jobs as it destroys, and so was fascinated to catch up...
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Richard Culatta on the future of education in an age of smart machines
When people ask me what our best insurance is against being made irrelevant by AI, I always reply: rethink education. On this week’s show, I spoke to someone doing just that. Richard Culatta is the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and prior to which, was the...
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Simon Lock on the future of fashion
I met Simon in the late nineties in Sydney when he had just started Australian Fashion Week. After the huge success of that event, he sold the business to IMG International, and went on to found Ordre, a business-to-business online wholesale marketplace for luxury designers, which has recently...
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Christine Day on how to lead a successful digital transformation
Christine is one of the most talented and thoughtful technology leaders around today. Currently CIO at Questrade, she was recognized in 2017 as a Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winner. We met at a Gartner event where I was presenting on an early version of my 'Algorithmic Leader'…
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Jamie Metzl on the future of humanity
Will AI-assisted IVF be the new normal when it comes to having smarter and healthier children? This, and other provocative questions are at the heart of Jamie Metzl’s brilliant new book, ‘Hacking Darwin’, which argues that we are at the dawn of a new genetics revolution. In Jamie’s view, our DNA…
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Karthik Ramakrishnan and the coming age of AI products
As AI moves out of research labs and into the real world of commercial applications, we will increasingly see the rise of AI products. Whether it be detecting fraud in financial transactions or optimizing supply chains, while you won’t need a detailed knowledge of machine learning models to take...
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Jason Hosking on building the retail AI stack
I met Jason in Las Vegas while speaking at the National Automatic Merchandising Association show. The vending industry is uniquely placed to be a testing ground for the intersection of data, consumer behavior and autonomous retail solutions. Jason, who is the CEO of AI startup Hivery was…
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George Kaczmarskyj on avoiding the steampunk automation trap
Robotic process automation is a tempting proposition for many leaders: who wouldn’t want the ability to replace your processes with cheap algorithms that can run 24/7? However, the real benefit of automation is not efficiency or cost-savings, but the opportunity to rethink your entire operating...
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Rob Tercek on the unexpected economics of the data-driven future
Rob Tercek is a fascinating thinker and futurist. His most recent book, VAPORIZED: Solid Strategies for Success In A Dematerialized World, was selected as a winner for the 2016 International Book of the Year by GetAbstract. I met Rob a number of years ago at the METal networking events in LA. As…
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Phil Armstrong on ethical AI and the digitally transformed insurance company of the future.
Despite being one most traditional and conservative sectors in the world, insurance is a sector primed for digital transformation and reinvention through AI. I met Phil Armstrong, the Global Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice-President at The Great-West Life Assurance Company while...
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Tiffani Bova on finding your pathway to growth
I met Tiffani a number of years ago when we were both speaking to an audience of business leaders focused on digital transformation. I was struck by her pragmatic message around navigating the difficult choices that surround achieving sustainable growth, and was keen to interview her for my show....
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Mark Pesce on life in 2030
Mark Pesce has been living in the future for longer than just about anyone I know. He was one of the original pioneers of virtual reality, having invented VRML, the standard for 3D on the Web and a core component of MPEG-4. He is the author of 6 books, including "VRML: Browsing and Building...
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Kshira Saagar on how to create a culture of data-driven decision making
For retailers, being data-driven in the 21st century is not a luxury but a matter of survival. Everything is measurable: from engagement to purchase patterns, and that creates the need for leaders who are capable of being both creative and analytical when it comes to integrating data into their...
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Dr. Simon Longstaff on ethics for an age of smart machines
We are at a pivotal moment in our society where the forces of accelerating technology are starting to collide with our personal values, social priorities and legal systems. With the rise of AI and automation, knowing how to identify what is right or good in any given situation is becoming both…
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Mike Walsh on how to be smart, when machines are smarter than you
To kick off a new season of Between Worlds, I’m turning the camera and the microphone on myself! What you are about to hear is the first chapter of my brand new audiobook, ‘The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart, when machines are smarter than you.’ In this book, you will meet many of the…
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Andreas Ekstrom on speaking to truth and power in the algorithmic age
The algorithmic age raises new difficult questions about truth and objectivity. For leaders of companies and countries alike, reconciling accountability and transparency, with freedom and privacy have never been more difficult. To debate these issues, I sat down with Andreas Ekström, a Swedish...
About this show
Between Worlds is a technology podcast that takes you over the horizon and beyond borders, to bring you the global thinkers, innovators and troublemakers whose ideas challenge the world as we know it. From a courtyard cafe in Paris, to a busy sidewalk in Tokyo - each week futurist and global nomad, Mike Walsh, will share his personal conversations with some of the most fascinating people on the planet, recorded live in the field.
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Mike Walsh
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