Tech Talk

From oxygenated boxes to preserve eyeballs to cloud seeding technologies to counter El Niño, we take a look into the weirder side of science and technology to bring you some of the amazing stories that are shaping the future of our world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wearables have evolved far beyond step counters, now tracking chronic conditions and detecting early health warning signs. As the global wearable market is projected to grow 576% over the next decade, the question remains: can we trust the algorithms and systems powering these devices?We discuss:How wearables evolved from gym-floor step counters into everyday tools for managing chronic conditionsWhat digital biomarkers areThe real risk of false reassurance and false alarms What’s next for the technology behind these devicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you worried that life is turning into an episode of Black Mirror? Are your avatars more successful than you? We’re talking about reality today. Simulation theory and the idea that our reality could be a corner of someone else’s really complex MMO game. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Banking, insurance, and capital markets have been built on trust, regulation, and decades of infrastructure. Now AI is rewriting the rules, and the institutions that don't adapt may not survive.We discuss:How AI agents acting on behalf of customers could wipe out a significant chunk of global banking profits, and whether traditional banks can fight back.Where the human analyst still fits in an AI-accelerated workflow.From braking patterns to user data, how real-time behavioural pricing is replacing credit scoresWhy brilliant technology alone doesn't protect you from the fundamentals of insurance, and what that cautionary tale means for the wider fintech sector.Image Credit: ShutterstockSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National security is about a country's ability to protect its borders, infrastructure and critical systems from threats that are digital, fast-moving and hard to anticipate. We take a look at the technology behind national security capabilities now and for the future, and what Malaysia needs to build long-term resilience in an increasingly uncertain world.Topics covered: How drones, cyberattacks and system integration needs have changed what governments are prioritising when it comes to security.Whether a country can call itself sovereign if it still depends on someone else to maintain, upgrade or support its critical systems.What AI genuinely solves in cybersecurity today, and where its limits are.Image Credit: ShutterstockSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Kishan continue their tour of the future as they jump back into 2036. The role kelp could play in rebuilding local communities and shoring up environmental protection. Conflicts over freshwater resources. The strange shape of the battle between the dollar and crypto. And the private companies shaping the future of war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Electronics manufacturing runs on precision. Every solder joint, every inspection, every decision on the production floor has to meet global standards. What does it take to build a workforce that global buyers can trust?Dr. Ranee Ramya from the Global Electronics Association tells us about professional certification in electronics manufacturing, what it covers, who needs it, and why it matters for Malaysia's position in the global supply chain.Tune in to find out more about:Certification vs Skills Training: The difference between professional certifications tied to global standards and skills-based training programmes, and why both serve different but equally important purposes on the production floor.Who Certification Is Really For: Why the focus goes beyond engineers to include technicians, operators, and inspectors.Why Buyers Care: How a certified workforce removes doubt for international buyers, reduces defects, and gives Malaysian manufacturers a competitive advantage in sensitive industries like aerospace and medical devices.Image Credit: ShutterstockSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forecasting the future is hard. The Atlantic Council’s Global Foresight report paints a pretty bleak picture of 2036. And it’s hard to be bleaker than Matt. Fortunately, the future isn’t ordained and Matt and Kishan separate the warnings from the inevitabilities in the first of a two part series on the survey’s predictions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Malaysia’s digital asset market surges past RM17 billion in trading volume, the industry is entering a new era of maturity. But as product pipelines expand and the Securities Commission introduces streamlined guidelines, how do we distinguish between genuine technical utility and market speculation?In this episode of Tech Talk, Aaron Tang, General Manager (APAC) at Luno, joins us to decode the rapidly evolving blockchain landscape. We move beyond the "alphabet soup" of new tokens to explore the underlying architectural shifts driving the market toward 2030.Tune in to find out more about:Regulatory Evolution: How the Securities Commission’s move toward principle-based governance is replacing cumbersome investment memos with faster, accountability-driven product approvals.The "Blockchain Trilemma": Why no single network can achieve perfect security, scalability, and decentralisation simultaneously, and why this necessitates a multi-chain ecosystem.Technical Plumbing: Understanding the functional divide between Layer 1 foundations (like Bitcoin and Ethereum) and Layer 2 scaling solutions (like Arbitrum and Base) that make consumer transactions cost-effective.Innovation Verticals: A deep dive into the real-world applications of DeFi, Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenisation, Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), and the intersection of AI agents with programmable crypto payments.Investor Protection: Insights into the integration of Digital Asset Exchanges with FIMOS to standardise dispute resolution for retail investors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We were promised technology would make life easier. Instead, everything feels harder. Matt and Kishan try to figure out where all the fun has gone and why it’s been replaced with friction and rage.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three of the world's most powerful tech companies are heading to public markets in 2026 but none of them are profitable. From reusable rockets to large language models, the mega-IPOs of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are bringing new technologies and innovations to the forefront. What do they actually promise, and what else should we expect?We discuss: Rocket Science vs. Hype: What genuinely world-changing technology sits beneath SpaceX's $1.75 trillion valuation and whether Starship can deliver on its promise of cheap, accessible space travel.AI in Space: Why Elon Musk wants a million satellites above Earth, and how data centres in orbit solve problems that plague those on the ground.Safety as a Selling Point: Whether Anthropic's safety-first approach to AI is a real technical differentiator.What Comes Next: Beyond AI and space, the sectors and early-stage bets that serious investors are quietly watching right now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time for a speed run on science as Matt and Kishan tackle some of wilder stories of recent weeks. A new generation of triple-action smart drugs is opening up treatment options for cancer sufferers with aggressive or non-responsive tumors, and delivering them an Arizona punch. In Spain, researchers have developed 3D printed lymph nodes could reduce the cost and time it takes to produce custom immunotherapy treatments. And hopefully making them available to a much wider income group. Gold raises its shingly inert head. While NASA releases concrete plans for its permanently manned bases on the moon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Organisations have spent billions securing their technology. Yet two-thirds of global data breaches still involve a human element. So what exactly is human risk, and what can businesses do about it?We discuss:What It Is: Why human risk has overtaken technology gaps as the number one cybersecurity challenge The Threat Landscape: How phishing has evolved with AI and what a real-world breach can look likeWhat Organisations Get Wrong: From neglecting human risk in the security budget to shadow AI quietly leaking sensitive data through free LLM tools like ChatGPT and Gemini.What Good Looks Like: The practical steps every business should take, from education to obtaining full visibility of data across your organisation.Image Credit: ShutterstockSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia has four years to become a regional AI hub. So why are most businesses still using AI to write emails and clean up presentations? More importantly, what does it actually take to use AI as a real business edge?Tune In To Find OutAn Adoption Gap — Why AI numbers look impressive on paper, but what are the real challenges of technology in practice?The Underdog Advantage — How mid-market companies can use lean tech to out-compete global giantsLocalisation Wins  — Why AI built without Malaysian culture, language, and context will always fall shortUpskilling — Why upskilling alone is not enough, and what businesses need to doSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Kishan and Matt have the unenviable task of wading through trendslop. Pull on your wellies as they unpick the AI-generated business strategies that could set your company on the path to failure. But the bucket doesn’t empty there. With the spread of slopaganda and bit-driven social engagement, are the rumours about the death of the Internet finally coming true?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an AI-powered world, are Malaysian chatbots actually doing their job? A whitepaper by Entermind, a data and AI consultancy, says most are not, and some are more like a glorified search bar.Prashant Kumar, Founder of Entermind, discusses what it takes to build a customer service bot that customers actually want to use, and how organisations can move beyond basic AI services to real business value.Tune In To Find OutThe ChatBot Problem: Why most Malaysian chatbots are failing and why The Expectation Gap: How AI has permanently raised expectations and why organisations fail to deliver. The Money: The financial case for getting this right The Tip of the Iceberg: Customer service is just the start. The real value of AI goes far deeper for businesses. Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Verbal tics, unwanted personality quirks and self-replicating habits. No, it’s not Kishan’s list of complaints about Matt. It’s the Goblin Protocol. An unlikely world where reinforcement learning, sycophancy and language bias are shaping the AI models of the future. As we head into the agentic AI age, our tireless heroes battle the gremlins to discover how these quirks reveal deeper truths about the way these machines learn, and how those defects are creating a new business model: trend slop. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cybercrime is a professionalised, trillion-dollar industry, and AI is making attacks faster, cheaper, and more devastating. No organisation is too small to be a target.Tune in to find out how the cyber threat landscape has fundamentally shifted and what businesses must do to stay ahead.Learn more about:The AI Advantage for Hackers: How AI is turbocharging phishing, social engineering, and vulnerability discoveryCybercrime as a Service: Why a mid-size Malaysian company faces the same threats as a global bank, using the same tools and techniques.The Mythos Wake-Up Call: How an AI platform identified decades-old zero-day vulnerabilities that had gone undetected, and why this changes everything.Geopolitics and Cyber Risk: Why conflicts and technology bifurcation are making vendor selection an increasingly strategic and politicised decision.Building True Resilience: Why survival now depends less on preventing attacks and more on how swiftly an enterprise can respond and recover.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can your P&L survive a developer who burns hundreds of dollars in tokens for a single minor feature? While coding speed has reached a 10x breakthrough, the rest of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) remains stuck in a pre-AI bottleneck, resulting in marginal gains to actual throughput.Idan Zalzberg, Chief Technology Officer at Agoda, joins Tech Talk to breakdown the reality of agentic workflows, the danger of "AI slop," and why the next generation of engineers must stop typing and start managing.Tune In To Find Out:The Tokenised Billing Trap: Why frontier models can burn hundreds of dollars on "reasonably small" tasks and the critical lack of governance tools to cap spending.The 10x Productivity Myth: Why "vanity metrics" like lines of code are failing and why we must pivot to PR Throughput to find the real SDLC bottlenecks.The Managerial Mindset: Why developers must move away from single-tasking and learn to direct "teams of agents" working in parallel via the cloud.Turns per MR: A new metric to measure the "friction" between humans and AI, designed to prevent a flood of low-quality "AI slop."The Pilot-to-Scale Strategy: How to secure C-suite trust by choosing "low-hanging fruit" with short ROI before pursuing long-term AI strategic investments.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big Tech is printing cash, but the "Mag 7" earnings reveal a stark divide in investor reactions to the AI Capex race. On the Big AI front, OpenAI has officially broken its exclusivity with Microsoft but is beginning to show signs of a user-acquisition stumble, just as Anthropic nears a staggering $900 billion valuation. Meanwhile, a geopolitical earthquake has hit the private markets: China has ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion Manis acquisition, a deal that is legally and logistically "more than done".Kevin Brockland of Indelible Ventures joins Tech Talk to discuss the market's winners and losers. We unpack why Alphabet is the "sleeper" winner of the AI race, the regulatory shift in Beijing that just killed the "Singapore-washing" exit strategy for Chinese founders, and which companies will be left standing when the AI bubble finally pops.Tune In To Find Out:The ROI Pressure Cooker: Why current AI spending mirrors the fiber optic bubble of the late 90s, and who survives if the bubble pops.The Manus Shock: Inside the $2 billion unwinding ordered by Beijing for Meta to undo an acquisition, creating a legal and logistical nightmare for relocated staff.OpenAI’s Performance Gap: Why internal concerns are mounting as the company misses acquisition targets while Microsoft relinquishes exclusivity.The Claude Surge: Why users are ditching OpenAI for Anthropic, and the looming commoditisation of foundational models.Alphabet’s Distribution Edge: Why Google Workspace and talent density make Alphabet the most dominant long-term player.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Artemis II saw the first manned mission to the moon in over 50 years and flew its crew further into space than any human has ever gone before. But with so many seemingly intractable issues here on planet earth, are missions to the moon a waste of resources that could be better used elsewhere? Matt and Kishan examine the case for space exploration, manned missions and look at the true ROI of space travel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a digital world where "copy-paste" is the default setting, what content is legally protected and what isn't? From AI-generated imagery to the hidden licensing traps of stock photos, businesses are unknowingly sitting on, or infringing upon, massive intellectual property (IP) risks.Ong Johnson and Lo Khai Yi from Halim Hong & Quek join Tech Talk to discuss the current state of Malaysian copyright law, break down why the "IP by Design" philosophy is the only way to protect your business, and the legal grey areas of AI-generated content, which current looks to be not a copyright.Tune in to find out:The AI Ownership Crisis: Why content purely generated by Gemini or ChatGPT might lack legal protection, and the "untested" threshold for human authorship in AI-assisted work.Idea vs. Expression: The critical legal boundary, why you can’t copyright a "good idea," but you can copyright the second it’s written down.The Enforcement Playbook: When to send a C&D—and when takedowns actually workThe Hidden Risk: Why “anything online is free” could cost your businessThe IP-by-Design Strategy: How to protect assets before they’re exposedThe Scraping Shield: How digital creators can use robots.txt as a technical signal to opt-out of AI model training.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cybersecurity has hit a crisis of speed. In 2025, the average e-crime breakout time plummeted to 29 minutes, a 65% increase in speed from 2024, with the fastest recorded intrusion occurring in a staggering 27 seconds. Fabio Fratucello, Field CTO World Wide at CrowdStrike, joins Tech Talk to break down how "cloud-conscious" adversaries are exploiting trusted identity flows and supply chains to bypass traditional defenses. From a 563% surge in malicious fake CAPTCHA pages to the targeting of Malaysian logistics, we audit the tactics of nation-state actors and the necessary shift toward autonomous, agentic security operations.Tune In To Find Out:The 29-Minute Average: Why the speed of e-crime increased 65% from 2024, with the fastest recorded breach taking only 27 seconds.The CAPTCHA Trap: Why fake verification pages saw a 563% surge as a way to trick users into executing code without triggering malware alerts.AI-Powered Phishing: Why AI-generated social engineering is now more successful and authentic than human-written lures.Identity as a Key: Why 82% of detections are now malware-free, as adversaries use "digital keys" to log in undetected.Targeting Malaysia: Why the global (including Malaysia) logistics sector saw an 85% spike in attacks, alongside a 30% increase in telecommunications.China Nexus Threats: Why nation-state adversaries in APAC are shifting toward long-term intellectual property theft rather than quick ransomware gains.Cloud Consciousness: Why intrusions into cloud environments rose 37% as adversaries specialize in abusing SAS integrations.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI-generated junk is flooding feeds, harvesting eyeballs and minting money in the process. Kishan Sivaswamy and Matt Armitage look at the business of brainrot and slop; the cheap, displosable machine-generated content that is increasingly dominating our social and streaming platforms. And ask a simple question: can we survive the slop?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2026, the AI narrative has shifted from basic prompt-and-response to Agentic AI, multi-step, autonomous systems that are finally narrowing the gap between technological promise and financial reality. Duncan Stewart, Director of TMT Research, Deloitte Canada, explains why the global CapEx surge to $1 trillion is a rational enterprise play, driven by "token maxing" and the race for sovereign compute.From the "Search Cliff" threatening web referral traffic to the "RAMageddon" memory shortage fueled by a Persian Gulf helium crisis, we dive into the high-stakes forces reshaping the regional and global tech landscape.Tune In To Find Out:The Narrowing Gap: Why the investment-to-revenue ratio is dropping from 100x to 10x as AI monetisation hits the $100 billion mark.Agentic vs. Generative: The move from simple prompts to autonomous, multi-modal code-writing systems for enterprise optimisation.Token Maxing: Why software engineers are now burning $250,000 a year in tokens to drive a 5x to 10x productivity gain.The Search Cliff: Why media and retail sites are facing a 50% to 80% sudden drop in referral traffic as AI overviews take over search.Sovereign AI: Why nations are spending $100 billion on local data centers to prevent total dependency on US and Chinese infrastructure.RAMageddon: Why memory prices have spiked 400% and why the shortage could last up to five years.The Helium Factor: How the conflict-driven force majeure on Persian Gulf helium is threatening Asian chip and memory manufacturing.Jevons Paradox: Why making AI tokens cheaper will actually lead to an explosion in consumption, not a reduction.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A single wrongly sent email or an unauthorised ChatGPT upload can now trigger a statutory 72-hour reporting deadline under Malaysia's updated PDPA. Ong Johnson and Lo Khai Yi of Halim Hong & Quek join Tech Talk to explain why "simple negligence" is legally indistinguishable from a hacker attack, the RM250,000 fines facing directors, and why a fire drill for your data is no longer optional.Tune In To Learn More About:The "Output" Doctrine: Why the law disregards your intent, whether it's a sophisticated ransomware hit or a misplaced paper form, the legal breach is defined solely by the effect on personal data.The 72-Hour Clock: The strict timeline for assessing "significant harm" and why internal delays for board meetings or procurement can lead to a "love letter" (investigation) from the Personal Data Protection Department.The LLM Leak: The hidden risk of employees using unpaid, consumer-grade AI chatbots to process client lists, effectively training global models on your private data.Director Accountability: How failing to notify regulators doesn't just hurt the company; it exposes individual directors to personal liability and potential two-year imprisonment.The Multi-Jurisdictional Logistical Nightmare: Managing live updates and conflicting timelines across APAC, Europe, and the US during a global breach.Simulations vs. Policies: Why everyone "has a plan until they get punched in the face", the critical need for annual breach simulations over static manuals.Data Processing Agreements (DPA): The "10-out-of-10" requirement to mandate that third-party suppliers return or destroy data once a relationship ends.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow’s Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Technology can produce more goods, more services and more value. Heck, froyo for all. But who is going to control this endless abundance? Our tech leaders envision a world where AI and automation make work obsolete and there’s wealth for all. Is this a social vision for a better future or just power and influence in a shinier wrapper?Matt and Roshan unpack the dream, the delusion, and the social math behind these notions of post-work abundance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do we have more AI than ever, yet customer service feels increasingly "broken"? Raymond Davadass, CEO of Daythree and Chair of GBS Malaysia, reveals the "fragmentation trap" sabotaging large-scale operations. From why a misplaced comma can paralyse a bot to the 12-week design rule for AI deployment, we unpack why the industry is ditching "labour arbitrage" for a high-stakes play on data intelligence and human empathy.Tune In To Find Out:The Orchestration Gap: Why having a "beautiful faucet" of technology is useless if your internal systems aren't talking to each other (and the airport chatbot story that proves it).The "Comma" Crisis: Why AI isn't a magic wand and how an uncleaned knowledge base leads to "hallucinations" and customer frustration.Human-at-the-Right-Time: The specific moment in a customer journey (like lost luggage) where technology must step back and let human empathy take the lead to save the brand.The New Litmus Test: Why "Headcount" is a dead metric and why "Revenue per Employee" is the new standard for the next decade of business process management.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is your company’s AI strategy a ticking financial time bomb? While consumer subscriptions offer "subsidised intelligence," the transition to enterprise agents like OpenClaw is exposing businesses to "AI bill shocks" and context window bloat. From the hidden mechanics of token-based billing to the capital expenditure of moving models on-premise, Daren Tan of ALPHV Technologies joins Tech Talk to unpack how to scale AI without breaking the bank.Learn More About:Token Billing Mechanics: AI costs are driven by "tokens", broken-down text fragments, where input data (prompts/PDFs) and output responses are billed at different rates depending on the model's reasoning complexity.The "Context Window" Bloat: As chat histories grow, LLMs re-process the entire conversation for every new prompt, exponentially increasing costs. Daren recommends starting fresh threads to prevent "context rot" and wasted spend.Four Pillars of Bill Shock: Organisations face financial risk from 24/7 agentic loops, "agentic checking" (AI verifying AI), and the illusion that enterprise API costs mirror $20 consumer subscriptions.Model Routing & Caching: Strategic cost-saving involves "model routing", sending simple tasks to cheaper "Nano" models, and utilising prompt caching to receive up to 90% discounts on recurring queries.The On-Premise Pivot: When cloud costs become commercially unviable, shifting to local hardware (like Nvidia DGX systems) offers fixed costs and mandatory data sovereignty for regulated industries, albeit with significant upfront Capex.The Governance Gap: Deploying autonomous agents like OpenClaw without strict oversight can grant AI full access to file systems, creating critical security vulnerabilities and credential risks.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Free buses, childcare, broadband and housing; who decides what makes a universal basic right? This week, Matt and Roshan discuss Universal Basic Services and begin a two-part conversation on social resilience, post scarcity abundance, and the techno utopians battling to shape and profit from the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Employees leaking company secrets. Traceability gaps blocking production. 74% of organisations regret their AI vendors. The rush to adopt artificial intelligence is creating massive blindspots. Daren Tan of ALPHV Technologies joins Tech Talk to unpack the expensive realities of enterprise AI deployment and how to stop "Shadow AI" in its tracks.Learn More About:The Shadow AI Threat: Employees using free-tier consumer AI tools pose a massive cybersecurity risk, requiring strict endpoint management and enterprise legal contracts to prevent proprietary data leaks.Escaping Pilot Purgatory: Enterprise AI projects often fail to scale because leaders chase consumer-level "magic" without engineering for compliance, traceability, and localised hardware costs.Traceability & Explainability: Organisations must build step-by-step reporting tools to justify AI decisions (such as rejecting a bank loan) to ensure accountability when system errors occur.The "Human in the Loop" Safeguard: To manage unpredictable edge cases, companies must deploy fail-safes and manual override triggers that pause autonomous workflows when model performance degrades.Agentic AI & Open Claw: The next frontier of enterprise automation involves autonomous AI agents executing complex device-level tasks, driving a surge in localised processing hardware like Mac Studios to avoid staggering cloud token costs.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a new sheriff in town. Can Roshan Kanesan bring the outlaw Matt Armitage to heel? It’s unlikely when you consider that the first topic today is Wetware, where brains on chips learn to play the classic game Doom and biocomputing enters the cloud. Matt also outlines plans to fell millions of hectares of the Arctic’s boreal forest and sink them in the ocean in the name of saving the planet. And the weird lessons we can learn from fungus eating ants and rocks about carbon sequestration. All of this as cover, just to make batteries sound exciting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI can now write software, debug systems, and generate entire applications in minutes. Some technologists are even claiming that coding is effectively “solved.”But if AI can write the code, what happens to software engineers? Do we still need to learn programming? And why are companies still struggling to find technical talent?On this episode of Tech Talk, we speak with Sharma Lachu, Founder and CEO of Accendo Technologies, about whether AI has truly solved coding, how teams can maximise productivity with AI tools, and what the future looks like for developers and engineers in an AI-driven world.Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re back in the land of the weird. A former karaoke company eats $17bn of trucking stocks. Claude’s 60-year-old coding skills see the COBOL cowboys ride off into the sunset as they wipe $30bn from IBM’s stock in a single day. Microsoft flexes its superhuman powers to etch our history in glass, and erect a real life Fortress of Solitude. Oh, and Hollywood loses its mind over ByteDance’s text to video model Seedance 2.0, which allows any casual user to make the blockbuster of their dreams.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2026, the convergence of 5G and AI is shifting businesses from reacting to problems to predicting them. As networks get faster and intelligence becomes embedded into operations, enterprises are beginning to rethink how they manage supply chains, improve efficiency, and make decisions in real time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Instead of talking about equitable societies, AI has once again decided we have to revert to the ‘world in peril’ format. A safety lead at Anthropic quits to pursue a future in poetry, while the US Defence Secretary seeks to label the company a risk to national security. While using those same technologies for classified military operations.But don’t worry, we’ve got some light relief in the shape of martial robots dancing on TV.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As artificial intelligence becomes more accessible, it is rapidly changing the nature of cyber threats. From highly personalised phishing and automated intrusion attempts to the growing risk of deepfakes and identity manipulation, attackers are finding new ways to scale and adapt. At the same time, organisations are racing to strengthen their defences with AI of their own. Suresh Srinivasan joins us to explore whether cybersecurity teams are keeping pace, how the balance of power is shifting, and what businesses need to understand as the digital threat landscape enters a far more complex and unpredictable phase.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you feel like a slave to your smartwatch. Is your Screen Time report laughing at you? With holidays around the corner, Matt and Rich look at some of the ways you can use the break to bust open those digital bad habits and reset your devices so they work for you instead of against you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the past two years, organisations everywhere have been experimenting with AI. Pilots are running, proofs of concept are being showcased, and leadership teams are under pressure to show progress. But behind the excitement, many initiatives never make it past the testing phase.We speak with Khalil Nooh, CEO and Co-Founder of Mesolitica, about why so many AI projects stall before reaching full deployment. From data readiness and leadership mindset to structural barriers inside organisations, we explore what separates companies that successfully scale AI from those that remain stuck in experimentation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI agents. They sound like your spy dreams come to life. Send them out into the world to snoop on your behalf. In reality, they’re kind of important but boring. Which is why Matt and Rich have put off talking about them for so long. But then a bot only social media platform called Moltbook comes along and suddenly everyone is interested in what these little bits of code have to say. Especially to each other. When they think we aren’t watching. Today they unpack OpenClaw, aka Moltbot, and try to explain what a 2026 operated by agents is going to look like.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As tech giants race to weave AI into every pixel of our digital lives, Mozilla has done the unthinkable: they’ve given users a way out. We dive into Firefox’s new "AI-Off" switch and what it means for the future of the web. We spoke with Alexander Wong from SoyaCincau to find out whether this is a landmark win for user consent or a desperate stand by a "human-first" browser in an increasingly automated world.We explore the growing "AI fatigue" hitting the tech industry and ask the hard questions: Is AI becoming the new bloatware? Can "Digital Quiet" become a luxury feature? From the ethics of the "Organic Web" to the power dynamics of Silicon Valley, we break down why the right to opt-out might be the most important feature of 2026.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite their best efforts to resolve the problem, it looks as though Richard and Matt have found no solution to work, though they have found some interesting approaches that might. On today’s show they offer up their apologies and outline what you can expect to see at your desk in 2026. From agentic AI bundling up your day, to managerial trends and mentoring.They also take a look at some of the trends that looked as though they were going to sweep the workplace, like radical transparency and accountability. And why companies are no longer saying the quiet parts out loud.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meta’s recent $2 billion acquisition of the Singapore-based Manus AI has signaled a major shift: APAC is now outpacing the West in the race for autonomous agents. As geopolitical tensions rise over tech transfers, Europe is left questioning if its "safety-first" regulations are leaving it behind.We speak with AI expert Clemens Wasner to unpack the fallout of the Meta-Manus deal and what it means for global tech sovereignty. Drawing on his decade of experience in Japan and China, Clemens explores the friction between EU governance and APAC speed, the surprising overlap in robotics and chips, and how localised "Sovereign AI" is reshaping the 2026 economic map.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Never has it been so hard to figure out what’s good for you. 10,000 steps a day or 7,000? More red meat or less? To use painkillers or not to use painkillers?Increasingly it seems that medical advice is being issued based more on feelings and political ideology than scientific fact. In the  second part of their Tech in ‘26 series, Matt and Rich examine some of the headline treatments and advances we’re likely to see this year.From new blood tests for dementia and associated brain shuttle treatments that can break the brain-blood barrier, to the expansion of GLP-1 and similar obesity treatments. Plus the future of primary care, with telemedicine going mainstream, and the role of AI in just about every part of medical research and diagnostics.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Quantum computing is advancing faster than many realise, and when it does, it could break the encryption that protects banking systems, payment infrastructure, and government data.In this episode of Tech Talk, we speak with Wo Swee Teck, Managing Director at Securemetric Technology, about why Post-Quantum Cryptography is no longer theoretical, and what the real risks are of delaying preparation.We explore Malaysia’s readiness following guidance from NACSA, how banks and government agencies are approaching crypto-agility, and what organisations often underestimate about cryptographic migration. From legacy systems to long-term trust, this conversation looks at the operational, economic, and national implications of the quantum era.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2026. Will it be the year that a robot butler finally delivers crisps to Matt on a silver platter? That nuclear fusion goes mainstream and everyone owns their own star generating tokamak? Maybe a way to send actual viruses to digital scammers.Or will it be more rent to own subscriptions, low earth orbit collisions, private space travel and incomprehensible fridges. In the first part of a series on technologies in ‘26, Rich and Matt take a look at consumer tech, imagine what IRL AI looks like, advances in energy production. And those all-important billionaire bolt holes in space.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Tech Talk, we explore how 5G, AI, and mixed reality are reshaping the future of healthcare delivery. Following among the world’s first multi-country live surgery conducted by Universiti Malaya Medical Centre and CelcomDigi, we look at how holomedicine is enabling real time surgical mentoring, immersive medical training, and cross border collaboration.T. Kugan, Chief Innovation Officer at CelcomDigi, and Professor Dr Adina Abdullah, Head of Digital Health Unit at Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, share how ultra low latency 5G and holographic visualisation are moving from pilot projects into real clinical environments. We discuss what this means for access to specialist care, surgical education, and Malaysia’s ambitions as a regional healthcare and medical training hub.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If you’re enjoying it, you aren’t really listening.” That’s Matt’s upbeat introduction to 2026. He’s probably not wrong. In a world of constant iteration cycles and incremental upgrades, we take time to salute some of the big names and services that the tech world lost in 2026.Skype, AOL and the Blue Screen Of Death; we salute you for the familiarity you brought to our lives in a world of confusion, change and AI creep.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI doesn’t always arrive with headlines or hype. Often, it slips quietly into the tools we use every day. In this episode of Tech Talk, we’re joined by Matt Armitage from Mattsplained to explore how artificial intelligence is already shaping ordinary workplaces, from hiring and customer service to finance and logistics. We look at why much of this change goes unnoticed, what it means for jobs versus tasks, and how workers and businesses can better recognise the shifts already happening around them.Image provided by Nano Banana.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Injectable pacemakers, PAC-MANN munching protease tests for pancreatic cancer, de-extinction events and bottling the power of the sun. And, because Matt insisted, synthetic worms made of active matter.As we move into the era of multi gene editing, non-invasive targeted treatments for diseases, and storing power in air, we celebrate some of the weirder milestones in a fantastic year for science.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.