The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce
by Ampel
Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter hereHosted by award-winning podcast creator, journalist & futurist Mark Pesce, The Next Billion Seconds is everything you need to know about the future — so you can make the best decisions today. The rate of change we are experiencing is the fastest humanity has ever seen. Stay informed as Mark simplifies the complex technological and societal changes we face. How we will work, connect, use money, drive, eat is all changing at a rapid pace. For more information on The Next Billion seconds with Mark Pesce, please check out https://nextbillionseconds.com For more information about this podcast and The Next Billion Seconds, please visit https://nextbillionseconds.com. The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce is produced by Ampel - https://ampel.com.au.
Episodes
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THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 -- EP 5 THE AGE OF COGNITION
Investing your cognition surplus. Within the next year we'll have "good enough" AI running on our smartphones, walking around with an extra 'brain in our pocket'. In our series final, we look forward into a future where we're all living smarter - and safer.
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THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 -- EP4 AI COMES HOME
AI@70 Episode 4 - AI COMES HOME AI models get 'trained' inside massive data centres, using some of the most powerful computers ever built. We've now learned how to make those models small enough to run on a laptop. Seventy years after it all kicked off, AI comes home.
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THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 -- EP 3: TALK TO THE CLAW
Pete Steinberger set the world on fire with OpenClaw, the first general-purpose agent - and one with a soul. We'll look at how being in the right time and the right place with the right vibe fundamentally changed the public perception of AI. It took about three years after the release of ChatGPT...
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THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 EP 2 -- THE WATERSHED
THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 EP 2: THE WATERSHED ChatGPT opened the door to artificial intelligence. Almost immediately, researchers built 'agents' using it - but three years of hard yards passed before agents were 'good enough' to be useful. In this episode we trace the path from 'bad' to…
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THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI @ 70 Ep 1: AI TAKES THE PENSION
THIS BILLION SECONDS AI @ 70 -- EPISODE ONE: AI TAKES THE PENSION On the 17th August 1956, artificial intelligence was born. The founders of the field reckoned they'd have thinking machines equivalent to humans in five year, perhaps ten at the most. What looked easy at the outset turned into a...
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Pokemon Go used to train killer drones (RNZ Nine to Noon rebroadcast)
On RNZ's "Nine to Noon" Mark gave host Kathryn Ryan an update on the US export controls on the "Fable 5" AI model - and how that's causing them trouble with their allies, who had already integrated it into workflows. Then they'll look at what happens when a security researcher goes rogue -...
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Unsafe AI? Anthropic's Fable 5 - an AI that may be too smart for its own good (RNZ "Nine To Noon" rebroadcast)
On Friday 12 June, AI powerhouse Anthropic cut off all access to their latest-and-greatest "Fable 5" AI model. Based on the incredibly powerful Mythos - which has the capacity to hack into almost any computer - Fable had safeguards to block that sort of use - or so Anthropic believed. A hack to...
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RNZ "Nine To Noon" - Vulnageddon, RAMageddon and ChatGPT Goblins?
Host Kathryn Ryan in conversation with Mark, profiling the concerning capability of Anthropic's Mythos AI model to hack into the most protected systems - now it seems other AI models are just as powerful. RAMageddon could be on the way - with a major shortage of RAM forcing prices higher and why...
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RNZ rebroadcast- Does Anthropic's Mythos threaten us all?
On "Nine to Noon" host Kathryn Ryan and Mark discuss Anthropic's latest 'Mythos' AI model, considered so dangerous to cybersecurity the company has set up a cross-company partnership to work on patching all of the hacks it found. Will other companies be as responsible if similar, powerful models…
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RNZ Nine to Noon Replay: Anthropic vs. the Department of War
Leading AI firm Anthropic drew two red lines on their work with the newly renamed US 'Department of War': No mass surveillance of Americans, and no autonomous weapons. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth threatened to declare Anthropic a 'supply chain risk' (basically, an enemy of the state)...
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RNZ Nine To Noon Replay: French social media ban, Microsoft encryption sharing
RNZ replay 30 January 2026 In conversation with RNZ "Nine to Noon" host Kathryn Ryan, we look at the recent massive layoffs at Amazon, France's social media laws for under 15s, Microsoft giving the keys to your data kingdom to the FBI, and what happens when an organisation tasked with maintaining...
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THE AGETECH AEON #2 - CAN TECH CARE FOR US?
Abby Bloom, Catherine Ball and I (along with Sally Dominguez) are heading back to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see the latest innovations in 'agetech' - technologies that help restore ability and increase agency as we age. Is agetech "the" solution to the crisis in care, or is…
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AGETECH AEON - Ep 1
Abby Bloom wants us to face an uncomfortable truth: we need a lot more space and time for care in our culture. A rapidly aging population - living twenty to thirty years longer than the generations preceding - means we're going to have to rethink and redesign our lives, our work and our whole...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - COME TOGETHER FIGHT NOW
Could it be that the smartphone and social media brought us together only to make us completely intolerant? Research seems to be pointing that way - so what can we do? Also, fake receipts, fake voices and fake apologies - the more AI we use, the more we get faked out. Finally, 'mind captioning' -...
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THE NEXT BILLION CARS - DRIVING ME BACKWARDS Part Two: China and Everyone Else
While the US put its car in reverse (at speed!) and European automakers chased their own tails about whether or not to abandon ICEs, the Chinese put the pedal to the metal in their high-tourque EVs, leaving everyone one else in the dust. A once-in-a-lifetime platform transition - without any...
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THE NEXT BILLION CARS: Driving me Backwards (Pt 1): USA! USA! USA!
What a difference a year makes. A transition to EVs that once seemed utterly inevitable has been thoroughly disrupted by a change of regime in the United States. Using every tool in its arsenal to bribe, cajole and even threaten its allies into dropping any support or incentives for...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - THE BIG END OF AI
Can a big business transform its processes and workflows using AI? With very few successful examples to follow, how does the Big End of Town even get started? L'Oreal Groupe - the biggest beauty products firm on Earth - got started three years ago. We sit down with L'Oreal Groupe ANZ CEO Alex...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - THE CLIMATE QUESTION
There's an elephant in the room along with artificial intelligence - its impact on the climate. Demand for electricity has skyrocketed as Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft build vast new data centres to handle the anticipated global demand for AI products and services. Is that wise?…
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - ISN'T IT IRONIC?
Massive increases in productivity lure businesses into adopting artificial intelligence. But what if pursuit of that elusive 'superprodctivity' produces exactly the opposite? A rebroadcast of Radio New Zealand's Nine To Noon from16 October 2025, host Kathryn Ryan and I ask whether any business...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - BUILDING RESISTANCE
What would you do if you lost your job to an AI? Would you even know? It happened to me - and I didn't learn the truth for six months. In the aftermath I recognised how my work needed to change. That became the core of 'Building Resistance', a set of practices that help us focus on the most human...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - STOP THE WOKE AI!
While the US focuses on putting the brakes on 'woke AI' (whatever that is) the rest of the world's nations confront thorny questions about how to regulate a technology that's both moving very quickly and lacks any clear definitions. Could regulators strangle AI in the process of regulating it? Or...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT - A BETTER WAY
ALWAYS IMPERFECT Episode 3: A BETTER WAY Used well, artificial intelligence can automate labor-intensive and rote processes, freeing people for the work they want to do. That's the theory, anyway - but what about the practice? SUPAHMAN founder and CEO Dave Howden shares his experiences helping...
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT: "VIBE SLOGGING"
Can a computer program a computer as well as a human being can? Artificial intelligence enabled a quantum leap in the quality of the tools programmer use to write code - but they're delicate. Push them too hard and they break. Even when they work they can write reams of code that no human can…
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ALWAYS IMPERFECT: "NO MAGIC WANDS"
Always Imperfect - Episode 1 - NO MAGIC WANDS Artificial intelligence may be amazing but it’s always imperfect. Anyone trying to use AI professionally lands on the horns of a dilemma: will a productivity increase gained through automation represent any savings, after factoring in the extra...
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TWO FUTURISTS GO 'VIBE FORECASTING'
Whenever fellow futurist and longtime friend Rob Tercek and I (Mark Pesce) get together, we go crazy deep on the future: What happens when lazy humans outsource their thought process to machines? You get a society that vibes its way into a blurry, sub-optimal future. The surge of slop means that…
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RNZ Nine to Noon: ADDICTION IS THE BUSINESS MODEL
Mark joins RNZ Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan to delve into the sudden phenomenon of 'viral' AI videos - getting better at capturing your eyeballs. Did you see those cute bunnies bouncing on a trampoline? Never happened - but made you look. The fusion of TikTok and AI video looks to be potent…
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The Next Billion Cars - Experiences in 'Range Anxiety'
On a recent trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, Mark rented an EV, drove to a rural town on the Mendocino coast, then drove back again. That trip taught Mark a lot about what it means to drive an EV - and how it changes both thinking and behaviour behind the wheel. Unless we fundamentally revise...
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RNZ Nine to Noon: DOES CHATGPT MAKE YOU STUPID?
A recent study from MIT shows students tasked with writing essays showed significantly lower levels of brain activity when allowed to use ChatGPT. Mark Pesce reviews the implications of this finding with RNZ NineToNoon host Kathryn Ryan, going on to reveal how an internet filled with AI-generated...
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RNZ NINE TO NOON: CAN CHATGPT MAKE YOU CRAZY?
RNZ NINE TO NOON: CAN CHATGPT MAKE YOU CRAZY? In conversation with host Kathryn Ryan, Mark highlights a number of reports indicating potentially very serious mental health issues associated with the use of chatbots like ChatGPT. These chatbots tend to be very agreeable - a quality known as...
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Mo Meta, Mo Problems: Could Facebook be broken up?
From Radio New Zealand's Nine To Noon: Meta - the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and much more besides - finds itself fighting for its life against a suit from the US Federal Trade Commission, charging abuse of monopoly power - because they acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in order to...
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RNZ Nine To Noon - Should we give up copyright to beat China in the race for AI?
Originally broadcast on 20th March, 2025 on Radio New Zealand's Nine To Noon with host Kathryn Ryan. Christie's held its first auction of AI-generated art, earning a million dollars. Those AI artworks had been 'trained' from countless images, owned by other people. Is that legal? OpenAI and…
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AI WARTECH - Has technology turned to the dark side?
Originally broadcast on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon on 13 February 2025 Last week Google amended its ethical AI policies to allow their AI tools to be used in weapons - to preserve 'national security'. They're among the last to embrace a new market for their products - defense and weapons.…
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Gradually. Then Suddenly
"How did you go bankrupt?" begins the oft-quoted line from Hemingway. "Two ways. Gradually - then suddenly." That's how the automotive sector feels at the end of 2024, with Nissan maybe preparing for bankruptcy and Stellantis firing its CEO and VW struggling with strikes and low sales and GM...
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The War over Plant-Based foods with Nick Hazell
In 2018, Nick Hazell founded v2food - an amazing startup making plant-based substitutes for meat that got extensive coverage on THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS. Six years later, it's getting difficult to find their product on supermarket shelves - and there's been a broader roll-back from plant-based...
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The New Alchemy
The impacts of global heating have become persistent and profound, so we need to do as much as we can to lesson those impacts, as quickly as we can. The best paths forward lean into existing, natural processes - and this is exactly where Nick Hazell has arrived with Algenie. Can algae restore...
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The Next Billion Cars - 2024 in Review (part 2)
In this final year in review episode, Sally Dominguez, Drew Smith and Mark Pesce address the big, smelly elephant in the room: The change of government - and direction - over in the United States of America. Could massive tariffs plus 'drill, baby, drill' together land a knockout punch on the US…
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The Next Billion Cars - 2024 in review (part 1)
Whenever Mark, Sal and Drew get together, sparks will fly. So much has happened since our visit to CES 2024, we reckoned it time to draw all the year's threads together: Are we pulling back from EVs? Will China dominate manufacturing? And what about all that data vehicles are collecting? It's…
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The $100,000,000,000 Lie
The $100,000,000,000 Lie — “In 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk instructed his team of engineers to 'hard code' the first demo of what would become 'Full Self Driving'. A faked video drove panic across the entire automotive sector, leading to massive (and mostly failed) investments in technologies for...
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Neo Malaise with Drew Smith
The Next Billion Cars co-host Drew Smith... has something to say. Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here Hosted by Drew Smith, Sally Dominguez and futurist Mark Pesce, The Next Billion Cars is everything you need to know about the future of Cars. For more information about this...
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Your Data, My Privacy - with Sally Dominguez
The Next Billion Cars co-host Sally Dominguez examines at the data hungry nature of modern vehicles. What does privacy look like in the age of 'artificial intimacy'? You have nothing to hide, right? Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here Hosted by Drew Smith, Sally Dominguez and...
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The Next Billion Cars - with Drew Smith at SXSW Sydney
Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here Hosted by award-winning podcast creator, journalist & futurist Mark Pesce, The Next Billion Seconds is everything you need to know about the future — so you can make the best decisions today. The rate of change we are experiencing is the…
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SXSW 2024 ZEEKR: HOW DOES A NEW BRAND SURVIVE? With Gustaf Gunér
A special episode of The Next Billion Cars with Drew Smith and Mark Pesce - car brand ZEEKR: HOW DOES A NEW BRAND SURVIVE? With Gustaf Gunér - head of brand, Zeekr Design. Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here. In this series of THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS we'll explore the enormous...
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Ghosts in the Machine
Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here. In this series of THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS we'll explore the enormous changes that are taking place right now - almost everywhere we look. Because things are moving fast.The future has suddenly become the present. Hosted by award-winning…
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Live at SXSW: A Fine Line between technology and anthropology with Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, CEO and Publisher of MIT Technology Review
Live at SXSW: A Fine Line between technology and anthropology with Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, CEO and Publisher of MIT Technology Review Ever since the release of ChatGPT it's changed how we think about what we can do.That revelation continues unrolling across a vast front...Students getting...
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AI UNEMPLOYED
On this episode, we stare into the abyss of one of our deepest fears - that AI has suddenly made us all obsolete. Or has it? Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here. In this series of THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS we'll explore the enormous changes that are taking place right now - almost...
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CHIPS AND CHAINS
On this episode, we look at what's happened to one of the most important areas of the economy - the semiconductor industry. The very few firms who make the chips that power our civilisation - TSMC, Apple, AMD and Nvidia... There's been a massive shift. And now, sadly, a massive natural disaster....
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THE FOUR-DAY WEEK IS ALREADY HERE
Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here. We've tacitly adopted the four-day week from two directions... The Future has arrived... The last two years have seen more change and the previous 20. Are we ready for that? In this series of THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS we'll explore the enormous...
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The Future Has Arrived
Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter here The Future has arrived... The last two years have seen more change and the previous 20. Are we ready for that? In this series of THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS we'll explore the enormous changes that are taking place right now - almost everywhere we...
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VALE: Vernor Vinge - creator of a "Technological Singularity"
Science fiction legend Vernor Vinge inspired the title of this podcast - and his influence extends far beyond fiction. His novella "True Names" gave readers a first taste of the metaverse, and in a 1993 talk for NASA, Vinge described a 'technological singularity' - a time when computers get so…
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Cryptonomics - So long and thanks for all the grift!
Mark started working with cryptocurrencies back in 2014. Ten years at the coalface has convinced him that - despite incredible promise - cryptocurrencies are pwned by gamblers and grifters. After a decade advising financial institutions, regulators and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, Mark explains...
About this show
Sign up for 'The Practical Futurist' newsletter hereHosted by award-winning podcast creator, journalist & futurist Mark Pesce, The Next Billion Seconds is everything you need to know about the future — so you can make the best decisions today. The rate of change we are experiencing is the fastest humanity has ever seen. Stay informed as Mark simplifies the complex technological and societal changes we face. How we will work, connect, use money, drive, eat is all changing at a rapid pace. For more information on The Next Billion seconds with Mark Pesce, please check out https://nextbillionseconds.com For more information about this podcast and The Next Billion Seconds, please visit https://nextbillionseconds.com. The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce is produced by Ampel - https://ampel.com.au.
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