Episodes

  • Tech legend John Chambers: “Don’t do the right thing for too long”

    Tech legend John Chambers: “Don’t do the right thing for too long”
    Sep 20 2024

    The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on John Chambers, former chief executive of Cisco, to talk about artificial intelligence (4:30), why booms are necessary (8:00), coming to Silicon Valley (12:15), Cisco (14:15), buying 180 companies (19:00), the dotcom bust (23:00), how the old startups have grown up (29:15), whether founder shares are a good thing (31:00), still working at 75 (34:00), competition (35:40), why he has bet on the startup Humane (40:45), spending his own money (45:00), how AI will change everything (48:15), and his worst day (53:15).



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    57 mins
  • HourOne’s Natalie Monbiot: “Building the virtual human economy”

    HourOne’s Natalie Monbiot: “Building the virtual human economy”
    Sep 13 2024
    The gig economy is coming for your soul. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Natalie Monbiot of HourOne, to talk about the digital clone company starting before the ChatGPT moment (4:15), turning 5 minutes of footage into a digital clone (7:10), the hunt for the “killer app” for virtual humans (13:25), how the company started (18:20), Hollywood (24:00), bringing the dead back to life (27:20), your rights over what your clone does (32:40), and virtual human marketplaces (37:20).

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    41 mins
  • Hebbia’s George Sivulka: “Bots will be most of the economy within decade”

    Hebbia’s George Sivulka: “Bots will be most of the economy within decade”
    Sep 7 2024
    Artificial intelligence “agents” will create more economic value than humans within ten years. Sound outlandish? That is the prediction of this week’s guest, George Sivulka, founder of AI startup Hebbia, who comes on to talk about building AI that actually works for business (3:20), AI orchestra conductors (9:15), coral reefs and why he called the company Hebbia (10:30), why he started the company (19:30), being a “disappointment” to his athlete parents (29:30), working at NASA as a teen (33:00), meeting Peter Thiel (36:45), and how AI is going to revolutionize the economy (42:00).

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    46 mins
  • Captura’s Steve Oldham: “Removing a drop of ink from a swimming pool”

    Captura’s Steve Oldham: “Removing a drop of ink from a swimming pool”
    Aug 30 2024
    The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Steve Oldham of Captura, to talk about why sucking CO2 out of the air is not a bad idea (6:30), using the ocean (10:00), their contraption (11:15), whether it can be done at scale (16:45), the maths of climate solutions (19:00), paying for it (21:00), the evolution of carbon removal tech (26:00), moving to Canada from England (30:00), how the space industry is like climate (31:45), the role of regulation (34:15), raising $60m (37:45), and politics (41:30).

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    45 mins
  • Refactor's Zal Bilimoria: “I am the investment committee”

    Refactor's Zal Bilimoria: “I am the investment committee”
    Aug 9 2024
    The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Zal Bilimoria to talk about being a solo venture capitalist (3:15), how he decided on investments (6:30), happening into climate tech (9:30), raising $50m every three years (10:45), learning at his dad’s business (12:20), bouncing around the tech industry (14:30), his first job as a kid (21:40), focusing on hard tech (28:00), where he won’t invest (31:00), hunting for the “fund returner” (35:30), why venture is not glamorous (37:00), reinventing IVF (43:20), and the potential backlash (46:00).

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    47 mins
  • How lab-grown meat company SciFi Foods failed - and why many others may soon follow

    How lab-grown meat company SciFi Foods failed - and why many others may soon follow
    Aug 2 2024

    It wasn’t long ago that lab-grown meat was booming. Startups raised billions of dollars. Investors boldly predicted the large scale slaughter of cows, chickens and fish would soon end. Then it all went pear-shaped. This week Joshua March and Kasia Gora come on to talk about how their startup, SciFi Foods, failed after raising more than $40 million on how the market turned against their company and the industry broadly (3:30), being affected by the downturn in plant-based meat (7:30), the Gamechangers documentary (10:30), being transparent with staff (15:10), the importance of failing well (19:30), the progress they made (27:30), Big Meat’s lobbying efforts (30:45), whether they would do it again (32:45), the Silicon Valley machine (37:00), venture debt (40:30), and the next thing (42:30).




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    45 mins
  • Mike Lynch’s first post-acquittal interview

    Mike Lynch’s first post-acquittal interview
    Jul 27 2024
    British tech tycoon Mike Lynch faced potentially dying in a federal prison. But in a 12-week trial in America, he beat all the odds and was found “not guilty” last month on 15 counts of fraud brought by the Department of Justice. He comes on the show to talk about the insight gleaned from a 12-year legal fight (5:30), the need for a British “Innocence Project” (11:30), going back to the origin of the case in 2011 (16:15), how the Autonomy sale went pear-shaped (18:45), why the boring nature of the case may have helped (23:15), what he would say to HP’s former chief executive Meg Whitman (26:15), getting smeared (29:15), how he won (36:30), most deals fail (43:30), getting extradited (48:20), his family (53:00), spending tens of millions of pounds on his defence (56:00), his treatment in British business and society (58:30), advising startups and the public conversation about AI (1:01:15), acquittal day (1:03:00), overhauling the US extradition treaty (1:04:30), how his wife managed (1:08:00), watching the Super Bowl (1:10:30), and feeling like he has won a second life (1:13:40).

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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Conservation X Labs’ Alex Deghan: “Why go to Mars? it’s a failed version of earth”

    Conservation X Labs’ Alex Deghan: “Why go to Mars? it’s a failed version of earth”
    Jul 19 2024
    The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Alex Deghan, founder of Conservation X Labs, to talk about avoiding the sixth mass extinction (3:00), getting near a tipping point in the Amazon (11:40), raising money from tech billionaires (14:40), growing up in northern Idaho (17:50), almost dying from malaria (20:00), rebuilding science in Iraq (23:30), close calls (30:40), setting up the first national park in Afghanistan (33:10), optimism (39:15), air conditioning (42:15), and building their own products (47:10).

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    51 mins