346 episodes

After more than a decade in London, Danny Fortson returns to Silicon Valley to meet the techies trying to change the world - and make loads of money while doing it.
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Danny In The Valley The Times

    • Business
    • 4.9 • 474 Ratings

After more than a decade in London, Danny Fortson returns to Silicon Valley to meet the techies trying to change the world - and make loads of money while doing it.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Enhanced Games’ Aron D’Souza: “The Olympics are broken”

    Enhanced Games’ Aron D’Souza: “The Olympics are broken”

    Would you watch an Olympics where everyone was doping? The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Aron D’Souza, co-founder and president of the Enhanced Games, to talk about launching a new competition where everyone is pharmacologically enhanced (6:00), the events (10:00), why he started it (14:50), meeting Peter Thiel (18:20), leading the Gawker case (19:30), the response from the Olympics (23:00), how it could go wrong (26:00), making sure noone dies (28:10), adding robotics and cybernetics (32:20), the funders (35:00), lining up media rights (39:00), the most recent doping scandal (41:00), and the coming legal fight (41:45).
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    • 43 min
    Rainmaker's Augustus Doricko: "Cloud seeding is a risk worth taking"

    Rainmaker's Augustus Doricko: "Cloud seeding is a risk worth taking"

    The Sunday Times’s tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Augustus Doricko to talk about becoming a Thiel fellow (3:15), looking for the proof of God (5:45), starting his first company (9:30) cloud seeding (11:30), the history of cloud seeding (13:30), on whether silver iodide is safe (17:00), how it would work in practice (20:30), how it could go wrong (27:30), geo-engineering (30:45), why now (23:15), the Dubai example (35:00), and finding God (38:45). 


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    • 41 min
    DoNotPay's Josh Browder: "We need laws to protect AI's"

    DoNotPay's Josh Browder: "We need laws to protect AI's"

    The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on DoNotPay's Josh Browder to talk about how artificial intelligence is changing his business (4:20), paying a dividend (8:15), blowing up the myth that you have to lose money to get big (11:00), the coming AI crash (13:00), the path forward for DoNotPay (16:40), San Francisco’s moment (19:30), his biggest mistake (21:30), protecting AI’s (24:00), and ambient intelligence (27:40).
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    • 31 min
    Arbol's Sid Jha: "Insurance in the era of climate calamities"

    Arbol's Sid Jha: "Insurance in the era of climate calamities"

    The Sunday  Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sid Jha of Arbol to talk about the importance of insurance (3:45), using data to change how it works (8:20), how climate has scrambled the industry (10:30), regulation (14:20), creating a new asset class (16:40), weather (24:10), growing up in India (29:20), going to Wall Street (30:40), launching Arbol (33:00), the space revolution (35:40), using blockchain (37:30), and why life is more expensive in an era of climate change (42:45)
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    • 47 min
    Orchid's Noor Siddiqui: "Super-babies"

    Orchid's Noor Siddiqui: "Super-babies"

    The Sunday Times correspondent brings on Noor Siddiquui, founder of Orchid, to talk about screening embryos (5:00), starting the company (9:30), hiring people as a first time founder (13:00), targeting ageing at the very beginning (15:00), how it works (18:20), why she thinks this is the future of conception (22:00), the need for regulation (31:00), the potential to exacerbate societal problems (38:00), why longevity enthusiasts invested (40:30), and the potential conservative backlash (49:40).
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    • 56 min
    Replika’s Eugenia Kuyda: “Your AI soulmate”

    Replika’s Eugenia Kuyda: “Your AI soulmate”

    The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eugenia Kyuda, founder of Replika, to talk about AI friends (4:00), growing up in Russia (6:45), her dad’s experience at Chernobyl (9:00), applying to Y Combinator (12:30), her first idea that didn’t work (16:30), losing her best friend (17:30), launching Replika (20:00), building a bot with pre-written answers (23:40), the key to good conversation (24:30), the bot before the ChatGPT moment (27:15), the changing AI landscape (29:20), how it works (31:50), securing people's secrets (33:50), and disrupting death (39:10).
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    • 43 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
474 Ratings

474 Ratings

Alan at Capital ,

Brilliant

The episode with Emad Mostaque was brilliant - one of the best podcast episodes I’ve listened to in ages and the best AI focused one.

Keep up the good work.

E96543 ,

👌👌👌

A highlight of my commuting week; always intriguing

Tel3machus ,

Underrated and Awesome

Great show, every week. Interesting people, tough questions, intriguing answers. Thanks Danny!

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