The Brave Technologist

Brave Software

Technology is reshaping society—but how are users included in the conversation? The Brave Technologist explores how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Web3 are influencing our lives, our choices, and our collective future. Unlike many tech podcasts that focus on hype and disruption, this show puts users at the center of the conversation. Each episode features thoughtful discussions with technologists working to ensure that innovation serves the public interest. How are these tools impacting users? And how can we ensure that technology is developed with transparency, accountability, and the public good in mind? We're going deep with founders, builders, policy makers and researchers to explore the worlds of privacy, AI, crypto, digital rights, algorithmic accountability, and everywhere else where cutting edge technology impacts our daily lives.

  1. 3 days ago ·  Video

    Pandora: How Much Freedom Should a Shopping Agent Have? (AI Summit LDN)

    Riccardo Arnaldi, Agentic AI Product Manager at Pandora, shares what it actually looks like to build and scale a brand-facing LLM shopping agent live with millions of customers. He explains why too much autonomy is a liability, how a deterministic routing layer keeps the AI from going off-script, and why traditional QA teams had to rebuild their processes from scratch. He also breaks down a real customer interaction that exposed the gap between automation and appropriate human sensitivity, changing how the team handles frustrated users. Key Takeaways Which metrics Pandora uses to measure success of Gemma, their customer-facing AI agent What breaks when traditional QA processes meet agentic products, and how testing an agent differs from testing software How a brand's voice gets engineered into an AI agent, including exact words it's allowed to use and the persona it borrows What a frustrated customer's outburst revealed about the line between automation and human sensitivity Guest Bio: Riccardo Arnaldi is a product manager with 6+ years' experience building and iterating on digital products through data, experimentation, and AI. Currently, he owns end-to-end development and strategy of LLM-based shopping and customer support agents at Pandora. Previously, he drove X60M+ DKK in incremental revenue by scaling Pandora's website and CRM personalisation programme from the ground up across 7+ markets. An Italian based in Copenhagen, Riccardo is a sports lover and guitar strummer, and is always on the lookout for the next great travel destination (with hype-worthy local foods). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    22 min

  2. 17 Jun ·  Video

    AI Is Now Buying Cars and Negotiating Better Than You

    Zach Shefska, Founder & CEO of CarEdge, shares how he and his father (a 43-year auto industry veteran) turned a broken, opaque car buying process into a transparency-first business powered by AI agents that now negotiate deals on behalf of consumers. He also explains how data collected from over 100,000 agent driven negotiations is reshaping what buyers can know before they even walk into a dealership.  Key Takeaways:  Why the car buying process is structurally designed to work against both consumers and the salespeople serving them and what's starting to change How AI agents are negotiating real car deals, including the first-ever agent-to-agent transaction between a buyer's AI and a dealership's AI Why the biggest frontier AI models keep getting car buying wrong and what a purpose-built data harness requires Guest Bio: Zach Shefska is an entrepreneur, creator, and consumer advocate best known as the co-founder and CEO of CarEdge. He partners with his father, Ray Shefska (a 40+ year auto industry veteran), to level the playing field for car buyers by providing transparent negotiation strategies, data tools, and AI-driven car-buying agents.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    30 min

  3. 10 Jun ·  Video

    Why Your VPN Isn't Actually Keeping You Anonymous

    Harry Halpin, CEO of Nym Technologies, shares why the surveillance Web is more dangerous than most people realize, and why most privacy tools aren't enough. He explains how traditional VPNs still leave you exposed, why metadata is more revealing than the content of your messages, and how Nym's decentralized mixnet offers unique protection. Key Takeaways: Why encrypting your data isn't enough and what metadata reveals that most people don't consider What a mixnet is and why it's built differently than Tor Why age verification mandates could be the real turning point for Internet freedom How Nym is bringing device-level privacy protection to everyday users Ways we can make agents and LLMs more private and safe to use The new integration between Nym and Brave Guest Bio: Harry Halpin is CEO and co-founder of Nym Technologies. He completed his Ph.D. in AI at the University of Edinburgh under Andy Clark, and then led standards around cryptography and social networking at the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT under Tim Berners-Lee (although he left due to the standardization of DRM). Harry is now focused full-time on preserving privacy and freedom of speech with NymVPN. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    42 min

  4. 3 Jun ·  Video

    AI Agents Need Names, And Nobody Owns Them Yet

    Balazs Nemethi, CEO of the Agent Community, explains why AI agents need identities and why the window to decide who controls that infrastructure is closing fast. He breaks down how a community-governed effort is working to secure .agent as a top-level domain, and why domains are a smart foundation for agent identity. Key Takeaways: Why agents need identities, including personalized names and domains What challenges will emerge around trust, safety, and accountability as agents scale, and why domains are a powerful trust layer What community governance could change by preventing single-company control over agent identity How the ICANN application process works, and the one bylaw that gives community a real shot at winning a TLD Why verifying agents (not just humans) may be the smarter approach to trust on the agentic web Guest Bio: Balázs Nemethi is a Hungarian technologist and entrepreneur working at the intersection of internet infrastructure, identity, and AI. He is the founder of the Agent Community at agentcommunity.org, a community-backed effort to establish .agent as a new top-level domain and identity layer for AI agents. He is also the author of AID, a DNS-first standard for agent identity and discovery. Previously, he helped scale the Decentralized Identity Foundation to more than 300 organizations; founded Taqanu, a financial-inclusion company serving refugees in Germany; and built Web3 compliance infrastructure at Veri Labs, where he is the inventor on a U.S. patent for programmable assets. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    42 min

  5. 27 May ·  Video

    Why One AI Agent Will Never Be Enough

    João Moura, CEO of crewAI, shares why single AI agents fall short and what changes when you give them a crew. He explains how multi-agent systems are already running inside Fortune 500 companies; why accountability and human oversight still matter as agents grow more autonomous; and what it looks like when an AI agent negotiates on your behalf (and wins). Key Takeaways: How multi-agent systems are already being used inside Fortune 500 companies How agents are starting to watch, review, and debug each other, and what that means for quality control What the shift from better models to better coordination looks like in practice Why data ownership and open-source are becoming the real competitive edge in the AI race What "LLM as a judge" means and how it's becoming a quality control pattern Why accountability and human oversight still matter even as agents become more autonomous Guest Bio: João Moura is the CEO of crewAI. He has over 20 years of software engineering experience, and previously served as Director of AI Engineering at Clearbit, where he transformed AI into a core profit driver, growing a thriving user base and spearheading advancements in large-scale vector databases. João also founded Urdog, an IoT startup, where he developed a smart collar for dogs and managed all aspects of the business. With extensive experience in engineering leadership roles at Toptal and Packlane, he specializes in building high-performing teams and implementing scalable AI and machine-learning solutions. João holds an MBA in Information Technology from FIAP, and completed executive leadership training at NYU Stern. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    33 min

  6. 20 May ·  Video

    How U.S. Policy on Bitcoin Is Changing Fast

    Sam Lyman, Head of Research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and former Senior Advisor and Chief Speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, shares what it looks like inside the U.S. Treasury when Bitcoin, stablecoins, and AI are being treated as strategic national assets. He explains why the current administration's approach marks a fundamental break from the Gensler era; how freedom tech is becoming a geopolitical tool to challenge authoritarian capital and information controls; and why the time to shape crypto and AI policy through legislation is now. Key Takeaways: How AI, Bitcoin, and stablecoins form a "trifecta of freedom tech,"  and why policymakers are starting to see them as such Why China banned both Bitcoin and stablecoins, and what that tells us about the real threat these technologies pose to authoritarian regimes What AI agents prefer to use as money, and what a first-principles study of frontier models revealed about savings vs. payments Why executive orders aren't enough, what legislation like the Clarity Act can protect, and how this legislation couldn't be easily undone with an administration change How AI could actually make the economy more human Guest Bio: Sam Lyman is the head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. He served previously as senior advisor and chief speechwriter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Prior to working at the U.S. Treasury, Sam served as public policy director at Riot Platforms, a leading digital assets and AI infrastructure company. He holds a master's in public policy from Princeton University. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    41 min

  7. 13 May

    Your AI Chats Aren't Private (And How "Unlinkable Inference" Can Help)

    Ken Liu (Computer Science PhD at the Stanford AI Lab) and Erik Chi (CS PhD at UMich) are the Creators of the Open Anonymity Project, which lets people prove things about themselves online without revealing their identity. In this episode we explore what it means for AI systems to "know" you; why today's so-called privacy modes fall short; and how the next generation of AI systems could be built with privacy as a default, rather than an afterthought. Key Takeaways:  What "unlinkable inference" means and why it changes the privacy model of AI chat tools What actually happens to your data the moment you hit "send" in a typical AI system Why incognito mode in AI tools is largely a UI illusion, rather than a real privacy protection The role of metadata in identifying and profiling users, and how "secretary models" could enable personalization without sacrificing privacy How anti-censorship and privacy intersect in a future dominated by agentic AI systems Why now is the time to rethink assumptions about privacy in AI tools Guest Bio: Ken Liu is a Computer Science PhD student at the Stanford AI Lab, advised by Percy Liang and Sanmi Koyejo. His research focuses on foundation models and data/user privacy, and the intersection between the two. His recent work studies the privacy properties of AI (such as membership, memorization, and unlearning), and various AI privacy tools (such as anonymization, differential privacy, and federated learning). His papers have earned spotlights at top venues, and his findings have been deployed at scale on Android. Ken also led a team to a 1st-place win at the US-UK PETs Prize sponsored by the White House OSTP and the UK Government. Previously, Ken spent time at Google DeepMind, Carnegie Mellon University, Meta, Apple, and Amazon. Erik Chi is a CS PhD at UMich, advised by J. Alex Halderman. His research focuses on security and privacy, particularly network security and anti-censorship. He worked on a new standard for implementing and distributing censorship circumvention protocols—a standard that's now being adopted by VPN vendors to help millions of users access the free Internet. He also did content moderation (surveillance) and recommendation systems at ByteDance before realizing how censors will evolve in the AI era. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    30 min

  8. 6 May

    Why Cyberattacks Are Now a Matter of Life and Death

    Ed Gaudet, CEO and founder of Censinet, shares how cybersecurity threats have evolved from data breaches to full-scale operational disruptions, and why modern resilience strategies must go beyond prevention. He explains why ransomware has fundamentally changed the stakes, how AI is rapidly expanding the attack surface, and what organizations are getting wrong about risk. He also highlights the human and cultural factors that remain the weakest link in security and why leadership is critical to driving real change. Key Takeaways How ransomware has raised the stakes from financial loss to real-world consequences, including risks to human life The overlooked ways AI is entering organizations through existing tools, and how this is creating new vulnerabilities Why organizations must shift from prevention-only strategies to prioritizing response and recovery capabilities How human behavior and organizational culture continue to be the biggest risk factors in cybersecurity What a modern, holistic resilience strategy looks like across people, processes, and technology Guest Bio: Ed Gaudet, CEO and founder of Censinet, is a seasoned software executive with over 25 years of experience driving product innovation, marketing strategy, and sales growth across startups and public companies. As CMO at Imprivata, he led the company's transformation into healthcare and later served as GM of the award-winning Imprivata Cortext platform. Previously, he led corporate development, sales, and marketing at Liquid Machines, helping shape its go-to-market strategy ahead of its acquisition by Check Point Software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About this Show: The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all! Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together. The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API. Music by: Ari Dvorin Produced by: Sam Laliberte

    35 min
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Technology is reshaping society—but how are users included in the conversation? The Brave Technologist explores how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Web3 are influencing our lives, our choices, and our collective future. Unlike many tech podcasts that focus on hype and disruption, this show puts users at the center of the conversation. Each episode features thoughtful discussions with technologists working to ensure that innovation serves the public interest. How are these tools impacting users? And how can we ensure that technology is developed with transparency, accountability, and the public good in mind? We're going deep with founders, builders, policy makers and researchers to explore the worlds of privacy, AI, crypto, digital rights, algorithmic accountability, and everywhere else where cutting edge technology impacts our daily lives.

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