Info

Flux

Flux is a podcast about the pioneers building companies at the frontier of technology. This series of interviews goes beyond the soundbites, allowing some of the most interesting players in technology to share their insider expertise and explain the challenges they face in building the future.
RSS Feed
Flux
2021
June


2020
December
October
June
February


2019
September
August
January


2018
November
October
September
July


2017
December
July
May
April
March
February
January


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: April, 2017
Apr 28, 2017

Bill Doyle is executive chairman of Novocure, an Israeli company using an entirely new method to fight cancer: electric fields. Bill tells the story of the founder of Novocure, his unorthodox approach to problem-solving, and how he was able to commercialize a therapy that was considered voodoo science. He also discusses why the research grant process is broken and the FDA's challenge balancing progress with safety.

Bill has had a wide-ranging career in healthcare, spanning his time running medical device research at Johnson & Johnson to his role as chairman of Blink Health, a startup lowering prescription drug prices. Bill gets into what he thinks it takes to win as an entrepreneur, how he's learned about invention from Segway creator Dean Kamen, and why we're entering a golden age for medical innovation.  
 
Full episode transcript on Medium.
 
This episode was produced by Allison Behringer. 
Apr 17, 2017

Natalya Bailey is co-founder and CEO of Accion Systems, an MIT spin-out commercializing miniature propulsion systems for satellites that enable them to maneuver in space.   

Natalya reveals why legacy manufacturers are unable to build these non-traditional engines, how she's handled the jump from academia to business, and what she's learned from Bill Swanson of Raytheon about managing a team. She also discusses how the Apollo mission helped push computing forward, her interest in aliens and why space exploration is critical for our survival.

 

Full episode transcript on Medium.

This episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Apr 1, 2017

Gary Marcus, best-selling author and NYU professor, has spent decades studying how children learn and is a known critic of deep learning. Gary was the founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence, which uses insights from cognitive psychology to build better AI systems. Gary discusses why we still have a long way to go to get to Strong AI and why his sparse data approach is so valuable. We also get into the challenges for AI startups competing with the resources of Google, how corporates aren't focused on what society actually needs from AI, his proposal to revamp the outdated Turing test, and why programming a robot to understand "harm" is so difficult. 

Full episode transcript on Medium.

This episode was produced by Allison Behringer.

Referenced Links:

TEDxCERN (Marcus) - Why toddlers are smarter than computers

The New Yorker (Marcus) - IS “DEEP LEARNING” A REVOLUTION IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

The Verge - Driver in fatal Tesla Autopilot crash had seven seconds to take action

NYTimes - How Many Computers to Identify a Cat? 16,000

Scientific American (Marcus) - The Search for a New Test of Artificial Intelligence

NYTimes - For Sympathetic Ear, More Chinese Turn to Smartphone Program

Financial Times - Microsoft’s Tay back swearing on Twitter

1