Hour-long conversations to explore what it would take for machines to develop qualities resembling human taste, and what the implications would be for creative individuals and for society.
We talk both to people with deep expertise in AI (researchers, entrepreneurs, investors) and to people in professions where taste is central (artists, designers, writers, critics, chefs, architects, curators).
Where to listen:
Your hosts:
PhD in AI from Oxford. Over two decades he has built AI systems for consequential decisions — curation at Meta, anomaly detection at Palantir, risk models at Two Sigma — and founded three venture-backed startups across coding, education and writing. LinkedIn.
Economist; co-founder and CEO of 20squares, an R&D firm modelling digitally mediated markets and complex systems. Formerly assistant professor at the University of St. Gallen. His research and work center on automation and autonomous systems. philipp-zahn.com.
Diederik Kruijssen - Astrophysicist turned AI researcher; Chief Scientist at Allora Labs, previously led ERC-funded research groups at leading German astrophysics institutes.
Iulia Georgescu - Physicist who spent over a decade editing at the Nature journals and founded Nature Reviews Physics.
Rachid Nougmanov - Filmmaker behind the Soviet cult classic The Needle (starring Viktor Tsoi) and author of the storytelling book Dramaticon.
Turi Munthe - Author of Why We Think What We Think (Penguin) and founder of the pioneering citizen-journalism agency Demotix.
Austin Kilroy - Economist who has advised the World Bank and governments worldwide; founder of the meeting-intelligence startup Whispers.
Vincent Jacob - French musician and photographer; frontman of the LA rock band Yards of Blondes and co-writer of a Johnny Hallyday single.
Patrick Shafto - Professor of mathematics at Rutgers and a program manager at DARPA.
Oliver Spalt - Professor of Finance at the University of Mannheim.
Seth Frey - Computational social scientist and professor at UC Davis studying how online communities govern themselves.
Héctor Pérez Urbina - Founder of Tlanextli Group; spent a decade at Google, with a DPhil in AI from Oxford and a master's in AI ethics from Cambridge.
Arseny Zarechnev - Software engineer and founder; co-founded the crypto exchange Mothership and has built at Atlassian and Enki.
Caroline Ingeborn - COO of Luma AI and former CEO of Toca Boca, the studio behind some of the world's most popular kids' apps.
Konstantin Adamopoulos - Philosopher, art historian, and leadership coach working between the contemporary art world and business.
Andy Tyler - OpenAI's official Codex Ambassador for London; previously built products at the BBC.
Joshua Tan - Interim CTO of Current AI and executive director of Metagov, building open-source alternatives to the frontier AI labs.
Eleanor Warnock - Managing editor at Every; previously a journalist at The Wall Street Journal and the FT-backed Sifted.