Inside the GeekWire Awards: What's next for AI, the economy, and startups

As the creator and host of the "Startup Project" podcast, Seattle-area tech senior product manager Nataraj Sindam talks with a wide range of investors and entrepreneurs, contributing to his broad perspective on the future of artificial intelligence, investing, startups, and business technology. He's also author of the Above Average email newsletter, and venture partner with Incisive Ventures. Our topics this week include:  The opportunity to apply the power of large language models and generative AI to the larger world of business-to-business applications, including services tailored to workflows in specific industry verticals.  How AI will drive a massive increase in data centers in the next 5-10 years to meet increased demand for compute and storage, and will require new "intelligence layers" in cloud infrastructure. The opportunities and challenges for startups to compete with large tech companies in developing foundational AI technologies, and where tech investors are focusing when it comes to AI startups. The different incentives in a traditional startup approach (focusing on getting to a minimum viable product) vs. long-term AI moonshots, exemplified by former OpenAI leader Ilya Sutskever's new venture. Apple's efforts to integrate AI into its applications and operating systems, and the tradeoffs between the Apple ecosystem and the more wide-ranging Windows/Android platform approach. In the return of our "My AI" segment, we discuss a useful way to quickly get a summary of YouTube videos using the Copilot sidebar in the Microsoft Edge browser. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Audio editing and production by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a big week for cybersecurity for Seattle's tech giants. Microsoft President Brad Smith was in Washington D.C., testifying before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee about the Redmond company's security challenges. Listen for highlights at the end of the show.  Meanwhile, Amazon held its annual AWS re:Inforce cloud security conference in Philadelphia.The rise of AI has added some big new wrinkles to the issue of cybersecurity, and AI was one of the main topics in a conversation that I had a few weeks ago with one of the people who keynoted the AWS event this week, Steve Schmidt, Amazon's chief security officer. Hosted by Todd Bishop; edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week on the GeekWire Podcast is Léonard Boussioux, an assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business, and adjunct assistant professor at the UW Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering. Boussioux received his doctorate in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research combines areas including machine learning and AI with a focus on healthcare and sustainability. Last year he launched a class called "Generative AI in the Era of Cloud Computing" at the Foster School. Foster School: A New Era Of AI And Human Ingenuity In The Classroom Boussioux's website, including photography and AI art: www.leobix.us TEDxMIT Salon presentation: Let Art Be Your Superpower TEDxBoston: How to Solve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in 5 mins. Related Story: How a photo of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, enhanced by AI, sparked a journalistic debate at GeekWire With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop; Edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we explore the frontier of crowd-augmented cognition, the concept of humans working together with the help of technology, including new ways that artificial intelligence is changing the field. Our guest is Aniket (Niki) Kittur, a professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where his research focuses on new methods of augmenting human intellect using crowds and computation. We also talk about a related project that Kittur and his colleagues developed called Skeema, a browser tab manager that helped users organize their work, projects, and ultimately their brains in the process.  With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft and major PC makers this week announced a plan to incorporate artificial intelligence directly into personal computers, adding on-board neural processing units (NPUs) as part of a new architecture that promises better performance, longer battery life, and local AI processing that unlocks new capabilities and features. We discuss the new Copilot+ PCs with our guest on this week's GeekWire Podcast, Stefan Weitz, an investor and entrepreneur who worked at Microsoft for 18 years in groups including Microsoft Bing and MSN. He is the founder of the new HumanX conference on AI taking place in March 2025 in Las Vegas. Weitz is bullish on the potential for Copilot+ PCs to improve the overall computing experience and motivate Windows PC users to upgrade their machines, a long-awaited milestone for Microsoft's flagship operating system. The new Copilot+ PCs have also raised security and privacy concerns, focused primarily on the "Recall" feature that takes regular screenshots of user activity on the machine, creating an index that can be queried using AI. The company released an FAQ that emphasized the underlying security and privacy controls for users, but also made it clear that the feature will be activated if users accept the defaults during initial bootup of a new machine. Weitz also shares some of his favorite AI apps and tools, including Cleft Notes and Read AI. Audio editing by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's episode features an interview with Loretta Napoleoni, conducted by Ross Reynolds, the longtime public radio host and occasional GeekWire Podcast guest host, in an event presented by Town Hall Seattle on April 18, 2024. Loretta Napoleoni is an Italian economist and journalist whose books include "Rogue Economics" and "Insurgent Iraq." Her newest book is “Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good." In this interview, she explains the concept of the "present future." This refers to the disorienting era in which we're living, characterized by rapid technological change that creates anxiety and a feeling of being constantly behind. She also discusses the control of technology by a few powerful entrepreneurs, whom she calls "technocapitalists," and the failure of society and the state to direct technological innovation for the common good.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we go inside the GeekWire Awards, our annual recognition of the top people, companies and innovations in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, which drew a sold-out crowd to the Showbox Sodo on Thursday May 9 in Seattle. We talk with finalists about AI, the economy and key trends in their industries, and we hear from some of the winners on stage during the program. RELATED Photos: Inside the GeekWire Awards, with the big winners, musical numbers and surprise guests GeekWire Awards 2024 revealed: Winners bask in momentum of AI and potential of region See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss Amazon's efforts to compete with Trader Joe's, and the related tactics revealed in "The Everything War," the new book by Dana Mattioli of the Wall Street Journal. We also revisit last week's episode with Mattioli and share some of the reactions to the discussion. Plus, the FTC probes Amazon's internal use of Signal's disappearing messages feature, a newly disclosed email shows how Microsoft scrambled to catch up in artificial intelligence, and a new report says that Bill Gates is still a highly influential figure inside Microsoft, especially when it comes to the company's AI strategy. Finally, we go inside the Seattle courtroom where a prominent figure from the cryptocurrency world, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, received a controversial prison sentence this week. Other stories discussed on the show: Amazon stock rises as Q1 earnings top estimates with $143.3B in revenue; AWS sales up 17% DoorDash rips Seattle over minimum wage law; reports record quarterly revenue of $2.5B Prudential to shut down Assurance, the insurance tech startup it acquired for $2.35B in 2019 KING5: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to 4 months for allowing money laundering Business Insider: Bill Gates is still pulling strings at Microsoft, overseeing AI ideas Internet Archive: Full text: An epic Bill Gates rant See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A conversation with Dana Mattioli, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of the new book, "The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power." With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the show, we get a sneak preview of the GeekWire Awards, coming up at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle on Thursday, May 9. We look back at the past winners of the Next Tech Titan title in the awards, and consider the event's track record in predicting major companies to emerge from Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. We also contemplate the evolution of the "Workplace of the Year" category through the rise of remote and hybrid work. And finally, we consider the impact of migration on another part of state: Spokane, Wash., and the Inland Northwest. See more GeekWire Awards coverage, and learn more about the event, which is presented by Astound Business Solutions. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.