MARS Magazine

This time Adario Strange spoke to Michael Stewart, Managing Partner at M12, Microsoft's venture capital arm, for one of the most wide-ranging conversations we've had on the channel. They dive into everything from the rise of AI and the push toward AGI, to the future of quantum computing, and new technologies are reshaping energy use, education, and even space itself. Along the way, Michael shared insights on how Microsoft thinks about investing, and his candid take on the risks and opportunities ahead. From modular data centers to the global AI race in Asia and Europe, this interview is a deep dive into where the next wave of innovation might take us. Guest website: M12.vc 

In this episode, Adario Strange speaks with Sean Neville, the co-founder of Circle.com (the company behind the USDC stablecoin) and founder of Catena Labs, a bold new startup helping AI agents use crypto to work for humans. Neville takes us from his early tech days at Macromedia to the birth of Circle, sharing how USDC went from an experiment to a cornerstone of the global crypto economy. We dig into the big questions: What is a stablecoin, really? How will "AI money" change the way machines and people interact? And should governments even try to compete in the stablecoin space? This is a front-row look at the collision of finance, technology, and intelligence. Guest website: CatenaLabs.com

Google and Yandex veteran Anna Veronika Dorogush joins Adario Strange to explain why her growing London-based startup, Recraft AI, is able to compete with tech giants like Adobe, how experienced designers can painlessly integrate AI into their workflow, and where AI design tools are most likely to dominate soon. Then the two explore the world of European tech startups, a rapidly unfolding landscape of newcomers securing tens of millions of dollars in funding and even a few billion-dollar valuations, even while their U.S. counterparts get all the headlines. Finally, Anna and Adario discuss the outlook for human jobs, now that AI and robotics are becoming a reality that no corporate workplace can ignore. Guest website: Recraft.ai

AI security expert Christopher "Tito" Sestito, the CEO and co-founder of Austin-based Hidden Layer, joins Adario Strange to uncover what's really happening in the world of AI when is comes to fighting hackers, malicious code, and threats from other AI systems.   Sestito has been working within the realm of cybersecurity for many years, but AI security presents new challenges, and we get into them, as well as discuss the threat of AI being harnessed via deepfakes, generative AI audio, and even social media to scam unsuspecting victims.  Guest website: HiddenLayer.com

While OpenAI, Meta, Google, and others dominate the AI news, there's a rapidly growing wild west of open source AI software and developers also pushing the technology boundaries forward, sometimes in unexpected ways.  Manos Koukoumidis, the founder of Oumi.AI and a veteran of Microsoft, Meta, and Google, joins Adario Strange to explain how he's working to organize the open source AI community to help create a safer AI future, whether it's guarding against malicious code or addressing fears about potential future rogue AI systems. Guest website: Oumi.ai

In this episode, Adario Strange is joined by veteran marketing and public relations expert Aaron Kwittken, the founder of Prophet, a new tool that helps brands harness the power of AI to market to the public more efficiently. Kwittken isn't a newcomer to using data to leverage brands to shape their message, but the power of AI is taking his efforts to new levels, and he explains how the industry will impact everyone. Then the two dive into the topic of AI in guiding public sentiment via social media, and how AI is already transforming the realm of education, from students to the professors instructing the world's young minds.  Guest website: PRProphet.ai

In this episode, computer scientist and author Andriy Burkov joins Adario Strange to unpack the secrets of AI that many have overlooked. In his new book, "The Hundred-Page Language Models Book," Andriy breaks down what AI actually means, how the space has developed over the last few decades, and how even non-AI engineers can begin to understand even the most complicated aspects of AI. Later, the two attack the topic of AI moving into the realm of superintelligence, and what Andriy thinks of the many predictions from other AI experts regarding thinking machines and the risks they pose to humanity. Finally, they delve into recent actions taken in Europe no the legal front against AI, as well as one research group has highlighted the potential danger of the internet being flooded with inaccurate AI information, making finding real information ever more difficult. Guest website: theMLbook.com

In this episode, we are joined by the fascinating Andrew Mayne. A former OpenAI team member, he has also hosted documentaries on the Discovery Channel and worked with some of the world's most famous illusionists.  Along with host Adario Strange, the two explore what China's DeepSeek AI effort really means to Silicon Valley tech giants, whether OpenAI, Meta, and Google can catch up, and if this major development will continue to impact hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in AI models and GPU chips, accelerate the path to AGI, and force U.S. AI players to work even harder to develop the next big breakthrough. Guest website: AndrewMayne.com

The next phase of artificial intelligence is agents and robotics, but in the real of tangible scientific and medical breakthroughs, quantum computing combined with AI is where the future is headed. To introduce us to this new frontier of super-powered AI, SandboxAQ vice president Fernando Dominguez Pinuaga joins the pod to explain the possibilities. From new medicines and treatments for disease, to improving defenses against AI-enabled cybersecurity attacks, to peeling back the fabric of our universe, Fernando unpacks how quantum computing paired with AI is about to change our world. Guest website: SandboxAQ.com

The year 2025 is guaranteed to reveal new surprises and advancements in artificial intelligence, but what about the human hands guiding that progress? Can we trust ourselves to wield this new power responsibly? Dr. Christopher DiCarlo, the author of "Building A God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It" has a few answers to these important questions.  Host Adario Strange and Dr. DiCarlo investigate the current state of AGI (artificial general intelligence), which companies are making the most progress toward it, and what this will mean for humanity in the new year.  Guest website: ConvergenceAnalysis.org