Danny In The Valley

The Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, joins the pod to discuss the British Government's 'AI Opportunities Action Plan' (and Elon Musk). Plus, a new guide the UK's fastest growing tech companies is revealed by The Times and Sunday Times. Find it here - https://www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-100-tech/tech-feature/article/best-uk-tech-companies-2025-qzt9lcmnd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is AGI right around the corner? Sam Altman thinks so. Mark Zuckerberg decides to get rid of fact-checkers at Meta, at least for the USA. And what does it take to put data centres in space? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year! If 2025 is half as fascinating as 2024, we're in for wild ride. So, to predict the future, Katie and Danny are joined by two venture capitalists who spend their days checking out where tech goes next. Interplanetary overdrive anyone? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drones! Guys and St. Thomas' Hospital in London have started a pioneering trial using drones to deliver blood samples between the two sites. Sound simple, but this is one of the most regulated airspaces on the planet so how did they do it? Plus Katie and Danny get nostalgic for Christmas Tech past. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dario Amodei imagines that "powerful AI" will bring a golden future which people "will be literally moved to tears by". He talks about his grand vision and his grave concerns; and why he left OpenAI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will an Oura ring change the health industry as we know it? The company's CEO Tom Hale is this week's guest. Plus, why GM have pulled the plug on their robotaxi and has Google come closer to achieving the dream of quantum computing? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we trust the news in a world with artificially created content? Thomson Reuters CEO, Steve Hasker, joins the podcast to discuss the use of their information, and the future of journalism. Plus a look at Intel as the battle for chip supremacy goes on. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's the point of quantum computing now we have generative AI? Will quantum computing change the world? And just what is quantum computing anyway? Raj Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum, joins the show to explain. Plus the Bluesky debate continues, and should we use Google to find out what a monopolist is? Clip from BBC Radio 5Live Breakfast used by permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny and Katie take on two big issues of the week - finding out from social media analyst Dan Whitmarsh just how big new social media platforms need to be. And software security expert Joe Levy talks about where crypto is taking us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The future might finally be here! Danny visits the headquarters of Joby Aviation, the company possibly furthest along in commercialising "flying cars" - just don't call them that! Plus, more on how the tech world is reacting to Donald Trump's victory and Elon Musk's new job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny and Katie look at the implications for Tech with the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the Whitehouse. And media analyst, Renée DiResta joins Danny and Katie to talk about how the new digital media has changed politics - and what you can do to be heard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If we made robots think more like animals, how clever could they be? This week we hear from David Rajan, CEO of Opteran, a pioneering AI company which is reverse engineering biological brains to create a "radical new scientific approach to doing AI". And Danny, the cat and the Tesla. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Satya Nadella is only the third boss in the tech giant's 50 year history, but he has pivoted Microsoft towards accelerating technology, and forging partnerships with leading companies including OpenAI. On a whistle-stop AI tour of the world and in his only UK interview this year - this exclusive conversation with Satya Nadella covers the dangers, pitfalls and growth of AI. What better time to sit down with the Microsoft supremo than almost two years after the public launch of ChatGPT? He tells Katie that his major worry is that nations miss the opportunity to take advantage of AI and technological innovation for economic growth "ultimately the benefits of it being much more broad spread are, I think... the real dream." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katie and Danny are joined by Al Gore for big thoughts on how to take on the big challenges. Outside of AI, there is one area that is still getting a good amount of venture capital dollars and that's tackling climate change. But what's the right way to invest and will it work? Who decides the way forward, the investors, the tech giants or the politicians? And who better to answer these questions than Al Gore, former US Vice-President and now guru to climate campaigners worldwide. He's our guest this week. Follow us now for more big interviews coming up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week - money, invention and regulation as we delve deep into the mind of Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, a hugely influential App designed in their words to “democratise finance”. And did Danny cleverly predict in our first episode, that Sir Demis Hassabis would indeed win a Nobel Prize? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny joins Katie in London for the Times Tech Summit, where the co-founder and boss of Google DeepMind Sir Demis Hassabis sets out his startling view that AI has the potential "to cure all diseases" and could 'have general human cognitive abilities within ten years." But fundamentally - do we really understand what AI is? Professor Neil Lawrence, the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at Cambridge University, Faculty AI CEO, Marc Warner, and Naila Murray, Director of AI Research at Meta share their views. And Danny and Katie ponder whether AI mania could be more about money than the mind? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny Fortson in California - 'Danny in the Valley' - joins Katie Prescott in London to talk to the people changing tech across the world. As The Sunday Times' West Coast Correspondent, Danny Fortson has witnessed first hand the technological whirlwind coming from Silicon Valley. Katie as Technology Business Editor at The Times has reported on how digital technology is transforming businesses and society around the world. Now ‘Danny in the Valley' meets ‘Katie in the City' - with a podcast presented from San Francisco and London. Each week sees a fresh interview with pioneers in tech from the brightest start-ups to the tech giants as they chronicle the AI revolution. Sounds good, but what will it sound like? Here's a taste.'What Occurs' by Islands is used by permission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'For nearly seven years Danny Fortson has made the Valley his own, interviewing the newcomers and the established; the inventors and the entrepreneurs; the brightest minds and most daring doers in Silicon Valley. Now the show gets an extra dimension as he is joined by London Technology Business Editor, Katie Prescott for the new Times Tech Podcast as they look at who is shaping tech not just in Silicon Valley, but around the world. It will be with you very soon, but first a special edition of Danny in the Valley, where Danny talks Katie through the people and the themes from the journey so far. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent brings on John Chambers, former chief executive of Cisco, to talk about artificial intelligence (4:30), why booms are necessary (8:00), coming to Silicon Valley (12:15), Cisco (14:15), buying 180 companies (19:00), the dotcom bust (23:00), how the old startups have grown up (29:15), whether founder shares are a good thing (31:00), still working at 75 (34:00), competition (35:40), why he has bet on the startup Humane (40:45), spending his own money (45:00), how AI will change everything (48:15), and his worst day (53:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The gig economy is coming for your soul. The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Natalie Monbiot of HourOne, to talk about the digital clone company starting before the ChatGPT moment (4:15), turning 5 minutes of footage into a digital clone (7:10), the hunt for the “killer app” for virtual humans (13:25), how the company started (18:20), Hollywood (24:00), bringing the dead back to life (27:20), your rights over what your clone does (32:40), and virtual human marketplaces (37:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Artificial intelligence “agents” will create more economic value than humans within ten years. Sound outlandish? That is the prediction of this week's guest, George Sivulka, founder of AI startup Hebbia, who comes on to talk about building AI that actually works for business (3:20), AI orchestra conductors (9:15), coral reefs and why he called the company Hebbia (10:30), why he started the company (19:30), being a “disappointment” to his athlete parents (29:30), working at NASA as a teen (33:00), meeting Peter Thiel (36:45), and how AI is going to revolutionize the economy (42:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Steve Oldham of Captura, to talk about why sucking CO2 out of the air is not a bad idea (6:30), using the ocean (10:00), their contraption (11:15), whether it can be done at scale (16:45), the maths of climate solutions (19:00), paying for it (21:00), the evolution of carbon removal tech (26:00), moving to Canada from England (30:00), how the space industry is like climate (31:45), the role of regulation (34:15), raising $60m (37:45), and politics (41:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Zal Bilimoria to talk about being a solo venture capitalist (3:15), how he decided on investments (6:30), happening into climate tech (9:30), raising $50m every three years (10:45), learning at his dad's business (12:20), bouncing around the tech industry (14:30), his first job as a kid (21:40), focusing on hard tech (28:00), where he won't invest (31:00), hunting for the “fund returner” (35:30), why venture is not glamorous (37:00), reinventing IVF (43:20), and the potential backlash (46:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It wasn't long ago that lab-grown meat was booming. Startups raised billions of dollars. Investors boldly predicted the large scale slaughter of cows, chickens and fish would soon end. Then it all went pear-shaped. This week Joshua March and Kasia Gora come on to talk about how their startup, SciFi Foods, failed after raising more than $40 million on how the market turned against their company and the industry broadly (3:30), being affected by the downturn in plant-based meat (7:30), the Gamechangers documentary (10:30), being transparent with staff (15:10), the importance of failing well (19:30), the progress they made (27:30), Big Meat's lobbying efforts (30:45), whether they would do it again (32:45), the Silicon Valley machine (37:00), venture debt (40:30), and the next thing (42:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch faced potentially dying in a federal prison. But in a 12-week trial in America, he beat all the odds and was found “not guilty” last month on 15 counts of fraud brought by the Department of Justice. He comes on the show to talk about the insight gleaned from a 12-year legal fight (5:30), the need for a British “Innocence Project” (11:30), going back to the origin of the case in 2011 (16:15), how the Autonomy sale went pear-shaped (18:45), why the boring nature of the case may have helped (23:15), what he would say to HP's former chief executive Meg Whitman (26:15), getting smeared (29:15), how he won (36:30), most deals fail (43:30), getting extradited (48:20), his family (53:00), spending tens of millions of pounds on his defence (56:00), his treatment in British business and society (58:30), advising startups and the public conversation about AI (1:01:15), acquittal day (1:03:00), overhauling the US extradition treaty (1:04:30), how his wife managed (1:08:00), watching the Super Bowl (1:10:30), and feeling like he has won a second life (1:13:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Hany Farid, a digital forensic professor, to talk about launching a cybersecurity startup called Get Real Labs (3:00), the growing capability of AI to create totally believable images (6:45), and video (9:00), the Slovakia election example (12:00), the end of shared truth (15:30), why we might learn the lessons from social media regulation failures (20:50), how AI could make things far worse, pre and post election in America (23:45), and how he managed to start a company while also being a university professor (27:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy July 4th! Running back one of our favorite episodes from last summer - Fred Lalonde of Deep Sky, who speaks eloquently about the need to bury every ton of CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a website goes down, companies lose an average of $500,000 per minute. The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jennifer Tejada, chief executive of PagerDuty, a company founded to keep that from happening (2:45). She talks about growing up in a small town (8:00), using supercomputers in the 1990's to sell consumer products (12:30), coming to the West Coast via Australia (14:00), working around the world (16:30), operating as an outsider (18:15), defending DEI (21:00), the crossover of pro sports and tech (25:00), and going public (28:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world is aflutter with talk of "AI doctors". A UK company has actually built one. The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dr Ross Harper, co founder and chief executive of Limbic to talk about creating a clinical AI chatbot (4:30), how it works (6:40), starting out four years ago 13:40), getting in with 40% of mental health care providers in Britain (17:40), being certified as a medical device (22:40), targeting America (24:40), studying computational neuroscience (27:00), starting the company (33:40), the future of AI in medicine (38:00), and the comparison to self-driving vehicles (41:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The climate fight is going far better than you realise. So says this week's guest, Tom Steyer, former presidential candidate and founder of Galvanize Climate Solutions. He comes on to talk with Sunday Times correspondent Danny Fortson about why doomerism doesn't work (4:30), beating Big Oil (8:45), when theory meets reality (15:10), whether the climate argument has been won (21:30), his life before dedicating his career to climate (30:20), dabbling in politics (36:30), running a climate investment firm (41:00), running for president (44:00), and the possibility that the oil industry will transform (51:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are about 1,200 billionaires in Europe and America. Why don't they do more good with their money? This week's guest reckons he can get them to do just that. The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Kalil, founder of Renaissance Philanthropy, to talk about why he created the organisation (4:15), nationalism (8:00), the problem with the current philanthropy model (11:15), leveraging tech and science (16:40), his background in Washington DC and the White House (22:20), working for Eric Schmidt (31:20), taking big swings (33:45), and the changing nature of giving (38:00), Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI will save the NHS - but not the wya you think. The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dom Pimenta, a cardiologist and co-founder of Tortus, to talk about the potential of its artificial intelligence interface (AI) for doctors (5:00), preventing burnout (11:00), naming the tool OSLER (18:30), how it works (20:45), why he became a doctor (26:00), founding a charity during Covid (29:15), quitting the NHS (32:45), getting Khosla Ventures to invest (35:35), trying to get the product into market (40:00), and AI's potential in medicine (45:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on MIke Schroepfer, Meta's former CTO, to talk about why he left Meta (3:00), growing up working his parents' radio station (9:00), going to Stanford (12:00), getting into tech startups (14:15), the dotcom boom (17:15), going to Mozilla (21:15), joining Facebook when MySpace was bigger (23:00), Mark Zuckerberg (26:30), lessons from scaling to a giant company (31:40), the climate opportunity (35:10), focussing on hardware (39:40), using his money (43:30), the talent influx (44:40), the AI moment (47:30), and his climate tech predictions (51:05) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine if you shrunk all of the machines in a hospital and crammed them into a single device the size of an iPhone that could diagnose and treat hundreds of diseases. That is what this week's guest is trying to do. The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mary Lou Jepsen to talk about building a mobile device to diagnose stroke at her startup Openwater (4:30), killing cancer cells with infrared light (8:45), how it takes 13 years to create a new medical device (14:45), why MRI's are so expensive (18:00), her history in consumer electronics (21:10), convincing investors that open-source is the best approach (25:30), when she nearly died (28:20), using the tools of our time (30:30), the device (38:50), the handheld hospital (41:20), a medical app store (51:00), telepathy (52:00), her friendship with Peter Gabriel (57:30), and building a new medical business model (1:00:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Would you watch an Olympics where everyone was doping? The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Aron D'Souza, co-founder and president of the Enhanced Games, to talk about launching a new competition where everyone is pharmacologically enhanced (6:00), the events (10:00), why he started it (14:50), meeting Peter Thiel (18:20), leading the Gawker case (19:30), the response from the Olympics (23:00), how it could go wrong (26:00), making sure noone dies (28:10), adding robotics and cybernetics (32:20), the funders (35:00), lining up media rights (39:00), the most recent doping scandal (41:00), and the coming legal fight (41:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times's tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Augustus Doricko to talk about becoming a Thiel fellow (3:15), looking for the proof of God (5:45), starting his first company (9:30) cloud seeding (11:30), the history of cloud seeding (13:30), on whether silver iodide is safe (17:00), how it would work in practice (20:30), how it could go wrong (27:30), geo-engineering (30:45), why now (23:15), the Dubai example (35:00), and finding God (38:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on DoNotPay's Josh Browder to talk about how artificial intelligence is changing his business (4:20), paying a $1m dividend (8:15), blowing up the myth that you have to lose money to get big (11:00), the coming AI crash (13:00), the path forward for DoNotPay (16:40), San Francisco's moment (19:30), his biggest mistake (21:30), protecting AI's (24:00), and ambient intelligence (27:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sid Jha of Arbol to talk about the importance of insurance (3:45), using data to change how it works (8:20), how climate has scrambled the industry (10:30), regulation (14:20), creating a new asset class (16:40), weather (24:10), growing up in India (29:20), going to Wall Street (30:40), launching Arbol (33:00), the space revolution (35:40), using blockchain (37:30), and why life is more expensive in an era of climate change (42:45) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times correspondent brings on Noor Siddiquui, founder of Orchid, to talk about screening embryos (5:00), starting the company (9:30), hiring people as a first time founder (13:00), targeting ageing at the very beginning (15:00), how it works (18:20), why she thinks this is the future of conception (22:00), the need for regulation (31:00), the potential to exacerbate societal problems (38:00), why longevity enthusiasts invested (40:30), and the potential conservative backlash (49:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eugenia Kyuda, founder of Replika, to talk about AI friends (4:00), growing up in Russia (6:45), her dad's experience at Chernobyl (9:00), applying to Y Combinator (12:30), her first idea that didn't work (16:30), losing her best friend (17:30), launching Replika (20:00), building a bot with pre-written answers (23:40), the key to good conversation (24:30), the bot before the ChatGPT moment (27:15), the changing AI landscape (29:20), how it works (31:50), securing people's secrets (33:50), and disrupting death (39:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times; tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitry Shevelenko of Perplexity.ai, to talk about finding the company though the Uber mafia (5:00), taking on Google (6:30), the founders' start as AI researchers (8:45), why he joined (11:35), what he did before this (17:00), closing his startup (20:15), hypergrowth lessons (24:40), the business model (28:00), the Gemini disaster (32:35), and doing it differently (36:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ana Pavlovic Hans to talk about using rocks to cut carbon (3:00), coming up with the best “recipe” (8:00), the measurement breakthrough (11:00), bringing the cost down (20:00), making rock weathering “sexy' (25:45), being raised in mining country in America and Australia (27:00), the partnership with Stripe (37:40), raising $12 million (41:30), and critter stories from Australia (42:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to talk about writing a book on blockchain and crypto (4:00), why it's still early (9:30), NFT's (14:30), the computer versus the casino (18:30), boom and bust (23:00), his vision for a blockchain-based web (27:15), the rise of a new social media model (32:30), overcoming inertia (39:20), bitcoin v everything else (42:10), central bank digital currencies (44:00), and the ethereum economy (48:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times; tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Diego Saez GIl, founder of Pachama, to talk about carbon reduction (4:00), hist first startups (6:10), Pachama's start (12:00), building tools to catalyse climate projects (16:00), how it works (19:10), net zero pledges (22:00), when his house burned down (24:50), the carbon market (27:40), raising $90 million (32:00), and his worst day (36:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent brings on David Barrett, founder of Expensify, to talk about creating a “remote-first” company (3:15), the lounge (6:45), the return-to-office movement (14:15), going public and then getting its shares smashed (17:15), why venture capital is a scam (23:30), why he likes public market investors (30:25), keeping people happy when shares lose 95% of their value (33:35), and the artificial intelligence boom (35:25). PLUS: The link to our previous episode with Delian Asparouhov, founder of Varda, whose space-factory startup just had its first craft land safely back to earth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Raj Kapoor, co-founder of Climactic, to talk about growing up in Pennsylvania (3:10), his early days in Silicon Valley (8:00), making himself president of the Internet (club) (10:30), his first startup (16:30), Cleantech 1.0 (22:00), joining Lyft (25:00), self-driving cars (28:30), raising a first fund at Climactic (32:15), using software to cut emissions (37:00), and remaking the electric grid (45:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Fergus Hay, founder of The Hacking Games, to talk about why he started the company (5:00), the difference between the real and online worlds (9:30), why everyone gets caught (15:15), his plan for a documentary and television series (21:00), the Hollywood angle (25:45), making hacking sexy (30:30), the cybersecurity industry's stance on hackers (35:05), how much of cybercrime is invisible (40:45), and reaching young people (44:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitri Mehlhorn to talk about Investing in Us (4:45), what it invests in (7:30), funneling cash into election groups (13:20), why America's election will be decided by the finest of margins (16:50), how artificial intelligence fits with democracy (21:15), the dangers (26:05), Silicon Valley's attitude to politics (32:50), what works when it comes to changing people's minds (37:30), why age might not be Joe Biden's biggest problem (41:40), and a terrifying thought experiment (45:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A throwback conversation with Bryan Johnson, a billionaire techie turned longevity enthusiast who goes to extreme measures to "reverse" his age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.