Pioneers of AI

Personal health and wellness tools are on the rise as more people take ownership of their physical and mental well-being. Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, believes AI is the key to unlocking small behavior changes for healthier living. As CEO and founder of Thrive Global, she has partnered with Sam Altman to launch Thrive AI Health, a personalized AI health coach designed to expand access to health and wellness for all. Huffington joins Pioneers of AI to share her journey from media mogul to wellness entrepreneur, the importance of self-care, and why she believes AI could be the GPS for our souls.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Responsible AI is more than a buzzword, it’s a guiding principle at Microsoft. Sarah Bird, Chief Product Officer of Responsible AI, leads the company’s efforts to build and deploy AI products with responsibility at the core. She and her team bring standards across the company’s AI efforts, and have played a central role in building Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot. Bird joins Pioneers of AI to share how Microsoft aligns its tools with an ethical framework, why safety and security must be addressed proactively, and what the rise of red team roles reveals about the future of AI created jobs.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

WndrCo is a venture capital firm that views storytelling as the foundation of every successful business, and for good reason. Its founding partner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, helped build DreamWorks into one of the most celebrated animation studios in the world. He is joined at the helm by ChenLi Wang, WndrCo’s managing partner and one of the earliest hires at Dropbox. Together, they sit down with Pioneers of AI to discuss how AI shapes their work, why storytelling is essential to building transformative companies, and WndrCo’s recent partnership with Kimbal Musk.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Pioneers of AI is bringing back one of our most thought-provoking conversations: How AI is transforming the job market. Hilke Schellmann, journalist and author of “The Algorithm,” has spent years diving into the impact of AI on who gets hired and moves up – or doesn’t. Revisit this episode where we talk about how and why she began reporting on AI and jobs, how AI has changed hiring, and how job seekers can leverage the technology to give them an edge.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For years, news organizations have walked a fine line between embracing new and emerging technologies and safeguarding their IP and content from those same technologies. The New York Times is no exception when it comes to its relationship with AI. Alex Hardiman, Chief Product Officer of The New York Times, is leading the storied news organization’s adoption of AI across the company. She also oversees NYT’s expanding portfolio of products, from NYT Cooking to Games. Hardiman joins Pioneers of AI to discuss the principles guiding the Times’ use of AI, how the organization develops and packages its products, and the enduring relevance of Wordle.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s back-to-school season and questions about how AI is changing the classroom are top of mind for parents, students, and teachers. Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, an education platform that pioneered online learning, is one of the leading voices in the conversation about how AI is shaping education. He joins Pioneers of AI to discuss how AI can free teachers to connect more deeply with their students, how personalized AI tutors can enhance learning, and how both teachers and students can navigate the challenges of cheating.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Award-winning visual artist Shantell Martin has made a name for herself through her signature black-line, graphic drawings that have scaled gallery walls and traced paths across Times Square. She's collaborated with iconic brands like Tiffany & Co, as well as leading artists like Kendrick Lamar. For the past ten years, Martin has also been at the forefront of integrating AI into her process. On this Pioneers of AI episode, we explore what creative control looks like in the age of AI, how AI can unlock new potential for artists, and why we need AI-enabled solutions to protect artists' IP.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

OpenAI has released the latest iteration of its flagship product, GPT-5. It arrives after much anticipation, but does it live up to the hype? Jeremy Khan, AI Editor at Fortune, returns to the show to break down what this new model can do. We’ll explore how it performs compared to past iterations, what OpenAI decided to improve and why, and what GPT-5 means for the AI giant’s future.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do we build products and platforms that support a healthy, prosperous future? What will it take to “make the internet fun again?” Should kids be using AI? This week, serial entrepreneur and investor Alexis Ohanian—who co-founded Reddit two decades ago and is currently working to reinvent the social news aggregator Digg—joins Reid and Aria to talk about (re)building online and offline communities in the age of AI. They hear from Alexis on his recent bid for U.S. TikTok, the startups and women’s sports ventures he’s backing through his VC firm Seven Seven Six, and his approach to raising AI-forward daughters with his wife, tennis legend Serena Williams.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As AI becomes a bigger part of the modern workplace, more companies are integrating agents into their workflows, redefining how employees and technology collaborate. At the forefront of this shift is Writer, a company deploying AI agents to take on time consuming tasks, from analyzing customer feedback to drafting business proposals. In this episode of Pioneers of AI, Writer’s co-founder and CEO May Habib joins us to explore the rise of human-AI collaboration, why Writer built its own foundational model, and how she’s leading one of Silicon Valley’s most disruptive AI companies.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Google DeepMind is the powerhouse artificial intelligence lab behind Google’s AI assistant, Gemini. It’s also behind the groundbreaking AI tool, AlphaFold, that can predict a protein’s 3D structure. DeepMind’s COO, Lila Ibrahim, who’s the former COO and President of Coursera, has built her career on exploring how technology can benefit humanity. She’s now leading Google DeepMind with a mindset of responsibility. In this episode, we explore Ibrahim’s impressive career, how DeepMind manages risk, and the ways AI is revolutionizing education and science.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From deepfakes to fabricated news, AI has been shown to generate convincing deceptive images and videos, increasing the spread of misinformation. David Rand, a professor of Information Science and marketing at Cornell University, is using the same technology for a different purpose: debunking those very same conspiracy theories. In a recent and groundbreaking study, Rand and his team asked participants who believed in conspiracies to talk with an AI chatbot specifically designed to reduce those beliefs. The results were surprising. Rand joins Pioneers of AI to discuss what makes conspiracy theories so alluring, how AI can be a powerful tool for debunking them through fact-based conversations, and what this could mean for combating other forms of misinformation.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In her New York Times bestseller “Empire of AI,” journalist Karen Hao traces the rise of an intriguing and controversial tech giant: OpenAI. In years spent chronicling the company, she came to a theory of how OpenAI’s operating model mimics imperialist empires of the past – and how other major AI players have followed suit. Hao’s history and analysis take up the evolution of Open AI’s original mission to its current corporate reality, its reliance on the extraction of data, and the exploitation of labor and resources. Her work is a call to rethink how technology systems are built, and how we can collectively steer AI development away from empire-building toward a more equitable future. Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is the next horizon that could match or surpass human thinking. Companies are investing billions in it, but not necessarily in projects to help humans with our memory, health, or well-being. MIT Media Lab professor Pattie Maes believes a different approach to how we advance AI could center and even re-define the human experience. With more than 30 years of experience in AI, she co-leads the Advancing Humans with AI (AHA) initiative and explores what it will take to ensure that AI supports human flourishing. In this episode Maes shares her benchmarks for this goal, along with research on outcomes for humans using AI every day.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How does the rise of AI impact our sense of what’s true? How can humans maintain a degree of individual privacy and unlock the benefits of AI while mitigating potential harms? In this episode, Reid and Aria sit down with data privacy pioneer Latanya Sweeney, Professor of Government and Technology at Harvard; former Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission; and founder of Harvard’s Public Interest Tech Lab and Data Privacy Lab. They discuss the future of privacy protection, technocracy vs. democracy, teaching in the age of AI, governance, content moderation, and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Founders and entrepreneurs today are racing to build companies with the leanest teams possible. Elias Torres, founder and CEO of Agency AI, a B2B company that delivers personalized, AI-powered customer service, is doing exactly that. His goal? To reach unicorn status with just 100 employees. Formerly the VP of Engineering at HubSpot and co-founder of Drift , Torres brings a direct and visionary mindset to everything he does. In this episode of Pioneers of AI, we talk with Torres not just about Agency AI, but also about the American Dream, how AI is redefining what a fulfilling career can look like, and how his immigrant background has shaped his journey.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What would it look like to keep all living creatures in the loop on the development of new technology?Reid sat down for a wide-ranging solo discussion with Jane Goodall on that very subject – and more. They talked about how to maintain hope and focus on local impact in today’s often chaotic world, how technology – and AI in particular – might be helpful for conservation, and Jane’s global youth program, Roots & Shoots. Plus, the Jane Goodall institute shared audio from a cutting edge acoustic array that helped them discover a brand new species in Gombe National Park in Tanzania! Jane reflected on her legacy and shared stories about bridging unlikely divides, defying the scientific community early in her career, young people opening their eyes to the natural world for the first time, and so much more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI is a powerful tool full of possibilities, but it also carries the potential for significant harm. One disturbing misuse is the creation of synthetic “revenge porn” through deepfakes, targeting anyone without consent. Breeze Liu, a survivor of this form of online image abuse, has dedicated her career to preventing it from happening to others. As an advocate, she played a key role in the passage of the Take It Down Act. As an entrepreneur, her company, Alecto AI, helps users remove deepfake pornographic images from the internet and access critical resources and support. Liu joins Pioneers of AI to share her journey from survivor to advocate, how Alecto AI protects its users, and how the Take It Down Act is helping to combat deepfake abuse.This episode contains discussions of suicide and sexual abuse. If you or someone you know needs help, call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it take to create something the world has never seen before?In this final episode of Artful Intelligence, Reid Hoffman and Chris McLeod explore what it takes to spark a creative revolution with filmmaker Paul Trillo. Using OpenAI’s groundbreaking AI video generator, Sora, Paul directed the world’s first fully AI-generated music video. After gaining early access to Sora, Paul faced a massive creative challenge: How could he use an AI tool known for surreal, dream-like visuals to craft a music video that felt emotionally real? The answer came from embracing AI’s quirks—its strange hallucinations, its unpredictable transformations—and writing prompts like poetic scripts to guide the machine’s creative output.Join us as Paul reveals how he turned an experimental AI model into an award-winning music video—and how creators everywhere can harness emerging tech to redefine what’s possible in art.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Over the past several decades, the field of robotics has achieved remarkable milestones. Robots have been sent to Mars and to the deepest parts of the ocean. Cynthia Breazeal, a professor at the MIT Media Lab, believes there’s another frontier that robots should enter: our daily lives. As a pioneer in social robotics, Breazeal has devoted her career to developing socially and emotionally intelligent machines — robots that can serve as learning partners in classrooms and even assist in navigating mental health challenges. She joins Pioneers of AI to discuss how social robots can coexist with humans, explore the applications of the robots she’s developing, and explain why AI literacy is more important than ever.Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofaiAt the center of AI is people, so we want to hear from you! Share your experiences with AI — or ask us a burning question — by leaving a voicemail at 601-633-2424. Your voice could be featured in a future episode!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.