Playing With Reality

2023 has truly been the year of AI. No tech story has dominated the headlines to such an extent, and for good reason. Its effects are already world changing. Over the course of this season, we’ve followed the thrilling rise of AI in so many different fields - from health to music, and fraud prevention to coding. In this final episode of Playing with Reality Season 2, we’re doing a retrospective on these topics, and a speculative look forward, to see where we stand today, and what’s coming next in the world of Artificial Intelligence.Today’s GuestNina SchickNina Schick is an author, entrepreneur and advisor specialising in Generative AI. One of the first GenAI experts, Nina analyses how this nascent field of artificial intelligence will change humanity. Among many other endeavours, Nina is the Founder of Tamang Ventures, an advisory and creative firm focused on Generative AI, and the creator of ‘The Era of Generative AI’ – a community featuring the weekly EGAI newsletter, as well as exclusive content and interviews.

Music has always been a creative act - something that expresses the deepest of human emotions in song. But now, digital technologies are stepping in to challenge humans. Today, with just a simple prompt in natural language, AI can create a fully formed song, or even copy the exact style of established artists. So what does this mean for the industry, and for the musicians themselves? Are we reaching a Napster style moment, where copyright is at risk? And is it all bad news? How are musicians utilising these new technologies to create things which are exciting and new? Find out this week on Playing with Reality.Today’s GuestMarcus du SautoyMarcus du Sautoy is a mathematician at the University of Oxford, where he is also the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. He is the author of a number of popular maths and science books, including The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think, and Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut. He is one of the world’s leading thinkers about the intersection between science, creativity and digital technologies.

With the increasing prevalence of digital monetary transactions, fraud has become an ever-present threat to all of us online. And advancements in AI have also made it possible for fraudsters to use sophisticated techniques to perpetrate their crimes. From deepfakes to investment scams, AI has made it easier than ever for fraudsters to manipulate people and systems. But AI is also being used to fight back - identifying patterns of fraud, detect anomalies in transactions, and even using behavioural biometrics to spot fraudsters before they can commit the crime. But who is winning in the battle between fraudsters and those fighting them? Will AI be the saviour here, or something that makes the issue of fraud worse? Find out on this week's episode of Playing with Reality.Today’s GuestDaniel HolmesDaniel is a highly experienced global Fraud Prevention Leader with a career working across multiple business sectors, including Banks and Fraud & Financial Crime technology providers. He focuses on how data, technology, analytics, process and education can help banks to succeed in protecting customers and reducing fraud losses. He works as the Fraud Prevention SME at Feedzai, a company whose RiskOps platform leverages machine learning and big data to prevent and detect financial crime for some of the world's largest banks.https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-holmes-65911483/?originalSubdomain=ukhttps://feedzai.com/Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

The release of OpenAI’s GPT-4 has sent shockwaves around the world of Artificial Intelligence. Its power to work across multiple modalities and increased precision in its answers has astounded many - but what about those in the coding community? Because AI has been used in the coding space for some time - from Codex, to Microsoft’s Power Platform, and more. But with new models of GPT able to turn natural language into code, what will this mean for the future of coding? Will it see developers out of a job as code becomes fully automated by AI? Or is the quality of its output not quite there yet? Today on Playing with Reality we ask: Just how much has GPT-4 changed the code?Today’s GuestsJoakim WahlqvistJoakim has been at Sogeti for the past 6 years, where he recently became the CTO of Data and AI. He has a wealth of experience across the AI space and was once a developer himself. He now works to help clients implement AI technologies to bring about rapid innovation across the digital technology ecosystem.https://www.linkedin.com/in/joakim-wahlqvist/Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

Generative models of Artificial Intelligence are being used across industries to huge and varied effects - and as we learnt in our first episode of season 2, sometimes with potentially sinister consequences. But there’s one realm where this kind of AI is broadly positive: healthcare. In medicine and drug discovery, AI is being used to scan huge data sets and even discover new drugs. It’s making the lives of doctors more efficient and even helped out in the fight against Covid. But will this new AI see doctors dependent on it for all diagnoses? Make hypochondriacs of us all? And where is it going next? Welcome to the remarkable world of AI-enabled Healthcare.Today’s GuestsDeepa MamtaniDeepa Mamtani leads Sogeti’s AI Centre of Excellence in the Netherlands, and together with her team develops AI solutions using deep neural networks, GANs and computer vision. With a multi-disciplinary consulting background in strategy, analytics and data science, she is passionate about analysing and leveraging data and translating them into strategic outcomes.https://labs.sogeti.com/experts/deepa-mamtani/Aaron MorrisAaron Morris is the co-founder and CEO of PostEra, a company building an end-to-end medicinal chemistry platform to advance drug discovery. After working in the financial sector, Aaron saw the limiting nature of drug discovery in biotech companies and pharma, and so set up a company to come in at the early stage of drug discovery and improve efficiency, using AI to do so. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-morris-9922277b/ Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

The power of generative models of Artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and Dall-E dominate the headlines, for good, and of course for bad, these days. They bring promise, yes, but also a kind of fear. So could they be a Frankenstein’s monster of a technology? Or something that could save the planet? And where did it all come from, anyway? In this, our first episode of a new season of Playing with Reality focusing on Artificial Intelligence, we take a look at the fascinating history of AI to discover more about how it went from a niche theoretical field to the world defining technology it is today, exploring its possibilities and potential dangers.Host Menno Van Doorn also introduces his new co-host Tijana Nikolic, a Sogeti AI expert, who will be joining him all season to comment on the interviews and discuss the fascinating themes.Today’s GuestsNell WatsonEleanor ‘Nell’ Watson is a trailblazer in emerging technologies such as machine vision and A.I. ethics, and dedicates her work to protecting human rights and infusing ethics, safety, and values into technologies like Artificial Intelligence. She is the Chair & Vice-Chair of the IEEE’s ECPAIS Transparency Experts Focus Group, and P7001 Transparency of Autonomous Systems committee on A.I. Ethics & Safety, where she helps to safeguard algorithmic trust in AI. https://www.nellwatson.com/David WeinbergerDavid Weinberger is an author, technologist, and speaker. Originally trained as a philosopher, David’s work focuses on how technology, particularly the internet and machine learning, is changing our ideas. Since 2004 he has been a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. His books include Too Big to Know and Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility.https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidweinberger-writer/ Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

Menno Van Doorn is back with a new series of Playing with Reality, to take you on another excursion into the world of technology - this time into the thrilling field of Artificial Intelligence. After a first season exploring the Metaverse, this time round we’ll be asking the biggest questions about AI, like what effect it will have on the creative sectors, and even whether there could ever be a general AI that transcends the boundaries of human intelligence. It’s a Pandora’s box of technology that has been thrown open, but will we ever be able to close it? And should we even want to? Join Menno and guests from across the world from March 1st to find out.Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

2022 has been an exciting and turbulent year for tech. From the explosion of the metaverse into the public consciousness, to the FTX crash and the emergence of AI in the creative space, the world’s top companies have led the way in innovating products that are truly changing the digital world. But what were the most surprising trends of the year? And what will next year hold? In this, the final episode of the first season of Playing with Reality, we focus on the most exciting developments in the metaverse and AI to create a full picture of the year in technology, before looking ahead to 2023.Today’s GuestsTijana NikolicTijanaNikolić is an AI specialist at Sogeti with a diverse background in biology, marketing, and IT. In 2020, she was part of the team behind the Artificial Data Amplifier, the winner of the Sogeti Innovation of the year. Her work covers privacy, quality, ethics, and sustainability, in the AI space.https://www.linkedin.com/in/tijana-nikoli%C4%87-99b059110 Mike BuobMike Buob is the Vice President of Sogeti, and has been part of the company for 17 years. Amongst many other things, he’s a Metaverse expert, and is really passionate about the power of immersive technologies, and positioning Sogeti as the leaders in thinking about the most exciting trends coming round the corner.https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-buob/ 

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that they had bought the gaming company Activision Blizzard for a reported $67.1 billion. This was a watershed moment for the industry, and one which signalled a cultural shift as gaming became a truly mainstream entertainment medium. But how did we get here? How did gaming move from a niche industry dominated by teenagers, to one attracting thousands of fans to live esports events and millions streaming online? In this episode of Playing with Reality, we explore these questions and more, looking at what the future holds as other industries get more invested in the gaming world.Today’s GuestsJoost Van DreunenJoost Van Dreunen is an academic, entrepreneur, investor and strategic advisor to start-ups and financial funds active in video games. He teaches courses on video games at the NYU Stern School of Business, and has written books, including “One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games.” Prior to this, Joost was the co-founder and CEO of SuperData Research, a games market research firm acquired by Nielsen in 2018.https://www.linkedin.com/in/joostvandreunen/Koen SchobbersKoen is a professional gamer specialising in the racing game Trackmania. He later became a host for ESPN, a board member and vice chair of the Athletes, Players & Community Commission of the Global Esports Federation and the founder of Parents of Play, a charity which seeks to restore and strengthen parents’ relationships with their gaming children. He is also the author of the book 'My Gaming Child', and has been a professional speaker since 2016, including at events like TEDx.https://koenschobbers.nl/

Digital Twins are one of the most interesting technologies today attempting to recreate real life systems and processes in digital versions. These are mirror worlds which not only play with reality, they are trying to recreate it with true fidelity. But where did these technologies come from? Who were the early pioneers? And what does it mean to make a digital copy of something tangible and real? From automotive, to aerospace and even entertainment industries, Digital Twins are some of the most exciting and genuinely useful technologies to get widespread hype in recent years. In this episode of Playing with Reality, we look to discover more about their past, present and future.Today’s GuestsTimoni WestTimoni West is the vice president of Product, Digital Twins and AI at Unity, a company whose cross-platform game engine Builds real-time 3D projects for various industries across games, animation, automotive, architecture. She’s been there for over 7 years, and over that time she has worked to lead advanced product development for spatial computing tools. Now she spends her time focusing on ensuring that the tools that Unity creates are available to all.https://www.linkedin.com/in/timoni/ Karen WillcoxKaren Willcox is the Director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin. Before this, she spent 17 years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through her research, she produces scalable computational methods for the design of next-generation engineered systems, and she is currently working on projects for institutions as prestigious as the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Research Laboratory, amongst many others. Earlier this year, Karen was invited to give a TEDx talk on the potential of digital twin technology - watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzfMLYw_-Ps. https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-willcox-b6150b111/ 

In 2006, some of the globe’s top minds in technology met in California to talk about a new thing called “the metaverse”. People talked about virtual worlds and how to make them a reality, and during the conference, a roadmap was created. Now in 2022, the Metaverse is all the rage. Following Meta’s vast investments into their conception of the metaverse, and various other companies wanting to weigh in as well, it looks like the ideas born in that 2006 conference could become a reality. But how right were the predictions of the mid 2000s? And what did the early proponents of the metaverse create back then? In this episode of Playing With Reality, we take a look at the past and present of the metaverse, to get a broad view of where it is going in the future.Today’s GuestsPhilip RosedalePhilip is a serial entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab in 1999, a company which would soon create Second Life, an avatar based, online multimedia platform. After leaving Linden Lab in 2010, Philip Started High Fidelity, a company which is developing a next-generation virtual reality platform with a current focus on spatial sound. In 2007, Philip was included in Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World, and has won various other awards for his work in inventing groundbreaking technology.https://www.linkedin.com/in/philiprosedale/Jochen HummelJochen Hummel is an entrepreneur, director and mentor with a background in coding. In 2006, he founded Metaversum, a company who created Twinity, an early virtual online world where avatars and their spaces were based on real people and real cities, which he led until 2010. Since then, he has worked in various other relms in the tech space, and is now the CEO of Coreon & ESTeam - a Multilingual AI and LangOps platform.www.linkedin.com/in/ceojochenhummel/Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

As ideas for the metaverse and other online communities and spaces continue to grow and become more developed, it only makes sense that major companies and corporations now want to get in on the act. Of course, everyone has heard of Meta and the billions they have invested, but who else is doing exciting things in this space? What is the benefit of it to corporations in both the IT and non digital sectors? Could these spaces become the best new way for organisations to interact with their consumers? On this episode of Playing with Reality, we explore how companies of all sizes are looking to tap in to this exciting new technology.Today’s GuestsJoe PineJoe is an author and management advisor and the cofounder of Strategic Horizons. He has also been a Visiting Scholar with the MIT Design Lab and a Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam. His books include “Infinite possibility” a multiverse taxonomy of reality, and “The Experience Economy”, which shows how goods and services are nice for companies to have, but that the economy nowadays is run by experiences.Jerry EitelJerry is a Partner Emeritus in the Tax Departments of the accounting group, Prager Metis, where he also serves as the Chief Metaverse Officer for their Metaverse office. With 35 years experience in the accounting profession, Jerry now oversees expansion and planning for Prager Metis’ Metaverse clients, and his responsibilities include managing the organisation of strategic partnerships within the Web3 and metaverse spaces.Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

Augmented Reality is one of the most exciting frontiers in modern tech - from Google Glass to Snapchat filters, it already plays a significant role in our lives, more than many might think. New developments in hardware and AR’s opportunities for online community engagement have driven the field forward, putting us at the precipice of widespread use in normal life. But are there any costs to this? And where did AR actually begin - with smartphone cameras, or simple eye glasses? In this episode of Playing with Reality, we look to the future of this hugely exciting field, finding out about the most exciting innovations and companies currently on the market, while exploring why the enhancement of sight is going to dominate the future of popular technology.  Today’s Guests David RoseDavid Rose is an entrepreneur, MIT lecturer, author, and expert on all things to do with designing a better metaverse. His current role is as CTO of Home Outside, an AR tool that will allow people to redesign their backyards, and before that, he founded other AR companies like Clearwater. He has lectured on digital technologies at MIT and many other prestigious institutions.You can find more about him through his website, where you can also order his book, Supersight: https://www.supersight.world/  Jason McDowallJason is an investor and entrepreneur in AR companies in this space, who has been working in the field since the dawn of the internet in the mid 2000s. He is currently the VP Product and Head of Visual Experience at Ostendo Technologies, a company that has built a “Quantum Photonic Imager” something that optimizes the way in which consumers can view both worlds at the same time: The physical reality and the projected augmented reality. He also has his own podcast, The AR Show, where he speaks to brightest minds in AR to learn more about the cutting edge of tech in this field.You can subscribe to the AR Show here: https://www.thearshow.com/Sogeti work closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

What is life like living as a virtual avatar? Are the billions of dollars that Meta is spending on creating the metaverse a guarantee for success? Will the obsession with our carefully crafted digital doppelgangers turn society into a virtual playground? And will it be heaven, or a nightmare? In this inaugural episode of Playing with Reality, our host Menno Van Doorn speaks to author and professor Beth Coleman and Sogeti infrastructure engineer Martijn Klerks about their lives in the virtual world, to see what forming your own online reality is really like.Today’s GuestsBeth Coleman is an Associate Professor of Data & Cities at the University of Toronto, where she directs the City as Platform lab. Her research focuses on smart technology & machine learning, urban data, and civic engagement. In 2011, she published the book Hello Avatar, an examination of online identity and the ‘x-reality’ between the virtual and the real.https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/beth-coleman/Martijn Klerks is an infrastructure engineer at Sogeti. He is also a hardware specialist in VR technologies, working with Slime VR to create affordable and open source VR technologies available to the public. https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-klerks/?locale=en_US Sogeti works closely with clients and partners to take full advantage of the opportunities of technology. Find out more about us here: https://www.sogeti.com/

We all know, the online world today is not as it once was.  It is filled with avatars, deep fakes, people playing with their own realities and all kinds of crazy stuff. From travelling back in time to exploring the depths of the Metaverse, Playing With Reality takes a look at technology as it happens and challenges its boundaries. Join our host Menno Van Doorn, Research Director at Sogeti, as he takes a deep dive into technology with experts from the industry. If you are fascinated by the possibilities of the Metaverse and emerging technology, this podcast is for you. Welcome to Playing with Reality,  a new podcast by Sogeti, Part of the Capgemini Group.