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AI is moving beyond text, images, and code. Now it’s learning to read and write -- shall we say program -- DNA.In this episode of NEXT, John Koetsier talks with Eric Nguyen, co-founder and CEO of Radical Numerics, about the rapidly emerging world of biological AI.Nguyen and his team helped create Evo and Evo 2, generative foundation models for DNA, and are now working toward what they call…
Why aren’t hundreds of millions of intelligent robots already operating in the physical world? In this episode of NEXT with John Koetsier, John speaks with Seth Winterroth, partner at Eclipse, about the rapidly changing robotics investment landscape, the rise of physical AI, and the race to build the next generation of autonomous machines. They explore whether the world really needs hundreds of…
Can robots learn from the internet the same way ChatGPT learned from text? In this episode, Andrew Wooten, co-founder of Rhoda AI, explains why his company believes the future of robotics isn’t collecting millions of hours of robot data ... it’s learning from internet-scale video. Instead of relying on traditional vision-language-action (VLA) models that require enormous training datasets, Rhoda’s…
My instant first look at 1X’s just-unveiled NEO robot hands. Hot take: they're a massive leap toward truly useful humanoid robots. With 25 degrees of freedom, tendon-driven actuation, tactile sensing, force feedback, and near-human dexterity, these hands can do far more than simple gripping. They can assemble LEGO, pick up tiny screws and coins, plug in a USB-C cable, zip jackets, use tools, sort…
Is AI really causing mass layoffs or are CEOs just using AI as a convenient excuse? In this episode, John Koetsier talks with longtime tech journalist, columnist, author, and podcaster Mike Elgan about why the “AI is killing jobs” narrative may be overblown. Elgan argues that many companies are engaging in AI washing: blaming layoffs on AI to make cost-cutting look like innovation. The…
Humanoid robots are often pitched as factory workers, warehouse assistants, or home helpers. But what if education becomes their biggest opportunity? In this episode, Faraday Future co-CEO Chris Chen explains why K-12 schools, STEM programs, and university research labs could be among the first large-scale adopters of humanoid robots and robot dogs. Chris shares why Faraday Future believes we’re…
What if airports had self-driving mobility pods that could safely navigate through crowds, just like something out of The Jetsons? Or the Pixar movie Wall-E? In this episode, John Koetsier sits down with Matthew Anderson, CEO of A&K Robotics, to explore the future of autonomous mobility. A&K Robotics is building AI-powered self-driving pods designed to help people navigate airports independently…
Is AI in education a disaster ... or inevitable. We can easily see that AI is already changing education ... but is it making kids smarter, or just more dependent? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier talks with Navin Gurnani, CEO of Code Ninjas, about how kids can learn to build with AI instead of simply asking ChatGPT for answers. They discuss why coding still matters in the age of vibe…
What if the next big wave of AI isn’t about robots doing your chores but about robots that understand you? In this episode, we sit down with Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot and the creator of the Roomba, to explore his bold new venture: Familiar Machines and Magic. After putting over 50 million robots into homes, Angle is now betting on something radically different: a quadruped AI companion…
AI is everywhere ... except the factory. What does AI-native manufacturing look like? Is it possible? Can AI agents help manufacturers produce more product at better quality?And, maybe also enable onshoring or re-shoring?In this episode, host John Koetsier sits down with Apprentice CEO and founder Angelo Stracquatanio to explore what AI-native manufacturing really means, and why traditional AI…
What happens when GPS goes down: jammed, spoofed, or completely denied? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Michael Biercuk, founder and CEO of Q-CTRL, to explore one of the most surprising breakthroughs in quantum technology: quantum navigation. While most of the quantum world is focused on computing, Q-CTRL is building something entirely different: AI-powered quantum…
Are AI agents really the future of software — or just the latest wave of hype? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Don Murray, CEO of Safe Software, to break down what’s actually happening with “agentic AI.” From AI-washing and “agent-washing” to real-world use cases in coding, automation, and enterprise software, this conversation cuts through the noise. They explore…
What if the hardest part of building a humanoid robot isn’t the brain but the hands? Robot hands are half the complexity of a robot, a humanoid robot CEO told me a while back: they're insanely difficult to get right.In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Kyber Labs co-founders Tyler Habowski and Yonatan Robbins about why dexterity, maybe even more than AI, is the true bottleneck in…
What does the agentic enterprise of tomorrow look like? What happens when AI can build software in hours and agents can run entire business processes? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with UiPath CEO Daniel Dines and CMO Michael Atalla to unpack one of the biggest shifts in enterprise technology: the rise of the agentic enterprise. We explore whether software is becoming…
NanoClaw is a new agent inspired by OpenClaw, but without the massive security risks you get with OpenClaw. Essentially, it's a safer OpenClaw. What if you could run a powerful AI agent on your own machine: one that can browse, automate tasks, connect to apps, and even manage your workflow ... but without the massive security risks? That’s the idea behind NanoClaw, a lightweight alternative to…
Imagine teaching a robot 1000 tasks in just 24 hours. Imagine teaching robots just like you teach humans. In fact, what if teaching a robot were as easy as showing it once? Humans can learn new skills almost instantly by watching, trying, or receiving a quick explanation. Robots, historically, haven’t been so lucky. Training them often requires huge datasets with real or virtual data, massive…
Can we give an AI human emotions? A soul? Can AI truly feel, or will it just act like it does? In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Vishnu Hari, founder and CEO of Ego AI (backed by Y Combinator and former AI product manager at Meta), about building emotionally intelligent AI characters that persist across games, Discord, chat, and even physical robots. Vishnu survived a violent attack in San…
Is your AI agent running a restaurant — or a factory — while you sleep? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Jensen Teng, CEO and co-founder of Virtuals, to unpack one of the boldest (or craziest) visions in tech today: a hybrid economy powered by AI agents, humanoid robots, teleoperation, and blockchain coordination. An economy that may not really need humans for much at all…
Is AI killing creativity ... or just making it easier to be average? 94% of creatives now use AI. But only 11% believe it actually makes them more creative. So what’s really happening? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen, former head of design engineering research at Imperial College London’s Dyson School and now leader of a £24M research portfolio at…
AI is moving faster than anyone predicted. In a massive new study analyzing 1,000 jobs and nearly 20,000 tasks, Cognizant found that 93% of jobs are already impacted by AI ... with $4.5 trillion in U.S. labor value potentially automatable today. But here’s the twist: AI isn’t replacing entire jobs. On average, only 39% of a role’s tasks can be automated. The future isn’t AI alone: it’s humans plus…
AI models are powerful, but they don’t forget. And that's a problem. They hallucinate. They inherit bias. They absorb sensitive data. And once they’re trained, fixing those issues is painfully expensive. Retraining takes weeks and maybe tens of millions of dollars. And any guardrails the AI company puts up are brittle. What if you could perform surgery on the model itself? In this episode of…
Large language models have dominated the AI conversation — but are small language models (SLMs) actually the future? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Andy Markus, SVP & Chief Data and AI Officer at AT&T, to unpack how small language models are delivering enterprise-grade accuracy at a fraction of the cost and latency of massive LLMs. Andy explains how AT&T uses SLMs…
Humanoid robots are coming into our homes, but they probably won’t be doing your laundry anytime soon. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Jan Liphardt, founder & CEO of OpenMind and Stanford bioengineering professor, to unpack what home robots will actually do in the near future ... and why the “labor-free home” vision is mostly a myth (for now). Jan explains why hands…
AI is hitting entertainment like a sledgehammer ... from algorithmic gatekeepers and AI-written scripts to digital actors and entire movies generated from a prompt. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television and chairman of the World Film Institute, to unpack what AI really means for Hollywood, creators, and the global media…
Robots aren’t just software. They’re AI in the physical world. And that changes everything. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Ali Farhadi, CEO of Allen Institute for AI, to unpack one of the biggest debates in robotics today: Is data enough, or do robots need structured reasoning to truly understand the world? Ali explains why physical AI demands more than massive…
Can we really build a $10,000 humanoid robot on open-source AI? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier talks with Chris Kudla, CEO of Mind Children, about a radically different approach to humanoid robots. Instead of six-figure industrial machines built for factories or war zones, Mind Children is building small, safe, friendly social robots designed for kids, classrooms, and elder care. Meet…
Is AI really the new UI, or is that just another tech buzzphrase? Or ... is AI actually EVERY user interface now? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Mark Vange, CEO & founder of Automate.ly and former CTO at Electronic Arts, to unpack what happens when interfaces stop being fixed and start being generated on the fly. They explore: • Why generative AI makes it cheaper…
The web is turning agentic. And that changes everything from shopping to search to SEO. In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Dave Anderson (VP at ContentSquare + host of the “Tech Seeking Human” podcast) to unpack what happens when browsers and AI assistants don’t just answer … they do stuff. For you. On your behalf. From Atlas and agentic browsing to the growing backlash…
AI has mastered language, sort of. But the real world is way messier. In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Kirin Sinha, founder and CEO of Illumix, to explore what comes after large language models: world models, spatial intelligence, and physical AI. They unpack why LLMs alone won’t get us to human-level intelligence, what it actually takes for machines to understand…
Quantum computers usually mean massive machines, cryogenic temperatures, and isolated data centers. But what if quantum computing could run at room temperature, fit inside a server rack — or even a satellite? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Marcus Doherty, Chief Science Officer of Quantum Brilliance, to explore how diamond-based quantum computers work — and why they…
Will AI kill your job? What happens to your job as AI gets smarter and companies keep laying people off even while profits rise? Will you still have a job? Will the job you have change beyond recognition? Scary questions, no? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Nikki Barua, co-founder of Footwork and longtime founder, executive, and resiliency expert, to unpack what…
What if someone actually built TARS from Interstellar—and discovered it really could work? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Aditya Sripada, a robotics engineer at Nimble, who turned a late-night hobby into a serious research project: a real, working mini-version of TARS, the iconic robot from Interstellar. Aditya walks through why TARS’s strange, flat form factor…
AI is already reshaping the workforce. What about teenagers? Turns out, they might be more impacted than anyone else. After all, they're usually in low-skill entry-level jobs that AI can replace. The problem ... teens are losing their first experience with working, making money, and establishing an identity outside of their homes. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier speaks with…
Are we about to create real life Terminators? Humanoid robots built for war? In this episode of TechFirst I talk with Sankaet Pathak, founder and CEO of Foundation, a California-based humanoid robot company that is not afraid of the defense market. We dig into why he is building humanoid robots that can work three shifts a day, how they plan to scale from dozens of robots to tens of thousands, and…
Is AI the secret sauce that lets the West deglobalize supply chains and bring factories back home? In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Federico Martelli, CEO and cofounder of Forgis, a Swiss startup building an industrial intelligence layer for factories. Forgis runs “digital engineers” — AI agents on the edge — that sit on top of legacy machinery, cut downtime by about 30%, and boost…
AI agents can already write code, build websites, and manage workflows ... but they still can’t pay for anything on their own. That bottleneck is about to disappear. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we sit down with Jim Nguyen, former PayPal exec and cofounder/CEO of InFlow, a new AI-native payments platform launching from stealth. InFlow wants to give AI agents the ability to…
Are we ready for a world where everything is smart? Not just phones and apps, but buildings, robots, and delivery bots rolling down our streets? Windows ... doors ... maybe even towels. And don't forget your shoes. In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Mat Gilbert, director of AI and data at Synapse, about physical AI: putting intelligence into machines, devices, and environments so they can…
Are humanoid robots going to decide which countries get rich and which fall behind? Probably yes. In this TechFirst, I talk with Dr. Robert Ambrose, former head of one of NASA’s first humanoid robot teams and now chairman of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at Alliant. We dig into the future of humanoids, how fast they are really advancing, and what it means if China wins the humanoid race…
Is AI empathy a life-or-death issue? Almost a million people ask ChatGPT for mental health advice DAILY ... so yes, it kind of is. Rosebud co-founder Sean Dadashi joins TechFirst to reveal new research on whether today’s largest AI models can recognize signs of self-harm ... and which ones fail. We dig into the Adam Raine case, talk about how Dadashi evaluated 22 leading LLMs, and explore the…
We’ve digitized sound. We’ve digitized light. But touch, maybe the most human of our senses, has stayed stubbornly analog. That might be about to change, thanks to programmable matter. Or programmable fabric. In this TechFirst episode, I speak with Adam Hopkins, CEO of Sensetics, a new UC Berkeley/Virginia Tech spinout building programmable fabrics that replicate the mechanoreceptors in human…
AI is devouring the planet’s electricity ... already using up to 2% of global energy and projected to hit 5% by 2030. But a Spanish-Canadian company, Multiverse Computing, says it can slash that energy footprint by up to 95% without sacrificing performance. They specialize in tiny AI: one model has the processing power of just 2 fruit fly brains. Another tiny model lives on a Raspberry Pi. The…
Can AI give every creator their own virtual team? Maybe, thanks to a new platform from RHEI called Made, which offers Milo, an AI agent who becomes your creator director, Zara, an AI agent who is your community manager, and Amie, a third AI agent who takes on the role of relationship manager. And, apparently, more agents are coming soon. The creator economy is bigger than ever, but so is burnout.…
What happens when Amazon, NVIDIA, and MassRobotics team up to merge generative AI with robotics? In this episode of TechFirst we chat with Amazon's Taimur Rashid, Head of Generative AI and Innovation Delivery. We talk about "physical AI" ... AI with spatial awareness and the ability to act safely and intelligently in the real world. We also chat about the first cohort of a new accelerator for…
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) could be humanity’s greatest invention ... or our biggest risk. In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO and founder of SingularityNET, about the future of AGI, the possibility of superintelligence, and what happens when machines think beyond human programming. We cover: • Is AGI inevitable? How soon will it arrive? • Will AGI kill us ……
What changes when robots deliver everything? Starship Technologies has already completed 9 million autonomous deliveries, crossed roads over 200 million times, and operates thousands of sidewalk delivery robots across Europe and the U.S. Now they’re scaling into American cities ... and they say they’re ready to change your world In this episode of TechFirst, I speak with Ahti Heinla, co-founder…
Imagine a quantum computer with a million physical qubits in a space smaller than a sticky note. That’s exactly what Quantum Art is building. In this TechFirst episode, I chat with CEO Tal David, who shares his team’s vision to deliver quantum systems with: • 100x more parallel operations • 100x more gates per second • A footprint up to 50x smaller than competitors We also dive into the four key…
Are humanoid robots distracting us from the real unlock in robotics ... hands? In this TechFirst episode, host John Koetsier digs into the hardest (and most valuable) problem in robotics: dexterous manipulation. Guest Mike Obolonsky, Partner at Cortical Ventures, argues that about $50 trillion of global economic activity flows through “hands work,” yet manipulation startups have raised only a…
Are humanoid robots the future… or a $100B mistake? Over 100 companies—from Meta to Amazon—are betting big on humanoids. But are we chasing a sci-fi dream that’s not practical or profitable? In this TechFirst episode, I chat with Bren Pierce, robotics OG and CEO of Kinisi Robots. We cover: - Why legs might be overhyped - How LLMs are transforming robots into agents - The real cost (and complexity)…
The future could be much healthier for both farmers and everyone who eats, thanks to farm robots that kill weeds with lasers. In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Paul Mikesell, CEO of Carbon Robotics, to discuss groundbreaking advancements in agricultural technology. Paul shares updates since our last conversation in 2021, including the launch of LaserWeeder G2 and Carbon's autonomous…
Can robots reduce herbicide and fertilizer use on farms by up to 90%? Probably yes. In this episode of TechFirst we chat with Verdant Robotics' CEO Gabe Sibley about SharpShooter, the company's state-of-the-art farm tech that precisely targets herbicide and fertilizer application, massively reducing chemical use. That's huge for the environment. It's also huge for farmer's pocketbooks ... because…
