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Making games with your voice, with Roblox chief scientist Morgan McGuire

How will AI change games? How is AI changing games? In this TechFirst we chat with Morgan McGuire, Roblox’s Chief Scientist and a former Nvidia research scientist. He tells host John Koetsier how AI is not only enhancing game creation through generative AI but also revolutionizing multiplayer game safety with advanced AI moderation systems. We chat about the explosive growth of Roblox and share…

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How do we know when a machine is smart?

Is an AI system smart when it can do what a human can do? Or … when it can do things humans can’t do? For years we’ve had the Turing Test … measuring AI’s ability to mimic being human. But is that really the right benchmark? In this TechFirst, we chat with a computer scientist who has been working in AI for more than a decade. He’s currently VP strategy at Intuition Robotics, which makes an…

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Can cat qbits save quantum computing?

A whimsically-named quantum company named Alice & Bob actually has a quantum chip in the Google Cloud marketplace. Its “cat qbits” solve a massive issue that affects all other quantum chips. And it might just make quantum computing actually matter. In this episode of TechFirst, we explore the fascinating paradox of building a quantum computer with Théau Peronnin, CEO and co-founder of Alice and…

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AI-generated code: what 4000 developers do

When will AI replace developers? Or is it an if? In this TechFirst we dive into a survey focused on how 4,000 software developers use AI to generate, test, and check code. Justice Erolin, the CTO of BairesDev, recently surveyed over 4,000 developers globally. The goal: exploreing how AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot are being utilized in software development. We chat about how these tools…

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Google’s Waymo now obviously the leader In self-driving cars

It’s not even close any more. From my latest story in Forbes: Google’s Waymo, long thought to be one of the leaders in the self-driving space, is now clearly the leader. Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana announced today that Waymo has just surpassed 100,000 paid autonomous trips per week. Get all the details right here …

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Boston Dynamics & the golden age of robotics

Where does Boston Dynamics fit in the emerging golden age of robots? In a lot of ways we’re entering a golden age of robots. We’re seeing prototype humanoid robots from Apptronik, Amazon, Sanctuary AI, Figure.ai, Tesla, Fourier Intelligence, and probably more. And of course Boston Dynamics is the OG of humanoid bipedal robots with Atlas. But there are a lot of form factors out there. And none of…

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World's first on-road delivery robots carries 100 pounds at 20 MPH

Just published to my Forbes column: Vayu Robotics debuted what it says is the world’s first on-road delivery robot today in San Francisco. They’ve also signed an agreement with an unnamed “large e-commerce player” for 2,500 robots which will enable “ultra-fast goods delivery.” The robot is Vayu One, and it looks something like … Get the full story here …

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Check out the world's tallest autonomous robot

AI and robotics are transforming how we all get pretty much everything. One way, is via the world’s tallest autonomous robot, which can scan a million square feet of warehouse and 100,000 pallets in a day. In this episode of TechFirst, we chat about AI and robotics with Andrei Danescu, the CEO of Dexory. There’s an invisible but intricate network threading its way through all our cities, states,…

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AGI: solved already?

Have we already achieved AGI? OpenAI just released GPT-4o. It’s impressive, and the implications are huge for so many different professions … not least of which is education and tutoring. It’s also showing us the beginning of AI that is truly present in our lives … AI that sees what we see, doesn’t exist just in a box with text input, hears what we hear, and hallucinates less. What does that —…

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Moon first, then Mars: a chat with astronaut Jack Fischer

Today we have a special privilege: we’re talking to an astronaut who has spent 136 days in the International Space Station and completed 2 space walks. He’s also the mission director for the recent Intuitive Machines lunar lander, the first US mission to the moon in more than 50 years. His name is Jack Fischer, and here is our chat: (Subscribe to my YouTube channel) In this episode of TechFirst,…

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Water from air for 10 cents a gallon: atmospheric water generators

If our planet turns to Dune, how will you survive? Atmospheric water generators might help … We’re already experiencing water crises in thousands of global cities, places like Flint Michigan, or even native reserves in Canada. How can you ensure you’ll get good, healthy, clean drinking water? In this episode of TechFirst, we explore the critical global challenge of securing clean water, a…

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Robots in agtech: what's next?

What’s next for robots in agtech? Everyone who’s paying attention knows agtech is massive right now … there’s so much innovation from laser-equipped weed killing machines that keep chemicals off our food and out of our land, to drones, autonomous tractors, AI-powered seeding and watering plans, and much more. What about robotics? In this episode of TechFirst, I chat about the future of robotics…

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Apple iPhone sales hit 6-year low as percentage of new activations

My latest at Forbes … Apple’s share of new smartphone activations just hit a six-year low as a percentage of new sales in the U.S., according to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). Apple is now capturing only 33% of new sales, according to the report, a fraction it hasn’t seen since 2018. “Over the past four quarters, iPhone share of activations fell from 40% to 33%,”…

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Data tools are hammers. Tableau wants to give you a nail gun

In my latest at Forbes … Tableau unveiled new data tools for the rest of us in San Diego yesterday, mostly powered by AI. Hyped-up product developers showed ways to plan vacations with data almost automatically or create complex-looking visualizations of data about the art they love with just a few clicks. Executives talked about APIs and shared dimensions and composable data sources and new…

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Global top 10 best-selling smartphones: all from Apple, Samsung

My latest at Forbes … Every single one of the top ten best-selling smartphones globally is from one of just two companies: Apple and Samsung. Counterpoint Research just released its report on the top ten best-selling phones, and it’s a pretty familiar story from last year: Apple and Samsung cleaned up. Get the full story in my post … 

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TikTok quid pro quo: a smarter approach

Banning TikTok is stupid.   Forcing its sale is unlike to work.   There’s a better approach: use TikTok as a wedge to open China for western tech giants. Get all the details in my latest post for Forbes: There’s a different path to take here. And perhaps a better one. Instead of banning TikTok or forcing ByteDance to sell it, how about quid pro quo with China? If China wants its big tech…

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World's first micro lunar rover

In January of this year, Peregrine Mission One launched with at least 22 payloads. One was intended to be the first American made rover to land on the moon since the Apollo days: 1972. It happened to be the world’s first micro lunar rover. It was called Iris, and it was also the first lunar rover constructed with carbon fiber. It was designed and built by students at Carnegie Mellon…