Hosts Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss host U.K-based Bloomberg Opinion columnist Parmy Olson in an eye-opening discussion of her new book, "Supremacy AI: ChatGPT and the Race that Will Change the World." Parmy explains the history of the intense rivalry between Sam Altman of OpenAI and Demis Hassabis of DeepMind—two of the earliest AI innovators—as they compete to shape the future of artificial intelligence and our world as we know it. This episode offers a thought-provoking look at the intersection of technology, ethics, and regulation, with Parmy urging listeners to consider both the potential and the pitfalls of AI in our society.

The conversation also explores some of the ethical challenges with AI, including how OpenAI and DeepMind's alignment with tech giants like Microsoft and Google, respectively, has compromised their original nonprofit ideals. Parmy explains the dominance of big tech companies in AI research and development, and the challenges this poses for smaller startups and independent academic research. She also emphasizes the critical need for unbiased data in AI models and advocates for stronger regulations to guide AI's development, highlighting the significant influence of big tech on this rapidly evolving field.

“That's where I see generative AI going is that, maybe it won't displace as many people as we think. It will just create a lot more noise in our information ecosystem. We're just going to have to get better at filtering it out.” —Parmy Olson

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

About Parmy Olson:

Parmy Olson is a technology columnist with Bloomberg covering artificial intelligence, social media and technology regulation. She’s been writing about the growth of AI systems since around 2016, when she worked in Silicon Valley as a reporter for Forbes and covered the early rise of chatbot technology. She continued covering AI as a tech reporter at the Wall Street Journal, publishing multiple exclusive stories and investigations on surveillance, facial recognition and Google’s AI work, including an investigation into how Google stifled DeepMind’s secret efforts to spin out as a non-profit organization to protect its AI from corporate interests.

Parmy has received two honourable mentions for the SABEW business journalism awards for her reporting on Facebook and WhatsApp, and was the first recipient of the Palo Alto Networks Cyber Security Cannon Awards for her book “We Are Anonymous.” She was also named by Business Insider as one the "Top 100 People in UK Tech" in 2019 and was described as “tech journalism’s deep diver.” Parmy was recently nominated as Digital Journalist of the Year 2023 by PRCA, the world’s largest PR professional body.

Resources:

• We Are Anonymous by Parmy Olson
• Supremacy: AI, Chat GPT, and the Race that Will Change the World by Parmy Olson
• Chat GPT
• Google DeepMind

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Becky Buckman hosts David Krane, CEO and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, for a discussion about the importance of thoughtful communications in the launch of any new tech company. Despite the tectonic changes in the media landscape, great comms still neesd to come directly from the founder, in his or her authentic voice, according to David. He should know: David formerly led Google’s global communications and public affairs group and served on the company’s senior leadership team before moving to GV. His insights demonstrate how useful his “Act One” career was to his success in “Act Two,” when he moved into venture capital. Storytelling has never been more important to a company’s success, and David explains why.

David goes into detail about the importance of what he calls the “Hello, world” moment for any new enterprise: The moment a founder explains “Here’s who we are, and here’s why you should care.” He talks through his experience helping iconic companies like Nest manage these moments and offers advice for founders navigating their own launches. Finally, David offers anecdotes from his days in Google’s comms and public affairs group, when he lured reporters to the Google cafeteria to celebrate the launch of the company’s first international interfaces (with international breakfasts!), and also the broader importance of internal communications to companies today. Keeping focus on the mission and purpose of a company internally is expensive but vital, according to David. David shares his comms and storytelling wisdom with the companies in which GV invests today.

“When the product kicks ass, the story kicks ass.” - David Krane

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

About David Krane:

David is the CEO & managing partner at GV and oversees the fund’s global activities. He invests in a wide range of technology companies including Uber, StockX, Nest, and Blue Bottle Coffee. David’s Google career began more than 20 years ago, as director of Global Communications and Public Affairs. In this role, David served as a member of the senior leadership team to grow Google from a small startup to a multibillion-dollar global enterprise.

David’s prior career experience spanned both startup and public companies, including Apple, QUALCOMM, Four11 (now Yahoo! Mail), and two computer security software developers.

David is also on the board of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM), a member of Young President’s Organization (YPO), and a long-time advisor to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. David received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington. As a proud Hoosier alumnus, he has served on the Dean’s advisory board for the IU School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. David resides in the Bay Area with his wife, three children, and their two labradoodles.

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Keyana Corliss and Becky Buckman welcome veteran technology-comms executive and founder of communications coaching practice poseycorp, Lisa Poulson, to the show. Lisa shares stories and insight from decades of work in the comms industry, weighing in on issues like getting nerdy engineers to stay on message; how much interview prep is too much prep; and how the current AI boom, PR-wise, is similar to the dawn on the Internet. Join Keyana and Becky as they learn about everything from executive “Simba moments” to “the river of money”--the key to getting reporters to actually cover your news–from Lisa.

Lisa Poulson likens today’s tech-PR landscape to the period between 1995 to 2008, when the Internet first came on the scene and software like Java fundamentally changed how people could work and live online. But now, as then, most reporters aren’t as interested in technology products as they are about how those products will make or lose companies money and impact the overall market. Lisa offers tips for getting executives to relay those higher-level, market-oriented messages in interviews–and finding alternate communications outlets (whitepapers, podcasts) for those who can’t. She says many PR pros over-coach their executives and give them overly long briefing documents that they’ll never read, which is why it’s important to keep it brief and coach executives on a handful of pithy sound bites. Lisa admires executives like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai for their communications discipline, and in this humorous and detailed episode, she has lots of advice for helping your spokespeople refine their PR skills as well.

“But you know what I would say to a certain person, depending on how old they are and how sophisticated they are, I would say, look, the only reason people cared to write about Java, it wasn't because it was an object-oriented programming language, it's because it blew up Microsoft's monopoly in software. It was not a technology story. It was a business story. Because it changed where money was being spent. … and right now with generative AI, what are half the stories about? Who's going to lose jobs. What new companies are going to be incredibly successful every time Anthropic gets more money thrown at them out of a t-shirt cannon by Amazon or Google, that's a news story. So the money is what matters.” - Lisa Poulson

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

About Lisa Poulson:

Lisa Poulson, poseycorp’s principal, helps innovators scale by becoming great communicators, because great communicators create the change they want to see in the world.

Lisa, who has shepherded fundamental innovations from the incubator to the global stage, loves working with leaders who must scale fast and publicly. With incisive, actionable advice, she will help you build the skills to connect, persuade and lead. Because every effective leader must become a great communicator.

Lisa pairs the principles and practices of executive coaching with 30 years of experience in technology communications – a rare and powerful combination. Lisa brings empathy, candor, vision and grit to helping her clients become effective leader/communicators and fluent evangelists.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• The River of Money by Lisa Poulson

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Contact Rebecca Buckman...