Last month, I emcee'd an event in Manhattan called "The Future of Cities". The organizers kindly provided me with the audio of my opening remarks. Enjoy
AC Talks Urban Energy with Brian Lakamp
Last month at the Future of Cities conference in New York, I interviewed Brian Lakamp of Totem Power about next generation energy for an Augmented City. As someone who experienced the Great Northeastern Blackout of 2003, I wanted to hear about how energy grids are getting smarter for the future.
AC Helps Present The Future of Cities Event in NYC
The Augmented City podcast worked with Digital, Life and Design plus Knotel to develop and curate a program about the augmented urban future. Taking place in mid-town Manhattan, The Future of Cities conference was a great opportunity to explore how cities will weave culture and code into a new experience for urban dwelling and lifestyle.
AC and David Bowie talk about the Internet and AI
David Bowie is enjoying a renaissance not only as an artist but as an astute observer of technology and culture. His 1999 interview with the BBC about the ultimate impact of the Internet is stunning in both its accuracy and understanding of how technology and culture co-evolve one another. AC experiments with having a dead guy co-host a show --- because he's just so damn good.
The Tao of Fandom: AC Speaks with Jeff Gomez
The last few years have demonstrated that rapid success of mass movements ranging from Black Lives Matter to the Alt-Right hinges on the narratives people integrate into their lives and share with their communities. Technology is transforming how we evolve those narratives. Augmented City sat down with Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner Entertainment to understand better how this process is playing out in both the entertainment industry and in his work in conflict resolution and cultural change.
Space and Place: an AC Interview with Edward Shenderovich
Real estate is one of the original urban service industries. In theory a simple business about location, location, location; the reality is that real estate value hinges on a complex interplay between physical space and the cognitive meanings that transform a location into a "place". Augmented City speaks with NYC-based Edward Shenderovich to understand better how advanced technology is blending with changed cultural habits to re-configure the commercial real estate market.
A Conversation about Swarm Intelligence with Louis Rosenberg
Can artificial intelligence advance by mimicking nature better? Rather than building some giant "brain", new research and companies are exploring the social decision making of insects, "Swarm Intelligence", to improve human decision making. We speak with Dr. Louis Rosenberg, CEO of Unanimous.ai to learn more about the thinking process of the birds and the bees.
AC Interview with Sabri Sansoy
Creative projects are among the best way to humanize AI. We speak with Sabri Sansoy, a Renaissance technologist whose talent ranges from astrophysics to advertising, with everything in between
Speaking with AI Psychologists
The Augmented City visits a LA-based company building natural language understanding for AI. There, we spoke with an AI developer and two "AI Psychologists" to understand how software engineering meets cognitive science.
AC Interview with Greg Lindsay on Connected Mobility
We sit down with Greg Lindsay of the New Cities Foundation to talk about urban mobility. From London's smartphones to Manila's fleet of jeetneys, urban authorities are grappling with new capabilities but bigger challenges for moving people and goods through physical space.
Taxing Robot Labor
Bill Gates asks if we should tax robot labor like humans. Automation in its different forms is transforming nearly every job from entry level to professional. The next decade will bring this force to the top of the agenda for both business leaders and politicians. Whether or not you agree with Gates, the time is now to start debating some messy paths forward.
The Republic of Facebook
Cuneiform tablet: administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars. Mesopotamia ca. 3100–2900 B.C. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City.
Game Theory & Artificial Intelligence
The output of artificial intelligence is a suggestion for human behavior, a hint about what might be the best next step. Whether that makes life more of a game than it already is becomes an open question. Augmented City interviews video game and screenwriting pioneers to find out more.
Perception & Reality: AC interviews Alvin Wang Graylin of HTC Vive
The holodeck from Star Trek is a compelling metaphor for virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI). Augmented City interviews Alvin Wang Graylin, President of HTC Vive China to understand where VR is going and how it is spreading beyond immersive games to include immersive real estate and education.
Music, magic and martial arts: an AC conversation with Ulises Beato
Ulises Beato is a Cuban-American musician, magician and martial artist. After two days of AI technology and social impact, we spoke with an expert on people's mental models from a different perspective
AI & Culture Year in Review and Outlook for 2017
In 2016, Artificial Intelligence (AI) became a mainstream phenomena via self-driving cars, virtual assistants and a host of other augmented products & services. Simultaneously, the debates over AI in daily life gained fresh urgency as unemployment and underemployment due to automation became a global hot topic. For once, what a new technology meant to people was as important as what a new technology could do.
Keeping Kids Curious in a World of Instant Answers: AC interviews Gracie Barra's Felipe Guedes
When the world offers instant digital access, and intelligent machines have started to transform work and education, what should we teach kids? The Augmented City visits a Brazilian Jiujitsu gym.
Design for a Screens & Things World: The AC Interview with Justin Hamacher of UW
What's the current state of User Experience (UX) for augmented products & services, the value we are creating and the value we should create? AC interviews Justin Hamacher of UW's Master of Human/Computer Interaction and Design.
Transmedia & AI in Belgium: A Conversation with Domenico La Porta
Storytelling is now as important to success for a product or service as engineering. But it's not the same kind of storytelling you find just in film or just online or just via games. It's flavors of all of them. The Augmented City took a robot to Europe for a transmedia storytelling bootcamp.
Machine Politics & Artificial Intelligence
Social media channels and technology played an important role in various elections in 2016. Looking forward to the next few cycles, will they be elections influenced by AI? Can we unwittingly hardcode certain political views into power that endure beyond elections?