TechFirst with John Koetsier

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

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

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 Ra

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

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

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 agen