Business Lab

Tim O’Reilly, the “Oracle of Silicon Valley,” wants to shift the conversation about data value to focus on the harm that tech giants are inflicting against us with our own data. It’s “time to wake up and do a better job,” says publisher Tim O’Reilly—from getting serious about climate change to building a better data economy. And the way a better data economy is built is through data commons—or data as a common resource—not as the giant tech companies are acting now, which is not just keeping data to themselves but profiting from our data and causing us harm in the process. “When companies are using the data they collect for our benefit, it's a great deal,” says O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media. “When companies are using it to manipulate us, or to direct us in a way that hurts us, or that enhances their market power at the expense of competitors who might provide us better value, then they're harming us with our data.” And that’s the next big thing he’s researching: a specific type of harm that happ

A solar-powered autonomous drone scans for forest fires. A surgeon first operates on a digital heart before she picks up a scalpel. A global community bands together to print personal protection equipment to fight a pandemic. “The future is now,” says Frederic Vacher, head of innovation at Dassault Systèmes. And all of this is possible with cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and a virtual 3D design shop, or as Dassault calls it, the 3DEXPERIENCE innovation lab. This open innovation laboratory embraces the concept of the social enterprise and merges collective intelligence with a cross-collaborative approach by building what Vacher calls “communities of people—passionate and willing to work together to accomplish a common objective.” This podcast episode was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not produced by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff.  “It’s not only software, it's not only cloud, but it’s also a community of people’s skills and services avai

Some people might not associate the word “trust” with artificial intelligence (AI). Stefan Jockusch is not one of them. Vice president of strategy at Siemens Digital Industries Software, Jockusch says trusting an algorithm powering an AI application is a matter of statistics. This podcast episode was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not produced by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. “If it works right, and if you have enough compute power, then the AI application will give you the right answer in an overwhelming percentage of cases,” says Jockusch, whose business is building “digital twin” software of physical products. He gives the example of Apple’s iPhones and its facial recognition software—technology that has been tested “millions and millions of times” and produced just a few failures. “That’s where the trust comes from,” says Jockusch. In this episode of Business Lab, Jockusch discusses how AI can be used in manufacturing to build better products: by d

2020 has created more than a brave new world. It’s a world of opportunity rapidly pressuring organizations of all sizes to rapidly adopt technology to not just survive, but to thrive. And Andrew Dugan, chief technology officer at Lumen Technologies, sees proof in the company’s own customer base, where “those organizations fared the best throughout covid were the ones that were prepared with their digital transformation.” And that’s been a common story this year. A 2018 McKinsey survey showed that well before the pandemic 92% of company leaders believed “their business model would not remain economically viable through digitization.” This astounding statistic shows the necessity for organizations to start deploying new technologies, not just for the coming year, but for the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution. This podcast episode was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not produced by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. Lumen plans to play a key role in this prep

Ask Stefan Jockusch about what a factory might look like in 10 or 20 years, and the answer might leave you at a crossroads between fascination and bewilderment. Jockusch is vice president for strategy at Siemens Digital Industries Software, which develops applications that simulates the conception, design, and manufacture of products such as a cell phone or a smart watch. His vision of a smart factory is abuzz with “independent, moving” robots. But they don’t stop at making one or three or five things. No—this factory is “self-organizing.” “Depending on what product I throw at this factory, it will completely reshuffle itself and work differently when I come in with a very different product,” Jockusch says. “It will self-organize itself to do something different.” Behind this factory of future is artificial intelligence (AI), Jockusch says in this episode of Business Lab. But AI starts much, much smaller, with the chip. Take automaking. The chips that power the various applications in cars today—and the drive

[Sponsored] AI advancements today are pointing to improvements everywhere you look. But it’s a confluence of technologies—cloud, 5G wireless, smart devices, and more—that will usher in the greatest results, predicts Dell Technologies’ John Roese. If you need a reason to feel good about the direction technology is going, look up Dell’s CTO John Roese on Twitter. The handle he composed back in 2006 is @theICToptimist. ICT stands for information and communication. “The reason for that acronym was because I firmly believed that the future was not about information technology and communication technology independently,” says Roese, president and chief technology officer of products and operations at Dell Technologies. “It was about them coming together.” Close to two decades later, it’s hard not to call him right. Organizations are looking to the massive amounts of data their collecting and generating to become fully digital, they’re using the cloud to process and store all that data, and they’re turning to fast,

[Sponsored] The coronavirus pandemic has led to enhanced collaboration, spurred innovation, and increased the use of digital technologies. Telehealth enables doctors to safely connect with patients virtually and to monitor them remotely, whether in different cities or just down the hall. And smarter and smaller medical devices are producing better outcomes for patients—a disruption is sensed, like low blood sugar or a too rapid beating heart, and a therapy is applied, in real time. All of this is aided by improved processing capabilities and data—lots of data, which means AI. And today’s guest is Dr. Laura Mauri, who is the Vice President of Global Clinical Research and Analytics at Medtronic. And she knows all about how data can help drive better patient outcomes, improve the patient experience, and provide valuable information for doctors and medical device creators. Dr. Mauri is an interventional cardiologist and one of the world’s leading experts on clinical trials, but, as she says, the success of a clin

[Sponsored] As technology rapidly develops, the number of security and privacy concerns will only continue to grow. In this episode, we look at how companies can build cybersecurity into their business strategies—instead of scrambling to respond when a breach happens. Even with danger lurking around the corner, today’s guest, cybersecurity expert Ann Cavoukian, argues that companies are turning a blind eye to security and privacy issues until it is too late. Cavoukian is the executive director of the Global Privacy and Security by Design Centre, as well as a senior fellow of the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Ryerson University. She’s worked closely with the government in Canada as well as private companies on the best way to defend against security attacks. Cavoukian also says that privacy is vital to our society and an indispensable form of freedom, and that developments such as facial recognition technology are among the most egregious breaches of that freedom. Business Lab is hosted by Laura Ruma, direct

[Sponsored] In this episode, we look at the need to secure the internet of things, physical workspaces, and the products companies make. From planes to children’s toys to oil rigs, more connected devices are vulnerable to attack than ever before. Ken Munro is an internet-of things security researcher, penetration tester, and writer with two decades of experience in the security industry. He is also the founder of security services company Pen Test Partners. Munro helps expose the vulnerabilities in items we use every day, and he discusses some of the most important skills that cybersecurity experts can have, why companies are at risk for physical security breaches, and something he calls “supersystemic flaws.”  Business Lab is hosted by Laurel Ruma, director of Insights, the custom publishing division of MIT Technology Review. The show is a production of MIT Technology Review, with production help from Collective Next. Music is by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound. Ken Munro, on Twitter Ken Munro, Pen Test Partne

[Sponsored] As the new year (and new decade) begins, one thing is certain: cybersecurity will continue to have an increasing impact on business, for better or worse. In this episode, we hear from Stephanie Balaouras, a cybersecurity expert who has spoken to thousands of customers over her 15 years at Forrester Research. She is the vice president and group director of security and risk research, as well as infrastructure and operations research. Balaouras makes the case that all businesses should have a chief information security officer, or CISO, as the world of cyberthreats becomes more intricate and perilous. "Even companies that have a CISO should take a hard look at how high in the organization they report," Balaouras says. "Do they have the right budget? Do they have enough staff? Have you given them the right span of control?" Balaouras also reviews some of the biggest cybersecurity trends in 2019 and makes predictions for 2020. Business Lab is hosted by Laurel Ruma, director of Insights, the custom pub

[Sponsored] From 1999 to 2012, Marissa Mayer was one of the most public faces at Google, where she helped to build the company’s core search and advertising platforms. From 2012 to 2017 she steered Yahoo! through its final years as an independent business. In other words, she’s spent a long time at the center of the Silicon Valley whirlwind.  In this special episode, Business Lab host Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau asks Mayer how conditions for women technology leaders have changed during her career. The conversation quickly turns to the thinking behind Mayer's 2013 decision to put an end to Yahoo's fairly permissive policy around working from home and how she dealt with the blowback from that decision on social media and the technology press. Mayer sys that if a leader is trying to foster a stronger culture inside their company, they can’t worry too much about what everyone outside the company is saying about them. Mayer goes on to speak about her new company, Lumi Labs, where she says engineers are looking for

[Sponsored] The development of cyber security is interwoven with the evolution of the hacker community. Keren Elazari, cyber security analyst and senior researcher at the Tel Aviv University Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center, educated the world in her 2014 TED talk on the importance of cultivating friendly hackers for the protection of the internet. Today, she researches the most pressing cyber security threats, and how to prevent these breaches. In this episode, Elazari shares her story of becoming a hacker as a young woman in Israel and speaks of the empowerment she gained through becoming an important player in the global community of hackers. She explains how businesses, organizations, and governments now collaborate with helpful hackers by creating bug bounty programs and other initiatives. Elazari explains tips for what companies should be looking for in way of cyber threats. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced

[Sponsored] In this episode: How the development of cybersecurity arose and how that history created a world rife with invasions. Chris Wysopal, CTO and cofounder of Veracode, sat in the first row for the advent of cyber defense. In fact, as the Vulnerability Researcher at the seminal hacker think tank the L0pht, he has worked for decades to demand more secure technology from influential tech companies. In this episode Wysopal shares his work in the early years of cybersecurity, including when he testified in front of the 1998 Senate on computer security. At that time, he urged the adoption of regulations on large companies like Microsoft in order to enforce accountability and the development of thoughtful,safer code that protects consumer privacy. These initial concerns have only grown, as there is still little enforcement against code and firmware that allows for breaches. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Collectiv

[Sponsored] The rise in ransomware incidents; hacking attacks and data breaches have become a scary reality for organizations and individuals worldwide. Increasingly, the issue of cyber security and what organizations need to do to better protect their people and their systems now sit at the top of the priority list for business leaders. In this episode, Martin Giles, the San Francisco Bureau Chief of MIT Technology Review, shares his view that the widespread dangers of a cyber attack have become a guarantee for organizations in all sectors and regions. Giles describes how cyber attackers are most likely to penetrate a company’s defenses, including through cloud storage, cloud services and even hardware. He discusses some of the most striking trends in cyber security strategies, including the “death of the perimeter” —how the type of robust firewalls and strong anti-virus programs that were keeping companies safe, no longer work. Giles shows how business leaders can focus on effective cyber hygiene and cyber

[Sponsored] In this episode: Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates talks with Gideon Lichfield, MIT Technology Review’s Editor-in-Chief, about the magazine’s new list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, which Gates curated. The magazine has been publishing its list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies (formerly 10 Emerging Technologies) annually since 2001 as a way to highlight the recent advances that could have the biggest impact in the near future. Usually the magazine’s expert editors and reporters put together the list, but this year we invited a special guest curator, Bill Gates, to share his own perspective on which emerging technologies could make the biggest difference for the largest number of people. Gates stepped aside as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus, in part, on running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With more than $50 billion in assets, the foundation supports programs to address global problems like poverty child mortality, the spread of infectious disease, and limited access to h

[Sponsored] In this episode: Emotion-tracking AI is starting to help machines recognize our moods. Are we ready? Personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Home can parse our spoken words and (sometimes) respond appropriately, but they can’t gauge how we’re feeling—in part because they can’t see our faces. But in the emerging field of “emotion-tracking AI,” companies are studying the facial expressions captured by our devices’ cameras to allow software of all kinds become more responsive to our moods and cognitive states. At Affectiva, a Boston startup founded by MIT Media Lab researchers Rosalind Picard and Rana El Kaliouby, programmers have trained machine learning algorithms to recognize our facial cues and determine whether we’re enjoying a video or getting drowsy behind the wheel. Gabi Zijderveld, Affectiva’s chief marketing officer and head of product strategy, tells Business Lab that such software can streamline marketing, protect drivers, and ultimately make all our interactions with tec

[Sponsored] In this episode: Why there will never be another “AI winter,” and what IBM and MIT are doing together to ensure that. More times than almost any other field of innovation, artificial intelligence has weathered recurring cycles of overinflated hope, followed by disappointment, pessimism, and funding cutbacks. But Sophie Vandebroek, IBM’s vice president of emerging technology partnerships, thinks the AI winters are truly a thing of the past, thanks to the huge amounts of computing power and data now available to train neural networks. In this episode Vandebroek shares examples of real-world applications enabled by this shift, from image recognition to chatbots. And she describes the mission of the new MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a $240 million, 10-year collaboration between IBM researchers and MIT faculty and students to focus on the core advances that will make AI more useful and reliable across industries from healthcare to finance to security. This episode is brought to you by Darktrace, the world le

[Sponsored] In this episode: Why researchers at the year’s biggest AI conference focused on how to keep human bias out of computer algorithms. Both the progress and the hype around cutting-edge machine learning techniques were on vivid display at the December 2018 NeurIPS Conference in Montreal, Quebec, says Will Knight, MIT Technology Review’s senior editor for artificial intelligence. One big question hanging over the meeting, Will says, was how to detect and reverse the sexism, racism, and other forms of bias that seep into machine-learning algorithms that train themselves using real-world data. Participants also previewed the coming generation of chips designed specifically to support deep learning—a field where US manufacturers face growing competition from China. Separately, Will looks to the most exciting AI trends for 2019, including the generative adversarial networks (GANs) being used to generate authentic-looking photos and videos. This episode is brought to you by PwC, a global consulting firm in

[Sponsored] In this episode: How the right AI algorithms can help organizations evolve into “superminds” that are smarter than their individual members. Thomas Malone is a professor of management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, founder and director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, and author of the 2018 book Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together. The book explores the different ways groups of people make decisions, and how new forms of artificial intelligence, especially machine learning, can help. Malone predicts that AI, robotics, and automation will destroy many jobs—including those of high-skilled knowledge workers—while at the same time creating new ones. By investing in the right kinds of AI, he says, organizations can help keep workers productive and happy—and make sure our “superminds” are actually smarter than our regular minds. This episode is sponsored by Citrix, the company powering the digital transformation inside organizations of all sizes

[Sponsored] In this episode: What new kinds of sensor data can tell us about the merits of open offices and remote work. Do open offices foster more collaboration, or just more frustration? Should managers encourage employees to telecommute, or is a scattered workforce less cohesive? The conventional wisdom on these issues swings like a pendulum, and for managers the only constant seems to be anxiety that they’re not getting it right. But new technology may offer some real answers. Ben Waber, a former MIT Media Lab doctoral student, is president and CEO of Humanyze, a Boston startup making software and sensors that give companies a better picture of how people actually work. He says the data the company gathers can predict employee performance and fuel a new form of “people analytics.” This episode is sponsored by Citrix, the company powering the digital transformation inside organizations of all sizes. In the second half of the show, Citrix's chief security strategist Kurt Roemer says technology can help sus