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The Times Tech Podcast
Openwater’s Mary Lou Jepsen: “We'll save your mind - then read it”
Imagine if you shrunk all of the machines in a hospital and crammed them into a single device the size of an iPhone that could diagnose and treat hundreds of diseases. That is what this week’s guest is trying to do. The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Mary Lou Jepsen to talk about building a mobile device to diagnose stroke at her startup Openwater (4:30), killing cancer cells with infrared light (8:45), how it takes 13 years to create a new medical device (14:45), why MRI’s are so expensive (18:00), her history in consumer electronics (21:10), convincing investors that open-source is the best approach (25:30), when she nearly died (28:20), using the tools of our time (30:30), the device (38:50), the handheld hospital (41:20), a medical app store (51:00), telepathy (52:00), her friendship with Peter Gabriel (57:30), and building a new medical business model (1:00:30).
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Ocado's robotics, Crypto's rise and Skype's demise
48:27|Tim Steiner, the CEO of Ocado, drops by the studio to discuss in detail his expectations for the future of food deliveries with the use of robotics and humanoid robots. Elsewhere, President Trump wants is making the USA the "Crypto Capital of the World". And Danny gets personal as he and Kate reminisce as Skype is "retired".Nuclear's big return, British creators revolt & Elon sends an email
44:27|Is nuclear power the answer to energy hungry Artificial Intelligence? Matt Loszak CEO & Cofounder of Aalo Atomics thinks so. Plus, British artists send a disapproving open letter about AI to the Government, while Elon Musk sends a strongly worded email to Government employees.With Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
43:46|Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce & owner of Time Magazine explains his vision of the future of work. Plus he talks President Trump, Elon Musk and has a pop at Microsoft's AI too.Elon bids for OpenAI, and Sam says no
26:40|Katie and Danny explore Elon Musk's $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI, and Sam Altman's instant dismissal of the bid, as well as decoding the rest of the exclusive interview earlier in the week.An interview with Sam Altman, Co-Founder & CEO of OpenAI
29:09|Ahead of the Paris AI Action Summit, Katie and Danny are together in London for a special interview with the man who is synonymous with Artificial Intelligence - Sam Altman. He is the studio talking all things OpenAI, President Trump, Elon Musk, DeepSeek and the future of life and work.Getty Images CEO, Craig Peters interview, plus ADPUs - really, Danny?
44:20|The CEO of Getty Images, Craig Peters, joins the podcast to make his case for the ongoing value of human creation in an AI world. Plus Danny updates on how Tech is embracing President Trump's new administration.DeepSeek and you shall find? With Professor Neil Lawrence
33:35|The release of DeepSeek's R1 language model by a little known Chinese AI company sent Silicon Valley into turmoil this week - albeit temporarily. Who, how, why and what is DeepSeek? Professor Neil Lawrence joins the pod to help Katie and Danny answer those questions and a few more besides.Clip: AI House Davos Jan 2024Trump's "broligarchy", writers' rights and TikTok returns?
42:45|A picture is worth a thousand words - it is said - and at President Trump's inauguration some of the biggest names in tech were very much in the picture. TikTok banned; then unbanned. And Trip Adler, founder of Scribd, joins the show to talk about a new venture and a potential Spotify moment for AI and humans (or at least the authors among us!).Clips: @tiktok via Tiktok@Henry的小木屋 via XiaohongshuA Very British AI Revolution!
40:51|The Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, joins the pod to discuss the British Government's 'AI Opportunities Action Plan' (and Elon Musk). Plus, a new guide the UK's fastest growing tech companies is revealed by The Times and Sunday Times. Find it here - https://www.thetimes.com/sunday-times-100-tech/tech-feature/article/best-uk-tech-companies-2025-qzt9lcmnd