Afleveringen

  • In this final and very special episode of Season Two of The Moonshot Podcast, we're zooming out on what it means to have a Moonshot Mindset, and how The Moonshot Factory has been systematizing radical innovation over the last 16 years.


    We turn the tables, with Astro interviewed by TESTED host and king of experimental curiosity, Adam Savage, to talk about what innovation is, how you can really drive it, and how we can all be more innovative in our lives.


    Next, Astro sits down with Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin, to discuss where the inspiration for The Moonshot Factory came from, and reflect on some of their favorite moonshots to date.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In this episode of The Moonshot Podcast we're diving deep—literally!—below the surface to uncover the ground's immense, untapped potential, which could unlock solutions to some of humanity's greatest challenges.
    Astro sits down with Kathy Hannun from Project Dandelion to explore the breakthrough efficiency of geothermal heat pumps for home heating and cooling.

    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 16 years of Alphabet’s moonshot factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.

    If you want to take your own moonshots, we've developed a certificate course with MasterClass on how to take bold ideas and translate them into real world impact. Check it out here: https://www.masterclass.com/certificates/breakthrough-innovation-strategy-from-bold-idea-to-business-impact
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?

    Klik hier om de feed te vernieuwen.

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast explores what the mind can teach us about technology and how technology can help our minds.

    First, Astro is joined by Sarah Laszlo from Project Valkyrie to discuss how looking at biological brains, such as that of a fruit fly, might unlock the key to more energy-efficient supercomputing.

    Next, Astro speaks with Obi Felton who led project Amber, a moonshot that attempted to build a more affordable EEG device that could detect and measure mental health diseases like depression and anxiety.


    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 16 years of Alphabet’s moonshot factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.

    If you want to take your own moonshots, we've developed a certificate course with MasterClass on how to take bold ideas and translate them into real world impact. Check it out here: https://www.masterclass.com/certificates/breakthrough-innovation-strategy-from-bold-idea-to-business-impact
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast explores two ambitious moonshots focused on bringing "visibility" to the world's most complex and opaque digital and physical systems.

    First, Astro is joined by Mike Wiacek, Stephen Gillett, and Shapor Naghibzadeh from Chronicle to discuss how they built a digital immune system for cybersecurity, using Google-scale data analysis to detect anomalous activity and combat a global economic threat.

    Next, Astro speaks with Steven Chen and Suresh Vishnubhatla from Chorus, a moonshot focused on indexing the physical world to address monumental supply chain waste and inefficiency.

    0:00 - Intro
    01:25 - The "A-ha" moment that started Chronicle
    03:35 - Rethinking the future of cybersecurity
    05:17 - Building a "Digital Immune System"
    11:35 - The terrifying scale of cyberattacks 10 years ago
    13:08 - Understanding the 3 tiers of cybercriminals
    15:46 - How Chronicle differed from other cybersecurity tools
    19:27 - The “Coming Out” party: taking the tech public
    21:12 - Returning to Google
    23:23 - Memories and lessons learned from their time at X
    24:53 - Enter Project Chorus: Meet Steven and Suresh
    26:11 - Solving the supply chain’s biggest blind spot
    29:41 - From idea to execution: How Chorus took flight
    31:07 - What Chorus offers today
    34:26 - A deep dive into the tech
    36:46 - The evolution of Chorus
    40:27 - How Chorus achieves “System-Wide” visibility
    44:17 - Why every item in the supply chain matters
    46:07 - Behind the scenes: Funniest project moments
    47:28 - How Chorus could fundamentally change the world
    48:55 - Final thoughts


    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 16 years of Alphabet’s moonshot factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.

    If you want to take your own moonshots, we've developed a certificate course with MasterClass on how to take bold ideas and translate them into real world impact. Check it out here: https://www.masterclass.com/certificates/breakthrough-innovation-strategy-from-bold-idea-to-business-impact
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast explores how X is reimagining computer chip design to power the next generation of AI.

    Computer engineer Tammo Spalink joins host Astro Teller to discuss Project Positron and their radical decision to build "positronic brains" for robots that prioritize real-time response over raw throughput.

    Astro then speaks with Raj Apte about Project Bodger, a moonshot that uses AI to design the hardware of the future. By moving away from traditional, hand-drawn architectures and toward "inverse design," the team explores how computers can create chips that are faster and more efficient than anything humans could design on their own.

    Finally, the conversation looks toward the future of automated chip design and its role in accelerating Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). From personalizing healthcare to solving complex climate challenges, Astro and Raj discuss how these breakthroughs are ensuring the "silent, beating heart" of technology can keep up with our biggest ambitions.

    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 15 years of Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast explores two moonshots that investigated very different ways to use water: harvesting it from the air and transforming it into fuel.

    Astro Teller first chats with Neil Treat and Claudia Truesdell from Project H2E (“Hydration to Everyone”). The H2E team explored whether it would be possible to improve access to safe drinking water by harvesting water from the air.

    Next he sits down with Kathy Hannun from Foghorn, an X project that found a way to pull carbon and hydrogen out of seawater and combine it to create a new type of carbon-neutral fuel. The team successfully created fuel using this method, however they weren’t able to do so at a cost competitive with gasoline.


    0:00 - Intro
    00:58 - Meet Neil Treat and Claudia Treusdell from H2E
    01:48 - The crisis: Global water insecurity
    04:14 - The location of water-stressed communities
    06:17 - The "Magic Box": Harvesting water from the air
    09:00 - Defining H2E’s "Kill Criteria"
    09:25 - Mechanics: How the H2e device functioned
    11:24 - Engineering the internal air flow
    12:51 - Material science: Selecting the right desiccant
    14:29 - The "Mule": Prototyping a moonshot
    15:24 - Early H2E prototype evolution
    16:59 - Surprising engineering hurdles
    18:48 - Sharing H2E’s results with the world
    20:12 - Could H2E’s moonshot become a reality today?
    22:12 -What the H2E team are up to today
    24:01 - Project Foghorn: The fuel from the sea
    24:49 - The origins of Foghorn
    27:09 - Why Foghorn pursued a carbon-neutral fuel for combustion engines
    28:59 - The process: Extracting CO2 from seawater
    30:35 - Chemistry: Turning ocean water into methanol
    33:01 - Foghorn’s "Kill Criteria" and testing
    39:13 - Why the project was wound down
    42:21 - Lessons learned
    43:18 - Remembering Matt Eisaman
    44:33 - Conclusion


    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 16 years of Alphabet’s moonshot factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.

    If you want to take your own moonshots, we've developed a certificate course with MasterClass on how to take bold ideas and translate them into real world impact. Check it out here: https://www.masterclass.com/certificates/breakthrough-innovation-strategy-from-bold-idea-to-business-impact
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast explores how X, The Moonshot Factory, is reimagining a better way to plan and make smarter, faster building decisions to address the global housing crisis.

    Host Astro Teller is joined by architect Michelle Kaufmann to discuss the quest of making sustainable, high-quality homes accessible to everyone through the power of prefabrication and AI. They look back on how the team developed a first-of-its-kind software system that could iterate hundreds of building designs in seconds—essentially creating an "intelligent clay" that calculates costs and structural requirements in real time.

    Next, Astro talks with Adrian Walker and Julia Ling about their new venture, Anori. They discuss how generative AI and data-sharing are finally digitizing the construction industry, allowing developers to de-risk projects and optimize for health and sustainability from day one.

    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 15 years of Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast explores X's pursuit of radical solutions to drive energy abundance and resilience for humanity.

    Host Astro Teller is joined by Fort Felker to discuss the untold story of the Makani Moonshot, which sought to harvest wind energy in a radically different, lightweight way, using a tethered, kite-like aircraft.

    Next, Astro and engineer Raj Apte discusses Project Malta and the idea of creating a "time shifter for energy," exploring innovative ways to store energy until the grid needs it.
    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 15 years of Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • This episode of The Moonshot Podcast dives into the future of biology, exploring how to harness life's "tiny factories" to solve humanity's biggest challenges.

    Host Astro Teller sits down with Brad Zamft, CEO of Heritable Agriculture, to talk about programming plants to dramatically increase yield, pest, and drought resistance for a more sustainable food system.
    Next Astro speaks with Relly Brandman from project A-Life about unlocking the manufacturing power of biology, using AI to create a "virtual cell" that shifts biomanufacturing from slow trial-and-error to a predictable engineering discipline for making materials like medicines, fuels, and textiles.

    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 15 years of Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • The Moonshot Podcast is back!

    In the season 2 premiere, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller explores how three X projects developed technology to transform the future of healthcare.

    He first sits down with Kathryn Zealand and Anna Roumiantseva from Skip to hear about how the world’s first “e-bike for walking” evolved from their team’s mobility moonshot at X. They recount how an early prototype of Skip’s powered pants helped carry a colleague to top of the Salesforce Tower, and share how the product has developed since spinning out into an independent company (Astro even tries a pair on for size to see their progress firsthand).

    Microelectronics expert Will Biederman then joins Astro for a conversation about the origins of Project Iris, a computerized contact lens designed to help measure diabetes risk, which laid the foundation for the continuous glucose monitors that millions of people use today. Finally, Astro chats with Verily CEO Stephen Gillet to hear about his mission to make precision healthcare accessible to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

    0:00 - Intro
    1:08 - Meet Kathryn Zealand and Anna Roumiantseva, Skip
    1:57 - An “e-bike for walking”
    2:35 - Why mobility needs a moonshot
    3:42 - Limitations with current mobility solutions
    6:19 - Criteria for the world’s first “movewear”
    7:37 - Understanding the complexities of human motion
    9:13 - How much weight Skip’s pants can carry
    9:40 - Racing to the top of the Salesforce Tower
    13:54 - Skip’s partnership with Arc’teryx
    14:40 - The “kill criteria” for Skip’s moonshot
    17:29 - Astro tries Skip’s pants on for size
    18:55 - Meet Will Biederman, Project Iris
    19:26 - Can a computerized contact lens help prevent diabetes?
    20:19 - The potential worldwide impact of glucose monitoring
    20:52 - Can tears help measure glucose?
    22:50 - How to put a computer into a contact lens
    24:11 - Project Iris’s early findings using glasses
    25:20 - Fitting the “world’s smallest batteries” onto a contact lens
    26:18 - A close-up view of the Project Iris contact lens
    28:55 - How Project Iris transformed continuous glucose monitoring
    31:18 - The origins of the Dexcom 7
    32:08 - How glucose monitoring could lead to other health breakthroughs
    32:55 - The future of everyday medical technologies
    33:42 - Liftware’s “robot in a spoon” to counter tremors
    34:16 - Meet Steven Gillett, Verily CEO
    35:09 - Verily’s mission to democratize precision healthcare
    36:30 - How Verily can aggregate a person’s entire medical history
    39:05 - How Verily’s technology keeps private data secure
    39:43 - Steve’s vision for how Verily can change the world
    41:17 - What needs to happen in order to reach autonomous healthcare
    42:27 - Conclusion


    Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 16 years of Alphabet’s moonshot factory.

    The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • The Moonshot Podcast is back!

    The Moonshot Podcast chronicles the untold stories of innovation - both highs and lows - from inside Google’s Moonshot Factory. In Season 2, Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sits down with a new crop of moonshot takers exploring the next frontiers in health, biology, computing and more.

    From energy kites and robotic pants, to sea fuel and digital immune systems, go behind the scenes with the inventors and creators working to turn "what if" into what’s next.

    Available from March 25, wherever you get your podcasts.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the ninth installment of the Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive series, Astro Teller and Emily Ma explore how to solve humanity’s food waste and hunger problems.

    They discuss how Project Delta built an “air traffic control” system for the world’s surplus food. They also discuss the origins of Chorus, X’s moonshot to give every object a voice which is now focused on optimizing global supply chains using advanced sensors and orchestration software.

    For more on the future of food waste, tune into Episode 6 of the Moonshot Podcast, “Trash to Treasure”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgRASA92Dco

    Video Segmentation
    00:00 - Introduction
    01:38 - The origins of Emily’s passion for food waste
    04:07 - Why food waste is such a big problem
    07:09 - How Emily wound up at X
    10:24 - Google Glass in early food waste prototypes
    12:06 - Emily’s “waste audit” sifting through physical trash
    15:08 - How food is wasted in every phase of the production process
    20:36 - An “air traffic control” system for the world’s surplus food
    23:54 - How X’s food waste technology helped tackle that surplus
    29:25 - What the team learned by working in the field
    30:40 - Food waste “nodes” to reroute surplus food
    33:34 - Applying X’s food waste technology outside the U.S.
    35:41 - The team’s early vision for a supply chain moonshot - Chorus
    39:56 - How Chorus evolved from the Delta team
    41:26 - How Delta graduated to Google
    45:06 - Emily’s fondest moonshot memories
    46:54 - The importance of play when taking moonshots
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the eighth installment of the Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive series, Astro Teller discusses the future of audio wearables with iyO Founder Jason Rugolo.

    They discuss the many unexpected use cases for machine-mediated hearing, what it was like to build the world’s first audio computer and how to make audio wearables “cool.”

    For more on the origins of iyO and the next generation of audio wearable technology, tune into Episode 9 of the Moonshot Podcast, “Supersenses”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlpF2QJNL5Y

    00:00 - Introduction
    02:17 - The first company Jason started at age 14
    04:02 - How Jason came to X
    06:40 - Jason’s earliest “fail fast” moonshot ideas
    09:54 - The importance of being “the right amount too early”
    12:45 - Radical idea for digital humans
    14:59 - Early explorations into tele-video
    18:49 - The original pitch for what became iyO
    22:24 - Why designing great wearables for the ear is so hard
    24:52 - Design considerations for audio wearables
    29:41 - Making audio wearables “cool”
    31:32 - The limitations of current in-ear devices
    32:33 - The “superpowers” we’d have with machine-mediated hearing
    35:30 - Building the first audio computer
    36:30 - What the team’s first audio wearable looked like
    38:01 - How audio wearables could help with translation
    40:55 - The potential for wearables to protect from hearing loss
    41:57 - The future of “hearing enhancement” apps
    44:45 - The unexpected value of voice-to-audio interaction
    48:34 - Astro’s “holy s**t” moment with audio wearables
    52:26 - Why audio wearables need to change sound sources so quickly
    55:47 - iyO’s public debut
    57:23 - Surprising agentic AI use cases
    58:50 - Physics conversations with the Einstein app using iyO
    01:00:58 - Musical conversations with the iyO DJ app using iyO
    01:01:51 - Jason’s hard-won lessons from taking moonshots
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In this installment of the Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive series, Astro Teller explores the origins of Google Glass with designers Ivy Ross and Isabelle Olsson.

    They discuss the unexpected design and tech challenges the team faced creating such a bold new form factor, the surprising ways people ended up wanting to use Glass, how their backgrounds in art influenced their approach, and the importance of timing when creating new technologies.

    For more on Glass’s early days, tune into Episode 9 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Supersenses”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlpF2QJNL5Y

    00:00 - Introduction
    01:43 - How Isabelle wound up at X
    03:37 - How Ivy came to X
    07:25 - The big challenges Glass was solving
    11:04 - The origins of the Glass Explorer Program
    11:43 - Glass’s public debut
    14:46 - Ivy’s earliest memories of Glass in action
    18:37 - How art influenced the design of Glass
    22:19 - Glass’s second generation design
    27:20 - From sunglasses to monocles: Early design debates
    31:30 - Surprising “fringe” uses of Glass in industry
    34:33 - Reinventing Glass for industry
    35:47 - Why timing matters
    41:45 - Memorable team traditions
    44:50 - When Glass moved from X to Google
    47:41 - Early explorations with the Google Watch
    49:37 - Lessons learned from taking moonshots
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the sixth installment of our Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive series, X’s Captain of Moonshots, Astro Teller, discusses plant breeding and the future of agriculture with Agricultural Scientist, David Guerena. David works with The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) — a partner of Mineral, X’s moonshot for computational agriculture. They discuss plant breeding, the challenges facing smallholder farmers around the world, and how the tools Mineral developed are helping plant breeders grow more resilient crops.

    For more on Mineral’s impact on agriculture, check out Episode 4 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Feeding the World”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQS3lY6pRvY

    And to learn more about how Mineral’s technology is being used by public plant breeding programs in the Global South, check out The Artemis Project: https://alliancebioversityciat.org/projects/artemis

    00:00 - Introduction
    1:09 - Why humans eat certain plants
    3:20 - How plants have historically been domesticated
    4:53 - The origins of plant breeding
    6:52 - The changing face of plant breeding
    8:42 - Gene banks that preserve genetic diversity
    10:22 - Helping small farmers with plant breeding
    12:33 - How David’s career started
    14:00 - The process of identifying and cataloguing plants
    23:32 - CIAT and CGIAR’s partnership with Mineral
    26:13 - Mineral’s technology
    32:59 - Unexpected findings from Mineral’s early days
    38:40 - Solving for the biggest challenges in plant breeding
    40:08 - Phenotyping 101
    41:06 - The impact of Mineral’s technology
    44:39 - The challenges of existing breeding systems
    50:10 - The future of computational agriculture
    57:00 - The impact of AI on plant breeders and farmers
    59:19 - A surprising insight about bean cooking time
    1:01:47 - The future of plant breeding
    1:03:58 - David, finally, talks about Bruno
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the fifth installment of our Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive video interview series, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sits down with Google DeepMind’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean for a conversation about the origin of Jeff’s pioneering work scaling neural networks.

    They discuss the first time AI captured Jeff’s imagination, the earliest Google Brain framework, the team’s stratospheric advancements in image recognition and speech-to-text, how AI is evolving, and more.

    For more on X’s AI moonshots, check out Jeff on Episode 3 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Machines That Think”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jLPA8Qpc74


    00:00 - Introduction
    00:35 - What Jeff’s childhood was like
    03:50 - The first “non-trivial” thing Jeff coded
    05:02 - Jeff’s “love/hate” relationship with C++
    06:59 - The first time AI captured Jeff’s imagination
    10:40 - When neural networks fell “out of vogue”
    12:24 - How Jeff made a career out of “starting over”
    14:23 - The origins of Google Brain
    17:30 - Critical components of scaling neural networks
    18:43 - The earliest Google Brain framework
    19:32 - How the team first built a 100x bigger neural network
    22:04 - The cat video that started it all
    25:02 - Google Brain’s major progress on image recognition
    26:24 - Google Brain’s major progress on speech to text
    27:29 - The origins of TensorFlow and TPUs
    31:56 - Three breakthroughs in understanding language models
    37:41 - Where Jeff thinks the world is headed
    40:07 - The shift from “making things” to designing prompts
    42:38 - How Jeff uses AI to enhance his own life
    43:51 - Safety, security, and privacy in AI
    50:26 - The future of understanding neural network behavior
    53:34 - When computers are “smarter” than humans
    56:52 - Jeff’s next-five-years plan
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the fourth installment of our Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive video interview series, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sits down with Andrew Ng, the founder of Google Brain and DeepLearning.AI, for a conversation about the history of neural network research and how Andrew’s pioneering ideas led to some of the biggest breakthroughs in modern-day AI.

    Hear about the origins of Google’s deep learning work, how Andrew’s teenage frustrations led him to pursue a career in machine learning and automation, and the work that led up to Google Brain’s infamous “cat video” paper.

    For more on X’s AI moonshots, check out Andrew on Episode 3 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Machines That Think”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jLPA8Qpc74



    00:00 - Introduction
    03:30 - Andrew’s groundbreaking early theories about neural networks
    08:16 - Why Andrew came to X with his ideas
    10:30 - The unlikely history of neural network research
    15:25 - Jeff Dean as Andrew’s “partner in crime”
    17:16 - The origins of Google Brain’s neural networks
    18:32 - Google Brain’s evolution in and out of hardware
    22:01 - Google Brain’s innovation around transformers
    24:36 - Google Brain’s earliest leaps forward in AI
    28:24 - Google Brain’s graduation from X into Google
    31:50 - What Andrew is up to these days
    34:07 - Where the AI and machine learning field is going
    35:19 - Andrew’s passion for education
    36:51 - Why Andrew became interested in AI as a teenager
    37:53 - AI’s democratizing effect on humanity
    41:34 - How Andrew defines the term “artificial intelligence”
    43:51 - Google Brain’s “cat video” coming out moment
    45:51 - AI’s potential positive impact on the workforce
    47:17 - Andrew’s favorite aspects of moonshot-taking
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the third installment of our Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive video interview series, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sits down with Dr. Catie Cuan, robot choreographer and former artist in residence at Everyday Robots, for a conversation about how dance can be used to build beautiful and useful robots that people want to be around.

    Watch the video to hear how Catie and the Everyday Robots team transformed robotic motion into music, what it feels like when she’s dancing with a robot and why she’s “hyper-optimistic” about the future of robotics.

    For more, check out Catie on Episode 5 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Living With Robots”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUcB73KgEVs

    00:00 - Introduction
    00:29 - Catie’s mission to make robots more humanistic and whimsical
    02:12 - How Catie came to X and Everyday Robots
    03:40 - Using dance to make robots less “robotic”
    07:38 - Teaching robots human social cues
    11:00 - Transforming robotic motion into sound with “music mode”
    15:16 - Programming robots to “flock” together like animals
    18:31 - How young kids interact with robots
    20:15 - Catie’s own experience interacting with her robots
    22:18 - Working with experts outside the field
    24:36 - Designing robots to not look like “robots”
    28:44 - Helping humanity face their visceral fear of robots
    32:40 - The moonshot and legacy of Everyday Robots
    35:42 - Catie’s advice for moonshot-takers
    37:27 - Catie’s vision for what the future looks like
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • In the second installment of our Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive video interview series, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sits down with André Prager, former Chief Engineer at Wing, for a conversation about the early days of Wing and how the team solved some of their toughest engineering challenges to develop simple, lightweight, inexpensive delivery drones that are now being used every day across three continents.

    Watch the video to hear the story of André’s earliest inventions as a teenager, the surprising discovery that led the Wing team to rethink the drones’ sound, why engineering often feels like creating art, and more.

    For more, check out André on Episode 1 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Driving the Future”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXGnjbkFLeo
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • n the first installment of our Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive video interview series, X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sits down with Sebastian Thrun, co-founder of the Moonshot Factory, for a conversation about the history of Waymo and Google X, the ethics of innovation, the future of AI, and more.

    Watch the video to hear how the self-driving car project got its start, Sebastian’s philosophy for building great teams, and practical advice for anyone who wants to tackle a big problem with a moonshot idea.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices