Tantra's Mantra with Prakash Sangam

Hosted by Prakash Sangam

Technology Business Management

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Jul 2026

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The podcast that goes behind and beyond the technology news headlines to explore the unheard and unseen. The topics include 5G, AI, IoT, Smartphones, Networking, Intellectual Property and others.

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July 13, 202629 min

Ep. 71: Apple vs. Open AI – Case Analysis

On Jul 10th 2026, Apple sued OpenAI alleging theft of confidential information. The court filing claims that two OpenAI employees were stealing and encouraging Apple employees who are pursuing employment at OpenAI to steal Apple trade secrets. These individuals, both non-profit and for-profit entities of OpenAI, as well as IO Products, the company founded by legendary designer Jony Ive, acquired by OpenAI, are named as defendants in the case. In this episode, Christie Theone, Principal at CTG Advisory, and Ex. VP of Qualcomm Policy and Legal comms and I discuss the specifics of Apple’s allegations, OpenAI’s statement, and likely response, as well as possible next steps. We also delve into how this will affect OpenAI’s plan to introduce highly anticipated personal AI devices, who has better leverage, the remedies Apple is requesting, and what some considerations might be for settlement.Index:00:00 - Intro01:43 - Guest intro (Christie Thoene Theone, Principal, CTG Advisory)02:28 - Apple's complaint: Two employees of OpenAI + OpenAI (pro & non-profit) + IO Products (Founded by #JonyIve)04:05 - Apple's attempt to set a narrative - All OpenAI innovations are tainted by the theft of Apple's trade secrets, even what IO Products might be working on05:05 - Although complaints are centered around two employees (only one is a top-level executive), liability will be borne by the company07:56 - Apple's complaints are well structured, presented "as a matter of fact," without inflammatory language, making the case very obvious and appearing to be "open and shut."10:33 - Jony Ive's name never appears in the complaint. Probably out of respect, and not to tarnish his name12:06 - OpenAI's statement is pretty standard PR response14:42 - Next steps - Likely request for an extension to file the reply. The question is whether they just reply to Apple's allegation, or countersue to get some leverage 17:02 - Discovery is going to be interesting, with many trade secrets at play. Details will come out if there are conflicts between the companies. Can it be motivation for settlement?21:05 - As things stand today, OpenAI is at a weaker place, as this case affects its product plans and IPO plans, and time is on Apple's side22:45 - Apple's remedy requests are not very clear, not sure what "enjoining" in this case means. Injunctions are very hard to come by25:15 - OpenAI can keep working on whatever they are doing till there is an order from the judge (e.g. 25:33 - The first target for Apple is to seek an early decision to stop OpenAI from whatever they are working on, and the target for OpenAI is to seek early dismissal of the case. Both are hard to come by29:12 - Closing

July 7, 202647 min

Ep. 70: State of Enterprise AI - Discussion with Lenovo & TCS

This is a special episode produced by the collaboration between TiE San Diego and Tantra's Mantra.In this episode, I speak to Mark Budgen of Lenovo and Rajnikant Gupta of TCS on the current status of AI adoption in enterprises. We start by discussing which segments and which functions within organizations have seen deeper adoption of AI, whether AI projects have moved from PoC and trials to production, what the major challenges are in that transition, how the thinking and approach of enterprises toward AI have changed over the short period, the need for “Human in the loop,” and the necessity of Hybrid AI. We discuss key takeaways from Lenovo’s “CIO Playbook 2026” report and how enterprises are now more focused on improving and accelerating business outcomes rather than simply improving productivity.Finally, we delve into what to expect in the near and far future, moving from Generative and Agentic AI to Physical and Embodied AI.Index:00:00 - Intro01:05 - Guest intro (Mark Budgen, CTO, Global Technology Partners at Lenovo, & Rajnikant Gupta, Global Head - Partner Ecosystems and Alliances, TCS)02:28 - Current status of AI adoption in Enterprises, how AI can improve business, not just efficiency, risk considerations06:30 - Difference in level of AI adoption between various functional groups within Enterprises - IT, Coding, Security, Supply Chain, Sales & Marketing13:30 - Evolution of Human involvement in AI processes. Humans in the Agentic AI loop will be required for a long time, because of the risk of failure and its costs16:56 - Key takeaways from Lenovo's "CIO Playbook 2026" report: AI is not the entire toolbox, but one of the tools; focus is on how to use AI to improve and accelerate business and finally the outcomes; mapping IT KPIs to Business KPIs22:16 - Current status of AI projects, in "Production" vs. "PoC" or "Trials" stage. The majority still in the process of moving to Production. Execs now better understand their business value; Focus on platforms to scale rather than simple point solutions28:13 - Challenges in implementing AI: Employee fear of replacement, lack of domain experts with AI knowledge,31:56 - Hybrid AI: How to decide where to run AI: Cloud or Edge? Dependencies: Sovereignty, access to data, power, and cooling; Token use optimization38:27 - What to expect to see in the near and far future: Physical AI, Embodied AI, AI becoming ubiquitous and41:20 - Closing

June 19, 202641 min

Ep. 69: Lenovo VP on QIRA – Cross Device/Platform/OS Personal AI Agent

At CES 2026, Lenovo showcased an exciting new AI innovation called QIRA, redefining what personalized technology can offer. This powerful, system-level feature works seamlessly across devices and platforms, enhancing user experience like never before, and it’s now being rolled out on select Lenovo devices.In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Jeff Snow, the Head of Product and AI Ecosystem at Lenovo. We explored the inspiring vision behind QIRA, its capabilities, and how Lenovo is uniquely positioned to offer such an experience. Join us as we dive into how QIRA gathers insights, develops its extensive knowledge base, maintains synchronization across devices, and implements robust measures to protect user privacy and security.Index:00:00 - Intro02:00 - Guest intro (Jeff Snow, VP & Head of Product & AI Ecosystem)02:50 - What is QIRA - Cross-device, local-first personal intelligence03:42 - The vision of QIRA - Uniform "Lenovo AI Experience" across devices05:13 - Organizationally, one team is working on QIRA, implemented on all Lenovo devices06:12 - Examples of what it can do today: Catch me up - Summarize what happened across devices, Pay attention - Summarize meetings, and make it part of the knowledge base across devices, more08:17 - QIRA learns from experiences - Implicitly and explicitly (with user permission), gathers and personal knowledge & insights09:59 - It is more than an OTT app - App interface, but tightly integrated into the machine, even connecting with the OS, utilizes local AI models, and can be surfaced in any other apps12:29 - The inputs to QIRA - Multimodal, text, images, voice, additional context (emails, chats, etc.), system health and telemetry, cross-device artifacts (e.g. notifications)14:00 - Explicit user permission is required before saving any inputs, and it can be revoked at any time. "Humans are always in the loop"15:06 - ALL the data generated by the device is stored locally on that specific device, the vectorized and encrypted data is shared across devices to keep all the devices in sync18:16 - The "learning" happens and is stored in the individual device, and synced across devices20:10 - Hybrid and agile model selection: mix of local, cloud, own, and third-party, with always a local-first approach21:56 - User option "Local-only" or "Hybrid." Even in local-only mode, sync across devices can be enabled23:56 - Most QIRA actions are user-initiated or part of an experience or workflow.23:27 - It can surface suggestions, but not directly take action without direct user intervention28:49 - QIRA can be the primary AI assistant interface on your Lenovo device32:20 - Lenovo is exploiting its unique position, with pocket-to-cloud offerings, to provide a more personalized and well-rounded AI experience to its users32:49 - Key challenges Lenovo faced in bringing QIRA to market: changing the mindset of the team to be software-focused, and moving quickly34:99 - Defenses against accessing QIRA-related data when the device is stolen36:17 - Ability to migrate personal knowledge base from old to new device37:20 - No QIRA knowledge base vector data cloud back-up38:30 - Different peer product in China, QIRA is for the rest of the world39:33 - Evolution of QIRA: More devices, third-party devices, even richer knowledge base & orchestration, enterprise solution39:48 - Portability of QIRA vector database41:20 - Closing

May 21, 2020Episode 114 min

Ep. 1: Open RAN Policy Coalition - Is this US Govt's effort to neutralize Huawei in 5G?

Exploring the motivations behind the formation of this new group Open RAN Policy Coalition and the prognosis for 5G infrastructure business in the USA, in view of security concerns and Huawei ban. The coalition includes who's who of US Tech industry -- Cloud giants, Compute majors, Chipset leaders, and Global Operators.

January 11, 2022Episode 1529 min

Ep. 15: What is the 5G mmWave deployment RoI ? Discussion with the writer of a Bell Labs Consulting report

In this episode, I discuss the mmWave RoI report and its specifics with its lead author Stephen Rose of Bell Labs Consulting. The discussion revolves around the methodology, findings, and the value of the report cellular operators and industry at large. As a reference, here is my article summarizing the findings of the report published on RCR Wireless News Can 5G mmWave deployments be profitable? Yes! Says Bell Labs Consulting

May 2, 2022Episode 1927 min

Ep. 19: Discussing the next phase of 5G & 6G with the President of 5G Americas

In this episode, I interview Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, the US cellular operator and vendor organization. The discussion includes the opportunites and challenges of 5G Americas. as well as how the next phase of 5G and 6G will take shape in the USA.

April 18, 2021Episode 1030 min

Ep. 10: Xeon Scalable 3rdGen for 5G Networking & Edge Cloud - Discussion with Jeni Panhorst, VP & GM of Intel

An in-depth discussion with Jeni Panhorst VP & GM of Intel, on the latest trends in the Networking and EdgeCould market, what are the challenges the ecosystem is facing, and how Intel's latest 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable processors can address them. The Xeon Scalable 3rd Gen processors were announced at a recent event titled "How Wonderful Gets Done."

May 16, 202436 min

Ep. 37: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite & X Plus based AIPCs - Market Impact Analysis

The PC industry is on the cusp of a revolution, with major Windows OEMs poised to launch a wave of premium Arm-based AIPCs (laptops) powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XElite and XPlus processors. In this episode, Leonard Lee from Next Curve and I delve deep into what makes "Windows on Arm" a game-changer this time around. We explore performance improvements, the evolving app ecosystem, the focus on AI, and more. We also discuss the competitive landscape and the delicate balancing act OEMs face in navigating their relationships with Intel and Qualcomm.

November 10, 2020Episode 631 min

Ep. 6: Qualcomm re-entering cellular infra business with 5G RAN Solutions - How, What and Why?

Qualcomm was a major cellular infrastructure player in the CDMA days, but only had a limited Small Cell offerings in 4G. It all changed with their recent announcement of 5G RAN solutions for virtualized and open radio networks. In this episode, I talk to Gerardo Giaretta of Qualcomm to understand the reasons behind this new development as well as the overall vRAN and Open RAN market landscape.

March 8, 2022Episode 1625 min

Ep. 16: 5G Private Networks - Should you deploy them now or wait for URLLC? Chat with a CTO

The discussion about 5G Private Networks often revolves around Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and how such networks are a perfect match. In this episode, I chat with Dr. Mehmet Yavuz, CTO, and co-founder of Celona, a leading Private Network solution provider, to answer the question, "Wait for URLLC or deploy them today?" Additionally, address the perennial question, "What does a Private cellular Network do that Wi-Fi can't."