The Data Exchange with Ben Lorica

Hosted by Ben Lorica

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Episodes

375

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

A series of informal conversations with thought leaders, researchers, practitioners, and writers on a wide range of topics in technology, science, and of course big data, data science, artificial intelligence, and related applications. Anchored by Ben Lorica (@BigData), the Data Exchange also features a roundup of the most important stories from the worlds of data, machine learning and AI. Detailed show notes for each episode can be found on https://thedataexchange.media/ The Data Exchange podcast is a production of Gradient Flow [https://gradientflow.com/].

Listen to episodes

60 recent

November 5, 202648 min

Your Agent Ran One Command. It Did a Dozen Things.

Ben Lorica talks with Chetan Conikee , founder of Modiqo and creator of Olki , about why existing tools often fall short when it comes to understanding what AI agents actually do. Chetan explains how Olki captures and classifies individual agent actions without relying on another LLM, providing detailed insights into costs, performance, and security. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

October 31, 202650 min

The AI Boom Is Impressive. Can It Last?

Ben Lorica and investor Evangelos Simoudis discuss the opportunities and risks revealed in Anthropic’s S-1, from explosive revenue growth and improving economics to mounting compute commitments, competition from open-weight models, and dependence on coding. They also examine SpaceX’s emerging neocloud business and whether access to cheap capital and growing demand can sustain it. Finally, they debate proposals for regulating frontier AI labs, including restrictions on AI self-improvement, independent testing, and mandatory disclosure of security incidents. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

October 29, 202646 min

When AI Writes the Code, Who Proves It Works?

Ben Lorica speaks with Leo de Moura , creator of Lean , VP and Distinguished Scientist at AWS , and Chief Architect of the Lean Focused Research Organization , about how AI is making formal verification more accessible and potentially transforming software engineering. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

October 22, 202654 min

Let Domain Experts Build the Agents

Akshay Sharma , ML Engineer at Lyft, and Nick Ung , Staff Applied Scientist at Lyft, explain how their team is building a platform that lets domain experts create customer-facing AI agents while engineers provide the underlying tools, guardrails, and evaluation infrastructure. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

October 15, 202656 min

AI Is Coming for Tasks Before It Comes for Jobs

MIT FutureTech director Neil Thompson joins Ben Lorica to discuss how AI is reshaping work, the economy, and the future of automation. Drawing on recent research, Thompson explains why AI’s impact on most occupations may unfold gradually rather than arrive as a sudden shock, why adoption continues to lag behind technical capabilities, and why the fixed costs of implementation favor larger firms. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

October 8, 202649 min

Why Build Your Own AI Model When Frontier Models Already Exist?

In this episode, we talk with Joel Hron , CTO of Thomson Reuters , about the company’s decision to develop its own frontier AI model, Thomson, using open-weight models and decades of proprietary content and expertise. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

October 1, 202658 min

Why AI Makes Games Worse—and How to Make Them Better

Piero Molino , CEO and co-founder of Studio Atelico , joins Ben Lorica to discuss what happens when AI becomes a core game mechanic rather than a cost-cutting tool. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

September 24, 202646 min

What Comes After Transformers?

Ben Lorica speaks with Zuzanna Stamirowska , CEO of Pathway , about the company’s push beyond transformers toward models that reason in latent space, learn from experience, and maintain state over long time horizons. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

September 17, 202635 min

Inside OpenAI's First Chip

Richard Ho , VP of Hardware at OpenAI , explains how the team built Jalapeño , its first custom AI accelerator, and why controlling more of the hardware stack could lower inference costs and improve performance. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .

September 12, 202656 min

Navier-Stokes and AI generated work: If You Can't Explain It, Did You Really Do It?

Ben Lorica is joined by Evangelos Simoudis for a wide-ranging discussion on how AI is reshaping knowledge work: from the Navier-Stokes controversy and the need to protect intellectual property to whether workers should still be expected to understand and defend AI-generated work. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS . Detailed show notes and transcript, can be found on The Data Exchange web site .