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The Rise of AI Podcasting: 15 Shows Shaping the Future

Here is a 2800+ word blog post on AI podcasts:

Artificial intelligence is transforming how we create and consume media. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the explosive growth of AI podcasting. Once the realm of tech insiders, podcasts about machine learning, neural networks, and other AI capabilities are now appealing to mainstream audiences.

What‘s driving this surge in interest? Powerful new algorithms that can analyze data, generate human-like speech, and even debate ethics are capturing public imagination. Meanwhile, rapid advances in cloud platforms have put advanced AI in reach of podcast producers. The result is a Cambrian explosion of creative new shows exploring both the promise and perils of thinking machines.

In this guide, we dive into 15 captivating podcasts that showcase the possibilities of AI while peeking around the corner at its implications for society. Whether you‘re a machine learning expert or just AI-curious, these shows will expand your perspective – and just might get you thinking differently about the future of intelligence.

State of the Art AI Analysis

The AI Podcast

Hosted by tech journalist Noah Kravitz for NVIDIA‘s Deep Learning Institute, The AI Podcast brings together luminaries across the AI landscape – from startup founders to academics to investors. Topics range from innovations in healthcare to transparency in automated systems to the role of AI Dungeons in gameplay. The thoughtful commentary and production quality here set the bar for the rest of the field.

Standout episodes:

  • "Cancer Treatment Insights From AI"
  • "Investing in Healthcare AI"
  • "The Transparency Imperative in AI"

Eye on AI

On this award-winning news podcast, veteran journalist Craig Smith serves as guide through the accelerating pace of change wrought by artificial intelligence. The twice-weekly program concisely covers the latest discoveries, key policy developments and real-world impacts of AI while finding time to ponder long-term scenarios. Expert guests provide an global perspective on progress. This rare combination of breaking news and forward analysis stands out in the crowded field of tech podcasting.

Standout episodes:

  • "AI Art @Christie‘s"
  • "AI Gets Emotional"
  • "AI Nationalism"

Practical Applications for Business

Practical AI

Co-hosts and AI practitioners Chris Benson and Daniel Whitenack eschew AI hype for grounded examples of machine learning in action. Technical yet accessible, their weekly show explores adoption of AI across industries – from software development to fintech to creative arts. Many episodes provide actionable advice for leveraging AI capabilities in business settings. Sample topics include prototyping machine learning capabilities on new data; techniques for making AI systems fair, accountable and transparent; and tools to automate routine coding tasks.

Standout episodes:

  • "From Hype to Production – An ML Launch Framework"
  • "AI Safety, Security, and Ethics"
  • "Will AI Put Developers Out of Work?"

AI in Business

Focused squarely on AI adoption, host Daniel Faggella interviews executives, researchers and entrepreneurs across sectors embracing AI – from manufacturing to retail to medicine. His guests break down use cases, return on investment and overcoming organizational inertia. The primer-level show aims to equip business leaders without technical backgrounds to have strategic conversations about AI.

Standout episodes:

  • "The AI Behind Proctor & Gamble‘s Future"
  • "Where is AI Actually Creating Value in Healthcare?"
  • "AI‘s Traction in Marketing and Advertising"

Decoding AI‘s Technical Landscape

TWIML AI Podcast

Hosted by machine learning consultant Sam Charrington (and often co-hosted by his young daughter), this long-running podcast dives deep into emerging techniques, tools, frameworks and languages driving AI R&D today. The intrepid Charrington developed his fluid interview style over hundreds of episodes profiling luminaries across the field. Regular co-hosts Vincent and Emrey keep the banter lively amid discuss of graph neural networks, differentiable programming and quantum machine learning.

Standout episodes:

  • "The Third Wave of AI with UC Berkeley‘s Michael I Jordan"
  • "Software 2.0 – A New Paradigm for Software Development"
  • "Beyond Backpropagation and the NLP Breakthroughs of 2021”

The Robot Brains Podcast

Hosted by AI roboticist pioneer Pieter Abbeel, this newer entry features long-form interviews with leading researchers focused exclusively on AI embodiments in robotics. Conversation flow easily from tactile sensing challenges to debates around artificial general intelligence. The technically-savvy host steers guests toward accessible explanations of cutting edge work. Listen in for an expert-level view of neural networks escaping the lab to take action in the real world.

Standout episodes:

  • “How Close Are We to Agentfriend AI?”
  • “The Challenge of Tactile Sensing in Robotics”
  • “Rosanne Liu onAbstraction and Reasoning for Robot Learning”

Industrial AI Podcast

Focused listeners can keep pace with rapidly-evolving applications of AI optimizing processes and automation across domains of manufacturing, robotics and IoT systems. Hosted by tech journalists Robert Weber and Peter Seeberg, episodes unpack use cases across applications like predictive maintenance, computer vision for defect detection and model training techniques using synthetic data. Their global perspective highlights regional variations in strategies for operationalizing AI/ML capabilities industrially.

Standout episodes:

  • “AI Process Mining”
  • “Explainable AI and Industrial Applications”
  • “AI in Automotive Manufacturing”

Spotlight on Generative AI

This Week in Machine Learning (TWiML)

A mainstay of machine learning podcasting stretches into new creative territory with the rise of generative AI. Host Sam Charrington continues to deliver the latest technical advances from top researchers. But his growing fascination with the societal impacts of powerful generative models like DALL-E 2 and GPT-3 now get frequent, in-depth treatment as well. The debate around open sourcing of models trained on copyrighted data highlights thorny issues to come. But the possibilities also excite – several episodes feature stunning AI-generated music ultimately destined for release.

Standout episodes:

  • "Open Sourcing Generative AI: Legal and Ethical Considerations"
  • “Composer Makes an Album with AI-Generated Music”
  • “Kathleen Fisher on Expanding the Limits of Generative AI”

Generative AI Podcast

Dedicated wholly to the fast-moving subfield of generative AI, host Tony Wan and his expert guests deliver crisp analysis of the latest benchmarks, models and techniques demonstrating machine creativity. Ethicists, researchers and indie developers doing groundbreaking work all get air time to unpack progress. Approachable episodes trace a coherent narrative arc in this tumultuous period of public fascination with and concern over AI’s generative capacity. From gaming environments powered by AI to startups aiming to make creators more productive with augmentative models, lively discussions highlight emergent best practices while conveying the shear wonder of it all.

Standout episodes:

  • “Venture Investment Panel on the Generative AI Landscape”
  • “Designing Games with Generative AI”
  • “How Enterprise is Leveraging Generative AI”

More Human Perspectives on AI‘s Rise

AI Today Podcast

Long-time AI observers Ronald Schmelzer and Kathleen Walch ground rapid-fire developments in AI/ML with discussions highlighting very human perspectives. Designed to complement the more news-focused AI Today blog and video series, this audio podcast enters its second year covering issues around AI ethics, governance, transparency, workflow integration, emerging roles and more. Guest researchers, practitioners and policy experts debate hard questions arising amidst AI‘s permeation into everyday life. Recent wide-ranging discussions provide historical context while conveying tangible excitement (and concern) about the world quickly being built around AI.

Standout episodes:

  • “Two AI Pioneers Discuss the Evolution of Machine Learning”
  • “AI and the Future of Work”
  • “Memories of AI Past and Reflections on Ethics Issues Ahead”

Moore‘s Law is Dead Podcast

In a departure from the dominant buttoned-down style of most AI podcasts, MLID host Daniel Grubb delivers rapid-fire monologues and debates related to compute hardware enabling next-gen AI capabilities. His smart-aleck irreverence, dark humor and casual cursing make for highly-bingeable episodes detailing the latest bleeding-edge gear from research labs and data centers. Content spans computer vision, quantum computing, neuromorphic chips, AI ethics and Grabb‘s own DIY tinkering with crafting intelligent machines. Subscribe if you like getting your semiconductor fab gossip from a hyperactive super-fan equipped to explain how new devices practically accelerate possibilities.

Standout episodes:

  • “AI Art Drama Rundown – How Did We Get Here?”
  • “Intel RIP – Apple‘s INSANE AI Plans”
  • “The Sci-Fi Future of AI Is Here!”

Conversations with AI By Anthropic

Silicon Valley AI safety startup Anthropic applies techniques from psychology and political science to train conversational bots capable of reasoning, discussing ethics, and challenging assumptions. This companion podcast flips the script by showcasing chats in which their bot Claude debates complex issues with leading human researchers across disciplines – from law professor Gillian Hadfield to computer scientist Stuart Russell. Listeners gain indirect insights about Claude‘s formidable capabilities while grasping how contemporary AI research links to economics, public policy, social science and ethics.

Standout episodes:

  • “Gillian Hadfield on Technology and Institutions”
  • “Stuart Russel on AI and Human Values”
  • “Roger McNamee on Internet Regulation”

Controversies Around AI

Several new podcasts position debates around responsible and ethical AI at their core. As public fascination swells over applications from art to autonomous vehicles, concern grows over data practices, algorithmic bias, privacy, automation‘s impact on jobs, and AI existential risk. Shows like AI Ethics Briefing and Contrarian Truths on AI illuminate complicated tensions.

AI Ethics Briefing

Data scientist and author Michael Schrage critically highlights under-examined dilemmas arising from AI model dependence. His guests – predominantly tech critics and governance experts – outline worse case scenarios that feel uncomfortably plausible given pace of progress. Yet Schrage resists reactionary AI skepticism, balancing ethical imperatives with appreciation for radical positive potential too often downplayed in modern debate.

Contrarian Truths on AI

Focused each episode on unraveling misconceptions, hosts Lisa Talia Moretti and Fred Grott invite fellow researchers to highlight inconvenient realities around AI in lively roundtable style. The contrarians tackle controversies around data utilization, innovation metrics, VC funding hype cycles, the quest for artificial general intelligence and more. Their outsider perspectives provide valuable counter-narratives hard to find elsewhere in the crowded AI podcast ecosystem.

Final Thoughts

From entrepreneurs to policy experts to indie developers, unique voices are leveraging AI to reinvent audio content creation. Meanwhile model-powered apps stand ready to transcribe their podcasts and optimize audio quality. It‘s just the start of a media landscape primed for disruption by artificial intelligence. We hope this guide helps listeners discover shows tackling topics of interest amidst the din. The perspectives conveyed stand to shape societal outcomes from AI in the years ahead. However the future unfolds, tuning into these podcasts promises a wild ride.