Pioneers of AI

Stories of people standing in line for hours to get their drivers license or being wrongfully denied government food assistance are common in America. Few people think, “I can solve this problem.” But the CEO of Promise, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, sees a solution in AI. Promise is a software company designed to help move money in and out of government benefit programs (like SNAP) to better serve the people who rely on them – and better serve taxpayers, too. Host Rana el Kaliouby speaks with Phaedra about how Promise is making these systems cheaper and faster with AI.
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In the first half of 2026 alone, investors poured $3 billion into the next frontier of AI: World Models. Google DeepMind, Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, Yann LeCunn’s AMI labs, and Odyssey are all building in this space. In this episode, host Rana el Kaliouby speaks with the co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Oliver Cameron. They dive into the trillion dollar opportunity behind world models, why they are the next frontier of AI, and how they will be applied to a range of industries, from education to healthcare.
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Critterz was one of the first feature films built primarily with AI, but OpenAI abruptly shut down Sora, the very tool its director was relying on. Nik Kleverov, Chief Creative Officer of Native Foreign, joins Rapid Response from the Cannes Lions festival to make the case for why AI isn't killing Hollywood, it's about to reinvent it. He breaks down why 2026 is year zero for mass adoption of AI in the film industry, and why human talent is more in demand than ever when great storytelling is the goal. Kleverov also confronts the darker side of the technology: deepfakes, scams, and the blurring line between real and generated, and offers a surprising possible solution.
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This week we reprise our episode with robotics developer Grace Brown, co-founder and CEO of Andromeda, an Australia- and US-based company. A recently launched study, led by nurses, will analyze how Andromeda’s humanoid robot Abi fits into the everyday routine of patients in dementia care. Abi is a social robot designed for the aging population, with a goal to address the loneliness epidemic. In this interview, Rana el Kaliouby sits down with Brown to talk about why physical AI needs emotional intelligence, how nonverbal cues make or break human-robot interactions, and the importance of designing robots people actually want in their lives.
Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/
Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofai
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For nearly two decades, Amy Webb's annual Tech Trends Report was required reading for anyone trying to keep up with technology. But this year, Webb killed the report and replaced it with something more applicable for leaders in an AI era.
In this episode, CEO of Future Today Strategy Group Amy Webb joins host Rana el Kaliouby to unpack her 2026 Convergence Outlook and examines how AI-driven convergences such as compute shock, living intelligence, and emotional outsourcing will reshape business and daily life.
Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/
Follow Pioneers of AI on all channels: https://linktr.ee/pioneersofai
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.