Education isn’t fit for purpose when it comes to working alongside artificial intelligence – and we need to be teaching it some ethics, plus balancing it in terms of gender. Those are some of the strong views coming up in a conversation between Accenture’s AI lead in the UK, Emma Kendrew, and Guy Clapperton, the Near Futurist.

Employment, racism, homophobia, we got ’em this fortnight – the next episode will be online on 15 February.

Please do leave a review on iTunes or wherever you found this episode – it’s how a podcast grows.

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There are thousands of rare diseases out there and one of the biggest issues is linking the symptoms to the disease and then connecting them all to a patient. Tim Guilliams is co-founder of Healx and with a skeleton staff, of technologists rather than medical personnel, he aims to find cures for 100 of them by 2025.

It’s a bullish aim and the kicker is that the company is using artificial intelligence rather than medical skills to make it happen. In this episode of the Near Futurist he explains to Guy Clapperton why he believes this is realistic if ambitious, and why AI is the right way to go.

Are you enjoying the Near Futurist? Please do leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you pick up your podcasts – it’s the way shows like this pick up more listeners and start to grow. Thanks!

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Phrases like “gig economy” and “zero hours contracts” are rarely used in any positive sense but freelancing is increasingly important to the workplace, says Sarah Johnson, co-founder of consultancy The Akin. Her organization is very much a virtual set-up and in this episode of the Near Futurist she discusses how freelancers need to value themselves, how smarter and flexible working are developing and how managers need to adjust to this new world.

There are also notes on what’s happening in terms of women in senior roles, and even in 2019 she finds they are a disproportionate minority.

Ageism shot down, figures quoted and a great deal else – if you haven’t heard the Near Futurist podcast before this is a great place to jump in.

Oh, and since it’s our first of 2019, Happy New Year if we’re not too late..? And do please feel free to leave a review on the iTunes store if you like what you hear – it’s how a show like this starts to grow.

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In corporate computing there are often little silos of information everywhere – and Near Futurist Guy Clapperton should know, he’s been writing about how they’re coming to an end since 1989. Here Matt Klassen of Cherwell Software calls in from LA to discuss how to avoid ending up with your corporate systems dictating to the company rather than the other way around.

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Near Futurist Guy Clapperton interviews authors Paul Ashcroft and Garrick Jones about their new book, “Alive: digital humans and their organizations”, taking in a bit of automation, a lot of leadership and management offerings and a very small amount of boating technology.

This is a fortnightly podcast but due to Christmas the next episode will be on 16 December.

 

Reviews would be more than welcome – it’s how podcasts come to people’s attention!

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How often do you look outside your own industry? Graham Jones does and it’s a good way of making sure you don’t fall behind. In this episode, Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to him about how to keep up to date when your company employs thousands, whether the middle-aged are as Internet-savvy as they claim and why a 1960s boutique in Tooting is still up to date.

 

 

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Are we teaching our kids the right things and to ask the right questions? When the Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton and this episode’s interviewee Dave Coplin, late of Microsoft and now with The Envisioners, were growing up, you weren’t allowed to use a calculator in a maths exam. Are we doing the same with different technologies now? And how do we adapt a workforce to a changing world?

Guy and Dave mull the issues over.

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Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to cognitive neuroscientist and business psychologist Dr. Lynda Shaw in this new podcast dedicated to looking at shorter term predictions for the future.

If machines are doing things so well, how do we compete – or should we? Dr. Shaw has a few ideas on what makes us unique as humans.

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Dr. Nicola Millard of BT, in conversation with Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton, discusses chatbots and how they are taking menial tasks away, expanding working lives and the impact of artificial intelligence and human augmentation on the workplace.

Nicola Millard has been forecasting trends for BT since the 1990s.

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Guy Clapperton talks to Adrian Cannon of Witstock about why the way we pay for things needs fixing, what’s happening about it and what businesses and individuals need to do to be ready.

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