ACCESS - Latest News and Information
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation hosted by Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger
In this episode of Access, hosts Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger interview Mina Thami, co‑founder of Sandbar, about the company’s AI‑powered smart ring that captures and vocalizes a user’s thoughts in their own voice. They explore Mina’s background in neural interfaces at MIT and Meta, demo the hardware, and discuss how wearable AI could make personal AI assistants literally accessible on a finger. The conversation then shifts to the broader AI landscape, with Ellis sharing insights from recent visits to OpenAI, the strategic pivot toward coding‑centric products like Codex, and the escalating competition between OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Throughout, the hosts examine how AI agents are evolving into orchestration layers that integrate with everyday tools and apps.
In this episode, host Ellis interviews Liz Reid, Google's head of search, to explore how generative AI is reshaping Google's core product and the broader search ecosystem. Reid explains that AI‑driven answers are becoming a default layer on top of...
In this episode, hosts discuss the looming impact of AI-driven automation on white‑collar work, referencing a viral speculative essay about a 2028 AI crisis and its economic fallout. They explore how agentic AI could collapse B2B SaaS models, reduce demand...
In this episode Alex and Ellis dissect the hype surrounding robotics and the practical challenges of building useful home robots, before interviewing Tony Zhao, founder of Sunday Robotics. Zhao explains how their robot Memo is trained using real-world data collected...
Alex and Ellis open with a discussion on Meta's metaverse layoffs and the potential shift to Claude Cowork over ChatGPT, then sit down with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe to explore the future of autonomous vehicles. Scaringe explains how large driving models...
Alex and Ellis recap the oddball gadgets, taglines, and even scents that defined CES, then sit down with Meta’s head of wearables, Alex Himel, to explore the accelerating smart‑glasses market. Himel shares lessons from the Meta Ray‑Ban Displays launch, discusses...
In this episode, the hosts discuss the latest AI industry turbulence—including OpenAI’s alarm over Google’s Gemini and talent wars between Apple and Meta—before interviewing Maxime Germain, CEO of Beside, the AI-powered receptionist handling 2.5 million calls monthly for 20,000 businesses. Germain...
In this episode, Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki joins hosts Ellis and Alex to discuss Roblox's new facial age‑check system and broader child‑safety measures, exploring whether age‑gating could become a norm across the internet. They examine the Hard Fork controversy and...
Ellis and Alex open with a discussion about the Sources launch party and the challenges of late-stage extractionism before bringing on Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela. Valenzuela explains that the toughest hurdle in AI is aligning massive world models with human...
Ellis and Alex explore the concept of turning everyday life into an RPG video game before welcoming Eugenia Kuyda, CEO of Replika and Wabi, to discuss her new hyper‑personal app that lets users create custom AI experiences in five minutes....
Ellis and Alex discuss their weekend adventures and OpenAI's Atlas browser before interviewing Google Android chief Sameer Samat, who explains how headsets are a stepping stone toward AR glasses and how Gemini could evolve into a Jarvis-like AI assistant. Samat...
