Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves? Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI . Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying mathematical concepts that power modern machine learning, to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives–even if your last math class was in high school. Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency? If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits. Links: Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing https://anilananthaswamy.com/ Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research https://ksj.mit.edu/ Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0…
Are you settling for average results from your publicity efforts? Average is is defined as normal and typical and also described as common, moderate, ordinary, passable, undistinguished and dime a dozen. If you are doing something because that's how its been done before...because it is the norm, then don't be surprised if your results are just passable. You deserve more and it doesn't take that much more effort to work with people and businesses that are atypical, exceptional, and extraordinary.…
Search engine optimization - more commonly called SEO is very important in business today. SEO strategists help companies improve their natural rank on search engines. You need to make sure that the proper SEO strategies are a part of your marketing plan and that you are pro-active in continually improving your ranking. What you don't want to happen is to get "obsessed" about your SEO ranking and forget about all other aspects of your business.…
As human beings, we all have bad days. As professionals working with the media, we have to be careful that our inner three year old doesn't take over on those bad days. Some professionals are absolutely amazing at what they do and very aware of the power of publicity. What they may not be aware of is the power of the negative publicity. When things don't go your way, you have the power to shine or let the inner three year old out!…
There are great storytellers and not so great storytellers. As you can imagine, the good ones are more successful in getting media coverage. I do think there are some things that come more naturally to some than to others but anyone can become a good storyteller.
If only I had a dollar for every professional that said the word “off the record” when being interviewed by a reporter…It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a large, small, private, or public company they work for – if they haven’t received some coaching on what ‘is’ and ‘is not’ appropriate on a media interview, they bring it up. I hate to tell you but I don’t think ‘off the record’ info benefits your reputation, your company, or the reporter. The first step is to get some coaching on appropriate protocol when talking with the media. The next step is to work with a media specialist prior to the interview to come up with the best way to communicate the information. I also suggest that you have your media specialists at the interview with you at all times - even if they are just calling in and are silent for the call – make it a company policy.…
The Press Release is a great tool but is often misunderstood. There are thousands of press releases distributed each day. Unless you are a well-recognized company or you have a cure for cancer, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle if all you do is write a press release and wait for the media to come to you.…
You have 60 seconds to explain the significance of your business and/or solution in easy to understand language. Can you do it? Would you grandmother be able to understand it?