35: NVIDIA’s Rev Lebaredian on Building Robot Brains and the Promise of Physical Artificial Intelligence

Leading tech journalist and podcast host Kevin Roose reveals the warfare between the leaders in AI, how Google missed its moment, and how some technologists are making progress on understanding what happens inside AI “black box.” His new book, “The AGI Chronicles,” traces the early days of the race for AGI. Roose joins Washington AI Network founder Tammy Haddad for a live taping with DC policymakers and media. He reports on the latest efforts to understand how AI works and warns that AI capabilities are outpacing our understanding of the system. He also cautions that AI agents are superhuman at hacking and urges Washington to move faster. In a lightning round, Roose share his reflections of six of AI’s leading figures. He also discusses China's AI progress and compensating creators for training data, and talks about Machine Gods, his new business and show with Casey Newton. They believe this reporting is so important that it should not be behind a paywall.

AI researchers gathered at Johns Hopkins U to debate how to make AI safe, including Stuart Russell, Gillian Hadfield and Dean Ball The panelists talked about how to keep increasingly powerful AI systems under human control and called for enforceable "red lines," not a simple slowdown. The conversation closed with NASA's Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, who reflected on leading humanity's farthest journey into space and on how AI could help crews reach Mars.

Ron Johnson spent twelve years building Apple's retail business from scratch, working side by side with Steve Jobs to create the Apple Store and, later, the Genius Bar. In this episode of the Washington AI Network Podcast with host Tammy Haddad, Johnson talks about his first fateful meeting with Jobs and reveals the real story behind naming the Genius Bar — including Jobs's initial rejection of the idea. Johnson also discusses his new book Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple's Genius and gives his take on how artificial intelligence is already transforming both physical and online retail, and why physical stores remain essential even in a digital-first world.

On this episode of the Washington AI Network podcast, host Tammy Haddad talks with Savi Security co-founder and CEO Patrick Coughlin, author of “Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijack the AI Revolution,” about how AI has made sophisticated, personalized scams cheap enough to target ordinary families, not just high-value government or corporate victims. They dig into why digital fraud — now estimated at nearly $200 billion in annual U.S. losses — has become the fastest-growing crime in the country, why Meta reportedly earns 10% of its revenue from fraudulent advertisers, and why Coughlin thinks federal "know your customer" rules for AI access, not a state-by-state patchwork, are the fix Washington keeps avoiding.

In this episode of the Washington AI Network podcast, recorded live at the CTA Innovation House in Washington, DC, guest host Sumi Somaskanda interviews Dr. Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG, to unpack "industrial AI" – a version of AI built for deterministic, repeatable results on the factory floor – robots, reshoring, and next-gen data centers.