The Data Exchange with Ben Lorica

In this episode, host Ben Lorica talks with Sakana AI research scientist Stefania Druga, formerly a research scientist at Google DeepMind, about building AI tools for young learners and what that teaches us about AI...

Stanford professor and Kumo.ai co-founder Jure Leskovec introduces the concept of a relational foundation model for structured enterprise data. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple · Spotify ·...

This episode features Philip Rathle, CTO of Neo4j, discussing the real-world state of Graph RAG and its journey from prototype to production in enterprise AI systems. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩...

Emmanuel Ameisen, an interpretability researcher at Anthropic, joins the podcast to demystify how large language models work. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket...

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse Partners explore the complex reality behind AI-driven layoffs, from automation and upskilling gaps to strategic shifts in R&D. They also dive into the massive capital...

Ciro Greco, Co-founder & CEO at Bauplan, joins the podcast to discuss a new paradigm for data engineering rooted in software engineering principles. He explains how treating the data lakehouse like a software project...

Mike Freedman and Ajay Kulkarni, founders of Tiger Data, join the podcast to unveil Agentic Postgres, a database re-imagined for AI agents. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple · Spotify ·...

Nick Schrock, CTO of Dagster, discusses the critical role of data orchestration in the AI era, framing “context pipelines” as the new data pipelines that form the foundation of any AI strategy. He introduces Compass, a...

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss AI-bubble signals (runaway revenue multiples, circular financing), why many enterprise pilots stall, and what separates leaders (use-case matrices, cross-functional ownership...

Luke Wroblewski of Sutter Hill Ventures joins the podcast to discuss the paradigm shift in building AI applications. He explains how the traditional model of “code + database” is being replaced by “URL + model,” where...

Heiko Hotz and Sokratis Kartakis of Google Cloud discuss the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol, a new standard for enabling collaboration between AI agents built on different frameworks. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow...

Zhen Lu, CEO of Runpod, joins the podcast to discuss what it means to build an “AI-first” cloud, moving beyond the architectures of the Web 2.0 era. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple ·...

Yoni Leitersdorf, CEO of Solid, joins the podcast to demystify why simply pointing an LLM at a database for text-to-SQL doesn’t work. He explains the critical need for a semantic layer to provide business context...

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss some takeaways for AI practitioners from the recent AI Conference. They cover the disconnect between the hype and reality of AI agents in the enterprise, the critical importance...

Jakub Zavrel, CEO of Zeta Alpha, joins the podcast to discuss the practical evolution from traditional enterprise search to powerful “deep research” systems. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple...

Andrew Rabinovich, CTO and Head of AI at Upwork, discusses how digital work marketplaces serve as ideal testing grounds for AI agents, exploring their custom reinforcement learning approach called RLEF (Reinforcement...

Jay Alammar is Director and Engineering Fellow at Cohere and co-author of the O’Reilly book “Hands-on Large Language Models.” Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket...

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss three critical topics for AI practitioners: the complexities of AI regulation, with debates over foundation model oversight versus domain-specific regulations and concerns about...

In this episode, Anant Bhardwaj, CEO of Instabase, provides a pragmatic guide for AI practitioners building enterprise solutions. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast ·...

Ben Lorica and David Talby present findings from the 2025 AI Governance Survey of 350+ respondents, revealing that while 30% have AI models in production, there are significant gaps in risk management practices. 🚨 This...

Kostas Paralis, co-founder of Typedef, discusses Fenic, an open-source data frame framework designed specifically for AI applications that treats inference as a first-class operation within the query engine. Subscribe...

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss three critical trends shaping the AI industry: the “Great Hollowing Out” where AI automation is eliminating entry-level positions and disrupting talent pipelines, the financial...

Raiza Martin, co-founder of Huxe and former leader of Google’s NotebookLM team, discusses leaving Google at the height of NotebookLM’s success to build an audio-first personal AI companion. Subscribe to the Gradient...

The discussion with CEO Akshay Agrawal covers how Marimo’s AI integration provides runtime context to LLMs for superior code generation, its adoption across industries from cybersecurity to DevOps, and the technical...

Josh Pantony, CEO of Boosted AI, discusses Alfa, an agentic AI platform that creates persistent AI workers for finance professionals, moving beyond traditional prompt-response AI to proactive, autonomous systems...