Latest Interviews

Hoax school shootings: inside America's epidemic

In February 2023, a coordinated wave of sophisticated SWAT hoaxes targeting schools across the United States, including a specific incident at Aspen Elementary School that triggered a lockdown for 500 students and deployed over 90 first responders, highlighted the rise of organized criminal enterprises utilizing dark web services and AI-generated voices. Investigators linked these events to known swatters and characterized the attacks as potential domestic terrorism after finding consistent scripts and high-tech anonymization tactics that evade traditional tracking. While 16 states have since elevated these offenses to felonies and VoIP providers like TextNow have tightened security measures, the FBI continues to struggle with identifying perpetrators due to the anonymity provided by VPNs and cryptocurrency payments.

What happens to your brain as you age

This comprehensive review details the human brain's trajectory from neural tube formation at two weeks post-conception through the asynchronous maturation of reward and control centers during adolescence, which explains heightened risk-taking behaviors. The analysis further examines how structural changes peak in the 30s and 40s with white matter volume decline, while hormonal shifts during menopause and cortical thinning in later life alter cognitive efficiency and emotional regulation. Finally, recent evidence of high-cognitive brain wave spikes during cardiac arrest suggests that significant neural activity, including potential life recall, can persist briefly after the cessation of heartbeat.

Are artificial wombs the future?

Sonna, Professor Frans van de Vosse, Juliet von Haren, Tom Standage

Led by Professor Frans van de Vosse, a twenty-nine-member European team is engineering the world's first clinically approved artificial womb to prevent mortality among infants born at twenty-four weeks gestation. This initiative utilizes silicone models and an umbilical reattachment protocol to simulate maternal conditions, allowing premature babies to develop for four weeks in a liquid environment until reaching twenty-eight weeks. Although experts project a minimum decade-long timeline for clinical deployment due to technical challenges like blood coagulation, the system is designed strictly as a life-saving bridge rather than a method for full extra-uterine growth.

Who is polluting the ocean with plastic?

Sam, Professor Eric van Sabeel, Regina, Dr Christina Shaw, Professor John McGeehan

Facing severe economic and ecological threats from mismanaged global plastic waste, Small Island Developing States are spearheading a multi-pronged response combining strict national bans, community-based beach cleanups, and the development of plastic-digesting enzymes. While current recycling limitations and a lack of local infrastructure hinder waste management, these efforts are supported by a 2022 UN resolution committed to establishing a legally binding global plastics treaty by 2024 to regulate the entire lifecycle of plastic production and disposal.

Longevity: can ageing be reversed?

Experts project that treatments to reverse biological age could emerge within five decades, driven by breakthroughs such as epigenetic reprogramming and genetic interventions like those modifying the *DAF2* gene. These scientific advances, supported by studies on dietary restriction and the health benefits of centenarians, are attracting significant capital to develop therapies targeting senescent cells and common drugs like Metformin. The resulting economic imperative aims to reduce the burden of age-related disease while transforming the demographic challenge of an aging population into a trillions-of-dollars opportunity.

Why is Argentina’s economy such a mess?

Javier Milei

Argentina faces a severe economic crisis marked by hyperinflation exceeding 100% annually, a dual-currency black market, and a fiscal deficit sustained for 13 years through excessive central bank money printing. President Javier Milei has proposed radical reforms including dollarization and the abolition of the central bank to counteract decades of Peronist policies that created structural distortions like bloated state employment and high export taxes. While the nation struggles with repeated defaults and critical institutional erosion, experts warn that any immediate corrective measures involving subsidy cuts or currency devaluation will trigger short-term inflation spikes before achieving long-term stability.

The True Cost of Compute

Guido

Training large language models now requires astronomical computational resources costing tens of millions of dollars, with startups often allocating over 80% of their capital to secure the specialized hardware needed for training phases that consume six times more operations than inference. While the absolute expense of training is projected to rise as the industry expands, experts anticipate that a looming scarcity of high-quality human-generated data will soon become a more significant constraint than compute availability. Consequently, this dynamic creates a competitive environment where well-funded entrants can overcome capital barriers, provided they navigate the diminishing returns of scaling model size without matching data quantities.

What fuels Zuckerberg's fight?

Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg transformed Harvard undergraduate to billionaire founder of Meta by executing a strategy of aggressive acquisitions and feature replication to stave off obsolescence in the digital market. While this approach fueled the creation of an advertising ecosystem valued over $1 trillion, it has simultaneously triggered significant controversies regarding data privacy, misinformation, and missed opportunities with competitors like Twitter. Despite recent financial volatility stemming from a $21 billion investment in the metaverse, Zuckerberg remains steadfast in his vision, betting that early immersion in virtual worlds will secure the company's future dominance.

AI Hardware, Explained.

Marc Andreessen, Guido Eppenzeller

In a session featuring former Intel CTO Guido Eppenzeller, industry analysis highlights how a tenfold AI hardware supply shortage and the cessation of Dennard scaling are forcing a shift from general-purpose CPUs to specialized, power-hungry accelerator architectures. While NVIDIA retains dominance through its mature CUDA ecosystem, competitors like Intel and AMD struggle to match efficiency without extensive low-level optimization, prompting a critical focus on precision reduction and advanced liquid cooling for data centers. The discussion concludes by outlining future advancements driven by architectural specialization and software stack refinement, alongside practical insights into supply chain dynamics and the economics of acquiring physical AI infrastructure.

Fertility crisis: why IVF isn't working

Leslie Schrock, Deborah, Em, Catherine Braille, Dr. Hayashi Katsuhiko, Matt Chrysalof

Driven by a global market exceeding $20 billion and rising infertility rates among delayed planners, the assisted reproductive technology sector currently relies on egg freezing while facing criticism over success rate transparency and physical risks. Emerging research into in vitro gametesis (IVG), led by scientists like Dr. Katsuhiko Hayashi and venture-backed firms such as Conception, aims to bypass these limitations by creating viable eggs from skin cells for aging populations and same-sex couples, despite unresolved ethical and genetic safety hurdles. Parallel investigations into biological aging mechanisms suggest future pharmaceutical interventions could eventually halt the decline of egg quality, though such applications remain distant from clinical reality.

The Impact of Misaligned Incentives in Healthcare

Jade Chan

Juniper, under the guidance of CTO Jade Chan, targets systemic healthcare inefficiencies by deploying fintech automation for autism recurrent care clinics to resolve chronic revenue cycle bottlenecks and ensure payroll stability. This strategic intervention addresses root causes such as uncollected claims and price opacity, aiming to scale infrastructure for the 60% of U.S. adults with chronic conditions while serving as a case study within a16z's broader series on modernizing the $4 trillion industry. The company's ultimate vision extends this model into a comprehensive "one-stop shop" for clinic operations, including NPI registration and data management, to realign incentives across patients, providers, and payers.

Heatwaves: how hot can it get?

Elliot, Oliver Morton

Global heat extremes driven by a 1°C rise in atmospheric temperatures are causing record-breaking mortality rates in South Asia, Europe, and the United States, with specific meteorological patterns like heat domes and jet stream blocking intensifying these events. Critical survival thresholds are being approached as wet bulb temperatures near lethal limits in vulnerable regions, while secondary factors such as sleep disruption and pre-existing health conditions accelerate heat-related fatalities. To mitigate these escalating risks, successful adaptation strategies modeled after France's post-2003 welfare interventions must be implemented alongside public education and urban policy shifts in areas lacking historical heat precedents.

What causes hurricanes?

Katie, Oliver Morton

Hurricanes are classified tropical storm systems defined by sustained winds of at least 74 mph that form over warm oceans when specific atmospheric and thermal conditions converge. These massive energy engines generate winds exceeding 200 mph and release rainfall at rates capable of causing billions in damages, with water-driven phenomena like storm surges accounting for the vast majority of fatalities. While climate change may not increase the total number of storms, warming oceans and rising sea levels are intensifying rainfall and slowing storm movement, necessitating a strategic shift toward infrastructure adaptation rather than intensity reduction.

Why are wars getting longer?

Robert Guest

Rising global conflict intensity is driven by the erosion of international norms, increased foreign state intervention, and economic incentives that sustain violence in resource-scarce regions. Geopolitical shifts have created power vacuums allowing regional actors and criminal networks to fuel prolonged civil wars, while climate change further exacerbates violence through resource scarcity and displacement. Although short-term strategies like secret negotiations and inclusive peace processes offer hope, experts project a future where wars remain protracted and life expectancy remains low in the world's most vulnerable nations.

Beyond Good Friday: the future of peace in Northern Ireland

Patrick Lane, Sammy Heenan, Saoirse Eastwood, Sam McBride

Following a recent escalation in sectarian violence that prompted MI5 to raise the terror threat level to "severe," Northern Ireland continues to grapple with the unintended consequences of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. While the peace deal successfully halted large-scale conflict and drove economic regeneration through tourism and investment, it has also entrenched political paralysis, deep social segregation, and unresolved trauma among victims' families. Current efforts by centrist forces like the Alliance Party to reform the power-sharing institutions aim to address chronic instability and mitigate the fresh tensions exacerbated by Brexit, all while the region faces a new generation of paramilitary activity with limited public support.