The Age of AI with Lara Lewington and Ben Clark

Is artificial intelligence accelerating climate change, or could it be one of the greatest tools we have to fight it?

In this episode of The Age of AI, Lara Lewington and Ben Clark explore the environmental impact of AI, from the energy demands of data centres to the real-world emissions hidden inside global supply chains. They also unpack how geopolitics and conflict can ripple through the tech world, disrupting chip production, cloud services, and the infrastructure we increasingly depend on.

Joining them is Mauro Cozzi, co-founder of Emitwise, an AI-powered carbon accounting platform that helps major companies track and reduce emissions, especially the hardest category to tackle: Scope 3 supply chain emissions, which can represent up to 80% of a business’s total footprint.

Mauro shares what it takes to turn sustainability into a profitable business case, how Emitwise tackled messy corporate data, and why they built an “anti-greenwashing clause” into every customer contract. The conversation also dives into the rise of AI agents, the future of automation, and what happens when building software becomes easy leaving the real challenge as deciding what to build.

With AI scaling rapidly and energy demand rising, Mauro argues the real question isn’t whether AI will grow — but whether we can power it cleanly, and use it responsibly.

Will AI save the planet… or push it closer to the edge?

#ai #techpodcast #sustainability

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The Age of AI is brought to you by AIR, a launchpad for researchers to create innovative AI startups. Supported by Responsible Ai UK, an international ecosystem for responsible AI research and innovation, and delivered by Future Worlds, the tech startup accelerator at the University of Southampton.
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Have Large Language Models already hit their limits? 🤖

In this episode of The Age of AI, Ben Clark and Lara Lewington tackle one of the biggest questions in tech right now: if today’s AI can only take us 80–90% of the way, what actually gets us to true intelligence?

We break down the growing shift from language-based AI to “world models”, and why some of the biggest names in tech are betting billions on them as the real path forward. Featuring insights from Professor Les Carr, we explore why understanding words isn’t the same as understanding the world, and why that gap might be everything.

Plus:

* Why AI still struggles with the “final mile”

* The explosion of mega funding rounds in AI (and what investors really want now)

* Whether AI health tech is empowering everyone, or just the already advantaged

* The surprising reality of wearables and population-level health data* Voice cloning, deepfakes, and the rapidly blurring line between real and synthetic

* A viral AI video that hilariously imagines a future where humans might not have jobs… but still somehow end up doing all the work 😂

Is this where we’re headed? Or are we asking the wrong questions entirely?

#techpodcast #ai #technews

🎧 Got a question you want answered on the show? Drop it in the comments or email us at [email protected]

Mentioned in this episode:

My Voice AI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myvoice-ai/

Leslie Carr: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-carr-a0b5a62/

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The Age of AI is brought to you by AIR, a launchpad for researchers to create innovative AI startups. Supported by Responsible Ai UK, an international ecosystem for responsible AI research and innovation, and delivered by Future Worlds, the tech startup accelerator at the University of Southampton.
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In the age of AI, who is teaching your child? What you need to know right now.

Lara Lewington and Ben Clark explore how artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping one of society’s most important systems… education.

From a buzzing AIR Demo Day packed with ambitious start-ups, to Lara’s own encounter with a deepfake scam, the episode opens with a look at how quickly the technology is evolving and how close to home it’s starting to hit. In the news, the pair unpack a major $2bn investment into UK AI infrastructure, the growing role of politics in tech, and a brilliant example of AI innovation turning a 1970s rotary phone into a fully functioning assistant.

They're joined by Dan Fitzpatrick, founder of The AI Educator and a global advisor helping schools and governments navigate AI. Together, they tackle the big question: will AI fundamentally change education? From the widening “AI adoption gap” among teachers, to the challenges of trust, ethics and assessment, Dan shares what’s really happening inside classrooms right now and what needs to change next.

As AI becomes more powerful and more accessible, this episode asks whether education systems are ready… or already falling behind.

If you have a question you’d like Lara and Ben to tackle, drop us a line

Email: [email protected]
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YouTube: @theageofaipod
Linkedin: The Age of AI

The Age of AI is brought to you by AIR, a launchpad for researchers to create innovative AI startups. Supported by Responsible Ai UK, an international ecosystem for responsible AI research and innovation, and delivered by Future Worlds, the tech startup accelerator at the University of Southampton.
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Smartwatches, rings and health trackers are no longer niche gadgets. Around 35% of UK adults now use a wearable device, and the global fitness tracker market is expected to grow dramatically over the next decade. But as AI becomes the engine interpreting all that data, a bigger question emerges: what do these devices actually know about our health, and how much should we trust them?

In this special episode, Lara Lewington and Ben Clark dive into the fast growing world of wearables. From Lara’s experiments with multiple trackers while researching her book, to Ben putting his own data to the test, they explore what our devices measure well, what they get wrong, and why the future of healthcare could depend on the algorithms quietly analysing our daily lives.

What role should AI play in personal health: how do we avoid mistaking algorithmic predictions for medical fact, and what should responsible AI powered health tools look like? Will the real value in wearables come from hardware, data platforms, or services built on top of the data? And could smart glasses become the next frontier in health tracking, changing how we collect and understand our own biology?

If you have a question you’d like Lara and Ben to tackle, drop us a line

Email: [email protected]

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The Age of AI is brought to you by AIR, a launchpad for researchers to create innovative AI startups. Supported by Responsible Ai UK, an international ecosystem for responsible AI research and innovation, and delivered by Future Worlds, the tech startup accelerator at the University of Southampton.
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AI promises to transform finance, but can it ever be trusted with people’s money?

Lara Lewington and Ben Clark explore one of the toughest frontiers for artificial intelligence: the financial system. From messy data and market volatility to the risks of automation at scale, finance is one of the hardest environments in which to deploy AI safely.

They’re joined by Usman Khan, co-founder and CEO of APEX:E3, a fintech company building AI-powered data and workflow tools for capital markets. With multiple startups behind him and deep experience in market infrastructure, Usman explains where AI genuinely works in finance and where the technology can break down.

Along the way, Lara and Ben unpack the latest headlines shaping the AI landscape, including the race toward self-driving cars between Waymo and the fast-rising challenger Wayve, the global push to develop local AI models beyond Silicon Valley, and the growing debate around safeguards and control of powerful AI systems.

From trust and regulation to data quality and the future of financial markets, this episode looks past the hype to ask a crucial question: how do you build AI systems that people can actually trust with their money?

The humans who make this programme would love to hear from you. Join us on social media or send us an email

Email: [email protected]

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Linkedin: The Age of AI

The Age of AI is brought to you by AIR, a launchpad for researchers to create innovative AI startups. Supported by Responsible Ai UK, an international ecosystem for responsible AI research and innovation, and delivered by Future Worlds, the tech startup accelerator at the University of Southampton.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices