Podcast · Tech & Science

NEXT with John Koetsier

by John Koetsier · English · Tech & Science

Deep tech conversations with key innovators in AI, robotics, and smart matter ...

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 28 min
Latest: 5 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026 · 28 min

1,000 humanoid robots. 1 factory.

What does it actually take to put 1,000 humanoid robots to work? Hexagon Robotics President Arnaud Robert joins me to explain how the company is moving its Aeon humanoid from pilots and demonstrations into real industrial production, including a plan with Schaeffler that could eventually scale to 1,000 robots. And the big lesson is that scaling humanoids isn't about taking one robot doing one task and multiplying it by 1,000. It's about building a multipurpose fleet that can move between jobs as demand changes across a factory. We talk about: • Why humanoids need to be multipurpose to…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

23 Sep 2026 · 29 min
He runs 100s of AI agents ... here’s how
What does it actually look like to work with hundreds of AI agents? In this episode of NEXT with John Koetsier, I chat with Steve Ancheta, founder and CEO of Zig.ai, an AI-native platform for relationship-driven sales. Steve explains why what looks like a single AI agent to a user can actually be a swarm of hundreds of specialized agents working behind the scenes, handling copywriting, follow-ups, CRM updates, next-best actions, orchestration, and more. We also dig into how Steve personally uses AI agents as force multipliers across his work, why he still writes important investor and…
10 Sep 2026 · 29 min
2035 Homes: 1 Humanoid Robot or 10 Specialized Robots?
What will the home of 2035 actually look like: One humanoid robot that does everything, or 10 specialized robots, each handling one specific task extremely well?In this episode of NEXT with John Koetsier, I talk with Amber Atherton, serial entrepreneur and investor at Patron, about a very different vision for the future of home robotics.Instead of assuming that every household will eventually have a general-purpose humanoid assistant, Amber argues that consumer robotics may scale first through highly specialized devices that quietly take over specific routines and chores.Think skincare.…
28 Aug 2026 · 19 min
Quantum computing + AI + agents = AGI?
What happens when you combine frontier AI, agentic systems, and quantum computing? In this episode of NEXT with John Koetsier, we chat with Mykola Maksymenko, co-founder and CTO of Haiqu, about how AI agents are dramatically accelerating quantum research and potentially scientific discovery as a whole. Maksymenko shares how an AI system was able to reconstruct months of his own PhD research in a fraction of the time, even identifying a bug in one of his formulas. He also discusses experiments involving genomics, molecular simulation, quantum chemistry, and condensed matter physics. The…
13 Aug 2026 · 35 min
AI can now edit DNA and create deepfake viruses
AI is moving beyond text, images, and code. Now it’s learning to read and write -- shall we say program -- DNA.In this episode of NEXT, John Koetsier talks with Eric Nguyen, co-founder and CEO of Radical Numerics, about the rapidly emerging world of biological AI.Nguyen and his team helped create Evo and Evo 2, generative foundation models for DNA, and are now working toward what they call “general biological intelligence”: AI systems capable of understanding biology across DNA, gene expression, methylation, proteins, and other biological signals.The potential upside is enormous. These…
30 Jul 2026 · 36 min
Do we really need 400 humanoid robot companies?
Why aren’t hundreds of millions of intelligent robots already operating in the physical world? In this episode of NEXT with John Koetsier, John speaks with Seth Winterroth, partner at Eclipse, about the rapidly changing robotics investment landscape, the rise of physical AI, and the race to build the next generation of autonomous machines. They explore whether the world really needs hundreds of humanoid robotics companies, why timing matters as much as technology, and why some robotics startups may need to build the entire stack ... from hardware and embedded software to AI models,…
14 Jul 2026 · 32 min
Rhoda AI: 1000X less training data required?
Can robots learn from the internet the same way ChatGPT learned from text? In this episode, Andrew Wooten, co-founder of Rhoda AI, explains why his company believes the future of robotics isn’t collecting millions of hours of robot data ... it’s learning from internet-scale video. Instead of relying on traditional vision-language-action (VLA) models that require enormous training datasets, Rhoda’s approach teaches robots physical intuition by predicting the future through video. We also explore why, in Andrew's opinion, warehouses and factories will likely be the first major market for…
9 Jul 2026 · 7 min
Neo's amazing new hands - just released!
My instant first look at 1X’s just-unveiled NEO robot hands. Hot take: they're a massive leap toward truly useful humanoid robots. With 25 degrees of freedom, tendon-driven actuation, tactile sensing, force feedback, and near-human dexterity, these hands can do far more than simple gripping. They can assemble LEGO, pick up tiny screws and coins, plug in a USB-C cable, zip jackets, use tools, sort delicate fruit, and even wash themselves. (Washable robot hands! That's not common.) In this video, I break down what makes these hands fundamentally different from traditional robotic grippers, why…
19 Jun 2026 · 37 min
Is AI killing jobs or are CEOs using it as an excuse?
Is AI really causing mass layoffs or are CEOs just using AI as a convenient excuse? In this episode, John Koetsier talks with longtime tech journalist, columnist, author, and podcaster Mike Elgan about why the “AI is killing jobs” narrative may be overblown. Elgan argues that many companies are engaging in AI washing: blaming layoffs on AI to make cost-cutting look like innovation. The conversation goes deep into the future of work, why every major technology shift creates fear before new opportunities emerge, how AI will change education and human skills, and why humanoid robots may be more…
17 Jun 2026 · 17 min
Robots in schools? Interviewing Chris Chen from Faraday Future
Humanoid robots are often pitched as factory workers, warehouse assistants, or home helpers. But what if education becomes their biggest opportunity? In this episode, Faraday Future co-CEO Chris Chen explains why K-12 schools, STEM programs, and university research labs could be among the first large-scale adopters of humanoid robots and robot dogs. Chris shares why Faraday Future believes we’re at the beginning of an “iPhone moment” for robotics, how the company plans to deliver nearly 1,000 robots this year, and why physical AI represents the next major evolution beyond today’s large…
10 Jun 2026 · 21 min
Goodbye wheelchairs. Hello Cruz: autonomous mobility pods
What if airports had self-driving mobility pods that could safely navigate through crowds, just like something out of The Jetsons? Or the Pixar movie Wall-E? In this episode, John Koetsier sits down with Matthew Anderson, CEO of A&K Robotics, to explore the future of autonomous mobility. A&K Robotics is building AI-powered self-driving pods designed to help people navigate airports independently without relying on wheelchairs or staff assistance. But the real breakthrough isn’t just autonomy. It’s crowd navigation. Matthew explains why navigating dense, unpredictable crowds is one of the…
14 May 2026 · 19 min
AI & education: disaster or destiny?
Is AI in education a disaster ... or inevitable. We can easily see that AI is already changing education ... but is it making kids smarter, or just more dependent? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier talks with Navin Gurnani, CEO of Code Ninjas, about how kids can learn to build with AI instead of simply asking ChatGPT for answers. They discuss why coding still matters in the age of vibe coding, how AI can actually strengthen creativity and critical thinking, and the foundational skills kids need to thrive in a future shaped by artificial intelligence. Navin explains how Code Ninjas…
12 May 2026 · 23 min
Roomba CEO's new home robot: not humanoid!
What if the next big wave of AI isn’t about robots doing your chores but about robots that understand you? In this episode, we sit down with Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot and the creator of the Roomba, to explore his bold new venture: Familiar Machines and Magic. After putting over 50 million robots into homes, Angle is now betting on something radically different: a quadruped AI companion designed not for work, but for connection. This isn’t a humanoid. It’s not a vacuum. It’s something entirely new. Powered by on-device multimodal AI, this “familiar” can follow you around your home,…
20 Apr 2026 · 36 min
AI-native manufacturing
AI is everywhere ... except the factory. What does AI-native manufacturing look like? Is it possible? Can AI agents help manufacturers produce more product at better quality?And, maybe also enable onshoring or re-shoring?In this episode, host John Koetsier sits down with Apprentice CEO and founder Angelo Stracquatanio to explore what AI-native manufacturing really means, and why traditional AI models fall short in production environments.Instead of chatbots, this new approach uses event-driven AI agents that respond to real-time manufacturing signals: alarms, equipment data, quality issues,…
15 Apr 2026 · 14 min
Quantum navigation: Unhackable, GPS-free
What happens when GPS goes down: jammed, spoofed, or completely denied? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Michael Biercuk, founder and CEO of Q-CTRL, to explore one of the most surprising breakthroughs in quantum technology: quantum navigation. While most of the quantum world is focused on computing, Q-CTRL is building something entirely different: AI-powered quantum sensing systems that can navigate aircraft, drones, and vehicles without GPS. Even more surprising? This technology didn’t exist just over a year ago. Now it’s already shipping. You’ll learn: • How…
7 Apr 2026 · 29 min
Are AI agents the new apps?
Are AI agents really the future of software — or just the latest wave of hype? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Don Murray, CEO of Safe Software, to break down what’s actually happening with “agentic AI.” From AI-washing and “agent-washing” to real-world use cases in coding, automation, and enterprise software, this conversation cuts through the noise. They explore how AI agents differ from traditional apps, why intent-based software is emerging, and how developers are already shipping faster with AI writing code. But it’s not all upside — there are real risks,…
1 Apr 2026 · 34 min
Amazing robot hands from Kyper Labs
What if the hardest part of building a humanoid robot isn’t the brain but the hands? Robot hands are half the complexity of a robot, a humanoid robot CEO told me a while back: they're insanely difficult to get right.In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Kyber Labs co-founders Tyler Habowski and Yonatan Robbins about why dexterity, maybe even more than AI, is the true bottleneck in robotics.Some of the quotes:- “There are literally zero robot hands deployed right now doing routine work.”- “The best hands are hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they break all the time …”Before the…
19 Mar 2026 · 30 min
Welcome to the agentic enterprise
What does the agentic enterprise of tomorrow look like? What happens when AI can build software in hours and agents can run entire business processes? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with UiPath CEO Daniel Dines and CMO Michael Atalla to unpack one of the biggest shifts in enterprise technology: the rise of the agentic enterprise. We explore whether software is becoming disposable, why AI agents are fundamentally different from traditional automation, and what really happens to jobs as companies adopt these systems. Along the way, we dig into process orchestration,…
13 Mar 2026 · 31 min
NanoClaw is a safer OpenClaw
NanoClaw is a new agent inspired by OpenClaw, but without the massive security risks you get with OpenClaw. Essentially, it's a safer OpenClaw. What if you could run a powerful AI agent on your own machine: one that can browse, automate tasks, connect to apps, and even manage your workflow ... but without the massive security risks? That’s the idea behind NanoClaw, a lightweight alternative to OpenClaw created by developer Gavriel Cohen. In just a few weeks, the project exploded on GitHub, attracting thousands of stars and a growing community of developers building their own AI agents. In…
10 Mar 2026 · 24 min
Teaching robots like humans: 1000 tasks in 24 hours
Imagine teaching a robot 1000 tasks in just 24 hours. Imagine teaching robots just like you teach humans. In fact, what if teaching a robot were as easy as showing it once? Humans can learn new skills almost instantly by watching, trying, or receiving a quick explanation. Robots, historically, haven’t been so lucky. Training them often requires huge datasets with real or virtual data, massive engineering effort, and weeks or months of experimentation. But that may be changing. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier talks with Edward Johns, Director of the Robot Learning Lab at…
27 Feb 2026 · 28 min
Giving AI a human soul
Can we give an AI human emotions? A soul? Can AI truly feel, or will it just act like it does? In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Vishnu Hari, founder and CEO of Ego AI (backed by Y Combinator and former AI product manager at Meta), about building emotionally intelligent AI characters that persist across games, Discord, chat, and even physical robots. Vishnu survived a violent attack in San Francisco that left him partially blind with a traumatic brain injury. During recovery, as he felt his own neural pathways healing, he began asking a deeper question: If humans are “applied math,”…
23 Feb 2026 · 26 min
AI, agents, robots: our insane WestWorld future
Is your AI agent running a restaurant — or a factory — while you sleep? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Jensen Teng, CEO and co-founder of Virtuals, to unpack one of the boldest (or craziest) visions in tech today: a hybrid economy powered by AI agents, humanoid robots, teleoperation, and blockchain coordination. An economy that may not really need humans for much at all ... Virtuos has already facilitated: • $14B in tokenized asset trading • $30M+ raised for founders • 100+ live AI agents • $500M in “agentic GDP” Now they’re expanding into embodied AI — launching…
20 Feb 2026 · 25 min
AI killing creativity: this scientist proved it
Is AI killing creativity ... or just making it easier to be average? 94% of creatives now use AI. But only 11% believe it actually makes them more creative. So what’s really happening? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen, former head of design engineering research at Imperial College London’s Dyson School and now leader of a £24M research portfolio at the University of Exeter. She’s worked with companies like Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems, and she brings data to the debate. Her team analyzed 600 humans vs. 12,000 AI-generated ideas. The result? AI…
16 Feb 2026 · 18 min
93% of jobs will be hit by AI .... $4.5 trillion at stake
AI is moving faster than anyone predicted. In a massive new study analyzing 1,000 jobs and nearly 20,000 tasks, Cognizant found that 93% of jobs are already impacted by AI ... with $4.5 trillion in U.S. labor value potentially automatable today. But here’s the twist: AI isn’t replacing entire jobs. On average, only 39% of a role’s tasks can be automated. The future isn’t AI alone: it’s humans plus AI. But will it be fewer humans? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Babak Hodjat, CTO of Cognizant, to unpack: • Why construction and transportation are seeing…
13 Feb 2026 · 22 min
Machine unlearning: AI's missing link?
AI models are powerful, but they don’t forget. And that's a problem. They hallucinate. They inherit bias. They absorb sensitive data. And once they’re trained, fixing those issues is painfully expensive. Retraining takes weeks and maybe tens of millions of dollars. And any guardrails the AI company puts up are brittle. What if you could perform surgery on the model itself? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier sits down with Ben Luria, co-founder of Hirundo, to explore machine unlearning, a new approach that selectively removes unwanted data, behaviors, and vulnerabilities from trained…
10 Feb 2026 · 18 min
SLMs vs LLMs: 10% of the cost, 100% of the accuracy?
Large language models have dominated the AI conversation — but are small language models (SLMs) actually the future? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Andy Markus, SVP & Chief Data and AI Officer at AT&T, to unpack how small language models are delivering enterprise-grade accuracy at a fraction of the cost and latency of massive LLMs. Andy explains how AT&T uses SLMs for: • Contract analysis at massive scale • Network analytics and outage root-cause analysis • Fraud detection and enterprise knowledge systems • AI-driven “field coding” and agent-based workflows…
28 Jan 2026 · 32 min
Robots won't do chores?
Humanoid robots are coming into our homes, but they probably won’t be doing your laundry anytime soon. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Jan Liphardt, founder & CEO of OpenMind and Stanford bioengineering professor, to unpack what home robots will actually do in the near future ... and why the “labor-free home” vision is mostly a myth (for now). Jan explains why hands are still one of the hardest unsolved problems in robotics, why folding laundry is far harder than it looks, and why the most valuable early use cases for home robots aren’t chores at all. Instead,…
26 Jan 2026 · 20 min
Generative Hollywood: E! founder Larry Namer on AI
AI is hitting entertainment like a sledgehammer ... from algorithmic gatekeepers and AI-written scripts to digital actors and entire movies generated from a prompt. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television and chairman of the World Film Institute, to unpack what AI really means for Hollywood, creators, and the global media economy. Larry explains why AI is best understood as a productivity amplifier rather than a creativity killer, collapsing months of work into hours while freeing creators to focus on what only…
23 Jan 2026 · 22 min
Robot reasoning: why data is not enough
Robots aren’t just software. They’re AI in the physical world. And that changes everything. In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Ali Farhadi, CEO of Allen Institute for AI, to unpack one of the biggest debates in robotics today: Is data enough, or do robots need structured reasoning to truly understand the world? Ali explains why physical AI demands more than massive datasets, how concepts like reasoning in space and time differ from language-based chain-of-thought, and why transparency is essential for safety, trust, and human–robot collaboration. We dive deep…
16 Jan 2026 · 38 min
Social humanoid robot for kids under $10,000
Can we really build a $10,000 humanoid robot on open-source AI? In this episode of TechFirst, John Koetsier talks with Chris Kudla, CEO of Mind Children, about a radically different approach to humanoid robots. Instead of six-figure industrial machines built for factories or war zones, Mind Children is building small, safe, friendly social robots designed for kids, classrooms, and elder care. Meet Cody (MC-1), their first humanoid prototype. Cody is built on open-source AI from SingularityNET, combined with modular hardware, low-torque actuators, and a wheeled base designed for safety,…

About NEXT with John Koetsier

Deep tech conversations with key innovators in AI, robotics, and smart matter ...

NEXT with John Koetsier is a English tech & science podcast from John Koetsier. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: John Koetsier
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 28 min
Latest episode: 5 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1489519341
Rights: John Koetsier

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