The Data Exchange with Ben Lorica

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The Data Exchange with Ben Lorica

Ben Lorica

A series of informal conversations with thought leaders, researchers, practitioners, and writers on a wide range of topics in technology, science, and of course big data, data science, artificial intelligence, and related applications. Anchored by Ben Lorica (@BigData), the Data Exchange also features a roundup of the most important stories from the worlds of data, machine learning and AI. Detailed show notes for each episode can be found on https://thedataexchange.media/ The Data Exchange podcast is a production of Gradient Flow [https://gradientflow.com/].

52 minutes 21 seconds

Are Multi-Agent Systems More Complex Than They Need to Be?

In this episode, host Ben Lorica sits down with Arun Kumar (Associate Professor at UC San Diego and Co-founder/CTO of RapidFire AI) to explore the rapidly evolving discipline of agent engineering.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

2 April 2026, 11:00 am
41 minutes 39 seconds

Coding Agents Meet Data Science

In this episode, Ben Lorica is joined by Mikio Braun, Senior Principal Applied Scientist at Zalando, for a wide-ranging conversation about the practical realities of AI-powered coding agents. They explore the unique challenges of using coding agents for data science workflows, the team-level implications of dramatically increased developer velocity, and what skills will matter most in an AI-augmented workplace.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

26 March 2026, 11:00 am
44 minutes 26 seconds

World Models Are Here—But It’s Still the GPT-2 Phase

In this episode, host Ben Lorica speaks with Jeff Hawke, CTO at Odyssey, about world models — a category of AI that generates continuous, interactive simulations from images or text prompts.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

19 March 2026, 11:00 am
32 minutes 21 seconds

The Hidden Challenges of Running AI at Scale in Production

Chen Goldberg, EVP of Engineering at CoreWeave, joins the podcast to discuss the critical infrastructure shifts required as companies move AI from pilot to production.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

12 March 2026, 11:00 am
42 minutes 58 seconds

What No One Tells You About Staying Employable in the AI Era

In this episode, host Ben Lorica is joined by Evangelos Simoudis to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the modern workplace and what knowledge workers must do to adapt.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

7 March 2026, 12:00 pm
33 minutes 12 seconds

Adaptation: The Missing Layer Between Apps and Foundation Models

Ben Lorica talks with Sudip Roy (Co-founder & CTO, Adaption Labs) about why enterprise AI adoption stalls in the “last 5%” of reliability — and why waiting for the next frontier model release is usually the wrong bet. They unpack “adaptation” as something broader than post-training, including gradient-free, inference-time techniques that can sit above models to route, combine, and continuously improve behavior.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

5 March 2026, 12:00 pm
52 minutes 25 seconds

Securing the "YOLO" Era of AI Agents

Jason Martin, Director of Adversarial Research at HiddenLayer, returns to discuss the security implications of OpenClaw, a viral open-source AI personal assistant that was entirely vibe-coded and has exploded to 180,000 GitHub stars.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

26 February 2026, 12:00 pm
49 minutes 52 seconds

Building the Open Source Alternative to AWS

In this episode, Umur Cubukcu, co-founder of Ubicloud, explains what an “open cloud” should mean in practice — starting with an open-source control plane and extending to transparency, portability, and freedom from data lock-in.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

19 February 2026, 12:00 pm
45 minutes 43 seconds

Breaking the Memory Wall in the Age of Inference

In this episode, Sid Sheth, founder and CEO of d-matrix, discusses the company’s approach to AI inference hardware with a focus on solving the memory bottleneck problem.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

12 February 2026, 12:00 pm
33 minutes 47 seconds

Is Waymo Actually Profitable? The Real Cost of the Robotaxi Revolution

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss two critical technology infrastructure topics: the evolving economics of autonomous vehicles and growing local opposition to AI data centers.
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

7 February 2026, 12:00 pm
33 minutes 4 seconds

Beyond Vibe Coding: Building Your Entire Business with AI

Ethan Ouyang, Technical Lead at Atoms, joins the podcast to discuss the rise of “vibe business”: multi-agent AI systems that can research a market, design a product, build and launch it, and iterate toward revenue.
Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/
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Detailed show notes - with links to many references - can be found on The Data Exchange web site.

5 February 2026, 12:00 pm
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