Category: 3-SometimeTechTalk

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) ChatGPT ranks No. 5 among all websites worldwide 2) ChatGPT is the only website among the top ranked by SimilarWeb that is growing 3) How do chatbots get information if they replace the web? 4) Grok's 'white genocide' messaging campaign 5) What's in a system prompt, with a look inside Grok's 6) The truth about Timothée Chalamet 7) Filing stories directly into ChatGPT? 8) Meta slams into big problems in its Llama AI program 9) Does it matter if scaling is done? 10) IBM survey shows generative ROI is hard to come by despite interest 11) Cohere's revenue trouble 12) Perplexity integrates with Paypal 13) A look at the event calendar ahead

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The new Salesforce Developer Edition includes access to Data Cloud and Agentforce, Salesforce’s platform for building, customizing, and deploying autonomous AI agents. Developers can sign up here to start building.

Connect with Christophe on LinkedIn. 

Instead of a badge, we have a question for you:  If you are a developer who is working with AI agents, what are you building? What tools are you looking for? What problems are you interested in solving with AI tools? Send us an email at podcast@stackoverflow.com. 

Kevin Greene, Chief Security Strategist for the Public Sector at BeyondTrust joins the show for a critical conversation on the evolving cybersecurity landscape in government. Together, we explore the mounting pressures government agencies face from increasingly sophisticated threat actors—and the urgent need for a proactive, threat-informed defense strategy. He also shares his perspectives on the critical role of identity security, the complexities of zero trust adoption, and the emerging role of AI and automation in cyber resilience.

Andrew McClenahan, Senior Director of Government Relations at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and former program leader at the Florida Department of Children and Families joins the show to dissect the growing concerns surrounding program integrity and fraud mitigation in federal and state benefit programs. We dive into what’s happening on Capitol Hill—from executive orders and agency mandates to the shifting dynamics of federal-state collaboration—and discuss the implications of recent USDA guidance on eligibility oversight, performance standards, and funding threats for underperforming states—particularly as pandemic relief funds dry up.

Emily  Bender is a computational linguistics professor at the University of Washington. Alex Hanna is the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute. Bender and Hanna join Big Technology to discuss what their new book, “The AI‑Con," which they describe as the layered ways today’s language‑model boom obscures environmental costs, labor harms, and shaky science. Tune in to hear a lively back‑and‑forth on whether chatbots are useful tools or polished parlor tricks. We also cover benchmark gaming, data‑center water use, doomerism, and more. Hit play for a candid debate that will leave you smarter about where generative AI really stands — and what comes next.

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of The BlueHat Podcast, host Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone are joined by Felix Boulet fresh off his participation in Zero Day Quest. Felix talks about his unique journey from industrial maintenance to becoming a full-time vulnerability researcher, and how that background fuels his passion for hacking and bug bounty work. He explains his method for finding bugs in Microsoft products—particularly in identity systems—and why identity is such a valuable target for attackers. Felix also shares highlights from the Zero Day Quest event, where he focused on building connections, learning from Microsoft engineers, and experiencing the collaborative side of the security community.

  

 

In This Episode You Will Learn:

 

• Why identity-based bugs are especially valuable and dangerous in the security world
• When breaking identity controls can be the key to pivoting through an entire system
• How SharePoint's concept of "virtual files" impacts vulnerability validation

 

Some Questions We Ask:

 

• What was your first bug bounty experience?
• Can you explain what the flash challenges were and what your experience was like?
• Do you think sharing bug ideas could cost you a bounty?

   

  

Resources:

View Felix Boulet on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn   

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

 

  

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

  

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast 
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson 
• Uncovering Hidden Risks 

  

  

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

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Episode overview: In this conversation, Verto co-founder and CEO Ola Oyetayo shares the journey of building a cross-border payments platform that tackles the unique challenges African businesses face when making international transactions. Since graduating from Y Combinator in 2019, Verto has established itself as what Oyetayo describes as a profitable and cashflow positive fintech serving multiple African markets. Incidentally, the company recently made headlines after winning the prestigious $1 million Milken-Motsepe Prize in FinTech. He discusses his team's pragmatic approach to addressing payment barriers in emerging markets, why traditional financial institutions have failed to serve these regions effectively, and how technology can disrupt traditional banking networks that have historically excluded certain markets. Andile Masuku engages Oyetayo on the evolution of fintech in Africa, the role of privilege and networks in business success, and the future potential of stablecoins to revolutionise cross-border payments in ways that might prove more transformative for emerging markets than developed ones. Key topics: - Verto's position in the cross-border payments landscape - The strategic decision to focus on B2B rather than consumer payments - The untapped $286 billion trade flow between Africa and China - Why 96-97% of business cross-border payments still go through traditional banks - The innovator's dilemma Verto faces with the rise of stablecoins Notable points: 1. In 2018, Oyetayo launched Verto's business model alongside his co-founder Anthony Oduu after spotting a solutions gap for African businesses making international payments outside of traditional banks 2. Verto has been profitable and cash flow positive for approximately 18 months 3. How a chance meeting with legendary VC Vinod Khosla at YC in 2019 first turned him on to the stablecoin investment opportunity—years before they became mainstream 4. The company operates in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and the Francophone region 5. Despite previous experience in institutional finance, Oyetayo admits "ignorance is bliss" helped him tackle a problem others saw as too risky 6. The potential of stablecoins to solve liquidity, volatility and capital control challenges in emerging markets Listen out for Oyetayo's take on Paystack's B2C play Zap, the fintech ecosystem implications of Moniepoint's "unicornification," and his contrarian insight that stablecoins will revolutionise emerging markets while having minimal impact in developed economies: "This is not a popular opinion... There's just no case for stablecoins in developed markets. People talk about, oh, it's going to disrupt Visa and MasterCard... I don't see that coming anytime soon." Image credit: Verto

Dynatrace is an AI-powered observability platform. It empowers today’s AI-enabled digital enterprises to understand their systems and data so they can analyze, automate, and innovate faster.

Learn more about Dynatrace’s Live Debugger.

Connect with Henrik Rexed on LinkedIn or check out Is it Observable on YouTube.

Kevin Hurley grew up in a multi-kid house, which is where he got his competitive nature. He used to play 2 on 2 with his Dad and siblings at home. He went to school for electrical engineering, and funny enough, interviewed for a computer science job by accident, effectively stumbling into the trade. Outside of tech, he spends his free time with his fiancé, planning for the wedding, and visiting Manhattan beach for a good walk .

Kevin was part of the team that attempted to launch crypto at Facebook. Although that didn't work out, they realized that the backbone of the system needed to be built on something more common - and something that was lightning fast.

This is the creation story of Lightspark.

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Links

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