As Voicebot approaches its 100th podcast episode, the host, Bret Kinsella, asked that the Voicebot listeners tweet him their favorite episodes of the podcast across the first 100. I figured I’d use the daily update today to list out my top 5 favorite episodes along with why I liked them so much. Here are my top 5 in no particular order:
-
- Vijay Balasubramaniyan – CEO Pindrop Security – Ep 86: Among all the Voicebot podcast episodes I have listened to, I think this is the one that has resonated the most for me. I was so blown away with the conversation that I immediately blogged about it here.
Pindrop is a voice security company that uses 1,380 “voice parameters” to identify the user in a highly accurate way. I ultimately see voice biometrics as becoming the “password” system used for voice computing, voice commerce, the IoT, and so on. Security is a critical aspect necessary to continue moving voice computing along.
- Amir Hirsh – CEO Audioburst – Ep 97: Along with security, one of the other areas that needs attention for voice computing to really take off is search and discovery for audio content. After listening to this episode, I realized that Audioburst represents the closest parallel to Google in the voice space (to my knowledge). Indexing the voice web is a gargantuan task, but that’s what Amir and Audioburst are setting out to do.
I plan on writing a full piece on what Audioburst is conceptually working on, but for now, imagine being able to search for any company or figure and then get results of all the instances that company/figure was mentioned on a radio show, podcast and other forms of audio content sources. You could say, “what’s the latest on Tesla” and have five different clips fed to you that have been indexed and curated by Audioburst.
- Niko Vuori – CEO Drivetime.fm – Ep 81: As our smart assistants branch out of our homes into a variety of new environments, the area that is perhaps gaining the most momentum is the car. Niko shares what his company, Drivetime.fm, is working on designing games for the car, starting with trivia. Each game would be it’s own “channel” and be a distinct experience. Very interesting to hear how the gaming ecosystem might take shape as cars become more and more voice-equipped. As saw with previous computing generations, games tend to be at the forefront of new computing paradigms.
- Adam Cheyer – Co-founder of Siri and Viv. Engineering Lead at Bixby – Ep 69: Adam Cheyer is one of the founding architects of voice assistant technology. He helped to build Siri, moved on to start the next evolution of a smart assistant with Viv, which was acquired by Samsung, and then tasked by Samsung to implement Viv into Bixby’s redesigned version 2.0. If you’re even remotely interested in the voice space, need I say more as to why you should check out this interview? Adam’s interview is a must listen to understand what sets Bixby apart from a fundamental standpoint, and how Adam sees the next ten years of the voice computing looking like and what obstacles need to be overcome in order to get to the future he describing.
- Heidi Culbertson – CEO of Marvee – ep 68: One of my favorite people in the voice space, Heidi, talks about the inspiration for her company (her mom) and how she got into designing experiences in the voice space for the elderly community. One of the things that sets Heidi apart is that she conducts a ton of field research with older adults to really understand how they’re using voice technology and what stands out to them. As I just wrote about in Voicebot, our aging population and voice computing is like a match made in heaven, and its people like Heidi who are on the front lines of designing ways that older adults can derive as much value from their smart speakers and assistants today.
- Vijay Balasubramaniyan – CEO Pindrop Security – Ep 86: Among all the Voicebot podcast episodes I have listened to, I think this is the one that has resonated the most for me. I was so blown away with the conversation that I immediately blogged about it here.
Other great episodes that stick out to me – Mark C Webster ep 33; Chris Messina ep 38; Brian Roemmele ep 80; Stuart Patterson ep 72; Amy Stapleton ep 84.
-Thanks for Reading-
Dave
