Latest / Machine Dreams / AI Is Flooding Journalism. This Analyst Shows Where To Draw The Line
Transcript
- speaker-0: Hi everyone and welcome again to another episode of Machine Dreams where we step past the demos and buzzwords to speak with the people who are actually behind the scenes building AI, looking at the trends and actually helping to shape the narrative of what the future might be. I am Kolo-Ole Samuel Adebayo, I'm a technology analyst covering AI, cybersecurity and enterprise technology and as always I'm joined by my co-host speaker-2: Hi everyone, I'm Lea Stern, Global Communication Strategist and Venture Capitalist. Hey Sam, how you doing? speaker-0: Are doing, Leah? I'm very well. think you look really, you're always looking great, but I think you look really fabulous today. I like the chart. speaker-2: And I like you in black and white gingham. speaker-0: Thank you. it. speaker-2: Well, today we're joined by Victor Day, a tech analyst and writer who covers AI, data science, and cybersecurity for Fast Company, Forbes, The Observer, and other outlets. Victor was formerly AI and tech editor at VentureBee, and he's been deep in the weeds on agentic AI, enterprise infrastructure, and the gap between AI hype and reality. Victor has a master's degree in data science and analytics and mentors student founders at Oxford and USC accelerator programs. He's been on the road traveling, but he took the time to join us today and we're really happy to have him. Victor, welcome to machine dreams. speaker-1: Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Sam. Thank you so much, Lea, for having me. ⁓ I have been watching a few episodes and they look really, really insightful and intriguing. ⁓ really happy and also honored to be here. speaker-2: It's an honor to have you. speaker-0: Great to have you, Victor. I appreciate you joining the show today. So there's a lot that we would like to talk about. think there's a lot to unpack. You're quite an interesting person to talk with. But I think maybe what I'd like to begin with is you've just finished judging the fast companies, most innovative data science companies of 2026, right? And that must have been an interesting thing to do. Could you tell us about some of the biggest trends that you you saw behind the scenes where the industry is converging and you know, what are we looking at here? speaker-1: Yeah, no, it was an absolute honor to be named a judge in this year's MIC list. As we all know, it's a huge project. goes both on digital and print as well. And this year specifically, ⁓ there were a lot of interesting nominations from startups as well as Big Tech who I felt were equally competing for a position. and a name on the list. ⁓ it's always hard, first things first, to judge through nominations in each category. ⁓ I was the specific judge for data science and manufacturing this year, and also had my inputs here and there ⁓ in the other parts of the list as well. So it was an absolute pleasure, but it was also... It gets tough when you start boiling down to companies who make it to the top of the list and specifically your own categories because at the end, every innovation starts to look so good. And then it's a matter of who has more impact and who really describes the definition of MIC, which is the most innovative company. So that 1 % 2 % on the scale of innovation is what sets each other apart. But it was interesting for me to see these new companies, startups who have raised dollars in the last few months come up with such innovations and going toe to toe with big tech companies who have been doing this for a lot of years. I mean, ⁓ I was jokingly saying the other day that this year's list might just make me a villain to a few people because I expect a certain amount of surprise and I expect a certain amount of discussions going on and like, what? This company and this big tech is not mentioned on this list? How? But as you read through it, as you read through the descriptions and everything, I think people will understand why the decision was made and ⁓ why a particular company made it to the list. It was, so that's the really intriguing and hard part, yet hard part of being a part of this project of this scale. speaker-2: So Victor, you write for multiple publications. I imagine you wake up to a very loaded inbox most mornings. ⁓ Many different annoying PR people bothering you. Me, one of them, happy to say. So tell me, in a very crowded world now with so many stories and so many tech companies, what is separating some pitches from the rest? How are these stories getting your attention? What are some tips and tricks you can offer people to to get around the noise. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong about the very crowded inbox, but the thing with me is I read each and every pitch. Some people feel that, it got lost in his inbox or something like that. It's almost 300 on an average day to 700 pitches and emails a day. ⁓ So it is a bit tough to sift through the noise as I'm traveling and sometimes working as well on stories, but by the end of the day, I make sure to read each and everything. I think a few things that get my eyes is of course like the email subject, right? I think most people do not show any creativity in that. Like you might have a great subject, but if your email subject doesn't catch the eye, then it's, then it's all the way. So, but, but, but on the other end, there are a few PR companies who, who do their research on what I'm covering and who just write exactly what is required in the subject itself that that gives you an idea before, even before opening and makes you intrigued to open that, open the particular email. ⁓ but yeah, I mean, What I generally focus on is the impact and of course like there's the innovation side, but what I focus is on the impact, the impact on the company's ecosystem. it an incremental development or just another update coming out from the company? What impact does it have on the customers? Is it enhancing something? Is it doing something one of a kind? Or the impact on the consumers and the daily lives of people as well. Is it increasing productivity in a certain way? Is it revolutionizing something that has been never seen before? And that I'm always looking for that wow factor specifically when you read it. When I covered it, I helped the readers understand on, hey, this is happening. And if you were not aware of this, here it is. So that's my thing. And then specifically with... I generally do analysis and opinions. So it's really important to have that impact in the subject of, in the email itself, right at the top so that it gives you an idea that, hey, you know, it's just not just something, not just a matter of did coming from the company, but it is really something that is worth covering and keeping everything else aside. So, yeah. speaker-0: I was going to ask another question, but it's really interesting the way you've answered that question from there. And so my next question now on the back of that would be, how about, you know, AI in journalism? There's that big conversation. I see it on LinkedIn, Twitter all the time. ⁓ Journalists are in tech reporters and tech analysts complaining about receiving a slew of AI generated pitches, know, lack of thoughts in the pitch. Um, on the other end, there's also debates and conversations about, know, using AI in the newsroom. Um, just recently, I think about 30 minutes ago, I saw a news, um, story that came out from tech EU about a senior correspondent who had been suspended for, um, using AI in his writing. And the, many of the quotes that were used, um, were fabricated like 15 out of 53. So. What is really, what would you, what do you want to say to the issue of AI in journalism right now? speaker-1: Yeah, look, I think AI when used with a human oversight can be a powerful thing, right? ⁓ When people ask me this, think the most simplest way I describe it is like, if you have access and if you can use a touchscreen phone, would you go back to a QWERTY phone? I don't think so. And on top of that, there's no running away from AI today. It's in our phones. It's in every... Like I use a transcriber for interviews. AI is there as well. ⁓ It is listening. Yes, it is actively listening to the speaker, but then it is transcribing and getting the finer details through AI and giving me the quotes and everything through AI. But it's not generating quotes. I think generating quotes, as you mentioned, that the guy... Literally fabricated course. I think that's that's literally really wrong You should not do that one should not do that. I mean minor tweaks here their editorial tweaks are Acceptable, but like literally generating is I think that's that's like sir, that's like a Serving your readers something false and something that's not real and not coming from from an original perspective so it's wrong in all ways, but I mean, going back to my point, I that there's no running away from AI now. Gmail has Gemini integrated into it. What can you do? And this is what I was discussing a few days earlier with Mr. Andrew Ng as well. We were having a chat and a few other CEOs around conferences and at CES as well. think the important part is to learn to work alongside AI. think... It can be a really, really powerful tool for, especially for, you know, journalists for researching, you know, getting those cited reports and stuff like that, which I use for it. Minor paraphrasing here and there in one or two lines, you know, whenever I get stuck that, hey, you know, I could write it this way or I could write it the way. So minor paraphrasing, definitely a great tool. mean, there's already, there already was Grammarly, right? Now even Grammarly has AI and now Grammarly. can be on your desktop suggesting it through AI. But then it's also your thought to it, like, let's say a tool like Grammarly or something else, even if you use it for paraphrasing, can, you know, paraphrase it very wrongly. And then you come in the loop, that human in the loop comes in, and then you have to be your own judge that whether is it a right way, or is it a wrong way. Human in loop should always be there. Yeah, I mean, I have definitely received pitches that are completely AI generated, like 100 % AI generated, no creativity. You just read through it and see words like seamless and a few other words. I I have used seamless one or two times, but these words repeated every second, third line. And yeah, I don't know what is seamless. I really hate that word though. But yeah, I it's like, like, it is highly accurate and it has no flaws at all, seamless. ⁓ speaker-0: A lot of people like that you're here. speaker-1: Yes. Yeah, you mean, so that is like, you just read through it and you just understand within one or two lines that this is AI generated. So I just press delete all of a sudden, like all in one, all at one go. And plus, you know, I have also received like articles or like press releases that were completely generated through AI as well. And then I like to have my own fun, know, ask through, ask some questions back and stuff like that. then they have no answers. So I have fun with that stuff, but do I not use AI at all? I do use AI, but that's two to 3%. Rest is my thought. Everything is my thought. As I said, like it could be a really, really powerful tool when you learn to work alongside it and then use, also use your own. own brains a little bit at all times and just not believe everything that AI generates or gives you results because even even such results can give you some often give you false results like on perplexity a 2 out of 10 times you will definitely get false results like that's not true like false facts if you ask it and same goes with chat gpt same goes with Gemini and a bunch of others like false facts So yeah, you have to be really cautious and ⁓ use your own brain. Use AI, it's fun. But yeah, be very careful. speaker-2: So journalism has really changed over the years, at least from when I was a journalist back in the day. There's a whole new type of way that journalists like to work. It's moved also away a bit from having one beat or working at one publication unless you're staff. I know you juggle lots of different topics, lots of different beats. What would you say is your favorite thing about being a journalist? And what is your most memorable interview? speaker-1: ⁓ To be honest, I'm not really a journalist journalist. I have no journalism degree. I'm just a guy who used to read magazines like Fastco, Forbes, and read online articles on VentureBeat. And ⁓ looked at them while I was doing my bachelor's in information technology and during my master's. looked at that stuff where it talked about everything technology and AI and just thought that I think they're missing something and sometimes in some articles that I read online it really felt from other platforms, it really felt like I don't think the writer knows really what he's talking about. I just jokingly said one day he's reading reading Time magazine, which has an article in my library, to my friends saying that, you know what, I think I can do this better. And they all laughed at me. ⁓ How about now, boys? But ⁓ yeah, mean, that's how I started. I just wanted to fill that gap that not a lot of technology journalists really know how technology works behind the scenes. And I come from a background where I worked as an AI researcher, worked on AI models, worked on projects and stuff like that. I really had my understanding and I had a knick for writing. I always used to write since I was, ⁓ since I was, you know, in in the, in the 10th grade and, you know, posted on Medium and stuff like that, but it was not that great. And slowly when I got this opportunity alongside coding to write for a platform. And then I learned the tricks of the trade, learned the AP style and this style and Chicago style and in Dubai, sat in a room and tried to write in 50 different angles, cover a story. So I'm a self-learned writer, I would say, not a tech journalist at all, but along the way, got some really great opportunities ⁓ from great publications and learned my way through. ⁓ So, I mean, that's the thing with me. ⁓ And that's the gap that I always wanted to fill, right? Like really giving you a grounded perspective and a grounded analysis on what's happening within the ecosystem. ⁓ And I think that's where people and, you know, all these CEOs and staff who talked to me accepted me as well. ⁓ So it's been a great journey so far. Talking about my favorite interview, I don't think I should name one. think people would get offended and I visit conferences often, so people will definitely come and hunt me. So I would like to avoid that question. I mean, there's been several opportunities to learn from the best. I can definitely talk about like, not like, wouldn't like really grade it as favorite-favorite, but I really... interesting recent discussion was with SAP CEO Christian Klein and his perspective on the SaaS apocalypse. ⁓ Everyone was covering the SaaS apocalypse stories and I was like, I don't think this is the right time. I think there's something to this story that we really don't know. So I really avoided covering that, covering it. But then when I talked to Christian and had his thoughts, I was like, okay, I think we should go the opposite direction and You know, you flow the opposite way or the wave and just crash with everybody and let's see what happens. So that's what we did. And it made some pretty big rounds over the internet. ⁓ So yeah, happy with that stuff like this really intrigues me, you know, the way that I can, you know, really like first things first, the experts are really comfortable talking to me. Like my editors, a few of my editors say this, like, how did you get that code? Like, I don't think he speaks like that to anyone else. ⁓ So I think I've been blessed with that and God has been really kind of offering me opportunities in such a time that there's like a lot of turmoil within the media industry. speaker-2: That's probably one of the greatest gifts as a journalist is to get someone to open up and share. And that really is what makes a journalist from good to great. So you're blessed in that regard. speaker-1: Yeah, just again, like just an analyst writer, not really a journalist, but I mean, I'm happy with everything that people are calling me. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Victor, you're, talking almost every week ⁓ to some of the biggest CEOs in the AI space, in the technology space as a whole, but more specifically in the AI space, from Databricks to Snowflake, you know, to Anthropik even. What are you seeing as a sort of converging point in the things that you're hearing from them as what might be the future of AI or where we're going as, where the industry is going ⁓ as of now. speaker-1: Yeah. No, I think I've been really seeing that the companies building more and more on the base of agentic AI, know. Companies are now focusing on semantic layers and data hubs and data estates, like really. ⁓ Plus I think the next big thing is going to be, basically like keep a sharp eye on quantum technologies, I think. The next convergence is definitely going to be quantum powering these technologies and these big, big hyperscale accelerators turbocharging these models to an extent that they can do everything and anything. Same like, you know, the generative trend, generative AI trend is like literally being pushed to the side and agentic AI is taking over in every aspect. changing how software as a service companies think about seats and pricing and their offerings to something as basic as like editing your photos on Photoshop, right? I ⁓ was lucky to attend and explore what companies like Adobe and PhotoRoom and a few other companies have been, you know, thinking in direction of agentic AI in the future. of technology in the direction of agentic AI. So it's really great to see that contextual understanding now coming in into AI that was missing, right? Like the complaints were that AI really does not understand what I'm trying to say and really does not understand my problems. I think that is slowly going away day by day with models getting bigger and bigger and smarter and smarter. the architectures are changing as well, like different agents, like task-specific agents handling everything and then converging for a particular output. ⁓ I think the tech industry is definitely going to grow in that. And due to this and due to this growth of agent-to-key, what we are seeing on the back end as well is huge change in architectures and data centers. whether you talk about rack innovation technologies or whether you talk about like ⁓ the smallest of things that power or data center. think innovation is happening there as well to keep up with this scale of development because every other week there's a new model these days and it's ⁓ more than you can chew. ⁓ So yeah, I think overall like with the innovation going on on one side also is powering and making sure and literally like making you obliged to keep in pace all of the backend technologies as well to keep in pace with what's coming ahead. And I think we should definitely see what I've seen from a few big tech company behind the scenes I can't reveal literally ⁓ because of ND agreements and stuff like that. I think there is going to be a future where it might just be impossible to live without AI. speaker-2: With the last question to you, Victor, what stories are you chasing right now at the moment? What are you working on? What are we not paying enough attention to that we should be keeping an eye on? speaker-1: ⁓ Well, as I said, like ⁓ my beat is everything AI, quantum and then next gen technologies. So I think I'm definitely keeping an eye on agent take on the future of innovations. I did, did some stuff this morning, like agent, again, now coming into devices such as something as basic as a printer, right. ⁓ And stuff like that. So really these, these things that we overlook on a daily basis, right. something as like you ordered a pizza, that delivery box that in which your pizza came in, was that it's art was AI generated or AI helped somewhere, know, that art and the whole structure of the box. So what I'm chasing right now is definitely like to make people aware and make sure of the behind the scenes happening of everyday lives and everyday technologies, things that we overlook on a daily basis that might be powered by AI plus what is next for the future, what is next for the ecosystem. And my audience is a mix of C-suite and the general readers as well. So helping C-suites make better decisions on products, on their competitors, helping them keep their eye. shaking a few stocks here and there as well. And helping the general readers and the consumers of the technology to understand what they're using and ⁓ should they trust this company or not. So yeah, it's an exciting time to cover AI and yeah, it's not stopping anytime soon. So yeah, it's really excited and... ⁓ I do have a few things planned coming up this year. ⁓ So working on those in parallel, a few projects, like few personal projects. ⁓ I would say keep an eye and yeah, really, really excited to see what comes along throughout the year. speaker-0: There we go. says keep an eye. you'll do well to keep an eye. Victor, thank you so much. Actually, quite excellent. Thanks for pulling the cord sentence on how things work in the ecosystem and giving a reality check on some other stuff that some people might not have had any idea about. So thank you. speaker-1: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me. It was my first time here, hopefully not the last. yeah, mean, happy to know that ⁓ my balance perspectives are valued and loved by you guys. So thank you so much once again for having me and yeah, talk again soon. speaker-2: Thank you, Victor. We'll be keeping an eye out for your book to be published soon, maybe. And we do, we really value your insight. We appreciate you taking the time from your busy schedule to share some insights with us. So thanks so much. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Thank you, thank you so much once again for having me. speaker-2: And thank you to everyone listening. If this conversation was valuable, please share it and subscribe. We've got more honest conversations about AI coming your way. This is Machine Dreams. We'll see you next time.