Inside AI
Inside AI is a podcast that explores artificial intelligence with brilliant global innovators and researchers from EPFL. It delves into the technology that is transforming our future, featuring discussions on cutting-edge AI developments and their real-world applications.
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Conversation with JP Fricker, Cerebras
JP is one of the co-founders of Cerebras, a company known for pioneering AI hardware. JP has focused much of his career on designing and optimising hardware solutions for high performance computing environments. Cerebras is currently on an impressive trajectory, having produced the largest and fastest AI chip in the world. In this episode, we look into his journey as a founder in the AI chip indus
Conversation with Urs Hölzle
In this episode, we sit down with Urs Hölzle, Google Fellow and former SVP of Technical Infrastructure at Google. He joins us in his personal capacity to talk about many issues, including one of AI’s biggest topics: energy consumption.
From optimizing data centers to the future of AI efficiency, Urs shares his unique perspective on balancing AI’s rapid evolution with sustainability. We also cover
Conversation with Daniel Huttenlocher, MIT
How will AI shape education, work, and society? In this episode Marcel Salathé speaks with Daniel Huttenlocher, Dean of MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing. They discuss AI’s role in reshaping learning, the future of jobs, and the geopolitical shifts driven by AI.
Production: Melissa Anchisi
Conversation with Nicolas Dessaigne, Y Combinator
Nicolas is a partner at Y Combinator, the legendary startup accelerator. We draw from his experience as both a successful startup founder and investor. He has now a front row seat to AI’s rapid evolution and its impact across the startup ecosystem. With his international outlook and deep expertise and scaling companies, Nicolas shares his insights on startups, keys to founders’ success and why we
Conversation with Daniel Yanisse, Checkr
In this episode, Marcel sat down with Daniel Yanisse,Co-Founder and CEO of Checkr, a background screening platform revolutionizing hiring with AI. Daniel shares his journey from EPFL to Silicon Valley, how Y Combinator helped turn Checkr into a unicorn, and the role AI plays in reshaping the HR industry. He also offers candid insights into the challenges of scaling a startup, navigating regulation
Conversation with Charlotte Bunne, EPFL
In this episode, Marcel speaks with Charlotte Bunne, professor at EPFL specializing in AI and molecular medicine. Charlotte's groundbreaking research focuses on using AI to tackle challenges in personalized medicine, particularly oncology. They discuss her work on developing AI systems inspired by biological structures, the creation of AI Virtual Cells that integrate multiple biological scales, an
Conversation with Nicholas Christakis, Yale University
In this mind-bending episode of Inside AI, we dive into the fascinating world of human-AI hybrid systems. Forget your sci-fi dystopias — Marcel and Nicholas Christakis talk about bots that make us better humans. From robots that crack jokes to boost group morale, octopus's consciouness, and digital assistants that might be raising your kids (politely or not), we explore how social AIs can change
Conversation with Anton Osika, Lovable
In this episode, Marcel speaks with Anton Osika, CEO and co-founder of Lovable, the fastest-growing AI startup (by ARR) in 2025. Anton shares insights into Lovable's journey, exploring how recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have enabled their rapid takeoff. He highlights current technical challenges, including growth strategies and navigating security issues inherent in AI-driven
Conversation with Stef van Grieken, Cradle
In this episode of Inside AI, Marcel sits down with Stef van Grieken, co-founder and CEO of Cradle, the company rewriting the rules of biology through generative AI.
From a small Dutch village to building Google’s TPU and now the frontier of synthetic biology, Stef shares the journey that led him to ask a transformative question: What if we could design proteins the way we generate images or text
Conversation with Babak Falsafi, EPFL
In this episode, Marcel Salathé talks with Babak Falsafi, professor at EPFL and founder of EcoCloud, about the growing energy demands of AI and cloud computing. They dive into the real-world impact of data centers, the technological and geopolitical dynamics of AI infrastructure, and what it means for sustainability. From GPU power trends to cooling challenges, and from energy-efficient algorithms
Conversation with Adrian Cabrera de Luis, MailMaestro
Marcel chats with Adrian Cabrera de Luis, CEO of MailMaestro, about his path from EPFL and Harvard to BCG, MIT, and launching two startups—one acquired, the other now a leader in AI tools for Microsoft. Adrian shares how “seed-strapping” keeps his company profitable, why small AI-driven teams can outpace big players, and lessons from navigating consulting, entrepreneurship, and rapid tech change.
Conversation with Andreas Goeldi, b2venture
In this episode, Marcel talks with Andreas Goeldi, partner at b2venture and longtime entrepreneur, about the current state and future trajectory of artificial intelligence. They explore the boom-and-bust cycles of technology, the overheated AI market, and the realities behind the hype. From overlapping S-curves of innovation to the rise of solopreneurs, from the challenges for universities and ent
Conversation about Apertus with Antoine Bosselut, Martin Jaggi and Imanol Schalg (EPFL and ETH Zurich)
In this episode, Marcel talks with Antoine Bosselut, Martin Jaggi and Imanol Schlag, the lead researchers behind Apertus, the newly released large language model. They discuss what it means to be truly open and compliant, and why Apertus is designed as much as a recipe for building transparent models as it is a model itself. The conversation explores the trade-offs between compliance and performan
Conversation with Annie Hartley, EPFL
In this episode, Marcel talks with Annie Hartley, EPFL Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Intelligent Global Health & Humanitarian Response Technologies (LiGHT), about building trustworthy medical AI that works in the field. They cover LiGHT’s cross-institution work with EPFL and Harvard/Ariadne Labs, operational hubs in Rwanda and India, why neutrality matters in humanitarian tech, and
Conversation with Aldo Podestà, Giotto.ai
Can a small Swiss lab out-reason trillion-parameter giants? In this episode, Aldo Podestà, founder & CEO of Giotto.ai, explains how his team reached the #1 spot on the ARC-AGI v2 leaderboard—with a ~200M-parameter system scoring 23.19% on an extremely challenging, non-memorization reasoning benchmark. Aldo traces his journey from EPFL math student to entrepreneur, the Kaggle win that sparked the c
Conversation with Eamonn Maguire, Proton
In this episode, Marcel sits down with Dr. Eamonn Maguire, Director of Engineering for AI and ML at Proton, for a wide-ranging conversation about privacy-preserving AI, the evolution of Proton’s products from anti-abuse systems to Lumo—Proton’s private, end-to-end encrypted alternative to ChatGPT—and the deeper implications of today’s rapidly shifting AI landscape. They discuss Proton’s mission as
Conversation with Robert West, EPFL
What happens when AI stops being just a tool—and starts acting like an autonomous agent?
In this episode of Inside AI, host Marcel Salathé speaks with EPFL professor and Applied Machine Learning Days co-founder Bob West about the growing rift shaping today’s AI landscape. Drawing on insights from his sabbatical at Microsoft Research, West unpacks how AI has evolved into a general-purpose technolog
Conversation with Patrick Jermann and Francesco Mondada, EPFL
What and why should we still learn when AI can do so much for us?
In this episode, Marcel and EPFL experts Patrick Jermann and Francesco Mondada explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping education, from coding and assessment to the very purpose of learning. Drawing on real experiments at EPFL, they reveal what AI gets right, where it falls short, and why true learning still requires effor
[REPLAY] Conversation with JP Fricker, Cerebras
REPLAY - JP is one of the co-founders of Cerebras, a company known for pioneering AI hardware. JP has focused much of his career on designing and optimising hardware solutions for high performance computing environments. Cerebras is currently on an impressive trajectory, having produced the largest and fastest AI chip in the world. In this episode, we look into his journey as a founder in the AI
Conversation with Rachid Guerraoui, EPFL
In this episode Marcel Salathé speaks with EPFL professor Rachid Guerraoui about the distributed systems that make modern AI possible. They discuss the limits of today’s AI models, the challenge of building trustworthy and robust systems, and the growing importance of privacy and sovereignty in AI deployment. The conversation also explores Guerraoui’s startup, Anyway Systems, which enables organiz
