Andra Keay: Robo-Pragmatist, Humanoids, Technological Shifts, Laws | Turn the Lens Ep42
Release Date: 09/18/2025
Andra Keay: Robo-Pragmatist, Humanoids, Technological Shifts, Laws | Turn the Lens Ep42
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Andra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics, has been at the forefront of robotics research, commercialization, and policy for decades. A self-described “techno-pragmatist,” Andra has her pulse on the robotics industry, in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world. Importantly, she is conscious and intentional to try and get ahead of the big issues we face down the road with the societal shifts coming as millions of robots, humanoid and other form factors, populate more of our world and interactions. Andra is pro RoboTopia, and against an AI apocalypse. And...
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Salvatore (Sal) Mercogliano: What's Going on With Shipping, YouTube Show Review | Turn the Lens Ep41
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Salvatore (Sal) Mercogliano (Sal), has a Ph.D. in Military and Naval History from the University of Alabama. He served in the Merchant Marine, has been an Adjunct Professor of History/Engineering at the US Merchant Marine Academy for over 17 years, and Chairs the Department of History, Criminal Justice, and Political Science for Campbell University for over 14 years. So when something happens with ships, shipping, the US Navy or other major maritime news around the world, I go to Sal to find out what’s really going on. Welcome to the first in a series of YouTube Show reviews that I hope can...
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Project 2025: Briefing doc, FAQ, Study guide, Podcast | Turn the Lens Ep40
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Trump 2.0 starts tomorrow. 2025 started 19 days ago. Remember Project 2025? Might be a good time to study up on the subject, at least the basics. Not ready to read the full 920 pages? Google NotebookLM can help. I encourage you to upload the PDF yourself, and start asking questions. Sharing mine to help get you started. This is the Podcast Google NotbookLM created from the source material. Project 2025: Briefing doc, FAQ, Study guide, Podcast | Turn the Lens podcast with Jeff Frick Try it yourself - Transcript and Show Notes -
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Exponential Curves: Supercomputer to Smartphone to Singularity | Turn the Lens Jeff Frick Ep39
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Ray Kurzweil recently released his new book, *The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI*, a follow-up to his 2006 blockbuster, *The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology*. I had the chance to see him speak at our local bookstore as part of the launch event. A central theme of Ray’s talks is the exponential growth of computing power—how we’re constantly achieving more computations per second at a constant cost. While exponential curves are easy to discuss and graph, understanding these transformations on a visceral level is challenging. How can we fully grasp the scale...
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Google NotebookLM: AI, Ingest, Create a Podcast | Turn the Lens Ep38
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
2,500 pages. How can you quickly and easily digest 2,500 pages of material? More than just a summary or table of contents, what if you could dive into the core issues, pull up a timeline, or even create a study guide? That’s exactly what you can do with Google NotebookLM, a powerful new free AI tool that requires no training, coding, or even RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) expertise to put the power to work on any assets you please. Simply upload your documents, videos, and other digital assets, start asking questions, and let it do the heavy lifting. And if you prefer a podcast format,...
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Dan Ariely: Decisions, Behavior, Stress, Resilience | Turn the Lens Ep37
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Dan Ariely, the renowned behavioral economist, prolific author, frequent TED speaker, and endowed professor at Duke University, has spent decades studying why people behave the way they do. And let’s just say that logic and reasoning do not top the list. I had the pleasure of seeing Dan speak in person in 2016, and almost a decade later, I was thrilled to host him for this conversation, where we could dive deeper into the drivers of decision making and human behavior. Dan’s latest book, *“Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things,”* served as our...
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Jason Sacks: Youth Sports, Culture, Character | Turn the Lens Ep36
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Jason Sacks joined the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) 18 years ago, around the same time I began my youth sports journey with my oldest child as he entered kindergarten and joined AYSO, the American Youth Soccer Organization. When done right, youth sports provide countless character-building opportunities in each practice, game, and activity. To quote NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, these character traits include teamwork, overcoming challenges, working toward a bigger goal, resilience, risk-taking, success, failure, self-confidence, mental toughness, self-control,...
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Meryl Evans: Captions, Clean, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious | Turn the Lens Ep35
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law 34 years ago today, July 26, 1990. It literally changed our world, from cub cuts, and wide doors, to ramps and more. What is less reported is the secondary and ‘law of unintended positive consequences’ that come with inclusive design. More accessible for one is more accessible for all. Meryl Evans has been championing the benefits of closed captions, and closed caption best practices for decades. Born ‘hearing free’ her experience with captioning is very personal, starting with the special home unit hooked...
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OpenAI ChatGPT 4 v4: Debate, Criteria, Responsibilities, Integrity | Turn the Lens Ep34
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Debate. There has been lots of talk lately about debates, winners, and losers. I didn’t have any debate team friends in high school or college, and have not been to a real debate. If there are winners and losers, that would imply that there are rules, as victory in most competitions, from basketball to chess to Family Feud, is based on performance within the constraints, the rules, of the competition. If basketball players carry the ball, or travel, or employ moving screens, then it’s no longer basketball (at least according the National Junior Basketball Association rules my kids played...
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Waymo One: Autonomous, Future, Comfortable, Available | Turn the Lens Ep33
Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick
Waymo has been working on autonomous vehicles since it began as the Google Self Driving Car project at Google X in 2009. Spun out from it’s parent, and renamed Waymo in 2016, the iterations have developed. So today, June 2024, 15 years later, Waymo opened up it’s waitlist, and made it’s autonomous ride-hailing service up to anyone in San Francisco. It just so happens that I cleared the waitlist and took my first Waymo ride just a few days ago. And I recorded the experience. In this exciting episode of "Turn the Lens," take a ride with me across San Francisco, from the Dogpatch to...
info_outlineAndra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics, has been at the forefront of robotics research, commercialization, and policy for decades. A self-described “techno-pragmatist,” Andra has her pulse on the robotics industry, in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world. Importantly, she is conscious and intentional to try and get ahead of the big issues we face down the road with the societal shifts coming as millions of robots, humanoid and other form factors, populate more of our world and interactions.
Andra is pro RoboTopia, and against an AI apocalypse. And robotics offers an insight into the world of AI, as they are AI with arms and legs, removed from the black box behind the screen, but out among us, where the consequences of a hallucination or miscalculation can have physical implications. Industrial robots were behind barricades and safely screens. Next gen Humanoids will work in homes, senior care facilities, factories, and other places with direct interaction with people.
Andra is a frequent industry speaker, and in fact, we’ve shared a few panels together over the years, but this is the first time she’s visited Turn The Lens so we could really get into it without restrictions.
And the timing couldn’t be better. Humanoid robots are having their moment. Figure just raised a $1B Series C, with a $39B post money valuation. Customers are moving from pilots to commercial engagements. Capacities are compounding at an exponential rate.
Oh Yeah, and did I mention LLMs and their like have transformed the robot training paradigm.
The next great wave of technological change is upon us. Humanoid Robotics, AI with arms, legs, and an ability to navigate the world, and do things.
If you follow no one else, follow Andra to keep up on this part of our rapidly changing world. Subscribe to Robots & Startups on Substack.
Andra Keay: Robo-Pragmatist, Humanoids, Technological Shifts, Laws | Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick, Ep42
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