Episode 178 – L33T Learning Siri

  Just say no to enabling autonomous bots & drones with the ability to apply lethal force.  Following on last week’s episode 177, Michael & Michael start off with a continuation of the discussion on the Pandora’s Box of armed robots. Moving on to a happier topic, while still staying on the machine learning concept, the pair talks about how Siri and other voice interactive systems have been improved with deep learning.  Not just recorded scripts, but actual intelligence, and more natural interaction is apparent when you listen to how far things have come since the earliest days of Siri … Continue reading

Episode 60 – Bubbly Bubblers in Gamified Buildings

Phaedra, Michael and Michael were delighted to be accompanied by Ross Smith, Director of Test in the Skype division of Microsoft for this show, centered around games for employee engagement. Ross described the recent work that he and his team have done with giving personality to buildings and using the building itself as the ‘game master’, to orchestrate and facilitate employee engagement. Games for health One of the intriguing examples (also discussed in Episode 58, but without the benefit of Ross’s first hand experience) uses a water cooler with personality as the mechanism for gamifying health.  While drinking eight glasses … Continue reading

Episode 55 – Do Not Play This Game At Work

Tom Grant, analyst from Forrester Research, joins the show to talk about his new website Serious Games At Work and his love of board games. We look at a listener link on do Games at Work really help productivity. Realizing they are probably asking the wrong question. They should be asking – Should you be playing pirates games at work? If so, who get’s the red stapler? Seriously, we discuss that the game part has to be more of a periodic entry into the Magic Circle, and not a mandatory daily activity. This allows businesses to achieve effective optimization, while … Continue reading