The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast

The podcast explores how we build, break, and rebuild trust in a world shaped by accelerating technology and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Eva Simone Lihotzky, AI adoption and ethics expert with 12+ years of experience in tech, the podcast creates in-depth conversations at the intersection of AI, business, ethics, and human connection. Through various lenses - across business, politics, neuroscience, tech and systems thinking in organizations - it hosts expert conversations for you to deep dives into one of the complex topics we need to solve as a society and beyond.

The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast is a technology podcast hosted by Eva Simone Lihotzky, with 43 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Eva Simone Lihotzky hosts The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast, a technology show with 43 episodes published.

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  Episode #43

  How Close Can AI Get to the Human Mind? Persuasion, Trust and the Limits of Tech - Moran Cerf, Neuroscientist (EP 43)

  Oct 1, 202644 minS1

  ️ Moran Cerf, Neuroscientist and Professor, Columbia Business School Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist and professor at Columbia Business School, studies what happens in our brains when we talk, decide and get persuaded, and lately what happens when the other side of the conversation is AI. His research shows AI can read people remarkably well: from recordings of speed dates, it predicted who liked each other better than human observers did. The same skill worries him: we raise our guard when a person tries to sell us something, but not when AI does it in much the same way. Episode overview Moran's starting point is neural: in a human conversation, brain waves tune to each other and a nod or a glance carries much of the meaning, while a question-and-answer exchange with AI holds about a fifth of that information. His verdict on AI's influence is blunt: "We're a lot simpler than we think we are," and purchase times, flight bookings and browsing history are enough for AI to infer personality and nudge even political views. Eva pushes on teams that give AI agents human names: helpful in a Ferrari pit stop, he says, and a hindrance in a boardroom, where too often "if AI says do this, we end up doing this." On trust, he draws a line between the many mundane choices AI already handles well and the rare ones that define us, like a partner or a profession, and warns that our trust spills from the first to the second. His reason for hope is practical: when the world or our life changes, the AI twin trained on our past fails, and we get called back in. Key themes Why AI can read and persuade people better than people can, and why we don't notice When a human name for an AI agent helps a team, and when it distorts a decision What the AI backlash has inherited from fifteen years of social media Which choices to trust AI with, and how that trust spills over to the ones that define us Whether control handed over for convenience comes back when life changes About the guest Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist and professor at Columbia Business School whose work spans decision-making, persuasion and neural implants. He began by recording individual neurons to understand how the brain works, and several of his former PhD students now research AI at companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, which puts him right where brain science and AI meet. ⏱ Chapters 00:00 The feedback loop AI can't join 05:46 AI reads attraction, then learns to persuade 16:01 From neural implants to brain-like AI 29:22 Trust it with groceries, not with a partner 37:07 Giving up control, and the retwin 42:29 In-between moments Links Moran Cerf on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/moran-cerf-407187/ Eva Simone Lihotzky on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evalihotzky/ Columbia Business School - https://business.columbia.edu/staff/people/moran-cerf Moran Cerf's website - https://www.morancerf.com/ Anthropic research Moran describes - [LINK: Anthropic study] Related episode - AI and The Cognitive Atrophy Trap: What Happens When We Let Tech Shortcut the Hard Parts of Learning - Tobias Burkhardt (EP 28) - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vdo5QFoTroSQlZgEuRQin

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  Episode #42

  Energy From Orbit: Can We Trust Power Beamed From Space? - Martin Soltau, Space Solar (EP 42)

  Sep 24, 202632 minS1

  ️ with Martin Soltau, Co-CEO, Space Solar Solar power collected in space and beamed down to Earth sounds like science fiction (it did to the space sector too, until reusable rockets arrived). Martin Soltau, Co-CEO of Space Solar, is building it in the UK, and he is confident about the technology: NASA demonstrated power beaming in the 1970s. The part of his timeline he can't engineer is trust: how quickly regulators and the public accept energy that comes down from orbit. Episode overview It starts with Martin's verdict on Europe's energy transition: the UK and Germany, he says, have "tested it to destruction", and households pay for it with expensive electricity and weaker security. His case for orbit is concrete: a panel in space produces eight to 13 times what it would in the sunniest place on Earth, robots assemble the satellites from coffee-table-sized modules, and the beam can be directed wherever power is needed. Eva pushes on the catch: if launch still runs through a handful of mostly American providers, does Europe swap one dependency for another? On trust, Martin points to fracking (a technology that worked and still lost the public) as his warning, and explains why he answers the safety question with wifi frequencies and intensities anyone can measure. Key themes Why a grid built on free sunshine and free wind still delivers expensive electricity Whether public trust can be earned before the first satellite flies, or only afterwards What wireless power changes about energy security when undersea cables are already being targeted Whether governments that fund this will accept standards letting a rival's satellite use their receiver About the guest Martin Soltau co-founded Space Solar in 2022 to build solar power satellites that deliver continuous electricity to receivers on the ground. He came from inside the space sector, where the idea sat on the science fiction pile until SpaceX made reusable launch commercial. Today his work is as much about convincing governments and regulators as about engineering. ⏱ Chapters Tested to destruction (starts with: "I think it's the big challenging problem for humanity ...") Why orbit beats the sunniest place on Earth (starts with: "So I suppose it starts with the fact that if you put a solar panel into space ...") Launch, and who controls it (starts with: "Yeah, that's a very good question. I mean, if we look at wind and solar and batteries ...") Standards between rivals (starts with: "Yes, I think there are many examples of where nations have collaborated ...") Coffee-table modules and crawling robots (starts with: "Yes. Well, if you came to space solar at Harwell ...") The trust question (starts with: "I think you use a really interesting word there, trust ...") Links Martin Soltau on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-soltau-44596619/ Eva Simone Lihotzky on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evalihotzky/ Space Solar - https://www.spacesolar.co.uk International Telecommunication Union - https://www.itu.int Related episode - Sten Saluveer on what decides AI trust in Europe - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gPKehnoNppMY0y3Jvdry0

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  Episode #41

  Entering the Era of AI Power: An Estonian View on Europe's Way - Sten Saluveer, Telia (EP 41)

  Sep 17, 202636 minS1

  ️ Sten Saluveer, Growth & Innovation, Telia What decides AI trust in Europe - the size of the model, or whether people recognise themselves in the society using it? Sten Saluveer helped write Estonia's digital state agenda and now builds at Telia, and he argues Europe enters the era of AI power holding more than it thinks: a working example, and the diversity to invent its own category. For leaders deciding where their organisations stand in that game, this is a view from a country that stopped writing roadmaps and started shipping. Episode overview Sten and Eva move from why a builder who ran innovation at Cannes chose an Estonian telco, to what an agent-driven state actually looks like when more than a hundred and twenty agentic services already run and the plan reads like scenes from a citizen's life. They sit with the uncomfortable side: a quarter in which Estonians lost around thirty million euros to cybercrime, and a security goal that paradoxically aims to keep satisfaction exactly where it is. From Cannes, Sten brings the generational fault line - leaders over forty who see adaptation as given, talents under thirty who experience AI as a threat to their work and their environment - and the question of whether Europe can turn its diversity into its own category rather than playing everyone else's game. Key themes Whether a state can make itself agent-driven and keep the citizen in control Why holding cybersecurity satisfaction at today's level counts as ambition What Europe's own category could be when it stops measuring itself in gigawatts The generational split on AI that surfaced at Cannes, and what it demands of leaders Whether a telco can become the trusted digital partner of the AI economy About the guest Sten Saluveer is an Estonian innovation strategist who has spent two decades translating between the market, the technology, and the governance layer - from heading Cannes Next at the Marché du Film to advising the Tallinn Digital Summit. He contributed to Estonia's digital state agenda, where he insisted the plan contain scenarios from ordinary life, and he recently joined Telia heading their growth and innovation initiatives. What makes his perspective matter here is the vantage point: he argues Europe's case from inside a small country where the agent-driven state is already operational. ⏱️ Chapters [00:00] Why a builder chooses a telco when the era turns [11:41] An action plan, not a roadmap - the state that ships [18:11] Standing still as ambition - the cybercrime paradox [23:15] When infrastructure has to assume it is a target [28:03] Cannes: the generation that experiences AI as a threat [38:26] Reclaiming agency - Europe's own category Links Sten Saluveer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stensaluveer/ Eva Simone Lihotzky on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evalihotzky/ Telia - https://www.telia.ee/era Estonia's digital state agenda - https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/initiatives/national-strategies/estonia-estonian-digital-agenda-2030 Related episode - 'Tech and Democracy with Nexus Politics' https://open.spotify.com/episode/3WVnBsaz3LfFPwn6xsX1N6

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  Episode #40

  Captured or AI Created? Tech Ethics of Photography - Noah Wetzel (EP 40)

  Sep 10, 202635 minS1

  ️ Noah Wetzel, Photographer What happens to AI trust when the most real photographs are the ones people refuse to believe? Noah Wetzel spent nine months and 600 hours preparing to capture 84 seconds of a total solar eclipse - then had to prove the result came out of a camera. This one is for anyone whose genuine work now meets default suspicion, and anyone deciding where AI belongs in a craft that has to stay real. Episode overview Noah captured a wingsuit athlete flying through totality in Spain: flashes triggered from a mile away, a subject moving at 150 miles per hour, two frames per athlete, no second takes. The conversation follows what came after the shutter - viewers at his own shows assuming the work is fake, magazine editors auditing every edit in his raw files, and a disclaimer on Instagram stating his photos are camera-captured. He is blunt about his own AI use: hundreds of hours on ChatGPT planning the shot, AI saving him days in processing, and a hard line at the frame itself. Where that line sits, and whether it survives cameras that can generate content on demand, stays open until the end. Key themes Why extraordinary authentic images now read as fake by default, and who ends up carrying the burden of proof Where AI strengthens a craft and where it disqualifies the result - the captured versus created distinction Noah refuses to blur What "the ethics of photography" means when every edit is contestable and everyone draws the line differently What happens to that line when the camera itself can add what was never there How you perform inside 84 seconds when preparation is the only thing left to trust About the guest Noah Wetzel is an adventure and action-sports photographer, and the person behind what may be the most complex photograph ever attempted: a Red Bull Air Force wingsuit athlete crossing a total solar eclipse. The detail that matters for this episode is what he does after the work is done - he attaches a statement to his published images confirming they were captured by a camera, because the audience's default assumption has flipped. He argues the case for craftsmanship from inside a working life that uses AI daily. ⏱ Chapters [00:00] 600 hours for 84 seconds [04:33] Trusting preparation when nothing can be paused [16:30] What generative AI changes about believing a photograph [24:02] Why real work now carries a disclaimer [31:41] Where the in-camera line starts to dissolve Links Noah Wetzel's website / portfolio — ⁠www.wetzelgallery.com⁠ Noah Wetzel on Instagram, ⁠www.instagram.com/noahwetzel⁠ Noah Wetzel on Facebook: ⁠www.facebook.com/noahwetzelphoto⁠ [LINK: Related episode — suggest a Pillar 1 episode on trust in AI systems, Eva to match to episode number] Eva Simone Lihotzky on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evalihotzky/ Documentary Released on PBS Recently - April 8th 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Hill Country Texas. The film has received 17 film festival awards and been aired 1700+ times in the last month across 39 different states in the United States. You can watch the documentary online here: https://www.pbs.org/show/eclipse-outlaw-chase/

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  Episode #39

  AI and Sustainability: Lessons from Both Transformations - Dr. Kiri Trier (EP 39)

  Sep 3, 202634 minS1

  ️ Dr. Kiri Trier, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Risk Management Partners, part of Munich Re Opening paragraph Every C-level claimed sustainability expertise overnight. Dr. Kiri Trier watched it happen, and she sees AI trust heading the same way. She spent more than a decade leading sustainability transformation before the current wave, and now runs growth inside Munich Re's climate risk business while the second hype cycle unfolds around her. This one is for leaders who suspect the pace of AI adoption has outrun the understanding beneath it. Episode overview In this episode, Dr. Kiri Trier maps the sustainability cycle onto the AI one: the expectation management problem when nobody knows the consequences, the human resource comparison that sustainability never triggered, and why she laughed the first time she heard "human in the loop". From inside reinsurance she raises the question with no settled answer yet - when a model judges wrong, what about the liability? And she closes with a definition that reorders most AI governance thinking: trust arrives only as an outcome of credibility and reliability. Key themes When a model judges a policy wrong, who carries the liability - and why the autonomy still lies on the human side Whether the EU AI Act repeats the German supply chain law: does checklist regulation produce compliance or trust? What greenwashing predicts about AI washing, from someone who watched the first one form Can trust be installed at all, or only earned as an outcome of credibility and reliability? The gut feeling as a leadership instrument the LLM does not have About the guest Dr. Kiri Trier is Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Risk Management Partners, a Munich Re company localising climate risk exposure. The detail that matters for this episode: seven years before the current wave, she published on how AI would change sustainability management - which means she entered the AI transformation already knowing how a hype cycle ends. ⏱️ Chapters [01:31] Trust is a behaviour - so what is trust in a technology? [04:09] The overnight experts return [09:32] Human in the loop, turned around [16:10] The foresight existed - Sustain what? [26:00] When regulation becomes Excel lists Links Dr. Kiri Trier on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kiri-trier-97bb1611/ Eva Simone Lihotzky on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evalihotzky/ Risk Management Partners website - https://www.munichre.com/rmp/en.html Related episode: 'Designing regenerative futures' with Karel Golta - https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-in-between-tech-and-trust-podcast/id1828521905?l=en-GB&i=1000721908996

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