Shows
The KickstartAI Podcast2025 AI Rewind: The year of gradual progress?In this year's roundup, Nic, Evertjan, and Cascha unpack the rollercoaster that 2025 was for AI. From the shockwave of DeepSeek R1 to the "gradual" progress of GPT-5 and Gemini 3.0, we break down the tech, the data, (and the drama). We discuss why 2025 became the "Year of the Idea Guy" rather than the "Year of General Agents," analyze the Great Minds of AI (from Ilya’s return to research to Dario’s scaling maximalism), and look at what the betting markets say about the bubble bursting. Finally, we make our own predictions on what 2026 holds for the industry....
2025-12-191h 05The KickstartAI PodcastAI for food security: merging data and policyHow can AI support global food security in practice? In this episode, we speak with Marieke Meeske PhD researcher at Tilburg University’s Zero Hunger Lab, about how Natural Language Processing (NLP) is applied to food security analysis and policymaking. We cover her review of 60+ NLP use cases, from early warning systems to understanding public perceptions around food sustainability. We also explore why most AI solutions in this space struggle to move beyond the research stage, and what this “implementation gap” means for real-world impact. Finally, Marieke shares insights from her current work with the UN’s F...
2025-11-2137 minThe KickstartAI PodcastJournalism in the GenAI era: What's changing?In what ways is the rise of generative AI impacting journalism? In this episode, we sit down with Andrii Degeler, founder of unzip.media and journalist-in-residence at Dealroom.co, to discuss what the AI shift means for newsroom workflows, the role of the journalist, and the evolving media business model. We also touch on the overarching themes of media trust and AI literacy.We unpack how newsrooms are experimenting with GenAI, the ethical questions around authorship and disclosure, the impact of Google’s AI overviews on publishers, and the sustainability of media business models in an...
2025-10-2337 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 10: Do we need AI tutors?AI’s role in education is growing fast, but what does it really mean for students and teachers? In this episode, we interview Damian Ashworth, teacher and co-founder of BrainBite – a platform built around hyper-personalization and AI tutors that adapt content to each student’s level, pace, and interests.We dive into the benefits of AI tutors, the challenges and limitations still ahead, and what a hybrid future of human teachers and AI support might look like.Along the way, Damian reflects on what AI can (and can not) do for education, and offers advice for bo...
2025-09-3042 min
AIToday LiveS07E81 - Waarom de techniek niet de bottleneck is bij AI-implementaties met Sophia ZitmanSophia Zitman, Director of AI Projects bij KickstartAI, was te gast in een recente aflevering van AIToday Live. Ze deelde haar ervaringen met AI-implementaties bij grote bedrijven en non-profits zoals de Voedselbank en het Erasmus MC. KickstartAI, opgericht door Albert Heijn Delhaize, KLM, ING en NS, richt zich op het versnellen van AI-adoptie in Nederland. Sophia benadrukte het verschil tussen AI-projecten bij corporates en non-profits, waarbij flexibiliteit en pragmatisme vaak kenmerkend zijn voor kleinere organisaties.Een succesvol voorbeeld is het project bij de Voedselbank, waar AI-voorspellingen helpen bij het efficiënter bereiken van hulpbehoevenden. Sophia no...
2025-09-1546 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 9: The unreadable scrolls: how AI helps solve an ancient mysteryIn this episode, we take a deep dive into the Vesuvius Challenge, which combines ancient history with AI to resurrect an ancient library that was buried in the ashes of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Thought to be lost forever, these scrolls were completely turned to charcoal and are impossible to unroll without destroying them.We focus on how a team of three university students used a combination of machine learning, computer vision, and X-ray tomography to win the Grand Prize in 2023. We unpack this technical breakthrough, from using an optical flow segmentation algorithm to virtually unroll the...
2025-08-2147 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 8: Will the EU AI Act stifle innovation?In this episode of the KickstartAI Podcast, guest hosts Nils and Ioanna dive into the EU’s landmark AI Act — and the questions it raises about the future of innovation in Europe.Will the regulation enable safe, responsible progress, or introduce complexity, uncertainty, and a competitive disadvantage for European companies?They explore how the Act may impact AI development in Europe and challenge efforts to build AI sovereignty. They also discuss the broader need for regulation — and what a more supportive, agile framework could look like.
2025-07-2854 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 7: AI misalignment and misuse — should we really be worried?In this episode, we're joined by philosopher and product architect Paul Kuyer from AxonIQ to dissect the growing concerns around AI safety: from existential risks to the immediate dangers we face today. Our conversation revolves around the “AI 2027” paper, which speculates a plausible path to catastrophe driven by artificial general intelligence (AGI). We dive into two main concerns: Misalignment: AI’s goals diverging from human values, potentially leading to harmful sub-goals like self-preservation.Misuse: Bad actors using AI for malicious purposes, including cyber warfare and social manipulation.We also discuss the path to AGI, sk...
2025-06-171h 13The KickstartAI PodcastEurope’s largest machine: The energy gridThis KickstartAI Podcast episode features Johan de Vries from Dexter Energy, discussing how data flows to manage Europe's complex energy grid, which he calls “Europe's largest machine.” Topics include predictive analytics, market dynamics, and future energy trends.HighlightsDexter Energy at a Glance: Forecasting: Using weather data to predict renewable energy production at high resolutions.Trading optimization: Helping clients strategically participate in energy markets.Asset steering: Managing assets like renewable curtailment and battery usage in real-time. Changes in the Energy Landscape: Increasing vola...
2025-05-2050 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 5: Out of the Matrix, Into the Mess: The Sim2Real JourneyIn this episode of the Kickstart AI podcast, hosts Evertjan and Cascha explore how the gap between simulated environments and the real world is being bridged for robotics applications.The Challenge: Sim-to-Real TransferMoving robots from simulation to real world has been a persistent challengeReal-world environments are "messy" with imperfect conditions and unexpected obstaclesReal-world reinforcement learning is expensive, time-consuming, and riskyThree Key Developments1. Better Simulators Focus shifting from visual realism to predictivityModern simulators...
2025-04-1442 min
The KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 4: VLAs: The GPT Moment for Robotics?In this episode of the Kickstart AI podcast, we explore Vision Language Action (VLA) models - the breakthrough technology powering the latest generation of AI robots.The Figure AI Helix Breakthrough:- Figure AI's autonomous humanoid robots- How these robots complete complex tasks without teleoperations- The significance of robots coordinating actions using their brains (VLA’s)What are VLAs?:- How VLAs combine vision input, language instructions, and action prediction- The critical role of pre-training on in...
2025-03-1125 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 3: Deepseek R1 & The Reasoning RevolutionIntroduction to Reasoning Models:
How models like Deepseek R1 and o1 differ from language models like GPT-4
Why R1's "thinking time" feels more natural than other AIs
Moving beyond simple next-token prediction
The Training Story:
Comparing R1-Zero vs R1 approaches
The fascinating "AHA moment" discovery during training
Why reinforcement learning made all the difference
How the model learned to catch and fix its own mistakes
Getting Creative with Hardware Limits:
Working around Chinese GPU restrictions
How they made training way more efficient
Training at lower precision (and...
2025-01-3140 minThe KickstartAI PodcastEpisode 2: Object detection at scale, why use open Source LLM’s & what's going on at the big labs?In our second episode, Sander, Evertjan en Cascha discuss:
1. NS Unattended Object Challenge
Deep dive into a computer vision project for Dutch Railways (NS), implementing automatic detection of unattended objects at stations using object detection and tracking technology.
2. Quick News Update
Local news production team replaced by AI - Discussion of 20 people being replaced by AI in local news production
Machines of Loving Grace - Dario Amodei's perspective on AI progress compression
NotebookLM: Evertjan’s new favorite tool
3. Open So...
2024-11-2957 min
The KickstartAI PodcastThe AI shift: how Cursor is changing the game for developersIn our first episode Sander, Cascha and Evertjan discuss:
The Intelligence Age: Hype or Reality?
Sam Altman's prediction: superintelligence in a decade
Building AI hardware for the future
Skepticism: Is AI just a combination of simple models?
Discussing the differences in perspectives
Article reference: Sakana Strawberry and Scary AI
The Changing Internet Landscape
Internet Archive lawsuit implications
AI companies crawling the web
Is the open and decentralized internet at risk?
Comparison: Google's mutually beneficial relationship vs. AI crawlers
OpenAI's O1: advanced reasoning, sure, but real-world Impact?
A different type of model with d...
2024-10-0352 min
De Grote Tech Show | BNRKomt AI voor de bakker ook als noodzaak?De AI-adoptie bij Nederlandse bedrijven, overheden en andere instanties ligt achter, en dat is mogelijk een probleem. Hoe pakken we dat nu aan? En moeten we wel willen dat iedere instantie in Nederland iets met kunstmatige intelligentie gaan doen? Dat en meer bespreken Joe van Burik en Ben van der Burg in deze nieuwe aflevering van BNR Digitaal. Want waar Nederland doorgaans hoog scoort in de wereldwijde innovatielijstjes, doen we het op het gebied van AI-adoptie beduidend slechter. Dat is een probleem, ziet stichting KickstartAI. De organisatie werd in 2019 opgericht door onder meer Ahold Delhaize, ING, de...
2024-06-2648 min