The next decade will be shaped by intelligent systems and the people who choose how they are built and governed.
BASELINE is a long-form conversation series with founders, academic, policymakers, and operators working at the frontier of AI and digital systems.
These conversations surface judgement, intent, and lived experience - helping you orient yourself for what comes next.
**NEW** For leadership teams, that same work also informs a fixed-scope BASELINE Execution Sprint, designed to turn organisational insight into clear, executable decisions.
Watch. Listen. Engage with intent.
AI Writes Code. Humans Design Control - Ying Chan
In this episode of BASELINE, Ian speaks with Ying Chan, CTO of The Innovation Game. As AI accelerates software development, much of the conversation focuses on speed. But speed does not make systems resilient. Incentives do. The Innovation Game is a protocol designed to incentivise the development of state-of-the-art algorithms through open participation. Innovators submit code. Benchmarkers evaluate performance. Incentives shape behaviour.
The strongest solutions emerge. Ying explains why AI-generated code is a powerful tool for first-pass execution, but not a substitute for strategic thinking or adversarial design. While models can interpolate from existing knowledge, pushing the frontier still requires human judgment, intuition, and carefully aligned incentives. This conversation explores why real systems must be designed for worst-case behaviour, how AI accelerates output but not necessarily insight, why protocol design matters more than product features, and how The Innovation Game aligns incentives to drive meaningful innovation.
As execution becomes cheaper, incentive design becomes more important. Technology accelerates. Incentives decide what survives.
Subscribe to BASELINE for long-form conversations exploring AI, creativity, and human intelligence.
I Didn’t Expect AI to Save So Much Money - Rob Paton
For a long time, creativity, marketing, and software were separate, outsourced functions. AI is collapsing those boundaries. In this conversation with independent brand consultant and creative Rob Paton, we explore what changes when execution becomes fast, cheap, and accessible to everyone. We talk about why traditional agency models are under pressure, why creativity still matters but shows up differently, and how AI-assisted tools are shifting work in-house.
From branding and production to custom software and “vibe coding,” this episode looks at what happens when teams can build directly instead of buying capability. We also ground the discussion in a real case study from a heating installation business, showing how AI-assisted tools can remove bottlenecks, reduce cost, and change how decisions get made.
Subscribe to BASELINE for long-form conversations exploring AI, creativity, and human intelligence.
What Makes Stories Human the Age of AI - Archie Brooksbank
In this episode of BASELINE, filmmaker Archie Brooksbank reflects on storytelling, music, and the human connections that shape how we feel, remember, and act. Drawing on his work across film, sport, and culture, including projects involving figures such as Lionel Messi, Jamie Redknapp, and Lewis Hamilton, as well as collaborations with teams and brands including Red Bull Racing, Aston Martin, and McLaren, Archie explores why interaction, trust, and presence matter more than perfection.
As AI and automation accelerate across the creative industries, this conversation asks a deeper question: what happens if we replace human experience with efficiency? This is not a discussion about tools or technology trends. It is a reflection on why storytelling has always been a shared human act, and why some things cannot be automated.
Subscribe to BASELINE for long-form conversations exploring AI, creativity, and human intelligence.
Why AI Decisions Are Slipping Out of Leadership Control - Jonny Williams
Artificial intelligence is already shaping organisations, governments, and public services. Many of the most important AI decisions are being made by default rather than by design. In this episode of BASELINE, Ian speaks with Jonny Williams, Chief Digital Adviser to the UK Public Sector at Red Hat, about why AI feels confusing, why value feels elusive, and why leadership matters more than models.
This conversation explores the real architecture behind AI systems, how technology stacks align with national interests, and why transparency and openness are now prerequisites for trust. Jonny explains why AI is not primarily a technical challenge, but a leadership and operating model challenge, closer to the role of a COO than a CTO.
Topics include AI sovereignty, Wardley mapping, open versus closed models, national infrastructure, mechanised government, digital identity, and why organisations risk losing agency if they allow AI decisions to drift to technologists alone.
Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or dystopia?
How Your Values and Identity Hold Up in an AI Influenced World - Professor Kevin Money
AI is influencing how we work, how we communicate and how we make decisions. But the deeper change is personal. It affects our values, our identity and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. In this episode, Professor Kevin Money explores how identity is formed, why it feels fragile during rapid change and what helps people stay grounded in an AI influenced world.
Kevin is a behavioural scientist and Co-Director of the John Madejski Centre for Reputation at Henley Business School. His research focuses on identity, reputation, motivation, trust and responsible leadership. He advises the UK Government, global businesses and nonprofit organisations on how people think, feel and act.
This conversation looks at the psychology behind identity, emotional labour, belonging and the impact of trauma. It also considers how AI amplifies uncertainty and what we can do to stay anchored to our values while the world around us changes.
Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or dystopia?
Why Low Earth Orbit Is Becoming Dangerous - Bianca Cefalo
Low Earth Orbit is getting crowded, chaotic and harder to manage. In this episode, Space DOTS founder Bianca Cefalo explains why satellites are failing, why 90 percent of orbital anomalies have no known cause, and how space weather and hidden threats are reshaping the environment above Earth.
We explore the reality of Kessler syndrome, rapid material degradation, non kinetic attacks and why current data is no longer enough. This is the intelligence layer we need for the next decade of space operations.
Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or dystopia?
But Risk Has Never Stopped Progress. Dr Magda Ramada
In The Age of Imperfect Machines, global InsurTech leader Dr. Magda Ramada Sarasola (WTW) joins BASELINE to explore one of the most overlooked questions in the AI revolution: What happens when AI fails and how do we insure against it? From the fear of the first elevators to today’s non-deterministic AI systems, this conversation uncovers why innovation doesn’t come from eliminating risk, but from learning how to live with it.
Magda explains how the insurance industry has always enabled progress by absorbing uncertainty so society can keep moving forward and how that same principle now underpins AI assurance, accountability, and agentic systems.
Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or dystopia?
The Algorithmic Leap | AI, Innovation, and the Rules of the Game - Dr John Fletcher
In BASELINE052, Ian Smith sits down with Dr John Fletcher an Oxford, Imperial, and Cambridge-trained physicist and Chief Scientist at The Innovation Game. John is not just a world-class academic - he’s a rare innovator who bridges the gap between research and real-world impact.
At The Innovation Game, he is building technology that creates genuine competitive advantage, not just another layer of AI hype. His work proves how algorithms can solve critical problems in logistics, medicine, and science showing that the future of AI is about application, not buzzwords.
Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or dystopia?