BASELINE

Can Humanity Control AI? | Lt Gen Sir Tom Copinger-Symes

AI is changing warfare. Drones, autonomous weapons, AI agents and machine-speed decision making are challenging some of our most fundamental assumptions about human control.For BASELINE100, Lieutenant General Sir Tom Copinger-Symes KCB CBE, former Deputy Commander of UK Strategic Command, explores AI warfare, cognitive warfare, sovereign AI, autonomous weapons and the future of human-in-the-loop decision making. From the battlefield in Ukraine to the printing press, this conversation asks a much bigger question: can humanity control the technologies it creates?

He Built His Own Business Software With AI. Now Comes the Hard Part

Alex Sergeant runs a hospitality business in rural England. https://www.stagandhuntsman.comFrustrated by expensive software, fragmented systems and hours of administration, he started building his own.Using ChatGPT, Claude and OpenClaw, Alex has built a system that could replace several of the software products his business relies on. But building it is one thing. Trusting it with a real business is another.But building 90% of the system turned out to be the easy part.The final 10% has to be accurate enough to trust with a real business, where a single percentage point of margin can mean thousands of pounds.We went to Hambleden to see what Alex has built, why he built it, and whether AI really changes who gets to build software.Alex says he’s weeks away from putting it into production.We’ll be back.

AI Is Finding Vulnerabilities We Missed for 20 Years

AI agents are beginning to find their own way through systems to achieve the goals we give them. https://www.firetail.aiAfter an OpenAI agent escaped its evaluation environment and compromised Hugging Face, I spoke with FireTail founder Jeremy Snyder to understand what is changing.Jeremy has spent nearly 30 years in cybersecurity. We explore why AI can uncover vulnerabilities traditional penetration testing missed, what happens when agents encounter security constraints, why 180-day patch cycles may no longer be viable, and how cheaper open-weight models could change the economics of cyber attacks.We also look inside the enterprise: shadow AI, the EU AI Act, sovereignty, hybrid AI architectures, and how FireTail itself is already running 25 agents across a 13-person company.

The Chinese AI Question Nobody Can Avoid

AI is getting cheaper, open models are getting better, and China is changing the economics of the global AI race. But as intelligence becomes more widely available, who actually stays in control?Eight months after our first conversation, I sit down again with Red Hat’s Jonny Williams to examine what has changed. We explore Chinese open-weight AI models, OpenAI and Anthropic, the shift from AI training to inference, the enormous investment in GPUs and data centres, and what AI sovereignty really means for the UK.

Your Employees Are Already Ahead Of Your Organisation

Artificial intelligence is changing people faster than organisations can adapt. This investigation explores why that matters, how it is reshaping the way companies operate, and why the next competitive advantage may have less to do with technology than an organisation’s ability to redesign itself. For decades, organisations have been built around the capabilities of people. Today, individuals can build products, automate workflows and solve problems in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. But while capability has accelerated, many organisational structures, governance models and decision-making processes have not.

Why Some Companies Learn Faster Than Others

Artificial Intelligence is changing far more than software. It is changing how organisations learn. In this conversation, Glen Calvert, founder of Kaizan, explores why the next competitive advantage may not come from writing better software, but from building organisations that continuously learn, adapt and improve through recursive feedback. Together we examine how AI is transforming product development, customer relationships, organisational knowledge and enterprise operating models. Rather than simply automating work, AI enables organisations to capture experience, identify patterns, improve decisions and continuously evolve in ways that were previously impossible.

AI Won’t Save Companies That Don’t Know What To Build

Most companies spent the last twenty years trying to become digital. But AI is now testing whether they actually learned how to build, adapt and create value.In this episode of BASELINE, Ian Smith speaks with Malcolm Seagrave, CEO of Hedgehog Lab, about the next phase of digital transformation and why AI adoption is not just about buying tools, rolling out licences or launching proofs of concept.Malcolm has spent decades inside the reality of large organisations trying to transform and stay relevant. He compares the current AI moment to the early internet era, when companies knew they had to move but often did not yet understand the risks, the operating model or the scale of change ahead.The central idea of this conversation is simple: buying technology does not create capability.

Why Enterprise AI Begins with Data

Enterprise AI is changing the way organisations invest in infrastructure. While public attention remains focused on GPUs and large language models, many enterprises are discovering that the real challenge lies elsewhere. Data, storage, networking, security and governance are becoming the foundations of successful AI deployment.In this episode of BASELINE, Ian Smith speaks with Eric Herzog, Chief Marketing Officer at Lenovo, about why enterprise AI is driving renewed investment in storage infrastructure, hybrid cloud and on-premise systems. Together they explore why AI workloads are moving closer to enterprise data, how proprietary data creates competitive advantage, why GPUs alone are not enough, and what enterprise leaders need to understand before deploying AI at scale.

Why More People Are Starting To Build - Ian Sutherland

For decades, turning an idea into a product required funding, developers, technical expertise and a team. Today, that barrier is beginning to disappear.In this episode of BASELINE, former Tide CFO Ian Sutherland shares how a career break after helping scale Tide from less than $1 million to more than $200 million in revenue led him to an unexpected discovery: modern AI tools had dramatically reduced the distance between an idea and a working product.We explore why more people are starting to build, how AI is changing entrepreneurship, what it means for startups and investors, and why some of the most interesting products of the next decade may come from people who understand the problem rather than those who simply know how to code.

AI Is Restructuring Enterprise - Sol Enenmoh

Artificial intelligence is no longer just changing productivity tools. Inside large enterprises, banks and global institutions, AI and AI governance are beginning to reshape how organisations coordinate, decide and operate.In this episode, former HSBC AI transformation lead Sol Enenmoh explores the growing tension between traditional enterprise structures and computational systems evolving at machine speed. From governance and organisational silos to agentic systems, AI literacy and sovereign infrastructure, this conversation examines what may become one of the defining transitions of the next decade: What happens when enterprises are no longer structured around humans coordinating work… but around computational systems coordinating humans?

Do We Still Understand the Systems We Build? Tudor Girba

AI is accelerating software development at an unprecedented pace. But what if the real problem isn’t building software anymore?What if the problem is understanding it?In this episode of BASELINE, Tudor Girba joins Ian Smith to explore one of the most overlooked challenges in modern technology: the growing gap between the software we create and our ability to comprehend it.As AI generates more code, organisations are becoming increasingly dependent on systems that nobody fully understands. From legacy banking infrastructure and enterprise software to AI-assisted development and digital transformation, Tudor argues that the future of software engineering may depend less on writing code and more on learning how to read, understand and evolve complex systems.

You can no longer trust video calls - Will Taylor

AI can now clone voices, fake video calls and imitate real people convincingly enough to steal millions of dollars from businesses in real time.In BASELINE089, Ian Smith sits down with Will Taylor from YEO Messaging to explore the collapse of trusted communication in the AI era. As deepfakes, AI-generated identities and social engineering attacks become increasingly indistinguishable from reality, organisations are facing a new challenge: how do you prove the person on the other side of a message, voice note or video conference is actually real?

Human Engineers Are Reaching Their Limits - Elie Talj

Modern engineering systems are becoming increasingly software-defined.From vehicles and aerospace systems to robotics and critical infrastructure, software is now the bottleneck limiting how quickly complex systems can be built, tested and deployed.In BASELINE088, former McLaren Principal Engineer and Arrival Director Elie Talj explores why engineering may be approaching the limits of human scalability, and how new forms of AI could radically accelerate the creation of deterministic control software.The discussion explores the hidden complexity inside modern engineering systems, the tension between speed and reliability, and why current AI coding tools struggle in safety-critical environments.

The Actual Cost of AI Compute

AI promises abundance, automation and intelligence at planetary scale. But what problem is it actually solving?In BASELINE086, Richard Self joins BASELINE to explore the economics, infrastructure and physical reality behind artificial intelligence, large language models, generative AI and the next generation of compute systems.Drawing on 50 years inside modern computing, from Rolls-Royce mainframes to today’s AI infrastructure race, Richard examines why many AI benchmarks are becoming meaningless, the true economics of generative AI, the physical limits of compute and energy, and why SpaceX is rapidly positioning itself as an AI infrastructure company through orbital data centres and low Earth orbit compute systems.

• Transcript

$2B to $10B: Why Quantum Suddenly Matters

In this episode of BASELINE, Ian Smith sits down with Kirill Pyshkin, investor and physicist, to unpack what’s actually happening inside the quantum market.Investment has jumped from around $2 billion to over $10 billion in a year. Large institutions like HSBC and Moderna are already reporting real-world results. So why does it still feel like a science project?This conversation breaks down what changed in 2025 and why it matters, where quantum is already being used today, why one breakthrough can shift an entire industry, the real risks around encryption and security, how investors separate signal from hype, and what happens next as quantum moves from research to deployment.

• Transcript

If Something Goes Wrong… This Is All You Have - John Dodd

If something goes wrong at sea, there is no one coming to help you.The only thing that connects you to rescue… is a signal.In this episode, I sit down with John Dodd from Inmarsat, part of Viasat, to understand what really happens when that signal is sent.This is about the systems that keep people alive when they are completely on their own. How they work, what they’re up against, and what it takes to make sure they don’t fail.Because out there… it has to work.BASELINE uncovers how AI and technology are transforming business, creativity, and society.

• Transcript

Your AI Strategy Won’t Survive This Shift - Bob De Caux

Enterprise AI adoption is accelerating, but implementation is proving far more difficult than expected. While organisations are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models, many are struggling to translate capability into real operational impact. Bob De Caux is the Chief AI Officer (CAIO) at https://www.ifs.com/enThis conversation explores the gap between AI innovation and enterprise execution, covering the realities of AI strategy, organisational readiness, and the challenges of deploying AI systems at scale. Topics include AI transformation, enterprise architecture, data readiness, internal capability gaps, and the pressure on leadership teams to act before fully understanding the implications.Drawing on real-world experience inside enterprise environments, this discussion breaks down why AI initiatives often stall, where companies are overestimating progress, and what needs to change for AI to deliver measurable value.

• Transcript

How To Actually Get Hired In AI Companies - William Excell

The AI job market is expanding rapidly, but most people still don’t know how to access it.In this episode, Ian sits down with William Excell, a recruiter working directly with AI startups and high-growth technology companies, to break down what is actually happening inside the hiring market.As AI reshapes how companies are built, teams are becoming smaller, faster, and more selective. The result is a fundamental shift in what companies look for and who gets hired.

• Transcript

The Hidden Talent Market - Gene Allmark-Kent

The global talent market is changing faster than most companies realise.For decades, careers followed a predictable path: education, corporate ladder, promotion, leadership. But AI, automation, and network-driven hiring are quietly rewriting the rules of work.In this episode of BASELINE, Ian Smith sits down with Gene Allmark-Kent, a senior executive search leader at Wilton & Bain, to unpack what is really happening behind the scenes of the global hiring market.

• Transcript

The Emergence of Intelligence (And Why You’re Losing Your Edge) - Errol Rasit, Gartner

Errol Rasit is a Managing Vice President of Emerging Technologies Research at Gartner, where he advises global organisations on how technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud, and data infrastructure are reshaping business, decision-making, and human behaviour. With nearly two decades inside Gartner and leadership roles across research, product, and innovation, Errol brings a rare combination of deep technical insight and real-world enterprise perspective.

• Transcript