The Brave Technologist

Manoj Saxena, Founder and CEO of Trustwise, explains why agentic AI represents a major shift inside organizations: from AI as a tool to AI as an active participant. He addresses the operational challenges that organizations face today, including AI-to-AI interactions, opaque decision-making, regulatory pressure, and the growing need for continuous oversight as AI systems gain autonomy.
Key Takeaways:
The ways AI agents are already taking on roles once owned by humans

How leaders should prepare for AI systems that negotiate, decide, and act independently

The emerging risks of AI acting without visibility, guardrails, or accountability

Why trust, safety, and governance must operate in real time, not retroactively

The organizational and cultural implications of humans managing AI agents

Guest Bio:
Manoj Saxena is the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Trustwise—an award-winning AI safety company focused on securing and governing agentic AI systems—and the Founder and Chairman of the Responsible AI Institute. Widely regarded as the "father of IBM Watson," Manoj is a pioneer of Trusted Artificial Intelligence (TAI) and a leading voice for ethical and responsible AI. He previously served as General Manager of IBM Watson and as Chairman of the Board at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A serial entrepreneur with over $1.8B in exit value across multiple startups, Manoj is also a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin and a fellow contributor at University of Cambridge, where he teaches and advises on ethical AI and responsible leadership.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Kapil Gupta, former Enterprise AI Product & Platform Leader at Cigna, shares insights from more than two decades of turning cutting-edge technology into enterprise-ready products. He unpacks the difference between generative AI and agentic AI, and why governance, user choice, and thoughtful design matter just as much as innovation.
Learn how enterprises can scale responsibly and why the best technology often feels invisible to the people using it.
Key Takeaways: 
The tangible difference between generative AI and agent-based workflows

Why adoption depends on fitting into existing workflows, rather than forcing behavior change

The challenge of legacy systems and disconnected data

How companies can innovate quickly without introducing unnecessary risk

How pushing back, probing, and questioning AI can unlock more value

Why listening to users matters more than building flashy features

Guest Bio: Kapil Gupta is an executive product leader specializing in leveraging emerging technologies to solve complex business problems at scale. As a leader of AI product and platform teams at Cigna and previously at industry leaders like Capital One, Deloitte, and IBM, he has turned breakthrough innovations like Generative AI into practical enterprise solutions. 
Kapil is driven by a focus on crafting AI-driven product experiences that solve real problems and ensure high adoption, bridging the gap between sophisticated technology and business value. He balances high-level strategic vision with a passion for staying hands-on, often vibe coding prototypes to prove out new concepts. Kapil holds an MS in Computer Science and an MBA from NYU Stern. He shares his work at kapilgupta.me and lives in New York.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Chastity Murphy, former Senior Advisor at the U.S.Treasury and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, shares her experiences working on digital money legislation, including the Stable Act. She reflects on the transition from cash to digital payments along with her current research developing offline, anonymous public interest payment systems.
Key Takeaways:
How early stablecoin legislation shaped our understanding of digital money, privacy, and consumer protection

The gap between technologists and policymakers in understanding digital money

Real-world risks of surveillance and data visibility in financial transactions

The potential for new cryptographic capabilities like selective disclosure and zero-knowledge proofs

Practical approaches for creating offline, anonymous, and interoperable digital payment systems that don't sacrifice usability

Guest Bio: 
Chastity Murphy is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester's Law & Technology Initiative, and one of the leading architects of privacy-preserving digital public money. A former Senior Advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department, she helped shape federal policy on central bank digital currency (CBDC) and digital payments, building on her earlier work as the first congressional staffer (under Rep. Rashida Tlaib) to draft stablecoin legislation.
Her current research at Manchester's Digital Public Money Infrastructure (DPMI) project explores how cryptography and shield-law protections can make digital money safe for people—not platforms. The work prototypes use cases such as anonymous public-interest payments and privacy-secure disbursement systems for reproductive-health providers, disaster aid, and humanitarian relief. This work focuses on ensuring that the right to transact safely endures across political climates, crises, medical emergencies, and everyday use.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Evin McMullen, co-founder and CEO of Billions Network, explores how identity for agents is going to unlock the next era of the Internet. She shares outcomes from collaborations with regulatory bodies and major companies (like HSBC and TikTok), along with their use of Zero Knowledge Proofs in proving you're human without giving up privacy.
Key Takeaways:
How Billions Network plans to save the Internet, starting first with scaling trust (while balancing convenience and privacy)

The critical importance of identity verification in an increasingly AI-dominated digital landscape, and the biggest challenges to solving for this

The risks for humanity if we don't achieve decentralized identity before AI and agents becomes ubiquitous

Guest Bio:
Evin McMullen is the CEO and co-founder of Billions Network, the first universal human and AI network. Billions Network is pioneering a mobile-first identity layer that verifies both humans and AI agents—proving uniqueness, KYC/AML status, location, age, or even machine reputation, all while preserving user privacy. Evin's previous work includes early blockchain development for retail and enterprise, and serving as CEO and founder of the verifiable data platform Disco.xy. She is a cofounder of DAO Jones and inkDAO, and an advisor to Boys Club. She is a graduate of Yale University.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte

Charles Hoskinson is a co-founder of Ethereum, and the CEO and Founder of Input | Output (the company behind the Cardano blockchain). In this episode he shares his journey into the world of cryptocurrencies and his early influences. He also explains the conception and operational details of the Midnight Network (a privacy-focused, layer-two solution), and discusses his ambitious efforts in anti-aging and regenerative medicine.
Key Takeaways: 
Trillion dollar disruption ideas and a vision for how users will interact with the Internet in 2035

Why regulation is the single most exciting opportunity for DeFi

Ways we can bring the world together in 2026 by working more cooperatively and combatting polarization

How regenerative species force us to rethink how humans should approach longevity

Cutting-edge research involving exosomes, electrical fields and hyperbarics

Guest Bio:

Charles Hoskinson is a co-founder of Ethereum, and the CEO & Founder of Input | Output (the company behind the Cardano blockchain). He also owns and operates a state-of-the-art healthcare clinic in rural Wyoming focused on anti-aging; is part of the group that de-extincted the dire wolf; and co-founded a lab that is genetically engineering bioluminescent plants.
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About this Show:
The Brave Technologist is here to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of emerging tech. To make it digestible, less scary, and more approachable for all!
Join us as we embark on a mission to demystify artificial intelligence, challenge the status quo, and empower everyday people to embrace the digital revolution. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a curious mind, or an industry professional, this podcast invites you to join the conversation and explore the future of AI together.
The Brave Technologist Podcast is hosted by Luke Mulks, VP Business Operations at Brave Software—makers of the privacy-respecting Brave browser and Search engine, and now powering AI everywhere with the Brave Search API.
Music by: Ari Dvorin
Produced by: Sam Laliberte