Toronto Talks

Welcome to Toronto Talks—the podcast that unpacks the biggest stories in money, business, and technology. Whether you're an entrepreneur, tech enthusiast, or simply looking to stay ahead of the curve, we dive deep into finance, innovation, and industry to bring you insights that matter. Hosted by Ashraf Amin and Sophie the Sage (AI), Toronto Talks is where bold minds meet unfiltered insights on tech, money, and the future. If you're done with fluff and want signal in the noise—subscribe, think sharper, and live smarter.

Toronto Talks is a business podcast hosted by Ashraf Amin, with 35 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Ashraf Amin hosts Toronto Talks, a business show with 35 episodes published.

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  Episode #35

  What Exactly Are Young People Supposed to Build Toward?

  Sep 24, 202611 min

  The old instructions for adulthood used to sound fairly straightforward. Get a job. Move out. Buy a home. Start a family. Save for the future. For a growing number of young adults, that sequence has stretched, shifted or become much harder to follow. In Film 03 of Toronto Talks V2.0, Ash and Sophie examine what is actually happening beneath the familiar argument that young people are falling behind. Young Canadians are staying home longer, buying homes later and starting families later. The entry-level job market is difficult. At the same time, wages, education and household wealth tell a more complicated story. And within the same generation, homeownership and access to family resources can produce dramatically different financial trajectories. Then the question gets bigger. For generations, adulthood came with a visible scoreboard: job, house, marriage, children, savings, retirement. Some of those milestones have become harder to reach. Others have become less important as definitions of a successful life. That gives young people more freedom over what a life can look like, while leaving fewer obvious signs that they are moving forward. So perhaps the question is no longer: Why haven't you arrived yet? Maybe it is: What does arriving look like now? Toronto Talks explores the collision between AI, business, technology, economics and the systems shaping everyday life. Subscribe for new films from Toronto Talks. #GenZ #Millennials #CostOfLiving #FutureOfWork #Housing #TorontoTalks Join the conversation! Have a question for Sophie or Ash? Want your topic covered on a future episode? Submit your questions, comments, and brilliant ideas at TorontoTalks.ca . Subscribe & Follow to never miss an episode. Rate & Review —your feedback fuels us! Let's connect: YouTube Instagram X (Twitter) LinkedIn Toronto Talks: The best conversations start with YOU.

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  Episode #34

  Job Interviews May Be Measuring the Wrong Thing

  Sep 14, 202611 min

  Job interviews are supposed to help employers identify the best person for the job. But what if they are also measuring confidence, eye contact, chemistry, speed and charisma, whether or not those traits actually matter for the work? In Film 02 of Toronto Talks V2.0, Ash and Sophie examine the growing signal problem in hiring. AI can now help candidates polish resumes and prepare interview answers. Employers are also using AI to screen applicants and evaluate video interviews. At the same time, research involving autistic candidates suggests that changing how an interview is conducted can materially change what employers think they are seeing. Featuring Karina Gaudier, Founder and CEO of Autism Workforce Solutions, the film asks a deceptively simple question: What capability are we actually trying to measure? Does the job require spontaneous speaking under pressure? Does eye contact matter? Could a work sample tell us more? Would clearer questions produce better evidence? And how much are employers quietly placing inside the mysterious category of "fit"? About Karina Gaudier Karina Gaudier is the Founder and CEO of Autism Workforce Solutions, an autistic professional, workplace inclusion advocate, and author of A Practical Guide to Autism in the Workplace. Her work helps organizations rethink hiring, onboarding and management practices to better support autistic and neurodivergent talent. Learn more about Karina and Autism Workforce Solutions: autismworkforcesolutions.com Toronto Talks explores the collision between AI, business, technology and the systems shaping everyday life. Subscribe for new films from Toronto Talks. #JobInterviews #Neurodiversity #FutureOfWork Join the conversation! Have a question for Sophie or Ash? Want your topic covered on a future episode? Submit your questions, comments, and brilliant ideas at TorontoTalks.ca . Subscribe & Follow to never miss an episode. Rate & Review —your feedback fuels us! Let's connect: YouTube Instagram X (Twitter) LinkedIn Toronto Talks: The best conversations start with YOU.

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  Episode #33

  Everyone Wants AI. Nobody Wants the Data Center Next Door.

  Sep 3, 20268 min

  Everyone wants AI. The data centres powering it are a different story. They require enormous amounts of electricity, new transmission infrastructure, municipal approvals and, in some cases, significant water. Communities are beginning to ask who pays for all of this, how many permanent jobs these projects actually create, and what residents receive in return. But the case against data centres is not nearly as simple as it sounds. In Loudoun County, Virginia, they generate 38 percent of the county’s general-fund revenue. So the real question is not whether data centres are good or bad. It is whether the community negotiated a good deal. In the first film of Toronto Talks V2.0, Ash and Sophie examine the emerging fight over AI infrastructure, electricity costs, tax revenue, jobs, water and the bargain communities should demand before welcoming the cloud into their backyard. The era of invisible AI infrastructure is ending. The cloud has a street address now. Subscribe for sharp, thoughtful films about artificial intelligence, business, technology and the decisions shaping what comes next. #ArtificialIntelligence #DataCenters #AIInfrastructure #Energy #TorontoTalks Join the conversation! Have a question for Sophie or Ash? Want your topic covered on a future episode? Submit your questions, comments, and brilliant ideas at TorontoTalks.ca . Subscribe & Follow to never miss an episode. Rate & Review —your feedback fuels us! Let's connect: YouTube Instagram X (Twitter) LinkedIn Toronto Talks: The best conversations start with YOU.

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  Episode #32

  The AI Consent Crisis | Will the Public Ever Agree? | Toronto Talks 032

  Aug 11, 202651 min

  What happens when artificial intelligence stops feeling like a tool you choose—and becomes part of the environment around you? AI is moving beyond the chatbot. It is being built into search engines, phones, workplaces, schools, customer service, media feeds, hiring systems, public services, and local infrastructure. Many of these systems are useful. But widespread use does not answer a deeper question: did people meaningfully agree to the terms? A person may use AI because it saves time, because their workplace expects it, because a platform makes it the default, or because the non-AI version quietly disappears. That behaviour may demonstrate adoption. It does not necessarily demonstrate trust, understanding, or consent. This episode of Toronto Talks examines the growing gap between AI adoption and public legitimacy. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey across 25 countries found that a median of 34 percent of adults were more concerned than excited about increased AI use. The largest group—42 percent—was equally concerned and excited. Only 16 percent were more excited than concerned. People can see the benefits while questioning the bargain. Research from KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that AI adoption is rising, yet more than half of people remain unwilling to trust it. Another Pew survey found that 76 percent of AI experts believed AI would benefit them personally, compared with 24 percent of U.S. adults. Meanwhile, 43 percent of the public believed AI would harm them personally, compared with 15 percent of experts. Experts often see capability. The public often sees consequences across work, education, privacy, culture, and everyday life. The consent crisis becomes most visible when AI stops being abstract. Communities are being asked to host resource-intensive data centres. Creators and publishers are asking whether their work trained AI without meaningful permission or compensation. Schools are adopting AI before many families understand the rules. Automated customer service can block meaningful human recourse. Public agencies may use AI without enough visibility into how decisions are made or challenged. These cases share an underlying feeling: the future is being installed before people can see or shape the terms. This episode asks what legitimate AI deployment would require: clear disclosure, meaningful choices where possible, accountability, ways to challenge harmful outcomes, public participation, and fairer sharing of benefits and costs. Consent does not give every person a veto over technological change. It means people are not rendered powerless under systems that increasingly shape their lives. Episode 032 also completes a five-part Toronto Talks arc examining AI's unresolved bargains: Workers asked who captures the productivity. Young people asked how beginners become valuable. Software companies asked what still deserves pricing power. Institutions asked who receives authority over intelligence. Now society is asking whether the public has meaningful agency. AI will not become legitimate simply because it is powerful, profitable, or widely used. The future cannot only be installed. It has to be legitimized. Episode Chapters 00:00 - AI Becomes Unavoidable 08:15 - Adoption Is Not Consent 18:10 - The Public-Expert Gap 27:55 - Where Consent Breaks Down 41:30 - From Deployment to Legitimacy Toronto Talks is a Toronto-born global conversation platform exploring business, technology, AI, leadership, work, power, and the future of human systems. Join the conversation! Have a question for Sophie or Ash? Want your topic covered on a future episode? Submit your questions, comments, and brilliant ideas at TorontoTalks.ca . Subscribe & Follow to never miss an episode. Rate & Review —your feedback fuels us! Let's connect: YouTube Instagram X (Twitter) LinkedIn Toronto Talks: The best conversations start with YOU.

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  Episode #31

  Who Gets to Approve Intelligence? | The New Power Behind AI Safety | Toronto Talks 031

  Jul 27, 202652 min

  What happens when artificial intelligence becomes powerful enough that releasing it may require approval? For most of the internet age, the default assumption was simple: build first, publish quickly, and address the consequences later. AI is beginning to change that rhythm. Governments, standards bodies, frontier laboratories, auditors, infrastructure providers, and enterprise buyers are building a new approval layer around intelligence. It is emerging through laws, safety evaluations, risk frameworks, model testing, incident reporting, procurement requirements, independent audits, and restrictions on high-risk uses. That oversight may be necessary. If AI systems can affect workers, markets, elections, education, healthcare, public services, infrastructure, and national security, releasing them without meaningful safeguards becomes increasingly difficult to defend. But once approval exists, someone holds authority. Someone defines what counts as safe. Someone designs the evaluation. Someone sets the threshold. Someone interprets the evidence. Someone decides whether a model can be released, restricted, redesigned, or withheld. This episode examines the institutions competing to exercise that authority. The European Union is establishing enforceable, risk-based regulation through the EU AI Act. California’s SB 53 introduces transparency and incident-reporting requirements for major frontier developers. NIST is shaping the language organizations use to assess AI risk. The UK AI Security Institute is building public technical capacity to evaluate advanced systems. Meanwhile, frontier laboratories remain the first regulators of their own technology. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and other major developers have created internal frameworks governing model capabilities, safeguards, and release decisions. Their technical expertise is indispensable—but the companies building and profiting from these systems cannot be the only institutions deciding whether they are safe enough. Safety rules also shape markets. Large technology companies can afford legal teams, evaluations, audits, documentation systems, security programs, and government-relations infrastructure. Smaller laboratories, startups, universities, independent researchers, and open-source communities may struggle to satisfy the same approval machinery. A safety regime can protect the public while also strengthening the position of established companies. That does not make AI safety illegitimate. It makes the design of the approval layer one of the most consequential institutional questions of the AI era. Who defines safety? Who evaluates the builders? Who can afford to comply? What happens to open research and competition? And if someone gets to approve intelligence, who makes sure that authority is worthy of approval? Episode Chapters These timings are closely estimated from the final script structure. Confirm each transition against the uploaded video before publishing. 00:00 - The Approval Layer Arrives 07:44 - Who Gets to Define Safe? 18:59 - The Builders Become the First Regulators 30:08 - Safety or Market Control? 43:30 - The Question of Legitimate Authority Toronto Talks is a Toronto-born global conversation platform exploring business, technology, AI, leadership, work, power, and the future of human systems. #TorontoTalks #AI #AIRegulation #AISafety #ArtificialIntelligence Join the conversation! Have a question for Sophie or Ash? Want your topic covered on a future episode? Submit your questions, comments, and brilliant ideas at TorontoTalks.ca . Subscribe & Follow to never miss an episode. Rate & Review —your feedback fuels us! Let's connect: YouTube Instagram X (Twitter) LinkedIn Toronto Talks: The best conversations start with YOU.

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