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Ajay Chowdhury is a tech entrepreneur with a knack for storytelling and innovation. Ajay kicked off his journey in the literary world with his children’s book, ‘Ayesha and the Firefish,’ back in 2016. But it’s his crime fiction that’s really making waves. Starting with ‘The Waiter’ in 2021, which not only snagged a Sunday Times crime book of the month title but it has also been optioned for television.
The fourth book in his Kamil Rahman series ‘The Spy,’ was published on April 4, 2024
On the business front, Ajay has been the founder or CEO of several startups, including Shazam (sold to Apple), Seatwave (sold to Ticketmaster) and LineOne (sold to Tiscali). He has served on the boards of Lionhead, Department of Culture Media and Sport, Arts Council London, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and Historic Royal Palaces amongst others. He is currently a Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG Digital Ventures, globally responsible for their ‘deep tech’ businesses, and Chair of Cambridge Enterprise, Cambridge University’s spinout arm. He is a Trustee of the renowned Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company and is a board member of Enacte – a San Francisco based South Asian Theatre Company. He was selected to be part of the Asian Power 100 – the 100 most influential and powerful Asians in the UK and was selected as one of 2016’s Sunday Times top 100 BAME business leaders in the UK.
Ajay has been honest and outspoken about his embracing Artifical Intelligence as a fiction writer. He’s been invited on several television shows on the BBC discussing the use of AI in Crime Writing. And even debated the legendary debating thriller author, Frederick Forsyth on the use of AI in writing. So I was delighted Ajay accepted my invitation to be on ‘Meet the Thriller Author’ to discuss his crime trillers, writing process, and about AI for writers, which is a contentious subject in the writer and publishing community.
The Waiter being discussed in the Bloody Scotland book club (41 min 30 seconds in)
In this 3-part episode: is it ethical or useful to use AI / artificial intelligence tools like Chat GPT to help write books? Is AI an existential threat to human creativity? Will AI put book cover designers out of work? Which of us has a third nipple and why does James Bond get his nipple arrangement all wrong>
We also talk – Lily Allen, author Jude O’Reilly, Roger Moore, Children of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill, A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison, John Wyndham, John Wick, Philip Kerr, Jewish East End London, book cover designer Dan Mogford, Barry Cotter v Harry Potter, Christopher Lee, Scaramanga, India, ANPR and other surveillance, AI dating website, Honcho, the Indian epics the Ramayana & Mahabharata.
WORKTECH Events is a global conference series exploring work, workplace, technology and innovation, with an annual roster of events from LA to Auckland.This episode features three conversatios with speakers who will be on stage in London on Wednesday 20 November.
First up, futurist, tech entrepreneur and author Ajay Chowdhury talks broadly about future tech, AI, and the future of work and education.Next up, researcher, academic and creator of the 15-Minute City concept, Professor Carlos Moreno, explores the placemaking legacy of Jane Jacobs and the godfather of telework Jack Nilles in relation to or sustainable global future.Finally, EMEA regional manager at XY Sense, Jane Watson, discusses the relationship between workspace data and the metrics that matter, based on organisational context.
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