VIDEOS AND PODCASTS

Media

Ajay on BBC 1's The One Show discussing AI & Writing

Ajay debating Frederick Forsyth on the use of AI in writing on TalkTV

Ajay discussing AI on 20 Questions with Matt Stadlen


Ajay on BBC In The Studio discussing the use of AI in Crime Writing

The Indian-born crime fiction author, Ajay Chowdhury, is writing the fifth instalment of his Detective Kamil Rahman series, set between India and the UK. But Ajay is also a leading digital tech entrepreneur and this side of his life influences how he writes his fiction. Join fellow author Paul Waters as he watches Ajay completing the first draft of his latest book with the help of artificial intelligence tools. Some authors – including Paul - fear that AI is an existential threat to human creativity, so why and how does Ajay use it to make his books better?



Ajay on Meet the Thriller Author

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.


Criminally discussing The Waiter




























The Waiter being discussed in the Bloody Scotland book club (41 min 30 seconds in)

                                                                       Listen here (23 minutes in)                                                         

Ajay on CrimeTime FM

AJAY CHOWDHURY chats to Craig Sisterson about his new novel THE SHADOW,

THE SHADOW: A ritual killing. An ancient curse. What’s myth… and what’s murder?
After a bruising encounter with a terrorist group, Detective Kamil Rahman has decided to hand in his resignation to the Met and set up a detective agency with his friend Anjoli. But when his boss asks him to go to India to investigate the murder of a British engineer who was found with eighteen arrows stuck in his body, Kamil agrees to take the case, as long as Anjoli can accompany him.
When they arrive in Mumbai, they find someone is on a gruesome killing spree, striking down those connected to the engineer in increasingly macabre ways. Meanwhile, an old friend of Kamil’s gets in touch to beg for his help: he believes his family are cursed, and that he is going to die on his 47th birthday, just like his father and grandfather before him.
As the body count rises, Kamil is torn between solving a very real murder case and protecting his friend from a grisly – if far-fetched – fate. Can he catch a killer and prevent an ancient curse before more people lose their lives?

AJAY CHOWDHURY was the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker–Bloody Scotland crime fiction award. He is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director who was born in India and now lives in London where he builds digital businesses, cooks experimental dishes for his wife and daughters and writes through the night. His children’s book, Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical.
The Waiter, published in 2021, is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures. Follow-up The Cook was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spyis the fourth book in the Detective Kamil Rahman series.

Ajay on the We’d Like a Word podcast


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.

Ajay on the Future of Work

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.

Ajay discussing the Metaverse at The Economist summit

Ajay speaking about digital disruption at a conference at Google

Video showcase on How to Get Published in Crime Fiction

Ajay on Red Hot Chilli Writers