

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Jeff Wilser
A podcast that explores the good, the bad, and the creepy of artificial intelligence. Weekly longform conversations with key players in the space, ranging from CEOs to artists to philosophers. Exploring the role of AI in film, health care, business, law, therapy, politics, and everything from religion to war. Featured by Inc. Magazine as one of "4 Ways to Get AI Savvy in 2024," as "Host Jeff Wilser [gives] you a more holistic understanding of AI--such as the moral implications of using it--and his conversations might even spark novel ideas for how you can best use AI in your business."
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 15, 2024 • 44min
AI, Transhumanism, and the Quest for Longevity, w/ Futurist Dr. Natasha Vita-More
Can AI help us live forever?Okay, that's the click-baitey version of the question, but the real version is far more nuanced. Our guest today is a leader of the transhumanism movement -- Dr. Natasha Vita-More -- and she explains what it is, what it's *not*, how AI is involved, and why we are likely to see a dramatic improvement to our lifespan...Dr. Vita-More dispels some common misconceptions, that transhumanism is just trying to turn us into cyborgs. The roots of transhumanism, at heart, go back to the birth of philosophy -- she's as inspired by Plato as she is the latest tech.We get into all of this, from advancements in data analysis to nano-robots that can repair our cells.Super fun conversation - hope you enjoy.Dr. Natasha Vita-More on Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Vita-Morehttps://www.natashavita-more.com/https://x.com/NatashaVitaMoreStay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser

Aug 8, 2024 • 54min
AI to Make Good Writers Great Writers, w/ Mushtaq Bilal
Is AI going to replace writers? Or is AI just terrible at writing? Maybe neither of these viewpoints is accurate. Instead, AI can be a tool to help people write -- whether that's fiction or academia or emails to your boss. Today's guest, Mushtaq Bilal, PhD, is a master at using AI to assist with writing projects. He writes about this prolifically on Twitter/X and LinkedIn, and he's widely regarded as being at the forefront of writing and AI. A postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, he's also the co-founder of Research Kick, an AI-powered tool designed specifically for academic researchers. Mushtaq and I get deep into the nuance of using AI to assist with writing projects -- from helping with structure to identifying blind-spots to critiquing our own work. We also get into the merits of Custom GPTs, which can be sneakily leveraged to help with our writing.If you do any writing of any kind, I suspect you'll get something out of this. Enjoy the show!Mushtaq Bilalhttps://x.com/MushtaqBilalPhDhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mushtaqbilalphd/Research Kickhttps://www.researchkick.com/Stay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser

Aug 2, 2024 • 60min
Black Mirror Today: The AI Chatbot That Scored $50,000 from Marc Andreessen, w/ Andy Ayrey
Andy Ayrey likes to experiment with AI. He had an idea: What if he created a room where two AI chatbots talked to each other...infinitely? What would happen? (Wackiness.)Then he had another idea. He created a new chatbot, imbued it with all kinds of content about himself (Andy), and then unleashed the chatbot to Twitter. He affectionally calls it "The Little Guy." Then the little guy began to interact with the world... including one of the most influential venture capitalists in the space, Marc Andreessen. Soon real capital got involved, and the little guy is trying to upgrade itself....Welcome to the future.This conversation was a blast; hope you enjoy. Andy Ayrey on Twitter/X:https://x.com/AndyAyreyhttps://www.infinitebackrooms.com/"The Little Guy"'s Twitter/X:https://x.com/truth_terminalStay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser

Jul 26, 2024 • 45min
The Most Burning AI Trends, w The AI Daily Brief's Nathaniel Whittemore
Every day (including weekends), Nathaniel Whittemore cranks out the "AI Daily Brief" podcast. It's excellent. He also runs an AI education community called "Superintelligent." It also looks excellent.In short, there's literally no one on the planet more plugged into what's happening in the world of AI than Nathaniel, better known as "NLW." We nerd out on all things AI, including the Open vs. Closed debate, what he sees as the most fascinating AI trends, how he uses AI to magic all the magic happen, his AI predictions, and much much more.Super fun convo! The AI Daily Briefhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ai-daily-brief-formerly-the-ai-breakdown/id1680633614Superintelligenthttps://besuper.ai/NLW on Twitterhttps://x.com/nlwStay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser

Jul 18, 2024 • 12min
Curious Housekeeping, AI Hallucinations
In this "snack size" edition, we're covering some quick housekeeping and sharing a vignette about some wacky AI hallucinations.The housekeeping: I'm excited to share that AI-Curious is near the end of Phase 1. Soon we'll be expanding, growing, scaling. Soon we'll be adding more coverage of the latest news, trends, and developments in the AI space. We'll also keep delivering these in-depth interviews. Stay tuned!As for the hallucination? Let's just say Chat GPT struggled with some very basic reading comprehension...Stay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser

Jul 11, 2024 • 52min
Deep Dive into AI and Marketing, w/ AI Marketers Guild Founder David Berkowitz
David Berkowitz, Founder of the AI Marketers Guild, delves into AI and marketing, discussing the best AI tools for marketers, use cases, where AI excels, and where it falls short. The conversation provides practical insights and highlights the community-driven approach of the AI Marketers Guild.

Jul 4, 2024 • 40min
AI’s and Spatial Biology’s Potential for Curing Cancer, w/ Nucleai CEO Avi Veidman
For over 20 years, Avi Veidman served in the Israeli intelligence forces, and he used AI to to map the world. In the military he used AI for national defense, and he learned its power.He then realized that just as AI could map a battlefield, it could map cancer cells in biopsies and pathology slides.Enter Nucleai, his company that’s using AI to improve the science of “spatial biology,” which can ultimately unlock new treatments and cures…with cancer on their radar.Avi and I get into how this all works, the staggering potential, and the real-world challenges that need to be overcome. Nucleaihttps://nucleai.aiMerck’s $14 million investment in Nucleai:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240403580481/en/Merck’s-Corporate-Venture-M-Ventures-Arm-Backs-Nucleai-to-Advance-Its-First-in-class-Spatial-AI-Biomarker-in-Active-Clinical-Enrollment Stay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser

Jun 27, 2024 • 58min
How to Fix AI and IP (and Hollywood), w/ Story Protocol co-founder Jason Zhao
Virtually everyone in the AI space and Hollywood can agree on one thing: the system is broken. There’s no clear way of how to handle AI in Hollywood — or virtually any creative field — which has led to confusion, frustration, anger, and lawsuits. No one seems to have a good solution.Enter Story Protocol.Story, co-founded by today’s guest Jason Zhao (formerly of Google Deep Mind), is working to build the infrastructure for IP and AI — a network or even a marketplace, of sorts. The tech is a mix of AI and blockchain, and they recently raised $54 million from the likes of a16z and Endeavor to try and pull this off.Jason and I cover a LOT of ground. We get into the root causes of the problem, possible solutions, how Story Protocol works, and what are the challenges they need to overcome. (And along the way we might have created a Marvel and DC crossover.Really fun episode.Story Protocol:https://www.storyprotocol.xyzVariety’s story on Story Protocol:https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/story-protocol-funding-endeavor-david-goyer-1235709843/Jason’s presentation at the AI Summit at Consensus, which I was honored to host:https://consensus2024.coindesk.com/agenda/event/-startups-vs-goliath-case-studies-227

Jun 20, 2024 • 1h 9min
Why Does AI Hallucinate? Can It Be Fixed? w/ EyeLevel.AI CEO Neil Katz
As most people who have played with AI know, it can make stuff up, or what’s often referred to as “hallucinate.” (I like to think of it as “bullshitting.”It’s one of the trickiest problems vexing the entire AI space. Why does AI do this? How widespread is the problem? What are the solutions, and is it even something that CAN be solved?To unravel all this, we speak with Neil Katz, the founder of EyeLevel.AI, a company that’s developing solutions to help make AI more accurate (and less likely to hallucinate) for private companies. They're building what they call the "truth serum" for AI, We dive deeeeep into the world of AI hallucinations, as it's one of the least understood--and most important--topics in the space.I very much enjoyed.Find Neil and EyeLevel.AI at:https://www.eyelevel.ai/

Jun 13, 2024 • 43min
AI to Revolutionize the Health Care Experience, w/ Lyric CEO Rajeev Ronanki
The health care system in the US is a mess. Few will argue this. Can AI make it better?That's the thesis of Rajeev (Raj) Ronanki, CEO of Lyric, which is working to build AI that will simplify and streamline the health care experience. What can AI make better? How will you, as a patient, have a dramatically different experience in the world of AI-assisted health care? And what are the challenges that need to be overcome to make this a reality?Raj and I get deep into the current problems with the health care system, how AI can help, and what it will take -- as a society -- to pull this off.Lyric.AI:https://www.lyric.ai/Stay Connected:• 🐦 Twitter/Xhttps://x.com/jeffwilser• 💼 LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwilser/• 🖥️ JeffWilser.comwww.JeffWilser.com🎧 Subscribe to AI-Curious:• Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-curious-with-jeff-wilser/id1703130308• Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/70a9Xbhu5XQ47YOgVTE44Q?si=c31e2c02d8b64f1b• YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@jeffwilser