AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser

AI experts share how they use AI in their daily lives, from brainstorming to research. ChatGPT as a debate partner, underpaid research assistant, and more. Practical uses over theoretical concepts explored.

Dmitry Shaprio has been in the space for decades; he was a product lead at Google and the CTO of MySpace. Now he's the CEO of MindStudio, a company that helps companies create custom apps to integrate AI.  And a LOT of companies are using MindStudio.  34,000 apps have now been created using MindStudio, and this ranges from large corporations to solo-entrepenuaers to government agencies.  The apps are used for sales, HR, marketing, operations -- everything.Dmitry, essentially, is helping companies go from AI Hype to AI Substance.We get into the nitty gritty of why these Apps matter, how they're used, and how businesses can (actually) integrate AI into their operations. Fun episode!MindStudio.ai:https://youai.aiStay 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

At a recent hackathon, Ian Laffey was part of a team that designed, created, 3D-printed, and assembled a drone in 24 hours... and for under $500.The drone's breakthrough: It doesn't need a signal for GPS, which means that it can be deployed off the grid, and can't be "jammed" in a war zone...like Ukraine.Laffey's drone is now a sensation in the world of defense-tech. Laffey is now the CTO of Theseus, and he joins the pod to discuss how his team pulled this off, why the drone is such a breakthrough, how AI played a crucial role -- we get into the nuts and bolts, not just platitudes -- and then Laffey shares, on a day-to-day basis, what it's really like to be a 24-year-old AI engineer working in San Francisco, the world's nexus for AI innovation.Fun convo! Ian Laffey on Twitter/X:https://twitter.com/ilaffey2Theseus:https://theseus.soArticle from AviationWeek on the drone Laffey helped create:https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/emerging-technologies/how-trio-engineers-developed-gps-denied-drone-under-500Stay 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

There are many AI doomsdayers.Kevin Surace is not one of them.Kevin has been in a pioneer in the AI space since the 1990s, went he helped develop the tech that would directly influence Siri and Alexa. He has since been named by CNBC as one of the "Innovators of the Decade" and is now a regular keynote speaker.We have a *wide-ranging* conversation on how AI will shape the future, covering everything from robots to flying cars to job losses to whether AIs can become sentient. A really fun conversation.You can find Kevin at:https://kevinsurace.comand https://twitter.com/kevinsurace?lang=enStay 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

If you need to get a puppy, what's the best way to go about it?Harnessing AI,  of course.I recently decided to get a puppy. I didn't know what to get or how to do it. (I've never owned a dog.)So I made liberal use of ChatGPT in research, analysis, and execution, and then turned to AI for help with puppy training.I doubt you're in the market for a new puppy, but I think this is a useful extended metaphor of how AI -- and specifically ChatGPT -- can help in a very concrete, real-world analysis situation.(This episode is sponsored by my new puppy.)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

AI might change the world. But it can it help change you? You could argue that AI coaching, fundamentally, might be the most important impact of the entire tech. In today’s world, professional career coaching is generally only available for the privileged. What if it was available for all? But what are the risks and concerns?Joining us to break this down is Dr. Friederike Redlbacher, Managing Director of Symbolon AG. She’s working with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and developed the world’s first AI-based coaching tool in 2023, which is largely art-based. In this episode, Dr. Redlbacher and I cover the pros, cons, upsides, risks, and exciting potential of injecting AI into the coaching landscape. Link to Symbolon self-coaching:https://www.dfki.de/symbolon-coaching/?language=enTo claim one of the 5 free codes offered by Dr.  Redlbacher, email me at jeff@jeffwilser.com with the subject line “AI coaching - code.”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

If AI gets super intelligent and super powerful, will it be benevolent? Or will it want to crush us like ants?Perhaps they’ll be benevolent. Maybe they’ll be “aligned” with our interests. But if not? What should we do? How can we prepare for this nightmarish scenario?Trent McConaghy has a plan. McConaghy has been working in AI for decades, both as an entrepreneur and as a researcher, and he’s widely respected in the field. And he recently gave a speech to the “existential-risk” (x-risk) group at NASA about how, to prepare humanity for this all-powerful AI…We need to become more than humans. Specifically, we need to embrace the idea of Brain-Computer Interface, or BCI. BCI, says McConaghy, can even help unshackle us from the constraints of being a flesh-and-blood human. In a literal mind-meld with computers, we could be 1,000 times smarter and live longer. This sounds like deep sci-fi, but McConaghy lucidly breaks down the vision in a way that’s step by step, easy to understand, and almost feels…plausible?Whether you agree with the theory or not, McConaghy’s thoughts are FASCINATING and he makes for a wildly engaging conversation about the future of AI. I’m confident that anyone even remotely interested in AI — or sci-fi — will find his thought experiments intriguing. Among many other sweeping and futuristic topics, we cover:Why economic incentives make AGI (or “ASI,” for Artificial Super Intelligence) is perhaps more likely than we think (13:50); Why we might soon be like an anthill compared to god-like entities of Artificial Smart Intelligence (23:00); whether these all-powerful ASIs will protect human rights (26:00); why we need a “more competitive substrate” that helps us be more than human and hyper-boost our intelligence (29:00); how creating powerful Brain-Computer-Interfaces is more grounded and less sci-fi-ish than you might think (35:00); how we will some day —maybe soon — be able to just think of videos and use telepathy to send to friends (45:00); why the human “bio-stack” won’t be enough and we’ll need a synthetic solution (53:00); the dangers of “bike shedding” the risks of ASI (59:30); how BCI could plausibly go mainstream (61:30); why when we’re 94 years old we might switch from our “bio-stack brain” and migrate to our “silicon-stack” side (65:00). So join us on a futuristic and fascinating journey….McConaghy’s presentation to the existential-risk group at NASA:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tLK1sBCMNuJTNX8Pi99iDmLzFiIsUOk5/viewMcConaghy’s Medium article that breaks down the BCI theory:https://medium.com/@trentmc0/bci-acc-a-path-to-balance-ai-superintelligence-80bb6f32e39cMcConaghy on Twitter/X:https://twitter.com/trentmc0Ocean Protocol, the blockchain-powered AI ecosystem that McConaghy founded:https://oceanprotocol.comMy article about AI and blockchain where I first interviewed McConaghy, and he shares a part of this theory (which got me fascinated in the first place):https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/09/21/is-crypto-ai-really-a-match-made-in-heaven/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

The cover of this week’s TIME Magazine has a bold headline: “The First AI War.” The subtitle: “Palantir and other tech giants are building the future of battle in Ukraine.”The writer of this cover story is Vera Bergengruen, a senior correspondent at TIME.And Vera joins us today at AI-Curious.We cover: How Ukraine is using AI and what it’s accomplishing (3:00); how they’ve created a “war lab” that's a testing ground for new innovations (12:00); privacy and ethical concerns (23:00); repercussions for the future of war (37:00); and some behind-the-scenes from her reporting (40:30).Important topic. And Vera's the perfect guest to discuss it. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.Vera’s cover story in TIME Magazine, “The First AI War”:https://time.com/6691662/ai-ukraine-war-palantir/Vera’s author page:https://time.com/author/vera-bergengruen/Vera Bergengruen on Twitter/X:https://twitter.com/VeraMBergen?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorStay 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

Confession: I don't really care about cars. But I *love* the idea of self-driving cars.So what's the status of this idea? There's now a fleet of self-driving cars in San Francisco.  How good are they? How safe? What are the limitations? And what are the technical challenges that still need to be overcome, and how does AI fit into all of this?To unpack all of this, I'm joined by Noah Gedrimas, the Vice President of Strategy at GPR, a company at the forefront of the self-driving care movement.  GPR is building tools that allow for precise "localization" -- letting the car know exactly where it is on the road, a crucial piece of the self-driving puzzle.Super fun convo! After this talk I'm even more excited about this industry's future.GPRhttps://gpr.comNoah Gedrimashttps://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-gedrimas-14307960/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

Eric Siegel is a longtime expert on machine learning, and is the author of the new book "The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment."Eric has been a professor at Columbia University, a longtime machine learning consultant, and he's the founder of the long-running "Machine Learning Week" conference series. Eric's take? AI is over-hyped, but machine learning still has much to offer a business...if you know how to deploy it. So in this pod, we go t through his step-by-step playbook of how to deploy machine learning, and how that's different from more squishy AI hype.The book has been getting some buzz in the space. Scott Galloway gave it a glowing blurb, calling it a "robust primer on machine learning,” and a “must-read for anyone in the information economy.”  Fun convo!The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deploymenthttps://www.amazon.com/dp/0262048906/ 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