DataTopics Unplugged: All Things Data, AI & Tech

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.In this episode, we delve into the big topics shaping our digital landscape:Car Expo - Brussels Motor Show: Highlights from Europe’s leading auto show, including Tesla’s Cybertruck debut and an innovative AI-powered car configurator that personalizes your vehicle experience.Biden Admin’s New AI Chip Export Rules: Exploring restrictions aimed at national security and their impact on global markets, with industry reactions from Nvidia.Meta and Microsoft’s AI Development Plans: From Meta’s goal to replace mid-level engineers with AI to Microsoft forming a dev-focused AI organization, we unpack their strategies and implications.Developer Productivity in 2025: How AI tools are changing workflows, boosting efficiency, and introducing new challenges.UV’s Killer Feature: Discover how ad-hoc environments are transforming development, courtesy of Lukas Valatka's insights.Doom in a PDF: Yes, you read that right—Doom running inside a PDF! Here’s the source code for all the geeks out there.Marimo: An exciting new project redefining collaborative development.AI and Everyday Life: A witty meme highlights AI’s direction—should it help with art and writing, or chores like laundry and dishes?

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.Dive into conversations that flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style!In this episode, we explore:OpenAI’s O3: Features, O1 Comparison, Release Date & more.Advent of Code: How LLMs performed on the 2024 coding challenges.DeepSeek V3: A breakthrough AI model developed for a fraction of GPT-4’s cost, yet rivaling top benchmarks.Shadow Workspace: How Cursor compares to Copilot with features like integrated models, documentation, and search.Bolt.new: Why it’s poised to revolutionize web app development with prompt-driven innovation.O1 Preview’s Chess Hack: When smarter means “cheater” in a fascinating experiment against Stockfish.Pydantic AI: A new tool bringing structure and intelligence to Python’s AI workflows.RightTyper: A tool to infer and apply type hints for cleaner, more efficient Python code.Doom: The Gallery Experience: A whimsical take on art appreciation in a retro gaming environment.Suno V4: The next-gen music generator, featuring "Bart, the Data Dynamo."Ghostty Terminal: The terminal emulator developers are raving about.

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.Dive into conversations that flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style!In this episode, we wrap up the Rootsconf mini-series with a thrilling finale with Sophie De Coppel and Warre Dreesen's workshop from our internal knowledge-sharing event:AI Hunger Games: A showdown between AI language models like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini. Who aced coding, games, and social interactions?Human vs. Machine: Fun experiments like “Find the Human” and “The Chameleon Game” highlight where humans and AI shine—and stumble.Model Personalities Explored: Discover why some models seem nerdy, others boastful, and how creativity plays a role in performance.Engineering Insights: Behind-the-scenes on implementing and testing AI models in competitive scenarios, from advent-of-code puzzles to group chat debates.Join the fun as hosts and guests break down the playful and thought-provoking ways we’re pushing AI to its limits. Let the games begin!

Bram DeCoster, a data professional at EasyFairs, shares his transformative journey through the lens of charisma, inspired by "The Charisma Myth". He dives into the essential elements of effective communication: presence, power, and warmth. Bram offers actionable strategies to overcome public speaking anxiety and build authentic connections with audiences. Discover tips for engaging your listeners, managing nerves, and how to cultivate charisma as a vital skill in the tech-driven workplace.

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.This week, we’re bringing you a special episode straight from RootsConf, our annual internal knowledge-sharing extravaganza! Hosts Murilo and Bart sit down with Tim and Ben, data strategy experts, for a lively chat about the state of generative AI as it transitions from a buzzword to a business tool.Highlights from this episode:Generative AI adoption: Are companies finally moving beyond pilot purgatory?The environmental cost of AI: Can emerging techniques reduce its heavy energy footprint?Bridging the knowledge gap: What’s missing for widespread AI adoption in organizations?Future trends: How generative AI might reshape personalization and business processes in 2025.Plus, we dive into the Gartner Hype Cycle and its relevance in understanding AI’s journey from innovation to disillusionment and beyond.Get ready to dive deep into AI’s evolving role and its impact on industries, sustainability, and society. Hit play and join the discussion!

Yannick van der Capelle joins to discuss the evolution of AI, reflecting on 2024's shift from hype to practical tools like GenAI. He dives into the challenges of real-time data processing and the importance of human oversight in AI-driven tasks. The conversation covers ethical considerations, including compliance with the EU AI Act, as well as advancements in developer tools like Copilot. With insights on the role of lake houses in data engineering and predictions for 2025, this chat is packed with valuable tech explorations.

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.In this episode, we’re joined by a special guest: Alex Gallego, founder and CEO of Red Panda. Together, we dive deep into building data-intensive applications, the evolution of streaming technologies, and balancing high throughput and low latency demands. Key topics covered:What is Red Panda and why it matters: Red Panda’s mission to redefine data streaming while being the fastest Kafka-compatible option on the market.Batch vs. streaming data: An accessible guide to understanding the classic debate and how the tech landscape is shifting towards unified data frameworks.Scaling at speed: The challenges and innovations driving Red Panda’s performance optimizations, from zero-copy architecture to storage engines.AI, ML, and streaming data integration: How Red Panda empowers real-time machine learning and AI-powered workloads with ease.Open source vs. enterprise models: Navigating licensing challenges and balancing business goals in the hybrid cloud era.Leadership and career shifts: Alex’s reflections on moving from technical lead to CEO, blending engineering know-how with company vision.

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don’t), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you’re a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let’s get into the heart of data, unplugged style!In this episode, we are joined by special guest Nico for a lively and wide-ranging tech chat. Grab your headphones and prepare for:Strava’s ‘Athlete Intelligence’ feature: A humorous dive into how workout apps are getting smarter—and a little sassier.Frontend frameworks: HTMX is a tough choice: A candid discussion on using React versus emerging alternatives like HTMX and when to keep things lightweight.Octoverse 2024 trends and language wars: Python takes the lead over JavaScript as the top GitHub language, and we dissect why Go, TypeScript, and Rust are getting love too.GenAI meets Minecraft: Imagine procedurally generated worlds and dreamlike coherence breaks—Minecraft-style. How GenAI could redefine gameplay narratives and NPC behavior.OpenAI’s O1 model leak: Insights on the recent leak, what’s new, and its implications for the future of AI.Tiger Beetle’s transactional databases and testing tales: Nico walks us through Tiger Style, deterministic simulation testing, and why it’s a game changer for distributed databases.Automated testing for LLMOps: A quick overview of automated testing for large language models and its role in modern AI workflows.DeepLearning.ai’s short courses: Quick, impactful learning to level up your AI skills.

Send us a textWelcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged  is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society.Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style!In this episode, we cover:ChatGPT Search: Exploring OpenAI's new web-browsing capability, and how it transforms everything from everyday searches to complex problem-solving.ChatGPT is a Good Rubber Duck: Discover how ChatGPT makes for an excellent companion for debugging and brainstorming, offering more than a few laughs along the way.What’s New in Python 3.13: From the new free-threaded mode to the just-in-time (JIT) compiler, we break down the major (and some lesser-known) changes, with additional context from this breakdown and Reddit insights.UV is Fast on its Feet: How the development of new tools impacts the Python packaging ecosystem, with a side discussion on Poetry and the complexities of Python lockfiles.Meta’s Llama Training Takes Center Stage: Meta ramps up its AI game, pouring vast resources into training the Llama model. We ponder the long-term impact and their ambitions in the AI space.OpenAI’s Swarm: A new experimental framework for multi-agent orchestration, enabling AI agents to collaborate and complete tasks—what it means for the future of AI interactions.PGrag for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): We explore Neon's integration for building end-to-end RAG pipelines directly in Postgres, bridging vector databases, text embedding, and more.OSI’s Open Source AI License: The Open Source Initiative releases an AI-specific license to bring much-needed clarity and standards to open-source models.We also venture into generative AI, the future of AR (including Apple Vision and potential contact lenses), and a brief look at V0 by Vercel, a tool that auto-generates web components with AI prompts.

Send us a textWelcome to Datatopics Unplugged, where the tech world’s buzz meets laid-back banter. In each episode, we dive into the latest in AI, data science, and technology—perfect for your inner geek or curious mind. Pull up a seat, tune in, and join us for insights, laughs, and the occasional hot take on the digital world.In this episode, we are joined by Vitale to discuss: Meta’s video generation breakthrough: Explore Meta’s new “MovieGen” model family that generates hyper-realistic, 16-second video clips with reflections, consistent spatial details, and multi-frame coherence. Also discussed: Sora, a sneak peek at Meta’s open-source possibilities.For a look back, check out this classic AI-generated video of Will Smith eating spaghetti.Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 updates: Meet Claude 3.5 and its “computer use” feature, letting it navigate your screen for you.Easily fine-tune & train LLMs, faster with Unsloth: Discover tools that simplify model fine-tuning and deployment, making it easier for small-scale developers to harness AI’s power. Don’t miss Gerganov’s GitHub contributions in this space, too.Deno 2.0 release hype: With a splashy promo video, Deno’s JavaScript runtime enters the scene as a streamlined, secure alternative to Node.js.