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.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 Christophe Beke, where we discuss the following:Meta identifies networks pushing deceptive content likely generated by AI: Unpacking Meta’s discovery of AI-generated deep fakes used in political scams and phishing attacks.Klarna using GenAI to cut marketing costs by $10 million annually: Exploring how Klarna leverages generative AI to save on marketing costs and the broader impact of AI-generated content on branding and creativity.Apple and OpenAI partnership rumors: Speculating on Apple’s potential partnership with OpenAI and what this partnership mean for Siri and user privacy.Even the Raspberry Pi is getting in on AI: Exciting new AI capabilities for the Raspberry Pi and the privacy questions they raise. Plus discussion on windows screenshot tools & more privacy concerns.Nvidia teases next-gen “Rubin” AI chips: Nvidia’s surprising early reveal of their next-gen AI chips—what’s behind the move?Marker: A new tool for converting PDFs to Markdown: Discovering the Marker library and its perks for converting PDFs while keeping valuable metadata.Signal EU Market Exit: The privacy-focused app’s decision to leave the EU market over regulatory challenges and the broader debate on privacy vs. security.Reframing ‘tech debt’: Fresh perspectives on managing technical debt in the fast-paced world of software development.Our newsletter: Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our data and AI newsletter for the latest headlines and insights.

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 dive deep into the fascinating and complex world of AI with our special guest, Senne Batsleer:De Mol + AI Voices: Exploring the use of AI-generated voices to disguise the mole in the Belgian TV show "The Mole". Our guest, Senne Batsleer, shares insights from their experience with AI voice technology.Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI: Delving into the controversy of OpenAI using a voice eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson's in their new AI model. Read more in The Guardian and The Washington Post.Elon Musk’s xAI Raises $6B: A look into Elon Musk’s latest venture, xAI, and its ambitious funding round, aiming to challenge AI giants like OpenAI and Microsoft.OpenAI and News Corp’s $250M Deal: The implications of OpenAI’s data deal with News Corp. Google AI Search Risks: Examining Google's AI search providing potentially dangerous answers based on outdated Reddit comments. Find out more on The Verge and BBC. Humane’s AI Pin Looking for a Buyer: Discussing the struggles of Humane’s wearable AI device and its search for a buyer following a rocky debut.PostgREST Turns Databases into APIs: Exploring the concept of turning PostgreSQL databases directly into RESTful APIs, enhancing real-time applications.Risks of Expired Domain Names: Highlighting the dangers of expired domains and how they can be exploited by hackers. The 'Dead Internet' Theory: Debating the rise of bots on the web and their potential to surpass human activity online. 

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:Slack's Data Practices: Discussing Slack's use of customer data to build models, the risks of global data leakage, and the impact of GDPR and AI regulations.ChatGPT's Data Analysis Improvements:  Discussing new features in ChatGPT that let you interrogate your data like a pro. The Loneliness of Data Scientists: Why being a lone data wolf is tough, and how collaboration is the key to success. Rustworkx for Graph Computation:  Evaluating Rustworkx as a robust tool for graphs compared to Networkx.Dolt - Git for Data: Comparing Dolt and DVC as tools for data version control. Check it out.Veo by Google DeepMind: An overview of Google's Veo technology and its potential applications.Ilya Sutskever’s Departure from OpenAI: What does Ilya Sutskever’s exit mean for OpenAI with Jakub Pachocki stepping in?Hot Takes - No Data Engineering Roadmap? Debating the necessity of a data engineering roadmap and the prominence of SQL 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 flow like your morning coffee, where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just curious about the digital age, pull up a chair and let's explore the heart of data, unplugged style!Stack Overflow and OpenAI Deal Controversy: Discussing the partnership controversy, with users protesting the lack of an opt-out option and how this could reshape the platform. Look into Phind here.Apple and OpenAI Rumors - could ChatGPT be the new Siri? Examining rumors of ChatGPT potentially replacing Siri, and Apple's AI strategy compared to Microsoft’s MAI-1. Check out more community opinions here.Hello GPT-4o: Exploring the new era with OpenAI's GPT-4o that blends video, text, and audio for more dynamic human-AI interactions. Discussing AI's challenges under the European AI Act and chatgpt’s use in daily life and dating apps like Bumble.Claude Takes Europe: Claude 3 now available in the EU. How does it compare to ChatGPT in coding and conversation?ElevenLabs' Music Generation AI: A look at ElevenLabs' AI for generating music and the broader AI music landscape. How are these algorithms transforming music creation? Check out the AI Song Contest here.Google Cloud’s Big Oops with UniSuper: Unpack the shocking story of how Google Cloud accidentally wiped out UniSuper’s account. What does this mean for data security and redundancy strategies?The Great CLI Debate: Is Python really the right choice for CLI tools? We spark the debate over Python vs. Go and Rust in building efficient CLI tools.

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're joined by special guest Maryam Ilyas as we delve into a variety of topics that shape our digital world:Women’s Healthcare Insights: Exploring the Oura ring's commitment during Women's Health Awareness Month and its role in addressing the underrepresentation of female health conditions in research. A Deep Dive into the EU AI Act: Examining the AI Act’s implications, including its classification of AI systems (prohibited, high-risk, limited-risk, and minimal-risk), ethical concerns, regulatory challenges & the act's impact on AI usage, particularly regarding mass surveillance at the Paris Olympics.The Evolution of Music and AI: Reviewing the AI-generated music video for "The Hardest Part" by Washed Out, directed by Paul Trillo, showcasing AI’s growing role in the arts.Hot Takes on Data Tools: Is combining SQL, PySpark (and Python) in Databricks the most powerful tool in the data space? Let's dissect the possibilities and limitations.Don't forget to check us out on Youtube too, where you can find a lot more content beyond the podcast!

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're thrilled to have special guest Mehdi Ouazza  diving into a plethora of hot tech topics:Mehdi Ouazza's Insights into his career, online community and working with DuckDB and MotherDuck.Demystifying DevRel: Definitions and distinctions in the realm of tech influence (dive deeper here).Terraform's Licensing Shift: Reactions to HashiCorp's recent changes and its new IBM collaboration, more details here.Github Copilot Workspace: Exploring the latest in AI-powered coding assistance, comparing with devin.ai and CodySnowflake's Arctic LLM: Discussing the latest enterprise AI capabilities and their real-world applications. Read more about Arctic - what it excels at, and how its performance was measuredMore legal kerfuffle in the GenAI realm: The ongoing legal debates around AI's use in creative industries, highlighted by a dispute over Drake’s use of late rapper Tupac’s AI-generated voice in diss track & the licensing deal between Financial Times and OpenAIFuture of Data Engineering: Examining the integration of LLMs into data engineering tools. Insights on prompt-based feature engineering and Databricks' English SDKAI in Music Creation: A little bonus with an AI generated song about Murilo, created with Suno

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 aficionadoor 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're joined by special guest Vitale Sparacello, an MLflow Ambassador, to delve into a myriad of topics shaping the current and future landscape of AI and software development:MLflow Deep Dive: Exploring the MLflow Ambassador program, MLflow's role in promoting MLOps practices, and its expansion to support generative AI technologies.Introducing Llama 3: Discussing Meta's newest language model, Llama 3, its capabilities, and the nuanced policy of its distribution, featured on platforms like Groq. Read more here.Emerging AI Tools: Evaluating Open-Parse for advanced text parsing and debating the longevity of PDF documents in the age of advanced AI technologies.OpenTofu vs. Terraform Drama: Analyzing the ongoing legal dispute between Terraform and OpenTofu, with discussions around code ethics and links to OpenTofu's LinkedIn, and their official blog response.The Future of AI Devices: Are smartphones the endgame, or is there a future for specialized AI wearables? Speculating on the evolution of AI devices, focusing on the Human AI Pin review, Rabbit R1 and Dot Computer Go check out the Youtube video after so you don't miss out Murilo in that suit he promised (with a duck tie of course).

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 yourmorning 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, titled, "#46 Debunking Devon, Exploring RAG Frameworks, and Tech for a Better World", our special guest Martin Van Mollekot adds a rich layer of insight to our tech stew, covering everything from 3D-printed humanoids to the harmonious blend of AI and music, all while exploring how tech is cultivating a better world.3D Printing: Martin discusses building a humanoid using resources from Thingiverse.AI Generated Music: Exploring Udio, an AI that not only composes music but adds vocals to match your taste.Devin Debunked: Unpacking the claims of the "First AI Software Engineer" and why it's not quite time to worry about AI taking coding jobs.GPT-4 Over Humans? A critical look at whether AI could replace junior analysts in the current tech landscape.The Data Science Dilemma: Is Data Science Dead? Discussing the evolution and future relevance of data science, with Zapier highlighted for its accessible toolset.RAG Frameworks Galore:. Discover the evolving buffet of RAG frameworks, making data handling smoother – and whether they're up to the hype: Ragflow, Pine Cone, Verba, and R2R. Tech for a Better World: Martin shares his personal story of how computer vision technology can aid farmers in managing their livestock.Hip-Hop and Generative AI: How generative AI is stirring up the music industry & tips from Bart on reproducing hit tracks.The Low-Code Revolution: Martin shares his insights on the rise of low-code/no-code platforms in data management.

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, titled "#45 Tech Check: Amazon's AI, Rust vs. Go vs. C++ and the Intricacies of AI in Coding" we are joined by special guest Lukas Valatka as we peel back the layers of AI's reliability and dive into the coding languages shaping our digital futures: Amazon's "Just Walk Out" Technology: A deep dive into the challenges and human supervision required behind Amazon's cashier-less shopping.Rust vs. Go vs. C++: Is it time to join the Rust rush? We dive into the language loyalty debate and compare the productivity and features of Rust versus traditional languages like C++ and Go.The API Balancing Act: The trade-offs of updating PyO3's API with user convenience in mind.Generative AI and Refactoring: Weighing the upsides and downsides of AI-driven codebase refactors.Tech Debt and Rust Libraries: Turning tech debt into an asset by internalizing open-source libraries.Cursor - AI-Powered Programming: Exploring the intrusive potential of AI's filesystem access in code editing.AirBnB's Open-Source Gambit: Should we invest interest in Airbnb's Chronon, or is it just another big fish in the open-source sea?

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 explore the complex intersections of data, unplugged style!In this episode #44, titled "Unpacking Open Source: A Look at GX, Monetization, Ruff's Controversy, the xz Hack & more" we're thrilled to have Paolo Léonard joining us to unpack the latest in technology and open-source discussions. Get ready for an enlightening journey through innovation, challenges, and hot takes in the digital realm.GX Cloud Unveiled: Paolo gives his first impression on the latest cloud data quality tool: GX CloudOpen source monetization: Delving into the trade-offs between open-source projects, their managed counterparts and other strategies in making open source sustainable financially, with Astral, FastAPI, Prefect’s role in this space.The Open Source Controversy with Ruff: A discussion on the ethical considerations when open-source projects turn profit-focused, highlighted by Ruff.Addressing the xz Hack: Delving into the challenges highlighted by the XZ backdoor discovery and how the community responds to these security threats.Jumping on the Mojo Train?: A conversation on Mojo's decision to open source its standard library and its impact on the future of modular machine learning.Becoming 'Clout' Certified: Hot takes on the value and impact of clout certification in the tech industry. Read more.