
Practical AI
Making artificial intelligence practical, productive & accessible to everyone. Practical AI is a show in which technology professionals, business people, students, enthusiasts, and expert guests engage in lively discussions about Artificial Intelligence and related topics (Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Neural Networks, GANs, MLOps, AIOps, LLMs & more).
The focus is on productive implementations and real-world scenarios that are accessible to everyone. If you want to keep up with the latest advances in AI, while keeping one foot in the real world, then this is the show for you!
Latest episodes

Aug 27, 2018 • 47min
Robot Perception and Mask R-CNN
Chris DeBellis, a lead AI data scientist at Honeywell, helps us understand what Mask R-CNN is and why it’s useful for robot perception. We also explore how this method compares with other convolutional neural network approaches and how you can get started with Mask R-CNN.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:DigitalOcean – Enjoy CPU optimized droplets with dedicated hyper-threads from best in class Intel CPUs for all your machine learning and batch processing needs. Easily spin up a one-click Machine Learning and AI application image and get immediate access to Python3, R, Jupyter Notebook, TensorFlow, SciKit, and PyTorch. Our listeners get $100 in credit!
Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Featuring:Chris DeBellis – WebsiteChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
Matterport R-CNN
Mask R-CNN paper
COCO dataset
Stanford CNN course
Stanford Deep Learning course
Facebook’s Detectron
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Aug 21, 2018 • 32min
Open source tools, AI for Dota, and enterprise ML adoption
This week, Daniel and Chris talk about playing Dota at OpenAI, O’Reilly’s machine learning survey, AI-oriented open source (Julia, AutoKeras, Netron, PyTorch), robotics, and even the impact AI strategy has on corporate and national interests. Don’t miss it!
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:DigitalOcean – Enjoy CPU optimized droplets with dedicated hyper-threads from best in class Intel CPUs for all your machine learning and batch processing needs. Easily spin up a one-click Machine Learning and AI application image and get immediate access to Python3, R, Jupyter Notebook, TensorFlow, SciKit, and PyTorch. Our listeners get $100 in credit!
Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Featuring:Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
The State of Machine Learning Adoption in the Enterprise
AutoKeras: The Killer of Google’s AutoML
Netron NN visualizer
What’s the Purpose of Companies in the Age of AI?
Julia 1.0
AI Nationalism
OpenAI and Dota
PyTorch Tutorials
How to Get Started in Machine Learning and Robotics
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Aug 13, 2018 • 50min
Behavioral economics and AI-driven decision making
Mike Bugembe teaches us how to build a culture of data-driven decision making within a company, leverage behavioral economics, and identify high value use cases for AI.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Featuring:Mike Bugembe – XChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
JustGiving
BJ Fogg’s Behavioral Model
Books
“Cracking The Data Code” by Mike Bugembe
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Aug 6, 2018 • 29min
Eye tracking, Henry Kissinger on AI, Vim
Chris and Daniel help us wade through the week’s AI news, including open ML challenges from Intel and National Geographic, Henry Kissinger’s views on AI, and a model that can detect personality based on eye movements. They also point out some useful resources to learn more about pandas, the vim editor, and AI algorithms.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Featuring:Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:News:
RFP for National Geographic AI earth innovation
Intel - AI Interplanetary challenge
App that lets Alexa read sign language
The mythos of model interpretability
Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Your Personality By Simply Tracking Your Eyes
Think You Know How Disruptive Artificial Intelligence Is? Think Again.
How the Enlightenment Ends
Learning resources:
Pandas tips and tricks
Mastering vim quickly
An introduction to Gradient Descent Algorithm
Introducing capsule networks
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Jul 30, 2018 • 45min
Understanding the landscape of AI techniques
Jared Lander, data science guru, discusses the landscape of AI techniques, the strengths of R language for ML/AI, and the usage of R in industries like finance and healthcare. The speakers also talk about democratizing AI and making ML accessible to developers with tools like Plumber and Algorithmia.

Jul 23, 2018 • 18min
Government use of facial recognition and AI at Google
In this episode, Chris and Daniel discuss the latest news, including an article about Google’s AI principles, and they highlight some useful resources to help you level up.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Featuring:Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
ACLU calls for a moratorium on government use of facial recognition technologies – TechCrunch
Doing good data science - O’Reilly Media
An Overview of National AI Strategies – Politics + AI – Medium
Meet CIMON, the 1st Robot with Artificial Intelligence to Fly in Space
AI at Google: our principles
Foundations of Machine Learning
Machine Learning Crash Course | Google Developers
Best Laptop for Machine Learning - YouTube
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Jul 16, 2018 • 45min
Detecting planets with deep learning
Andrew Vanderburg of UT Austin and Christ Shallue of Google Brain join us to talk about their deep learning collaboration, which involved searching through a crazy amount of space imagery to find new planets.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Featuring:Andrew Vanderburg – WebsiteChris Shallue – Website, GitHubChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
Google AI Blog: Open Sourcing the Hunt for Exoplanets
Artificial Intelligence, NASA Data Used to Discover Exoplanet | NASA
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Jul 9, 2018 • 48min
Data management, regulation, the future of AI
Matthew Carroll and Andrew Burt of Immuta talked with Daniel and Chris about data management for AI, how data regulation will impact AI, and schooled them on the finer points of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Featuring:Matthew Carroll – Website, XAndrew Burt – Website, XChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
Introducing the world’s first data management platform for data science. - Immuta
General Data Protection Regulation - Wikipedia
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Jul 2, 2018 • 43min
Helping African farmers with TensorFlow
Amanda Ramcharan, Latifa Mrisho, and Peter McCloskey joined Daniel and Chris to talk about how Penn State University are collaborating to help African farmers increase their yields via a TensorFlow powered mobile app.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Featuring:Amanda Ramcharan – Website, GitHub, XLatifa Mrisho – XPeter McCloskey – Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
Assessing a mobile-based deep learning model for plant disease surveillance
Penn State-developed plant-disease app recognized by Google
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Jul 2, 2018 • 45min
Putting AI in a box at MachineBox
Mat Ryer and David Hernandez joined Daniel and Chris to talk about MachineBox, building a company around AI, and democratizing AI.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members support our work, get closer to the metal, and make the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Hired – Salary and benefits upfront? Yes please. Our listeners get a double hiring bonus of $600! Or, refer a friend and get a check for $1,337 when they accept a job. On Hired companies send you offers with salary, benefits, and even equity upfront. You are in full control of the process. Learn more at hired.com/practicalai.
Rollbar – We catch our errors before our users do because of Rollbar. Resolve errors in minutes, and deploy your code with confidence. Learn more at rollbar.com/changelog.
Fastly – Our bandwidth partner. Fastly powers fast, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Move beyond your content delivery network to their powerful edge cloud platform. Learn more at fastly.com.
Linode – Our cloud server of choice. Deploy a fast, efficient, native SSD cloud server for only $5/month. Get 4 months free using the code changelog2018. Start your server - head to linode.com/changelog
Featuring:Mat Ryer – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDavid Hernandez – GitHub, XChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XShow Notes:
MachineBox
Books
“Go Programming Blueprints” by Mat Ryer
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!