Episode 33 - Trust But Verif-AI

Two AIs are better than one - If we use multiple models, we can obtain different interpretations that we combine to yield a more reliable answer.

Episode 32 - Building a Fantasy Map Machine

I built a system to help us collect information at conference booths in a fun and engaging way—building you a custom fantasy map.

Episode 31 - Why do models make stuff up?

The term of art for AI is called hallucinations, but I prefer to stick with Make Shit Up. The training incentives are flawed; we have been training models to hallucinate because they score higher on tests by guessing incorrectly than by admitting they don’t know.

Episode 30 - Don’t be a Secret Cyborg

We need a culture where it is okay to admit to using an AI and celebrate it, all while keeping the human component in mind. Even if AI models don’t improve beyond their current state, we already face numerous issues, anxieties, and superpowers!

Episode 29 - AIs don’t learn, but they sure look like they do

LLMs do not learn on the fly, their training is compute-intensive and cannot currently be done dynamically. Instead, they can recall messages from previous conversations, making them appear to have learned things about you.

Episode 28 - Google’s AlphaEarth Changes GIS, a little

AlphaEarth is a set of pre-computed embeddings across the entire Earth (over time) that makes it possible to search for similar locations. But what does that mean for GIS?

Episode 27 - AI Is the Magic Genie

AI is like a magic genie, incredibly powerful, but deeply literal.

Episode 26 - An AI by any other name (but please pick one)

I wasn't going to write about GPT-5 this week, but since it's all the internet can talk about, I guess I’ll join in. My hot take is this: It isn’t significantly better than the previous models.

Episode 25 - How I Use AI to Edit My Writing

TL;DR: Ask for feedback! This lets you shorten your editing cycle without asking an AI to write it for you. That keeps it your original work, but you get it done faster and with higher quality.

Episode 24 - AI Deleted my Database

TL;DR:  Even the smartest AI agents can nuke prod—treat them like junior devs, fence them off from production, and Back Up × 3.