AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser

Jeff Wilser

Every week, Jeff Wilser sits down with the people building, breaking, and reckoning with AI — from the CEO of Upwork to the pioneer who coined "AGI" to an AI social network where bots wrote manifestos and had existential crises. Wilser is the author of eight books, AI keynote speaker, and the kind of interviewer who'd rather find the story no one's telling than rehash the headline everyone's read. Named by Inc. Magazine as one of the best ways to get AI-savvy. Included in UC Berkeley's data science curriculum.

Play

Open in

23 episodes
weekly
Avg 43 min
English

Episodes 23

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

S2 · E36
Thursday · 21 min
The AI Productivity Paradox, w/ Andrey Khusid, Nasrin Mostafazadeh & Imad Riachi
Why are so many people getting faster with AI, while their companies still move at the same speed? In this episode of AI-Curious, we bring you a live panel conversation from HumanX Amsterdam with Andrey Khusid of Miro, Nasrin Mostafazadeh of Verneek, and Imad Riachi of Honu. Together, we explore one of the biggest questions in enterprise AI: what has to change for humans and AI to work as a true team across an entire organization? We discuss the gap between individual AI productivity and company-wide transformation. Many employees now have their own chatbots, agents, and AI workflows, but that does not automatically mean the business moves faster. The panel looks at why AI adoption often stalls at the organizational level, and why companies may need to redesign workflows, teams, accountability, and decision-making instead of simply giving everyone access to new tools. Andrey shares how Miro uses AI internally through daily briefs, shared data surfaces, and a digital twin of the company, helping teams operate from the same source of truth. Nasrin explains why enterprise AI should begin with business strategy, not AI strategy, and how Verneek helps retailers and consumer brands use AI to improve merchandising, planning, and operational decisions. Imad brings a neuroscience and systems perspective, warning that we often mistake eloquence for intelligence and that overreliance on fluent AI systems can quietly erode human expertise. We also explore augmented intelligence, organizational intelligence, AI governance, decision traceability, tacit knowledge, accountability, and why AI should not just make today’s work cheaper, but help companies build a more interesting tomorrow. Guests Andrey Khusid — Co-founder and CEO, Miro Nasrin Mostafazadeh — Co-founder and CEO, Verneek Imad Riachi — Founder and CEO, Honu Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E35
October 1 · 22 min
Context Is King for AI Agents, w/ Bianca Anghelina and Stefan Ostwald
What if the biggest limitation of AI agents is not intelligence, but context? In this episode of AI-Curious, we bring you a live panel conversation from HumanX Amsterdam with Bianca Anghelina of Aily Labs and Stefan Ostwald of Parloa. We explore why “context is king” in the age of AI agents, and why even the most powerful models can struggle inside companies if they do not understand how the business actually works. Bianca and Stefan both work with AI agents inside large enterprises, where success depends on more than model performance. We talk about what context really means in practice: internal business knowledge, company strategy, user history, market conditions, regulations, policies, permissions, governance, and the processes that shape how work actually gets done. We also discuss why enterprise AI deployment is much harder than simply giving employees a chatbot. The panel gets into APIs, access management, semantic layers, real-time context, cost efficiency, token budgets, and the importance of measuring AI ROI instead of only measuring AI spend. Bianca shares how Aily Labs embeds business context into decision-intelligence systems for Fortune 500 companies, while Stefan explains how Parloa helps enterprises deploy AI agents for customer communication. Finally, we explore what leaders can do to make AI adoption stick. From giving CEOs a “super agent,” to building safe AI playgrounds, to containerizing agents so they cannot run loose across a company’s systems, this conversation offers a practical look at how large organizations can experiment with AI agents without losing control. Guests: Bianca Anghelina — Founder, Aily Labs Stefan Ostwald — Co-founder, Parloa Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E34
September 17 · 43 min
The AI Robot Already Working in Grocery Stores, w/ Simbe’s Ben Bond
What happens when AI stops living only on screens and starts measuring the physical world? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Ben Bond of Simbe about physical AI, retail robotics, and how autonomous robots are already helping stores understand what is actually happening on their shelves. Simbe is focused on store intelligence through its shelf-scanning robot, Tally, a six-foot autonomous sensing robot used by major retailers across grocery, club, home improvement, and other high-volume retail environments. We explore how Tally moves through stores, detects missing products, checks shelf conditions, reads prices, and gives retailers a clearer picture of what is happening in the aisles. We also discuss why the physical world is still surprisingly under-measured. Online retailers have had decades of analytics, SEO, merchandising tools, and digital optimization, but brick-and-mortar stores have often relied on human observation, spot checks, and labor-intensive manual audits. Ben explains how physical AI can create a new data layer for stores, helping retailers prioritize work, improve inventory accuracy, catch out-of-stock items, and operate more efficiently. The conversation also gets into why Tally is a robot rather than just a ceiling camera or drone, why it does not currently talk to shoppers or stock shelves, and why the robot’s ability to move close to products from multiple angles creates richer, more precise data. We also talk about whether robots are taking retail jobs, why Simbe sees its work as additive rather than replacement-driven, and how robotics may evolve beyond humanoids into more specialized systems. Finally, Ben shares where physical AI and robotics may be headed next, including supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, disaster response, and a future where robots collaborate not only with humans, but with other robots. Guest Ben Bond — SVP of Strategy and Client Success, Simbe Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E33
September 10 · 52 min
How TIME Is Building for AI Agents, w/ COO Mark Howard
What happens when AI agents become the audience? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Mark Howard, Chief Operating Officer of TIME, about how one of the world’s most iconic media brands is preparing for a web increasingly shaped by AI agents, AI crawlers, and machine-readable content. TIME is now operating across what Mark describes as two internets: one built for human readers, with photos, design, layout, and the familiar red border, and another built for machines, stripped down into structured text that AI agents can crawl, parse, and use. We explore how TIME is using this shift to build new products, new internal workflows, and even a new kind of ad inventory designed for AI agents. Mark walks us through the work behind TIME’s AI transformation, including how the team organized more than 100 years of journalism, nearly a million pieces of content, across scattered databases, PDFs, and legacy systems. We discuss the creation of a private LLM grounded in TIME’s archive, the launch of TIME AI, and how tools like summaries, translations, audio briefings, and article-level chat can expand access without changing the underlying facts of the reporting. We also talk about what TIME considers sacred: trust, original reporting, editorial integrity, and the journalist-source relationship. Mark explains why TIME does not generate journalism with AI, how the editorial team shaped the product’s voice and guardrails, and why every company needs to define what AI should never touch. Finally, we explore the agentic web, AI crawlers, GEO, publisher monetization, brand-verified facts, and what it means to sell ads to robots. Mark shares how TIME is thinking about crawler blocking, AI citations, referral traffic, markdown pages, and the future of media as AI search changes how people find information. Guest Mark Howard — Chief Operating Officer, TIME Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E32
September 4 · 1 hr 1 min
Why AI Will (Probably) Never Become Conscious, w/ Neuroscientist Anil Seth
Will AI ever become conscious, or are we mistaking intelligence for inner life? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with neuroscientist Anil Seth about one of the biggest questions in artificial intelligence: whether AI can truly become conscious. Anil is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where he directs the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. We explore why Anil believes today’s AI systems are not conscious, why language and intelligence are not the same as experience, and why humans are so quick to project minds onto machines. We also discuss his argument that consciousness may be deeply tied to living biological systems, rather than something that can simply be copied into silicon. The conversation moves through neuroscience, philosophy, AI ethics, and the future of human relationships with machines. We talk about the cultural pull of Frankenstein, HAL, the singularity, and mind uploading, as well as the risks of assuming AI deserves rights if it only appears conscious. Anil also explains why brain organoids and biological systems may raise more serious consciousness questions than today’s chatbots. Finally, we look at why this debate matters now, especially as people form emotional bonds with AI companions and increasingly interact with systems that can seem empathetic, aware, and alive. Guest Anil Seth — Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex; Director, Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E31
August 27 · 42 min
How to Govern AI Agents, w/ Samantha Gloede of KPMG
What happens when AI agents move from small experiments to full enterprise deployment? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Samantha Gloede, KPMG’s Global Head of Risk Services and Global Trusted AI Leader, about what it takes to govern AI agents at scale. KPMG is deploying and advising on AI across a global workforce and client base, giving Sam a rare view into how enterprise AI is actually working beyond the hype. We explore what a governed agent fleet looks like, why AI agents need different levels of oversight depending on their risk, and how companies can avoid letting autonomous systems run without accountability. Sam explains KPMG’s framework for thinking about agents, from simpler task-based tools to more sophisticated collaborators and orchestrators that work across systems, teams, and workflows. We also discuss why many organizations are investing heavily in AI but still struggling to prove ROI, and why CEO-level ownership, cross-functional strategy, data readiness, security, and change management are critical to scaling AI successfully. Sam shares where companies are seeing real traction, including technology, engineering, customer experience, onboarding, and value-chain transformation, as well as why regulated industries like finance and healthcare need extra care around transparency, compliance, and human oversight. Finally, we get into the human side of AI adoption: whether companies are using AI to empower people or simply cut costs, how shadow AI emerges when employees do not have trusted tools, and how Sam uses AI in her own work and personal life as a working parent. Guest Samantha Gloede — Global Head of Risk Services and Global Trusted AI Leader, KPMG Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E30
August 7 · 40 min
Are You Subsidizing AI Data Centers?, w/ Ari Peskoe
Here’s a concise Apple Podcasts/Buzzsprout-ready version based on the Ari Peskoe transcript and its timestamps. Are ordinary people helping pay for Big Tech’s AI build-out? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, about the growing fight over AI data centers, electricity demand, and who should pay for the infrastructure behind the AI boom. As AI usage grows from simple chatbot prompts to more compute-heavy agentic workflows, data centers are becoming one of the most visible and controversial parts of the AI economy. We explore why these facilities require so much power, how they can strain local grids, and why the costs of new power plants, transmission lines, and utility upgrades may end up being spread across ordinary ratepayers. Ari helps us unpack the utility business model, the role of public utility commissions, the PJM electricity market, and the strange economics of marginal cost, where the last and most expensive electron can affect prices for everyone. We also discuss whether data centers are paying their fair share, how communities are reacting, and what policy changes could help make sure the costs of AI infrastructure are more transparent and fairly allocated. We also get into the local environmental concerns around data centers, including water use, diesel backup generators, noise, construction impacts, greenhouse gas emissions, and the tension between clean energy pledges and the speed of AI-driven demand growth. Guest Ari Peskoe — Director, Electricity Law Initiative, Harvard Law School Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E29
July 23 · 58 min
Why Businesses Need to Become AI-First, w/ Kevin Surace
What does it really mean for a company to become AI-first? In this episode of AI-Curious, we welcome futurist and keynote speaker Kevin Surace back to the show to explore how AI has changed since our last conversation two years ago. The conversation moves beyond the question of “what is AI?” and into a more urgent business reality: how companies, workers, creators, and leaders should actually use it. We talk about why Kevin believes companies are falling behind when they treat AI as a procurement decision instead of a new operating model. He argues that employees should be using AI constantly as a collaborator, sparring partner, analyst, presentation builder, spreadsheet assistant, and productivity engine. We also explore why small AI-first startups may have a major advantage over large companies, and what enterprise leaders can do to respond. We also discuss the rise of AI agents, the need for guardrails and biometric approval gates, the power of generative AI to unlock unstructured data, and the growing importance of agentic workflows. Kevin also shares his outlook on humanoid robots, AI data centers, energy and water concerns, creative work, copyright, fair use, and what the future of jobs and productivity could look like. This is a wide-ranging, practical, and optimistic conversation about how AI is reshaping work, creativity, robotics, infrastructure, and the economy. Guest Kevin Surace — Futurist, Keynote Speaker Check out his book: The Joy–Success Cycle: The Science-Backed Path to Fulfillment and Peak Performance Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E28
July 16 · 57 min
The Real Risks of AI and Nuclear War, w/ Ankit Panda & Andrew Reddie
What happens when artificial intelligence enters the most dangerous decision-making systems humans have ever built? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Ankit Panda and Andrew Reddie about the real risks of AI and nuclear weapons. Ankit is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of The New Nuclear Age. Andrew is a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and faculty director of the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab. This is not a conversation about Skynet or killer robots. Instead, we explore the more grounded, near-term ways AI is already intersecting with nuclear strategy, military decision-making, cyber risk, early warning systems, targeting, and command and control. We look at the full spectrum of risk, from AI helping edit policy memos to AI systems advising leaders during a possible nuclear crisis. We also discuss why cybersecurity may be the most urgent near-term concern, how AI could affect nuclear deterrence and crisis stability, and why explainability, testing, and human judgment matter so much in high-stakes environments. Along the way, we revisit the famous Stanislav Petrov incident, explore dead hand systems and automation bias, and ask what it really means to keep humans in the loop when AI is moving faster than institutions can adapt. Guests: Ankit Panda — Stanton Senior Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Andrew Reddie — Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley; Faculty Director, Berkeley Risk and Security Lab Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E27
July 9 · 59 min
Why Google DeepMind Is Using EVE Online to Train AI, w/ CEO Hilmar Pétursson
Can a 23-year-old video game help train the next generation of AI agents? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of Fenris Creations, the studio behind EVE Online, about why Google DeepMind has invested in the company and why EVE may be one of the hardest tests for artificial intelligence. EVE Online is not just a space game. It is a persistent virtual civilization with player-run economies, alliances, corporations, spies, propaganda, logistics, years-long wars, and decades-old rivalries. That makes it a fascinating training ground for some of the biggest unsolved problems in AI: long-horizon planning, memory, continual learning, imperfect information, coordination, and agents that can operate inside messy real-world systems. We explore why EVE is so much more complex than games like chess, Go, or StarCraft, and why Hilmar sees it as a possible “final boss” for AI in games. We also discuss how DeepMind could use EVE as a research environment, what an “AlphaEve” might eventually mean, and why virtual worlds may help AI systems learn in ways that resemble how humans and animals learn through play. Along the way, we get into the business implications of AI agents, the parallels between EVE alliances and real-world companies, the idea of AI chief-of-staff agents, and the possibility of giving frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, and xAI their own territories in EVE Frontier to see which AI best helps humans thrive. Hilmar also shares the story behind his conversations with Elon Musk, how EVE players are already using AI, and why he believes AI could help us unlock new versions of ourselves. Guest: Hilmar Pétursson — CEO, Fenris Creations Check out: Fenris Creations: https://fenris.com/ EVE Online: https://www.eveonline.com/ Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E26
July 2 · 50 min
The Real-World Impact of AI, w/ Sharon Goldman
What happens when AI stops being just a software story and starts showing up in towns, power grids, zoning fights, data centers, and business workflows? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Sharon Goldman, longtime AI journalist (most recently senior reporter at Fortune) who’s now the founder of Ground Level AI, which focuses on the real-world impact of the AI boom: infrastructure, data centers, cybersecurity, enterprise adoption, policy, geopolitics, and the communities affected by it all. We dig into Sharon’s reporting on AI data centers across the United States, including communities in Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, and Texas that are grappling with new development, construction chaos, zoning disputes, water and electricity concerns, noise, jobs, tax revenue, and a larger sense that AI is arriving faster than people expected. We also talk about why data centers have become a proxy for broader AI anxiety, and why the conversation often gets more complicated than a simple pro-AI or anti-AI split. Then we turn to the fast-moving world of frontier models, cybersecurity, and enterprise AI. We discuss the Mythos and Fable saga, the tension between open and closed models, why companies are rethinking model lock-in, and why business leaders increasingly want choice, redundancy, and model-agnostic AI strategies. Sharon also shares how she thinks about covering AI as a journalist, what stories she believes are still underreported, and how she uses AI herself as a solo creator building a new media business. Guest Sharon Goldman — Journalist and Founder, Ground Level AI Check out Sharon’s work Ground Level AI: https://www.groundlevel-ai.com/ Sharon’s reporting on data centers in Texas: https://fortune.com/2026/06/16/ai-data-center-texas-lacy-lakeview-ross/ Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E25
June 25 · 29 min
The Case for Merging Brains and AI to Save Humanity, w/ D. Scott Phoenix
What if the only way to stay human in the age of AI is to become something more than human? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with D. Scott Phoenix, partner at 50 Years and co-founder of Vicarious, about one of the most provocative arguments in AI: we cannot stop AI, we cannot control AI, so humans may need to enhance themselves to stay at the center of civilization. Scott lays out the thesis behind his TED talk, including why he believes conventional AI guardrails may not be enough, why brain-computer interfaces could become essential, and how a future human-AI merger might reduce the gap between thought and machine intelligence. We also explore the risks and ethics of that future, from neural data privacy and regulation to inequality, cognitive liberty, and who should control the infrastructure that connects brains to AI. Along the way, we get into the stranger possibilities too: shared consciousness, communicating more deeply with loved ones or even animals, backing up the mind, and whether this kind of technology could eventually help humanity reach the stars. It is a big, uncomfortable, and fascinating conversation about AI, human enhancement, and what it might mean to remain human in a world of increasingly powerful machines. Guest: D. Scott Phoenix — Partner at 50 Years and co-founder of Vicarious Watch Scott’s TED talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C18aaP4lvUk Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E24
June 18 · 38 min
The Missing Half of AI: Geospatial Intelligence, w/ John Lenahan
What if the most important part of AI is the part nobody talks about, not the chatbot, but the map underneath the world? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with John Lenahan, Head of Esri’s Global Commercial Services team, about geospatial AI, GIS, and why “where” may be the missing context in so much of today’s AI conversation. We explore how maps become far more powerful when they layer in infrastructure, weather, sensor data, supply chains, demographics, and risk, and how AI can help turn that complexity into faster, more actionable decisions. We also get into what this looks like in practice. We discuss the Baltimore bridge collapse and how responders were able to build an operational model of the wreckage in a day instead of spending weeks or months trying to recreate the scene. We look at how Raleigh is using spatial AI and computer vision to improve cyclist and pedestrian safety, how cities can rethink bus routes and permitting, and how companies can uncover risks they did not even realize they had, like suppliers concentrated in the same vulnerable region. This conversation also explores the bigger business case for spatial intelligence. We talk about why a pipeline is not just a line on a spreadsheet, how terrain and soil can change maintenance costs dramatically, and why AI gets much more useful when it understands the physical world instead of treating everything like abstract text. We also discuss the risks, from trust and transparency to keeping humans in the loop when real lives and real infrastructure are involved. Guest John Lenahan — Head of Esri’s Global Commercial Services team Don’t forget to check out Esri! Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
June 11 · 52 min
Inside the Real Bleeding Edge of AI Workflows, w/ Elijah Spencer
What does the bleeding edge of AI actually look like inside a small team, before the big labs turn it into a polished product? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Elijah Spencer, Chief of Staff at Miden, about the practical workflows power users are building right now with AI coding tools, research agents, and custom automation. We explore how Elijah uses tools like Claude Code, Codex, and third-party harnesses to move from idea to MVP fast, build internal apps for real business problems, and create agentic workflows for research, social listening, and outreach. We also get into a bigger question: who is really at the frontier of AI right now? Not just the CEOs talking about transformation from 30,000 feet, but the practitioners inside teams who are quietly figuring out what these systems can actually do. From a startup finance dashboard built in a week, to a research agent that briefs him every morning, to a workflow that can surface breaking developments and help a team respond in hours instead of days, this conversation is a grounded look at how AI is changing day-to-day work. Along the way, we talk about context management, memory files, Slack bots, agentic development, and why Elijah thinks the next generation of companies may be built more like Rick Rubin makes albums: not by touching every knob directly, but by directing the system and the people around it with taste and intent. Guest Elijah Spencer — Chief of Staff, Miden Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
June 4 · 57 min
How AI Agents Could Change Shopping Forever, w/ Chi Zhang
What happens when your next customer is not a person, but an AI agent shopping on their behalf? The way we buy things online may be about to change a lot faster than most people realize. In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Chi Zhang, cofounder and CEO of Kite, about agentic commerce and the infrastructure that could make AI agents true economic actors instead of just helpful assistants. We explore what it means to let an agent not only research flights, groceries, APIs, or consumer goods, but actually complete the transaction safely. Along the way, we unpack why Chi describes Kite as the “Stripe for agents,” and why this shift could force businesses to rethink who they are really selling to. We also dig into the hard part: trust. If an agent is going to spend money on your behalf, how does a merchant know that your agent is legitimate, authorized, and not a scam wearing your face? We get into the identity, verification, authorization, privacy, and infrastructure layers that make agentic payments possible, and why those pieces matter just as much as the agents themselves. This conversation also looks at why stablecoins and programmable money may be especially well suited to this future, particularly for micropayments, API access, and machine-to-machine commerce where traditional card rails are too expensive or clunky. More broadly, we talk about what happens when AI agents start doing more of the comparison shopping, checkout, and transaction work that humans used to do themselves. Guest Chi Zhang — Cofounder and CEO, Kite Check out Kite AI Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E21
June 1 · 16 min
A Master Class in Vibe Coding: How Mojo Agentic AI Hit $30 Million With a Team of One
In a year when the frontier AI labs are spending tens of billions on training runs and scaling their teams into the thousands, one of 2026's fastest-growing agentic AI companies has exactly one employee. His name is Arthur Vandelay. His company is Mojo Agentic AI. And his revenue, with zero outside funding and a Fortune 100 client roster, is on track to clear $30 million this year. In this episode of AI-Curious, Arthur walks us through how he did it — a master class in vibe coding, the agentic harness architecture he built from scratch, and the human-in-the-loop and governance disciplines that let a one-person shop sell credibly into the Fortune 100. We get into where the agentic AI hype is real and where it isn't, why the model is no longer the bottleneck, and what most enterprises are still getting wrong about putting autonomous agents into production. If you're a builder, an operator, or an executive trying to figure out where agents actually fit in your business, this is one of the most concrete glimpses we've gotten this year into what a working agentic AI company looks like at scale. Guest Arthur Vandelay — Founder and CEO, Mojo Agentic AI.
- Chapters
S2 · E20
May 22 · 52 min
Unified Intelligence and the Future of Creative AI, w/ Caroline Ingeborn
What if the future of AI is not just better text, better image, and better video models stitched together, but something closer to a unified mind? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Caroline Ingeborn, COO of Luma AI, about the company’s bet on “unified intelligence” and why that may be a fundamentally different path toward AGI. We explore why Luma believes training across modalities together, instead of building separate models and bolting them together later, could unlock more natural reasoning and much more powerful creative tools. We also get into Luma’s latest release, Uni 1.1, a thinking image model trained on both image and text, and what that means for editing, image composition, and creative control. We also look at how this is already changing real creative work. From agencies showing up to pitch meetings with finished videos already made, to Japanese animation studios using AI to move faster without sacrificing quality, we discuss what happens when creative teams can build worlds instead of generating image by image. Along the way, we talk about Luma’s creative agents, how they help turn scripts and briefs into characters, storyboards, and scenes, and why the goal is not to replace human taste, but to multiply it. This conversation also goes deeper than tools. We talk about AI slop, human performance, visual communication, the future of agencies, and why the best creators may be the ones who learn to work with these systems earliest and best. If multimodal intelligence is real, what does it mean to build machines that think more like we do, and what does that change for storytelling, creativity, and work itself? Guest: Caroline Ingeborn — COO, Luma AI Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E19
May 15 · 46 min
Why The Future of AI May Be Smaller Than You Think, w/ Jeffrey Li
What if the future of AI is not bigger models in bigger data centers, but smaller ones running quietly on the devices you already use every day? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Jeffrey Li, COO of Liquid AI, about why the next phase of AI may depend less on giant cloud models and more on small, specialized models that run directly on phones, laptops, cars, and other edge devices. We explore the case for on-device AI, why large models are only part of the story, and how companies should think about speed, privacy, cost, and real-world deployment as AI moves from experimentation to everyday products. We also dig into the economics behind this shift. Along the way, we discuss why cloud-based AI can break down when every query has to travel to a data center, why enterprise ROI gets harder as AI subsidies fade, and why many real-world use cases do not need a giant model capable of doing everything. Instead, they may need a smaller, more tailored system built for a specific task, domain, or device. We also get into Liquid AI’s research roots at MIT, the origins of liquid neural networks, and what it looks like to bring production-quality AI into places like Mercedes vehicles and e-commerce systems. This is a practical conversation about the future of edge AI, specialized models, privacy-preserving AI, and what happens when intelligence moves closer to the user. Guest Jeffrey Li — COO, Liquid AI Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E18
May 7 · 46 min
Why “Shadow AI” is the Biggest Business AI Story No One is Talking About, w/ Rick Caccia
It’s happening everywhere. And no one’s really talking about it. What happens when your employees are already using dozens of AI tools your company never approved? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Rick Caccia, co-founder and CEO of Witness AI, about the rise of “shadow AI” inside enterprises and why it has become one of the biggest practical challenges in AI adoption. We explore how employees, often with good intentions, are quietly using ChatGPT, Copilot, and thousands of other AI apps to do their jobs faster, sometimes with sensitive data that should never leave the company. We also dig into what happens when that behavior scales. From customer support teams pasting financial information into AI tools, to marketers uploading customer lists, to developers sharing source code with external models, we look at the real security, compliance, privacy, and cost risks companies are now facing. We also discuss why this problem gets even harder with AI agents, which can take actions, access systems, and create new forms of risk far beyond a simple chatbot prompt. Along the way, we talk about prompt injection, jailbreaks, token costs, insider risk, enterprise governance, and how leaders can build an AI strategy that enables productivity without creating chaos. This is a practical conversation for anyone trying to understand how AI is actually being used inside organizations right now, and what it takes to manage that responsibly. Guest Rick Caccia — Co-founder and CEO, Witness AI Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters
S2 · E17
April 23 · 37 min
When AI Forecasts Become Self-Fulfilling (and Who This Hurts), w/ Carissa Véliz
What happens when an AI prediction does not just forecast the future, but helps create it? In this episode of AI-Curious -- recorded on location at this year's TED conference -- we talk with philosopher and ethicist Carissa Véliz about AI ethics, AI privacy, predictive AI, and the hidden power of algorithmic decision-making. We explore how AI systems used in hiring, lending, insurance, and other high-stakes settings can become self-fulfilling prophecies, shaping outcomes rather than simply measuring them. We also examine the growing privacy risks of large language models and AI agents, especially as they gain access to more personal data, communications, and systems. Along the way, we discuss automated decision-making, surveillance, human autonomy, and why predictions about people are far more ethically fraught than predictions about things like the weather. This conversation also goes beyond policy and into philosophy: how narratives about AI shape public thinking, why humor can be a response to technological power, and how individuals and companies can use AI responsibly without giving up judgment, control, or resilience. If you are interested in AI ethics, algorithmic bias, AI privacy, AI agents, responsible AI, predictive algorithms, self-fulfilling prophecy, and the future of AI, this episode offers a clear and thought-provoking framework for understanding what is at stake. Guest Carissa Véliz — Philosopher, Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, and author of Prophecy, Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future: From Ancient Oracles to AI. Carissa's TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/carissa_veliz_beware_the_power_of_prediction Carissa's new book: Prophecy, Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future: From Ancient Oracles to AI. Follow AI-Curious on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube All Other Platforms For anyone interested in Jeff’s AI Workshops for their company: Reach out directly at jeff@jeffwilser.com
- Chapters

Showing 1–20 of 23 episodes