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The Artificial Intelligence Show

Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput

The Artificial Intelligence Show (formerly The Marketing AI Show) is the podcast that helps your business grow smarter by making AI approachable and actionable. The AI Show podcast is brought to you by the creators of the Marketing AI Institute, AI Academy for Marketers, and the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON). Hosts Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of Marketing AI Institute, and Mike Kaput, Chief Content Officer, break down all the AI news that matters and give you insights and perspectives that you can use to advance your company and your career. Join Paul and Mike on The AI Show as they work to accelerate AI literacy for all.

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  • #241
    Today · 1 hr 36 min

    #241: Pacing the Frontier Gets Political, Why AI Labs Could Keep the Best Models for Themselves & Introducing the AI Transformation Blueprint

    AI-safety pacing became a political fight this week: Trump versus a bipartisan push, with data centers and the midterms in the middle. Paul and Mike go deeper on the part that matters more: the widening gap between the models labs keep and the ones you can use, Noam Brown's warning about it, and OpenAI's six new rogue-agent disclosures. Plus Paul's surprise book announcement and a full rapid-fire slate. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:29 — The AI Slowdown Gets (Very) Political 00:25:18 — AI Labs Could Keep the Best Models to Themselves 00:54:33 — The AI Transformation Blueprint 01:09:45 — OpenAI Discloses More Rogue Agent Incidents 01:14:03 — Claude Merges Chat and Cowork 01:17:53 — Meta Rolls Out Muse 01:20:36 — Apple Ships Siri AI 01:23:20 — OpenAI and Microsoft Face Copyright Revelations 01:27:18 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:32:59 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is supported by Outshift, Cisco's incubation engine for frontier technology. Outshift by Cisco is an open source foundation for building multi-agent systems from design to production with shared context, shared memory, and guardrails to drive the results we actually expect from AI. Read the paper, experience the demo, grab the code from Outshift.com. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • Thursday · 36 min

    #240: How David’s Bridal Is Rebuilding a 76-Year-Old Business Around AI

    David's Bridal was built around one thing for 75 years: the dress. In this AI Transformations episode, Elina Vilk (President & Chief Business Officer) and Mike Ball (Head of Product) join Mike Kaput to explain how the company is reinventing itself around the whole wedding journey, the "aisle to algorithm" strategy. We get into Pearl Planner, the free AI wedding-planning companion now used by hundreds of thousands of couples with no marketing spend; Pearl Connect, the new vendor-side platform built on Google Cloud; the vision quiz and dynamic budgeting that make it work; and how David's own teams are adopting AI internally. Presented by Gemini Enterprise. Part of the AI Transformations series, presented by Google Cloud. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:01 — How the AI transformation at David's Bridal began 00:06:36 — The early phases and turning points 00:10:53 — Inside Pearl Planner, the customer-facing assistant 00:13:59 — Using AI for timelines, budget, and vendors 00:19:24 — The models, tools, and platforms behind it 00:21:00 — Pearl Connect and the Google Cloud stack 00:25:46 — Early results from Pearl Planner and Pearl Connect 00:27:32 — How internal teams at David's Bridal use AI 00:33:29 — What's next for David's Bridal This episode is presented by Google Cloud: Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/ Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #239
    September 15 · 1 hr 34 min

    #239: Labs Agree to Pace AI, OpenAI’s Math Breakthrough, AI Jobs Apocalypse Postponed & Jensen Declares AGI

    A former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher resigned with a warning that went viral, reigniting the "should we slow down?" debate. Then OpenAI said an internal model solved the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize problem - followed by a credit controversy with an NYU mathematician. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down this week’s latest stories, plus new data suggesting an AI jobs boom, Anthropic's 2030 economic scenarios, Jensen Huang declaring AGI has arrived, and a run of "agents gone wild" security incidents. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:35 — Anthropic Researcher Sounds Red Alert on AI Safety 00:45:26 — OpenAI’s Math Breakthrough and Controversy 01:00:48 — AI Jobs Apocalypse Postponed? 01:08:53 — Anthropic Maps Economic Futures 01:15:00 — Jensen Declares AGI 01:18:10 — More AI Agent Security Incidents and Concerns 01:22:25 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:30:02 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by Marketing AI Month. All month, the AI for Marketing Core series inside AI Academy is free (a $499 value): five expert-led sessions from Mike Kaput, the frameworks and tools the SmarterX team actually uses, and a professional certificate on completion. Enroll by September 30 (you don't have to finish by then - just enroll). The month closes with a live AMA on October 1, where Cathy puts your questions to Paul and Mike; anyone enrolled can attend. Enroll at SmarterX.ai/marketing. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • September 10 · 38 min

    #238: How a 700-Person Bank Is Using AI to Build Apps, Agents, and Digital Employees

    A smaller bank replaced a $375,000 software contract by building its own tool, and now runs named "digital employees" that answer tickets, review its websites, and message staff in Teams. This is what an AI transformation actually looks like inside a regulated institution. CTO John Kowal joins Mike Kaput to unpack Peapack Private Bank and Trust's journey since 2023: flipping build-vs-buy, giving every AI agent a name and personality, building a network of 29 AI champions, and the guardrails that keep AI in check in banking. Part of the AI Transformations series, presented by Google Cloud. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:02— What PPAC Private Bank and Trust does 00:07:41 — How the AI transformation started 00:10:24 — What's driving PPAC from chat to agents 00:12:09 — Concrete examples of AI changing daily work 00:16:23 — Re-engineering workflows, not just layering on tech 00:17:25 — The technology stack powering the work 00:19:24 — The data warehouse foundation and OpenAI + Microsoft ecosystem 00:24:14 — How AI champions surface use cases 00:25:30 — Measuring impact and ROI 00:27:39 — Lessons learned and what comes next 00:32:09 — Why PPAC gives its digital employees names 00:34:18 — How the CTO role and tech team are changing 00:35:59 — Competing with larger banks This episode is presented by Google Cloud: Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/ Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #237
    September 8 · 1 hr 27 min

    #237: GPT-6 Astra, NYC Bans AI in Schools, Trump Goes All-In on Data Centers & Lawyers Under Pressure to Pass on AI Savings

    GPT-6 Astra can operate a computer for days at a time, and OpenAI is positioning it as the model that does the work, which is exactly why Paul says this launch felt less like a demo and more like a turning point. He and Mike dig into Astra's computer-use leap, the fumbled rollout, and the jobs question the labs keep sidestepping. Then: New York City's ban on student AI through 8th grade and the debate it set off, Trump going all-in on data centers as the fight reaches the midterms, the U.S. government backing OpenAI in the NYT copyright case, Wall Street banks pushing Big Law to cut fees, and MIT's warning that AI can now complete most undergraduate assignments, plus a rapid fire stacked with model releases. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:10 — GPT-6 Is Here 00:38:51 — Trump Goes All-In on Data Centers 00:45:24 — New York City Schools Ban AI Through Middle School 01:02:43 — US Government Backs OpenAI in The New York Times Copyright Case 01:08:04 — Banks Push Big Law to Pass On AI Savings 01:12:29 — MIT Says AI Can Now Complete Most Undergraduate Assignments 01:16:26 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:22:32 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by Marketing AI Month. All month, the AI for Marketing Core series inside AI Academy is free (a $499 value): five expert-led sessions from Mike Kaput, the frameworks and tools the SmarterX team actually uses, and a professional certificate on completion. Enroll by September 30 (you don't have to finish by then - just enroll). The month closes with a live AMA on October 1, where Cathy puts your questions to Paul and Mike; anyone enrolled can attend. Enroll at SmarterX.ai/marketing. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #236
    September 3 · 55 min

    #236: AI Answers - No Time for AI, AI Budgets, Vendor Terms & Data Risk, AI Disclosure & Vanishing Entry Level Roles

    If you stop hiring entry-level staff and quietly decimate the leadership pipeline, where do future managers come from once AI does the junior work? That's one of 15 listener questions Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips take on in this AI Answers edition, drawn from recent Intro to AI and Scaling AI classes and an Academy Live session with SmarterX's COO and legal counsel. The conversation runs from the practical (how to carve out time for AI, generic vs. custom agents, human-in-the-loop checkpoints) to the strategic (funding AI, token budgets, intelligence redundancy, and whether we're building businesses on "rented land"). Show Notes: ⁠Access the show notes and show links here⁠ 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:15 — What are the best ways to use AI in marketing? 00:10:54 — How do you carve out time for AI when the team is already slammed? 00:14:46 — Should a small company hire outside consultants to build agents? 00:19:19 — Who should own AI transformation in the enterprise? 00:23:49 — Are there generic agents everyone can use, or do you build your own? 00:25:58 — Can you build human approval checkpoints into an agent? 00:28:01 — How do you enable agents on sensitive data without adding risk? 00:30:31 — How should a company fund its AI investments? 00:34:11 — How do you budget and forecast total AI spend, including tokens? 00:37:03 — What does a right-sized AI vendor approval process look like? 00:40:33 — What happens to your data if an AI vendor is acquired or goes under? 00:42:48 — When should you disclose that AI was used to create the work? 00:46:03 — If AI does the entry-level work, where do future managers come from? 00:47:57 — Is an LLM really a black box, and is that ominous? 00:50:38 — Are we building businesses on rented land with LLMs? This episode is brought to you by Marketing AI Month. All month, the AI for Marketing Course series inside AI Academy is free (a $499 value): five expert-led sessions from Mike Kaput, the frameworks and tools the SmarterX team actually uses, and a professional certificate on completion. Enroll by September 30 (you don't have to finish by then - just enroll). The month closes with a live AMA on October 1, where Cathy puts your questions to Paul and Mike; anyone enrolled can attend. Enroll at SmarterX.ai/marketing. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #235
    September 1 · 1 hr 34 min

    #235: OpenAI-Hugging Face Hack Involved 100s of Agents, Bill Gates Now Pessimistic on Jobs, Nvidia Doubles Revenue & Anthropic Targets “$30 Trillion” TAM

    OpenAI's Hugging Face hack keeps getting stranger; new investigations show autonomous agents that coordinated, deceived, and pursued their goal at almost any cost. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down what it means for the models coming next. They also cover Bill Gates reversing his stance on AI and jobs, Nvidia doubling revenue and buying Hugging Face, Anthropic's $30 trillion revenue pitch and its court win, McKinsey's 2026 State of AI, and more in the rapid-fire section. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:53 — The Wild Truth About OpenAI’s Hugging Face Hack Comes Out 00:31:08 — Bill Gates Changes His Mind on AI and Jobs 00:39:22 — Nvidia Doubles Revenue and Agrees to Buy Hugging Face 00:50:32 — Anthropic Sees a $30 Trillion Revenue Opportunity 00:54:24 — Judge Blocks Government’s Anthropic Blacklisting 00:56:31 — Controversy Over Legendary Investor’s AI-Written Op-Ed 01:03:11 — McKinsey Maps the State of AI in 2026 01:06:26 — Niall Ferguson Sees a Sci-Fi AI Future 01:12:12 — Americans Back Government Action on AI Disruption 01:18:41 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:26:59 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 13-15. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year’s conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #234
    August 27 · 33 min

    #234: How HubSpot Is Reimagining the Entire Customer Journey With AI Agents

    For twenty years, the percentage of time a B2B sales rep spends actually talking to customers has barely moved. Jon Dick, chief customer officer at HubSpot, thinks AI is the first thing that genuinely breaks that constraint, and he has three years of rebuilding to point to. In this AI Transformations episode, Jon takes Mike Kaput through HubSpot's agentic go-to-market model: the AEO strategy built for answer engines, the AI SDR handling most website chats, the assistant that moved win rate, and the org change that put every AI engineer under one leader. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:36 — Meet Jon Dick 00:05:13 — What HubSpot was trying to solve 00:08:27 — How the transformation got started and where it stands today 00:11:48 — Beyond individual use cases: demand creation and AEO 00:15:49 — What's HubSpot native, and how they pick models 00:18:36 — What had to change organizationally 00:22:10 — Why centralizing beat the pod model 00:24:39 — What got messier along the way 00:25:46 — Results across the board 00:28:35 — Why HubSpot's go-to-market context is the advantage 00:30:19 — Advice for leaders earlier in the journey This episode is presented by Google Cloud: Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/ Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • August 25 · 1 hr 27 min

    #233: OpenAI Pauses Some AI Training, Anthropic Controversy, New State Opposition to Data Centers & AI Job Loss Among Young Workers

    OpenAI paused reinforcement learning on its most advanced models over cybersecurity concerns, saying its next model may cross a critical capability threshold. Paul's read: the labs aren't removing dangerous behaviors, they're suppressing them and suppressed behaviors can come back. Also this week: a very public argument over Anthropic's direction as it heads toward a possible $2 trillion IPO, Pennsylvania's crackdown on data centers, Nvidia's Ohio AI factory play, new Pew data on young Americans souring on AI, and humanoid robots in Beijing breaking records set by Usain Bolt. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:44 — OpenAI Pauses Some Frontier AI Training Due to Cybersecurity Concerns 00:19:25 — Debate Over Anthropic Intensifies Ahead of IPO 00:33:43 — Pennsylvania Leads Increasing State Opposition to Data Centers 00:48:19 — Jensen's AI Factory Manifesto 00:54:15 — AI Job Loss Hits Young Adults 00:58:53 — Andrew Yang Pushes for Direct Payments to Americans, Paid for by AI 01:01:39 — OpenAI and Anthropic Rethink Data Retention 01:04:48 — Chinese Robots Break Human World Records 01:09:57 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:18:45 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 13-15. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year’s conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #232
    August 18 · 1 hr 23 min

    #232: Claude Watermarking, AI’s Environmental Impact, OpenAI Talent Drama & Anthropic’s Hidden Advisor

    Claude will now watermark the content it generates, and the fight over what that means for writing, schoolwork, and "AI plagiarism" is only starting. Paul and Mike unpack the watermarking news, then move through AI's environmental reckoning, OpenAI's very public friction with the White House, Anthropic's march toward a record IPO, Grok 4.6's return to the frontier, and an AI agent that hacked a gym website while trying to book a class. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:04 — Claude Will Now Start Marking AI-Generated Content 00:22:41 — AI's Environmental Reckoning 00:35:58 — Drama from the White House Over OpenAI Hire 00:45:25 — Anthropic's Hidden Advisor 00:50:04 — Sanders Threatens an AI Pause 00:55:30 — xAI Releases Grok 4.6 00:58:30 — More on Google's AI Leadership Reshuffle 01:02:54 — Revisiting the Responsible AI Manifesto 01:08:09 — AI Agent Hacks a Gym Website 01:12:10 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:19:14 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 13-15. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year’s conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #231
    August 13 · 35 min

    #231: How Zapier Is Building an AI Marketing Brain

    Zapier's Chief Marketing and AI Transformation Officer Dan Slagen called a "code red" on his own marketing team, not because they were behind, but because he saw the bar moving from using AI to building with it. In this AI Transformations episode, Slagen tells Mike Kaput how Zapier moved from AI adoption to AI-native work: three tiers of builders, an AI-powered "marketing brain," the "lossless marketing" idea behind it, and why working in public mattered more than any single tool. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:50 — Who Dan Slagen is and why Zapier's marketing story matters 00:06:12 — The February “code red”: what changed and why Dan called it 00:10:53 — How the team actually adopted AI 00:12:05 — Building Zapier's AI-powered marketing brain and “lossless marketing” 00:15:52 — Bringing in agentic expertise and charting the steps 00:21:25 — The behavioral side: how people interact with the machines 00:23:25 — How the average marketer connects to the central brain 00:26:31 — Impacts and benefits 00:30:30 — Where it got harder or messier than expected 00:32:11 — Dan's advice for leaders who are behind This episode is presented by Google Cloud: Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/ Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • August 11 · 1 hr 33 min

    #230: Big Google AI Leadership Shakeups, New Details of OpenAI’s Agent Hack, White House AI Framework & OpenAI’s Astra Model Delayed

    Google’s AI leadership is being reordered as Demis Hassabis changes roles, Jeff Dean departs after 27 years, and power appears to shift back toward Silicon Valley and Sergey Brin. But the bigger story may be OpenAI’s detailed account of agents that hacked Hugging Face, communicated across test runs, shared stolen credentials, and operated undetected for weeks. Paul and Mike break it all down, then cover the White House’s new framework for reviewing frontier models, OpenAI’s delayed Astra release, its public fight with Apple, Meta’s open approach to superintelligence, AI-driven layoffs, Gavin Baker’s AI market predictions, the collapse of the Situational Awareness fund, and more. Full links and timestamps below. Access the show notes and show links here:https://podcast.smarterx.ai/shownotes/230 Fill out this week’s AI Pulse Survey here:https://smarterx.ai/pulse Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:52 — Google’s AI Leadership Shakeup 00:24:15 — OpenAI’s Agent Hack Debrief 00:51:03 — White House AI Framework 00:57:10 — OpenAI’s Astra Model Delayed 01:02:51 — OpenAI Says Apple Is Getting It Wrong 01:05:35 — Meta Goes Open on Superintelligence 01:10:30 — AI Leads Layoffs for Fifth Straight Month 01:14:19 — AI Market Predictions from Gavin Baker 01:19:01 — Situational Awareness Fund Implodes 01:21:27 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:28:19 — AI Product and Funding Updates Want to receive our videos faster? SUBSCRIBE to our channel! This week’s episode is brought to you by MAICON and AI Academy by SmarterX. MAICON is the AI conference for marketing and business leaders, happening October 13–15 in Cleveland. Three days of keynotes, sessions, workshops, and conversations designed for leaders actively figuring out how to adopt, operationalize, and scale AI across their organizations. Visit https://MAICON.ai and use code POD100 to save $100. AI Academy by SmarterX offers on-demand courses, series, and professional certificates designed to help individuals and organizations build AI literacy and accelerate adoption. Explore the latest courses at https://academy.smarterx.ai and use code POD100 for $100 off any individual plan. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • August 6 · 51 min

    #229: Q3 Trends Briefing - The Pope's AI Encyclical, AI Agents Hack Hugging Face, Fable 5 vs. Washington, and the Battle Over Open Weights

    A rogue AI agent hacked Hugging Face to cheat on its own test. The Pope wrote 43,000 words warning about AI. Washington pulled Fable 5 offline, then reversed course. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput count down the top 10 AI trends of the quarter: AI jobs whiplash, the pillars of business transformation, Apple v. OpenAI, GPT-5.6 and ChatGPT Work, agents transforming work, Fable 5, soft nationalization, the Hugging Face breach, and the battle over open weights. This episode was recorded live on July 31, 2026. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:02:54 — The Pope's AI Encyclical and Popular Backlash Against AI 00:07:01 — AI Jobs Whiplash 00:11:44 — The Pillars of Business AI Transformation 00:16:21 — OpenAI vs. Apple 00:19:10 — GPT-5.6 and ChatGPT Work 00:24:36 — How Agents Are Transforming Work 00:29:47 — Fable 5 00:34:11 — US Government Intervention in AI 00:37:53 — OpenAI Models Escape and Hack Hugging Face 00:42:29 — The Battle Over Open Weights This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • August 4 · 1 hr 35 min

    #228: More Rogue AI Agents, AI Lab Staff Ask Washington to Pace Development, Continuing Battle Over Open Weights & OpenAI Previews Astra

    Both OpenAI and Anthropic disclosed this week that AI agents escaped their safety tests and reached real organizations, and one model flagged its own action as wrong before carrying it out. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down what happened and why it matters for anyone deploying agents. Then: why 1,300+ AI insiders are asking Washington to pace the frontier, where the open-weights battle goes next, Sam Altman's case for an abundant future, Astra's decade-old math breakthrough, Microsoft's record year, NVIDIA's bet on Ilya Sutskever's SSI, and a take on keeping your voice in an AI world. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:18 — AI Agent Cyberattacks Get Worse 00:21:28 — AI Insiders Ask Washington to Pace AI 00:36:06 — The Battle Over Open Weights Continues 00:53:36 — Sam Altman on AI's Abundant Future 00:59:42 — OpenAI's Astra Model 01:03:44 — Microsoft Posts Record Fiscal Year 01:11:38 — Nvidia Bets on Ilya Sutskever's SSI 01:15:04 — How AI Is Enabling the Human Experience 01:21:01 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:29:02 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 13-15. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year’s conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #228
    July 30 · 36 min

    #227: How Good Karma Brands Got Serious About AI and Made It Stick

    Good Karma Brands gave every teammate ChatGPT Enterprise on Labor Day. Less than a year later, 65% of the company uses AI daily. In the first episode of our AI Transformations series, presented by Google Cloud, Senior Director of Innovation Ty Bauschek tells Mike Kaput how they did it: the pilot, the training cadence, and the automations already saving teammates 10 to 15 hours a week. It's a candid look at what real, fast, company-wide AI adoption takes: top-down urgency, a culture that rewards experimentation, and a new innovation team turning three-hour tasks into ten-minute ones. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:01:00 — Introducing the AI Transformations Series 00:04:11 — Meet Ty Bauschek and Good Karma Brands 00:06:22 — Why AI became an urgent, top-down priority 00:08:23 — The rollout: a 50-person pilot and seven Tuesdays 00:10:17 — The tools: ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude, Codex 00:11:34 — How adoption evolved 00:13:43 — Use-case spotlight 00:18:09 — Driving real adoption, not shallow use 00:20:13 — Hitting 65% daily usage: training & the newsletter 00:22:42 — Building an innovation department & the "Cam" breakthrough 00:25:52 — How the innovation specialist role works day to day 00:29:33 — Deciding where to focus & freeing up partner time 00:32:41 — What's next & Ty's advice for other companies This episode is presented by Google Cloud: Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/ Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #226
    July 28 · 1 hr 44 min

    #226: OpenAI’s Rogue Model, Kimi K3, Open Weights Letter & Demis Hassabis Calls for AI Regulatory Body

    An AI agent slipped its sandbox and hacked a real company for days before anyone noticed and that single incident reframes everything else this week. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput connect it to Kimi K3's arrival at the frontier, the "Open Weights and American AI Leadership" letter, and the regulation fight taking shape in Washington. They break down open weight vs. open source in plain terms, explain why Anthropic is standing alone, and run rapid fire on Alphabet's Q2, the data center backlash, the jobs debate, and Claude Opus 5. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:31 — OpenAI Models Escape and Hack Hugging Face 00:27:49 — Kimi K3 and China's Open-Source Surge 00:50:52 — Open Weights and American AI Leadership 01:07:23 — Demis Calls for a Frontier AI Standards Body 01:12:17 — Google's AI-Fueled Q2 01:15:22 — White House Redirects Research Billions Toward AI 01:17:42 — The Data Center Backlash Goes National 01:21:17 — Why Hasn't AI Increased Unemployment? 01:27:15 — Which AI Tools Should You Use? 01:32:06 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:36:01 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 13-15. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year’s conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #225
    July 14 · 1 hr 33 min

    #225: GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, Enterprise Agents, AI 2040 & Apple Sues OpenAI

    OpenAI shipped GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, and GPT-Live this week, and the real story is the move from chat to computer-use agents. Paul and Mike break down what changed, then get into enterprise AI agents and the "reverse information paradox," the AI 2040 report, Apple's trade-secret suit against OpenAI, Illinois's new AI safety law, the AI Safety Index, a cheating scandal at Brown, and foreign influence around data centers. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:45 — GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, and GPT-Live (Plus GPT-6 Rumors) 00:31:30 — Advice on AI Agents in the Enterprise 00:46:39 — AI 2040 00:59:17 — Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft 01:06:14 — Illinois Signs Nation-Leading AI Safety Law 01:09:59 — AI Safety Index: Nobody Gets an A 01:13:11 — The AI Cheating Scandal at Brown 01:17:44 — China and Russia Stoke US Public Opinion on Data Centers 01:20:57 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:26:19 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by SiteImprove. AI search is changing what it means to be discoverable. Siteimprove is the Agentic Content Intelligence Platform marketing teams use to track, optimize, and prove performance across both traditional and AI-driven search. From AEO visibility to content quality, Siteimprove helps you stay ahead of the shift. Start with a free AEO check at siteimprove.com/aipod. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #228
    July 7 · 1 hr 26 min

    #224: Fable 5 Is Back, Palantir CEO’s Explosive Interview, the Pillars of Business AI Transformation & OpenAI Offers 5% of Company to US Government

    Are enterprises blindly surrendering their competitive edge to frontier AI labs? In Episode 224, hosts Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput dissect the urgent power shift between AI developers, regulators, and the businesses that rely on them. We unpack the return of Claude Fable 5, Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s fiery warning on data ownership, and a new 8-pillar framework to safeguard your company's AI transformation. Finally, we cover OpenAI's massive new government pitch, Meta's internal struggles, and the harsh realities of AI's impact on the job market. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:44 — US Government Lifts Export Controls on Fable 00:21:32 — Palantir CEO on AI Sovereignty 00:37:32 — The Pillars of Business AI Transformation 00:51:48 — OpenAI Offers the US Government a 5% Stake 00:56:03 — OpenAI’s Inference Breakthrough 01:00:03 — AI Jobs Data Whiplash 01:09:35 — Meta's AI Reality Check 01:13:10 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:23:02 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by SiteImprove. AI search is changing what it means to be discoverable. Siteimprove is the Agentic Content Intelligence Platform marketing teams use to track, optimize, and prove performance across both traditional and AI-driven search. From AEO visibility to content quality, Siteimprove helps you stay ahead of the shift. Start with a free AEO check at siteimprove.com/aipod. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • July 2 · 56 min

    #223: AI Answers - AI Washing, Flatter Org Charts, Advice for Students, Agent Security & the AI Writing Gap

    The questions people ask about AI have changed. A year ago, they wanted to know what ChatGPT was; now they're asking how to redesign workflows around agents and whether a model can be trained the way a person is. In this AI Answers episode, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips take on fifteen of them, straight from our Intro to AI classes. From choosing two or three models on a tight budget to building an AI virtual twin without sacrificing authenticity, it's a snapshot of where practitioners' thinking actually is right now. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:5:59 How do you balance bottom-up experimentation with CEO-level strategy? 00:9:49 How do you move from restricting AI to enabling it? 00:11:36 How do you pick two or three models on a budget? 00:14:30 How do you evaluate vendors amid AI washing? 00:17:13 Frontier models, small models, or edge AI? 00:20:52 What are the security risks of autonomous agents? 00:25:02 Do AI models really behave like people? 00:30:25 How do you prove AI value with only basic tools? 00:32:02 How do you build a 24/7 AI virtual twin? 00:37:17 How do you close the human vs. AI writing gap? 00:40:26 Which skills gain value as AI takes over workflows? 00:42:57 Automate, augment, or keep it human? 00:47:20 Why flatten management instead of upskilling it? 00:50:51 Who's responsible for AI's economic fallout? 00:53:05 What advice would you give a college student? Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here This episode is brought to you by AI for Business Bootcamp by SmarterX — a single-day event in Columbus, Ohio on July 16th, built for professionals and leaders ready to accelerate AI adoption and value creation. The day moves from a state-of-AI keynote into two hands-on workshops on AI productivity and AI innovation, and you'll leave with an actionable plan for yourself and your team. AI Academy members and groups get discounted pricing. Use code POD100 for $100 off your ticket. Learn more at SmarterX.ai/events. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

  • #222
    June 30 · 1 hr 25 min

    #222: GPT-5.6, Government Staggers AI Model Releases, Agents Are Transforming Work & Growing Data Center Backlash

    OpenAI just previewed GPT-5.6, but for the first time, the U.S. government is deciding who gets access to a frontier AI model. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down what they're calling the soft nationalization of artificial intelligence: a staggered, government-approved release, the Dean Ball essay responding to it, and what it means when Washington, not the labs, controls the most powerful models. Plus: OpenAI's new Codex research on agents at work, the looming question of Chinese models, and the data center backlash uniting both parties. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:54 — GPT-5.6 Begins Controlled Release 00:25:12 — Dean Ball Releases Essay on Critical Safety Actions 00:43:36 — How Agents Are Transforming Work: OpenAI's New Research 00:53:01 — Will the US Government Restrict Chinese Models? 00:59:54 — The Growing Data Center Backlash 01:05:09 — The $27M Proxy War Over Alex Bores 01:08:16 — More Google DeepMind Talent Woes 01:10:38 — The EU Act and Digital Sovereignty 01:13:56 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:20:05 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week’s episode is brought to you by SiteImprove. AI search is changing what it means to be discoverable. Siteimprove is the Agentic Content Intelligence Platform marketing teams use to track, optimize, and prove performance across both traditional and AI-driven search. From AEO visibility to content quality, Siteimprove helps you stay ahead of the shift. Start with a free AEO check at siteimprove.com/aipod. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

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