Home
Categories
EXPLORE
True Crime
Comedy
Society & Culture
Business
Sports
News
Health & Fitness
About Us
Contact Us
Copyright
© 2024 PodJoint
00:00 / 00:00
Sign in

or

Don't have an account?
Sign up
Forgot password
https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts221/v4/f1/00/90/f10090d5-646a-b051-044f-b6439198aea7/mza_8601071465646795391.jpg/600x600bb.jpg
AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Jeff Wilser
117 episodes
3 days ago
Is AI making creators more powerful… or more replaceable? And if you start with a blank page for a living, there’s an even sharper question underneath it: should AI write for you… or write with you? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Victor Varnado—a New Yorker cartoonist, comedian, actor, and creative technologist—to explore a grounded, practical philosophy for using AI without becoming a passenger. Victor draws a sharp line between generative AI (press a button, get “a masterpi...
Show more...
Technology
RSS
All content for AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser is the property of Jeff Wilser and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Is AI making creators more powerful… or more replaceable? And if you start with a blank page for a living, there’s an even sharper question underneath it: should AI write for you… or write with you? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Victor Varnado—a New Yorker cartoonist, comedian, actor, and creative technologist—to explore a grounded, practical philosophy for using AI without becoming a passenger. Victor draws a sharp line between generative AI (press a button, get “a masterpi...
Show more...
Technology
Episodes (20/117)
AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The “Talk With Einstein” AI Rule You Should Follow, w/ New Yorker Cartoonist Victor Varnado
Is AI making creators more powerful… or more replaceable? And if you start with a blank page for a living, there’s an even sharper question underneath it: should AI write for you… or write with you? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Victor Varnado—a New Yorker cartoonist, comedian, actor, and creative technologist—to explore a grounded, practical philosophy for using AI without becoming a passenger. Victor draws a sharp line between generative AI (press a button, get “a masterpi...
Show more...
3 days ago
41 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The New Year Reality Check: Who’s Really Adopting AI, w/ Ramp Economist Ara Kharazian
What’s actually happening with AI adoption inside U.S. businesses—and how much of the public discourse is just vibes? In this episode of AI-Curious, we dig into the hard numbers behind AI spend and adoption with Ara Kharazian, an economist at Ramp and the leader of Ramp Economics Lab. Using anonymized, real-time corporate spend data across tens of thousands of businesses, Ara shares what the “receipts” reveal about who’s buying AI, how fast budgets are shifting, and where the hype diverges fr...
Show more...
1 week ago
43 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
How AI Will Reshape the Economy, w/ Anindya Ghose, the Director of AI at NYU Stern
What does an AI-driven economy actually look like when you zoom out far enough—and what does that mean for jobs, power, and policy? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Anindya Ghose (NYU Stern; author of Thrive) about the “AI economy blueprint”: how the modern economy starts to resemble a vertically layered tech stack—from energy and chips all the way up to consumer-facing apps—and why that stack is quietly reshaping everything from corporate strategy to the future of work. We cover w...
Show more...
1 week ago
43 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
AI in Hospitals: Less Burnout, Fewer Errors, Better Care? w/ Dr. Michael Karch
Could AI actually make healthcare more human—less paperwork, less burnout, fewer errors—or is it mostly hype layered on top of a legacy system? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Dr. Michael Karch, an orthopedic surgeon (hip + knee replacement) with ~30 years of clinical experience who also made a serious pivot into data, machine learning, and AI strategy for healthcare. We dig into what hospitals are actually doing with AI today, where the real friction points are, and what a smarte...
Show more...
2 weeks ago
46 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Leveraging AI to Go from Doer to Leader, w/ Miri Rodriguez, former Storyteller at Microsoft and CEO of Empressa.AI
Could AI help you lead—not just do—especially if you’re thinking about building something entrepreneurial? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Miri Rodriguez, formerly a “storyteller” at Microsoft, now the CEO of Empressa.AI, about what it means to go from Doer to Leader in an AI era—and how an AI-first operating style can give a small team outsized leverage. Miri shares how storytelling functioned as a practical tool inside Microsoft (not fluffy marketing), why she decided to leave C...
Show more...
2 weeks ago
35 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Inside the Wild World of "AI Agent Traders", and What That Means for the Rest Of Us, w/ PIP CEO Saad Naja
Could AI agents become better traders than humans—and what happens when “decision-making” gets outsourced to software that can act at machine speed? In this conversation, we go deep with Saad Naja, founder of PIP World, on the rise of AI agent auto-traders: multi-agent “swarms” that resemble a miniature trading desk—specialist analysts feeding into an AI “portfolio manager” that can decide whether to buy, sell, or hold. Even if you’ve never day traded, finance may be one of the clearest real-...
Show more...
1 month ago
44 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Can AI Help Eradicate Poverty? How AI is Helping African Farmers and Teachers, w/ Opportunity International's Ama Akuamoah & Paul Essene
Can AI actually help eradicate poverty for real people, right now—not in some vague future? We talk with two leaders from Opportunity International who are trying to do exactly that, using AI to support smallholder farmers and low-cost private schools across Africa and beyond. In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Ama Akuamoah and Paul Essene from Opportunity International’s Digital Innovation Group. We explore how they’re deploying AI chatbots over WhatsApp to help farmers diagnose...
Show more...
1 month ago
46 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
How We Got Here and Where We're Going: AI History (and Future) w/ Vasant Dhar, Author of Thinking with Machines
Is AI making us smarter or dumber—and how do we make sure we’re on the right side of that divide? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Professor Vasant Dhar, author of the new book Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI. Vasant isn’t just a historian of AI; he’s part of the story. In the 1990s, he helped bring machine learning to Wall Street, founded one of the world’s first ML-based hedge funds, and became the first professor to teach AI at NYU Stern, where he’s now the Rob...
Show more...
1 month ago
42 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
How San Jose is Harnessing AI (and What We Can Learn From It), w/ Mayor Matt Mahan
Can a city use AI to cut red tape, fill potholes faster, and shave minutes off commutes—without sliding into surveillance? We sit down with San José’s mayor, Matt Mahan, to unpack how a highly regulated public institution can adopt AI pragmatically and responsibly. In this episode, we dig into the playbook: pilots that become policy, guardrails that build trust, and workforce upskilling that actually moves the needle. We cover how bus routes now hit fewer red lights, why real-time translation...
Show more...
2 months ago
35 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The Complicated Intersection of AI and Creativity, w/ Dr. Maya Ackerman
Does AI make us more creative—or quietly replace us? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Dr. Maya Ackerman—author of Creative Machines: AI, Art, and Us—to probe where human creativity ends and machine creativity begins, and how incentives in Big Tech and venture capital shape the tools we all use. We explore why today’s dominant systems skew “convergent” (safe, samey, oracle-like) instead of “divergent” (surprising, generative), what that means for artists, and how to design...
Show more...
2 months ago
39 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
LinkedIn's Chief AI Officer, Deepak Agarwal, on AI Agents, Building Responsible AI, and the Future of Work
What does hiring look like when AI is embedded into the world’s largest professional network—and how should leaders, recruiters, and job-seekers adapt? We sit down with Deepak Agarwal, LinkedIn’s Chief AI Officer, for a practical playbook on AI at work: production-grade AI agents for hiring, how semantic job search changes discovery, why “relevance” is the antidote to spammy outreach, and how to build a culture of responsible AI that scales. We unpack where humans stay firmly in the loop—and...
Show more...
3 months ago
48 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Why GEO is the New SEO--And How Businesses Must Adapt--w/ Curtis Sparrer, co-founder of Bospar
Will GEO replace SEO? (Spoiler alert: Probably!) We dig into how generative engines are reshaping discovery, why executives are already making decisions from AI answers, and what brands should do now to show up accurately and credibly in AI results. In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Curtis Sparrer, co-founder and principal at Bospar PR (and president of the San Francisco Press Club). Curtis has been experimenting across models, building a GEO toolkit (“Audit-E”), and advising co...
Show more...
3 months ago
40 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Space Robots Are Here *Now*, w/ Icarus Robotics cofounders Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer
What happens when “space robots” stop being sci-fi set dressing and start punching a clock? We dig into a new breed of microgravity robots that do the unglamorous work—so astronauts can do more science. In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Ethan Barajas (CEO) and Jamie Palmer (CTO), co-founders of Icarus Robots, fresh out of stealth with a $6M raise. Their pitch is simple and radical: put agile, teleoperated robots insidespacecraft like the ISS to handle cargo, inspections, and mainten...
Show more...
3 months ago
41 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
AI Agents, Digital Twins, and the Future of Work, w/ Read.AI CEO David Shim
What if “AI teammates” aren’t sci-fi at all, but the next mundane tool that quietly kills Monday dread? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with David Shim, CEO of Read.ai, to unpack what workers actually want from AI, how teams are adopting agents from the bottom up, and what a practical “digital twin” might do at work—minus the Black Mirror vibes. We cover fast-path ROI (meeting notes → action items), the shift from “prompts” to ambient workflows, and why the most valuable corporate ...
Show more...
4 months ago
41 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
How AI Could Help Solve Climate Change, w/ Climate Tech Expert Josh Dorfman
AI is often framed as a climate problem—energy-hungry data centers, ballooning carbon emissions, and talk of nuclear power just to keep the servers running. But could AI also become part of the solution? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Josh Dorfman—climate tech entrepreneur and host of Supercool—to explore how artificial intelligence might help tackle climate change. Josh doesn’t offer hand-wavy promises. Instead, we dive into concrete examples where AI is already making a dif...
Show more...
4 months ago
45 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Can AI Be Funny? With ComedyBytes’ Eric Doyle
Can artificial intelligence actually be funny, or is humor still a human stronghold? We explore that question with Eric Doyle, co-founder of ComedyBytes, a Brooklyn-based multimedia comedy show where AI and humans face off in roast battles, dating games, and other interactive formats. Doyle combines the craft of stand-up with the tools of generative AI, building AI characters like “AI Kanye West” or “AI Sarah Silverman” that deliver pre-scripted jokes in real time. In this episode of AI-Curio...
Show more...
5 months ago
39 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The New Jobs That AI Might Create, w/ Robert Capps (NYT Magazine Contributor)
Is Kant the new code? If AI can write, code, and even plan, which human skills suddenly become scarce—and valuable? In this conversation with Robert Capps (former Editorial Director of Wired, contributor to The New York Times Magazine), we dive into his widely shared NYT Mag feature, “AI Might Take Your Job. Here Are 22 New Ones It Could Give You.” We unpack the three big buckets of new work he sees emerging—Trust, Integrators, and Taste—and explore why philosophy majors, auditors, and “AI tr...
Show more...
5 months ago
51 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
AI and Education: Inside the AI Solution Partnering with Denver Public Schools, w/ Dr. Michael Everest
Could AI actually improve public education? Not just automate it, but make it more personalized, more equitable — and even more human? We explore this possibility with Dr. Michael Everest, founder of edYOU, an AI tutoring platform being piloted in a Denver-area school district. While many worry that AI could become a shortcut for students to avoid real learning, Everest argues the opposite — that AI can reinforce understanding, boost confidence, and offer 24/7 support tailored to each student...
Show more...
5 months ago
47 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
AI's Impact on History Writing and Journalism, w/ The New York Times Magazine's Editorial Director Bill Wasik
What happens when AI becomes a co-pilot for writers, researchers, and journalists — not in theory, but in practice? In this episode of AI-Curious, we speak with Bill Wasik, Editorial Director of The New York Times Magazine, who recently oversaw their special issue, “Learning to Live with AI.” We explore how AI is already transforming journalism, nonfiction writing, and historical research — and why the most interesting impacts may come not from content creation, but from how we discover, orga...
Show more...
6 months ago
48 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The (Data-Driven) Top AI Trends, w/ the CEOs of HumanX and Read.AI
What are the top minds in AI actually talking about behind closed doors? At the HumanX conference—arguably the flagship event in the AI ecosystem—hundreds of speakers (from CEOs to policymakers to Kamala Harris) shared their unfiltered thoughts on the state and future of artificial intelligence. But with so much happening at once, even attendees couldn’t absorb it all. So HumanX did something novel: they partnered with Read.AI to record and synthesize every single session. The result? A real-...
Show more...
6 months ago
43 minutes

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Is AI making creators more powerful… or more replaceable? And if you start with a blank page for a living, there’s an even sharper question underneath it: should AI write for you… or write with you? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Victor Varnado—a New Yorker cartoonist, comedian, actor, and creative technologist—to explore a grounded, practical philosophy for using AI without becoming a passenger. Victor draws a sharp line between generative AI (press a button, get “a masterpi...