Shows
Beyond Electric SheepIs Your Job Doomed?In this thirteen-minute Episode 34, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss a new trend of CEO’s warning their employees that they need to learn how to use AI. Brick and Ed discuss Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman’s letter to his employees about AI. Brick reads a quote “If you do not become an exceptional talent at what you do, a master, you will face the need for a career change in a matter of months. I am not trying to scare you….I am talking about your ability to stay in your profession in the industry. Are we all do...2025-06-1213 minBeyond Electric SheepAI EvolutionIn this eleven-minute Episode 33, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss Google’s new AlphaEvolve, an evolutionary coding agent developed by Google DeepMind. AlphaEvolve uses an LLM to generate different versions of the target algorithm’s code, and then applies an evolutionary algorithm to evaluate and select the most promising code version.Ed and Brick riff on how this tool could be used in the business world to improve business processes. They also speculate on how humans fit into this approach. Do we still have a role to play? Brick and Ed wrap it up by spinning off into...2025-06-0511 minBeyond Electric SheepE32 Bottom RungIn this 13-minute Episode 32, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss AI's impact on employment and how the ‘Bottom Rung’ jobs may be going away…replaced by AI Agents. Brick notes that this will present a problem for companies where typically new talent is brought in at an entry level, and as new employees gain experience, they advance up the career ladder. Without the Bottom Rung jobs, experienced people will not be available to fill the next level of jobs as managers advance up the ladder and, eventually, retire. Ed notes that new college graduate...2025-05-2813 minBeyond Electric SheepRobotsIn this 12-minute episode, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson talk about how large language model AI technology is about to facilitate a huge advancement in robotics. Ed recently rewrote his science fiction novel "The Last of the Firefighters" where robotics invades the profession of firefighting. Brick and Ed talk about the various scenarios portrayed in Ed's novel. https://thelastofthefirefighters.com/ We also discuss robot vacuum cleaners, self-driving cars, and other advances in robotics. The name of this podcast, "Beyond Electric Sheep," is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K...2025-04-2212 minBeyond Electric SheepNotebookLMIn this nine-minute Episode, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss Google’s NotebookLM, a fascinating new tool that generates a podcast from one or up to 50 source documents. All the Google user needs to do is to drag the intended files into the NotebookLM window and instruct the application to generate an audio podcast. After some thinking, the one male and one female synthetic characters interact for ten to thirty minutes having an informative and entertaining conversation about the source documents. It must be tried to be believed!Brick discusses how he used it to help his da...2025-04-1508 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 29 - Deep ResearchIn this eleven minute Episode 29, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss AI's new Deep Research capabilities. Deep Research is a new capability that allows the AI user to pose a question or suggest a topic area, and ask the AI model to spend 5 - 10 minutes researching via the web before composing a full report. Sometimes these reports can be 10 to 15 pages in length complete with footnotes, explanations and web links. Brick talks about how he uses ChatGPT Deep Research from OpenAI as part of his daily business and personal workflow. For example, he queues up research queries o...2025-04-0711 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 27 - Book WritingIn this ten-minute Episode #27 - Book Writing, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels talk about Ed’s latest adventures in book writing. This was a topic of two previous podcasts, and now Ed is nearing his final product and has continued to learn a lot about how to use – and how to not use – AI in this process. Ed and Brick also discuss the current flood of AI-written books and talk about how the right amount of AI contribution can improve the quality of writing. But Brick and Ed aren’t ready to entirely turn over writing...2025-03-2310 minBeyond Electric SheepE28 - Just Buy It!In this ten-minute Episode #28, Just Buy It! Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels talk about whether it makes sense to buy a premium subscription to ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini. Brick argues it is important for all of us, young and old, to keep up with this new technology. Ed argues that these premium-levels help the AI models remember you and tailor their responses to your preferred style. Both podcasters agree that, if you can afford it, you should subscribe to one or two premium-level AI services.- OpenAI https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing/ - A...2025-03-2309 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 26 - Not UBIIn Episode 26 - Not UBI, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss Ed’s concept of the Citizen Ownership Dividend. It is a bold idea in response to AI-caused job displacement. The implementation of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Robotics (AI+Robotics) will have a significant impact on employment in the United States and worldwide. AI can already speak, create text, and generate images on par with skilled human writers and artists. With these capabilities, AI will soon be able to perform the jobs of many office workers — including managers. Meanwhile, humanoid robots are being prot...2025-03-2211 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 25 - AI Adoption at WorkIn this episode, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss how AI should be used in the work environment. Brick explains the steps he is taking to encourage his employees to use AI in a safe and secure manner. Working individually and together, his team is learning how to produce results faster and better. Brick explains some specific use cases like in sales where they use AI more intensively. A specific AI tool, gong.io, helps coach salespeople, track, and measure steps in the sales process. Brick’s advice for fellow CEOs about how to promote adoption of AI...2025-01-2710 minBeyond Electric SheepE23 - AI and Hiring - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIIn this episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss AI and Hiring. How is AI being used to help you get a job? For employers, how can AI help you hire the best people? Our discussion extended into other related matchmaking topics such as dating. You can see the similarities, using AI to match a prospective employee with an employer, and using AI to match two people for a date and a possible relationship. One possible AI workflow for this is having “my people talk to your people” where ‘people’ are AI agent...2024-10-0907 minBeyond Electric SheepE24 AI use in Education - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIAI use in Education is the topic for this 13-minute episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI. Brick explains the way we educate children today is the same way we educated them one hundred (or maybe even 1,000) years ago. Now AI has the potential to deliver individualized learning to every child. Brick acknowledges the work of Ethan Mollick, Associate Professor at Wharton who advocates for the use of AI in education. https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/emollick/ Brick and Ed also credit Salman Khan, a former hedge fund analyst with degrees from MIT and H...2024-10-0911 minBeyond Electric SheepThe Idea of Order at Key WestThank you to my friend George Dykes for suggesting that I study this poem by Wallace Stevens.This audio dialogue and the following summary were both generated by an experimental AI from Google.Summary"The Idea of Order at Key West" is a poem by Wallace Stevens, exploring the connection between human creativity and the natural world. The poem centers on a woman singing at Key West, whose voice is described as both powerful and beautiful. Stevens contrasts her song with the seemingly chaotic elements of nature, such as the sea...2024-09-2210 minBeyond Electric SheepSagittal AlignmentSummaryThis article from The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery discusses the importance of sagittal alignment in the treatment of degenerative lumbar spine pathologies, such as degenerative disc disease and spondylolisthesis. The authors advocate for a detailed assessment of segmental lordosis and pelvic incidence, which influences the optimal surgical approach and target lordosis for individual patients. They argue that restoring segmental lordosis can improve patient outcomes, decrease the incidence of adjacent segment disease, and reduce low back pain. The article also emphasizes the need for careful...2024-09-2206 minBeyond Electric SheepPast is Prologue 2024This article explores the historical presence of other intelligent hominin species alongside Homo sapiens, emphasizing the potential lessons we can learn from their interactions. It speculates on how our ancestors might have interacted with these other hominins, suggesting that both cooperation and conflict might have existed. The article then draws a parallel to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting that we may soon be sharing the world with intelligent AI entities. The author argues that we need to carefully consider how we interact with these new beings, learning from past mistakes and striving for a future where both...2024-09-1706 minBeyond Electric SheepSpace Data CentersThis Podcast is based on an article I published on Medium.com. The article discusses the growing energy demands of data centers, which are vital for artificial intelligence development, and proposes an innovative solution: space data centers. This alternative would leverage space resources for electricity generation and cooling, minimizing the environmental impact of data processing. The article explores the feasibility of space-based data centers, examining potential locations like low Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, and even the moon, while highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each. The article concludes that with continued research and development, space data centers could become...2024-09-1708 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 19 – AI in Clinical Medicine - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIIn this 11-minute episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss an AI application that Ed recently discussed with a large healthcare company. This application is in production and helps clinicians interact with patients about their care. Brick and Ed talk about the stringent requirements for such a system and discuss topics like where the AI’s data comes from, how the AI fits into into the patient-clinician interaction, and how patient safety (and company liability) are protected. They also talk about potential AI bias that needs to be avoided. One interesting co...2024-08-2010 min
Beyond Electric SheepEpisode 20 - AI and ArtIn this 10-minute episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss AI and Art. Brick notes that he would pay more for human generated art as compared to AI generated art. Brick and Ed explore this feeling in more detail and compare and contrast AI versus human art. They wonder if the eventual perfect quality of AI art will actually make it worth less than human created art with all its flaws. How will these differences manifest themselves in all the various forms of art, including music, painting, dance, and other media...2024-08-0610 minBeyond Electric SheepE18 - Generating Code with Claude 3.5 SonnetIn this 9-minute episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss how Brick asked Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet to write the code for a Pong game. It did so and, after a few requests for modifications, produced a usable game. This capability has huge implications for software developers, and for the evolution of AI. Ed asked Brick if he would advise a young person to pursue a programming career given AI’s new code-writing capabilities. Brick concluded that, for the mid-term future, there will still be opportunities for work in requirements definition, qual...2024-07-3009 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 17 - Using AI to Research a Personal Medical ConditionIn this 13-minute episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss how ChatGPT 4o helped Ed understand his optical migraines. Brick asks Ed about his condition and Ed explains why he decided to discuss his personal medical condition with an AI LLM. Ed elaborates on how he approached the conversation, what he learned, and what he did about it. Brick and Ed also cover the risks of using AI for medical advice, and how to safely act on the AI’s advice.The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is...2024-07-1913 minBeyond Electric SheepE16 – The Intersection of Stupid and Smart - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIPolitics are getting dumber. AI is getting smarter. What happens when they meet? In this 12-minute episode, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss Ed’s latest Medium.com article, “We Have Arrived at the Intersection of Stupid and Smart.” Today’s Multimodal Large Language Models are incredibly smart and are available for use by millions of people creating the potential for everyone in the United States to get smarter and smarter. On the other hand, politics in the United States seems to get stupider and stupider every day. What’s going to happen when we get to the interse...2024-06-1812 minBeyond Electric SheepE14 Conference Follow-up - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIIn this thirteen-minute Episode, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss a conference on AI that Ed facilitated recently. We discuss the “Event Bot” that Ed created and how it was received by conference attendees. We also discuss the conference attendees, both AI experts and AI novices, and note how they responded to Ed’s update on the current state of AI. While concerned about privacy impacts, no one seemed worried about losing their job, or about the robots taking over Earth. Eventually, Brick and Ed note how business processes are speeding up due to AI, and what organizations need to do...2024-06-0713 minBeyond Electric SheepBuilding an Event Bot - Episode 13 - Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AIIn this 11-minute episode, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss a project Ed is working on to prepare for an AI workshop he is facilitating. He and the event host decided to build an “Event Bot” using an LLM that has knowledge of the upcoming event and can converse with and answer questions from the event attendees. To build the Bot, Ed used the https://youai.ai/ platform selecting the Claude 3 Opus LLM https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family. Ed also built a separate Bot using the D-ID platform https://www.d-id.com/agents/ to create a spe...2024-04-1811 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 11 - The Future of AI in Healthcare - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIIn this 12-minute episode, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson consider the future of AI in the healthcare Industry. Their discussion includes the juncture of AI and telemedicine and how AI will help improve access to care. They talk about how AI could improve both the availability and quality of disease screening, how AI can help physicians manage the onslaught of data from personal devices and sensors, and the impact of AI on radiology and physician workload.The name of our podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by...2024-04-1711 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 12 - Embodied AIIn this 14-minute episode, Brick and Ed discuss Embodied AI. What happens when we give Humanoid Robots the intelligence and language capabilities of GPT-4? How will we respond to them and feel about them? Brick uses the example of his little French Bulldog harassing his vacuuming robots, and Ed talks about a San Francisco mob burning a Waymo car. What can we expect when Humanoid Robots interact with people on a massive scale around the world? The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K...2024-04-1713 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 10 - Will AI make Healthcare Data Standards Obsolete?In this episode, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson ask the question, “Will AI make healthcare data standards obsolete?” AI tools like GPT-4 can transcribe and “understand” doctors’ notes. Ed explains how they can generate standardized codes based on natural language. Will AIs eventually be able to code and exchange data on their own without using the data standards we have worked so hard to create? Check out this interesting discussion. For those who want to read about this topic, here is a link to a Medium.com article Ed wrote on this subject: https://medium.com/@edbdaniels/ais-impact-on-healthcare-data-standards-36b6347d70bb2024-03-0711 minBeyond Electric SheepAI in Healthcare - Episode 9 - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIIn this, our 9th episode, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss how AI is being adopted in many areas of the healthcare industry. Brick and Ed talk about how physician's notes and exam room dialogue are being transcribed and then parsed into standard codes. We also discuss how AI is being used in research and development and even in the surgical suite. It should be noted that there are United States Government Federal regulations about using AI in healthcare applications. Other local and country-level governments have also enacted or are considering laws and rules to regulate AI in healthcare.2024-03-0409 minBeyond Electric SheepBeyond Electric Sheep - Episode 5: AGI, ASI, and Rapid TakeoffIn Episode 5, we discuss the advent of Artificial Superintelligence and talk about the risks associated with their implementation. We consider their “Alignment” with human values and human interests. Finally, we ask the question, "Will Alignment and consciousness have to be designed into AIs, or some form of ethical behavior just emerge from superintelligence?"Featuring Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson, the name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It expl...2024-02-0611 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 8 AI Enhanced Democracy - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AIIn Episode 8 of the Beyond Electric Sheep podcast on AI, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson spend 8 minutes discussing how AI could be used to enhance democracy. News broadcasts constantly talk about the negative effects of social media and AI on our society. But there may be ways to use AI to help citizens participate more effectively in government decision making. In the local context, AI meeting summarizers could transcribe neighborhood meeting discussions and extract key points and arguments. These key points and arguments would then be passed along to other neighborhoods as well as up to the city council...2024-02-0607 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 4 - The Turing Test, AGI, and ASIIn Episode 4, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson discuss the current state and short-term future of AI. In ten minutes, they discuss The Turing Test, Artificial General Intelligence, and progress toward Artificial Super Intelligence. The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. The novel raises the question of whether androids c...2024-02-0611 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 7 - What's Past is PrologueEpisode 7 of the Beyond Electric Sheep podcast on AI discusses what our future will be like living with other intelligent beings. Interestingly, this isn't the first time Homo Sapiens has lived with other intelligent being. In this episode, Brick Thompson and I discuss my Medium.com article "What's Past is Prologue" which can be found at https://medium.com/@edbdaniels/whats-past-is-prologue-10af858525d2 Ed observes that Homo Sapiens evolved alongside other Intelligent Hominins. He then asks what lessons that experience might teach us as we begin to live with our newly-created intelligent AI companions. Brick and Ed talk about t...2024-01-3012 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 6 - AI Adoption and Expectations by Business Executives for 2024In our 6th episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels share our observations about what corporate executives and their management teams are thinking about #ai at the start of 2024. Who is using AI and in what ways? What are their fears and expectations? In a quick 12 minutes, we discuss our conversations about AI, and our expectations for 2024.The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade...2024-01-2412 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 3 - Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AI - Prompting and WorkflowsEpisode 3 featuring Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson. The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. In this episode we discuss LLM Prompting and Workflows. We talk about how we have used these tools in our daily work and share some tricks and techniques.Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 2023-10-2012 minBeyond Electric SheepBeyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AI - Episode 2 - How we use LLMs in our daily workflowWelcome to our second episode of Beyond Electric Sheep - A Podcast on AI. In this episode Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss how they use #LLM Large Language Models in their daily workflow. In only 10-minutes you can listen to a friendly back-and-forth chat about #AI and how we use it to increase our own productivity.Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 2023-09-2111 minBeyond Electric SheepEpisode 1 - Introduction to the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AIIn this introductory podcast, Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson introduce themselves and explain how they intend to take the listener on an exciting tour of this new world of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models. Brick and Ed discuss the impact AI is having on businesses and careers, and how those who experiment with and embrace AI will succeed, but those who do not will be left behind. By joining this weekly podcast, listeners will find encouragement and support in their efforts to join this new exciting world of intelligent assistants, and ultimately superintelligent companions.Beyond Electric...2023-09-1111 min