Actually Intelligent

In this episode, host Max Thon sits down with Allan Francis Beechinor , founder and inventor at EmergeGen AI . Drawing on nearly three decades of experience spanning electrical engineering, advanced computing, and AI innovation, Allan shares the journey that led him to build a company focused on secure, sovereign artificial  intelligence powered by the convergence of quantum technologies and machi...

Buying a home remains one of the most complex and consequential decisions people make. In this episode, host Max Thon sits down with Dan Hnatkovskyy, CEO and co-founder of Jome, to explore how artificial intelligence is helping modernize an industry that has long relied on manual processes and fragmented customer experiences. Dan shares how Jome is helping bridge the gap between homebuyers and bui...

Welcome to another episode of "Actually Intelligent," where Beck Bamberger sits down with Peter Purcell, founder and CEO of Poplar, for a conversation about the future of AI-powered marketing, personal branding, and founder-led content. Together, they explore how Poplar is helping executives and founders turn their expertise into authentic, high-signal content across platforms like LinkedIn—withou...

On today's episode of Actually Intelligent , Max Thon sits down with Dr. Aki Al-Zubaidi, founder and CEO of Eon Health, to discuss how his experiences as an interventional pulmonologist led him to build technology for preventing missed diagnoses and improving lung cancer care through AI and automation. The two also explore the growing challenges facing healthcare systems—from fragmented patient da...

This week on Actually Intelligent, Max Thon unpacks three AI stories that all point to the same question: who decides what AI does in the real world? From an AI-run store making hiring decisions, to a new push for international AI governance, to a fresh perspective on what AI can't replace in the labor market, this episode explores where control, responsibility, and trust in AI are being defined.

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, Max Thon sits down with Inspiren CTO, Dominique Simoneau-Ritchie, to explore how AI is being applied in senior care. They discuss how Inspiren uses computer vision and data to help prevent falls, how to design for caregivers in high-pressure environments, and what it takes to build AI systems that actually work in the real world. A grounded look at AI in he...

This week on Actually Intelligent, Max Thon breaks down three AI stories that all point to the same thing: a growing trust crisis. From The New York Times' AI plagiarism controversy to California setting new rules for AI companies, to OpenAI stepping into media, the lines around authorship, regulation, and influence are starting to blur. Who creates the content, who sets the rules, and who control...

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, Max Thon sits down with Alex Pezold, CEO and co-founder of Agentech, to explore where AI, cybersecurity, and workflow automation collide—especially inside the insurance industry. Alex brings a unique perspective—coming off a nine-figure exit in cybersecurity and now building in one of the most complex, slow-moving systems out there: claims management. In th...

On this episode, Max Thon sits down with Andrew Bihl, co-founder and CTO of Numeric—a team building the pipes behind how enterprise finance actually works. This isn't a surface-level AI conversation. It's a real look at what happens when you try to bring intelligence into one of the most complex, trust-driven functions inside a business: accounting. From untangling messy cash flows to the very rea...

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, host Max Thon sits down with James Brear, CEO of Mindgard, and Peter Garraghan, the company's founder and a leading academic in AI and systems security. Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the core infrastructure of modern enterprises. The problem? Security hasn't kept pace. Most cybersecurity tools were built for traditional software—not fo...

If AI is going to shape the future of research, it doesn't get a free pass. It has to earn its place. And in academia, trust isn't assumed. On the latest episode of Actually Intelligent, host Max Thone sits down with Seth Watson, co-founder of Moara, for a clear-eyed conversation about what it really takes to bring AI into research environments where rigor, sourcing, and credibility are non-negoti...

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, host Max Thone goes solo to make sense of a chaotic week in AI—one where headlines moved faster than reality and speculation briefly became market signal. Max breaks down why OpenAI's headline-grabbing $500B "Stargate" data center project stalled, what a reported standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon reveals about where AI safety lines are actually be...

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, Max talks with Luis Loaiza, CEO and founder of Jelou.ai, about the rise of transactional AI inside the world's most-used messaging platforms. From building chatbots as a teenager to launching infrastructure that enables secure, agent-driven transactions directly within WhatsApp, Luis is focused on one thing: making AI useful. In Latin America and beyond, th...

On this special episode of Actually Intelligent, BAM's own Beck Bamberger, host of Coffee with a Founder, steps in to moderate a timely conversation with Ethan Smith, CEO of Graphite. Together, they unpack how AI is reshaping the future of software, search, and the emerging ecosystem of tools that are changing how teams build. Fresh off a live event in San Francisco, Ethan breaks down why today's...

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, Max Thon sits down with Dominic Malone, founder and CEO of Wellie—an AI-powered wellness company on a mission to make burnout a thing of the past. Together, they explore how Wellie uses AI to move from reactive support to predictive insights—helping individuals and organizations spot burnout before it happens. Dominic shares how Wellie was born from Arise W...

On this episode of Actually Intelligent, Max Thon sits down with Lexi Reese, CEO and co-founder of Lanai, the enterprise AI observability platform helping companies track, govern, and scale AI workflows without the creep factor. Lexi unpacks how AI is becoming an invisible second workforce and what leaders need to do now to manage it responsibly. With past roles at Google, Gusto, and AmEx, she bri...

On today's episode of Actually Intelligent, Patrick Ellis, the CTO and co-founder of SnapBar and resident AI expert at the AI house in Seattle, shares how SnapBar is turning AI-generated imagery and video into immersive marketing experiences. The two also discuss how bridging the gap between a cool demo and a real product is harder than it looks, and a rapid-fire breakdown of which LLMs are best f...

On today's episode of Actually Intelligent, Max sits down with Emre Kazim, the co-founder of Holistic AI. From unpacking what AI governance actually means, to auditing systems for bias and compliance, and even managing the risks of "shadow AI," Emre shares lessons drawn from both academic research and hands-on experience helping enterprises adopt and scale AI with confidence.

Actually Intelligent showcases how founders, investors, and everyday people are using artificial intelligence. Hosted by Max Thon, a media strategist with a deep passion for making complex technology understandable, the show goes beyond the hype to reveal the human creativity, challenges, and breakthroughs driving AI forward. Each episode unpacks real stories of AI in action, from research to prac...