The AI Optimist

Once upon a time, LinkedIn promised to be the professional's haven, a digital space where careers flourish, forging meaningful connections. Fast forward to today, and it’s a new stark reality: the platform is a breeding ground for artificial engagement and algorithmic manipulation. Welcome to the world of 2024 LinkedIn, where an estimated 25% of traffic is nothing more than bots, according to a st...

In the world of AI-powered meeting solutions, one name stands out: Fathom. Founded by serial entrepreneur Richard White, Fathom has quickly risen to become the #1 AI note-taking service. How did this journey begin, and what lessons can entrepreneurs and small businesses learn from Fathom's success? Let's dive into Richard's story and explore the human side of building an AI-powered business. Richa...

Are deep fake political videos The Ultimate Threat and California's upcoming legislation, The Cure? Welcome to the funhouse mirror of modern democracy, where reality is negotiable, and your eyes and ears might lie. Listen and ask yourself: Can you spot the deep fake? Another trick is trying to sound black. I pretend to celebrate Kwanzaa, and in my speeches, I always do my best Barack Obama impress...

The Human Equation: How One Young Entrepreneur Blends Data and Empathy for Explosive Growth In the bustling world of startups and tech innovations, it's easy to get lost in the sea of data, algorithms, and AI-driven strategies. But what if the secret sauce to success isn't just in the numbers, but in the people behind them? Enter Maximillian Naza , the engineer turned entrepreneur who's rewriting...

Everyone's talking about Eric Schmidt's Silicon Valley blunt video. Still, they need to include how it applies to AI and remember the artists' work is in these AI models for nothing. This episode is about how the AI industry's "copy and conquer" mentality is crashing into the reality of copyright law. First, the AI leaders came for our content, taking it without permission. It's the internet. As E...

Once upon a time, we said, "trust the science," the method of finding answers. Then came this new study, rooted in the scientific method, carefully and cleverly outlining new research. It was peer-reviewed and approved for publication. It gave us this rat with giant balls. I mean, they're twice the size of its head parts. It probably needs a wheelbarrow to walk down the street. But then somebody n...

Mastering Generative Engine Optimization: A Guide to Getting Found in the AI Era Feeling like your content and business is lost in AI? "The AI Optimist podcast," is ranking well on Google, but when I searched for it on AI platforms like Perplexity, it was nowhere to be found. SearchGPT by OpenAI coming soon It was like my content had vanished into a digital black box. 0:00 - Finding my site in the...

The first AI copyright in the world goes to a Chinese AI artist, and nobody talks about it or likely even knows about it. Recognizing the importance and direction of human beings with Generative AI seems evident to those who use it. Why do courts throughout the world reject copyrights for AI-generated art? In this episode, we explore the complex world of AI-generated art, copyright issues, and the...

Listen to the engineer speak driving the AI industry and you understand why adoption is slow. When you listen, you learn what the customer wants. Most engineers are so excited, for good reason, they spiel about features without asking the person what they actually want. We share a framework and tools below to help simplify this for tech startups, and anyone offering a product or service. This podc...

Most AI Agents talk about what they’ll do in 2-3 years, based on predictions of the future and suspect business models. Then there’s LevelFields.ai , an AI Agent that automates the research and evaluation process for the stock market. Developed using a proprietary technology, this is one of the first working examples of an AI Agent. In this episode of The AI Optimist podcast, we explore the world...

How can I help a small company with 20 employees be more efficient and productive? It should be obvious, right? But that's what the CEO asked me. And the only use cases he could really cite were some tricks and things done on social media. Is that our best use case of AI? Tik Tok Vide o It was crazy. And part of it is driven by this industry and why it needs to change. And it's changing right now....

Since the early days of the Internet (and long before), the romantic image of the entrepreneur as a visionary individual, working in a garage, fueled by passion and top ramen.   These change the world kind of characters are easy to remember, from Steve Jobs to Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to Mark Zuckerberg working out of his dorm to invent Facebook. Get a few people together, break some r...

Starting to prompt, I have so many ideas and questions I'd throw them together.  Here’s the question spoken back to me: “Writing a historical accuracy fact checking article, outline why the 1970's economic downspin with high inflation was ended by technological advances in the 1980's which spurred on the economy. Compare and contrast this to the historical assumption that Reagan's tax cut spurred...

Watching that hand go up in the back really nervously asking me a question at the end of a workshop almost made me cringe. "Where do I buy prompts?" After teaching people about generative AI, I had to help them figure out just what the data part was. Giving AI insights and information to frame the question so you get a better answer is crucial. Generative AI determines patterns. And how do you get...

"Start with the customer. What are they telling you in the agent space that they want or is missing?" Richmond Alake In the early days of AI, Agents come with a bit of hype and a ton of promise, if you begin with simple steps. This DIY AI Agent Roadmap walks you through the before, during, and after of creating 2 simple AI Agents. And if you’d like a free test drive of MongoDB, Richmond shares thi...

Infinite scrolling. Social media is like swimming upstream. The further you go, the more content you see. And then that weird old newspaper viral image that snapped up everywhere on my social media last week. Out of nowhere. From people I haven't connected to in years. Flooding timelines with this quote: "You know what the biggest problem with pushing all things AI is? Wrong direction. I want AI t...

Last year it was all "AI First" - put in AI and let the disruption begin. Believing is seeing like seeing is believing, and in this case it’s like an entire AI industry screams of the insane future coming, while Google’s AI Overview suggests putting glue on pizza. And it slowly is happening. But AI lacks something sort of kinda meaningful, trusted - like this robo call, AI generated - "Is a real p...

“Art is not just about technique or style; it's about capturing the human experience, the raw emotions that words alone cannot convey. How can an AI truly understand the depths of what it means to be human?" Geoffrey Laurence Scarlett Johansson and the tech giant OpenAI go at it, sparked by the release of an AI-generated "synthetic" voice that badly resembles Johansson's. This "Wonderbread" AI voi...

How do you tell a longtime friend that his book, the one he spent so long on… AI just copied it without your permission! That gut-punch feeling sucks, right? And it’s not just the OpenAI’s of the world, small businesses are scraping, everyone is scraping. You'll hear mind-blowing stories from painters, photographers, and other creatives whose art is scraped and used to train AI systems - no consen...

An author friend's excitement about using AI to create an Audible audiobook of his book quickly turned into a reality check after evaluating the workflow, quality issues, and platform requirements. Despite the hype around AI narration, creating a professional-quality, human-like 5-hour audiobook suitable for platforms like Audible is still a demanding process with current AI capabilities.  "The re...

Step into the world of ancient Rome, where art and technology collide! Using a neural network called Artbreeder , the artist processed over 800 sculptures, breathing life into the frozen faces of history and facing solid critiques. The result is a stunning collection of AI-generated portraits, each a window into the past. But the past emperors couldn’t have looked pale and chalky like a Northern E...

Looks like everyone’s ahead of you with AI?I'll let you in on a little secret. You're either jumping headfirst into AI or telling employees to figure out what's got you excited. That's what first movers do, but most people aren't first movers. And things move slowly. The AI Optimist Episode 41 Playlist https://www.theaioptimist.com/p/shattering-your-ai-ceiling-3-growth 00:00 Saving 3000 hours with...

AI is being rapidly militarized and weaponized by global powers. While we all focus on fake videos, the threat is autonomous drones and a renewed nuclear arms race enabled by AI. Specific examples like Ukraine's AI drones, Israel's nukes, and Russia/China's nuclear stockpiling are evidence of the high stakes and urgency of this issue. AI seems to always come with a benefit and a threat. As the hos...

Episode 39 Playlist 00:00 Intro to concept of discovering your "AI avatar" 03:05 Example 1: The CAIO (Chief AI Officer) role 07:06 Example 2: Travel business saving $500K by integrating AI 10:10 4-week plan for listeners to find their AI avatar 14:47 Importance of personalizing your human-AI relationship 16:44 Conclusion: Embrace AI on your own terms One company saves $500,000 with AI, one has $25...

Is Human Creativity Artificial with AI? And what does it have to do with the old story of Napster and the evolution of digital music? Prepare for a thought-provoking conversation as we unravel the clash between AI technology and copyright law, where licensing rules and individual human rights dance around the new creation process. Our guest author, AI patent attorney Robert Plotkin, opens the door...