The Weird Canadian

Read transcript Episode Notes Will AI take over the world? David Raine built two AIs he says are now smarter than him, and he still doesn't think so. Cody talks with David, a developer and builder and the author of the science fiction novel Space Junker, set in a twenty-second century where Earth is running out of water. David built MIM, a collaborative intelligence, and TOD, a technical operation...

Read transcript Episode Notes AI made most software easy to copy. So if your idea isn't the moat anymore, what is? Cody talks with Paul Westcott, a London founder who went from a Warner deal as a music producer and writer to leasing a van in 2006, building that into Relōku, a London removals and delivery company, and co-founding Traidee AI, which answers calls, books jobs and writes invoices for t...

Read transcript Episode Notes The first voice actor Dan Price called about AI voice cloning interrupted him two sentences in: "I'm in." By Dan's account, 28 of the first 33 actors he called signed on without even discussing the rate. These are the people with the most to lose from AI voices, so why say yes? Dan has made radio ads for 34 years at Oink Ink Radio, the agency he runs with his brother...

Read transcript Episode Notes The interview cuts out and the recruiter sends a new link. It isn't Zoom. Dr. Daniel Daniel describes fake job interview scams that start with a real-looking job ad on LinkedIn, run a first and second round of professional interviews, then "fix" a dropped call with a link that puts malware on your computer. Daniel knows how these scams feel from the inside. He's a Hal...

Read transcript Episode Notes Mark Kreitzman had a carrier PIN, a SIM PIN lock and a rule that nothing on his account could change unless he was in a store with his passport and driver's licence. His number got moved anyway. He tells Cody how it happened: his phone going quiet on a desert highway between Phoenix and Tucson, a flood of password reset alerts once he reached his parents' Wi-Fi, and a...

Read transcript Episode Notes AI can fake anyone, and AI agents can pass as human. So how do you prove a real person sent the message that moves your money, and who answers when an AI agent gets it wrong? Cody puts that question to Wes Kussmaul. Wes launched the Kussmaul Encyclopedia in 1981, the online service that became Delphi, and sold Delphi to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1993. He fo...

Read transcript Episode Notes Robotaxis can drive. Who lifts the wheelchair? Eric Mulvin runs a call center, and his answer sits at the center of this conversation: AI takes the easy work, and the work that needs a person grows. Eric is the CEO and co-founder of Pac Biz Outsourcing, a Phoenix company whose team in the Philippines provides 24/7 customer support for businesses in transportation, sof...

Read transcript Episode Notes Will you still drive when your car can drive itself? Erika Debrah Reed thinks you'll be allowed to, but you won't have to. She expects human driving to end up like riding a Harley: something people do for fun, not to get to work. She also thinks AI's real payoff is time, if companies and people use it with intention. Erika began her career in civil engineering on high...

Read transcript Episode Notes Can AI animation get an independent creator to 80%? Patrick McCarthy thinks it can, for the concept. Getting to 100% still takes people. He's a self-taught animator and Family Guy storyboard artist, and his rule is simple: use AI to get an 80% concept out, so that when the money comes you can bring in the talent that finishes it. Patrick tells Cody how his Stewie Pott...

Read transcript Episode Notes Will AI take my job? Architect Beau Dromiack has a specific answer: in his view, the middle goes first. Template work, where the architect mostly adapts a design someone else already made, is the most exposed. Complex work that depends on people, judgment and craft is the safest. Beau is a principal architect at WMA Architects in Phoenix, working on semiconductor clea...

Read transcript Episode Notes If every decision in your business still waits on you, AI won't fix that on its own. Cody talks with Gabe Arnold, CEO of Simple Operations, about what small businesses shouldn't automate, and what has to be in place before AI is actually useful. Gabe has been an entrepreneur for about three decades. He built a seven-figure remodeling company, lost it to bankruptcy whe...

Episode Notes How do you promote your business on a podcast without making the whole interview an advertisement? Sam Swirsky joins Cody to talk about what founders can bring to a host's show, why preparation matters, and how to leave listeners with something useful. Sam describes his move from LinkedIn ghostwriting toward podcast guesting. He argues that useful content starts with real opinions an...

Episode Notes When AI generates work faster, who checks it before customers depend on it? Cody talks with Nate Stewart of Runtype about AI agent reliability and the responsibilities that remain when a model can write code or take action. Nate describes how his expectations of automation changed when faster generation created more work to review. The conversation explores how to build reliable AI p...

Read transcript Episode Notes Could AI change how many people a team needs before it replaces every part of a person's job? Cody talks with Jim Love about AI job displacement, human judgment, and how to prepare for AI at work without treating a prediction as a plan. Jim describes rebuilding his publishing audience reach with a much smaller operation after his former business failed. We keep that c...

Read transcript Episode Notes Local officials have information to work through and residents to keep informed. Evan Meyer joins Cody to discuss where AI might help, from understanding a complicated bill to preparing a community newsletter, and what people still need to understand before putting their name on the result. Evan describes MyGovTools' approach to AI government newsletters, including ga...

Read transcript Episode Notes Could a technology business give people more ways to work and raise a family close to home? Reid Rasner joins Cody on The Weird Canadian to discuss his unsuccessful $47.45 billion bid for TikTok's US business and why he wanted another major industry in Wyoming. The TikTok Wyoming bid leads into Reid's proposed Wyoming stablecoin payment model for TikTok Shop and his a...

Episode Notes David Chalk built technology companies and became a familiar voice on television and radio while carrying a private fear: that people would mistake his difficulty reading for a lack of intelligence. In this episode, David tells Cody what happened on his first day of school, how shame followed him into adulthood, and what changed when he learned to read in his early 60s during the mak...

Episode Notes Parental controls can reduce a child's exposure to known risks. They cannot supply judgment when a new message, voice, image, or AI conversation feels convincing. Cybersecurity leader, author, and DigiArmorX founder Nidhi Srivastava joins Cody to discuss what AI safety for kids looks like when the technology can imitate, persuade, remember context, and invite personal disclosure. Nid...

Episode Notes AI can produce more content for less. That does not mean an audience will believe it, remember it, or trust the business behind it. Chris Anderson of Elevate Media Group joins Cody for an audio-first conversation about AI content creation for business and the parts of marketing that automation still cannot carry on its own. They discuss story, proof, judgment, consistency, and why a...

Episode Notes AI video can look cinematic and still fail the second a digital actor has to feel human. In this full episode of The Weird Canadian, Sherif Higazy joins Cody to unpack why AI video looks fake in human scenes even as image quality improves. Sherif spent years in Hollywood visual effects, ran production at Thermonuclear, and founded Megaton AI to grade video models against each other w...

Episode Notes AI can make a business faster, but it cannot become the person your customers trust. Sirene Abou-Chakra joins Cody to talk about AI for small business and the choices owners face as work changes. They discuss where automation can help, why supporting people is difficult to scale, and why sales, storytelling, connection, and a recognizable human voice still matter. Sirene's career inc...

Read transcript Episode Notes Canadians can still use Facebook and Instagram, but they cannot use those platforms the same way to reach news reporting. Since 2023, Meta has made news content unavailable to people in Canada, removing a familiar path from social posts to original articles and broadcasts. Miriam Ber returns to The Weird Canadian to discuss what filled that information gap and why sou...

Read transcript Episode Notes Using AI does not automatically make someone an AI expert. In this conversation, Cody and Josh Brown test what credible expertise should look like: real-world experience, an understanding of why the tools work, honest limits, and evidence that a student or client can implement what was taught. Josh draws on his experience as an educator and course consultant to explai...

Episode Notes AI can absorb more tasks every month. That does not mean a business can remove the people who understand context, catch bad outputs, and make sure the work actually gets finished. Renee Hastings, founder of Executive Help Now, joins Cody to talk about the human execution layer inside an AI-enabled business. Her position is direct: AI replaces tasks and workflows, while judgment, veri...

Episode Notes Shadow AI is already part of ordinary work. It can arrive through a chatbot, a browser extension, or an AI feature added to software a team already uses. The challenge is not only the technology. It is the human need behind the workaround. Cody speaks with Dr. Margaret Cunningham, VP of Security & AI Strategy and Field CISO at Darktrace, about why innovative employees may become...