You Teach The Machines

You Teach the Machines was an AI literacy workshop before it was a book. I've helped over 850 people from California to Maine connect, understand AI, process their fear, and move forward. People ages 12 to 80+ have been active audience participants. I make it as fun as the topic can be!  An example of the short-form talk in Burlington, VT June 2025 is here.  Video of the full workshop in  Brooklyn...

Understand AI and move on with your life, with or without it. A quick reading from my book You Teach the Machines. In print, eBook, audio. Amazon |  Bookshop.org | Libro.fm

MJ interviews Kay Koplovitz, Forbes Top 250 Innovator, CEO of the first satellite cable network, venture investor, and founder of nonprofit Springboard Enterprises. Springboard accelerates women-led startups, over 950 to date creating $76 billion in value!   Kay : Overcoming challenges together has a lasting positive effect on our value. How we value ourselves. And I'm not talking about dollars. (...

Focused, Grounded AI is Key to Human Benefit. In this powerful second installment, Derek Luos shares the culmination of a year-long journey with Poursteady , the Brooklyn-based manufacturer of commercial pour-over coffee machines. This isn't just a story about technology; it's a blueprint for prioritizing family disrupting overseas offshore manufacturing surviving the next economic cycle where pra...

(Intro Song) Where oh where are you night? Why did you leave me and read on my phone? I searched the world o'er and thought I found true love. You met an AI and poof you was gone. Jeff: Hi, this is Jeff Pennington, host of You Teach the Machines . No Mary Jane today. Instead, please join me for an interview with Stephan von Muelen, CEO of Poursteady, a division of Steady Equipment Corp, a manufact...

Show Notes: Bonus Episode – The "Drunk Uncle" Pirate Edition In this hilarious and cautionary bonus episode, Jeff and MJ reveal how AI literally "missed the boat." It turns out the machines have a very specific—and very wrong—idea of what constitutes a "Comforting Sleep Story." The AI Fail: Pirates in Your Ears Jeff shares an automated marketing report that left him and MJ in stitches: their other...

Show Notes: Audiobook Intermission – The "Human Error" Blooper Reel Recording a book about high-tech Artificial Intelligence is hard. Being a non-artificial human in a house with dogs and teenagers is even harder. In this special "Intermission" episode of the You Teach the Machines companion podcast, we're taking a brief, lighthearted break from the heavy lifting of Chapter 4 to bring you the glor...

Introduction   Like billions of people around the world, you may have suddenly become familiar with the following words straight out of Silicon Valley or a futuristic movie: Machine learning. GenAI. Large Language Model. Generative. Training. GPT. Explainability. Neural Network. Deep Learning. Hallucination.   These words are synonymous with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the computer systems we ca...

Georgie Kovacs is a women's health expert who spent 20 years in high-level roles at major companies like Pfizer and IQVIA before founding her consulting practice and becoming a full-time patient advocate. After her personal four-year battle to get an endometriosis diagnosis, she founded Fempower Health , https://www.fempower-health.com which uses a popular podcast to cut through the confusion and...

Oh Sam. Ask Jeeves established precedent for the search industry that monetizing porn is bad for people and for business. OpenAI and its Microsoft godfather seems intent on doing the opposite. Will Google and Amazon read the room* and ask What Would Jeeves Do? When I worked at Ask Jeeves in 2000 there was a debate. We were valued at $12B but nowhere near breaking even. Should Jeeves be a butler fo...

Paul Berger joins and shockingly convinces MJ that AI is not the enemy! His thoughtful and constructive approach to MJ's skepticism is based on a lifetime of experience and success in two wildly different fields.  An excellent episode!  If you find the episode helpful, please share with friends and family.  Thanks for listening! 

Chief Health Informatics Officer Phil Hagedorn shares a "this is happening right now" bedside view of artificial intelligence and clinical education.  MJ asks Phil to advise aspiring medical and nursing students, as well as twenty-somethings new to the workforce.  MJ asks Jeff the same question. Both have (some) answers! Thanks for listening! 

If you thought AI killed journalism, you haven't met Pablo! Thrilled to speak with Pablo Urdiales Antelo, full-time journalist and Class of 2024 graduate of the excellent Swansea University! Class of '25, '26, '27: this is a great discussion of Pablo's experience starting out in a profession AI is supposedly automating. We find space between doom and optimism, but if you're looking for easy answer...

Our first graduate in the workforce! Jack takes his fresh computer science degree to Silicon Valley and along the way shares how he lives and works with AI as a student, job candidate, and new employee.  We discuss whether AI will put 20-somethings like Jack and MJ out of work, or just maybe 50-somethings like me will be on the outs! MJ asks a great question about learning to think vs learning to...

The kids care about privacy! Hallelujah! Serena joins to discuss privacy and use of health data in AI.  Also, use of your content in OneDrive, Gmail, Google Drive to train AI.  We try for a balanced view, but are mostly freaked out. Thanks for listening, please review, subscribe and get in touch at youteachthemachines.com. 

Does AI fall flat with French idioms?  Why should you NOT prompt AI with important data?  Three different answers to the question "If AI went away, would you be able to do what you learned with it."  Three seniors adapt their learning to an AI world whether they like it or not.  

Oscar shares how he saw AI in major use at his second co-op, his perspective on how it helps him code even though he's not a CS major. MJ asks good questions about what's worth learning if someday AI is going to automate it.  Jeff asks both MJ and Oscar how AI helps them learn.  Want to share your story or perspective on AI? Get in touch! Thanks for listening!

Lucy, a Colby College psych major joins Maryjane and Jeff to share how AI teaches her to break down topics and write better papers.  We discuss similarities between AI and the dawn of the world wide web thirty years ago. Jeff shares the grumpy old man perspective, Lucy and MJ nod along politely. Want to share your story? Get in touch. Thanks for listening!