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PODCAST

Generative AI 101

Welcome to Generative AI 101, your go-to podcast for learning the basics of generative artificial intelligence in easy-to-understand, bite-sized episodes. Join host Emily Laird, AI Integration Technologist and AI lecturer, to explore key concepts, applications, and ethical considerations, making AI accessible for everyone.

technology

All Episodes

11:08

Fact-Check or Fail: How to Keep Your AI From Making...

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/17

In this episode, host Emily Laird teaches you how to keep your AI from bluffing like your cousin Chad at Thanksgiving. No code. No blood moon rituals. Just smarter prompts and better fact-checking. Emily breaks down how to get AI to cough up citations, quote sources, and admit when it doesn’t know jack. Whether you’re working with PDFs, web tools, or asking ChatGPT to do your homework (don't do that), this guide will turn your AI from a smooth-talking BS machine into a source-backed truth engine

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9:31

OpenAI, Oracle, and the 4.5 Gigawatt Hunger Games

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/16

Title: a16z 5th Edition Pt. 4: No-Code, Just Vibes & the Top of the ClassOpenAI’s rumored $300 billion cloud pact with Oracle isn’t just another tech headline, it’s a sci-fi-sized bet on the future of AI. Host Emily Laird is talking 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity (that’s two Hoover Dams of electricity), millions of GPUs, and enough water to make Vegas sweat. In this episode, we break down what “Stargate” really means: the billion-dollar backroom deals, the looming power crisis, and why

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9:28

The FTC Enters the Chat (And It’s Not Flirting)

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/15

The FTC just knocked on the doors of seven AI giants, including OpenAI, Meta, and Snap (amongst many others) with legally binding orders, and they’re not here for small talk. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down why regulators suddenly care if your teenager is whispering secrets to an anime chatbot at 2 a.m., what the investigation means for “AI companions,” and how this could be the beginning of a much bigger reckoning. Think Section 6(b) orders, Section 5 fines, and questions regulators

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10:54

a16z 5th Edition Pt. 4: No-Code, Just Vibes & the Top...

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/12

Forget Python. The new software builders are riding high on vibes, drag, drop, done. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down “vibe coding,” the sticky magic of user retention, and the AI All‑Stars dominating the charts like it’s 2001 TRL. From ChatGPT to Cutout Pro, and yes, even JanitorAI (don’t ask), these are the tools you’ll be using even if you don’t know how they work.Join the AI Weekly Meetups Connect with Us: If you enjoyed this episode or have questions, reach out to Emily Laird on

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9:22

a16z 5th Edition Pt.3: China's AI Multiverse

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/10

China’s not just building AI, it’s building a whole other version of the internet to run it on. In this episode, host Emily Laird take a sneaking step past the Great Firewall to explore China’s booming generative AI scene, where Quark, Doubao, and Kimi (not a band, but they should be) dominate with tools that make Western platforms look slow and sleepy. We break down why Chinese AI evolves faster, how VPN users are basically undercover agents, and why your favorite AI selfie app might just be a

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10:40

a16z 5th Edition Pt.2: Googlezilla

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/09

The AI hype machine is cooling off, fewer shiny new toys, more serious contenders. In this episode, hostess with the mostest (of something) Emily Laird breaks down the latest a16z rankings, why the product flood slowed down, and how Google’s been quietly building an AI empire under everyone’s nose. Gemini’s rising, Grok’s flirting in anime, and Meta’s assistant accidentally aired its dirty laundry. We’re talking metrics, mobile surges, and the slow death of sketchy chatbot apps. Think of it as AI

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11:45

The Nerd Billboard 100: a16z’s AI Hit Parade

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/09/08

Venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, aka a16z, because vowels are apparently optional in Silicon Valley, has been quietly shaping the generative AI boom with its biannual “Top 100” ranking of AI-first apps. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down how a16z went from a $300 million moonshot to a $46 billion kingmaker, why they’re tracking AI startups like it’s the Billboard charts, and what wildcards like DeepSeek are doing to dethrone the usual suspects. If you’ve ever wondered who’s

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09:31

The Go Series Pt. 4: Your Move, Human

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/27

AlphaGo didn’t just beat a Go champion, it rewrote the rules of competition. In this episode, host Emily Laird discusses Lee Sedol’s post-match arc, the rise of AlphaZero (a machine so next level it mastered three games in a day), and how that same AI playbook is coming for your office job. From coders and lawyers to journalists and teachers, the AlphaGo moment is already happening. But there’s hope, your creativity, your “Move 78,” still matters. Just don’t expect a standing ovation if you’re

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06:44

The Go Series Pt. 3: Humanity's Last Flex

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/25

AlphaGo may have crushed Lee Sedol, but the aftermath wasn’t just about losing, it was about what humans still bring to the table. In this episode, host Emily Laird traces Sedol’s pivot from humiliation to adaptation, the birth of AlphaZero (the algorithm that mastered Go, Chess, and Shogi in a day), and how that same playbook is rewriting your workplace, from coding and law to journalism and academia.Watch the AlphaGo Documentary Join the AI Weekly Meetups Connect with Us: If you enjoyed this

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09:11

The Go Series Pt. 2: Move 37 & the God Move

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/20

AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol wasn’t just a board game, it was humanity staring down its algorithmic doppelgänger and wondering who gets the last laugh. In this episode, host Emily Laird continues her exploration of the 2016 Go showdown that shocked pros, spawned memes, and gave us two immortal moves: AlphaGo’s eerie, alien “Move 37” and Sedol’s legendary “God Move.” From overconfident predictions to existential gasps, we trace how a quiet Go board in Seoul turned into a global stage for the question: what

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07:42

The Go Series, Pt. 1: The Game That Broke the Board

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/19

Go isn’t just old, it’s ancient, intimidating, and smarter than it looks. For decades, it stood as the Everest of board games, the one thing AI couldn’t conquer without looking like a confused intern at a philosophy lecture. That is, until Google's DeepMind came along with AlphaGo, a Frankenstein of neural nets, reinforcement learning, and sheer digital obsession.In this episode, host Emily Laird rewinds to the moment when AI stopped being a party trick and started playing mind games, literally

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09:02

Mixture of Experts: The Wu-Tang Clang of AI

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/18

What do trivia night, jazz bands, and IKEA furniture have in common? They all make more sense once you understand Mixture of Experts. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down how LLMs are using conditional computation to get smarter and cheaper, without frying your GPU like a budget toaster. We’re talking expert networks, gating systems, and why the future of AI might look more like a five-star kitchen than a power-hungry robot army.Join the AI Weekly Meetups Connect with Us: If you enjoyed

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07:26

ChatGPT's Study Mode: Homework’s Plot Twist

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/13

Is ChatGPT here to help you ace the test or just do your homework for you? In this episode, host Emily Laird unpacks OpenAI’s new Study Mode, a feature that turns the AI from vending-machine answer bot into a never-tired tutor who actually makes you think. From math problems that fight back to privacy concerns and its big debut in schools via Canvas, we cover why teachers, parents, and even students are warming up to the idea. It might just be the first AI tool that raises grades and

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11:02

What’s the Difference Between AGI and Superintelligence?

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/12

AGI can do anything you can, write, reason, crack jokes, without being told how. Superintelligence can do all that and make you look like a potato with Wi-Fi. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down the real meaning of these two buzzwords, why even the experts can’t agree, and how the biggest AI players, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta, and xAI, are racing to build them. Whether it’s curing cancer, boosting productivity, or accidentally turning off the internet, we’re here to separate

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09:44

The One About ChatGPT-5

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/11

OpenAI’s GPT-5 isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a whole crew of AIs working together. One’s fast, one’s a deep thinker, and a couple work the cheap shifts, all coordinated by a smart “router” that picks the right brain for the job. It’s breaking records in math, coding, and reasoning, slashing hallucinations, and even scheduling your meetings. The Pro version handles monster problems in seconds, while all versions get built-in web search, vision, and real task execution. The model menu is gone, GPT-5

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09:22

Google DeepMind: A Mini Origin Story

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/06

What do you get when you mix a chess prodigy, a neuroscience detour, and a borderline obsession with solving intelligence? Google DeepMind. In this episode, host Emily Laird goes into the mind (and muscles) behind modern AI, aka Demis Hassabis. From teaching AIs to dominate in Go and StarCraft to solving protein folding and launching the Gemini models, DeepMind isn’t just flexing, it’s reshaping the future. If your chatbot had a Nobel Prize and a gamer tag, it’d be this.Join the AI Weekly

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08:26

Kimi K2 & the Continuation of the Great AI Arms Race

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/05

Meet Kimi K2! Join host Emily Laird as she explores the trillion-parameter powerhouse from Shanghai-based Moonshot AI that's throwing elbows at GPT-4.1, Gemini, and Claude 4. With a Mixture-of-Experts brain, a freakishly long memory (128K tokens), and the power to write code, run commands, and basically do your job better than you, this isn’t your average chatbot. It’s a business-savvy, open-source disruptor priced like street food but cooking with Michelin fire. Oh, and it’s backed by Alibaba and

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08:46

Perplexity's Comet Browser & the Rise of AI Browsers

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/08/04

Chrome is toast (ok, probably not). Or at least, it might be if Perplexity’s Comet Browser has anything to say about it. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down how Comet is trying to outsmart your current browser by acting like a hyper-organized, AI-powered sidekick that shops for you, books your flights, and maybe even watches The Bachelor. But before you burn your bookmarks, we’re also talking sky-high pricing, early beta chaos, and the looming "AI Browser Wars" that have Google, Microsoft,

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06:34

Meta's Billion Dollar UpScale

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/07/30

Meta just dropped $14.3 billion to buy half of Scale AI and hired their CEO like it was a fantasy football draft. In this episode, host Emily Laird unpacks why Mark Zuckerberg raided Scale AI’s pantry for top talent, including Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman, and what it means for Meta’s new Superintelligence Lab. It’s part billion-dollar power play, part Avengers-style recruitment, and a giant signal that in 2025, labeled data and elite researchers are Silicon Valley’s new gold. Connect with Us: If

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08:16

Zuck to the Future: Meta's Superintelligence Lab

Generative AI 101 ·

2025/07/29

Meta just rage-quit its own AI strategy and rolled out the Superintelligence Lab, because nothing says "totally under control" like consolidating teams under Zuck himself. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down Meta’s big bet on AGI, its new Avengers-style AI dream team (including Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman), and the Manhattan-sized data centers designed to power it all. With billion-dollar budgets, 9-digit salaries, and a dash of sci-fi ambition, is this Meta’s masterstroke or Metaverse

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226 results

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