AI Rebels

What if rebellion looked like collaboration instead of chaos? Plotly’s VP of Marketing Dominic Revita traces his journey from coding the first internet-only bank in the 90s to shaping the next generation of AI-native tools. He reveals how open source innovation and AI-driven creativity are merging to make data storytelling more human—and more powerful. The conversation dives into the philosophy behind building transparent tech that empowers rather than replaces. It’s a visionary look at the future of AI as a partner in progress, not a threat to it.
https://plotly.com/

00:00 – Welcome to AI Rebels
Setting the tone: why innovation and rebellion matter in AI.

00:45 – Meet Domenic Revita (Plotly VP of Marketing)
From engineer to marketer: bridging tech, data, and storytelling.

03:00 – From the Dot-Com Era to the AI Age
How Domenic went from coding the first internet-only bank to building modern data platforms.

08:30 – Lessons from TIBCO and SingleStore
Real-time analytics, distributed systems, and the rise of product-led growth.

13:45 – Inside Plotly’s Vision
How open source and interactivity changed the way we visualize data.

20:00 – The AI Shift: From Tools to Teammates
Why the future of data analysis is agentic, automated, and deeply human-centered.

27:30 – Behind Plotly Studio
Exploring their AI-native app that turns raw data into insights in minutes.

35:00 – Serving the Next Billion Knowledge Workers
Empowering everyday users, not just data scientists.

40:00 – The Power (and Future) of Open Source
How open ecosystems are outpacing closed models like “closed AI.”

46:00 – The Future of AI Collaboration
Where human creativity meets intelligent systems — and what’s next.

49:00 – Final Reflections
Domenic’s advice for builders in the age of AI innovation.

Derek Crager, founder of Practical AI, joins AI Rebels to explain how voice is set to become the next one-click revolution. Derek shares his journey from industrial construction to Amazon, weaving in lessons about simplicity, usability, and the power of capturing tribal knowledge. We dive into how voice AI can transform the workplace by making expertise instantly accessible and breaking down barriers to learning. Derek also unpacks the “AI gold rush,” explaining why the real winners will be those building the tools rather than chasing hype. Whether you’re curious about the future of jobs, usability breakthroughs, or the practical side of AI, this conversation is packed with insights and humor.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amazonleadership
https://www.practicalai.app/

What’s the one thing every enterprise overlooks when building AI? According to Jim Liddle, Chief Innovation Officer at Nasuni, it’s not the model, it’s the data architecture. In this episode, Jim explains why unstructured data is both the biggest risk and the biggest opportunity for enterprise AI. He highlights the persistent compliance gap around sensitive information, the challenge of fragmented storage, and the dangers of agentic autonomy without safeguards. Resilience takes center stage, with a focus on immutable snapshots and instant recovery to keep systems reliable. Jim also shows how agent orchestration works in practice, from splitting prompts to managing context windows. Looking ahead, he shares how Nasuni’s FileIQ and OpsIQ can help organizations build AI-ready data foundations without drowning in tool sprawl.

https://www.nasuni.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimliddle

What do magic tricks and AI marketing have in common? A lot, according to Jeff Greenfield, CEO of Provalytics. In this conversation, we unpack the challenges of data privacy, the rise of Amazon and Walmart’s closed ecosystems, and why AI ads may be unavoidable. Jeff explains how his background as a magician and chiropractor shaped his approach to stress reduction and business problem-solving. It’s a fascinating, fast-paced look at how AI is reshaping advertising — and what that means for trust.

AI power-broker Mike Spaeth doesn’t mince words: if we fail to reskill fast, automation will wipe out one in five jobs. He points to Texas’s Alpha School, where AI squeezes a whole school day into two turbo-charged hours—proof that the education rulebook is already being torched. Spaeth calls out companies hoarding the “time dividend,” insisting that every minute saved by bots must be plowed back into people or productivity gains will evaporate. He cites Malaysia’s nationwide up-skilling blitz and even recommends Karpathy’s two-hour language-model primer, turning lofty ideas into a step-by-step survival kit. Stick around to the final beat, when the crew dares you to hit replay in 2035 and judge whether we chose equity—or let AI widen the divide.

Take a front-row seat as Jake and Spencer chart AI’s breakneck advance—progress so fast that many observers still look the other way. They highlight Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s forecast that the very shape of work could shift within a decade, then demo the new Veo 3 video model, which can generate multi-scene, lip-synced video with layered vocals, background sound and “vibe”. Rounding things out, the hosts weigh deep-fake ethics and consider how lawmakers and faith communities might craft sensible guardrails rather than panic.

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Can AI save us from the toxic digital world it helped create? In this episode, Polish AI engineer Grigorij Dudnik shares how he's building AI agents that handle our digital drudgery—from Tinder GPT that automates online dating conversations to Clean Coder that writes code autonomously. His most fascinating project puts language models on Raspberry Pi to create physical robots that make ethical decisions, like a toy train solving the trolley dilemma in real-time. Grigorij's philosophy is revolutionary: instead of AI keeping us glued to screens, it should free us to focus on real human connections and meaningful work. Through his three groundbreaking projects, he demonstrates how AI can disrupt the attention economy rather than feed it, offering a glimpse of a future where our digital servants handle the boring stuff while we live our actual lives.

What if your next coworker is an AI agent? In this episode of AI Rebels, developer Nim shares his journey building AI Agent Dot App, exploring how solo entrepreneurs can now harness agents to do the work of entire teams. From bootstrapping with terminal-based scripts to creating sticky, memory-driven agents, Nim breaks down the evolution of autonomous AI tools, the psychology of adoption, and the legal grey zones ahead. It's a raw, insightful dive into the future of work, where personalization, iteration, and adaptability define the edge.

https://x.com/sup_nim
https://nime.sh/

What if the “hallucinations” we fear in generative AI are exactly what NASA needs to spot the next crisis 40 years early? In this episode, former Pentagon model‑fixer and pandemic data firefighter James Villarrubia explains how his skunk‑works team at NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions convinces large language models to dream thousands of future scenarios, then distills them to reveal the fragile linchpins of tomorrow’s air‑travel system . Alongside that mind‑bending workflow, he breaks down hidden biases baked into commercial LLMs, argues why government may need its own secure models, and shows how disciplined foresight beats reactive firefighting—whether you’re in the cockpit, the policy room, or the startup lab .

Imagine AI that never asks and never sleeps—just thinks, decides, and acts in the background. In this episode, agent‑builder Ropirito walks hosts Jacob and Spencer through his evolution from insurance‑era rule‑bots to Nous Research’s vision of “passive‑mode” LLM agents, explains why most projects are mere tool‑wrappers masquerading as autonomy, and dishes on the hard problems—context drift, brittle web UIs, legal gray zones—that stand between today’s chatbots and tomorrow’s truly independent collaborators.

https://x.com/ropirito