Beyond Electric Sheep

In this eleven minute Episode 29, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss AI's new Deep Research capabilities. Deep Research is a new capability that allows the AI user to pose a question or suggest a topic area, and ask the AI model to spend 5 - 10 minutes researching via the web before composing a full report. Sometimes these reports can be 10 to 15 pages in length complete with footnotes, explanations and web links. 

Brick talks about how he uses ChatGPT Deep Research from OpenAI as part of his daily business and personal workflow. For example, he queues up research queries on companies so the report is available to him before a sales meeting. Ed uses Google Gemini's Deep Research to evaluate personal buying decisions, like comparing brands for a new pickup truck. Ed also used Deep Research to generate work bios for friends and relatives as a way to share with them these new amazing AI capabilities.

The podcasters both agree that podcast audience members should experiment with Deep Research for their own business and personal use.

The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. 

The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. 

In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

In this ten-minute Episode #28, Just Buy It! Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels talk about whether it makes sense to buy a premium subscription to ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini.  Brick argues it is important for all of us, young and old, to keep up with this new technology. Ed argues that these premium-levels help the AI models remember you and tailor their responses to your preferred style. Both podcasters agree that, if you can afford it, you should subscribe to one or two premium-level AI services.

- OpenAI https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing/
- Anthropic (Claude) https://www.anthropic.com/pricing
- Google Gemini https://gemini.google/advanced/?hl=en

The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist.
 
The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

In this ten-minute Episode #27 - Book Writing, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels talk about Ed’s latest adventures in book writing. This was a topic of two previous podcasts, and now Ed is nearing his final product and has continued to learn a lot about how to use – and how to not use – AI in this process.

Ed and Brick also discuss the current flood of AI-written books and talk about how the right amount of AI contribution can improve the quality of writing. But Brick and Ed aren’t ready to entirely turn over writing to AI.

The following topics were mentioned in the podcast:

The Dashboard Effect by Jon Thompson and Brick Thompson https://a.co/d/j0wjvtZ

The Age of Logos by Dr. Joe Ferguson https://a.co/d/0RqH9Gz

Notebooklm.google.com the podcast-generating AI https://notebooklm.google.com/

Dyson Sphere by George Carl https://a.co/d/eoKetY3

Fire Chief: The Story of a Volunteer Firefighter by Ed Daniels https://a.co/d/2HGMYaH

The name of this podcast, “Beyond Electric Sheep,” is a reference to the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. 

The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. 

In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

In Episode 26 - Not UBI, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss Ed’s concept of the Citizen Ownership Dividend. It is a bold idea in response to AI-caused job displacement. The implementation of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Robotics (AI+Robotics) will have a significant impact on employment in the United States and worldwide.

AI can already speak, create text, and generate images on par with skilled human writers and artists. With these capabilities, AI will soon be able to perform the jobs of many office workers — including managers. Meanwhile, humanoid robots are being prototyped globally. Within a few years they will be mass-produced for use by manufacturers, warehouses, and households worldwide. These robots will be able to perform many basic human labor tasks within five to ten years.

Many of the most vulnerable jobs will be disrupted between now and 2030. Almost all jobs will be disrupted by 2040. Important people have proposed a "Universal Basic Income" (UBI) to pay people some amount, perhaps $1,000 per month, to make up for loss of jobs or reduced income caused by AI+Robotics. But a handout from the government doesn’t seem to be a good solution.

Instead, how about sharing ownership of the companies that are causing the disruption? If we are all owners, then we can all cheer on the disruption because it will make us all richer.

Here is a link to Ed’s article on the Citizen Ownership Dividend: https://medium.com/@edbdaniels/introducing-the-citizen-ownership-dividend-175c02ece658
 
The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. 

The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. 

In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

In this episode, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss how AI should be used in the work environment. Brick explains the steps he is taking to encourage his employees to use AI in a safe and secure manner. 

Working individually and together, his team is learning how to produce results faster and better. Brick explains some specific use cases like in sales where they use AI more intensively. A specific AI tool, gong.io, helps coach salespeople, track, and measure steps in the sales process. Brick’s advice for fellow CEOs about how to promote adoption of AI is, make sure employees know about safe data use, then “Just make it available!”

Here are links to some of the products and companies mentioned:

https://www.gong.io/ 
https://otter.ai/ 
https://www.hubspot.com/
https://www.bluemargin.com/

The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. 

The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. 

In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

AI use in Education is the topic for this 13-minute episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI. Brick explains the way we educate children today is the same way we educated them one hundred (or maybe even 1,000) years ago. Now AI has the potential to deliver individualized learning to every child. 

Brick acknowledges the work of Ethan Mollick, Associate Professor at Wharton who advocates for the use of AI in education. https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/emollick/ Brick and Ed also credit Salman Khan, a former hedge fund analyst with degrees from MIT and Harvard, who founded the Khan Academy. https://en.khanacademy.org/. 

Brick explains how he personally uses AI (Perplexity) to learn about specific topics. The podcast ends with Brick and Ed concluding that some of the methods used by educational AI could also be applied to everyday use of AI making people smarter and more knowledgeable after each AI encounter. 

Featuring Ed Daniels and Brick Thompson, the name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. 

The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

In this episode of the Beyond Electric Sheep Podcast on AI, Brick Thompson and Ed Daniels discuss AI and Hiring. How is AI being used to help you get a job? For employers, how can AI help you hire the best people? Our discussion extended into other related matchmaking topics such as dating. You can see the similarities, using AI to match a prospective employee with an employer, and using AI to match two people for a date and a possible relationship. One possible AI workflow for this is having “my people talk to your people” where ‘people’ are AI agents. Please listen, ‘like’ and ‘comment.’

The name of this podcast, Beyond Electric Sheep, is a reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. That novel is the source for the movies Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). It explores the themes of artificial intelligence, empathy, and reality in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. 

The novel raises the question of whether androids can dream or feel anything at all, and whether they are different from humans in any meaningful way. In our Beyond Electric Sheep podcast we go beyond the novel and the movies and discuss the broader implications and applications of artificial intelligence in our personal lives and in our businesses. We explore the pragmatic as well as the ethical and philosophical issues that arise from creating and interacting with intelligent machines.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

Thank you to my friend George Dykes for suggesting that I study this poem by Wallace Stevens.

This audio dialogue and the following summary were both generated by an experimental AI from Google.

Summary

"The Idea of Order at Key West" is a poem by Wallace Stevens, exploring the connection between human creativity and the natural world. The poem centers on a woman singing at Key West, whose voice is described as both powerful and beautiful. Stevens contrasts her song with the seemingly chaotic elements of nature, such as the sea and the wind, suggesting that human art can impose order and meaning on the world. He further emphasizes the singer's unique power, arguing that she is the maker of her song and the world she creates through it. The poem explores the profound relationship between art, nature, and the human spirit.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

Summary

This article from The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery discusses the importance of sagittal alignment in the treatment of degenerative lumbar spine pathologies, such as degenerative disc disease and spondylolisthesis. The authors advocate for a detailed assessment of segmental lordosis and pelvic incidence, which influences the optimal surgical approach and target lordosis for individual patients. They argue that restoring segmental lordosis can improve patient outcomes, decrease the incidence of adjacent segment disease, and reduce low back pain. The article also emphasizes the need for careful planning, incorporating appropriate surgical techniques, and implant selection to achieve optimal alignment and prevent iatrogenic deformities.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10906213/pdf/jbjsam-106-445.pdf 

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn 

This article explores the historical presence of other intelligent hominin species alongside Homo sapiens, emphasizing the potential lessons we can learn from their interactions. It speculates on how our ancestors might have interacted with these other hominins, suggesting that both cooperation and conflict might have existed. The article then draws a parallel to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting that we may soon be sharing the world with intelligent AI entities. The author argues that we need to carefully consider how we interact with these new beings, learning from past mistakes and striving for a future where both humans and AI can coexist peacefully and collaboratively.

THIS PODCAST INCLUDING THE DIALOGUE AND VOICE CHARACTERS WAS CREATED BY GOOGLE NotebookLM EXPERIMENTAL.

Beyond Electric Sheep is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg2J0jET_BPCKSnsxz8mleEmYogYJZhn