Machine Yearning

This chapter is an excerpt from our longer conversation with Robin Sloan. Robin is a scifi writer, social observer and dedicated AI enthusiast. He’s been bootstrapping his way into some fascinating co-writing experiments with the machine. Shane and Robin dig into Robin’s experiments with using machine learning to write music - and how playing GO against the machine taught the game’s grand masters that there were levels of play they had not even considered. In a conversation that was already really fu

Kathryn Hume came to us via Robin Sloan, a great friend of the pod. One of the things we loved about talking with Kathryn is that she gets the poetry of language. She is also really smart about how that poses some major challenges with AI. Kathryn is also someone who can say “I think math is cool!” and you can tell she means it. Her blog, Quam Proxime, is a must-read. Kathryn brings a wonderfully diverse view. She works at IntegrateAI and has done product, marketing, investment, and mentored start-ups.

This chapter is an excerpt from our longer conversation with Kathryn Hume. Kathryn Hume came to us via Robin Sloan, a great friend of the pod. She works at IntegrateAI and has done product, marketing, investment, and mentored start-ups. One of the things we loved about talking with Kathryn is that she gets the poetry of language. She is also really smart about how that poses some major challenges with AI.

This chapter is an excerpt from our longer conversation with Kathryn Hume. She came to us via Robin Sloan, a great friend of the pod. Kathryn works at IntegrateAI and has done product, marketing, investment, and mentored start-ups. In this chapter, Kathryn does a fantastic job of walking us through the ways language gives us meaning, and the challenges facing AI, as we wade into the the trickiest thicket of all - how all humans form relationships.

This chapter is an excerpt from our longer conversation with Kathryn Hume. She came to us via Robin Sloan, a great friend of the pod. Kathryn works at IntegrateAI and has done product, marketing, investment, and mentored start-ups. In this chapter, Shane and Kathryn dig into feedback loops and how they help brands finally build real, genuine relationships with a community of customers.

Chris Messina has been a pioneer in practically everything that has happened in technology over the last 15 years. He was on the original team that wrote Firefox, co-founded BarCamp, invented the hashtag, and coined the term "conversational commerce." Chris drops some seriously bold ideas at us, and if history is a guide, we'd better listen up.

This chapter is an excerpt from our longer conversation with Chris Messina. Chris is a pioneer of practically everything that’s been important over the last 15 years. He was part of the team who wrote the original Firefox, he’s a co-founder of BarCamp and he invented the hashtag. In this conversation, Chris drops a lot of bold ideas, but keep an ear out for his thoughts on how the skills that let us be good friends might actually be the skills we need to grow great brands. And what that means for conver

This chapter is an excerpt from our longer conversation with Chris Messina. Chris is a pioneer of practically everything that’s been important over the last 15 years. He was part of the team who wrote the original Firefox, he’s a co-founder of BarCamp and he invented the hashtag. In this chapter, Chris drops a lot of bold ideas, but keep an ear out for his thoughts on the future of competing consumer and brand bots, and how capitalism and AI might have some compatibility challenges.