Will Gaviria Rojas (co-founder of CoactiveAI) and I sit in a hotel bar and chat about the amazing world of unstructured data and AI. We chat about searching unstructured datasets (without metadata), the state of AI, and much more. Will is one of my favorite people in general, so I really enjoyed our chat. Enjoy!

What happens when AI can generate content about whatever - or whoever - whether it's true or not? Welcome to 2023 and beyond.

I think the Internet is about to become a sea of complete sh*t of uninteresting and inaccurate content. The value of most content on the Internet will be less than worthless.

What can content creators and authors do? I provide some ideas...

Just wrapped up a couple of days at the CDO/CAIO Summit in Boston. There are a lot of corporate mandates to "do AI", but also a disconnect in the support and empowerment required to succeed. I unpack some observations of this disconnect, and why it reminds of of the South Park Underpants Gnomes - "AI...?...Profit"

Eleanor Thompson is the most knowledgeable person I know on the topic of vendor partnerships. We dive into the details of what makes a great partnership, tips on starting a partner program, certifications, and much more.

Are you a technology or data vendor looking to start a partnership program, or improve your existing one? Or a consulting company looking to partner with a vendor? Having worked with many partners, I can tell you that partnerships have always had ups and downs. I wish I'd listened to this episode several years ago. Enjoy!

Ben Rogojan, aka Seattle Data Guy, needs no introduction. He's a force of nature in the data engineering content world.

We chat about his origin story (sort of like a superhero), content creation, consulting, cooking, and much more.

You may have heard of Live Action Role Playing (LARP), where people dress up like fantasy characters and sword fight in a park or a Wal Mart parking lot. Some data teams LARP too...

Data LARPs are a real thing, often identified by pretending to do "data stuff", while never actually pushing anything into production. Are you Data LARPing? If so, what can you do? Listen and find out.

Matt Harrison is the author of many of the most successful Python books, including Effective Pandas, Effective XGBoost, The Machine Learning Pocket Reference, and many more. I consider him the top author of Python books and content on the planet.

He stopped by my house to chat about self-publishing technical books, the pros and cons of using a publisher, book piracy, and much more. We both talk about our experiences as best-selling technical authors, and don't hold back in this wide ranging and very candid conversation. Enjoy!

Note - my audio got a bit clippy in spots. Sorry if I blew up your speaker.

Karin Wolok and I chat about all things devrel - what it is, why it matters, the good the bad, and everything in between. We also talk about her time in the music industry, which is a fascinating side thread. Karin is amazingly smart, energetic, and fun to talk with. Enjoy!

Note - this was recorded right after the awesome DEWCon, the premier data engineering conference in Bangalore, India. Shoutout to everyone there!

Like most of you, I spent last weekend and the earlier part of this week following the OpenAI drama. Plot-twists galore! Every minute seemed like a new adventure. In the midst of the plot twists and turns, I noticed quite a few people saying, "This was all predictable", and then offering prognostications, most of which turned out to be very wrong. If even the OpenAI insiders couldn't figure out what was going on, how would the person on the street?

It's a good reminder that you need to approach the world with a sense of humility and try not to be a know-it-all. Don't be afraid to say "I don't know."

I recap two events from this week - Matillion's Data Unlocked and the first MLOps Community event in Silicon Valley, hosted at Coactive.ai's office. Lots to unpack in 8 minutes, so let's get going.