The Mostly AI Smartpod

Welcome to the Mostly AI SmartPod, episode 10. This week, we're short a NotBot with Susan Rush on break, so Michael Domingo and Victoria Martinez carry on in a discussion about the intersection of AI and sports. With the National Football League's 2026 season getting underway, and Major League Baseball in the thick of positioning for year-end playoffs, you might have noticed AI becoming almost utilitarian in its deployment in those and other sports: What's good, what's bad, and whether AI really makes a difference how you watch sports. We also chat up our favorite AI stories, and Victoria keep things moving with her 2-Minute Tech Pulse. Listen now!

https://www.livemint.com/technology/california-governor-signs-laws-aimed-at-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai-chatbots-11789073069003.html

https://fortune.com/2026/09/10/ex-anthropic-researcher-jacob-coxon-ai-could-end-humanity-fails-to-answer-most-essential-question/

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/aug/16/rashomon-akira-kurosawas-truly-daring-film-is-still-electrifying

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/14/ai-models-cyber-weapon-cohere-safety-debate.html

https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/no-anderson-cooper-ai-is-not-going

https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/41695328/wimbledon-replace-line-judges-ai-technology-2025

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/03/ai-deck-assessing-impact-mlbs-new-ball-strike-system

https://www.wired.com/story/fifa-world-cup-2026-artificial-intelligence-tools/

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/microsoft-nfl-ai-analysis.html

https://nypost.com/2026/04/27/sports/how-ai-is-creeping-its-way-into-nhl-front-offices-and-can-become-a-game-changer/

https://www.reuters.com/science/ibm-nasa-launch-ai-model-help-map-ice-craters-moon-2026-09-10/

https://variety.com/2026/music/news/umg-elevenlabs-ai-powered-music-platform-licensing-1236857240/

https://www.coreweave.com/blog/testing-race-cars-faster-how-jotas-engineers-learned-from-every-run-with-coreweaves-ai-powered-recommendation-tool

00:08 - Introduction & Show Overview

01:03 - Last Week in AI: California Child Protection Legislation

02:04 - Whistleblower Claims & AI Doomsday Predictions

04:55 - Discussion: Human Oversight & Parental Digital Vigilance

07:08 - AI Music Generation & UMG / ElevenLabs Collaboration

08:51 - Personal Perspectives on AI-Generated Music vs. Real Artists

11:30 - Segment Intro: AI's Growing Role in Sports

13:54 - How AI Is Changing Officiating & Referee Consistency

15:18 - Player Analytics, Tracking & Performance Data

18:47 - Video Assistant Referees (VAR) & In-Ball Sensors

21:41 - Drawbacks: Impact on On-Field Drama & Line Judges

24:34 - 2-Minute Tech Pulse: NASA & IBM Lunar Model

25:24 - 2-Minute Tech Pulse: Universal Music & ElevenLabs Platform

26:01 - 2-Minute Tech Pulse: AI Setup Optimization in Auto Racing

26:38 - Closing Remarks & Show Wrap-Up

We've been to the summit -- the AI Impact Summit, that is -- and we see a future where AI will still need humans to function at all levels of creation, deployment, and management. In this special episode, we NotBots focus on three sessions from th AI Impact Summit — fintech, hiring and retail— where AI has made significant inroads into automation, with humans leading the way. But we’re jumping ahead, as the NotBots also check in with the favorite AI stories from last week. And NotBot Victoria highlights 2 cool (and 1 controversial) tools in the 2-Minute Tech Pulse.

Are companies doubting the capabilities of their staffers to use AI effectively? What’s behind the doubt is what Paul Rubinstein of Visier says is a “fear of messing up” that is styming AI deployment efforts, rooted in looking at AI from a perspective of spend over culture, which, he explains, should be the other way around. We get his thoughts on what it will take to shove this fear aside and get moving on the promise of AI. The Notbots also chime in the AI tech that got them worked up in the last week, and Notbot Victoria Martinez comes in at the finish with the 2-Minute Tech Pulse.

LONG VERSION:

Will rogue AI lead to rogue robots? With all the developments coming fast and furious, Rosie the robot helping us with chores, robots taking over the manufacturing lines, and maybe even Terminator 2 coming from the future to warn us (hopefully, not that last part) is becoming more real by the day. It's some of what the Notbots have in store for this seventh episode of The Mostly AI SmartPod. Also, in this episode:

• Last Week in AI: Google updates AI for robots and Nano Banana makes AI slop harder to spot
• 2-Minute Tech Pulse:

And we try a new segment, called "AIsplaining," which Domingo will ... ahem ... explain.

Take a listen!

Links mentioned in this episode:

OpenAI went rogue

https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-says-ai-models-went-rogue-during-testing-triggering-unprecedented-breach-2026-07-21/

OpenAI went rogue, part deux

https://www.reuters.com/business/openais-rogue-agent-compromised-an-account-second-tech-firm-sources-say-2026-07-28/

Anthropic also admits to rogue Claude actions

https://www.zdnet.com/article/anthropic-claude-ai-hacked-organizations-during-security-tests/

Nvidia, others form open AI coalition

https://thenewstack.io/nvidia-open-weight-letter/

Fields Medal winner wins role at OpenAI

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/07/jacob-tsimerman-math-fields-medal-openai/688120/

Google DeepMind detailed Gemini Robotics 2, physical AI

https://thenewstack.io/gemini-robotics-2/

Millions of books, used to train AI, get trashed

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/vanishing-page-ai-firms-scan-160042724.html

House subcommittees just ordered DoorDash ... for more info

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/us-lawmakers-doordash-chinese-ai-models.html

AI is the two-sided coin, the double-edged sword, the villain and the savior -- in other words, AI is proving to be a massive paradox in the cybersecurity world. As AI moves at breakneck speed, so does the risk to vendors, suppliers and third parties plugging into our networks and that's the subject of Susan Rush's interview with cyberrisk strategist Jeffery Wheatman of Black Kite.

And as usual, we have our regular segments:

Last Week in AI: Netflix grabs up Ben Affleck's InterPositive for $538 billion; Meta grows its cloud compute business; and workers admit to AI sabotage.

2-Minute Tech Pulse: Anthropic debuts Claude for Teachers; xAI releases new Grok feature, called Automations.

Take a listen!

Links mentioned in episode:

Meta offers compute deal to Anthropic

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-anthropic-drop-bombshell-news-174700402.html

Netflix grabs up Ben Affleck's AI film production startup

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/19/netflix-paid-587m-for-ben-afflecks-ai-filmmaking-startup/

Variety says GenAI already in hundreds of its films

https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/about-300-netflix-programs-used-ai-this-year-q2-earnings-1236812914/

AI adoption reality check

https://fortune.com/2026/07/14/goldman-ai-productivity-reality-check-worker-sabotage/

It’s official! The Notbots have made it to Episode 5 without an “um” or “uh” uttered. But more importantly, we talk about all things AI in the creative and media space with Tim Ringel, who created a media platform and ecosystem for creative types working in media. In an excerpt included in this episode, Tim offers his insights on a range of topics where AI is impacting marketing: data privacy, creative processes, the disruption of AI-driven content creation, and more. And of course, the Notbots chime in with their favorite AI stories from the last week, and Victoria does the 2-minute sprint of nifty AI tools. (A complete version of the interview is available exclusively in the YouTube channel.)

Links for this episode:

Anthropic's Fable is back in limited release

https://thenewstack.io/anthropic-fable-ban-lifted/

Meta to sell excess AI compute capacity

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-01/meta-is-building-a-cloud-business-to-sell-excess-ai-compute

Return of hacker houses

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/hacker-houses-ai-boom-san-francisco/687737/

A young Bill Gates, posing with no glasses

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/bill-gates-got-what-he-needed-to-start-microsoft-in-high-school.html#:~:text=all%2Dgirls%20classes.-,Business%20magnate,-and%20Microsoft%20co

Meet The People

https://meet-the-people.com/

“A Dangerous Master,” by Wendell Wallach

https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Dangerous_Master/4vF70AEACAAJ?hl=en 2024

Opinion: Security of democracy is central to national security

In Episode 4 of The Mostly AI SmartPod, Susan interviews Dr. James Stanger, CompTIA's chief technology evangelist. They discuss why automation – not just some hipster version of Mythos or Claude or GPT – is going to change how we do things in IT.

Subscribe to AI Impact SmartBrief https://newsletter.smartbrief.com/rest/sign-up/7273672C-D530-4389-B011-3D7E9AB29049?campaign=309bde26

Connect with James linkedin.com/in/jamesstanger

CompTIA https://www.comptia.org/en-us/

Learn more about AutoOps+ https://www.comptia.org/en-us/search-page/?query=autoops%2B

If you must know, The Notbots are just humans in the loop, managing to get through Episode 3 of The Mostly AI SmartPod without dropping the ball. This episode features an interview with Semify CEO Patrick Briggs on the future, risks and opportunities in the realm of AI in digital marketing, and the Notbots also cover recent AI innovations in the food industry, AI fatigue, and new AI tools shaping research and engagement.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Semify CEO Patrick Briggs's article in Fast Company

https://www.fastcompany.com/91538585/why-ai-powered-thinking-will-leave-your-company-behind

Elon Musk: Trillionaire

https://fortune.com/2026/06/12/elon-musk-trillionaire-spacex-ipo-money-one-day-irrelevant-ai-robotics/

SpaceX IPO makes history

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/spacex-ipo-makes-elon-musk-worlds-first-trillionaire-2026-06-11/

US gov. vs. Anthropic

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/13/business/anthropic-mythos-model-national-security

With Archy, you'll sail through McDonald's drive-thru

https://www.al.com/news/2026/06/mcdonalds-is-making-a-major-change-to-drive-thrus-whats-changing.html

Horse-drawn carts in the McDonald's drive-thru? No

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/bernadette-giacomazzo/mcdonalds-drive-through-ban-horse-buggy-farmer

With McBoat, McDonald's has a "sail-thru"

https://www.thedrive.com/news/38505/mcboat-meet-germanys-mcdonalds-drive-thru-for-boats

The Notbots are back for another round of AI chatter. In Episode 2 of The Mostly AI SmartPod, Susan interviews AI expert Brad Stacey, who also happens to be Director of Enterprise AI at Future, the parent company responsible for The Mostly AI SmartPod.

Plus, we talk about what the NY Jets think about AI, what new foundational AI supports Apple will be talking up at the Worldwide Developers Conference, the Notbots talk about data centers, and Vique wraps it up with the 2-Minute Tech Pulse.

Links mentioned in this episode:

https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/nvidia-unveils-rtx-spark-superchip-at-computex-2026-new-platform-promises-to-turn-windows-into-an-agentic-ai-os-with-arm-cpu-blackwell-gpu-and-128gb-unified-memory

https://www.lawnext.com/2026/06/can-a-legal-ai-platform-be-powerful-fun-and-free-all-at-the-same-time-lavern-surely-thinks-so.html

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/jets-new-front-office-culture-is-to-think-ai-first https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/apples-wwdc-conference-kicks-off-165507954.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADZrx1WqP-OhWeY0VjnwsERntVxSg80kFQxTlQRHQg0e88kFXwJa8vz4PvwYBmZidnsJRl37LW_Xbt-8ozCs2EUj-ECfmkGD8pB8_OKgOuakLoqO5N-wCHz8e4zCD1G53sZR_W0NdiodMy1cNSw0XLjXVgSHE9G0naA1W4xv227F

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/hasbro-launching-ai-studio-license-characters-interactive-1236612854/

Welcome to The Mostly AI SmartPod, brought to you by the editors of AI Impact SmartBrief to help you separate true AI news from the noise. Join hosts Susan Rush, Michael Domingo and Victoria Martinez, collectively known as the "Notbots". No hype, just expert insights and a concerted effort not to get lost in the Matrix. In this episode we’re talking SaaSpocalype, AI innovation and giving you the latest tech pulse.