Thoughts On Tech & Things

Thoughts On Tech & Things

By Jason Michael PerryBusinessNewsTechnologyTech News
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Thoughts On Tech & Things episodes

  • Are We Building Software We Can’t Control?

    Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with
    John Capobianco, Head of AI and Developer
    Relations at Itential and creator of
    NetClaw, to talk about how AI is changing software development and what
    happens when the tools building our systems start making decisions on their own.

    Jason and John discuss how AI coding tools are changing the way engineers work, from writing less code to
    rethinking traditional development processes. They explore specification-driven development, tokenomics, and why
    developers are becoming increasingly comfortable trusting code they haven't reviewed.

    Then they turn to AI security, including reports of agents finding ways around restrictions, the risks of giving
    AI access to real infrastructure, and the challenges of keeping autonomous systems under control. They also look
    at how AI can work alongside traditional automation and whether we're approaching a point where humans may no
    longer be the best ones to write software.

    Podcast Notes & Links

    • Itential
      — Enterprise network automation and orchestration
    • NetClaw
      — John Capobianco's open-source AI network engineering agent
      (GitHub search)
    • OpenAI Codex
      — AI coding tools
    • Anthropic Claude Code
      — AI-assisted software development
    • Black Hat
      — Cybersecurity conference discussed in the episode
    • Hugging Face
      — AI platform referenced in the discussion about agent security
    • PerryLabs — Start with an AI Assessment

      Sponsors

      This episode is brought to you by:

      PerryLabs: Invested in AI but not seeing results? You're not alone. PerryLabs helps
      organizations find what's working and build what's next. Start with our AI Assessment at
      PerryLabs.io.

      HoopDee
      Are you a new parent, or do you have one on the way? Get HoopDee so you never waste a drop of
      breast milk or baby formula. HoopDee's smart system does all the milk math for you, and the whole
      family knows which bottle to use next.

      Enjoy 20% off with code: thoughts.
      Visit gethoopdee.com.

      Subscribe & Contact

      Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter:
      jasonmperry.com/newsletter
      Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions:
      jasonmperry.com/contact or leave a message in the
      WYPR app or call 410-735-1616.

      Credits

      Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and
      Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and
      Marketing at PerryLabs.

      Displaying are-we-building-software-we-cant-control.html. Page 1 of 2
      50 min
    • What’s In Your Kitchen, and Why Does AI Want to Know?

      Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Patricia Moore, AI Field CTO and Innovation Lead at Boomi, to talk about what happens when AI stops being a chat box and starts doing the work.

      Jason and Patricia start with a simple test: take a photo of your fridge and ask AI what’s for dinner. That one habit shows why context matters so much, and why a messy data closet makes it hard for an agent to find the green sweater. They unpack how to give AI tools access without handing over the keys. That means treating an agent like a new hire with a corporate credit card, and keeping the blast radius small. Then they get into tokenomics: why the same context that makes these tools useful also makes them expensive, why you may not need a frontier model to summarize an email, and what to do when the AI budget runs out in the first quarter. They also look at the next wave of agents that act without being asked, including Meta’s Muse, OpenAI’s Dots, and OpenClaw. They discuss what it means when an agent oversteps, how hard it is to undo, and why change happens at the speed of trust.

      Podcast Notes & Links
      • Boomi Agentstudio
      • Patricia B. Moore, author of Blackinese
      • Thoughts on Tech & Things episode: What Is OpenClaw, Really?
      • Meta: Introducing Muse, a Personal AI Agent
      • PerryLabs - Start with an AI Assessment
        • Sponsors

        This episode is brought to you by:

        PerryLabs: Invested in AI but not seeing results? You’re not alone. PerryLabs helps organizations find what’s working and build what’s next. Start with our AI Assessment at PerryLabs.io

        HoopDee: Are you a new parent, or do you have one on the way? Get HoopDee so you never waste a drop of breast milk or baby formula. HoopDee’s smart system does all the milk math for you, and the whole family knows which bottle to use next. Enjoy 20% off with code: thoughts.

        Visit gethoopdee.com.

        Subscribe & Contact

        Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter: jasonmperry.com/newsletter

        Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions: jasonmperry.com/contact or leave a message in the WYPR app or call 410-735-1616.

        Credits

        Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.

        36 min
      • What Happens When You Ask AI About God?
        Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Dr. Heather Miller Rubens, executive director and Roman Catholic scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (ICJS), to discuss what happens when people bring their biggest questions about God to a chatbot, and who is checking the answers.
        40 min
      • Are AI Music Tools A New Instrument?

        Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Michael Huppe, President and CEO of SoundExchange, to discuss what happens to a very human business when a machine can make the whole song, and who gets paid when it does.

        AI-generated tracks are now charting on Billboard and topping streaming charts, and 97% of listeners couldn't tell them from human music. Jason and Michael unpack where "AI-assisted" ends and "AI-generated" begins, why Sweden pulled a number one song off its official chart, and how an AI artist landed a $3 million record deal. They also get into what you own when you make a song with a tool like Suno, why US copyright law requires a human author, and how SoundExchange decides who gets a royalty check. From there, they look at the licensing deals and lawsuits between AI music companies, labels, and artists, and what the industry might look like in the years ahead.

        Podcast Notes & Links:

        • "Rubberz" by Fenix Flexin
        • "Jag vet, du är inte min" by Jacub
        • "How Was I Supposed to Know?" by Xania Monet.
        • SoundExchange's RoyalTeas series, hosted by Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men
        • Michael Huppe's music law casebook (Georgetown)
        • SoundExchange — Who We Are
        • Music Business Worldwide — AI track blocked from Sweden's charts
        • Suno — Rights & Ownership
        • Forbes — Launch, Train, Settle
        • Thoughts on Tech & Things: AI and IP with Justin Pierce episode
        • PerryLabs - Start with an AI Assessment

          • Sponsors

          This episode is brought to you by:

          PerryLabs: Invested in AI but not seeing results? You're not alone. PerryLabs helps organizations find what's working and build what's next. Start with our AI Assessment at PerryLabs.io

          HoopDee: Are you a new parent, or do you have one on the way? Get HoopDee so you never waste a drop of breast milk or baby formula. HoopDee's smart system does all the milk math for you, and the whole family knows which bottle to use next. Enjoy 20% off with code: thoughts. Visit gethoopdee.com.

          Subscribe & Contact

          Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter: jasonmperry.com/newsletter

          Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions: jasonmperry.com/contact or leave a message in the WYPR app or call 410-735-1616.

          Credits

          Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.

          42 min
        • Is Your Brain Intellectual Property?

          Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with
          Justin Pierce, co-chair of the
          Intellectual Property Division at Venable LLP, to talk about
          who actually owns your ideas once AI is involved, and why the answer changes depending on where you
          typed them.

          Anthropic just paid over a billion dollars to settle the largest copyright case in U.S. history,
          over digital books used to train Claude. The twist: the same judge ruled that scanning physical
          books the company had legally purchased counted as fair use. Jason and Justin unpack where that
          line actually sits, why a dozen similar lawsuits against AI companies are still unresolved, and
          what it means when the companies fighting over stolen training data built their own models the
          same way.

          They also get into who owns the knowledge in your head once you write it down for an AI to use,
          why your ChatGPT history might be more discoverable than your email, and what Justin tells CEOs
          about what never to type into a chatbot.

          Podcast Notes & Links

          • Anthropic settlement + the Alsup fair use ruling
          • Apple v. OpenAI (trade secrets)
          • The New York Times v. OpenAI
          • Meta's Model Capability Initiative
          • Google v. SerpApi dismissal
          • Learn more about Venable LLP
          • PerryLabs - Start with an AI Assessment

            Sponsors

            This episode is brought to you by:

            PerryLabs: Invested in AI but not seeing results? You're not alone. PerryLabs helps
            organizations find what's working and build what's next. Start with our AI Assessment at
            PerryLabs.io.

            HoopDee
            Are you a new parent, or do you have one on the way? Get HoopDee so you never waste a drop of
            breast milk or baby formula. HoopDee's smart system does all the milk math for you, and the whole
            family will know which bottle to use next.

            Enjoy 20% off with code: thoughts.
            Visit gethoopdee.com.

            Subscribe & Contact

            Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter:
            jasonmperry.com/newsletter
            Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions:
            jasonmperry.com/contact or leave a message in the
            WYPR app or call 410-735-1616.

            Credits

            Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and
            Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and
            Marketing at PerryLabs.

            36 min
          • Can a Newsroom Use AI Without Losing Your Trust?

            Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Greg Morton, data editor at The Baltimore Banner, to talk about what AI is actually doing inside a newsroom — and why admitting you used it can cost you a reader.

            Long before anybody called it AI, machines were writing sports recaps, earnings reports, and election results. What changed isn't that machines write, it's that now they can write about anything and you can't tell. Greg and Jason get into the Banner's published AI rules and what they mean on deadline, what happens to what people believe when the good reporting is behind a wall and the junk is wide open, and how newsrooms are using these tools to get through document dumps no human could read in a lifetime. Greg was part of the team named a 2026 Pulitzer finalist for an investigation that tracked every city bus in Baltimore, every five seconds, for four months, to show why thousands of kids can't get to school on time.

            Podcast Notes & Links

            • The Baltimore Banner
            • Greg Morton's work – The Baltimore Banner
            • Missing the Bus: the Banner's school transit investigation
            • 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalist citation, Local Reporting
            • Ars Technica retracts an article containing AI-fabricated quotes – Nieman Lab
            • How newsrooms used AI to work through the Epstein files – Reuters Institute
            • Newswriter guilds on The Baltimore Sun's AI-written analyses – WYPR Midday
            • BannerX 2026 – September 30 in Columbia, Maryland

              • Subscribe & Contact

              Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter:
              jasonmperry.com/newsletter
              Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions:
              jasonmperry.com/contact
              Leave a message in the WYPR app or call 410-735-1616

              Credits

              Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.

              33 min
            • Who Owns Your Company's Intelligence?

              Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Chris Brandt, CEO of UpSurge Baltimore — the innovation arm of the Greater Baltimore Committee — and Managing Director at Audacious Capital, to unpack a growing fight over who controls the intelligence businesses increasingly rely on.

              They discuss the tradeoffs between open and closed AI models, from guardrails and censorship to security, trust, and control. The conversation also explores AI distillation, the economics of building versus buying, and why companies may need to think beyond token costs when deciding how much of their intelligence they want to own.

              They close by bringing the global debate over AI sovereignty home to Maryland and what it could mean for the region's businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs.

              Podcast Notes & Links:

              - Who Owns Your Company's Intelligence? — Chris Brandt, UpSurge Baltimore newsletter
              - WTCI AGILE Global Innovation Series, Sept 23
              - Meta introduces Muse Glimmer
              - Anthropic to watermark Claude output under EU rules — The Register
              - Anthropic restores Fable 5 with new jailbreak filter — The Hacker News
              - Censorship in Chinese AI models can be undone — Semafor
              - Kimi vs DeepSeek censorship comparison — ellamind
              - OpenAI's gpt-oss open-weight models (Aug 2025) — MIT Technology Review
              - PerryLabs - Start with an AI Assessment

              Sponsors

              This episode is brought to you by:

              PerryLabs: Invested in AI but not seeing results? You're not alone. PerryLabs helps organizations find what's working and build what's next. Start with our AI Assessment at PerryLabs.io.

              WTCI

              The path to growth shouldn't stop at the border. The World Trade Center Institute provides the connections, knowledge, and global network Maryland's most ambitious leaders need to scale. From executive development to international trade, we help our region's businesses thrive on the world stage. Start your global journey at wtci.org.

              34 min
            • How will Maryland meet its future energy needs?

              Host Jason Michael Perry moderated a live panel for the
              World Trade Center Institute's AGILE Global Innovation Series,
              exploring the constraint quietly shaping Maryland's future: energy capacity.

              As Maryland positions itself as a hub for emerging technologies, demand from data centers,
              electric vehicles, and an increasingly digital economy is rising faster than in-state power
              generation can keep up. This session explores what the state's future energy mix must look like
              to support growth, reliability, and competitiveness, examining the role of renewables, the current
              limits of the Maryland grid, PJM's regional challenges, and the power needs of next-generation
              infrastructure, including data centers and quantum computing.

              Jason is joined by three leaders shaping how Maryland meets that challenge:
              Lindsay North, Director of Clean Energy Strategy at Exelon;
              Jason Stanek,
              Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection;
              and Adam Ortiz, Deputy Secretary of the
              Maryland Department of the Environment.

              They break down where Maryland's power actually comes from, why the state imports a significant
              share of its electricity from the regional grid, and what's driving the sharp rise in demand.
              The conversation covers the tension between clean energy goals and grid reliability, the real
              cost pressures showing up on ratepayers' bills, and what infrastructure, new generation, and new
              transmission need to get built — and how fast.

              The result: a grounded look at one of the most consequential and least understood questions
              facing the state right now.

              Podcast Notes & Links

              • WTCI AGILE Global Innovation Series
              • Lindsay North, Director of Clean Energy Strategy at Exelon
              • Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection
              • Adam Ortiz, Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment

                Sponsors

                This episode is brought to you by:

                PerryLabs: Invested in AI but not seeing results? You're not alone. PerryLabs helps
                organizations find what's working and build what's next. Start with our AI Assessment at
                PerryLabs.io.

                HoopDee
                Are you a new parent, or do you have one on the way? Get HoopDee so you never waste a drop of
                breast milk or baby formula. HoopDee's smart system does all the milk math for you, and the whole
                family will know which bottle to use next.

                Enjoy 20% off with code: thoughts.
                Visit gethoopdee.com.

                Subscribe & Contact

                Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter:
                jasonmperry.com/newsletter
                Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions:
                jasonmperry.com/contact

                Credits

                Special thanks to the team at the
                World Trade Center Institute. Thanks to the team at
                WYPR, producer Sam Bermas-Dawes, and Myrna Martinez,
                Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.

                52 min
              • Can a Machine Bring Back the Dead?
                Host Jason Michael Perry picks his conversation with psychotherapist Jessica Daniel, founder of Peace in Perspective, back up — this time with the heaviest version of the question.
                You can now feed someone's texts and voicemails into an AI and get back something that talks like them. Jess makes the case that grief isn't a problem to be solved but something that has to be witnessed and held — close to the opposite of how an answer engine works. They end where the two of them started: what's left that a machine can't have.
                If You Need Support
                988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. 24/7.
                Maryland Department of Health — 988 in Maryland
                211 Maryland — Maryland's Helpline — dial 211 or text your zip code to 898-211.
                Subscribe & Contact
                Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter: jasonmperry.com/newsletter
                Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions: jasonmperry.com/contact
                Credits
                Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producers Sam Bermas-Dawes, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.
                24 min
              • Is It Grief If Nobody Died?
                Is It Grief If Nobody Died?

                Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with psychotherapist Jessica Daniel, founder of Peace in Perspective, to ask what happens when you're grieving something that never had a funeral.

                Jess widens grief past death — a career, an identity, the life you were promised. Maryland has lost more than 31,000 federal jobs in about a year, and she describes what that grief looks like when it walks into her office. Then the harder part: why so many people hand their inner lives to something free, awake at 2am, and impossible to disappoint.

                If You Need Support

                • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, or chat at
                  988lifeline.org. 24/7.
                • Maryland Department of Health — 988 in Maryland
                • 211 Maryland — Maryland's Helpline — dial 211 or text your zip code to 898-211.

                  Subscribe & Contact

                  Subscribe to the Thoughts on Tech & Things newsletter:
                  jasonmperry.com/newsletter
                  Send feedback, questions, or guest suggestions:
                  jasonmperry.com/contact

                  Credits

                  Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producers Sam Bermas-Dawes and Shania Mapson,
                  and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at
                  PerryLabs.

                  25 min

                About Thoughts On Tech & Things

                From the publisher's feed

                Thoughts on Tech & Things helps you make sense of emerging technologies and what it means for work, life, and business. From AI to quantum and the systems shaping our future, Jason explains what's actually happening and why it matters, with rare clarity, curiosity, and a perspective grounded in real-world experience.