Practical AI

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Making artificial intelligence practical, productive, and accessible to everyone. Practical AI is a show in which technology professionals, business people, students, enthusiasts, and expert guests engage in lively discussions about Artificial Intelligence and related topics (Machine Learning, Deep…

Changelog Media


    • May 20, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • every other week NEW EPISODES
    • 46m AVG DURATION
    • 313 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Practical AI

    Emailing like a superhuman

    Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2025 47:27 Transcription Available


    Loïc Houssier, Head of Engineering at Superhuman, joins us to discuss how AI and LLMs are reshaping the email experience. He highlights challenges related to the variability of user prompts and infrastructure optimization. Loïc emphasizes that a deep focus on user experience and real human workflows is key to building AI tools people actually love to use.Featuring:Loïc Houssier – LinkedInChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:SuperhumanReferral Code for a Free monthSponsors:Outshift by Cisco – AGNTCY is an open source collective building the Internet of Agents. It's a collaboration layer where AI agents can communicate, discover each other, and work across frameworks. For developers, this means standardized agent discovery tools, seamless protocols for inter-agent communication, and modular components to compose and scale multi-agent workflows. 

    Model Context Protocol Deep Dive

    Play Episode Listen Later May 8, 2025 42:23 Transcription Available


    In this episode, Daniel and Chris unpack the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a rising standard for enabling agentic AI interactions with external systems, APIs, and data sources. They explore how MCP supports interoperability, community contributions, and a rapidly developing ecosystem of AI integrations. The conversation also highlights some real-world tooling such as FastAPI-MCP.Featuring:Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:Protocol websiteAnthropic blog postBlog post - Model Context Protocol (MCP) an overviewFastAPI-MCPHow to Use FastAPI MCP Server: A Complete Guide Candle (Rust framework)

    Seeing beyond the scan in neuroimaging

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 42:58 Transcription Available


    In this episode, we explore the intersection of AI, machine learning, and healthcare through the lens of neuroimaging and epilepsy diagnosis. Dr. Gavin Winston shares insights from his work using MRI data and machine learning to uncover subtle abnormalities in brain function. We discuss the cultural and ethical barriers to AI adoption in medicine, how predictive data analysis could transform the diagnostic workflow, and what the future holds for medical imaging in a world increasingly shaped by intelligent systems.Featuring:Gavin Winston – LinkedIn, WebsiteChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:Detection of Epileptogenic Focal Cortical Dysplasia Using Graph Neural Networks: A MELD StudyMachine Learning in Neuroimaging across DisciplinesAutomated and Interpretable Detection of Hippocampal Sclerosis in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: AID-HSLiterature review and protocol for a prospective multicentre cohort study on multimodal prediction of seizure recurrence after unprovoked first seizureDeep learning in neuroimaging of epilepsyNon-parametric combination of multimodal MRI for lesion detection in focal epilepsyDetection of covert lesions in focal epilepsy using computational analysis of multimodal magnetic resonance imaging data

    Open source AI to tackle your backlog

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2025 42:04 Transcription Available


    Vibe coding, agentic workflows, and AI-assisted pull requests? In this episode, Daniel and Chris chat with Robert Brennan and Graham Neubig of All Hands AI about how AI is transforming software development—from senior engineer productivity to open source agents that address GitHub issues. They dive into trust, tooling, collaboration, and what it means to build software in the era of AI agents. Whether you're coding from your laptop or your phone on a morning walk, the future is hands-free (and All Hands).Featuring:Robert Brennan – LinkedIn, XGraham Neubig – LinkedIn, XChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:All HandsAll Hands on GitHubAll Hands on Hugging Face 

    Orchestrating agents, APIs, and MCP servers

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2025 42:52 Transcription Available


    In this episode, Daniel sits down with Pavel Veller, EPAM's Chief Technologist, to explore the practical challenges of orchestrating many AI agents and managing connections to disparate systems/tools. Pavel shares insights from his hands-on work with agentic architectures and internal tools like "DIAL". Pavel also helps us understand things like MCP servers and why connecting assistants via APIs is easy—but making them useful is hard. Featuring:Pavel Veller – LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:EPAMDIALSWE-bench results ★ Support this podcast ★

    Software and hardware acceleration with Groq

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2025 43:24 Transcription Available


    How do you enable AI acceleration (at both the hardware and software layers) that stays ahead of rapid industry shifts? In this episode, Dhananjay Singh from Groq dives into the evolving landscape of AI inference and acceleration. We explore how Groq optimizes the serving layer, adapts to industry shifts, and supports emerging model architectures. Featuring:Dhananjay Singh – LinkedIn, XChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:GroqSponsors:Augment Code - Developer AI that uses deep understanding of your large codebase and how you build software to deliver personalized code suggestions and insights. Augment provides relevant, contextualized code right in your IDE or Slack. It transforms scattered knowledge into code or answers, eliminating time spent searching docs or interrupting teammates. ★ Support this podcast ★

    AI-assisted coding with GitHub's COO

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2025 50:04 Transcription Available


    Kyle Daigle, COO of GitHub, joins the hosts to discuss the evolving role of AI in software development, GitHub Copilot's impact, and the challenges of AI-assisted coding. The conversation covers licensing concerns, ethical considerations, and how developers can navigate these complexities. Kyle also shares his vision for ambient AI, which seamlessly integrates into workflows to enhance productivity and innovation, shaping the future of developer tools. Featuring:Kyle Daigle – LinkedInChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XSponsors:Domo – The AI and data products platform. Strengthen your entire data journey with Domo's AI and data products. ★ Support this podcast ★

    Optimizing for efficiency with IBM's Granite

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2025 43:38 Transcription Available


    We often judge AI models by leaderboard scores, but what if efficiency matters more? Kate Soule from IBM joins us to discuss how Granite AI is rethinking AI at the edge—breaking tasks into smaller, efficient components and co-designing models with hardware. She also shares why AI should prioritize efficiency frontiers over incremental benchmark gains and how seamless model routing can optimize performance. Featuring:Kate Soule – LinkedInChris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XLinks:IBM GraniteIBM Granite on Hugging FaceIBM Expands Granite Model Family with New Multi-Modal and Reasoning AI Built for the Enterprise  ★ Support this podcast ★

    Build a workspace of AI agents

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2025 47:39


    How can every single person build a personal AI protégé and then accumulate (and share) a host of other assistants? In this episode, we dive into the world of no-code AI with Scott Meyer from Chipp.ai. We discuss AI tooling for people that can't code, the cultural shift that needs to happen for widespread AI adoption in businesses, and the predicted growth trajectory of AI assistant that you can own.Featuring:Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XScott Meyer - LinkedIn, XSponsors:Domo – The AI and data products platform. Strengthen your entire data journey with Domo's AI and data products.Show Notes:Chipp.aiChipp.ai's Discord ★ Support this podcast ★

    GenAI hot takes and bad use cases

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2025 30:38


    It seems like all we hear about are the great use cases for GenAI, but where should you NOT be using the technology? On this episode Chris and Daniel share their hot takes and bad use cases. Some may surprise you!

    Tool calling and agents

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2025 45:02


    It seems like everyone is uses the term "agent" differently these days. In this episode, Chris and Daniel dig into the details of tool calling and its connection to agents. They help clarify how LLMs can "talk to" and "interact with" other systems like databases, APIs, web apps, etc. Along the way they share related learning resources.

    tool apis chris benson daniel whitenack
    Deep-dive into DeepSeek

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2025 50:49


    There is crazy hype and a lot of confusion related to DeepSeek's latest model DeepSeek R1. The products provided by DeepSeek (their version of a ChatGPT-like app) has exploded in popularity. However, ties to China have raised privacy and geopolitical concerns. In this episode, Chris and Daniel cut through the hype to talk about the model, privacy implications, running DeepSeek models securely, and what this signals for open models in 2025.

    Video generation with realistic motion

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 45:11


    We seem to be experiencing a surge of video generation tools, models, and applications. However, video generation models generally struggle with some basic physics, like realistic walking motion. This leaves some generated videos lacking true motion with disappointing, simplistic panning camera views. Genmo is focused on the motion side of video generation and has released some of the best open models. Paras joins us to discuss video generation and their journey at Genmo.

    Mozart to Megadeath at CHRP

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2024 53:54


    Daniel and Chris groove with Jeff Smith, Founder and CEO at CHRP.ai. Jeff describes how CHRP anonymously analyzes emotional wellness data, derived from employees' music preferences, giving HR leaders actionable insights to improve productivity, retention, and overall morale. By monitoring key trends and identifying shifts in emotional health across teams, CHRP.ai enables proactive decisions to ensure employees feel supported and engaged.

    Sidekick is an AI Shopify expert

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2024 51:39


    Today, Chris explores Shopify Magic and other AI offerings with Mike Tamir, Distinguished ML Engineer and Head of Machine Learning, and Matt Colyer, Director of Product Management for Sidekick. They talk about how Shopify uses generative AI and LLMs to enhance their products, and they take a deeper dive into Sidekick, a first-of-its-kind, AI-enabled commerce assistant that understands a merchant's business (products, orders, customers) and has been trained to know all about Shopify.

    Full-duplex, real-time dialogue with Kyutai

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2024 50:05


    Kyutai, an open science research lab, made headlines over the summer when they released their real-time speech-to-speech AI assistant (beating OpenAI to market with their teased GPT-driven speech-to-speech functionality). Alex from Kyutai joins us in this episode to discuss the research lab, their recent Moshi models, and what might be coming next from the lab. Along the way we discuss small models and the AI ecosystem in France.

    Clones, commerce & campaigns

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2024 53:12


    Chris and Daniel dive into what Trump's impending second term could mean for AI companies, model developers, and regulators, unpacking the potential shifts in policy and innovation. Next, they discuss the latest models, like Qwen, that blur the performance gap between open and closed systems. Finally, they explore new AI tools for meeting clones and AI-driven commerce, sparking a conversation about the balance between digital convenience and fostering genuine human connections.

    scikit-learn & data science you own

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2024 52:04


    We are at GenAI saturation, so let's talk about scikit-learn, a long time favorite for data scientists building classifiers, time series analyzers, dimensionality reducers, and more! Scikit-learn is deployed across industry and driving a significant portion of the "AI" that is actually in production. :probabl is a new kind of company that is stewarding this project along with a variety of other open source projects. Yann Lechelle and Guillaume Lemaitre share some of the vision behind the company and talk about the future of scikit-learn!

    Creating tested, reliable AI applications

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2024 50:09


    It can be frustrating to get an AI application working amazingly well 80% of the time and failing miserably the other 20%. How can you close the gap and create something that you rely on? Chris and Daniel talk through this process, behavior testing, and the flow from prototype to production in this episode. They also talk a bit about the apparent slow down in the release of frontier models.

    AI is changing the cybersecurity threat landscape

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2024 55:25


    This week, Chris is joined by Gregory Richardson, Vice President and Global Advisory CISO at BlackBerry, and Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President of Threat Research & Intelligence at BlackBerry. They address how AI is changing the threat landscape, why human defenders remain a key part of our cyber defenses, and the explain the AI standoff between cyber threat actors and cyber defenders.

    The path towards trustworthy AI

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2024 51:46


    Elham Tabassi, the Chief AI Advisor at the U.S. National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), joins Chris for an enlightening discussion about the path towards trustworthy AI. Together they explore NIST's 'AI Risk Management Framework' (AI RMF) within the context of the White House's 'Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence'.

    Big data is dead, analytics is alive

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2024 50:21


    We are on the other side of "big data" hype, but what is the future of analytics and how does AI fit in? Till and Adithya from MotherDuck join us to discuss why DuckDB is taking the analytics and AI world by storm. We dive into what makes DuckDB, a free, in-process SQL OLAP database management system, unique including its ability to execute lighting fast analytics queries against a variety of data sources, even on your laptop! Along the way we dig into the intersections with AI, such as text-to-sql, vector search, and AI-driven SQL query correction.

    Practical workflow orchestration

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2024 58:26


    Workflow orchestration has always been a pain for data scientists, but this is exacerbated in these AI hype days by agentic workflows executing arbitrary (not pre-defined) workflows with a variety of failure modes. Adam from Prefect joins us to talk through their open source Python library for orchestration and visibility into python-based pipelines. Along the way, he introduces us to things like Marvin, their AI engineering framework, and ControlFlow, their agent workflow system.

    Towards high-quality (maybe synthetic) datasets

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2024 57:04


    As Argilla puts it: "Data quality is what makes or breaks AI." However, what exactly does this mean and how can AI team probably collaborate with domain experts towards improved data quality? David Berenstein & Ben Burtenshaw, who are building Argilla & Distilabel at Hugging Face, join us to dig into these topics along with synthetic data generation & AI-generated labeling / feedback.

    Understanding what's possible, doable & scalable

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2024 62:23


    We are constantly hearing about disillusionment as it relates to AI. Some of that is probably valid, but Mike Lewis, an AI architect from Cincinnati, has proven that he can consistently get LLM and GenAI apps to the point of real enterprise value (even with the Big Cos of the world). In this episode, Mike joins us to share some stories from the AI trenches & highlight what it takes (practically) to show what is possible, doable & scalable with AI.

    GraphRAG (beyond the hype)

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2024 55:04


    Seems like we are hearing a lot about GraphRAG these days, but there are lots of questions: what is it, is it hype, what is practical? One of our all time favorite podcast friends, Prashanth Rao, joins us to dig into this topic beyond the hype. Prashanth gives us a bit of background and practical use cases for GraphRAG and graph data.

    Pausing to think about scikit-learn & OpenAI o1

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2024 50:12


    Recently the company stewarding the open source library scikit-learn announced their seed funding. Also, OpenAI released "o1" with new behavior in which it pauses to "think" about complex tasks. Chris and Daniel take some time to do their own thinking about o1 and the contrast to the scikit-learn ecosystem, which has the goal to promote "data science that you own."

    Cybersecurity in the GenAI age

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2024 51:36


    Dinis Cruz drops by to chat about cybersecurity for generative AI and large language models. In addition to discussing The Cyber Boardroom, Dinis also delves into cybersecurity efforts at OWASP and that organization's Top 10 for LLMs and Generative AI Apps.

    AI is more than GenAI

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2024 40:05


    GenAI is often what people think of when someone mentions AI. However, AI is much more. In this episode, Daniel breaks down a history of developments in data science, machine learning, AI, and GenAI in this episode to give listeners a better mental model. Don't miss this one if you are wanting to understand the AI ecosystem holistically and how models, embeddings, data, prompts, etc. all fit together.

    ai genai daniel whitenack
    Metrics Driven Development

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2024 42:14


    How do you systematically measure, optimize, and improve the performance of LLM applications (like those powered by RAG or tool use)? Ragas is an open source effort that has been trying to answer this question comprehensively, and they are promoting a "Metrics Driven Development" approach. Shahul from Ragas joins us to discuss Ragas in this episode, and we dig into specific metrics, the difference between benchmarking models and evaluating LLM apps, generating synthetic test data and more.

    Threat modeling LLM apps

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 22, 2024 54:40


    If you have questions at the intersection of Cybersecurity and AI, you need to know Donato at WithSecure! Donato has been threat modeling AI applications and seriously applying those models in his day-to-day work. He joins us in this episode to discuss his LLM application security canvas, prompt injections, alignment, and more.

    Only as good as the data

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2024 45:42


    You might have heard that "AI is only as good as the data." What does that mean and what data are we talking about? Chris and Daniel dig into that topic in the episode exploring the categories of data that you might encounter working in AI (for training, testing, fine-tuning, benchmarks, etc.). They also discuss the latest developments in AI regulation with the EU's AI Act coming into force.

    Gaudi processors & Intel's AI portfolio

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2024 46:30


    There is an increasing desire for and effort towards GPU alternatives for AI workloads and an ability to run GenAI models on CPUs. Ben and Greg from Intel join us in this episode to help us understand Intel's strategy as it related to AI along with related projects, hardware, and developer communities. We dig into Intel's Gaudi processors, open source collaborations with Hugging Face, and AI on CPU/Xeon processors.

    Broccoli AI at its best

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2024 42:33


    We discussed "

    ai nlp broccoli daniel whitenack
    Hyperventilating over the Gartner AI Hype Cycle

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2024 55:11


    This week Daniel & Chris hang with repeat guest and good friend Demetrios Brinkmann of the MLOps Community. Together they review, debate, and poke fun at the 2024 Gartner Hype Cycle chart for Artificial Intelligence. You are invited to join them in this light-hearted fun conversation about the state of hype in artificial intelligence.

    The first real-time voice assistant

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2024 43:23


    In the midst of the demos & discussion about OpenAI's GPT-4o voice assistant, Kyutai swooped in to release the *first* real-time AI voice assistant model and a pretty slick demo (Moshi). Chris & Daniel discuss what this more open approach to a voice assistant might catalyze. They also discuss recent changes to Gartner's ranking of GenAI on their hype cycle.

    Vectoring in on Pinecone

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2024 44:13


    Daniel & Chris explore the advantages of vector databases with Roie Schwaber-Cohen of Pinecone. Roie starts with a very lucid explanation of why you need a vector database in your machine learning pipeline, and then goes on to discuss Pinecone's vector database, designed to facilitate efficient storage, retrieval, and management of vector data.

    Stanford's AI Index Report 2024

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2024 47:06 Transcription Available


    We've had representatives from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) on the show in the past, but we were super excited to talk through their 2024 AI Index Report after such a crazy year in AI! Nestor from HAI joins us in this episode to talk about some of the main takeaways including how AI makes workers more productive, the US is increasing regulations sharply, and industry continues to dominate frontier AI research.

    Apple Intelligence & Advanced RAG

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2024 45:08


    Daniel & Chris engage in an impromptu discussion of the state of AI in the enterprise. Then they dive into the recent Apple Intelligence announcement to explore its implications. Finally, Daniel leads a deep dive into a new topic - Advanced RAG - covering everything you need to know to be practical & productive.

    The perplexities of information retrieval

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2024 46:08


    Daniel & Chris sit down with Denis Yarats, Co-founder & CTO at Perplexity, to discuss Perplexity's sophisticated AI-driven answer engine. Denis outlines some of the deficiencies in search engines, and how Perplexity's approach to information retrieval improves on traditional search engine systems, with a focus on accuracy and validation of the information provided.

    Using edge models to find sensitive data

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2024 38:30


    We've all heard about breaches of privacy and leaks of private health information (PHI). For healthcare providers and those storing this data, knowing where all the sensitive data is stored is non-trivial. Ramin, from Tausight, joins us to discuss how they have deploy edge AI models to help company search through billions of records for PHI.

    Rise of the AI PC & local LLMs

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2024 35:37


    We've seen a rise in interest recently and a number of major announcements related to local LLMs and AI PCs. NVIDIA, Apple, and Intel are getting into this along with models like the Phi family from Microsoft. In this episode, we dig into local AI tooling, frameworks, and optimizations to help you navigate this AI niche, and we talk about how this might impact AI adoption in the longer term.

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