Practical AI

What happens when an AI hater starts building with AI agents? In this episode, we talk with software engineer Steve Klabnik, known for his work on the Rust programming language, about his journey from criticizing AI to experimenting with it firsthand. We explore Steve’s programming language Rue, largely built with the help of AI tools like Claude, and discuss what this means for software engineering and the future of coding in an AI-driven world. Featuring: Steve Klabnik – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: The Rust Programming Language Rust Rue Daniel's RSA Meeting link for March 23, 2026 Daniel's RSA Meeting link for March 24-25, 2026 Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

AI is reshaping global power, from chip manufacturing and computing power to AI governance and US-China relations. In this episode, Ben Buchanan, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS and former White House Special Advisor for AI, explores how AI policy, geopolitics, and international cooperation intersect with AI innovation and AI safety. We discuss the strategic importance of computing power, the future of AI governance, and what it will take for democracies to lead responsibly in the age of AI. Featuring: Ben Buchanan – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Links: The AI Grand Bargain Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

As AI accelerates innovation and adoption, leaders are facing rising cognitive load, shifting systems, and new emotional realities inside their organizations. In this episode, Deloitte’s Chief Innovation Officer Deborah Golden joins us to explore how AI is reshaping leadership, why vulnerability and empathy are critical in this moment, and how anti-fragility, not just resilience, will define the future of work. Featuring: Deborah Golden – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Deloitte Sponsor: Framer - The website builder that turns your dot com from a formality into a tool for growth.

AI is moving fast from research to real-world deployment, and when things go wrong, the consequences are no longer hypothetical. In this episode, Sean McGregor, co-founder of the AI Verification & Evaluation Research Institute and also the founder of the AI Incident Database, joins Chris and Dan to discuss AI safety, verification, evaluation, and auditing. They explore why benchmarks often fall short, what red-teaming at DEF CON reveals about machine learning risks, and how organizations can better assess and manage AI systems in practice. Featuring: Sean McGregor– LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: AI Verification & Evaluation Research Institute AI Incident Database 38th convening of IAAI BenchRisk State of Global AI Incident Reporting Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

AI agents are moving from demos to real workplaces, but what actually happens when they run a company? In this episode, journalist Evan Ratliff, host of Shell Game, joins Chris to discuss his immersive journalism experiment building a real startup staffed almost entirely by AI agents. They explore how AI agents behave as coworkers, how humans react when interacting with them, and where ethical and workplace boundaries begin to break down. Featuring: Evan Ratliff – LinkedIn, X Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Links: Shell Game Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

As AI increasingly shapes geopolitics, elections, and civic life, its impact on democracy is becoming impossible to ignore. In this episode, Daniel and Chris are joined by security expert Bruce Schneier to explore how AI and technology are transforming democracy, governance, and citizenship. Drawing from his book Rewiring Democracy, they explore real examples of AI in elections, legislation, courts, and public AI models, the risks of concentrated power, and how these tools can both strengthen and strain democratic systems worldwide. Featuring: Bruce Schneier – X Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Schneier on Security Sponsors: Framer - The website builder that turns your dot com from a formality into a tool for growth.

As generative AI moves into production, traditional guardrails and input/output filters can prove too slow, too expensive, and/or too limited. In this episode, Alizishaan Khatri of Wrynx joins Daniel and Chris to explore a fundamentally different approach to AI safety and interpretability. They unpack the limits of today’s black-box defenses, the role of interpretability, and how model-native, runtime signals can enable safer AI systems. Featuring: Alizishaan Khatri – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

In this start-of-year FC episode, Chris and Daniel break down what really mattered in AI in 2025, and what to expect in 2026. They explore the rise of AI agents, the practical reality of multimodal AI, and how reasoning models are reshaping workflows. The conversation dives into infrastructure and energy constraints, the continued value of predictive models, and why orchestration (not just better models) is becoming the defining skill for AI teams. The episode wraps with grounded 2026 predictions on where AI systems, tooling, and builders are headed next. Featuring: Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Sponsor: Framer - The enterprise-grade website builder that lets your team ship faster.

As AI reshapes the workplace, employees and leaders face questions about meaningful work, automation, and human impact. In this episode, Jason Beutler, CEO of RoboSource, shares how companies can rethink workflows, integrate AI in accessible ways, and empower employees without fear. The discussion covers leveraging AI to handle routine tasks (SOPs or "plays") and reimagining work for smarter, more human-centered outcomes. Featuring: Jason Beutler – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Sponsor: Framer – Design and publish without limits with Framer, the free all-in-one design platform. Unlimited projects, no tool switching, and professional sites—no Figma imports or HTML hassles required. Start creating for free at framer.com/design with code `PRACTICALAI` for a free month of Framer Pro. Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

Chris and Daniel talk with returning guest, Ramin Mohammadi, about how those seeking to get into AI Engineer/ Data Science jobs are expected to come in a mid level engineers (not entry level). They explore this growing gap along with what should (or could) be done in academia to focus on real world skills vs. theoretical knowledge. Featuring: Ramin Mohammadi – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Sponsors: Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

Chris and Daniel unpack how AI-driven document processing has rapidly evolved well beyond traditional OCR with many technical advances that fly under the radar. They explore the progression from document structure models to language-vision models, all the way to the newest innovations like Deepseek-OCR. The discussion highlights the pros and cons of these various approaches focusing on practical implementation and usage. Featuring: Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Sponsors: Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Fabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.ai Framer – Design and publish without limits with Framer, the free all-in-one design platform. Unlimited projects, no tool switching, and professional sites—no Figma imports or HTML hassles required. Start creating for free at framer.com/design with code `PRACTICALAI` for a free month of Framer Pro. Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

This episode is a special crossover between the Practical AI podcast and The Changelog podcast. Chris was recently invited by longtime friends Jerod Santo and Adam Stacoviak, cohosts of The Changelog, to join them on the show. They discuss AI, drones, robotics, swarming technology, and the rise of high-performance edge computing with Rust. Chris points out that open source software, small AI models, and affordable hardware are making home automation and local AI accessible to everyone. From automating household functions to experimenting with drones and single-board computers, Chris describes how hands-on maker projects are shaping a bright future for physical AI, on small budgets and right from the comfort of your own home. Featuring: Jerod Santo – LinkedIn Adam Stacoviak – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Sponsors: Miro – Get the right things done faster with Miro's Innovation Workspace. AI Sidekicks, instant insights, and rapid prototyping—transform weeks of work into days. No more scattered docs or endless meetings. Help your teams get great done at Miro.com. Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here! This week we have extended show notes below from Chris! Swarming & Fully Autonomous Multi-Agent UxV Systems Chris’s Definition of Swarming (anchor link in show notes) Chris’s definition of Swarming “Swarming occurs when numerous independent fully-autonomous multi-agentic platforms exhibit highly-coordinated locomotive and emergent behaviors with agency and self-governance in any domain (air, ground, sea, undersea, space), functioning as a single independent logical distributed decentralized decisioning entity for purposes of C3 (command, control, communications) with human operators on-the-loop, to implement actions that achieve strategic, tactical, or operational effects in the furtherance of a mission.” © 2025 Chris Benson Conceptual Foundations Swarm Robotics – Wikipedia High-level overview of swarm robotics as decentralized robot collectives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_robotics Swarm Robotic Platforms – Wikipedia Survey of hardware platforms used in swarm robotics research. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_robotic_platforms Swarm Intelligence – Wikipedia Broader algorithms and theory behind collective intelligence (beyond robots). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence Ant Robotics – Wikipedia Nature-inspired “ant-like” robotics as a special case of swarm robotics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_robotics Open Research & Multi-Robot Resources (Stepping-Stones Toward True Swarms) Programming Multiple Robots with ROS 2 (online book) Free book on multi-robot systems, ROS 2, and the Robot Middleware Framework (RMF). https://osrf.github.io/ros2multirobotbook Simulation with ROS 2 & Gazebo (ROS 2 Humble tutorial) Official tutorial on connecting ROS 2 to Gazebo simulation. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Advanced/Simulators/Gazebo/Gazebo.html Spawning Multiple Robots in Gazebo with ROS 2 Hands-on tutorial to launch N robots in Gazebo, each with its own namespace. https://www.theconstruct.ai/spawning-multiple-robots-in-gazebo-with-ros2 ROS 2 Multi-Robot Simulation Best Practices (Discourse thread) Discussion of patterns for multi-robot systems (domains, namespaces, Nav2, etc.). https://discourse.openrobotics.org/t/multi-robot-simulation-best-practices/38987 Getting Hands-On: Consumer Robotics, ROS 2 & Gazebo ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2) Official ROS 2 Documentation – Humble (LTS) Main docs for ROS 2 Humble (recommended distro) with tutorials and APIs. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble ROS 2 Installation Guide (Humble) Step-by-step install on supported platforms. https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html “From Zero to Robotics Hero: A Beginner’s Guide to ROS 2” (article) Beginner-friendly overview with ideas for where to go next (MoveIt, Nav2, multi-robot, etc.). https://riyagoja.medium.com/from-zero-to-robotics-hero-a-beginners-guide-to-ros-2-90ac9c3b87ba ROS 2 Tutorial for Beginners (2025 guide) Up-to-date intro that walks you from install to simulating your first robot in 2025. https://www.timesofexplore.com/2025/10/ros2-tutorial-beginners-build-first-robot-2025.html Gazebo Simulation Gazebo Sim – Official Site Modern Gazebo (Ignition) simulator; models, worlds, and docs. https://gazebosim.org Getting Started with Gazebo (Docs) Official “start here” guide for using Gazebo and Gazebo Fuel assets. https://gazebosim.org/docs/latest/getstarted Classic Gazebo Tutorials (still useful for fundamentals) https://classic.gazebosim.org/tutorials micro-ROS (ROS 2 on Microcontrollers) micro-ROS – ROS 2 for Microcontrollers Official site for running ROS 2 on tiny embedded boards. https://micro.ros.org micro-ROS GitHub Organization Repositories, examples, and tutor...

Fireflies CEO, Krish Ramineni shares how the company is transforming AI-powered note-taking into a deeper layer of knowledge automation. He breaks down the technology behind real-time functionality like Live Assist, the user behavior patterns driving product evolution, and how Fireflies is innovating far beyond meetings. Krish also shares insights on future trends in AI and the potential for hardware integration, emphasizing the ongoing evolution of AI in knowledge work. Featuring: Krish Ramineni – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Fireflies AI Sponsors: Miro – Get the right things done faster with Miro's Innovation Workspace. AI Sidekicks, instant insights, and rapid prototyping—transform weeks of work into days. No more scattered docs or endless meetings. Help your teams get great done at Miro.com. Framer – Design and publish without limits with Framer, the free all-in-one design platform. Unlimited projects, no tool switching, and professional sites—no Figma imports or HTML hassles required. Start creating for free at framer.com/design with code `PRACTICALAI` for a free month of Framer Pro. Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

Waymo’s VP of Research, Drago Anguelov, joins Practical AI to explore how advances in autonomy, vision models, and large-scale testing are shaping the future of driverless technology. The conversation dives into the dual challenges of building an onboard driver and testing that driver (via large scale simulation). Drago also gives us an update on what Waymo is doing to achieve intelligent, real-time performance while ensuring proven safety and reliability. Featuring: Drago Anguelov – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Waymo Research New Insights for Scaling Laws in Autonomous Driving AI in Motion Sponsors: Outshift by Cisco - The open source collective building the Internet of Agents. Backed by Outshift by Cisco, AGNTCY gives developers the tools to build and deploy multi-agent software at scale. Identity, communication protocols, and modular workflows—all in one global collaboration layer. Start building at AGNTCY.org. Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Fabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.ai Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

Dan and Chris unpack whether today’s surge in AI deployment across enterprise workflows, manufacturing, healthcare, and scientific research signals a lasting transformation or an overhyped bubble. Drawing parallels to the dot-com era, they explore how technology integration is reshaping industries, affecting jobs, and even influencing human cognition, ultimately asking: is this a bubble, or just a fizzy new phase of innovation? Featuring: Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Powell says that, unlike the dotcom boom, AI spending isn’t a bubble: ‘I won’t go into particular names, but they actually have earnings’ Sponsors: Outshift by Cisco - The open source collective building the Internet of Agents. Backed by Outshift by Cisco, AGNTCY gives developers the tools to build and deploy multi-agent software at scale. Identity, communication protocols, and modular workflows—all in one global collaboration layer. Start building at AGNTCY.org. Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Fabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.ai Upcoming Events: Join us at the Midwest AI Summit on November 13 in Indianapolis to hear world-class speakers share how they’ve scaled AI solutions. Don’t miss the AI Engineering Lounge, where you can sit down with experts for hands-on guidance. Reserve your spot today! Register for upcoming webinars here!

Dan and Chris sit down (again) with Jared Zoneraich, co-founder and CEO of PromptLayer, to discuss how prompt engineering has evolved into context engineering (and while loops with tool calls). Jared shares insights on building flexible AI applications, managing tool calls, testing and versioning prompts, and empowering both technical and non-technical users in AI development. Along the way, they dive into coding agents and the “crawl-walk-run” approach to AI deployment. Featuring: Jared Zoneraich – LinkedIn Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: PromptLayer Upcoming Events: Join us at the Midwest AI Summit on November 13 in Indianapolis to hear world-class speakers share how they’ve scaled AI solutions. Don’t miss the AI Engineering Lounge, where you can sit down with experts for hands-on guidance. Reserve your spot today! Register for upcoming webinars here!

In this fully connected episode, Daniel and Chris explore the emerging concept of tiny recursive networks introduced by Samsung AI, contrasting them with large transformer based models. They explore how these small models tackle reasoning tasks with fewer parameters, less data, and iterative refinement, matching the giants on specific problems. They also discuss the ethical challenges of emotional manipulation in chatbots. Featuring: Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Less is More: Recursive Reasoning with Tiny Networks Researchers detail 6 ways chatbots seek to prolong ‘emotionally sensitive events’ Sponsors: Outshift by Cisco - The open source collective building the Internet of Agents. Backed by Outshift by Cisco, AGNTCY gives developers the tools to build and deploy multi-agent software at scale. Identity, communication protocols, and modular workflows—all in one global collaboration layer. Start building at AGNTCY.org. Fabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.ai Miro – The innovation workspace for the age of AI. Built for modern teams, Miro helps you turn unstructured ideas into structured outcomes—fast. Diagramming, product design, and AI-powered collaboration, all in one shared space. Start building at miro.com Upcoming Events: Join us at the Midwest AI Summit on November 13 in Indianapolis to hear world-class speakers share how they’ve scaled AI solutions. Don’t miss the AI Engineering Lounge, where you can sit down with experts for hands-on guidance. Reserve your spot today! Register for upcoming webinars here!

As AI systems move from simple chatbots to complex agentic workflows, new security risks emerge. In this episode, Donato Capitella unpacks how increasingly complicated architectures are making agents fragile and vulnerable. These agents can be exploited through prompt injection, data exfiltration, and tool misuse. Donato shares stories from real-world penetration tests, the design patterns for building LLM agents and explains how his open-source toolkit Spikee (Simple Prompt Injection Kit for Evaluation and Exploitation) is helping red teams probe AI systems. Featuring: Donato Capitella – LinkedIn, X Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, X Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Reversec Sponsors: Outshift by Cisco - The open source collective building the Internet of Agents. Backed by Outshift by Cisco, AGNTCY gives developers the tools to build and deploy multi-agent software at scale. Identity, communication protocols, and modular workflows—all in one global collaboration layer. Start building at AGNTCY.org. Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Fabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.ai Upcoming Events: Join us at the Midwest AI Summit on November 13 in Indianapolis to hear world-class speakers share how they’ve scaled AI solutions. Don’t miss the AI Engineering Lounge, where you can sit down with experts for hands-on guidance. Reserve your spot today! Register for upcoming webinars here!

Daniel sits down with Chelsea Linder, VP of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at TechPoint, to explore the what AI innovation and impact look like on the ground. They discuss Chelsea's journey from the VC world into economic development/ innovation, the growth of an AI innovation network in Indiana (funded by the SBA), lessons learned from fostering AI communities, and how businesses are actually adapting to AI. Chelsea also shares insights from Techpoints AI workforce impact study, which explored AI related job creation and levels of AI adoption among other things. Featuring: Chelsea Linder – LinkedIn Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Links: Techpoint Sponsors: Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai Fabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.ai Upcoming Events: Join us at the Midwest AI Summit on November 13 in Indianapolis to hear world-class speakers share how they’ve scaled AI solutions. Don’t miss the AI Engineering Lounge, where you can sit down with experts for hands-on guidance. Reserve your spot today! Register for upcoming webinars here!

Longtime friend of the show Rajiv Shah returns to unpack lessons from a year of building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and reasoning models integrations. We dive into why so many AI pilots stumble, why evaluation and error analysis remain essential data science skills, and why not every enterprise challenge calls for a large language model. Featuring: Rajiv Shah – LinkedIn Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X Upcoming Events: Join us at the Midwest AI Summit on November 13 in Indianapolis to hear world-class speakers share how they’ve scaled AI solutions. Don’t miss the AI Engineering Lounge, where you can sit down with experts for hands-on guidance. Reserve your spot today! Register for upcoming webinars here!