S02 - AI - Beyond the Hype - Season 2 Trailer

Season two of AI - Beyond the Hype is a different show, and we need your help to make it.

Season one was nine episodes for executives and data leaders on the foundations underneath enterprise AI. Season two answers questions about AI from people who don't work in this field — and who are quietly tired of pretending they follow the conversation.

How does it actually know things? Is it thinking? Why does it make things up? Should I let my kids use it? Will it take my job?

Not dumbed down. Deep enough to give a real answer, then stopping before the jargon starts.

No question is too basic — the more basic, the better. One sentence is plenty. We'll do the work.

Send yours to: asksarahandjames@gmail.com

Better AI still starts with better foundations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Quick question. And be honest, because nobody's listening in on you. Do you actually know what a large language model is?

SPEAKER_01 0:12

James, that is a confronting way to open a trailer.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

It's a confronting question. That's rather the point. Because I'd guess a fair number of people hearing this have been sitting in meetings about AI for two years now, nodding along at the right moments, and have never once been given a straight answer.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

And at some point, they stopped asking. That's the bit that bothers me. Not that people don't know. Nobody knows everything. It's that the window to ask quietly closed. And now admitting you're unsure feels like admitting you're behind.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

So we're reopening the window. Hello, I'm James.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

And I'm Sarah. This is AI, Beyond the Hype. And this is a trailer for season two, which is a deliberately different show from season one.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Season one was nine episodes for executives and data leaders about the foundations underneath enterprise AI: data quality, observability, security, privacy, operating models, technical, on purpose. It's all still in the feed, and I'd still stand behind every episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

But here's what happened while we were making it.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

No. They were from people who said some version of, I've listened to three of these, I follow about 60%, and I have a much more basic question that I feel slightly stupid asking.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

And that question was never stupid. Not once. Some of the best questions I've been asked about AI in the past year came from people with no technical background at all. Because they weren't asking how it works. They were asking what it means.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

So season two is that show. We take questions about AI from people who don't work in this field, and we answer them properly, in plain language.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Not dumbed down. I want to be precise about that, because it's the whole design of the season. We're not going shallow, we're going deep enough to give you a real answer, and then stopping before the jargon starts. And if the honest answer is it depends, we'll say so, and then explain what it depends on.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

And selfishly, I think this is the harder show to make. Anyone can hide behind terminology. Explaining something clearly to someone with no background without being condescending, that's a genuinely difficult craft.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It's also the more useful show. Because the people making the biggest decisions about AI in their own lives, whether to trust it, whether their kids should use it, whether it's coming for their job, what it's actually doing with the things they type into it. Those people are mostly not in the industry.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So, we need help. And this is the one ask of the entire season.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

We need your questions. Anything you've wondered about and haven't had a straight answer to. How does it actually know things? Is it thinking? Why does it make things up? Is it listening to me? Should I let my kids use it? Will it take my job? Is any of this actually intelligent? What happens to what I type in?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

No question is too basic. Genuinely, the more basic the better. If you've been nodding along in meetings for two years without wanting to admit you're not entirely sure what a model is, you are exactly the listener we're making this for.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

And if you're a leader hearing this, forward the address to the people around you who've been quietly confused. Your parents. Your team. The person in your organization who was handed an AI tool and no explanation.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

The address is asksarah and james at gmail.com. That's all one word, ask Sarah and James at gmail.com. And Sarah with a H. It's in the show notes too. We'll take the best questions and build whole episodes around them.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Send us the question you'd ask if nobody else were listening. That's the one we want.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Same two of us. And if the questions are slow coming in, I'll just submit a few of my own anonymously.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I would know instantly. It'd be 400 words long, it'd have a preamble, and it would end with the word discuss.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

It would be an excellent question.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

It would be a keynote with a question mark on the end of it. Send us yours instead. One sentence is plenty. We'll do the work.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Season two of AI Beyond the Hype coming soon.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

And remember, better AI still starts with better foundations.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Even when the foundation is a question somebody was too embarrassed to ask.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Especially then.