Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Learn AI in Bits
Technology

Learn AI in Bits

Dan W

AI explained in bits. Each episode takes one concept, like tokens, embeddings, hallucinations, or prompt injection, and explains it in about five minutes. No jargon, no filler. Just the idea, why it matters, and what to remember.

If you're curious about AI or already building with it, you'll come away understanding how these systems work.

One concept. Five minutes. That's the whole show.

Play
Open in
  • 42 episodes
  • Avg 6 min
  • English

Episodes 42

NewestOldestLongest
All2Unplayed2In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • S1 · E10
    August 14 · 5 min

    010 - Will AI Take My Job?

    Will AI take your job? The honest answer starts with what the research measures — and most of it measures tasks, not job titles. This episode works through the major studies, separates exposure from displacement, and lands on where the evidence is currently strongest. On exposure: a landmark study from OpenAI researchers estimated that around 80% of US workers could have at least 10% of their tasks affected by large language models, with about 19% seeing at least half their tasks affected. The International Monetary Fund puts roughly 40% of jobs worldwide as exposed, rising to about 60% in advanced economies. Both measure exposure, not predicted job losses. The episode surfaces a striking tension inside Gartner's own research. Gartner forecasts that by 2029, agentic AI could autonomously resolve as much as 80% of common customer-service issues. Then in April 2026, Gartner surveyed service and support leaders and found 85% were expanding what their human agents do rather than shrinking it — the same firm, the same industry, with forecast and current practice pointing opposite ways. Worker-level research points the same direction. In a study of more than 5,000 customer-support agents, generative AI raised productivity about 14% overall and 34% for novice and lower-skilled workers, spreading techniques that had belonged to the most experienced staff. On the macro side, the World Economic Forum projects roughly 170 million jobs created and 92 million displaced by 2030 for a net gain near 78 million — though driven by multiple macrotrends, not AI alone — while 39% of workers' current skills change or go stale. The sharpest current evidence concerns younger workers. Stanford researchers, using payroll data covering millions of US workers through June 2026, found employment for 22-to-25-year-olds in highly AI-exposed occupations sitting about 19% below where it would be had it kept pace with less-exposed peers, with no comparable gap for more experienced workers. The effect operates mainly through reduced hiring rather than layoffs. The episode holds this against the productivity finding to surface an uncomfortable pairing: AI helps junior workers most, and junior workers are the ones being hired less. Sources & References GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models, OpenAI — https://openai.com/index/gpts-are-gpts/ Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work, IMF — https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2024/01/14/Gen-AI-Artificial-Intelligence-and-the-Future-of-Work-542379 Gartner Predicts Agentic AI Will Autonomously Resolve 80% of Common Customer Service Issues by 2029 — https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-03-05-gartner-predicts-agentic-ai-will-autonomously-resolve-80-percent-of-common-customer-service-issues-without-human-intervention-by-20290 Gartner Survey Finds 85% of Service and Support Leaders are Expanding Human Agent Responsibilities — https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-04-28-gartner-survey-finds-eighty-five-percent-of-service-and-support-leaders-are-expanding-human-agent-responsibilities-despite-expectations-of-mass-ai-layoffs Generative AI at Work, Brynjolfsson, Li & Raymond, NBER — https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31161/w31161.pdf The Future of Jobs Report 2025, World Economic Forum — https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/ Canaries in the Coal Mine? Stanford Digital Economy Lab — https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publication/canaries-in-the-coal-mine-six-facts-about-the-recent-employment-effects-of-artificial-intelligence/ Challenger Report: Layoffs Fall, Hiring Picks Up, AI Leads for Fifth Straight Month — https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-layoffs-fall-hiring-picks-up-ai-leads-for-fifth-straight-month/ Voice narration is AI-generated.

  • S1 · E9
    August 14 · 4 min

    009 - The Data Center Backlash

    Part two of a two-episode look at the money and politics behind AI data centers. After part one covered how projects move through planning under shell companies, code names, and non-disclosure agreements, this episode covers what happens when communities find out and push back — and the numbers show they are pushing back at a scale that surprised the industry. Data Center Watch counted at least 75 projects worth roughly $130 billion blocked or delayed in the first three months of 2026 alone, matching the total for all of 2025. Active opposition groups more than doubled over the previous quarter and now operate in 49 states. More than 300 state data-center bills were filed in the first six weeks of the year, with statewide moratorium proposals introduced in 14 states, and Maine came within a single House vote of banning new data centers outright. In July 2026, New York became the first state in the country to impose a statewide pause on new hyperscale data centers while regulators write tougher standards. A national Reuters/Ipsos poll found a majority of Americans opposed having an AI data center built in their own community. The episode uses Pacific, Missouri as a close-up case: hundreds of residents packed meetings over a proposed $16 billion campus, a February zoning meeting ended within minutes when the developer tabled its request, and months later — after the city passed a one-year moratorium — the developer withdrew the application. On what drives the opposition, electricity costs rank near the top. One analysis of utility filings identified more than $4 billion in transmission projects approved in 2024 solely to connect data centers in parts of the PJM grid, with most of those costs passed to utility customers. Water, noise, diesel backup generators, land use, and tax incentives worth more than $1 billion a year in some states add further layers. The economic case on the other side gets equal treatment. Virginia's legislative research agency, JLARC, estimates the industry supports about 74,000 jobs and $9.1 billion in annual state GDP — but the same report found most of that benefit comes from construction rather than ongoing operations. The contrast is stark: a typical build puts roughly 1,500 workers on site at peak, while a typical 250,000-square-foot facility runs on about 50 full-time workers once open, roughly half of them contractors. Supporters also warn that slowing construction too much could cost the United States ground in a technology race with economic and national-security stakes. The episode closes on how the fight is shifting from yes-or-no toward the terms of the deal, covering federal power-cost pledges, Microsoft's commitments on utility rates and tax incentives, and the special rates, water fees, disclosure requirements, and community benefit agreements governments are now testing. Sources & References Q1 2026 Report, Data Center Watch — https://www.datacenterwatch.org/q1-2026 First Statewide Moratorium on New Hyperscale Data Centers, Office of Governor Kathy Hochul — https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/first-statewide-moratorium-new-hyperscale-data-centers-launched-governor-kathy-hochul Data Centers in Virginia, JLARC — https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2024-data-centers-in-virginia.asp Data center opponents have blocked or delayed projects worth nearly $130 billion in 2026, NBC News — https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/data-center-opposition-sharply-rising-2026-study-finds-rcna349728 Voice narration is AI-generated.

Showing 41–42 of 42 episodes