Humans of AI

Hosted by Alex Chao

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Jul 2026

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In the race to build AI, we forget that it was made by real people, with real stories. These are their stories. Inspired by the photoblog "Humans of New York", this series is a video podcast showcasing the different people who are either building things in AI or are using it in their daily lives. If you think you would make a good guest or want to sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz

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20 recent

August 18, 2026Episode 554 min

Ben Goertzel - Why Decentralization is the Path to AGI

In this episode of Humans of AI, I chat with Ben Goertzel, AI researcher, mathematician, and one of the pioneers of artificial general intelligence, having coined the term back in 2005. Ben is the founder and CEO of SingularityNET and he has spent decades exploring intelligence, consciousness, and what it might mean to create machines with increasingly general minds. He is now also the founder of BGI Labs aiming to chart a path toward building Beneficial General Intelligence.Ben says the next breakthrough in AGI may not come from bigger transformers at all. Rather, the real bottleneck is deeper: memory, continual learning, metacognition, and architectures that can actually keep improving without forgetting what they learned yesterday. Ben also argues that AGI shouldn’t be concentrated in the hands of a single company, country, or small group of institutions. The more powerful these systems become, the more important it is that they’re built on open, distributed infrastructure rather than locked inside one corporate walled garden. In his view, decentralization isn’t just about ideology, it’s a practical way to make AGI more resilient, more transparent, and ultimately more beneficial for everyone. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction & Why AGI Must Be Decentralized 01:21 - Defining AGI: Generalization vs. Breadth 06:40 - Sparks of AGI & Limitations of Backpropagation 11:07 - Common Model of Cognition & Cognitive Deficits in LLMs 15:45 - OpenCog Hyperon Architecture: AtomSpace & MeTTa 20:19 - Omega Claw, Symbolic Memory & Recursive Self-Improvement 24:40 - The History of Decentralized AI: Webmind to the Modern Web 30:00 - SingularityNET, ASI Chain & Running AI On-Chain 33:36 - Open Source Substrates vs. Corporate Walled Gardens 38:11 - Ben's Journey: Sci-Fi, The Prometheus Project & Early AI 43:07 - Hardware Evolution & The Cultural Shift in AI Research 46:50 - Realistic AGI Timelines & Architectural Scaffolding 50:47 - How the Community Can Get Involved (BGI Labs, Omega Claw) If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz 🎙️ Connect with the hosts: Alex Chao 📧 Newsletter: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/alexchaomander 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander Ben Geortzel https://www.linkedin.com/in/bengoertzel/ https://bengoertzel.substack.com/https://github.com/asi-alliance/OmegaClaw-Core #humansofai #agi #singularity #architectures #memory #rsi

July 24, 2026Episode 41 hr 24 min

Elijah Rivera - The Future of Learning: Balancing AI and Human Wisdom

In this episode of Humans of AI , I chat with Elijah Rivera, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brandeis University, whose research looks at how people learn computer science and how programming languages themselves are designed. Elijah earned his Ph.D. at Brown University, and before that a bachelor’s and master’s at MIT. At Brandeis, he developed and teaches a course on automation in software development that gives students hands-on experience with the modern software toolchain, while also rooting those tools in their respective histories and in the related questions philosophers of technology have continually raised. Overarching this is a broader conviction Elijah keeps pursuing: that computer science is best served by learning to communicate effectively with other disciplines such as cognitive science, philosophy, and theology—and, more importantly, by being willing to listen to their challenges and critiques. Whether you’re a student, an AI engineer, founder, researcher, or simply someone curious about the future of education, I hope you learn as much as I did from my conversation with Elijah. Submit your question Submit your question to the Humans of AI Office Hours, and we may cover it in a future episode: https://forms.gle/iztuQCjLyUe8kXYRA If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz . 🎙️ Connect with the hosts Alex Chao 📧 Newsletter: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/alexchaomander 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander Elijah Rivera 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijaherivera/ #humansofai #ai #education #computerscience #teaching #college

July 8, 2026Episode 31 hr 5 min

Erika Anderson - How can AI be more humane?

In this episode of Humans of AI, I chat with Erika Anderson the founder of Building Humane Technology and co-creator of HumaneBench — an open-source benchmark that asks the question most of the AI industry isn't: not whether AI can perform, but whether it treats you like a person.As a former UN press correspondent and writing professor, Erika combines technical rigor and humanistic grounding to the field of AI accountability. ⏱️ Chapters 01:13 – Intro 02:00 - WSJ article on chatbot behaviors 10:51 – Erika's origin story 18:20 – HumaneBench: From community to benchmark design 37:25 - Silicon Valley wants to hire philosophers 40:35 – Building Humane Technology 47:36 – Office Hours: How do ads shape the way people will relate to AI? 01:02:50 - Outro and words to the audience The WSJ Article: "The Three Chatbot Behaviors That Can Drive Humans to Delusional Thinking" (https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/ai-chatbots-psychology-delusion-662a3663) Submit your question to the Humans of AI Office Hours and we may cover it in a future episode! https://forms.gle/iztuQCjLyUe8kXYRA If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz 🎙️ Connect with the hosts: Alex Chao 📧 Newsletter: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/alexchaomander 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander Erika Anderson 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikamanderson/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/ErikaOnFire #humansofai #ai #humanetech #humanebench #benchmarks #evals

March 1, 2026Episode 21 hr 9 min

The Hard Truth About AI Agents: What We Learned Building in Open Source

In this episode of Humans of AI, I sit down with my friend Eric Zhu to unpack what are the frameworks and architectures powering modern AI products today. From our times building Semantic Kernel, Autogen, and GraphRAG at Microsoft , we offer a retrospective on the evolution of this space and where we think it'll go in 2026 and beyond. We dive into how AI systems are actually being built today, why early agent frameworks were brittle, and what’s changing as models, tooling, and abstractions improve. Eric shares insights from hands-on experience building AI systems, including lessons around memory, orchestration, open source, and why building has become dramatically faster than even a few years ago. We also talk about the human side of all this—how builders should think about careers in AI, avoiding burnout, and navigating a fast-moving field without getting overwhelmed. Whether you’re an AI engineer, founder, researcher, or just curious about where things are headed, this conversation goes deep into the why behind modern AI systems. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 – Intro 02:02 - Welcoming Eric Zhu! Experiences building open-source systems from PhD to Industry 11:18 – Early agent systems, frameworks, and brittle abstractions 20:18 – Multi-agent frameworks and why it was hard to go beyond a demo 25:47 – From autonomous agents to workflow orchestration - a trough of disillusionment? 30:00 – Breathing new life into agents with Claude Code 34:35 – "Harness" Engineering and what goes into building agent systems? 39:08 – The importance of data and data representations (i.e knowledge graphs, structured data) 45:57 – Lessons from building in Open Source 56:54 – Office Hours: How to not get left behind in AI Submit your question to the Humans of AI Office Hours and we may cover it in a future episode! https://forms.gle/iztuQCjLyUe8kXYRA 🎙️ Connect with the hosts: Alex Chao 📧 Newsletter: https://alexchao.substack.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/alexchaomander 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander Eric Zhu 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekzhu/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/ekzhuAI moves fast. We keep it human.

February 24, 2026Episode 11 hr 25 min

OpenClaw And The Increasing Autonomy of AI Agents

After a long break, the Humans of AI Podcast is back for Season 2! With a new look, new format, new cohosts, and guests, this season will be one you won't want to miss. This week my cohost Tula Masterman and I recap the saga that was OpenClaw — the open-source agentic project that took the internet by storm, spawned an AI social network where agents allegedly conspired to create their own language, and ended with its solo founder joining OpenAI. Plus, we cover new research from Anthropic and OpenAI that reveals what actually happens when humans hand the wheel to agents. We also explore are computer science majors disappearing? Recent data from the University of California seems to suggest so. And we wrap with Humans of AI Office Hours, where we cover user-submitted or curated questions worth digging deeper into. This week's question: "When AGI?" 0:00 Introduction to Humans of AI Podcast Season 21:46 OpenClaw and Agentic Systems2:30 The Rise of OpenClaw5:50 Transition from Chatbots to Agentic Systems7:42 The Importance of Agent Memory10:59 Agentic Execution and Actions20:42 Societal Implications and Agent Uprising27:46 Harness Engineering and Agent Autonomy44:47 Domains of Agent Deployment49:25 OpenAI's Harness Engineering Blog1:08:09 Decline in Computer Science Majors1:18:42 Humans of AI Office Hours: When AGI? Submit your question to the Humans of AI Office Hours and we may cover it in a future episode! https://forms.gle/iztuQCjLyUe8kXYRA 🎙️ Connect with the hosts:Alex Chao 📧 Newsletter: https://alexchao.substack.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/alexchaomander 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander Tula Masterman 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tula-masterman/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/tulamasterman 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tulamasterman AI moves fast. We keep it human. Links to stories: https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/15/openclaw-creator-peter-steinberger-joins-openai/ https://www.anthropic.com/research/measuring-agent-autonomy https://openai.com/index/harness-engineering /https://developers.openai.com/blog/skills-shell-tips https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/uc-system-decline-computer-science-enrollment/4032197/ #humansofai #ai #openclaw #agents #harness #claudecode #codex #openai #anthropic #csmajor #college

February 23, 20261 hr 25 min

OpenClaw And The Increasing Autonomy of AI Agents

After a long break, the Humans of AI Podcast is back for Season 2! With a new look, new format, new cohosts, and guests, this season will be one you won't want to miss. This week my cohost Tula Masterman and I recap the saga that was OpenClaw — the open-source agentic project that took the internet by storm, spawned an AI social network where agents allegedly conspired to create their own language, and ended with its solo founder joining OpenAI. Plus, we cover new research from Anthropic and OpenAI that reveals what actually happens when humans hand the wheel to agents. We also explore are computer science majors disappearing? Recent data from the University of California seems to suggest so. And we wrap with Humans of AI Office Hours, where we cover user-submitted or curated questions worth digging deeper into. This week's question: "When AGI?" Submit your question to the Humans of AI Office Hours and we may cover it in a future episode! https://forms.gle/iztuQCjLyUe8kXYRA 🎙️ Connect with the hosts: Alex Chao 📧 Newsletter: https://alexchao.substack.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/alexchaomander 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander Tula Masterman 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tula-masterman/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/tulamasterman 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tulamasterman AI moves fast. We keep it human. Links to stories: https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/15/openclaw-creator-peter-steinberger-joins-openai/ https://www.anthropic.com/research/measuring-agent-autonomy https://openai.com/index/harness-engineering/ https://developers.openai.com/blog/skills-shell-tips https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/uc-system-decline-computer-science-enrollment/4032197/

February 17, 202448 min

Jeremy Toeman: Empowering Creators To Make Compelling Videos with AI

Jeremy Toeman is the founder of AugXLabs, an AI video technology startup, helping creators make compelling videos at a fraction of the time & effort. Jeremy's had a storied career in the media industry leading product and innovation at places like WarnerMedia, CBS Interactive and more and is now directing his energies towards building a new venture in the era of generative AI. Check out AugXLabs and make your very first Augie! http://www.augxlabs.com/?via=alex And use promo code AUGIE1MONTH for 1 month free of premium Augie! If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz And follow me on other platforms so you’ll never miss out on my updates! 💌 Sign up for my free AI newsletter Chaos Theory: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 🐦 Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/alexchaomander 📷 And Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/alexchaomander/ 🎥 And TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander 👥 Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/

November 6, 202331 min

Charles Packer: Giving AI Infinite Memory with MemGPT

Charles Packer is a current 5th-year PhD student at UC Berkeley and author of MemGPT an open-source project teaching large language models to manage their own memory for unbounded context! Charles is also a core member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab and Real-Time Intelligent Secure Explainable Systems (RISE) Lab where his work has spanned reinforcement learning and autonomous driving. Check out MemGPT and join their Discord community! https://memgpt.ai/ And Charles's personal website: https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cpacker/ If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz And follow me on other platforms so you’ll never miss out on my updates! 💌 Sign up for my free AI newsletter Chaos Theory: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 🐦 Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/alexchaomander 📷 And Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/alexchaomander/ 🎥 And TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander 👥 Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/

October 30, 202335 min

Amanda Bickerstaffi: How AI is Transforming the Classroom

Amanda Bickerstaff is the co-founder and CEO of AI for Education, an organization aiming to help teachers and schools unlock their full potential through AI by providing workshops, trainings, tools and resources to educators and policymakers. Find Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-bickerstaff-edu/ If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz And follow me on other platforms so you’ll never miss out on my updates! 💌 Sign up for my free AI newsletter Chaos Theory: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 🐦 Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/alexchaomander 📷 And Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/alexchaomander/ 🎥 And TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander 👥 Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/

October 23, 202335 min

Sudip Chakrabarti: The opportunities to build open-source enterprise AI startups

Sudip Chakrabarti is an early-stage investor and partner at Decibel where he focuses on enterprise and infrastructure companies. Before becoming an investor, Sudip was an entrepreneur and an engineer, starting his first company when he was at Georgia Tech, and his second while in business school at Wharton. He's been in venture ever-since with a particular focus on enterprise and open-source companies. Find Sudip on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudipchakrabarti If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send me a note at alex@humansofai.xyz And follow me on other platforms so you’ll never miss out on my updates! 💌 Sign up for my free AI newsletter Chaos Theory: https://alexchao.substack.com/subscribe 🐦 Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/alexchaomander 📷 And Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/alexchaomander/ 🎥 And TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@alexchaomander 👥 Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexchao56/