Send us a text

In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias tackle the latest developments in AI with a fast-paced series of updates—from Claude overtaking ChatGPT in the voice mode battle, to Google's shockingly tiny Gemma 3 model, to the rocky rollout of GPT-5 and what it teaches us about innovation at scale. Then, the duo zooms out for a big-picture look at AI’s massive and growing energy demands. Can AI keep advancing without breaking the grid? Enter neuromorphic computing—a brain-inspired breakthrough that could power the next era of AI more efficiently. Hot dogs, ant colonies, and nuclear power all make appearances in this can't-miss conversation.

🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Claude Voice ➡ https://www.anthropic.com/
ChatGPT Voice Mode ➡ https://openai.com/chatgpt
Google Gemma 3 ➡ https://ai.google.dev/gemma
OSS Models (OSS-20B, OSS-120B) ➡ https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mixtral-8x7B
Mark Horner’s TED Talk on Neuromorphic Computing ➡ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66b49ZrJzdw&t=3s

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification:
https://learn.sidecar.ai

📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now:
https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/

🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri
https://cimatri.com/

👍 Like & Subscribe!
https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/

Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text

In this episode of Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias dive into two groundbreaking releases from OpenAI: the long-awaited GPT-5 and the surprising return to open source with GPT-OSS. They unpack the shift toward simplified AI interaction, the implications of automatic model selection, and what GPT-5’s real-world performance means for power users. Then they explore how the new OSS models may radically reshape how associations build and deploy custom AI solutions. Plus: updates from ASAE Annual, thoughts on AI hallucinations, and why association leaders should start thinking more like engineers.

🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

ChatGPT (GPT-5) ➡ https://chat.openai.com
Claude 4.1 Opus ➡ https://www.anthropic.com
Soundpost ➡ https://www.soundpost.ai
LM Studio ➡ https://lmstudio.ai
Hugging Face ➡ https://huggingface.co
Quen3 ➡ https://qwenlm.github.io/blog/qwen3/
Kimi K2 by Moonshot AI ➡ https://www.moonshot.cn
OpenRouter ➡ https://openrouter.ai

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification:
https://learn.sidecar.ai

📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now:
https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/

🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri
https://cimatri.com/

👍 Like & Subscribe!
https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/

Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias

Send us a text

In this episode of Sidecar Sync, co-hosts Mallory Mejias sits down with Dr. Nicola Sahar to explore how a University of Toronto med student dove head-first into clinical AI research and went on to found Semantic Health, an AI-powered medical coding platform later acquired by the American Academy of Professional Coders in 2023. They unpack the art and science of medical coding, discuss why AI will augment rather than replace coders, dive into the critical role of data privacy and private-cloud deployments in healthcare AI, and share why associations are uniquely positioned to guide their members through this AI transformation.

Dr. Nick Sahar is a Canadian physician and health tech entrepreneur who co-founded Semantic Health. In 2023, Semantic Health was acquired by the American Academy of Professional Coders - AAPC - marking a significant milestone in the adoption of AI in healthcare operations. Today, Dr. Sahar remains an active voice in the healthcare AI space, focused on building tools that support clinicians and improve patient care.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasahar/
Semantic Health - https://www.semantichealth.ai/
AAPC - https://www.aapc.com/

🤖 Join the AI Mastermind: https://sidecar.ai/association-ai-mastermind

📕 Download ‘Ascend 2nd Edition: Unlocking the Power of AI for Associations’ for FREE
https://sidecar.ai/ai

🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
ChatGPT ➡ https://chat.openai.com
Claude ➡ https://claude.ai

🔎 Check out Sidecar's AI Learning Hub and get your Association AI Professional (AAiP) certification:
https://learn.sidecar.ai

📅 Find out more digitalNow 2025 and register now:
https://digitalnow.sidecar.ai/

🎉 Thank you to our sponsor: Cimatri
https://cimatri.com/

👍 Like & Subscribe!
https://x.com/sidecarglobal
https://www.youtube.com/@SidecarSync
https://sidecar.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sidecar-global/

Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

https://linkedin.com/amithnagarajan

Mallory Mejias is passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space. Mallory co-hosts and produces the Sidecar Sync podcast, where she delves into the latest trends in AI and technology, translating them into actionable insights.

https://linkedin.com/mallorymejias