Hollywood loves a good AI apocalypse—but how likely is a real-life Skynet scenario? In today's episode of A Beginner's Guide to AI, Professor GePhardT takes you on an entertaining yet eye-opening journey into Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

From understanding why films like The Terminator shape our deepest AI anxieties, to real-world safety measures inspired by these sci-fi nightmares, this episode breaks down exactly how humanity can steer advanced AI towards a beneficial future—rather than a robotic uprising.

Expect to hear why a smart kitchen assistant could unintentionally cause chaos, how fictional tales are influencing actual AI research, and what top thinkers like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have warned us about. It's a conversation packed with fascinating examples, practical tips, and an honest look at how we're preparing for AGI today.

Tune in to get my thoughts, don't forget to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Want to get in contact? Write me an email: podcast@argo.berlin

This podcast was generated with the help of ChatGPT, Mistral and Claude 3. We do fact check with human eyes, but there still might be hallucinations in the output. And, by the way, it's read by an AI voice.

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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In this episode of Beginner’s Guide to AI, host Dietmar Fischer speaks with Michael Housman, AI leader, econometrician, and author of the upcoming book Future Proof. Together, they unpack how leaders can future-proof their businesses with AI and why the most important AI transformation doesn’t start with technology, but with people.

You’ll learn why companies that hesitate risk falling behind, how even small AI wins can unlock massive productivity, and why AI literacy programs are becoming essential across organizations. Michael explains how AI can act as a strategic thought partner for executives, how to identify high-impact opportunities, and why slow-moving industries often face the biggest AI disruption ahead.

From eliminating unconscious bias in hiring to redesigning workflows and supercharging marketing output, this episode is packed with practical examples and leadership insights based on real company transformations.

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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl

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🥸 About Dietmar Fischer:

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to learn how to grow your AI or digital marketing capabilities, just reach out to him at argoberlin.com

💎 Quotes from the Episode

“Think of AI not as a tool but as a collaborator and a thought partner.”

“Technology is easy. People are hard. Adoption is always the biggest challenge.”

“You can’t future-proof your business unless the C-suite uses AI themselves.”

🧾 Chapters

00:00 Welcome to the Episode

02:10 Why Leaders Need to Future-Proof Their Businesses with AI

07:55 How Companies Should Start with AI: Practical First Steps

14:40 AI Literacy, Training, and Overcoming Organizational Resistance

22:30 AI as a Thought Partner: New Leadership Models

31:15 The Future of Work, Bias, and Smarter Decision-Making

38:42 Where to Find Michael Housman and Learn More

Where to Find Michael Housman

• Website: michaelhousman.com
• AIcelerator: ai-ccelerator.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelhousman

Music credit: “Modern Situations” by Unicorn Heads

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In this episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI, Professor GePhardT takes The Cluetrain Manifesto’s famous idea markets are conversations and stress tests it in the age of generative AI. In 1999, Cluetrain demanded that brands stop sounding like machines and start speaking with a human voice. Today, AI can generate that human sounding voice on demand, which creates a new problem: it becomes easy to sound authentic while becoming less trustworthy.

You will learn why conversational marketing is not about posting more, replying faster, or writing prettier copy. It is about credibility in public. This episode breaks down the difference between tone and truth, why AI customer service chatbots can create brand risk when they guess, and how to use human in the loop design so your AI supports real accountability instead of manufacturing polite noise.

We also unpack a real cautionary case: Moffatt v Air Canada. A website chatbot provided incorrect guidance about bereavement fares, the customer relied on it, and compensation was ordered. It is a sharp reminder that when AI speaks on your website, customers experience it as the company speaking.

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💬 Quotes from the Episode

• “AI makes language cheap, and when language is cheap, trust becomes the scarce ingredient.”
• “Responsiveness can masquerade as empathy.”
• “When AI speaks in your name, its answers become part of your promises, not just part of your tone.”
• “You can talk beautifully about cake while still serving bad cake.”
• “A chatbot is not a neutral tool. It is a brand voice.”
• “In 1999 the challenge was speaking human. Now the challenge is acting human.” 🎧

About Dietmar Fischer:

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Why Cluetrain matters again in the AI era

04:10 Markets are conversations and why the human voice cannot be faked

10:05 AI makes language cheap and trust expensive

18:30 The authenticity trap: tone without accountability

27:40 Case study: Air Canada chatbot and the cost of confident wrong answers

36:20 Practical framework: human in the loop and conversation design

✅ Key topics and keywords

• Cluetrain Manifesto and AI
• Markets are conversations AI
• Conversational marketing AI
• AI brand voice authenticity
• AI trust and accountability
• Chatbot hallucinations customer support
• Chatbot legal liability
• Human in the loop chatbot design

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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How is artificial intelligence transforming the way we approach marketing? In this episode, we dive deep with Kasper Sierslev, founder of Zite, to uncover the real-world opportunities and challenges of AI in marketing.

Discover how forward-thinking brands are leveraging AI tools to spark creativity, streamline campaigns, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

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Ready to take your business to the next level? Subscribe for more AI strategies, share your questions in the comments, and visit our website for free resources. Don’t miss exclusive content in our newsletter—sign up today: ⁠⁠⁠beginnersguide.nl⁠⁠⁠

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💡 Key Highlights:

• Kasper Sierslev shares his journey and unique perspective on embedding AI into marketing strategies
• Top AI tools for marketers and how to use them for impactful results
• The importance of a human-centric approach to AI in marketing
• Insights on the future of AI and how brands can stay ahead
• Actionable advice for marketers looking to adopt AI today

🧾 Quotes from the Episode:

“It’s not super easy sitting on the other side doing creative work and just saying, ‘We made this great film, look how funny it is.’ That’s gut feeling, it’s opinions. For almost 20 years now, creativity and branding has lost a lot.”

- Kasper Sierslev

“I think it’s super easy to do something now, but we don’t really have the big AI tech companies here yet. Maybe that’s because of copyright laws or the lawsuits happening at the moment. Still, we can build on top of the bigger models and protect what we’re doing as it goes back into the loop.”

Kasper Sierslev

📂 Chapters (experimental feature):

00:00 Introduction & Kasper Sierslev's Background

04:00 AI Tools for Marketers

08:00 Creativity, Branding & AI

15:00 Human-Centric AI in Marketing

25:00 Real-World AI Marketing Case Studies

33:00 Challenges & Cultural Shifts in Advertising

41:00 The Future of AI in Marketing

50:00 Practical Advice for Marketers

🔗 Where to find Kasper Sierslev:

• LinkedIn
• Zite Website, where you also find the In-house Barometer!

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Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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Humayun Sheikh on the Agentic Web, Trust, and the Agentic Economy

Humayun Sheikh joins Dietmar Fischer to explain what happens when AI stops recommending and starts doing. We explore the Agentic Web, a new layer where personal AI agents and verified brand agents collaborate to complete tasks like booking travel, coordinating meetings, and shopping with trust built in.

You will learn what makes a real AI agent, why autonomy matters, and how multi-agent systems unlock an agentic economy. We also tackle the marketer’s question: what happens to SEO when the buyer becomes an assistant agent choosing on your behalf? Humayun breaks down how identity, verification, and trusted lists can reduce scams and make agentic commerce safe and usable.

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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: ⁠⁠⁠⁠beginnersguide.nl⁠⁠⁠⁠

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About Dietmar Fischer

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Humayun’s journey from gaming to DeepMind

03:01 What is an AI agent: autonomy and decision-making

08:20 The Agentic Web: discoverability, connectivity, trust and commerce rails

23:47 Personal agents in practice: preferences, handles and onboarding in minutes

29:53 Verified brand agents and trust: domains, identity and safe agentic buying

48:12 Risks, AGI fears, corporations vs countries and what comes next

Quotes from the Episode

• “There has to be a hint of autonomy within an agent.”
• “We have provided the rails of discoverability, connectivity, communication, trust. And commerce.”
• “Your aggregator is your own agent. It holds your preferences. It doesn’t pass it to anybody.”
• “Anybody who has a website should have an agent, or will have an agent.”
• “I was the first investor in DeepMind.”
• “We will not have countries, we will have corporations.”

Where to find Humayun Sheikh

• Fetch.ai - your personal AI
• ASI1.ai - the LLM
• Follow Humayun on LinkedIn!

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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The Rising Cost of Intelligence: What Expensive AI Means for the World

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we work, learn, and create. But as frontier AI models become more capable, their costs are rising faster than ever. This episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI dives into the global AI divide, exploring how price, compute, infrastructure, and access are quietly determining who benefits from AI and who risks falling behind.

Listeners will discover why advanced AI models cost so much to train and run, how high prices can concentrate innovation in wealthy institutions, and why access to strong models is becoming a new form of economic and educational inequality. Through vivid examples and clear explanations, Professor Gephardt guides listeners through the real-world consequences of expensive AI and what can still be done to ensure a more inclusive future.

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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl

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About Dietmar Fischer

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Quotes from the Episode:

• “When intelligence becomes expensive, opportunity becomes exclusive.”
• “A great model is useless if only a handful of people can afford to use it.”
• “If AI becomes a privilege, innovation shrinks to the size of the elite who control it.”

Chapters

00:00 The Hidden Price of Intelligence

04:12 Why Cutting-Edge AI Is So Expensive

12:47 How AI Costs Create a Global Divide

21:30 Real-World Case Studies on AI Access

32:18 Practical Ways to Narrow the AI Gap

39:42 Final Thoughts and Key Lessons

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads 🎧✨

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Context rot is one of the most underestimated risks in artificial intelligence today. In this episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI, we explore how AI systems trained on static data slowly drift away from reality while continuing to sound confident, helpful, and persuasive.

You’ll learn why large language models struggle with time, why feeding more information into AI can backfire, and how outdated knowledge quietly sabotages decisions in marketing and business. This episode explains the difference between timeless principles and perishable insights, and why trusting AI without checking freshness can cost credibility and money.

Key topics include context rot in AI, outdated training data, long context window limitations, AI decision-making risks, and practical strategies like retrieval-augmented generation and smarter context engineering.

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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: beginnersguide.nl

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About Dietmar Fischer:

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Quotes from the Episode

• “Fluency is not accuracy, even though our brains desperately want it to be.”
• “More context doesn’t make AI smarter, it often makes it confused.”
• “AI confidence is cheap. Verification is expensive.”

Chapters

00:00 Context Rot and the Illusion of Smart AI

05:42 Why AI Knowledge Freezes in Time

12:18 When More Context Makes AI Worse

19:47 Business and Marketing Risks of Context Rot

27:05 How to Reduce Context Rot in Practice

34:40 What Humans Must Do Better Than AI

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads 🎧

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