Intentional AI

Chris's AI time-management experiment went wrong. He and David discuss the human context robots miss, paper journaling, and practical ways to use AI while keeping the decision about what to work on.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

YouTube Queen
Dana Hurley

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Focused Podcast YouTube Channel Productivity Field Guide Intentional AI 10: Cal Newport: Automate Tedium, Protect Thought Intentional AI 9: Dissecting the Extinction Headlines Claude Brett Terpstra Keyboard Maestro TextEdit User Guide Simplenote Sony RX100 Chris Bailey's Values Test Intuition in the Context of Object Perception — Annette Bolte and Thomas Goschke Day One Intentional AI 8: Whisper to Write Robot Assistant Field Guide The Economics of Bicycles for the Mind — Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb Anne-Laure Le Cunff Hyperfocus — Chris Bailey

Cal Newport joins David and Chris to explore the line between automating tedious work and outsourcing thought. They discuss jagged robot capabilities, cognitive surrender, digital minimalism, and protecting human judgment.

Guest Starring:

Cal Newport

Links and Show Notes: Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

YouTube Queen
Dana Hurley

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Focused Podcast YouTube Channel Cal Newport’s Books The Deep Life — Cal Newport The Economics of Bicycles for the Mind Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? — Tim Ferriss Life 3.0 — Max Tegmark Deep Questions with Cal Newport Mac Power Users 865 — Teddy Svoronos Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial How AI Is Reshaping Human Intuition and Reasoning — Wharton Why A.I. Didn’t Transform Our Lives in 2025 — Cal Newport On Digital Minimalism — Cal Newport It’s Time to Investigate the AI Labs — Cal Newport

OpenAI's Hugging Face incident shows how powerful robots can cause real harm without malicious intent. David and Chris separate today's risks from Skynet headlines, ask who should write the rules, and draw a line between robot drudgery and human judgment.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

YouTube Queen
Dana Hurley

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Focused Podcast YouTube Channel Intentional AI Feedback and Membership OpenAI: The Hugging Face Incident and the Road Ahead METR: Independent Investigation of the OpenAI/Hugging Face Incident Anthropic: Mythos Preview Cybersecurity Capabilities Find Your Values: AI Model Values Research FTC: Voice-Clone Emergency Scam Guidance FBI: Generative AI and Financial Fraud NIST: Generative AI Risk Management Profile Apple Reference Image Aidan Gomez: Who Gets to Define the Rules for AI? The Four Levels of Knowledge Work Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom AlphaFold and the Protein Universe MPU 865: Teddy Svoronos

Dictation is a quiet success story of the AI era. David and Chris cover the history of dictation, the apps they use, the great free options (and the ones they pay for), their privacy concerns, their desktop and mobile setups, and practical tips for 2026.

This episode of Intentional AI is sponsored by:

• Making Light: Craft a daily ritual to focus on what matters most. Get $10 off your first order with the code 'INTENTIONAL26'

Links and Show Notes: Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Intentional show page Intentional on YouTube MacSparky Robot Field Guide Chris's Values Test Shalom Schwartz — Theory of Basic Human Values Dragon OpenAI Whisper Google Chirp Meta MMS NVIDIA Parakeet Mistral Wispr Flow MacWhisper Superwhisper Whisper Memos Drafts Simplenote Hollyland Lark M2S Transmit Making Light (sponsor)

A walkthrough of how personal software gets made, and how artificial intelligence is democratizing software development. Including the three stages of developing your own app: design, implementation, and creation.

Links and Show Notes: Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Intentional AI - Relay Intentional AI Podcast - YouTube Chris's new TED talk Intentional by Chris Bailey Vestaboard The Omni Group Apple Developer Program - Apple Developer Wispr Flow Things - To-Do List App for Mac & iOS Mac Power Users #863: 20 Years of Things with Werner Jainek - Relay ChatGPT can now send texts for you with new Apple Messages plug-in | TechCrunch AI was supposed to win people over by now -- it hasn't | TechCrunch ‎The No List App - App Store The Case for a Personal Apple Developer Tier - MacSparky WWDC26: Platforms State of the Union | Apple - YouTube

David hands his email to AI, tries the Big Swing, fails, and lands on a system that works. Plus Gemini Notebook, Claude Opus 5, and Siri AI finding an airport lounge.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

Intentional AI
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Intentional AI Intentional AI YouTube channel Superhuman Superhuman MCP Fastmail SaneBox Obsidian Wispr Flow Claude Claude Scheduled Tasks Model COntext Protocol Anthropic's Chip Team Gemini Notebook Siri AI Vestaboard

David and Chris map four dragons waiting at the edge of the AI map: false confidence, scope creep, becoming the donkey, and surrender.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

TheHosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Intentional AI Intentional AI on YouTube Cognitive Offloading (Risko & Gilbert) Siri AI LM Studio Aristotle's Ethics The Odyssey (Film) Your Obedient Servant Pronouncing "Claude" on Reddit Chris's Book, Intentional

This week, Chris and David chat about Skill files—the text files of instructions that your robot assistant can use to complete tasks for you. They also dig into Anthropic's Fable model, and Chris's fancy home dashboard that he programmed using AI.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

The Hosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Brave (web browser) Robot Assistant Field Guide (code "intentional" for 10% off) Chris's caffeine experiment Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? - The Blog of Tim Ferriss Anthropic author copyright settlement (Authors Guild explainer) BLOOMIN8 E-Ink Canvas Home Assistant The Globe and Mail .zip file: Color e-ink dashboard skill builder file Intentional AI - Relay

David and Chris make the case that context, not the model, decides whether your robot helps or flails. They get practical about how to take advantage of context to get more fom AI.

This episode of Intentional AI is sponsored by:

• Making Light: Craft a daily ritual to focus on what matters most. Get $10 off your first order with the code 'INTENTIONAL26'

Links and Show Notes: Credits

TheHosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Intentional AI feedback and membership Claude (the harness David uses most) Obsidian (the text vault behind Cowork) ChatGPT Google Gemini Wispr Flow (both hosts dictate context with it) Context Rot research (Chroma, the long-context degradation report Chris cites) The Cornell WARP study (13 words in a Reddit thread can steer AI search) The AI burnout paradox (77% of managers see efficiency, 88% of heavy users report burnout) Christina Maslach on the three dimensions of burnout Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey (where he writes about attention residue) How to Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey (the burnout book)

Chris Bailey and David Sparks chat about the four essential parts of a useful AI system: the harness, context, memory, and reach. They also discuss Apple's recent WWDC announcements—including the new Siri AI.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

TheHosts
David Sparks
Chris Bailey

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback Claude Claude Cowork ChatGPT OpenAI Codex Google Gemini What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)? - Model Context Protocol Wispr Flow (voice dictation) MacWhisper Todoist Health Auto Export Circle David's Robot Assistant Field Guide

David Sparks and Chris Bailey launch Intentional AI, a show about using AI to get real work done without the hype or the doom. Episode 1 lays out why the show exists, introduces the hosts, and makes one promise. Anyone can cook.

Links and Show Notes: Credits

TheHosts
Chris Bailey
David Sparks

The Editor
Jim Metzendorf

The Fixer
Kerry Provanzano

Support Intentional AI with a Relay Membership Relay Robot Assistant Field Guide MacSparky Chris Bailey Chris Bailey's books The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey Circle Discord Claude / Claude Cowork (Anthropic) Model Context Protocol (MCP) The Economist Wes Anderson