The Aboard Podcast
- Épisodes
- 231
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- hebdomadaire
- Dernier épisode
- 10 Nov 2026
À propos du podcast
Talking about AI doesn’t have to feel like the end of the world. Join Rich Ziade, Paul Ford, and their guests as they discuss how AI is changing software development, business strategy—and everything else. New episodes every Tuesday.
Épisodes 231
Ask Aboard: Job Hunts, Productivity, and Local Models
The job-application process is being reduced to bots talking to bots. How can anyone break through the AI noise? On the latest installment of “Ask Aboard,” Paul and Rich tackle a fresh batch of listener …
Notes de l’épisode
The job-application process is being reduced to bots talking to bots. How can anyone break through the AI noise? On the latest installment of “Ask Aboard,” Paul and Rich tackle a fresh batch of listener questions. First: What is a job hunter supposed to do in this AI-saturated landscape? Then: An engineer tasked with using AI to “increase productivity” asks for advice. And finally: A query about running local models, especially when handling sensitive data.
Anthony Ha: Dispatches from a TechCrunch AI Reporter
How does the current state of the AI industry look to a reporter on the ground? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by longtime tech journalist Anthony Ha, who currently works as the …
Notes de l’épisode
How does the current state of the AI industry look to a reporter on the ground? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by longtime tech journalist Anthony Ha, who currently works as the weekend editor at TechCrunch. Does he ever get to cover anything other than AI these days? They discuss some of his recent stories and then assess what “craft” means in the age of AI, particularly among software developers. Eventually, they also get to the really important question: Why do Italians make such good desserts?
Allison Fine: Making AI-Driven Change Less Scary
How can nonprofits introduce—and embrace—AI? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined by Allison Fine, the president of Every.org, a technology platform that helps nonprofits collect donations via a …
Notes de l’épisode
How can nonprofits introduce—and embrace—AI? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined by Allison Fine, the president of Every.org, a technology platform that helps nonprofits collect donations via a wide variety of methods. Nonprofit workers might be getting high-level directives from their boards to utilize AI, but what should they actually be doing in practice? Allison talks through some concrete use cases, as well as ways to handle reticence around AI within the org.
Ask Aboard: AI Security, Bad Clients, and Yacht Rock
Paul and Rich are ready to answer your questions about AI—and beyond. On the inaugural episode of “Ask Aboard,” they tackle a trio of queries from some familiar faces. First, NYU’s Vice Provost for AI and …
Notes de l’épisode
Paul and Rich are ready to answer your questions about AI—and beyond. On the inaugural episode of “Ask Aboard,” they tackle a trio of queries from some familiar faces. First, NYU’s Vice Provost for AI and Technology in Education, Clay Shirky, asks how we can personally protect ourselves in the wake of the Hugging Face incident. Next, an anonymous letter-writer wants to know how to deal with clients who can’t stop generating bad AI artifacts. And finally, journalist and editor Josh Tyrangiel gets to the heart of it all, asking: What’s the software equivalent of yacht rock?
Jason Goldman: From VC Pitches to AI Kill Switches
How can we get politicians and Silicon Valley on the same AI page? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich welcome on Jason Goldman, whose long career in tech has taken him from Blogger to Twitter to the Obama …
Notes de l’épisode
How can we get politicians and Silicon Valley on the same AI page? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich welcome on Jason Goldman, whose long career in tech has taken him from Blogger to Twitter to the Obama administration to his current endeavor, the Center for Shared AI Prosperity. “AI capabilities are advancing faster than the political system is responding,” CSAIP’s website reads; Jason explains the challenges around and different approaches to redressing this gap. Plus: as the host of the movie podcast Escape Hatch, Jason ranks his expectations for the fall tech industry films, and makes a big prediction about Dune: Part Three.
Katie Notopoulos: There Are Still LOLs on the Internet
How is AI reshaping internet culture? On this week’s episode, Paul is joined by a journalist who has truly looked into the digital abyss: Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos. Using a few recent AI-related …
Notes de l’épisode
How is AI reshaping internet culture? On this week’s episode, Paul is joined by a journalist who has truly looked into the digital abyss: Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos. Using a few recent AI-related stories Katie reported as a lens, they discuss the increasingly blurry boundaries between the real and the artificial on our social feeds. Katie is known for, among other things, her lists of the worst things on the internet; with AI, Paul asks, has “worst” somehow gotten “even worser”? Plus: In a classic reporter move, Katie flips the script and quizzes Paul about his 2014 essay on YouTube, “The American Room.”
Is Jev the New Shape of AI?
LLMs are often far too powerful for the small tasks they’re asked to complete. Is the more-contained Jev the alternative? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich read a question from tech writer John Pavlus about …
Notes de l’épisode
LLMs are often far too powerful for the small tasks they’re asked to complete. Is the more-contained Jev the alternative? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich read a question from tech writer John Pavlus about Jev, a new model from Typesafe AI that’s been a major topic of discussion in programming circles recently. LLMs, Rich suggests, are often like using a power riding mower to cut the grass of your tiny lawn. As Paul breaks down Jev and others like it into layman’s terms, they debate whether this kind of technology is the future—or if it’ll just be one more thing absorbed by the AI giants?
Charity Majors: Embrace Your Computer’s Chaos
How is observability being redefined in the AI era? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich sit down with Charity Majors, the co-founder and CTO of Honeycomb. After a crash course on observability, the …
Notes de l’épisode
How is observability being redefined in the AI era? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich sit down with Charity Majors, the co-founder and CTO of Honeycomb. After a crash course on observability, the conversation pivots to AI and its cascading effects—both on this subfield, and on the tech community overall. Some engineers try to plan for every eventuality, but Charity stresses that the best thinking comes when you accept that anything could go wrong at any time: “There’s liberty in chaos.”
AI Companies Shouldn’t Police Themselves
Tech execs are sounding alarms about the dangerously fast pace of LLM development. Will any regulators stop them? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich discuss a heady few days in the world of Big AI, as Dario …
Notes de l’épisode
Tech execs are sounding alarms about the dangerously fast pace of LLM development. Will any regulators stop them? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich discuss a heady few days in the world of Big AI, as Dario Amodei called for a slowdown on AI development that was soon echoed by other leaders like Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Do their stated concerns actually match up to reality? In our current political climate, how realistic is the idea of government intervention? Plus: Paul does a pretty convincing imitation of a data center.
AI Versus…Talking to People?
Problems with your boss? Why not fire up Claude and hit HR with a lengthy legalistic complaint? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich look at the erosion of human-to-human communication in the AI era …
Notes de l’épisode
Problems with your boss? Why not fire up Claude and hit HR with a lengthy legalistic complaint? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich look at the erosion of human-to-human communication in the AI era, springboarding off a friend’s anecdote about employees sending official-sounding LLM-generated documents to HR rather than starting with simple conversations. AI tools allow us to flood each others’ inboxes. Is that making it impossible to truly communicate?
Josh Tyrangiel: Media, Moats, and Middle School
All the investors are flocking to the Silicon Valley giants, but where is AI really making a difference on the ground? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich welcome back writer and editor Josh Tyrangiel to talk …
Notes de l’épisode
All the investors are flocking to the Silicon Valley giants, but where is AI really making a difference on the ground? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich welcome back writer and editor Josh Tyrangiel to talk about his new book, AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter. From hospitals to classrooms to the IRS, Josh has been chronicling the ways large and small that people are using AI to transform their fields. Plus: A discussion of the past, present, and future of the media industry, including that time Josh put airplanes having sex on a major magazine cover.
It’s Fun to Ship Software
It’s unrestrained summer fun, Paul Ford-style: Using AI tools to actually ship some software. On this week’s podcast, Paul shows Rich his recent vibe-coded project, Stellate.app, which visualizes whimsical …
Notes de l’épisode
It’s unrestrained summer fun, Paul Ford-style: Using AI tools to actually ship some software. On this week’s podcast, Paul shows Rich his recent vibe-coded project, Stellate.app, which visualizes whimsical, made-up musical genres and plays the corresponding electronically generated music. (Don’t worry: You’ll get to hear some!) This might have been a fun summer project, but what did Paul learn building it—and, importantly, getting it out into the world?
Kate Lee: Can AI Replace Editors Like Me?
What would you do if your boss said he wanted your help to automate away your job? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined by Kate Lee, the editor in chief of the AI-related publication Every. Kate’s …
Notes de l’épisode
What would you do if your boss said he wanted your help to automate away your job? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined by Kate Lee, the editor in chief of the AI-related publication Every. Kate’s boss, Dan Shipper, has proposed just that: For the past few years, they’ve been building software to try to reliably automate major parts of the editorial process. At Every, writers and editors alike regularly use AI tools. So what does it actually look like when AI is a fundamental part of an editorial workflow?
Why Is It So Hard To Ship With AI?
AI has radically changed the way software is built—so why aren’t we seeing a glut of cool new products as a result? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich browse recent app-related headlines and product …
Notes de l’épisode
AI has radically changed the way software is built—so why aren’t we seeing a glut of cool new products as a result? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich browse recent app-related headlines and product announcements, searching for anything that isn’t AI-infrastructure related: What are people actually building on top of LLMs these days? (Spoiler: Not much.) They then attempt to diagnose what’s going on here, invoking a variety of metaphors for building product with AI, from mirages in the desert to wearing a set of beer goggles.
Tricia Wang: Verification and Trust in the AI Era
“Verification cannot belong to the verified.” On this week’s episode, Paul is solo in the host chair as he sits down with longtime tech researcher Tricia Wang, the co-founder and CEO of the Advanced AI Society …
Notes de l’épisode
“Verification cannot belong to the verified.” On this week’s episode, Paul is solo in the host chair as he sits down with longtime tech researcher Tricia Wang, the co-founder and CEO of the Advanced AI Society. Verifying AI, she explains, is far more complicated than simply dealing with hallucinations; in a world where AI is operating at a massive scale, how can we trust the outputs—or the people controlling the models? “Where does accountability lie?” she asks. “How do we agree to this thing?” Plus: A long exploration of the art of chicken sexing. (Yes, this relates to AI!)
Karp Carping: Decoding Palantir's Whole Deal
It might sound like he’s ranting, but the Palantir chief is zeroing in on the truth of our AI moment. On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich break down Alex Karp’s recent appearance on CNBC, in which he …
Notes de l’épisode
It might sound like he’s ranting, but the Palantir chief is zeroing in on the truth of our AI moment. On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich break down Alex Karp’s recent appearance on CNBC, in which he discussed Palantir’s position within the ever-expanding world of the AI giants. Orgs might be using OpenAI and Anthropic’s tokens, but Palantir’s position exposes, in Rich’s words, “the gap between transactions and relationships.” Finally, Paul asks Rich to run the new, imaginary consulting practice at Anthropic and obliterate Palantir. Can he do it? Does he have what it takes?
Father Brendan McGuire: Bringing AI to Church
How is Silicon Valley engaging with ethics and religion today—and how is the Catholic Church responding to AI? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich welcome on Father Brendan McGuire, a former engineer and …
Notes de l’épisode
How is Silicon Valley engaging with ethics and religion today—and how is the Catholic Church responding to AI? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich welcome on Father Brendan McGuire, a former engineer and current Catholic priest who serves at St. Simon Parish in Los Altos, California, aka the heart of Silicon Valley. He discusses his long work speaking between the tech industry and the Church, as an advisor to Anthropic as well as an early commenter on Pope Leo’s recent encyclical on AI, “Magnifica Humanitas.” (Don’t worry, Paul asks the question on everyone’s lips: In what file format does a pope distribute early copies of an encyclical?)
AI Unicorns Don’t Exist
Silicon Valley “disruption” is at odds with the way software creation actually works—and that’s a problem. On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich discuss Rich’s recent Aboard newsletter installment, “Maybe the …
Notes de l’épisode
Silicon Valley “disruption” is at odds with the way software creation actually works—and that’s a problem. On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich discuss Rich’s recent Aboard newsletter installment, “Maybe the Valley Could Listen a Little.” about how the dream of an “AI unicorn” who can use these tools to build a product all by themselves is a total fantasy. AI companies are promising revolutionary transformation across industries, but are they mostly just plastering over fundamental issues in processes and systems?
John Herrman: The Declawing of OpenClaw
OpenClaw sprung up overnight—and seemed to fade just as quickly. What does that suggest about AI more broadly? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by New York Magazine tech reporter …
Notes de l’épisode
OpenClaw sprung up overnight—and seemed to fade just as quickly. What does that suggest about AI more broadly? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by New York Magazine tech reporter John Herrman, whose long career covering all corners of the industry has, like the rest of his peers, recently shifted to all AI, all the time. They discuss his piece for the magazine on OpenClaw—titled “My Adventures With ‘The AI That Actually Does Things’”—before pulling back the lens to look at AI on a whole. Plus: They take a brief diversion into the story John wrote immediately after his OpenClaw reporting, “The Mystery of 'Human Meat' for Sale on Temu.”
Traci Donnelly: Using AI to Make an Impact
How should nonprofits actually be using AI? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by Traci Donnelly, the CEO of The Child Center of NY and the founder and president of Make An …
Notes de l’épisode
How should nonprofits actually be using AI? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by Traci Donnelly, the CEO of The Child Center of NY and the founder and president of Make An Impact—and a client of Aboard. After discussing these orgs’ missions, they dive into AI: Traci’s early embrace of the technology, how these tools can transform work in the sector, and the importance of not allowing human-to-human interactions to be supplanted by bots.
LevAIthan? A Hobbesian Look at AI
Is the AI era destined to make our software lives nasty, brutish, and short? On this week’s podcast, Rich brings Paul the framing of “Hobbesian AI,” specifically from 17th century English philosopher Thomas …
Notes de l’épisode
Is the AI era destined to make our software lives nasty, brutish, and short? On this week’s podcast, Rich brings Paul the framing of “Hobbesian AI,” specifically from 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s greatest work, Leviathan. Humans need some kind of order, Hobbes argued in the wake of the English Civil War, otherwise they will destroy each other. How can these lessons be applied to our decidedly order-less AI moment?
Eric Ries: Lean Startup to Tech Ethicist
Is it possible to build an incorruptible company in our current system? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by Eric Ries, the author of the 2011 bestseller The Lean Startup, to …
Notes de l’épisode
Is it possible to build an incorruptible company in our current system? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by Eric Ries, the author of the 2011 bestseller The Lean Startup, to discuss his latest book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great. After they discuss his tech origins and the legacy of The Lean Startup within the industry, they dive into Incorruptible, which offers a blueprint for companies to continually fuel growth while still acting in the public good.
Challenge: Don’t Mention AI
Can two people who host a podcast subtitled “software in the age of AI” go half an hour without bringing up the term? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich attempt to talk about something—anything—tech-related …
Notes de l’épisode
Can two people who host a podcast subtitled “software in the age of AI” go half an hour without bringing up the term? On this week’s episode, Paul and Rich attempt to talk about something—anything—tech-related that isn’t AI. Topics discussed include the new Ferrari, the rise of sports gambling apps, youthful rebellions past and present, and the wonder that is the Virtual OS Museum. Do they make it through without mentioning LLMs? You’ll have to listen.
Craig Mod: Vibe Coding Towards the Apocalypse
Sure, AI might bring on the end times—but you can use it to build your own tax software! On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by Craig Mod, a writer, photographer, and self-described …
Notes de l’épisode
Sure, AI might bring on the end times—but you can use it to build your own tax software! On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined in the studio by Craig Mod, a writer, photographer, and self-described “software supertaster” who recently took to Claude to build a version of Quicken that suited his complicated tax-filing needs. First, they discuss the project and assess how likely it is that a non-technologist would be able to create something similar with the current tools. Then, the conversation takes a turn—towards the apocalypse. (It’s fun, we promise!)
Kamal Menghrajani: The Limits of AI Healthcare
Doctors might be using AI to cut down on paperwork, but can these tools really be employed in clinical settings? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich sit down in the studio with Dr. Kamal Menghrajani, a …
Notes de l’épisode
Doctors might be using AI to cut down on paperwork, but can these tools really be employed in clinical settings? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich sit down in the studio with Dr. Kamal Menghrajani, a practicing oncologist and lecturer at Harvard Medical School who was previously a member of the Biden White House’s “Cancer Moonshot” team. After she explains how AI is helping in her work, she lays out its real limitations—and discusses how these technologies can distract from more systemic approaches like better patient prevention and screening. Plus: Are her medical students allowed to use LLMs?
Why AI Makes Things Worse for Enterprise Teams
Why are so few engineering teams reaping the benefits of AI? On this week’s episode, Paul presents Rich with the findings from a recent report from CircleCI and Thoughtworks on the productivity of enterprise …
Notes de l’épisode
Why are so few engineering teams reaping the benefits of AI? On this week’s episode, Paul presents Rich with the findings from a recent report from CircleCI and Thoughtworks on the productivity of enterprise teams using LLMs. While there’s been a dramatic increase in throughput—the amount of code produced—across the board, just 5% of orgs are seeing real gains from these tools, while the majority struggle with errors, bugs, and lower productivity than before AI was introduced. As Paul puts it: “The advantages of this technology are not equally distributed.”
Andrew Marantz: What’s Wrong With Sam Altman?
What’s wrong with Sam Altman? Ask the guy who spent 18 months reporting on him. On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined by New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz, who recently put out a lengthy article …
Notes de l’épisode
What’s wrong with Sam Altman? Ask the guy who spent 18 months reporting on him. On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined by New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz, who recently put out a lengthy article on the OpenAI chief that he co-reported with Ronan Farrow. After they dive into some of the specific details of the piece, they discuss the broader questions Altman’s position in the industry raises. If AI really is as powerful as he claims it will someday be, why are we allowing one person to have that much power over it?
Breaking: Software Work Still Difficult
What does it take to make a really good product with AI tools? On this week’s podcast, Paul walks Rich through his recent adventures building a robust aggregated newsletter tool—first to track the AI industry …
Notes de l’épisode
What does it take to make a really good product with AI tools? On this week’s podcast, Paul walks Rich through his recent adventures building a robust aggregated newsletter tool—first to track the AI industry, then generalized and customizable for any industry. Vibe-coding platforms continue to evolve, but you still need a lot of technical knowledge to make something that really works. Is that high bar likely to lower in the coming months and years?
Andrew Leland: Hacking Disability with AI
“The blind vibe-coding revolution is upon us.” On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined by Andrew Leland, the author of the Pulitzer-finalist The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, to …
Notes de l’épisode
“The blind vibe-coding revolution is upon us.” On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined by Andrew Leland, the author of the Pulitzer-finalist The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, to discuss how blind and low-vision people are using AI tools to create and adapt software to suit their accessibility needs. With limits to what any out-of-the-box software or device might do, is AI the way to give disabled people technological solutions that really work? Plus: Rich bravely makes it through the whole recording despite being surrounded by two massive Emacs stans.
The AI Consulting Paradox
Employees at the big consulting firms are being told to use AI. Are they going to automate themselves out of a job? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich discuss a recent set of directives from the CEO of …
Notes de l’épisode
Employees at the big consulting firms are being told to use AI. Are they going to automate themselves out of a job? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich discuss a recent set of directives from the CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers about AI adoption and consider what they frame as the “AI consulting paradox”: To show value, consultants need to introduce AI into their client relationships, potentially cutting their own value as a result. How will consulting manage this transition in the short or long term? Plus: Paul reports on his recent conversations with a New School journalism class that visited the office and shared their feelings about using AI.
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