AGI - Advance, Grow, Innovate with AI

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AGI Podcast: Advance, Grow, Innovate with AI For people making AI work and educators preparing students for what's next. Practical conversations about workforce development, education, and small to medium businesses. School's Out Saturdays: Educators and students preparing for an AI-driven future. The Weekly Blitz: AI news recaps with cohost Julie Koehrer. AI & the Humans in the Loop: Biweekly conversations with people learning to build useful software and systems with AI. schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/

  1. 2 days ago

    China, China, China | The Weekly Blitz

    If China and the United States are racing toward different versions of an AI future, how do we decide who is winning? Jason Padgett and Julie Koehrer take on China, China, China in this Weekly Blitz. They debate open-source models, robotics, regulation, economic competition, and what practical AI adoption could mean for everyday people. Julie questions why technological progress cannot be shared more broadly. Jason pushes on the costs, incentives, and risks behind that possibility. The conversation then turns to how AI systems are trained, whose values shape them, and whether humans can keep control as those systems become more capable. Listen for:What Jason and Julie mean by winning the AI race.The tension between affordable technology, investment, and jobs.Their questions about model distillation and intellectual property.The difference between rewarding an AI system and trying to teach it principles.Why both hosts end on the importance of learning from one another. An opinionated conversation, with room for disagreement and hypothetical scenarios, about the choices shaping an AI future we all have to live in. Host Links:Jason PadgettRelentless, unapologetically contrarian, and driven to make AI practical for everyday people.🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-grant-padgett/💬 jason@agipodcast.aiThe AGI Podcast NetworkAdvance, Grow, and Innovate with AI.🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/Chakra AI SolutionsChief Solutions Architect🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/Wooden Boy IndustriesBring your biggest challenge. We will talk about where your school is heading and how to help students get ready for what comes next.🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/SpritePractical AI capability for solopreneurs who want to learn the tools and use them well themselves.🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/sprite/Co-Host Links:Julie KoehrerCurious, candid, deeply community-minded, and never afraid to ask the question everyone else is thinking.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekoehrer🌐 Q106.7: https://lafayetteq1067.com/

    China, China, China | The Weekly Blitz
  2. 5 Oct

    The Gloves Come Off

    Personal AI agents are moving into calendars, inboxes, phones, and feeds. The harder question is who carries responsibility when those systems shape what people see, believe, and choose. Jason Padgett and Julie Koehrer take the gloves off in this Weekly Blitz. What starts with Meta Muse, Grok Bot, privacy, and AI regulation turns into a real argument about the economy, data-center incentives, capitalism, billionaires, water, algorithms, and whether responsibility sits with companies, government, or the public. The disagreement gets heated. They stay in it, listen, push back, and end with the thing this show is supposed to make room for: two people who respect each other enough to argue honestly. RSVP for the Chakra AI Solutions' Launch Party, October 11th at Daniel's Vineyard in McCordsville: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chakra-ai-solutions-launch-event-tickets-1997164099584 WHAT YOU'LL TAKE AWAY What personal AI agents gain when users give them access to everyday work and data Why software accountability and AI regulation remain unsettled How headlines, algorithms, and personal choices shape what reaches our feeds Where Jason and Julie split on business incentives, taxes, and public responsibility Why respectful disagreement still matters when the stakes feel personal ABOUT THE WEEKLY BLITZ Jason Padgett and Julie Koehrer meet on Monday mornings to sort through the AI headlines, argue through the tradeoffs, and ask what any of it means for regular people trying to live and work through the change. RESOURCES MENTIONED Meta Muse https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/ Grok Bot https://x.ai/news/introducing-grok-bot Claude's Constitution https://www.anthropic.com/constitution OpenAI DevDay 2026 https://openai.com/index/devday-2026/ CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT Jason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI Workflows AGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network 🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/ CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries 🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/ Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions 🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/ 📧 jason@agipodcast.ai TOOLS USED Riverside ChatGPT

    The Gloves Come Off
  3. 28 Sept

    What Are We Racing To? AI Assistants, Privacy, and Buying Back Time | The Weekly Blitz

    What Are We Racing To? AI Assistants, Privacy, and Buying Back Time | The Weekly BlitzJulie asks the question that cuts through most AI productivity pitches: what are we racing to?In this Weekly Blitz, Julie Koehrer and Jason Padgett work through that question without pretending they agree on every answer. They talk about AI longevity claims, compute and regulation, local data systems, voice-first agents, consumer AI assistants, privacy, public surveillance, and what it actually means to buy back time.WHAT YOU'LL TAKE AWAYWhy faster output only matters when you know what you want the saved time forHow better data organization can reduce the work an AI system has to doWhy convenience and trust become inseparable when an assistant can act for youHow Julie and Jason draw different personal boundaries around voice, privacy, and automationWhy AI safety still comes back to accountable engineering and containmentCHAPTERS00:00 AI longevity and what counts as a stretch02:11 Superintelligence, control, and human arrogance05:00 Data centers, compute, and regulation08:00 Sentiment, context, and efficient AI systems09:02 Building one organized source of truth18:05 What are we racing to?19:09 Buying back time with AI agents24:14 Voice-first work and the instant ick25:40 Flock cameras, public trust, and accountability30:11 Consumer AI assistants and privacy35:50 Trusted agents supervising other tools37:35 Softball, TikTok, and a vibe-coder cartoon41:37 AI containment as an engineering problemABOUT JULIE KOEHRERJulie Koehrer co-hosts The Weekly Blitz and brings a practical marketing and media perspective to the conversation. She asks the questions a lot of people have when a new AI tool promises speed, convenience, and a little more access than feels comfortable.RESOURCES MENTIONEDThe AGI Podcast Networkhttps://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/networkWoof Boom Radio Indianahttps://woofboom.com/indiana/CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETTJason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI WorkflowsAGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/📧 jason@agipodcast.aiTOOLS USEDRiversideSpotify for Creators

    What Are We Racing To? AI Assistants, Privacy, and Buying Back Time | The Weekly Blitz
  4. 27 Sept

    AI, Work & What Comes Next | Bryan Barnhill | Humans in the Loop

    AI can take work off your plate, but how do you decide what to trust it with, and what happens to people whose work changes? Jason Padgett and Bryan Barnhill talk through real uses of AI, the limits of automation, and the people affected by both. Bryan brings decades in technology, including healthcare IT and business operations. He has been exploring AI agents in his own projects and shares what learning these tools looks like from the inside. WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY How to start with one AI tool and learn it well. Why industry expertise still matters when an agent can build quickly. What sensitive data and regulated work demand from an AI workflow. How AI may change creative work, jobs, and the way teams communicate. Why helping people learn to use these tools matters more than doing everything for them. Try this: choose one repeated task this week, decide what success would look like, and test one AI tool on a version you can review yourself. ABOUT BRYAN BARNHILL Bryan is a retired technology professional in Indianapolis. In this conversation, he describes earlier work in PC networking, healthcare IT, and business operations, and his current exploration of AI agents. Bryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-barnhill-4698b16/ CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT Jason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI Workflows AGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network: https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/ CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries: https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/ Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions: https://chakrasolutions.ai/ jason@agipodcast.ai

  5. 26 Sept

    When You See Us, You Can Be Us | Linda Calvin | AGI School’s Out Saturdays

    What skills will help students find their footing when AI changes the work waiting for them? Linda Calvin joins Jason Padgett to talk about critical thinking, real relationships, and who gets a voice in building that future. Linda calls communication, problem-solving, and collaboration “power skills.” We talk about how students practice them, why access to technology still matters, and what happens when efficiency becomes the only measure of progress. Her experience founding Indiana Women IN Tech Week brings the conversation back to something young people can actually see: people like them doing work they never knew was possible. WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY Why networking starts with curiosity and preparation. How to use AI while practicing your own judgment. Why diverse experience helps teams catch problems earlier. What foundational technology education can give every student. Linda also brings Star Trek into the conversation. The M5 story gives us plenty to discuss about bias, automation, and the decisions leaders still have to make. TRY THIS Before your next networking conversation, read about the person’s work and write down two questions. Give yourself a reason to listen before you give someone a reason to buy. ABOUT LINDA CALVIN, JD Founder, Indiana Women IN Tech Week. President and Chief Thought Leader, Transcend Consulting. Technology and workforce leader, keynote speaker, and moderator. Her career includes technology leadership at Dow and Stanley Black & Decker, Reboot Representation, and technology education leadership at Ivy Tech Community College and Western Governors University. CONNECT WITH LINDA https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindacalvin/ https://www.transcendent-talks.com/ https://www.indianawomenintechweek.com/ RESOURCES MENTIONED 100 Year EdTech Project https://100yearedtechproject.org/ CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT Jason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI Workflows AGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network 🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/ CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries 🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/ Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions 🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/ 📧 jason@agipodcast.ai TOOLS Recorded and edited with Riverside. #AGIPodcast #SchoolsOutSaturdays #WomenINTech #AIinEducation #LindaCalvin

  6. 21 Sept

    AI for Small Business: Automate, Audit, Adapt | Bryan Barnhill | Weekly Blitz

    AI should take work off your plate. So why does choosing models, checking results and keeping up sometimes feel like another job? Jason Padgett is joined by guest co-host Bryan Barnhill for a practical Weekly Blitz conversation about small-business AI, useful automation and the work of checking what your agents actually did. Bryan is a retired IT professional whose later career included healthcare. He describes his interest in helping owners think about AI before a business transition, building an app that lets customers buy friends a drink for later collection, and learning from a multi-agent fantasy-football project that did not generate sales. WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY Compare model quality with the quality of your prompts and feedback.Give every automation a way to be checked and updated.Start with the customer’s problem before sending agents to fix things.Treat an unsuccessful product experiment as evidence you can learn from. TRY THIS Choose one recurring task. Define the useful result, decide how you will check it and put a review date on the calendar. CONNECT WITH BRYAN BARNHILL Bryan is based in Indianapolis. He is exploring AI uses for local small businesses and building a drink-gifting app.https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-barnhill-4698b16/ RESOURCES MENTIONED Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Jason discusses its beginner’s-mind idea during the conversation. CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT Jason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI Workflows AGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/ CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/ Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/ 📧 jason@agipodcast.ai TOOLS DISCUSSED ChatGPT and CodexClaudeGrokSlack MUSIC Shrug It OffMusic licensed through Soundstripe.Code: AQUEWI4ZJHA7FLTT

    AI for Small Business: Automate, Audit, Adapt | Bryan Barnhill | Weekly Blitz
  7. 20 Sept

    Can’t Honor the Gentleman’s Rule? Don’t Enter the Duel

    AI policy keeps getting written like a rulebook for a system that behaves more like a living network. In this episode, Jason Padgett and Hunter Hickman ask the harder question: how do we build judgment, responsibility, and real AI literacy before capability outruns control? The conversation starts with frontier AI. Who benefits from regulation? Can data centers provide a practical control point? What happens when a machine follows a measurable goal without sharing the values behind it? And if constitutional AI is part of the answer, who gets to write the constitution? Then the argument moves into schools, where those questions are already real. Hunter explains why detection-first policies create a game of cat and mouse, why teachers need durable AI literacy more than a rotating catalog of tools, and why responsible use should develop people instead of simply offloading their work. WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY Why AI control is a governance problem as much as a technical problem How broad principles can preserve local judgment in school AI policy Why students should learn to show their work when AI is involved How teachers can act more like coaches while students explore, practice, and perform Why purposeful AI use can mean less student screen time, not more How consistency and literacy can outlast any single AI platform The episode lands on Hunter’s experience at Wabash College. The Gentleman’s Rule replaced a thick rulebook with a broad expectation of responsible conduct. It trusted people with freedom and held them accountable for judgment. That same principle connects classroom discipline, digital citizenship, and the effort to align increasingly capable AI. The challenge: find one place where your current AI policy rewards compliance without developing judgment. Rewrite it as a standard people must understand and uphold. ABOUT HUNTER HICKMAN Hunter Hickman, M.S., is a secondary English educator, English department head, district AI implementation leader, founder of Hickman Consulting LLC, and head boys wrestling coach at Rensselaer Central High School. He works at the intersection of classroom practice, educator development, and responsible AI adoption. CONNECT WITH HUNTER HICKMAN Hickman Consulting AI https://www.hickmanconsultingai.com/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunter-hickman-m-s-2b501383/ Rensselaer Central High School https://rchs.rensselaerschools.org/ Rensselaer Central Boys Wrestling https://rensselaerathletics.com/Team/7cbc4208-1bfa-4331-b0f4-7c4257672d98/Wrestling%20%28Boys%20V-JV%29 RESOURCES MENTIONED The Gentleman’s Rule | Wabash College https://www.wabash.edu/aboutwabash/rule Claude’s Constitution | Anthropic https://www.anthropic.com/constitution Attention Is All You Need https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT Jason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI Workflows AGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network 🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/ CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries 🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/ Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions 🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/ 📧 jason@agipodcast.ai TOOLS MENTIONED ChatGPT Claude Gemini Grok MagicSchool SchoolAI Khanmigo 📧 jason@agipodcast.ai

    Can’t Honor the Gentleman’s Rule? Don’t Enter the Duel
  8. 19 Sept

    The Future Has No Fixed Path | Toni Holcombe on AI, Learning and the Courage to Pivot

    What should a high school sophomore prepare for when the tools, jobs and rules keep changing? Toni Holcombe's answer is simple: there is no spoon. The future has not already been decided, and one choice does not have to become a lifelong identity. This episode closes 2026 Indiana Women in Tech Week and serves as this week's AGI School's Out Saturdays conversation. Jason Padgett and Toni move from data careers and AI hiring to education, trust, creativity, learning differences and the ability to change direction when a path no longer serves you. Toni explains why technical knowledge alone is not enough. People who can translate technical work into language others can understand bring enormous value. She challenges the usual idea of cultural fit, which can become groupthink when everybody sounds and thinks alike. She also argues that students should sometimes do the work the hard way before automating it. A bad process does not improve just because technology makes it faster. The conversation explores how AI fear creates resistance, why no model stays best forever, how audio and visual formats can help different learners, and why a degree or first career choice does not have to define the rest of a student's life. IN THIS EPISODE 01:41 Creating visibility for people navigating an AI-shaped job market 04:43 Translating technical knowledge into human language 06:40 Cultural fit, diversity of thought and groupthink 09:09 Learning a process before automating it 11:48 Why fear makes people resist AI 20:47 Designing for different kinds of learners 31:49 The limits of AI as a thought partner 37:46 Matching the model to the work 40:53 Do not automate a broken process 44:12 There is no spoon: Toni's advice for students CONNECT WITH TONI HOLCOMBE LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/toni-holcombe/ CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT Jason Padgett | AI Solutions Architect | Co-Founder, Wooden Boy Industries | Host, AGI Podcast | AI Adoption, LLM Systems & Human-AI Workflows AGI - Advance Grow and Innovate with AI Podcast Network 🌐 https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/ CoFounder, Wooden Boy Industries 🌐 https://woodenboyindustriesai.com/ Chief Solutions Architect, Chakra AI Solutions 🌐 https://chakrasolutions.ai/ 📧 jason@agipodcast.ai

    The Future Has No Fixed Path | Toni Holcombe on AI, Learning and the Courage to Pivot

About

AGI Podcast: Advance, Grow, Innovate with AI For people making AI work and educators preparing students for what's next. Practical conversations about workforce development, education, and small to medium businesses. School's Out Saturdays: Educators and students preparing for an AI-driven future. The Weekly Blitz: AI news recaps with cohost Julie Koehrer. AI & the Humans in the Loop: Biweekly conversations with people learning to build useful software and systems with AI. schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/

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