AI Ketchup 🍅 | Your Business's Secret Sauce
  • 17 JUL
  • S1, E16
  • 40 MIN

Why Your Next AI Project Should Be Open-Source | Mike Bird

AI Ketchup 🍅 | Your Business's Secret Sauce

Is locking down powerful AI in the hands of a few companies a risk we can't afford to take? In this episode, we're joined by open-source visionary Mike Bird to explore why the future of humanity might depend on open-source AI. We dive deep into the strategic advantages of building in the open, how to decide what parts of your business to open-source, and the practical tools and frameworks that can help developers and companies thrive.

Guest: Mike Bird, open-source advocate, contributor to Open Interpreter, AI & Engineering Lead at BoxOne Ventures and host of the Tool Use YouTube channel.

Our guest:

  • X: https://x.com/MikeBirdTech

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebirdtech/
    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MikeBirdTech

  • What You'll Hear About:

    • The Philosophical Debate: Why centralizing AI in a few corporations is a high-risk scenario for humanity.

    • Strategic Open-Sourcing: How companies can build trust and attract talent by strategically open-sourcing parts of their tech stack without losing their competitive edge.

    • Practical AI Workflows: Three game-changing use cases for AI in your daily life, including voice transcription, building tool generators, and leveraging code assistants like Cursor.

    • The Future of AI Agents: Will open-source or closed-source frameworks dominate the next wave of AI agent technology?

    • Security in the Open: How to navigate the risks of open-source, from malicious actors to ensuring the safety of tools like MCP servers with projects like ToolHive.

    Key insights:

    • Open-sourcing parts of your software is a powerful way to build trust in an age of increasing digital skepticism.

    • You don't have to open-source your core product. Contributing to the libraries and tools your business relies on is a valuable way to participate.

    • The argument against open-source AI often ignores the second-order effect: concentrating power in a few opaque organizations is a greater long-term risk.

    • Use AI tools like Cursor not just for development, but as a learning tool to understand complex codebases and make meaningful contributions.

    • The most important skills in the age of AI are curiosity, agency, and taste. Learn to experiment, act on your ideas, and develop a sense for quality user experience.

  • Tools Mentioned:

    • Open Interpreter: An open-source project for running code on your computer https://github.com/openinterpreter/open-interpreter .

    • Cursor: An AI-powered code editor.

    • Cal.com: An open-source scheduling alternative to Calendly.

    • AgentStack: A tool for tracing and building reliable AI systems https://github.com/AgentOps-AI/AgentStack.

    • Bitwarden: An open-source password manager.

    • Superwhisper / Whisperfile: Voice transcription tools https://github.com/cjpais/whisperfile.

    • Obsidian: A note-taking app that works on local Markdown files.

    • ToolHive: A project for secure secret management with MCP servers.

    • Augment Toolkit & Transformer Lab: Tools for creating fine-tuned models https://github.com/e-p-armstrong/augmentoolkit https://transformerlab.ai/.

    Chapters

    • 00:00 The High-Stakes Future of Open-Source AI

    • 01:15 Mike Bird's Journey into the AI Ecosystem

    • 03:55 Why Open-Source is a Public Good for Humanity

    • 05:30 Building Trust: How Companies Can Benefit from Open-Source

    • 07:15 What to Open Source (And What to Keep Proprietary)

    • 11:19 The Philosophical Argument: Is Open-Source AI a Necessity?

    • 15:01 Open-Source vs. Closed-Source as a Societal Choice

    • 17:35 Why Did OpenAI Abandon Its Open-Source Roots?

    • 22:47 The Future of AI Agents: Who Will Win?

    • 28:25 Mike's Top 3 AI Use Cases for Daily Productivity

    • 30:10 Building a Tool That Builds More Tools

    • 33:26 Navigating Security with MCP Servers and ToolHive

    • 36:06 Final Principles: Stay Curious, Keep Humans in the Loop, and Develop Good Taste

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    • Website: pod.elinalesyk.com

    • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/ai-ketchup/

    Episode Webpage

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