Saturdata

Saturdata Podcast

Saturdata is the community-driven podcast humanizing the data world for the next generation of analysts, scientists, and engineers. Join hosts Shifra Williams and Sam LaFell every weekend as they break down both the career journey and the technical foundations that matter. From navigating interviews to mastering SQL, Python, terminal basics, and understanding AI safety, Saturdata covers the full stack of becoming a successful data professional.

  1. Apr 4

    We're making up AI as we go | Saturdata with Joey Yudelson

    What happens when you train an evil AI and it just lies really confidently? Joey Yudelson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-yudelson/), AI safety researcher at Redwood Research, joins Sam and Shifra to break down why 300 people standing between us and a catastrophic AI future might not be enough, and what data folks can actually do about it. We talk about: - Taxonomies of AI risk (silly vs. not silly, yes this is a real framework) - Why the evil AI wrote 30 paragraphs insisting its buggy code was perfect - Global AI regulation and who's actually doing a good job (hint: it's the EU) - How to use Claude agents like a multiplayer cheat code - Why you personally could make a dent in AI safety research Follow Saturdata, your favorite weekend data podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QolhKm1jDZzVuHO0S9ZBo?si=910efb23833f4fc1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/saturdata Instagram: @SaturdataPod #Saturdata #AISafety #DataScience #MachineLearning Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - Joey's origin story: from high school Yudkowsky reader to full-time AI safety researcher 3:42 - A guided tour of the AI safety landscape 6:14 - Where Joey fits in the puzzle: model organisms and misalignment research 7:28 - The evil AI that wrote 30 paragraphs insisting its buggy code was perfect 10:55 - Deep in the lab vs. everyday AI user: how different are they really? 13:42 - The knowledge lag: why comedians are still calling AI "smart autocomplete" 17:24 - Taxonomies of risk: silly vs. not silly (yes, water use is on the table) 22:02 - Being a responsible AI user: what data folks can actually do 28:32 - How LLMs actually work, explained with a very talented dog named Jeeves 33:11 - Joey's lifelong vendetta against SQL (and how he gets away with it) 36:59 - Three rules for getting real value out of AI agents without losing your mind 42:48 - Why you personally could make a dent in AI safety (and the case for Talmudic AI research) 45:20 - Takeaways and outro

    47 min

About

Saturdata is the community-driven podcast humanizing the data world for the next generation of analysts, scientists, and engineers. Join hosts Shifra Williams and Sam LaFell every weekend as they break down both the career journey and the technical foundations that matter. From navigating interviews to mastering SQL, Python, terminal basics, and understanding AI safety, Saturdata covers the full stack of becoming a successful data professional.