This isn't just another tech talk; it's a bridge connecting curious minds to the innovators, dreamers, and doers who are shaping the future of AI.
In each episode, we'll dive deep with those at the forefront of AI work, from the thinkers to the tinkerers, to understand not just what's new but what's truly making a difference. This is your all-access pass to the conversations that matter, offering insights, inspiring stories, and a bit of fun along the way. Whether you're an AI aficionado or simply AI-curious, we're here to connect, learn, and explore together.
School Bus Field Trip + Slugs After Dark + Free Will on I-5
Fresh off AI Portland’s first-ever field trip, Megan and Nicole sit down to debrief about their day at Oregon State University with 45 AI Portlanders, one rented school bus, and more robots than Megan could have dreamed of. From computer vision that hunts slugs in the middle of the night to robots built to work like ants, they talk about what it felt like to spend a whole day seeing AI pointed at real problems, like how we grow the food we eat.
It was a nice break from the usual AI discourse. Instead of tools cramming AI in where no one asked for it, OSU showed off research tackling pests, crops, forestry, and robotics with real stakes for Oregon and beyond. Plus, Nicole finds out OSU is about a lot more than agriculture.
Along the way:🐜 Robots that act like ants, and why the useful ones beat the cute ones🐌 Computer vision that targets slugs and leaves earthworms alone🔋 What happens to your fancy AI when the field has no power and no Wi-Fi🫐 The tech behind Oregon’s blueberries and hazelnuts🏢 How OSU partners with Oregon businesses through its researchers
🚌 Plus, the case for chartering a school bus, the passenger who went looking for his water bottle, and the police lights that came after
Also featuring: bus snacks, a philosophical debate about free will overheard in row one, a firm vow to never record on a Monday again, and big thanks to our OSU friends Burt, Rachel, Shelly, Owen, and all the faculty and staff who gave us their time.
Related links
OSU field trip write-up (https://www.aipdx.info/stories/3f5f1e43-e522-8040-b5f0-fe0413b386b7)
OSU College of Engineering (https://engineering.oregonstate.edu/)
AI Portland (https://aipdx.info/)
27 Sept 2026
Peak AI + AI Portland: The Musical?
It's 6:45 in the morning, it's dark out, and Megan and Nicole are pretty sure they have nothing to say about AI. Then they say a lot about it. This AI in the AM edition recaps two very different September events: the kickoff of In Dialogue with AI, a six-part lecture series with Roberto Santiago and the University of Portland, and a hands-on night about agents with the one and only Chen Chen Chen.
Nicole walked into the first lecture tired of AI headlines and walked out feeling better, which says a lot. Roberto's take is simple: don't be afraid, let's figure this out together. From there, the conversation moves to the practical side. What an agent actually is, why you don't need one for everything, and who's on the hook when an autonomous agent messes up. Spoiler: it's you.
Along the way:
🎭 How the word "robot" got its start in an early-1900s play (and why that plot still sounds familiar)
📈 Have we hit peak AI? Not the tech, just the "every Lyft driver wants to talk about it" kind
📚 A novel set during the late-90s internet boom that sounds a lot like today's AI promises
🤖 What "agent" really means, and why calling a Copilot project an agent doesn't count
🍾 The problem with agents: they burn tokens, the humans become the bottleneck, and nobody knows what anyone else has built
💸 The ROI question: how do you measure the value of just being better prepared for a meeting?
🧑⚖️ Who's accountable when an agent acts on its own? The domain expert. The human. You.
Plus: A pitch for an AI Portland robot musical, Chen Chen Chen's excellent domain, and a friendly heads-up that the OSU field trip is on an actual school bus. Green seats and all.
Related Links:
AI Portland (https://aipdx.info), where you'll find upcoming events and In Dialogue with AI registration
In Dialogue with AI (indialoguewithai.com)lecture series with Roberto Santiago
Chen Chen (https://chenchenchen.me)
23 Aug 2026
Are there even jobs? + Made-up titles + Stay hydrated, friends
A recruiter with 20 years in the business has never heard of a forward deployed engineer. A job title called "rehash manager" exists and nobody can explain it. And a French bulldog named Gary is still standing at a cracked door, trying to open it with his mind. It's another classic episode: part community update, part job market reality check, part group therapy for anyone who's submitted 200 applications and heard absolutely nothing back.
Megan and Nicole sit down with Kelsey New (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseynew/) of Mainz Brady Group (https://mbg.com/), a boutique Portland recruiting firm, to find out what's actually happening on the other side of the application portal. Fake resumes, deepfake interviews, auto-apply bots dumping a thousand candidates into a posting in the first twelve hours, and companies who thought AI meant they'd never need a recruiter again. Spoiler: they're finding out the hard way that human expertise matters.
Along the way:
🏷️ Why job titles turned into the Wild West, and how recruiters play detective to decode them👻 Where ghost jobs actually come from (the boring explanation is sadder than the conspiracy)🦄 Why "most of the requirements" no longer cuts it, and some companies will wait a year for a perfect candidate💔 The part where candidate experience quietly disappears while it's an employer's market🌱 Kelsey's advice: water the garden before you need the harvest🚌 Why we're putting the entire community on a school bus to OSU's robotics and AI lab
Plus: Nicole tells you directly to stop blindly mass applying. Kelsey confirms there are, in fact, real jobs. Nicole built us a whole new website with AI and owes us a case study. And the final, definitive job search strategy turns out to be: drink water.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.7 / 5
7 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 46 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
71
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
51
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