Is reality setting in for the AI bubble? Who the hell knows. This is definitely the most bipolar bubble I've ever seen, making the dotcom bubble look downright tame.

In this rant, I discuss why AI is in its televangelist moment, and why a reality check is necessary to keep real progress on AI on track.

What are the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface of vibe coded apps and hyped-up CEO promises? And what is Influence Ops?I'm joined by Susanna Cox (Disesdi), an AI security architect, researcher, and red teamer who has been working at the intersection of AI and security for over a decade. She provides a masterclass on the current state of AI security, from explaining the "color teams" (red, blue, purple) to breaking down the fundamental vulnerabilities that make GenAI so risky.We dive into the recent wave of AI-driven disasters, from the Tea dating app that exposed its users' sensitive data to the massive Catholic Health breach. We also discuss why the trend of blindly vibe coding is an irresponsible and unethical shortcut that will create endless liabilities in the near term.Susanna also shares her perspective on AI policy, the myth of separating "responsible" from "secure" AI, and the one threat that truly keeps her up at night: the terrifying potential of weaponized globally scaled Influence Ops to manipulate public opinion and democracy itself.Find Disesdi Susanna Cox:Substack: https://disesdi.substack.com/Socials (LinkedIn, X, etc.): @DisesdiKEY MOMENTS:00:26 - Who is Disesdi Susanna Cox?03:52 - What are Red, Blue, and Purple Teams in Security?07:29 - Probabilistic vs. Deterministic Thinking: Why Data & Security Teams Clash12:32 - How GenAI Security is Different (and Worse) than Classical ML14:39 - Recent AI Disasters: Catholic Health, Agent Smith & the "T" Dating App18:34 - The Unethical Problem with "Vibe Coding"24:32 - "Vibe Companies": The Gaslighting from CEOs About AI30:51 - Why "Responsible AI" and "Secure AI" Are the Same Thing33:13 - Deconstructing the "Woke AI" Panic44:39 - What Keeps an AI Security Expert Up at Night? Influence Ops52:30 - The Vacuous, Haiku-Style Hellscape of LinkedIn

What's the nature of skills and competency when we're all just AI enabled button pushers? I rant about why we need to retain our sense of competence and uniqueness in an age where everything is rapidly becoming a sea of sameness and lameness.

Is AI the silver bullet for modernizing our aging software systems, or is it a fast track to creating the next generation of unmaintainable "slopware"?In this episode, I sit down with Marianne Bellotti, author of the amazing book "Kill It With Fire," to discuss the complex reality of legacy system modernization in the age of AI. We explore why understanding the cultural and human history of a codebase is critical, and how the current AI hype cycle isn't a silver bullet for legacy IT modernization efforts.Marianne breaks down a recent disastrous "vibe coding" experiment, the risk of replacing simple human errors with catastrophic automated ones, and the massive disconnect between the promises of AI agents and the daily reality of a practitioner just trying to get a service account from IT.Join us for a pragmatic and no-BS conversation about the real challenges in software, the practical ways to leverage LLMs as an expert partner, and why good old-fashioned systems thinking is more important than ever.Find Marianne Bellotti:Socials: @BellmarWebsite: https://belladotte.tech/Book, "Kill It With Fire": https://nostarch.com/kill-it-fire

Matt Housley joins me to chat about whether it matters that AI is PhD level, clanker content (the new term for AI slop), a retrospective on Fundamentals of Data Engineering, and much more.

Shane Gibson just published a book - The Information Product Canvas. We discuss his journey as an author and publisher, why shared language is critical in data projects, the iterative processes that can enhance data team efficiency, and the role of canvases in business strategy. We also get into how AI might evolve the landscape of data and publishing.

Does today's use of AI coding agents remind you of a drunken high school or college party? Just like people discovering drugs and alcohol for the first time, I feel like the tech and data industry is in a similar place. "Just vibe..." is the mantra now.

But when I talk with developers and data practitioners in private, I get different vibes. There's definitely a concern that we're collectively building lots of slopware and are setting ourselves up for trouble as an industry.

Kostas Pardalis (Co-Founder @ Typedef) joins me to chat about the rapid evolution of AI and data infrastructure, next generation architectures, and much more

In this episode, I unpack how Big Tech is using massive AI investment to justify mass layoffs. All of this AI projects keep failing for the same reasons every other tech wave and IT project has: bad data, org problems, etc. Will AI be different?

Shane Murray (Field CTO Monte Carlo, Former Head of Data NY Times) joins me to chat about the impact of AI on data teams and business strategies, data observability on unstructured data, and more.

In this episode, I rant and speculate about why small teams and companies are the future, AI native data architectures, why the future is awesome, and more.

This episode is brought to you by Keboola. Check out their new MCP server at https://www.keboola.com/mcp

Regular guest Gordon Wong joins me to chat about the impact of AI on attention and expertise, product management, and much more.

Zhamak Dehghani (creator of Data Mesh, CEO of NextData) joins me to chat about what she thinks is next in data - autonomous data products, decentralized data and AI, and much more.

Zhamak is one of the people I most respect in our industry. She's a once-in-a generation phenomenon who will change the trajectory of our industry.

Matthew Scullion (CEO, Co-Founder of Matillion) joins me to chat about the future of data engineering, namely agentic data engineering teams.

What does this new world look like? Matthew shares some ideas of what he's building at Matillion, and the broader context of what agentic AI means for the data ecosystem, teams, and workflows.

Gaëlle Seret is a data leader based in France. We chat about how she helps large organizations drive change, especially around data architecture and strategy. We dig into her approach to upskilling teams, why data strategy matters, and how to work through the inevitable organizational challenges that come with transformation. We also discuss the AI in learning and work, and some interesting differences in education between USA and France. Enjoy! 🇫🇷

Last week I posted about the gulf in the data industry between people in favor and opposed AI. The data industry has an atrocious track record of success over the decades. Shall we keep repeating the same mistakes with AI?

I think AI denialism is holding back and AI has the potential to help us correct a lot of the sins of the past, namely quick delivery of value. Whether we get there is another question...

Thanks to dbt, GoodData, and Ellie.ai for sponsoring this podcast.

dbt: https://www.getdbt.com GoodData: https://www.gooddata.com Ellie.ai: https://www.ellie.ai

Ryan Russon is an ML Engineer. He stopped by my house for a practical and grounded chat about ML and AI. Enjoy!

Join dbt Labs May 28 for the dbt Launch Showcase to hear from executives and product leaders about the latest features landing in dbt. See firsthand how features will empower data practitioners and organizations in the age of AI. Thanks to dat Labs for sponsoring this episode.

Some people speculate that AI will make software and data engineers obsolete. If the only thing engineers do is write code, sure.

But we do a lot more than that, and I believe we'll actually need more engineers, not fewer.

In this episode, I discuss how I think AI will change the craft of software and data engineering. Spoiler - I think it will make it way more fun and productive.

Thanks to dbt and GoodData for sponsoring this episode. Please support them, as they're awesome.

dbt Launch Showcase Join dbt Labs May 28 for the dbt Launch Showcase to hear from executives and product leaders about the latest features landing in dbt. See firsthand how features will empower data practitioners and organizations in the age of AI.

GoodData Webinar Analytics and data engineering used to live in separate worlds—different teams, different tools, different goals. But the lines are blurring fast. As modern data products demand speed, scale, and seamless integration, the best teams are embracing engineering principles and best practices. In this no-BS conversation, Ryan Dolley, Matt Housley, and Joe Reis, dive into how engineering principles are transforming the way analytics is built, delivered, and scaled. 📆 May 27, 2025🕘 9:00 AM PDT, 12:00 PM EDT, 6:00 PM CEST🔗 Register here!

Dia Adams and Gordon Wong join me for a chat about data strategy in the age of AI.

Sarah McKenna joins me to chat about all things web scraping. We discuss its applications, the evolution of alternative data, and AI's impact on the industry. We also discuss privacy concerns, the challenges of bot blocking, and the importance of data quality. Sarah shares ideas on how to get started with web scraping and the ethical considerations surrounding copyright and data collection.

I recently overheard someone say, "I Don't Need to Learn Anything Anymore" because AI would do all of this person's work. This got me thinking about the future of learning, human expertise and depth, and more.

Juan Sequeda and Jesus Barrasa are among the top experts on graphs in the world. In this episode, we chat about the definitions of semantics, ontologies, and the differences between RDF and property graphs, etc. We also talk about how AI is giving graphs a new surge of interest.

Just wrapped up a whirlwind tour, giving a workshop in Atlanta and then attending Google Cloud Next. B2b nonstop action, and I'm glad to home for a bit.

While at Next, I had a conversation with another tech old timer friend. We talked about how much we're having using AI as a coding assistant. I'm having fun coming up with wild stuff and seeing if it's possible to build with code. AI's made coding fun again!

📈 This episode is brought to you by GoodData. Design and deploy custom data applications and integrate AI-assisted analytics capabilities wherever your users need them.

For more information, visit https://www.gooddata.com

Juhani Vanhatapio lives in Finland at the Arctic Circle and is studying data engineering and machine learning. Juhani shares stories about life in the Arctic, the challenges and fun of guiding tours to see the Northern Lights, his AI Assistant for Northern Lights tourism, and his journey into the tech field during the COVID pandemic. This is definitely a very interesting and left-field conversation you'll enjoy.

Vin Vashishta and I chat about the current state of AI in business, the challenges of implementation, the pervasive hype surrounding AI technologies, influencers, and more.