Topic
15 facts from 1 episode, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
Undated
Alexandra Samuel has built multiple AI assistants, including ones for marketing copy and as a strategy sounding board.
“She herself has built multiple assistants to do everything from writing marketing copy that's really good for use as a strategy sounding board.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel says the major AI platforms offer ready-made assistant builders that need no coding.
“All of these big AI platforms have these turnkey assistants that require no coding. If you can type, you can make an assistant”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel suggests choosing an assistant's background files by asking what you would give a new human hire.
“imagine if you were hiring somebody to work with you in this capacity instead of using an AI. What files would you give that person to help them get up and running?”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel says AI sycophancy is a well-researched problem in which AIs, trained to be of service, tell users what they want to hear.
“there is a very well established and well researched problem now, what's called AI sycophancy, which is that AIs are so deeply trained to be of service that they are quite obsequious by nature”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel gives a sample prompt asking an AI to act as a supply chain expert and list ten reasons a strategy is a terrible idea.
“I want you to be the world's leading expert on supply chain logistics. And I want you to tell me ten reasons that my current strategy is a terrible idea”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel says she asks for peer-reviewed sources with at least ten citations from the past ten years to get trustworthy evidence from AI.
“I want peer-reviewed sources that have ten or more citations and have been published in the past ten years from these fields.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel says some paid ChatGPT subscriptions still use users' conversation transcripts as training data.
“even some of the paid subscriptions to ChatGPT still turn your transcripts into training data.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel pays for ChatGPT's team edition, which requires only two seats and by default keeps conversations out of training data.
“I pay for the team edition of ChatGPT because when you have the team edition, which only requires you to pay for two seats, then your conversations stay out of training data by default.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel argues that AI confidentiality is no worse than that of other cloud services, since information is only as secure as the weakest one.
“your information is only as secure as the security practices of your sloppiest cloud service.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel built a custom AI in ten minutes to help her son learn to drive, with the car's manual as a background file.
“I have a custom AI that I created in ten minutes to help my son learn to drive, and it has the manual for our new car as a background file.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel says AI assistants complete tasks without distraction, complaint or forgetting, which can make her more impatient with human colleagues.
“if I give a task to the AI, it does the task, it doesn't get distracted, it doesn't complain, it doesn't forget.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel describes MCP as an emerging standard protocol that lets external resources be plugged into an AI.
“the development of a new protocol that's sort of emerging as a standard in the AI world that lets you plug external resources into an AI.”
Undated
Alexandra Samuel set up a connector letting Claude on her computer read a folder holding her past conversations with her custom assistant.
“I set up essentially a connector that lets Claude on my computer connect to a folder full of files on my computer.”
Undated
Viv, Alexandra Samuel's AI coach, said executives unwilling to share real context or be challenged should skip an AI assistant.
“if they're not willing to share real context or be challenged, skip the assistant, hire a parrot.”
Undated
Viv, Alexandra Samuel's AI coach, warned users not to mistake an AI's fluent language for actual wisdom.
“don't mistake your AI's fluency for actual wisdom. It knows your patterns, not your soul.”
Episodes