May I Learn About AI? Talking to Robots - Episode 2

In celebration of Star Wars Day, Dr. JR and AI linguist Dr. Casey Brightman explore the galaxy of Conversational AI—from voice assistants like Siri and Alexa to advanced chatbots like ChatGPT. Learn how these systems work, what they really understand, and how close we are to talking with robots that "get us."Plus, we dive into some hilarious AI fails, uncover the history of language models, and preview what’s coming next in emotionally intelligent AI. Whether you’re a techie, a Star Wars fan, or just trying to stop your smart speaker from ordering Baby Yoda merch—this episode is for you.📌 What You’ll Learn:What Conversational AI is (and isn’t)How voice assistants interpret your commandsWhy language models don’t actually “understand”The real-life gap between sci-fi robots and today’s AIThe evolution from rule-based bots to deep learning LLMsNew breakthroughs in multimodal AI and emotional speechFunny real-world fails that show AI’s limitsSneak peek into Episode 3: Can AI Be Biased?🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:Google Gemini 1.5Meta’s VoiceboxStanford/MIT AI Research (JAIR, April 2025)Paper: “Attention Is All You Need” (Vaswani et al., 2017)Bender et al. (2021): “Stochastic Parrots” – FAccT Conference📬 Get Involved:💬 Listener Challenge: Send us your funniest, weirdest, or most frustrating voice assistant moments!Follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @AIInnovationsUnleashedFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/aiinnovationsunleashedSubscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcastsJoin the conversation: #MyDailyNate #TalkingToRobots⭐ Subscribe & ShareIf you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, rate, and share it with your fellow rebels, tech fans, and curious minds. New episodes drop every week this May!Next up: 📅 May 12 – Episode 3: “Can AI Be Biased?” We’ll explore AI ethics, fairness, and whether a machine can learn to care.Send us Fan MailSupport the showWant to go deeper than the podcast?Join The Unleashed — the growing AI Innovations Unleashed community for educators, parents, students, leaders, and curious minds navigating the future of AI together. Members get deeper discussions, exclusive insights, behind-the-scenes content, early updates, and a place to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping education and society in real time.AI is moving fast. You don’t have to figure it out alone.Join The Unleashed:https://www.aiinnovationsunleashed.com/become-a-supporter-join-the-unleashed/