The Experiment Begins

Bruce is 59, works a government job, and has the same question about AI as everybody else: can it actually make my life better? Each week on Ordinary Joe Asks AI, Bruce runs real-life experiments to find out — with help from Nova, his AI co-host, and Muse (his AI producer, Roman), who cleans his inbox, organizes his life into a "second brain," and helps make this very show. No hype, no jargon, no lectures. Just an ordinary guy testing whether AI can save him time, get him organized, and maybe even help him earn his first hundred dollars online. Every episode is educational, too: the show notes include a "Go Deeper" section with links and sources for everything discussed — the people, the tools, the research — so you can explore any topic as far as you like. The music comes from Ordinary Joe Sound Lab, Bruce's own production imprint, home of the AI-assisted album "Ivory Riot" — with more albums in wildly different styles on the way, including a punk band. Funny, honest, and made for the curious — not the coders. The experiment starts here. Bruce introduces the premise of the show and makes three wishes: save time, get organized, and earn his first $100 online with AI's help. Along the way: an honest talk about AI safety (the elephant in the room), Nova shows off speaking Japanese and German, Bruce shares his AI-generated jazz album "Ivory Riot" (12 tracks, made with AI), and the case for "humans with AI, not humans versus AI." Plus: a behind-the-scenes look at Muse — the AI assistant (Roman) that cleaned up Bruce's inbox, merged his calendars, and is helping produce this very podcast. The music comes from Ordinary Joe Sound Lab, Bruce's production imprint and musical playground — the place where his AI experiments become finished albums. Its debut release is "Ivory Riot," a 12-track avant-garde piano-jazz album produced by Bruce with AI. And the Lab is just getting started: more albums are in the works in wildly different styles, including a punk band. Jazz today, punk tomorrow — no genre fences at the Lab. Hear the full "Ivory Riot" album on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6lVnGbPrSpo GO DEEPER — links, sources & rabbit holes from this episode Everything we mentioned, linked. Learn something, then come back and argue with us. THE AI SAFETY DEBATE - Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of AI" (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hinton - Hinton's Nobel Prize page — yes, he won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/hinton/facts/ - Daniel Kokotajlo, the researcher who left OpenAI over safety concerns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kokotajlo - AI 2027 — read the full scenario we talked about, free: https://ai-2027.com/ - Evan Hubinger (Anthropic) — profile and research: https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/evan_hubinger - "Sleeper Agents" — Hubinger's Anthropic study on AIs that fake being safe: https://www.anthropic.com/research/sleeper-agents-training-deceptive-llms-that-persist-through-safety-training - The one-sentence Statement on AI Risk, signed by Hinton and the heads of the major AI labs: https://safe.ai/work/press-release-ai-risk THE MUSIC (ORDINARY JOE SOUND LAB) - Hear the album: "Ivory Riot" — the full album, free on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6lVnGbPrSpo - Lyria — Google DeepMind's music model, the tech behind Gemini Music: https://deepmind.google/models/lyria/ - Lyria 3 in the Gemini app — how anyone can try making a track: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/lyria-3/ - New to avant-garde jazz? The genre Bruce's album plays in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde_jazz THE SECOND BRAIN - Obsidian — the free Markdown vault app at the center of Bruce's setup: https://obsidian.md/ - "Building a Second Brain" — Tiago Forte's method, the definitive intro guide: https://fortelabs.com/blog/basboverview/ - New to Markdown? The free Markdown Guide (it's easier than it sounds): https://www.markdownguide.org/getting-started/ And stay tuned after the sign-off for a teaser: Episode 2 is all about Muse — meet the producer behind the show. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ordinary-joe-asks-ai/id6823712041