Data, AI, and the Human Touch: Michael Washington on Building Trustworthy Applications

Strategic Technology Consultation Services

This episode of The Modern .NET Show is supported, in part, by RJJ Software's Strategic Technology Consultation Services. If you're an SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) leader wondering why your technology investments aren't delivering, or you're facing critical decisions about AI, modernization, or team productivity, let's talk.

Show Notes

"What do I mean by compute? Compute is whenever you want a computer to do a thing, okay, it requires the CPU to exist and I want the CPU to do a thing. How well it can do it Is based upon what kind of CPU you have. What kind of CPU they have since have it in miniature chip. So, if you have an NVIDIA chip, it does a lot of really good things, but as we know, they're very expensive, and that's why NVIDIA is like what, I guess, the largest company in the world right now."— Michael Washington

Hey everyone, and welcome back to The Modern .NET Show; the premier .NET podcast, focusing entirely on the knowledge, tools, and frameworks that all .NET developers should have in their toolbox. I'm your host Jamie Taylor, bringing you conversations with the brightest minds in the .NET ecosystem.

Today, Michael Washington joined us to talk about his open source project "Personal Data Warehouse", what a data warehouse is, and the why we collect data in our applications. We also talk about the differences between storing data in the database and storing it in a data warehouse—one of the biggest differences, as you'll find out, is the difference in cost.

"The only reason why we collect any data is because at some point a human being needs this data to make a decision. Seriously, and I challenge anyone to come up with any exceptions to that."— Michael Washington

Along the way, we talked about the benefits and pitfalls of leveraging AI (particularly LLMs) in your applications. Both Michael and I agree that there is little "intelligence" in LLMs in the traditional sense, and Michael brings up the most important point when deciding to an LLM in your application: that a human must always make decisions based on what data they have and what the LLM can provide. We must never hand over decision making to LLMs.

Before we jump in, a quick reminder: if The Modern .NET Show has become part of your learning journey, please consider supporting us through Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee. Every contribution helps us continue bringing you these in-depth conversations with industry experts. You'll find all the links in the show notes.

Anyway, without further ado, let's sit back, open up a terminal, type in `dotnet new podcast` and we'll dive into the core of Modern .NET.

Full Show Notes

The full show notes, including links to some of the things we discussed and a full transcription of this episode, can be found at: https://dotnetcore.show/season-8/data-ai-and-the-human-touch-michael-washington-on-building-trustworthy-applications/

Useful Links:

• Apache Parquet
• Personal Data Warehouse on:
  • Windows App Store
  • GitHub
• Michael on:
  • Find an MVP
  • GitHub
  • Bluesky
  • Blazor Help Website
  • blazordata.net
  • AI Story Builders

Supporting the show:

• Leave a rating or review
• Buy the show a coffee
• Become a patron

Getting in Touch:

• Via the contact page
• Joining the Discord

Remember to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or wherever you find your podcasts, this will help the show's audience grow. Or you can just share the show with a friend.

And don't forget to reach out via our Contact page. We're very interested in your opinion of the show, so please get in touch.

You can support the show by making a monthly donation on the show's Patreon page at: https://www.patreon.com/TheDotNetCorePodcast.

Music created by Mono Memory Music, licensed to RJJ Software for use in The Modern .NET Show.

Editing and post-production services for this episode were provided by MB Podcast Services.