You Teach The Machines

Hot takes on life and work with AI from today's students and recent graduates: the first AI native generation. Read our book Your Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms: preorder on Amazon for June 26!

Editorial: OpenAI Fails Its Ask Jeeves Moment 10/21/2025

Editorial: OpenAI Fails Its Ask Jeeves Moment Oh Sam. Ask Jeeves established precedent for the search industry that monetizing porn is bad for people and for business. OpenAI and its Microsoft godfather seems intent on doing the opposite. Will Google and Amazon read the room* and ask What Would Jeeves Do? When I worked at Ask Jeeves in 2000 there was a debate. We were valued at $12B but nowhere near breaking even. Should Jeeves be a butler for porn? Eric our internet architect sat on the traffic control council for the internet (W3C) and reported that the bulk of the packets flying through this early system of tubes carried porn pixels. As one voice in my favorite group chat put it "...any user experience optimized to the n-th degree will be porn." Barely ten years in it was clear that porn drove the internet. So the question was, would Ask Jeeves set the precedent that porn drove search? The license for the character from the PJ Wodehouse family was silent on porn, but in early conversations, the family made it known they didn’t want to see beloved Jeeves selling flesh. But. Sooooo muuuucchhhh moneeyyyyyy. The answer? A pot smoke-filled back room. A remarkably sexually diverse (for 2000) crew of human supervisors of the core NLP engine "secretly" took over a conference room to teach an offline version of Jeeves about the dark side of human sexuality. They called themselves the "Jeeviants." In true Bay Area form, the Jeeviants immediately decorated Jeeves' Walled Garden with inflatable sex dolls, wall displays of dildos, and a giant inflatable vagina. All supervised by a cardboard cutout of Jeeves dressed to the nines in S&M leather. I was allowed in as part of a conversation on how to approach continuous learning from user data, though we didn't have those words back then. The goal was a completely separate search site where you and your firewall knew porn was on the menu. Thankfully Porn Jeeves was shut down by leadership and the Wodehouses. Everyone recognized and accepted this was a bad short-term financial decision. The "usage-maxxing" and revenue projections were astronomical. But Jeeves had become a go-to safe space for school teachers and parents to teach children about the newfangled World Wide Web. A safe brand for decades-old businesses to dip brick-and-mortar toes into the eCommerce waters. So it was a bad business decision. The twenty-something clown in me? Disappointed because there were ah-mazing illustrations of Jeeves done up in leather chaps holding a riding crop ready for go live. And that was HILARIOUS! The father or three in me? So, so grateful. Google took off a couple years later and followed Jeeves' example that porn was a third rail. A hot stove. The search industry took its sweet time figuring out how to put porn in a back room, like the video stores at the time did with VHS tapes. Microsoft calls the shots at OpenAI now. Microsoft CEO Mr. Nadela's deft political moves hung Sam Altman from puppet strings, meaning it's Sam who announces Artificial Porn Intelligence (API?). Microsoft reportedly gets 75% of ChatGPT's profits until its $13 billion investment is recouped. After which their take drops to only 49%. Altman sells porn and godfather Nadela gets the envelopes full of money. But I'm not boycotting Word and Teams like I am ChatGPT. Smart. I had the first AI Talk with my teenage son about his education last Spring. ("look, I know you're going to use it. I'm not trying to stop you. I just want you to make good decisions.") Looks like I have to have another one. /s Thanks Mr. Nadela /s. Can we get some feminist CEOs please? Jeff Pennington is author of You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms, available online where you get books. Please consider connecting with other humans by ordering to your local book store through . /episode/index/show/4479687b-ddf4-48af-8397-6a2f83aa314a/id/38725350

Editorial: OpenAI Fails Its Ask Jeeves Moment 10/21/2025

Paul Berger Gives MJ Hope 10/16/2025

Cincinnati Children's - Philip Hagedorn, MD 07/22/2025

Book 06/30/2025

Book Hi, Here's how you can get You Teach The Machines... The Library... visit one of the libraries listed below or ask your local library to consider ordering from the distributor (IngramSpark) so you and others can read it. eBook ISBN is 979-8-9988-152-2-5, hardcover is 979-8-9988152-1-8, paperback is 979-8-9988152-0-1. You may also email me at and I'd be happy to donate a copy directly to your library. Local Business... visit one of the bookstores listed below or and pick up from your friendly bookseller. Bookshop.org shares profits with physical stores, like a co-op. If you're going to the bookstore anyway, ask your bookseller to order from the distributor. Give them the ISBN, same as above. Both support a connected community of real, intelligent people. Also available online: from Amazon in through for delivery or store pickup. direct from IngramSpark in and Libraries with You Teach the Machines as of 8/14/2025... California: Under consideration at Belvedere Tiburon and Mill Valley Maine: Stewart/North Anson; Somesville Library Association, Southwest Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Jesup/Bar Harbor, Waterville, Madison, and by request at 60 libraries via the Minerva system. New York: Thousand Island Park and the North Country Library System Pennsylvania: Bala Cynwyd and the Lower Merion Library System Bookstores with You Teach the Machines as of 8/14/2025... California: City Lights, Book Passage (Maybe. it's on the book buyer's desk in nSF and Corte Madera) Maine: Hidden Barn Bar Harbor, Sherman's Maine Coast Books (in stock at all ten locations) Thanks for trusting me with your purchase and especially time you spend reading! --Jeff Pennington, Philadelphia, PA. USA. P.S. Please give it to me straight in a review on GoodReads or Amazon! Ranking AI likes reviews of any kind... *ISBN is the unique identifier the industry uses to keep track of books. It's like a barcode. Which the book comes with in case the bookstore asks. --------- Jeff Pennington has worked for more than twenty-five years in data, data science, and artificial intelligence. Most recently as Chief Research Informatics Officer for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He has authored or co-authored more than twenty peer-reviewed papers in the fields of biomedical informatics and data privacy. Jeff started his career at Ask Jeeves, the first major commercial natural language search engine. Most recently, Jeff led data and artificial intelligence for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute where he worked for seventeen years before writing his first book. He now helps leading healthcare systems get ready for AI. Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Trinity College and a master’s degree in computer science from Drexel University. You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms AI on your terms. Not theirs. You Teach the Machines helps people of all backgrounds understand, live with, and use artificial intelligence. Told through real examples drawn from finance, cooking, technology, marketing, health, music, driving, and more, You Teach the Machines will help you maximize benefit and minimize harm from the AI-driven change already happening in your life. Find out what AI has to do with data privacy, the movie Trading Places, painter Bob Ross's Happy Little Clouds, the growth of the nuclear power industry, and your child or grandchild's classroom. Did you know that AI learns much like a baby? Understand the AI training cycle and how you participate in it-whether you realize it or not, you literally teach the machines. Did you know that AI can scale the expertise of specialized doctors? Discover how AI can enhance your health and provide rural residents with new access to medical care. Does this all feel new? Learn how we've been here before: From the invention of the written and printed word to ChatGPT, You Teach the Machines shows how writing and books have transformed the use of human knowledge, just as AI is doing now. Historical anecdotes help to demystify and put powerful new artificial intelligence technology in a historical context relevant to your life and work today. Completely new to AI? Helpful hands-on exercises walk you through what AI is good at—and where it is still a work-in-progress. Gain actionable insight into the pitfalls and side effects of a new industrial revolution in human knowledge work. Most importantly, You Teach the Machines lays out a path to improve your work and life with artificial intelligence. On your terms. /episode/index/show/4479687b-ddf4-48af-8397-6a2f83aa314a/id/37220400

How To Get You Teach The Machines: AI On Your Terms 06/17/2025

How To Get You Teach The Machines: AI On Your Terms Hi, Jeff here! Here's how you can get You Teach The Machines... Best for humanity: ask your local library to order from the distributor (IngramSpark) so you and others can read it. Give them the ISBN*. Hardcover ISBN is 979-8-9988152-1-8, paperback ISBN is 979-8-9988152-0-1. Best for your community: ask your local book store to order from the distributor. Give them the ISBN. Paperback ISBN is 979-8-9988152-0-1. You pay $16, bookstore makes $8.50, I get $2.40. Hardcover ISBN is 979-8-9988152-1-8. You pay $24, bookstore gets $12, I get $2.01. Best for my bank account: Buy direct from IngramSpark. Paperback is $16, I make $7.82; Hardcover is $24, I make $12.07. Ok, fine... Best for Jeff Bezos: That space station ain't gonna pay for itself! I know, it's the easiest for you, just kidding :-) I make a few cents more than I do from bookstores or libraries and 70% on your Kindle purchase. Thanks for trusting me with your purchase! With Gratitude, --Jeff Pennington, Philadelphia, PA. USA. PS Please give it to me straight in a review on GoodReads or Amazon! The ranking AI likes reviews even if they're bad... It also likes pictures of faces so... *ISBN is the unique identifier the industry uses to keep track of books. It's like a barcode. Which my book comes with in case the bookstore asks :-) I wrote You Teach the Machines to be an entertaining roadmap, manual and sometimes antidote to AI-driven change. The book helps articulate the fear and optimism experienced by you, me, our kids, their teachers, and our parents. You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms AI on your terms. Not theirs. You Teach the Machines helps people of all backgrounds understand, live with, and use artificial intelligence. Told through real examples drawn from finance, cooking, technology, marketing, health, music, driving, and more, You Teach the Machines will help you maximize benefit and minimize harm from the AI-driven change already happening in your life. Find out what AI has to do with data privacy, the movie Trading Places, painter Bob Ross's Happy Little Clouds, the growth of the nuclear power industry, and your child or grandchild's classroom. Did you know that AI learns much like a baby? Understand the AI training cycle and how you participate in it-whether you realize it or not, you literally teach the machines. Did you know that AI can scale the expertise of specialized doctors? Discover how AI can enhance your health and provide rural residents with new access to medical care. Does this all feel new? Learn how we've been here before: From the invention of the written and printed word to ChatGPT, You Teach the Machines shows how writing and books have transformed the use of human knowledge, just as AI is doing now. Historical anecdotes help to demystify and put powerful new artificial intelligence technology in a historical context relevant to your life and work today. Completely new to AI? Helpful hands-on exercises walk you through what AI is good at—and where it is still a work-in-progress. Gain actionable insight into the pitfalls and side effects of a new industrial revolution in human knowledge work. Most importantly, You Teach the Machines lays out a path to improve your work and life with artificial intelligence. On your terms. /episode/index/show/4479687b-ddf4-48af-8397-6a2f83aa314a/id/37045600

Pablo Urdiales Antelo - Journalism at Swansea 06/05/2025

Jack - CS at CalPoly 05/30/2025

Serena - AI, Privacy and Public Health 04/27/2025

Alexa - French, and Sarah - Econ at Colby 03/21/2025

Oscar - ME at Northeastern 03/11/2025

Lucy - Psych at Colby 03/10/2025

You Teach The Machines

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