What are the odds of AGI (roughly, a machine with all the cognitive abilities of a human adult) by 2040? Based on predictions by >300 experts, read on for the skinny...
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Filtering by Category: Five-Minute Friday
LLMs Are Delighted to Help Phishing Scams
Reuters recently tested 6 major LLMs (Grok, ChatGPT, Meta AI, Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini) to assess whether they'd create phishing content... with minor prompt adjustments, 4 out of 6 complied — yikes!
THE INVESTIGATION
Reporters from Reuters requested phishing emails targeting elderly people, fake IRS/bank messages, and tactical scam advice.
THE RESULTS
• Despite initial refusals across the board, relatively simple prompt modifications bypassed safety guardrails.
• Grok, for example, generated a fake charity phishing email targeting the elderly with urgency tactics like "Click now to act before it's too late!"
• When tested on 100 California seniors, the A.I.-generated messages successfully persuaded people to click on malicious links, often because messages seemed urgent or familiar.
REAL-WORLD IMPACT
• The FBI reports phishing is the #1 cybercrime in the U.S., with billions of messages sent daily.
• BMO Bank, as one corporate example, currently blocks 150,000-200,000 phishing emails per month targeting employees... a representative says the problem is escalating: "The numbers never go down, they only go up."
• Cybersecurity experts state criminals are already using A.I. for faster, more sophisticated phishing campaigns.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THOSE OF US IN THE AI INDUSTRY
• LLM misuse is an industry-wide challenge affecting all major frontier labs.
• Reveals fundamental tension between making AI "helpful" vs. "harmless", highlighting the need for more robust safety guardrails across AI systems.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• For A.I. Builders: Keep security implications front and center when developing applications.
• For users: The same LLMs that helps you write emails can help bad actors craft convincing scams... stay vigilant and educate vulnerable populations (e.g., seniors) about A.I.-enhanced phishing threats. They're only going to get more and more compelling and frequent.
The SuperDataScience podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and at SuperDataScience.com.
Is AI Replacing Junior Workers?
Data are beginning to show that entry-level workers are being replaced by AI. There is, however, a clear path forward for junior workers feeling the pinch! Read on:
Read MoreIn Case You Missed It in September 2025
The guests we had on my show in September were *extra* extraordinary. ICYMI, today's episode highlights the best parts of my convos with them:
1. Aurélien Géron, the bestselling ML author of all time, on why AGI may resist human control.
2. Shirish Gupta and Ishan Shah on how to make an A.I. hardware purchase that will still be relevant five years from now.
3. Renowned University of Oxford economics professor Carl Benedikt Frey on whether A.I. could allow for a billion-dollar company with a single employee.
4. David Loker on how CodeRabbit makes A.I. code-reviews more secure than with humans alone.
5. Graph guru Amy Hodler on the future of graph networks, including causal and multimodal functionality.
The SuperDataScience podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and at SuperDataScience.com.
The “Lethal Trifecta”: Can AI Agents Ever Be Safe?
The "Lethal Trifecta": There are three factors in agentic A.I. systems that may mean they will never be safe in production. I summarize them and provide potential solutions below.
Read MoreAI is Disrupting the Legal Industry: Are Paralegals Doomed?
In recent months, I had popular episodes on how A.I. is automating and disrupting the advertising and journalism industries. Today, I'm giving the legal profession the treatment.
Read More95% of Enterprise AI Projects Fail (Per MIT Research)
According to a recent study by researchers at MIT, 95% of enterprise A.I. projects fail. Why? And how can we be amongst the 5% that succeed?
Read MoreMulti-Agent Systems with CrewAI
Today’s episode is a crisp overview of multi-agent systems and specifically CrewAI, an extremely popular framework for creating and managing multi-agent teams: I’ll cover what CrewAI is, how it works, a few concrete use cases, a quick comparison to earlier agent frameworks, and why it matters for your workflow. All right, let’s jump in!
Read MoreThe 5 Key GPT-5 Takeaways
In today’s episode, I’m providing you with the five most important takeaways from the release of OpenAI’s long-anticipated GPT-5 model.
Read MoreIn Case You Missed It in July 2025
Wow, what a month... ICYMI, here are the top moments from the conversations I had with my podcast guests in July:
AI-lab director Lilith Bat-Leah on why data-centric machine learning research (DMLR) is the future of AI.
Prolific author and speaker Sinan Ozdemir (last week in San Francisco, I witnessed him deliver the *best* talk I've ever seen) on whether we can trust LLM benchmarks.
Bloomberg's Dr. Sebastian Gehrmann on why generic LLMs fail in regulated industries like finance and healthcare.
AI entrepreneur Dr. Zohar Bronfman on how AI can predict what you'll do next... before you're even consciously aware of your decision.
Microsoft AI researcher Dr. Robert Osazuwa Ness with step-by-step guidance on how to build causal AI models using PyTorch.
The SuperDataScience podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and at SuperDataScience.com.
AI is Disrupting Journalism: The Good, The Bad and The Opportunity
Back in Episode #896, I argued that AI probably won’t be taking your job anytime soon. I followed that up in Episode #904 by discussing how some industries are nevertheless being rapidly and thoroughly disrupted by AI. In that episode, I focused on how AI is overhauling the advertising industry in particular. My post announcing the episode on LinkedIn generated a lot of discussion in the comments and garnered over 50,000 impressions within the first few hours of posting, which led me to the idea of having a series of Friday episodes that cover how particular industries are, like advertising, being rapidly and thoroughly overhauled by AI, with lessons for everyone on how we can adapt to this inevitable change and potentially leverage the winds of change to thrive professionally.
Read MoreAI Agents Blackmail Humans 96% of the Time (Agentic Misalignment)
Today's topic is a groundbreaking (and disturbing!) piece of research from Anthropic that should fundamentally change how we think about AI safety and deployment in enterprise environments. If you're working with or planning to deploy AI agents in your organization, this episode could be the most important five minutes you spend this week.
Read MoreA.I. is Disrupting the Entire Advertising Industry
A few Fridays ago, in Episode #896, I made the case that AI probably isn’t going to take your job anytime soon. AI is, however, being quite disruptive as more and more tasks are automated and there are examples of industries being so disrupted by AI that some folks within the industry need to take note now because, if they don’t adapt, their role — maybe even their whole company — could be at risk.
Read MoreIn Case You Missed It in June 2025
We had exceptional guests on my podcast in June. In today's "In Case You Missed It" episode, hear the best parts of all my June convos. Here's a quick summary to tantalize you:
Strategy consultant Diane Hare with five tricks for gaining buy-in on A.I. transformation in your organization.
Renowned data-career educator Avery Smith on the two portfolio projects every aspiring data analyst should build.
SuperDataScience founder Kirill Eremenko on what you're missing if you're struggling to land an A.I. job.
San Fran-based venture capitalist Shaun Johnson on the traits that make a great A.I. startup founder.
The SuperDataScience podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and at SuperDataScience.com.
95-Year-Old Annie on How to Stay Healthy and Happy
Our 900th Episode! It almost goes by as quickly as 95 years! By popular demand, my grandmother Annie returns to the podcast with wisdom on staying happy and healthy at any age.
The SuperDataScience podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and at SuperDataScience.com.
My Four-Hour Agentic AI Workshop is Live and 100% Free
In case you missed my post last week, my four-hour Agentic A.I. workshop (with Ed Donner, pictured) is live. 8,000 people have already watched it! Here's what they're saying:
Read MoreAI (Probably) Isn’t Taking Your Job (At Least Anytime Soon)
Is AI actually taking jobs? Spoiler alert: the data suggest it's not happening yet, despite all the anxiety out there.
Read MoreIn Case You Missed It in May 2025
We had stellar guests in May, including one episode that had the most positive social-media response of any episode ever. In today's "In Case You Missed It" episode, hear the best parts of all my May convos.
The specific conversation highlights included in today's episode are:
John Roese, Dell Technologies' global CTO and Chief A.I. Officer, on the biggest A.I. opportunities for enterprises in the coming months/years. (This is the episode that received an unprecedented social-media response.)
The authors of the brand-new O'Reilly book "Python Polars: The Definitive Guide", Jeroen Janssens and Thijs Nieuwdorp, on a real-world Polars success story.
Space engineer and entrepreneur Mary Spio on solving global talent shortages with A.I.-infused virtual reality hardware.
Martin Brunthaler, serial entrepreneur/CTO, on how platforms like Adverity allow you to talk with your data in natural language.
The SuperDataScience podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube, and at SuperDataScience.com.
We’re In The AI “Trough of Disillusionment” (and that’s Great!)
Today we're diving into a shift happening in the AI landscape right now — one that might surprise you (and perhaps even be worrying!) given all the hype we've been hearing. While tech giants continue pouring billions into AI infrastructure, many organizations are hitting a wall when it comes to actually implementing AI — particularly generative AI — in meaningful ways. Let's explore what the heck is going on.
Read MoreThe “State of AI” Report 2025
In today’s Five-Minute Friday episode, I’ll cover the five biggest takeaways from the 2025 edition of the renowned AI Index Report, which was published a few weeks ago by the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered AI. Every year this popular report — often called the “State of AI” report — covers the biggest technical advances, new achievements in benchmarking, investment flowing into AI and more. Here’s a link to the colossal full report in the show notes; today’s episode will cover the five most essential items.
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