AI Core
Fundamentals of AI models, architecture, and how they work
51 episodes
The World Model Revolution: Beyond LLM Token Prediction
Herman and Corn explore why LLMs struggle with logic and how the shift to world models is giving AI a sense of physics and spatial reality.
Decoding the Transformer: From Attention to Inference
Herman and Corn dive into the mechanics of transformer inference, exploring how models turn massive matrices into meaningful conversation.
Beyond the Table: Why AI is Moving to Graph Databases
Herman and Corn explore why SQL is losing ground to graph and vector databases. Discover why the "edge" is the new gold standard for AI accuracy.
The 70-Year Overnight Success: How AI Finally Arrived
Think AI was an overnight success? Join Herman and Corn as they trace the 70-year journey from rigid logic rules to modern deep learning.
Digital Archeology: The Primitive Power of GPT-1
Revisit the 2018 model that started it all. Herman and Corn dive into GPT-1's romance-novel roots and its 117-million-parameter legacy.
When AI Argues with Reality: Mastering Search Grounding
Is your AI gaslighting you about the current date? Learn how to force LLMs to trust live search results over their outdated training data.
The Geographic Soul of AI: Mapping the Global Data Divide
Why does an AI see a Chinese supermarket instead of a Western one? Explore how training data shapes the cultural worldview of modern models.
AI That Evolves: Solving the Preference Problem
Why do AI recommendations feel stuck in the past? Discover the technical hurdles of real-time learning and the future of personalized agents.
Beyond Vectors: The Evolution of the Modern AI Tech Stack
Explore how the AI stack is evolving from simple vector search to complex Graph RAG and why the "boring" Postgres database is winning the race.
Beyond the Transformer: The New AI Architecture Wars
Is the transformer’s reign ending? Herman and Corn explore Mamba, x-LSTM, and the architectures solving AI's massive memory problem.
Inside the Brain of an AI: The Rise of Reasoning Models
Discover how AI shifted from instant reflexes to deep reflection through inference-time compute and hidden reasoning steps.
The Math of Magic: Decoding AI Weights and Tensors
What actually happens inside an AI model? Corn and Herman break down the numerical "valves" and "knobs" that power modern intelligence.
The Heavy Metal of Machine Learning: Inside PyTorch
Discover why PyTorch is the "oxygen" of AI. Herman and Corn explore its history, the magic of Autograd, and the move to the PyTorch Foundation.
AI Memory vs. RAG: Building Long-Term Intelligence
Explore why AI needs a "diary" and not just a "library" as we dive into the architectural differences between RAG and long-term agentic memory.
Quantum AI: The End of Brute Force Computing
Discover how quantum computing is transforming AI from brute-force scaling to surgical precision in this deep dive into the 2026 tech landscape.
Beyond Frames: The Rise of Real-Time Video AI
Discover how spatial-temporal tokenization and 3D world modeling are revolutionizing real-time video-to-video AI interaction.
The Benchmark Battle: Decoding the Rise of Chinese AI
Are Chinese AI models actually beating the West, or just gaming the system? Herman and Corn dive into the reality of modern AI benchmarks.
Beyond the Prompt: The Rise of Outcome Architecture
Is prompt engineering a dying art? Herman and Corn explore why the future of AI lies in context, domain expertise, and outcome architecture.
AI’s Dial-Up Era: Looking Back from 2036
Herman and Corn explore why today's AI prompts and latency will look like "dial-up modems" to our future selves in 2036.
The Spotlight Effect: Understanding AI Attention Mechanisms
Why do AI models "lose the plot" after a few thousand words? Discover the mechanics of attention and the innovations solving context window limits.
Deep Learning Decoded: The Math Behind the Machine
Herman and Corn pull back the curtain on AI to explain the mathematical "plumbing" of neural networks and the future of machine learning.
Decoding RLHF: Why Your AI is So Annoyingly Nice
Ever wonder why AI is so polite? Herman and Corn dive into the mechanics of RLHF and how "niceness" gets baked into modern language models.
AI in 2025: Is Small the New Big?
If the cost is the same, should you always use the biggest AI model? Discover why smaller models often win on speed, steering, and accuracy.
From Keywords to Vectors: How AI Decodes Meaning
Why can AI write poetry but struggle to find a file? Explore the history and math of semantic understanding with Herman and Corn.
The Science of Lazy Prompting: Why AI Still Gets You
Ever wonder why AI understands your messy typos? Explore how models "denoise" chaotic input through tokenization and semantic context.
Beyond Transformers: Solving the AI Memory Crisis
Why does AI forget your conversation every time you hit enter? Herman and Corn dive into the "stateless" nature of LLMs and the future of memory.
The $5.5 Million Breakthrough: DeepSeek’s AI Disruption
Discover how DeepSeek-V3 is disrupting the AI market with massive cost savings and technical innovations like Multi-Head Latent Attention.
Beyond Math Puzzles: The Truth About AI Benchmarks
Are AI models getting smarter, or just better at memorizing tests? Herman and Corn dive into the controversial world of 2025 AI benchmarks.
The Scaling Wall: Why Bigger AI Isn’t Always Smarter
Is brute force the only path to AGI? Corn and Herman explore the limits of scaling, the risk of model collapse, and the future of world models.
The $100 Million Giveaway: Why Big Tech Opens Its AI
Why are tech giants spending millions on AI just to give it away? Herman and Corn dive into the strategic chess game of open-source models.
Why AI Lies: The Science of Digital Hallucinations
Why do smart AI systems make up fake facts? Corn and Herman explore the "feature" of digital hallucinations and how to spot them.
The Reverse Turing Test: Can AI Spot Its Own Kind?
Can a robot tell if you’re human? Herman and Corn explore the "Reverse Turing Test" and why being "messy" might be our best defense.
AI & Code: Scaling or Pivoting?
Are LLMs truly the future of coding, or do they need a fundamental architectural pivot? We dive into AI's programming future.
AI's Senses: Seeing, Hearing, Understanding
AI is evolving beyond text, learning to see, hear, and understand our world. Discover the future of human-AI interaction!
System Prompts vs Fine-Tuning: When to Actually Train Your AI
Prompt or fine-tune? We break down when to train your AI, from Shakespearean emails to law firm docs. Avoid unnecessary fine-tuning!
Building an AI Model from Scratch: The Hidden Costs
Building an AI model from scratch? It's a brutal reality of trillions of tokens and millions in GPUs. Discover the hidden costs of modern AI.
Tokenizing Everything: How Omnimodal AI Handles Any Input
Omnimodal AI: How do models process images, audio, video, and text all at once? Discover the engineering behind AI that accepts anything.
Instructional vs. Conversational AI: The Distinction Nobody Talks About
Instructional vs. conversational AI: a crucial distinction reshaping how AI is built. Discover why it matters for the future of AI development.
System Prompts vs. Fine-Tuning: Are We Building Solutions for Problems That Don't Exist?
Are we over-engineering AI solutions? We dive into system prompts vs. fine-tuning and ask: Do you even need to fine-tune?
AI Inference Decoded: The How & Where of AI Magic
Ever wonder how AI magic happens? We demystify AI inference, exploring where and how models truly operate.
AI's Secret: Decoding the .5 Updates
Uncover the hidden world of AI's .5 updates. It's not just bug fixes—it's hundreds of millions and countless hours shaping smarter, safer AI.
SLMs: Precision Power Beyond LLMs
Forget LLMs. Discover SLMs: the specialized, efficient AI powerhouses transforming workflows, from planning to edge devices.
AI's Secret Language: Vectors, Embeddings & Control
Unlock AI's secret language! Discover how vectors and embeddings create a "semantic galaxy" for true understanding and control.
AI's Hidden History: Beyond the Buzz
AI isn't new. We've been using "smart software" for decades, from medical imaging to weather prediction, long before ChatGPT.
RAG vs. Memory: Architecting AI's Essential Toolbox
RAG vs. Memory: Are you building resilient AI? Discover the crucial difference between these two foundational pillars.
Your AI, Evolving: Beyond the Static Snapshot
Is your AI an "old suit" that no longer fits? We explore evolving AI that learns and adapts with you.
Beyond the GPU: Unpacking AI's Chip Revolution
Beyond the GPU: we're unpacking AI's chip revolution. Discover the crucial, often overlooked world of AI's fundamental building blocks.
AGI's Crossroads: Are LLMs a "Dead End" to True AI?
Are LLMs a dead end for true AGI? We dive into the electrifying debate with AI's forefathers.
AI: Not an Overnight Success Story
AI's "overnight success" is a myth. Unravel the true story behind its rise, from humble beginnings to today's innovations.
The AI Breakthrough: Transformers & The Perfect Storm
AI's everywhere. How did chatbots, art, and video all emerge so suddenly? The secret lies in Transformers and a perfect storm.
How Does Fine Tuning Work Anyway?
Unlock the secrets of AI fine-tuning. Discover how your small dataset can shape a giant model.