Prompting Curiosity – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode is about giving you a clear, simple definition of a word that gets thrown around constantly: AI. You’re hearing it in every commercial, on every app, and in every new feature rollout. But what is it, really? I share a plain-language definition — “software that can guess” — contrast everyday examples of AI with simple automation, and give quick context on where the term came from, how regulating agencies define it, what is meant by “agents” and “AGI”, and how close we realistically are to what Terminator predicted. (Spoiler, not close at all.)

• Creating informed consumers
• “AI is…” exercise
• A colloquial, plain-language definition for AI
• Things That Are AI vs Things That Are NOT AI
• AI as a kitchen sink marketing term
• AI origin story: John McCarthy + the Dartmouth proposal
• Official definitions from OECD and NIST
• Understanding autonomy and “AI agents”
• The forecast on AGI: artificial general intelligence
• How I used ChatGPT this week: bulkhead light and bulb hunt

• Listen to Ep 1: Everything You Actually Need to Know About ChatGPT
• Listen to Ep 4: Overhyped or Underestimated: Is ChatGPT Coming for Your Job?
• Read the proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence
• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter: The Curious Companion
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - What Is AI?
• (00:03:57) - What is the Definition of AI?
• (00:06:58) - A Taste of AI in 2017
• (00:11:54) - Not AI: What Is It?
• (00:16:53) - AI Agents and the Oxford Dictionary
• (00:23:47) - AI Is Math, Not Scary
• (00:27:49) - Putting a new light bulb in my yard on Chat GPT
• (00:30:26) - Curious About ChatGPT

In this episode I give an introduction to using ChatGPT for content creation with a focus on practical strategies for repurposing your own work. You’ll hear about reverse prompting, using Projects to save instructions, and how to keep your taste and voice at the center of what you create.

• Recent ChatGPT outages and possible reasons
• Experimenting with Gemini and Google’s AI summary tool
• Viewing everything as content
• When using ChatGPT for content creation makes sense
• Suggested steps for creating content
• Picking a format, repurposing content, and reverse prompting
• Utilizing the ‘Projects’ feature
• Recent ChatGPT use: German translator

• Listen to ep. 1: What You Actually Need to Know About ChatGPT
• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter: The Curious Companion
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - ChatGPT: Introduction to Content Creation
• (00:02:08) - ChatGPT Outage: Are You a Free User or a
• (00:05:05) - ChatGPT Outage: How It Will Disrupt Search
• (00:08:30) - Using ChatGPT for Content Creation
• (00:11:07) - How to Use ChatGPT to Create Social Media Content
• (00:14:33) - How to create social media content in 3 Steps
• (00:17:13) - Introduction to Projects in ChatGPT
• (00:22:14) - Curious Companion: Leaving a Review

In this episode, I dig into whether you can trust ChatGPT, and what that question reveals about trust in general. From model changes and user backlash to the three pillars of trust (benevolence, integrity, competency), I share why double-checking is anon-negotiable and how personal responsibility plays into using AI. We talk about media incentives, misinformation, and why “important” is a slippery, subjective word when it comes to verifying the answers that ChatGPT gives you.

• User reactions and model changes after GPT-5 rollout
• ChatGPT as an assistant for known answers
• What “hallucination” actually mean
• The importance of verifying information
• Trust and misinformation online
• Social media’s role in shaping belief
• Media incentives for clicks over accuracy
• The foundations and four components of expertise
• The three components of trust
• Applying the trust framework to ChatGPT
• Where personal responsibility fits in
• Recent ChatGPT use: Suggestion mode and sentence checks

• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter: The Curious Companion
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - Chat GPT: Can You Trust GPT 5?
• (00:04:26) - Can You Trust ChatGPT?
• (00:10:27) - Can I Trust ChatGPT?
• (00:11:54) - Can We Trust? The Components of Expertise
• (00:14:12) - Three Components to Building Trust
• (00:18:27) - How to Use a Suggestion in Chat Gbt
• (00:20:00) - Curious Podcast: The Curious Companion

So… is ChatGPT actually coming for your job? In this episode, I walk you through the GPT-5 release, what’s new, what’s noise, and why I think most folks won’t even notice a difference. We’ll talk about how AI is being used at work, why the headlines can be misleading, where the tech still falls short, and why job-loss predictions are far from straightforward.

• Key GPT-5 updates for users
• OpenAI’s “phD-level intelligence” claim
• New email and calendar integration
• Benchmark testing and hallucination improvements
• AI hype vs. real job impact
• Media narratives around AI job loss
• Microsoft study on AI and job tasks
• Defining “agents”, “agentic”, an “AGI”
• Summary of ChatGPT’s potential and limits
• Advice for AI-proofing your job
• How I used ChatGPT to create the podcast intro music

• OpenAI’s GPT-5 Announcement (article)
• OpenAI’s GPT-5 Announcement (YouTube Video)
• Microsoft Article
• Suno AI Music Generator Affiliate Link
• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter: The Curious Companion
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - The Curious Companion
• (00:02:23) - Chat GPT 5: What You'll Notice
• (00:08:32) - Is AI Coming for Your Job?
• (00:10:38) - Does AI Threaten Your Job?
• (00:16:44) - AI Agents, AGI and ChatGPT
• (00:23:10) - GPT: Future Proofing Your Workforce
• (00:23:59) - How I Use ChatGPT to Generate Music For My Podcast
• (00:25:26) - Curious Planet

In this episode of ChatGPT Curious, I lay the groundwork for understanding what ChatGPT actually is, without getting too lost in the weeds. I break down key terms like LLM and parameters, explain how the model was trained (hint: lots of math), why it sometimes spits out wrong info, and what all of this means for how you use it. I also touch on the environmental cost, what the free vs. paid versions can actually do, and how to think critically about its outputs. If you've ever felt a little confused, a little curious, or both, this one's for you.

• Why it’s worth understanding the foundation of ChatGPT
• What is ChatGPT?
• Brief history of OpenAI and the development of GPT
• What GPT actually stands for and what changed with each version
• What “parameters” are and how they shape the model’s responses
• How language is turned into numbers via tokens
• What happens during training
• Human involvement in model training via RLHF (reinforcement learning with human feedback)
• Probabilistic vs deterministic systems and what that means for output accuracy
• The environmental cost of “compute” and an analogy for mindful use
• What the free version can do (and can’t), including search, uploads, and voice
• What the paid version offers
• What ChatGPT is not
• What to watch out for
• Real-life use case: Trying to fix a bike derailleur using ChatGPT

• Try the Tokenizer
• Try out the Free version of ChatGPT
• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - What Is ChatGPT?
• (00:02:47) - ChatGPT
• (00:04:32) - parameters of OpenAI's LLMs
• (00:06:11) - Laplike 2.8
• (00:13:31) - ChatGPT and the Probability of Outputs
• (00:19:22) - ChatGPT: Algorithms That Predict the Next Word
• (00:21:39) - ChatGPT: Probabilistic Models (
• (00:28:28) - ChatGPT: What Can ChatGPT Do?
• (00:31:00) - What to Watch Out For With ChatGPT
• (00:36:13) - A Brief History of Chat GPT

In this episode I dig into the environmental impact of using ChatGPT: energy use, water consumption, and carbon emissions. I walk through the research, acknowledge the risk of whataboutism, and explain why comparisons to other systems matter when we're talking about true impact. Adopting a both/and approach, this episode is absolutely not about letting ChatGPT off the hook, it’s about putting things in perspective so we can take action on what will actually move the needle.

• Why this is episode 2 and why the topic matters
• Ramit Sethi’s $30K vs $3-question analogy
• The math behind ChatGPT’s energy use
• The origin (and problems) with the “3Wh per query” stat
• What .3Wh per query actually looks like in real-world use
• The difference between inference and training impact
• How ChatGPT kicked off the AI arms race
• Where most AI energy actually goes (spoiler, it's not ChatGPT)
• The hidden energy behind everything else we use
• How water usage is measured across three scopes
• ChatGPT’s water use vs typical U.S. electricity and food systems
• Why carbon emissions highlight the need for more transparency
• The repeating citations problem in media coverage
• What actually makes the biggest environmental difference
• Concerns about future energy use from agentic models
• Why transparency from companies matters
• This episode as a call for participatory awareness, not panic

• Check out the full environmental impact resources list on my website 
• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious: The Files in the Computer
• (00:00:55) - ChatGPT & the Environment
• (00:04:12) - Sam Altman's Cheat Code for ChatGPT
• (00:05:29) - How a Google Search Uses 10 Times More Energy than a Standard Search
• (00:14:05) - ChatGPT Uses 3 Watt Hours of Energy
• (00:20:57) - Netflix's 150 Million Daily Users
• (00:21:39) - The Impact of Inference on the Environment
• (00:26:25) - Energy and Water Footprint
• (00:30:21) - How Much Water Does ChatGPT Actually Use?
• (00:36:46) - How AI Could Use More Water Than Us!
• (00:42:50) - The Biggest Dial Mover
• (00:44:01) - Carbon and Energy
• (00:46:30) - Searching for Literature in the Dark
• (00:49:44) - Don't Waste Your Energy on ChatGPT
• (00:53:01) - A Short Episodes on the Environment
• (00:54:14) - How I Use ChatGPT
• (00:56:27) - ChatGPT's Impact on the Environment

In this episode I answer the question “Is ChatGPT killing creativity?” with a resounding no, and then unpack why I think that question even exists in the first place. I talk about what people are really reacting to, how our systems reward speed over depth, and why I see ChatGPT not as the problem, but as a mirror. We also take a detour into college, capitalism, and Cabo.

• Why ChatGPT isn’t killing creativity
• What “bullish” means and why I’m actually excited about
• The Great AI Reckoning: asking what really matters
• Covid as the spark for questioning value systems
• People using AI for things they don’t care about
• Rejecting the idea of laziness
• Systemic rewards for speed and flash over depth
• The failures of traditional education
• Critique of extractive capitalism
• ChatGPT as a tool to support life
• Real-life use case: chargeback script for Cabo resort

• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous?  Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - Is CHAT GPT Killing Creativity?
• (00:01:38) - Is ChatGPT killing creativity now?
• (00:03:33) - ChatGPT: Is It Killing Creativity?
• (00:04:43) - The Great AI Reckonance
• (00:08:11) - How to Talk to Students About the Environment
• (00:10:52) - Does ChatGPT Kill Creativity?
• (00:14:12) - How I Use ChatGPT

Welcome to the trailer episode of Prompting Curiosity! In this episode I lay out why I created the show, what kind of topics I’ll be exploring, and how I hope it supports your curiosity. From basic terms to big-picture questions, the goal is to make AI more useful, less overwhelming, and maybe even a little fun.

• Why I started this podcast
• Deep dive into ChatGPT since 2022
• What this show will cover
• Terms like LLM, AGI, and parameters
• Two major AI camps
• Let’s have some nuance
• My background and tech tenacity
• Health and fitness roots
• Who this show is for
• New episodes and newsletter info

• Join the Newsletter
• Check out Curious Finds
• Head to the website

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - ChatGPT: Curious
• (00:02:48) - ChatGPT Curious: How AI Can Help You (

For the love, please stop using AI to write your copy. We can all tell. In this episode I call out the 8 most obvious AI writing patterns, and provide specific names for those specific styles that are just so characteristically robotic. From em dashes and antithesis structures to hollow opens and metronomic cadence, I break down why these patterns appear, why AI defaults to them, and why the best solution is usually just writing it yourself.

• Why I'm naming these patterns
• Antithesis structure ("It's not X, it's Y")
• Em dashes
• Parallel structure overload
• Metronomic cadence
• The illusion of consideration
• Adjective stacking
• No risky sentences
• Hollow opens and tidy closes
• Why AI writes like this
• What you can do about it
• How I used Claude this week: Learning front-end web development

• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter: The Curious Companion
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous? Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - 8 AI Writing Patterns That Are Dead Digits
• (00:02:26) - 8 AI Writing Patterns That Are Dead Agents
• (00:03:02) - 7 Signs That AI Writing Is Stupid
• (00:07:30) - AI's Hollow Openings and Tidy Closes
• (00:09:46) - Why Does AI Write Like This?
• (00:13:51) - The 8 Telltale AI Writing Patterns
• (00:16:14) - How I Used AI to Develop a Website this Week

In this episode I share my personal experience of what it's actually been like to ditch ChatGPT and go all-in on Claude. This episode covers the real differences between the two platforms: what Claude does better, where it falls short, and why the switch probably isn't as big a deal as some people are making it out to be.

• Anthropic refusing government demands
• The Threads chatter about switching and why it's overblown
• Claude's lack of a native image generator
• Claude's usage limits
• Custom GPTs (or the lack thereof)
• Claude's reliability
• Memory differences
• Voice mode
• Personality and sycophancy compared to ChatGPT
• Using Claude to write a Google Apps Script for Acuity scheduling
• Recent Claude use: vibe coding a free Zapier replacement for Acuity 

• Listen to Ep. 30: Switching Between ChatGPT, Claude, and Other LLMs without Starting From Scratch
• Listen to Ep. 11: WTF is a Custom GPT? 
• Subscribe to the ChatGPT Curious Newsletter: The Curious Companion
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous? Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:00) - ChatGPT Curious
• (00:00:38) - Cloud vs ChatGPT
• (00:03:02) - Claude vs Chat GPT
• (00:05:05) - Claude vs. Cloud: The Differences
• (00:09:56) - Claude vs. Chat: 6 Differences
• (00:14:52) - How I Used Google Apps Script this Week