Subscribe to Thoughts on Tech & Things — a weekly digest on AI, technology, and what to make of both. Plus every past issue.
Subscribe to Thoughts on Tech & Things — a weekly digest on AI, technology, and what to make of both.
Howdy 👋🏾. For the last few weeks, I’ve had an AI assistant named Zora helping me keep up with work and life. She catches things…
The way Claude Cowork knows you is changing. Let’s start with the basics. Claude, like ChatGPT, has kept a memory of you for a while…
👋🏾 Howdy. One of the bigger pushbacks or worries you hear from Anthropic about open weight models is that they lack safeguards, which can endanger…
Howdy 👋🏾. A few months ago, news broke that Anthropic was phasing out its flat monthly fee for enterprise plans and migrating those customers to metered plans…
Howdy 👋🏾. The most important ingredient in a great AI implementation is context. For the frontier models, that context comes from billions of parameters mined…
Howdy 👋🏾. The way AI models work has changed significantly in the last few years, and with that, you have to change how you interact…
Howdy 👋🏾. Last year, I had a podcast conversation with WAMU’s Jenny Abamu about data centers and the growing angst in Prince George’s and Montgomery…
Howdy 👋🏾Often in my consulting work, I walk into a large business or enterprise and hear how they’re investing tons of money into Snowflake or…
Howdy 👋🏾. It’s my favorite time of year, the Consumer Electronics Show. If you’ve followed me for a while or read the newsletter, you know…
Howdy 👋🏾. It’s been a year. PerryLabs technically started the summer of 2024, but 2025 is when the business really got its sea legs. We brought…
Howdy 👋🏾. This week on the podcast, I’m talking with Dawn Shirey, who’s leading the AI rollout for students and teachers at Baltimore City Public…
Howdy 👋🏾. Hope you’re well and recovered after Thanksgiving. Before we dive in, a quick apology for the erratic schedule these past few weeks. Running…
Howdy 👋🏾. A few months back, I wrote about the shift from SEO to AEO, how Answer Engine Optimization was becoming the new game as people…
Howdy 👋🏾. I hope you enjoyed the pilot and first episode of the new Thoughts on Tech & Things podcast. We’re just getting warmed up and have…
Howdy 👋🏾. This week, I had the pleasure of joining an amazing panel at DC Startup and Tech Week to talk about agentic AI and…
Howdy 👋🏾. Last week, OpenAI held its annual hybrid conference, DevDay. What started as a product keynote has evolved into a full developer showcase, and…
Howdy,I’ve got something exciting to share. I’m partnering with WYPR to launch the Thoughts on Tech & Things podcast. Like this newsletter, the show will…
The best part of our AI Accelerator is seeing the lightbulb moment when clients see just how powerful AI becomes once it’s connected to their…
Howdy 👋🏾. AI’s impact on jobs is finally showing up in the data. A new study from Stanford offers some of the first concrete evidence. As…
Howdy 👋🏾.My non-programmer brother just axed his first SaaS subscription. James texted me after ChatGPT’s latest update dropped. He’d used AI to build a WordPress…
Howdy 👋🏾. Last week, I had the honor of speaking to the Maryland Certified Public Manager cohort at the University of Baltimore. The session focused…
Howdy 👋🏾.Last week, I gave a virtual presentation for Startup Grind Maryland on AI. Instead of pulling out my standard deck, I decided to test-drive…
Howdy 👋🏾. One of my favorite post-WWDC traditions is watching John Gruber’s Talk Show Live. For over a decade, he’s hosted in-depth conversations with Apple…
Howdy 👋🏾. After huge announcements from Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI, it was finally Apple’s turn up to bat, and, well, it was a bit…
Howdy👋🏾. One of the best signs that it’s AI product release season? There’s suddenly no shortage of new tools worth kicking the tires on. With…
Howdy 👋🏾. Reality and possibility couldn’t be more different. Every week, I hear it: “Our AI chatbot sucks.” “Customers hate it.” “Employees will never use…
Howdy 👋🏾. A year ago, I decided to write a book. Not a technical deep dive, not another prompt engineering guide—but a real-world roadmap for…
Howdy 👋🏾. Duolingo made waves this week by telling its team what Shopify already did: every decision must be AI-first. Not AI-assisted. AI-first. They’re going…
Howdy 👋🏾. It’s been a minute, and I appreciate your patience. Things have been busy (in the best way), which meant the newsletter had to…
Howdy👋🏾. This week, I’m moderating the World Trade Center Institute’s AGILE series on Technology and Disaster Recovery—an event I’d love to see you at. Regardless…
Howdy👋🏾. The Eagles demolished the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, and we got our first-ever OpenAI Super Bowl ad. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, but what stood out…
Howdy 👋🏾 This weekend, the Super Bowl takes center stage as the Kansas City Chiefs and Philidelphia Eagles battle it out. As a New Orleans…
Howdy 👋🏾. What a week for AI. In just a few days, DeepSeek passed ChatGPT as the number one app on the App Store, changed…
Howdy👋🏾. I recently posted on LinkedIn about the slew of executive orders signed by Trump after his inauguration. One that directly impacts AI and tech…
Howdy👋🏾. I got into Vegas for CES 2025 on Tuesday, sadly missing some great keynotes from execs like Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang and Delta’s CEO…
Howdy👋🏾. OpenAI co-founder and former Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever spoke at NeurIPS recently, and one of his quotes stuck with me: data is the…
Howdy 👋🏾. This time last year, the anticipation for Apple’s mixed reality headset was through the roof. As 2024 winds down, the Apple Vision Pro…
Howdy 👋🏾. Can you believe it’s December already? I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Over the break, I finally got to play with ElevenLabs’…
Howdy👋🏾. I’m on vacation in Spain this week, diving into tapas, all the jamón, and as much Manchego as possible! So, for this week, I’m…
Howdy👋🏾. Did you miss OpenAI’s annual DevDay on October 1st? This invite-only event took place in San Francisco, London, and Singapore. Unlike last year, the…
Howdy👋🏾. Last Thursday was Tesla’s highly anticipated “We, Robot” event. Elon Musk envisioned fully autonomous cars, robot taxis, and household robots straight out of The…
Howdy 👋🏾. Last week was jam-packed, and it called for plenty of popcorn. Meta kicked off its Meta Connect developer conference with exciting new products…
Howdy👋🏾. I recently delivered an AI talk for the University of Baltimore’s AI in Practice series, and I was asked a question I often get…
Howdy👋🏾. The world of AI is evolving rapidly, and individuals and businesses are being forced to adapt. I’ve had the good fortune of a front-row…
Howdy 👋🏾. A classic plot in many movies questions nature vs nurture—are you who you are because of your innate traits, or are you shaped…
Howdy👋🏾. The power of AI has blurred the lines between reality and make-believe in ways that many are unprepared for. One glaring example is the…
Howdy👋🏾. Before we dive in, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the Thoughts on Tech & Things monthly speaker series in partnership with Southern…
Howdy👋🏾. It’s official: Google has been ruled a monopoly and found to have violated antitrust rules by acting to prevent competition. The facts are clear:…
Howdy 👋🏾. In the early days of search, websites needed a way to signal what, if any, of their content should be indexed by search…
Howdy👋🏾. On Friday, my friends and family started sending me questions via text. This generally happens when some large-scale technology event has occurred, and all…
Howdy👋🏾. The AI communication interface has remained the same since ChatGPT 3.5 hit the scene in 2022. Users type a message, the bot responds, and…
Howdy 👋🏾. Apple surprised everyone by prominently featuring the Apple Vision Pro at its Worldwide Developers Conference several weeks ago. If you follow Apple, there…
Howdy 👋🏾. No matter how often I make rice, I need a reminder of the different water-to-rice ratios for different types of rice grains. A…
Howdy👋🏾, On Sunday, a close friend and I pitched tents at Shenandoah National Park. As we drove up the mountain, my service dropped from full…
Howdy 👋🏾, when Google released its new AI Search Overviews at Google I/O, I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of…
Howdy, I hope you had a fantastic Memorial Day. Long weekends like these are great for reflection, and that reflection can lead to transformation, which…
Howdy 👋🏾, last week, I fixated so much on the OpenAI Spring Event, Google I/O, and Apple’s upcoming WWDC event that I somehow forgot to…
Howdy👋🏾, this was a busy week for AI. Monday started with OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT 4o at its Sprint event, which Sam Altman described on…
Howdy 👋🏾, since Meta dropped Llama 3, their latest open-source language model, I’ve been head down exploring the new model and kicking the tires to…
Howdy 👋🏾, last week I briefly mentioned Ezra Klein’s excellent episodes on AI, all worth a listen. Over and over, Ezra mentioned Kindroids and his…
Howdy 👋🏾, in this year’s growing list of finallys – Humane released their AI pin, and reviews have been brutal. The gist is that the…
Howdy👋🏾, Tesla’s Q1 earnings missed the mark, so the company’s offering everyone a free 30-day trial of its $15,000 beta full self-driving mode. If you…
Howdy👋🏾 , Increasingly, deep fakes are becoming a concern. In the last two weeks, my coworker Dean sent me an article about a Baltimore County…
Howdy Bob, every once in a while, a new AI tool pops on the scene that is so good and so amazing that you have…
Howdy👋🏾, as I move into my second month with the Apple Vision Pro, I wanted to revisit my review and share some additional thoughts. I…
Howdy 👋🏾, last month, Tyler Perry announced he was pulling back from his $800 million investment in a new film studio in Atlanta. This decision…
Howdy 👋🏾, I joined a panel on AI’s ethical and unintended consequences last week at the Maryland Technology Council’s Technology Transformation Conference. Matt Puglisi, co-founder…
Howdy👋🏾, users of many AI models like ChatGPT reported hallucinations when asking for real-time stats during the Super Bowl. The issue is that AI learns…
Howdy 👋🏾, Apple Vision Pro reminds us of how flat our virtual worlds are compared to the 3D objects in reality. These interfaces remain stubbornly…
Howdy 👋🏾, my Apple Vision Pro arrived Monday, and for the last few days, I’ve done almost everything with these things on, and wow! If…
Howdy 👋🏾, this month’s Apple App Store developments have proven to be quite the doozy. After winning its lawsuit against Epic, the company must permit…
Howdy 👋🏾, earlier this year, I launched a little AI playground for testing various models with the same prompt – an experiment allowing head-to-head comparisons…
Howdy 👋🏾, as always, CES was a great event and an amazing place to see all the new consumer products and tech embryos starting to…
Howdy 👋🏾, prepare to unleash your imagination because I’m headed to CES 2024, the world’s biggest consumer electronics show! I have my Apple Watch charged,…
Howdy 👋🏾, as we kick off a new year, it appears that we’re in for one of the most exciting years in technology we’ve encountered…
Howdy👋🏾, my kids and I are packed and hopping on a plane traveling south to Orlando for Christmas. I’m crossing my fingers for warm days…
Howdy 👋🏾. Foundation models are taking center stage as the most practical AI for widespread use. Rather than building custom models, most of us will…
Howdy👋🏾, last week, as folks transitioned from feasting to geeking out, over 50,000 attendees converged at AWS Re: Invent in Las Vegas – Amazon’s mammoth…
Howdy 👋🏾, I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving! This year has been trying with the loss of people near and dear to…
Howdy 👋🏾, major tech cities faced a sudden shortage of popcorn as everyone watched intently as Sam Altman, CEO, Cofounder, and face of OpenAI, was…
Howdy 👋🏾, things usually slow down when November hits as we stumble into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but this year is different. This year,…
Howdy 👋🏾, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is way too nice. I told him not to worry about my birthday, but he surprised me and…
Howdy👋🏾, the pandemic supercharged trends in digital transformation. COVID forced us to adapt to a new cashless world of tablet power checkout systems and real-time…
Last week, Mindgrub hosted AI in Action, the first of many AI events, and we focused on the impacts of AI and tech in healthcare….
Howdy👋🏾, documentaries like Ken Burn’s Civil War humanize epic historical events by mixing the personal thoughts of leaders and everyday humans. To help frame why a decision…
Howdy👋🏾, while my mom, and probably most moms, would disapprove, it finally happened! (👵🏽 Ma, I know that grandma emoji looks nothing like you) For…
Howdy👋🏾. The Baltimore Sun published a well-timed article about ‘AI in A-minor,’ a first-of-its-kind event showcasing classical music composed by artificial intelligence. If you follow the…
Howdy 👋🏾, Apple announced new phones and watches last week and celebrated its environmental accomplishments with a surprise cameo appearance by Mother Nature herself. If you missed the event or…
Howdy 👋🏾, did you get my message? How could you not between the push notifications, app badges, emails, and constant reminders? If this sounds familiar,…
👋🏾 Howdy, if you’re in the US, I hope you enjoyed the long three-day weekend. Monday in the States was Labor Day, a celebration of…
Howdy, it’s been a busy week. Last week, I welcomed a group of whip-smart college students from the Word Trade Center Institute’s Albrecht Fellowship to…
Howdy 👋🏾, my kids and I left the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore and flew to Disney World for 120% humidity, tons of sun, and…
Howdy, we did it! Last week I stood in front of a packed crowd at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore and presented AI in A Minor,…
Howdy, Meta is back in favor with investors after the successful launch of Threads, and quarterly revenue is up by 11%. With a rosy report…
Hello, this week I’m in New York for Amazon Web Services’s (AWS) Summit, and I can’t wait for the sessions on AI services like SageMaker and Bedrock. While…
Howdy, folks. Jason here. Sunday, I read an unexpected review of a $59 AmazonBasics Microwave with Alexa. At first glance, the microwave seems as basic as…
Hey readers, it’s me, Jason. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to announce that on August 9th, Mindgrub and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will present AI in A…
Howdy,Rental car companies are flocking to EVs for significantly reduced maintenance costs. After all, EVs have fewer moving parts allowing owners to skimp out on…
Check on your social media owners because 2023 has been a crazy time for social platforms. TikTok’s CEO went to Congress to defend his social…
Howdy, Passwords suck. Passwords have sucked for a very long time, but how bad they suck is getting out of control, and it needs to…
I talk a lot about artificial intelligence, but surprisingly, a large number of people have not tried ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion to taste…
Apple did it! The company announced Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset, with a new operating system called visionOS. Vision Pro checks off almost every…
Howdy! As the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Mindgrub, I spend much time with our clients, helping them discover and implement what’s possible with technology….
Thoughts on Tech & Things is a handcrafted list of the most important things this week with a dab of my thoughts on that tech…
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