AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser

What if the most important part of AI is the part nobody talks about, not the chatbot, but the map underneath the world? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with John Lenahan, Head of Esri’s Global Commercial Services team, about geospatial AI, GIS, and why “where” may be the missing context in so much of today’s AI conversation. We explore how maps become far more powerful when they layer in infrastructure, weather, sensor data, supply chains, demographics, and risk, and how AI can help t...

Is AI quietly creating more work than it’s replacing, and are we measuring the job market the wrong way? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with the CEO of Upwork, Hayden Brown, about what the platform is seeing across the global freelance economy, and why the “AI is killing jobs” narrative can miss what’s happening at the edges of the market. We also dig into how to adopt AI inside an organization without just “sprinkling fairy dust” on old workflows, and what it takes to make AI rollout...

What happens when the world’s most-used creative tools get smarter — and creators worry they’re losing the wheel? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Eric Snowden, Senior Vice President of Design at Adobe, about how Adobe is weaving AI into Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat, and beyond — while trying to keep the tools respectful of craft, muscle memory, and the human spark. We dig into the bigger question beneath the feature releases: as AI accelerates creation, do we get more powerful… ...

Is AI making creators more powerful… or more replaceable? And if you start with a blank page for a living, there’s an even sharper question underneath it: should AI write for you… or write with you? In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Victor Varnado—a New Yorker cartoonist, comedian, actor, and creative technologist—to explore a grounded, practical philosophy for using AI without becoming a passenger. Victor draws a sharp line between generative AI (press a button, get “a masterpi...

What does an AI-driven economy actually look like when you zoom out far enough—and what does that mean for jobs, power, and policy? In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Anindya Ghose (NYU Stern; author of Thrive) about the “AI economy blueprint”: how the modern economy starts to resemble a vertically layered tech stack—from energy and chips all the way up to consumer-facing apps—and why that stack is quietly reshaping everything from corporate strategy to the future of work. We cover w...