Hands-On AI (Audio)

The big AI apps now have research modes that make you wait for a report full of sources. Is the wait worth it? Mikah Sargent gives ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity the same complicated question, plus ChatGPT with regular web search as a control, and compares how long they take, where they look, what they miss, and how much cleanup each report needs. Then he checks every answer against a rebate and tax-credit answer key built from official sources.

Host: Mikah Sargent

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What happens when AI stops talking and starts doing? Mikah Sargent puts Meta's Muse agent to work on simple jobs, hard ones, and a couple of weird ones: a weekly news brief, a day trip, a shopping cart that stops for his approval, a web page it builds itself, and a podcast about whether a hot dog is a sandwich. Along the way, he explains what makes an agent different from a chatbot, what Muse can and can't touch, and the settings to check before you hand any AI the keys.

Host: Mikah Sargent

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What's actually inside an AI model? Mikah Sargent opens up the file from last week's episode and finds tokens, billions of numbers, and one surprisingly simple job: guess the next piece of text. Along the way, he shows why the same question can get a different answer every time, where all those numbers came from, and why a chatbot can sound completely sure of itself and still be wrong.

Host: Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to Hands-On AI at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-ai

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Your next chatbot doesn't need the cloud. Mikah Sargent installs a free app, downloads an AI model, turns off the Wi-Fi, and keeps right on chatting, all on an ordinary computer. Along the way, he explains how to read a model listing, including what the size and "Q4" labels mean, so you can pick a model that runs well on your own machine. Then the local model goes head-to-head with a cloud assistant to see where it holds up and where it falls short.

Host: Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to Hands-On AI at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-ai

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Hands-On AI is the show that turns AI confusion into AI confidence. In this introductory episode, Mikah Sargent lays out what the show is and isn't: short, focused episodes — most 10 to 15 minutes — that take one question, one tool, or one technique at a time. Some weeks go under the hood on what a large language model is actually doing. Some weeks get practical: the AI already in your pocket, or a model running entirely on your own computer. And some weeks are honest verdicts on the tools everyone's talking about.

This show is a conversation. Send your AI questions to handsonai@twit.tv or reach out on TWiT's social media, and you might hear your question answered on the show.

Host: Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to Hands-On AI at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-ai

Want access to the ad-free audio and video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.