Chris on AI, autonomous swarming, home automation and Rust!

Chris on AI, autonomous swarming, home automation and Rust!

Author: Practical AI LLC November 27, 2025 Duration: 1:37:09

This episode is a special crossover between the Practical AI podcast and The Changelog podcast. Chris was recently invited by longtime friends Jerod Santo and Adam Stacoviak, cohosts of The Changelog, to join them on the show. They discuss AI, drones, robotics, swarming technology, and the rise of high-performance edge computing with Rust.  Chris points out that open source software, small AI models, and affordable hardware are making home automation and local AI accessible to everyone. From automating household functions to experimenting with drones and single-board computers, Chris describes how hands-on maker projects are shaping a bright future for physical AI, on small budgets and right from the comfort of your own home.

Featuring: 

Sponsors: 

  • Miro – Get the right things done faster with Miro's Innovation Workspace. AI Sidekicks, instant insights, and rapid prototyping—transform weeks of work into days. No more scattered docs or endless meetings. Help your teams get great done at Miro.com.
  • Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalai

Upcoming Events: 


This week we have extended show notes below from Chris!

Swarming & Fully Autonomous Multi-Agent UxV Systems

Chris’s Definition of Swarming (anchor link in show notes)

Chris’s definition of Swarming
“Swarming occurs when numerous independent fully-autonomous multi-agentic platforms exhibit highly-coordinated locomotive and emergent behaviors with agency and self-governance in any domain (air, ground, sea, undersea, space), functioning as a single independent logical distributed decentralized decisioning entity for purposes of C3 (command, control, communications) with human operators on-the-loop, to implement actions that achieve strategic, tactical, or operational effects in the furtherance of a mission.”
© 2025 Chris Benson

Conceptual Foundations

Open Research & Multi-Robot Resources (Stepping-Stones Toward True Swarms)

Getting Hands-On: Consumer Robotics, ROS 2 & Gazebo

ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2)

Gazebo Simulation

micro-ROS (ROS 2 on Microcontrollers)

  • micro-ROS – ROS 2 for Microcontrollers
    Official site for running ROS 2 on tiny embedded boards.
    https://micro.ros.org
  • micro-ROS GitHub Organization
    Repositories, examples, and tutor...

There's a lot of noise out there about artificial intelligence, but cutting through the hype to find what's genuinely useful can be a challenge. That's the space where Practical AI operates. Hosted by the team at Practical AI LLC, this technology podcast moves beyond abstract theory to explore how AI, machine learning, and large language models are actually being applied right now. Each episode features unscripted conversations with a diverse mix of experts, developers, business leaders, and curious minds. You'll hear tangible discussions about implementing machine learning systems, the realities of MLOps, the evolution of neural networks, and the practical implications of breakthroughs in deep learning and GANs. The dialogue is grounded in real-world scenarios, focusing on how these technologies solve problems, drive productivity, and create value in accessible ways. Whether you're a professional building models, a business person integrating AI tools, or an enthusiast eager to understand the landscape, this podcast offers a clear, conversational entry point. It’s about making sense of a complex field through the lens of practical application, demystifying the concepts that are shaping our world without losing sight of how they work on the ground.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Practical AI
Podcast Episodes
Threat modeling LLM apps [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:38
If you have questions at the intersection of Cybersecurity and AI, you need to know Donato at WithSecure! Donato has been threat modeling AI applications and seriously applying those models in his day-to-day work. He joi…
Only as good as the data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:41
You might have heard that “AI is only as good as the data.” What does that mean and what data are we talking about? Chris and Daniel dig into that topic in the episode exploring the categories of data that you might enco…
Gaudi processors & Intel's AI portfolio [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:28
There is an increasing desire for and effort towards GPU alternatives for AI workloads and an ability to run GenAI models on CPUs. Ben and Greg from Intel join us in this episode to help us understand Intel’s strategy as…
Broccoli AI at its best 🥦 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:31
We discussed “🥦 Broccoli AI” a couple weeks ago, which is the kind of AI that is actually good/healthy for a real world business. Bengsoon Chuah, a data scientist working in the energy sector, joins us to discuss develop…
Hyperventilating over the Gartner AI Hype Cycle [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:09
This week Daniel & Chris hang with repeat guest and good friend Demetrios Brinkmann of the MLOps Community. Together they review, debate, and poke fun at the 2024 Gartner Hype Cycle chart for Artificial Intelligence. You…
The first real-time voice assistant [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:21
In the midst of the demos & discussion about OpenAI’s GPT-4o voice assistant, Kyutai swooped in to release the first real-time AI voice assistant model and a pretty slick demo (Moshi). Chris & Daniel discuss what this mo…
Vectoring in on Pinecone [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:11
Daniel & Chris explore the advantages of vector databases with Roie Schwaber-Cohen of Pinecone. Roie starts with a very lucid explanation of why you need a vector database in your machine learning pipeline, and then goes…
Stanford's AI Index Report 2024 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:04
We’ve had representatives from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) on the show in the past, but we were super excited to talk through their 2024 AI Index Report after such a crazy year i…
Apple Intelligence & Advanced RAG [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:06
Daniel & Chris engage in an impromptu discussion of the state of AI in the enterprise. Then they dive into the recent Apple Intelligence announcement to explore its implications. Finally, Daniel leads a deep dive into a…
The perplexities of information retrieval [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:06
Daniel & Chris sit down with Denis Yarats, Co-founder & CTO at Perplexity, to discuss Perplexity’s sophisticated AI-driven answer engine. Denis outlines some of the deficiencies in search engines, and how Perplexity’s ap…