Ep250: The Creative's Guide to Understanding AI and Leveraging AI to Build Workflows & Optimize Your Creativity | with Rob Howard

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Today's guest is Rob Howard who is a professional software developer and the founder of Innovating with AI, a company that helps entrepreneurs harness the power of AI. As a veteran with over 20 years in the tech industry, Rob is here to help us demystify AI by giving us a glimpse of how Large Language Models (LLM) really work. Rob breaks down for us what makes AI tick and how understanding it can shift our perspective from fear to opportunity, as AI becomes another tool for unleashing more of our creativity so we can do great work.

Rob also shares how you can start to dabble with AI so you can integrate it with your own unique talents and skills. Regardless of how you feel about AI, this conversation will open your mind and help you future-proof yourself in order to stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.

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Here's What You'll Learn:

• How being a Jack-of-all-trades can create robustness in what you do in life and in business
• Why Rob compares AI to a giant Plinko board
• What tokens are and how are they used in Large Language Models (LLM)
• The math that makes AI work
• How AI gives us decent answers and why it shouldn't terrify us
• The big change AI brought us that we didn't think was possible
• The root cause of our fear of AI and why it's actually a good thing
• What will make you replaceable by AI, and more importantly, what won't
• The level at which AI fails and how to leverage it to do great work
• How to innovate with AI without being a coder

Useful Resources Mentioned:

Plinko board

Image: Zombie crawling to the finish line

The iron triangle

Innovating with AI

Rob's No Code Toolkit

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Guest Bio:

Rob Howard

Rob Howard is a 20-year tech industry veteran, software developer, startup founder, investor and entrepreneur – and the creator of Innovating with AI.

Rob’s story starts at age 12 – when he learned to code and built his first HTML websites. A few years later, his first online business was featured in Entertainment Weekly, and he was off to the races in a career that combined tech and entrepreneurship with journalism, public communications and a unique approach to building companies that make their customers and employees proud.

Rob founded a 1-million-user cloud storage startup that was acquired in 2009, and since then he’s built, acquired and invested in a range of tech startups, including acquisitions of MasterWP and Understrap and the launch of EveryAlt, BusinessEnglish.ai and Inbox Autopilot, three AI-powered software-as-a-service platforms.

Rob is the CEO of HDC, a web development firm that has served brands including Harvard University, MIT, The World Bank, and Marriott. His software powers more than 100,000 websites, including sites for Intel, Facebook and The Oscars.

Show Credits:

This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, and the show notes were prepared by Debby Germino and published by Glen McNiel.

The original music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Joe Trapanese (who is quite possibly one of the most talented composers on the face of the planet).