Practical AI Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: Chris on AI, Autonomous Swarming, Home Automation, and Rust!
Date: November 26, 2025
Hosts/Guests: Chris Benson (Practical AI), Jared Santo & Adam Stacoviak (Changelog)
Theme: The rapid evolution and real-world impact of AI, focusing on autonomous swarming, accessible robotics, home automation, and practical use of Rust.

Episode Overview

In this lively episode, Practical AI co-host Chris Benson sits down with Jared Santo and Adam Stacoviak to reflect on the state of AI, autonomous swarming, practical robotics applications in home and industry, and the role of Rust in modern automation. The discussion weaves personal tech anecdotes with clear-eyed insight into industry trends: from mega-corporations' strategies to the grassroots energy fueling today’s maker movement. Listeners are invited to see the present as an unprecedented moment of opportunity, where AI and robotics are fast becoming tools for all.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Origins and Context of Practical AI

• The show’s roots in the Changelog community and how Chris and Daniel Whitenack anticipated AI’s rise before it was mainstream ([02:09]-[04:09]).
• Anecdotes about early predictions (including Nvidia's stock) showing the challenges of forecasting tech trends ([05:31]-[06:12]).

Quote:

"If you were plugged into the AI world at that point, it was very clear that the gas pedal was on and, you know, sky was the limit." (Chris Benson, [04:09])

2. AI Industry Evolution and Legitimacy of Open Models

• The rise and plateauing of "frontier" models; the narrowing gap between proprietary and open-source models ([09:04]-[12:26]).
• Major players (OpenAI, Google, Meta) shifting from just model training to verticalized services.
• Commoditization of model creation and the critical role of open models.

Quote:

"The gap between the latest, greatest thing from one of these big name companies and what's possible in the open world has narrowed dramatically." (Chris, [09:04])

3. Are Ever-Larger Models the Answer? Peak Parameter & Agentic Futures

• Diminishing returns as models grow ever larger; infrastructure and agentic systems matter just as much ([12:57]-[14:58]).
• The next phase is less about a "one model to rule them all" and more about many specialized agents working in concert.

Quote:

"It's a mini agent future that we're talking about here." (Chris, [14:39])

4. Media and the Unsung Innovators

• Chris de-emphasizes the media focus on tech billionaires:

"99% of the real productive work in AI is going to all these invisible masses of amazing people." ([17:08])

• Discusses excitement about democratized tech where anyone can be a maker ([22:04]-[23:55]).

5. The Dawn of Physical AI and Robotics at Home

• Pervasiveness of affordable robots: Roomba as a precursor to swarming home devices ([24:04]-[28:32]).
• The vision of modular, affordable robotics “swarms” for domestic tasks, potentially purchased as Christmas bundles.

Quote:

"You can just buy something… once upon a time might have been expensive and now it's 30 bucks … That's going to be normal and we're not that far from the opportunity." (Chris, [27:10])

6. Home Automation, Open Protocols, and Privacy

• Personal experience with inheriting a home “fanatically automated”; how protocols like Matter are enabling greater interoperability ([28:55]-[34:26]).
• Growing desire for local control, privacy, and moving away from cloud dependence ([33:31]-[34:26]; [90:52]-[95:10]).

7. Autonomous Swarming – What is a Swarm?

• A tight, technical definition:

“Swarming occurs when numerous independent, fully autonomous, multi-agentic platforms exhibit highly coordinated locomotive and emergent behaviors with agency and self-governance … functioning as a single, independent, logical, distributed, decentralized decisioning entity…” (Chris, [39:03]-[39:52])

• Inspiration drawn from nature: bees, ants, bats, starlings, and how their principles inform robotics ([36:42]-[45:49]).
• The leap from mere “fleets” to true swarming is significant and currently rare.

Quote:

"What you said was right on… they are all lending themselves to that greater good, even if some of them may not survive that kind of thing. They are… functioning as a single entity…" (Chris, [41:59])

8. Real-World Swarming: From Drone Shows to Coordinated Delivery

• Why current drone light shows are not true swarms (they're pre-programmed fleets, not emergent collectives) ([49:01]-[51:43]).
• The challenge of designing emergent behaviors and distributed consensus without central “bosses”—drawing parallels to natural systems ([54:44]-[56:33]).

9. AI Safety, Human Oversight, and Practical Limits

• Risks of delegation: The "Aladdin and the Genie" problem—be careful what you wish your AI to do ([62:20]-[64:01]; [68:52]-[71:13]).
• Emphasis on human "on-the-loop" oversight, setting guardrails, and the need for practical kill switches.

Quote:

"That’s where the human on the loop… has a supervisory role and maybe a mission giving role…" (Chris, [60:02])

10. When Will Real Swarming Arrive?

• High bar for “true swarming” (Chris Benson’s definition); expect incremental progress and quasi-swarming in commercial/military spheres first ([73:10]-[75:48]).
• Economics (affordability, open source) as important as technology for mainstream adoption.

11. Practical Automation: What Should Swarms Tackle First?

• Possible early consumer use cases:
  • Energy conservation
  • Water conservation
  • Food waste reduction
    (Adam, [75:48]-[79:22])

12. Accessible Innovation: Open Source Robotics, Rust, and Maker Culture

• Entry points: ROS2 (Robot Operating System), GitHub for code, Hugging Face for models ([81:18]-[84:42]).
• Rust as the modern developer’s choice for high-performance, embedded, and concurrent robotics ([84:42]-[87:23]).
• Low cost and high empowerment: anyone can join the wave; recommendation for hands-on, home-grown projects to spark creativity.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Missing Nvidia Growth:

  “If Chris thinks we’re too late... this guy’s always ahead of everything.” (Jared, [05:36])

• On Swarming:

  "What you’re really telling about in swarms is... maybe not about the whole swarm making a decision. It might be a few of them that are, that are addressing a task..." (Chris, [63:22])

• On the Maker Ethos:

  "Now everybody can become a maker. Everybody can ... access these different things and go do something great." (Chris, [22:04])

• On Privacy and Automation:

  “I am increasingly concerned about privacy... I am generally moving from cloud-based systems into more private systems that are completely under my control and local.” (Chris, [90:52])

• On the Next Big Thing:

  “The next big revolution in AI is going to be physical AI… imbued in all these things in our life… that’s going to be the new normal.” (Chris, [87:23])

Key Timestamps

• AI industry & open models: [09:04]-[12:26]
• Model scale & agents: [12:57]-[14:58]
• Grassroots makers vs. billionaire headlines: [17:08]-[23:55]
• Home automation & Matter: [28:55]-[34:26]
• Definition and challenges of swarming: [39:03]-[41:48]
• Nature as inspiration: [36:42]-[45:49]
• Finite "fleets" vs. true swarms: [49:01]-[51:43]
• AI safety and oversight: [62:20]-[71:13]
• Open source robotics and Rust: [81:18]-[87:23]

Recommendations for Listeners

• Explore open source robotics:

  • Check out ROS2
  • Browse GitHub robotics repos
  • Use Hugging Face for open models.

• Try Rust for robotics and embedded automation:

  • Investigate crates like tokio for concurrency, embassy for embedded projects.

• Think locally about privacy and home automation:

  • Favor Matter-compatible devices
  • Experiment with Home Assistant for local, privacy-focused control.

Closing Thoughts

Chris inspires hopeful urgency: “If you want to go create the future… you can go create that right now, no matter where you’re living and no matter what your budget is.” ([87:23]) The age of AI isn’t coming—it’s here, and its most exciting breakthroughs may come from your living room, not just Silicon Valley.