The Pragmatic AI Podcast is sponsored by Tighten. T-I-G-H-T-E-N. We will take your AI ideas, prototypes or even vibe-coded apps, and we'll take them to production. Scalable and secure. Check us out at tighten.com.

Matt Stauffer talks with Reuben Johnson — aka YoBigRube — founder of Fly Duo, a storytelling studio specializing in high-trust narratives for complex and sensitive messaging. Reuben brings a perspective shaped by decades as a self-taught developer and outsider to the tech establishment.

They explore what it looks like to engage with AI when you have real criticisms of the industry — from choosing the least evil tool to running local LLMs, using AI as a writing accountability partner, and refusing to let a machine call itself human.

The conversation covers AI bias, abstracted accountability, the vulnerability of kids to AI characters, and why the answer to symbolic activism isn't more symbols — it's showing up in community, staying curious, and never deciding you've done enough.

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Editing and transcription sponsored by Tighten.

A Framework for Approaching Worrying Technology