Bob sits down with Jeff Pennington, former Chief Research Informatics Officer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and author of You Teach the Machines, and his daughter Mary Jane (MJ) Pennington, a recent Colby College graduate working in rural healthcare analytics. Jeff and MJ reflect on the real-time impact of AI across generations—from how Gen Z is navigating AI’s influence on learning and careers, to how large institutions are integrating AI technologies. They dig into themes of trust, disconnection, data quality, and what it truly means to be future-proof in the age of AI.
Keywords
AI literacy, Gen Z, future of work, healthcare AI, trusted data, responsible AI, education, automation, disconnection, skills, strategy, adoption, social media, transformation
Takeaways
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Gen Z’s experience with AI is shaped by a rapid-fire sequence of disruptions: COVID, remote learning, and now Gen AI
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Both podcast and book You Teach the Machines serve as a “time capsule” for capturing AI’s societal impact
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Orgs are inadvertently cutting off AI-native talent from the workforce
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Misinformation, over-hype, and poor PR from big tech are fueling widespread public fear and distrust of AI
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AI adoption must move from top-down mandates to bottom-up innovation, empowering frontline workers
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Data quality is a foundational issue, especially in healthcare and other high-stakes domains
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Real opportunity is in leveraging AI to elevate human work through augmentation, creativity, and access
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Disconnection and over-reliance on AI are emerging as long-term social risks, especially for younger generations
Quotes
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“It’s a universal fear now. Everyone has to ask: what makes you AI-proof?”
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“The vitality of democracy depends on popular knowledge of complex questions.”
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“We're not being given the option to say no to any of this.”
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“I’m 100% certain the current winners in AI will not be the winners in five to ten years.”
Chapters
00:02 Welcome and Guest Introductions
00:48 MJ’s Path: From Computational Biology to Rural Healthcare
01:52 Why They Launched the Podcast You Teach the Machines
03:25 Jeff’s Work at CHOP and the Pediatric LLM Project
06:47 Making AI Understandable: The Book’s Purpose
09:11 Navigating Fear and Trust in AI Headlines
11:31 Gen Z, AI-Proof Careers, and Entry-Level Job Loss
16:33 Why Resilience is Gen Z’s Underrated Superpower
18:48 Disconnection, Dopamine, and the Social Cost of AI
22:42 AI’s PR Problem and the Survival Signals We're Ignoring
25:58 Chatbots as Addictive Companions: Where It Gets Dark
29:56 Choosing to Innovate: A More Hopeful AI Future
32:11 The Dirty Truth About Data Quality and Trust
36:20 How a Brooklyn Coffee Company Fine-Tuned AI with Their Own Data
40:12 Why “Throwing AI on It” Isn’t a Strategy
44:20 Measuring Productivity vs. Driving Meaningful Change
48:22 The Real ROI: Empowering People, Not Eliminating Them
53:26 Healthcare’s Lazy AI Priorities (and What We Should Do Instead)
57:12 How Gen Z Was Guided Toward Coding—And What Happens Now
59:37 Dependency, Education, and Democratizing Understanding
1:04:22 AI’s Impact on Educators, Students, and Assessment
1:07:03 The Real Threat Isn’t Just Job Loss—It’s Human Disconnection
1:10:01 Defaulting to AI: Why Saying "No" Is No Longer an Option
1:12:30 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Jeff and MJ’s Work
Jeff Pennington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penningtonjeff/
Mary Jane Pennington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryjane-pennington-31710a175/
You Teach The Machines (book): https://www.audible.com/pd/You-Teach-the-Machines-Audiobook/B0G27833N9
You Teach The Machines (podcast): https://open.spotify.com/show/4t6TNeuYTaEL1WbfU5wsI0?si=bb2b1ec0b53d4e4e
For advisory work and marketing inquiries:
Bob Pulver: https://linkedin.com/in/bobpulver
Elevate Your AIQ: https://elevateyouraiq.com
Substack: https://elevateyouraiq.substack.com
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