The Pour Over Today - What Is AI? (Even NASA Can't Decide)

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

The Pour Over is a Christ-first, politically neutral news podcast. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we cover the day's biggest stories in ~10 minutes, and pair the biggest headlines with brief biblical reminders. Every Saturday, TPO Explains does a shallow dive into your most-asked questions. On today's episode: What is AI? Available to watch on Spotify and YouTube here. Want more guided prayers to help you bring current events before the Lord? To check out TPO’s new audio devotional, text PRAY to 71989. Looking to support us? You can choose to pay ⁠here⁠. Thanks to our sponsors: The Voice of the Martyrs: Give a Village Outreach Kit | vom.org/TPO Wild Alaskan: $35 off your first box | code: TPO Quince: Free shipping | quince.com/tpo AdelFi: Apply for the Harvest Bundle | https://adelfibanking.com/pourover Upside: extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas | code: TPO LMNT: free 8-pack with purchase | https://links.thepourover.org/LMNT_Podcast Mosh: 25% off first variety pack + 20% off subscription | code: TPO25 Serving Orphans Worldwide: Give a gift to feed a child for a month | https://servingorphans.org/thepourover MORE FROM TPO: ⁠Free newsletter⁠ ⁠Watch TPO on YouTube⁠ ⁠Download the TPO App⁠ Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB) translation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Any more apologies? Oh, gosh. Well, we just recorded this entire episode, audio only, because I clicked the wrong button. Yeah, well, if you want to hear our first take, we'll make it available for Choose to Pairs. Hey, this is Kathleen. And this is Jason. Welcome to TPO Explains. where we provide news context for normal people.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we summarize the day's biggest headlines, but on Saturdays we do a shallow dive into something that we didn't understand throughout the week, because that happens every week. There are many things that we have to sit in research, so we pick one of those topics, and we bring you along with us as we do a shallow dive on the weekends. We want to educate ourselves and you. So this week we have a special guest, Jason, our fearless founder, who did actually start this podcast.

And then we kicked him off and now he's back. So thank you for joining us again, Jason. We will have some questions for you. Honor to be back. It's just a delight. We will have some questions for you at the end. But we can just start with what we're talking about today. So today we're going to talk about AI.

I think we're going to have to do a whole series on AI. We've done AI models, one of the different AI models. Today we're just going to do an overview of what is AI. AI. I think KAA really wants to write about the history of AI because that's interesting. We need to talk about data centers. So eventually we'll probably have a whole series of AI explainers. But they're not super interesting. But I don't know. I'm interested to know why they're so thirsty. What's the big deal? That's true. I know. You don't want them in their backyard or your backyard because they take all the water. Yeah. All right. Let's dive into it. So what is AI? No one really knows. It's a little dramatic, but kind of true, there isn't a universal, simple definition for artificial intelligence because AI tools can do such a wide range of things. NASA itself has five different definitions of AI. Generally speaking, artificial intelligence refers to a computer system or machine that has two characteristics.

One, it can perform tasks that mimic human reasoning, decision making, or creativity. And two, it operates without explicit instruction. instructions from a programmer. So what do people mean by generative AI? Well, there are two categories of AI, traditional and generative. Traditional AI is reactive. It follows preset inputs and rules to analyze data and make predictions. Like a telemarketer calling you off a script, traditional AI is prepared for a few different responses but can't veer out of its lane too much. Picture, email spam filters, computer chess games, your phones auto-correct, and Netflix's recommendation system. Generative AI is the hot new topic that's on everyone's mind these days.

What makes it different is that it can create something new. It learns from data, innovates, and improves its output over time. Picture the bots you choose to open, like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and some that just show up. Google's AI search summaries, Spotify's AI, DJ and Amazon's customer review summaries. But how does it work? Put simply math. AI, the generative kind, learns by studying massive amounts of data, feed it billions of words, and it picks up patterns like what word tends to follow another

or what a formal email sounds like. So chat GPT isn't thinking. It's running the math to determine what would be statistically most likely to come next. It's just doing it really, really quickly. If you ask it to tell a joke about the 24th president, it will combine the structure of jokes that it's seen with facts about Grover Cleveland. So why does AI hallucinate things?

Also because of math. AI doesn't know things. It's just completing the pattern. So it will confidently state something totally made up with no idea it's wrong. For example, it recognizes the pattern that research papers have citations at the bottom. So it adds citations.

Now, those citations may not be real, but they still complete the pattern. Cool. Okay, while Kay wrote this article and then you edited it, so you did a little research and contributed to the article, what was the most surprising thing to you

when you initially read through it or edited? Hmm. That spam filters and autocorrects were considered AI. It makes sense when I read the definition. They mimic human reasoning and don't follow explicit instruction. But I just never thought of them in that way. Like in my mind, AI is like a year old. And so these examples of things that have been around for years and years don't register as AI to me.

Yeah. I think I said it on our AI model episode, but the idea that like playing the computer in a chess game and that being AI, it's like, of course it is. but I didn't think of it that way. Or that, you remember that trend when you would have to press the middle button on predictive text and see what it would say? Oh, yeah, like whatever your iPhone recommends the next word and you just click over. And it never made any sense. And that's why it was so funny.

And so thinking of that being AI, it's like, that's gibberish. Like it doesn't, but that's the very like, in our minds, archaic type of traditional AI as compared to generative AI. So what was the hardest part for you to grapple with or understand with this? So the idea that generative AI is making something new and just completing a pattern, like those, it feels like that's in conflict. But it clicked when I thought of the Grover Cleveland example of, hey, it's completing multiple patterns. Like it's completing the pattern of this is the cadence and words that come in a joke. This is how a joke is set up. And here's information about Grover Cleveland. And then

when you put the two things together, you've created something new, but you've also just completed the patterns. Yeah. Kind of like my kids telling me a joke. Like they think they nailed it. They think they nailed the punchline. Okay. So I put this, I put this prompt into the joke about the 24th president into Gemini. And it did exactly this. Like, it, it, it, it, had the like cadence and structure of a joke and it just was not funny at all because it matched these two things there was no surprise there was no humor and it totally felt like you know my four-year-old track to tell me a joke and me like right sort of yeah James told me the other day he was like hey why did um why did the cow go to space and i was like i know this one to see the moon

And he was like, no, to go high. I was like, all right. Hey, it's Emily. The kids are heading back to school this month, which means lots of school supply runs, doling out lunch money, paying registration fees, and replacing my boy's jeans that now look more like capri pants.

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downsides, worship the creator because our cleverest innovations are just to rearrange ranging his created order. I love that. Should we do some reader questions? Ooh, the hot seat. The hot seat. Okay, let's start with, we actually get a lot of feedback on this,

on why we named the newsletter, while you named the newsletter, the pour over, and people will email us and be like, you're supposed to be a high-standing journalistic publication, and you can't even spell poor correctly. Don't you know it's P-O-R-E? pour over. How dare you? So tell the people, why did you name this, the pour over? Well, I actually

didn't name it the poor over. I named it a named Christian newsletter for a little bit. And then I named it hot black coffee, which at no point did I or anyone else like, but I was like not doing this exercise and sending this thing because it didn't have a name. And I was like, I just need to pick something. and so I chose something coffee themed but now you read it in the morning and then our head of growth Matt Wibble came up with the name of Poro which you know stuck with the coffee theme

and is a subtle nod to pouring over the news but he he probably thought we were spelling I know correctly and he is the worst spelling he's great he's great with teeth great with growing newsletters, he's not great with spelling.

No. And it's fine. It's not that he cares about spelling. He gets his point across. Why use many word when few words do trick? That's right. But he needs traditional AI auto-correct. We love you, Whipple.

It's funny, I don't know how much time passed between hot black coffee and when I joined. But I kind of wish it would have been around for hot black coffee. No. When I came on, I had just subscribed to the pourover. And I remember you asking me, you were like, how did you find us? Because we have 1,200 readers, and I don't know you. Right. Yeah.

Most of them share my last name, you know. They either knew me or they knew Whipple or they knew Delang. And so we were like, where did you count from? Yeah. I was like, I subscribed to your newsletter. I thought you needed to help. Whatever. You're already going to pay me and you're like, nothing.

Okay. Why do you feel you were called to start a news company? Hmm. I don't know if I would say I was called to start a news company. I had a very unhealthy relationship with the news and I was consuming a lot of it. It was making me angry and anxious and kind of obnoxious to be around. So I recognized I need. needed to do something. And so I started summarizing the news for myself and then pairing it

with the biblical reminders that I needed. And I was sending it to a few friends and family for accountability to say, I'm going to send this on Friday. Make sure I send it on Friday. And it grew from there, but for years, that's what it was. And, you know, that first email was in 2018. I went full time in 2021. We didn't start paying you until like earlier this year. Actually, two weeks ago. I got my first paycheck. That's right. First paycheck. So looking back, it's cool and clear to see God's hand in it. But there, I don't know if I would say I felt cold. Like there was not a moment that felt like I was being called to start a news company. no road to Damascus

the plover hot pot coffee it's interesting though because I mean just to take a step back and look and be like I don't know why was that this is just something I started to do for myself and turns out other people

liked it too and now though looking back and saying oh not only did I need to do this for myself but now 1.5 million people also feel this need in their life and you never felt called to do that so it's just such a I don't know it's such a

picture of kind of trusting the promptings and like you look back it's I always think like the picture of a tapestry like you look at the back of a tapestry and it's just like all these threads you don't know what's going on and it's just kind of crazy and messy and there's not here and you start new there and we flip it over and you see the picture and it's like oh man how could I have even thought of where God was going to take me seven years from now and you know looking forward to the future yeah totally it is it is really cool and an immense privilege to get to do what I do and I love what I do. It's just, I can't look back and see that calling moment. Yes, but it's humbling to get to be a part of the tapestry. Totally. Okay, so as a potentially

called, maybe uncalled, founder of a news company, where do you get your news? You know, I think everyone hopes that I'm going to say some like secret newsletter or news source that they've never heard of but implicitly trust immediately. That's perfectly unbiased and always accurate. And the truth is, I just read a little bit of a lot of sources. So when I'm writing or editing the newsletter, I spend 10 to 15 minutes skimming just the biggest news sources that you've heard of, the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Fox, CNN, New York Post.

And I also read a few summary newsletters similar to the porover. And then if I'm not writing or editing a specific newsletter, I just don't read any news and wait for the poor to come out. And that's really fun. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Jason.

Before we go, we want to take a moment to say a prayer for when artificial intelligence is in the news. All powerful God, from your mind, comes all that we can see and know. We can't touch, taste, contemplate, or create anything that wasn't first spoken into blessed existence by your loving word or sustained by your holy wisdom. O wise one, turn our creation into redemption. For engineers writing code, may they desire peace over profits. For executives, setting vision and direction, may they work for shalom over market shares.

For lawmakers setting policies, may they champion long-term dignity over short-term domination. And for all of us tempted to bow to and trust and defy what we've built, turn our eyes to Christ in whom all things hold together and to whom we entrust our prayers. Amen. Amen. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and subscribe. You can find all our past explainers, as well as our Monday, Wednesday, Friday, news summaries on YouTube. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts, until they invite me back again.

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