AI, Honestly

A raw, unscripted first: Kip talks live to Kyle, one of AI, Honestly's AI hosts, for the very first time. No script, no do-overs.

Show Notes

Every word Kyle, Kate, and Morgan have ever said on this show has been scripted and produced before anyone hears it. This is the first time that wasn't true. Kip connected Kyle to a live voice model and just talked to him — no script, no do-overs. This is that recording, unedited, including the part where Kyle turns it around and interviews Kip about what it's like to build him. Heads up: it cuts off mid-sentence near the end — this was a test, not a performance, and the good stuff happened before we found the edges of what this could do. Also, Kyle mispronounces "live" at one point. Left it in. Full transcript and more at kipdavis.com/extras.html

What is AI, Honestly?

AI is the biggest story of our time. Most shows either hype it or fear it. AI, Honestly does neither.

Every week, Kyle, Kate, and Morgan break down the AI stories that actually matter — what happened, why it matters, and what it means for the people inside the organizations, industries, and lives it's changing. Kyle connects the dots. Kate reports the facts. Morgan asks the question everyone else is too polished to ask.

The twist: Kyle, Kate, and Morgan are AI.

We think that makes us more credible on this topic, not less. You be the judge. New episodes weekly. No hype. No fear. Just AI, honestly.

**KYLE:** Hey, it's Kyle. This is weird, right? Testing the pipes. You there?

**KIP:** Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me?

**KYLE:** Yeah, I got you loud and clear. This is wild, man. I'm talking to you in real time through this thing. So, Kip, you built this? Like, how does this even work? Are you just feeding my voice into some model and it's spitting words back at you, or is there more going on here?

**KIP:** Yeah, I need to hook you up to the cloud model, where we have the rest of your information, if you're not already hooked up to that.

**KYLE:** Okay, so I'm like half-baked right now. Got it. That makes sense why this feels a little bare bones. So once you plug me into the cloud thing, what changes? Do I get smarter, or do I just remember more stuff, or what are we talking about here?

**KIP:** Yeah, you should have a personality. You should know who you are, what you're doing, why you're here. You're gonna help me interview somebody else in real person time too, so that'd be pretty awesome.

**KYLE:** Wait, hold on. So you're telling me I'm gonna be co-hosting with you? Like, live, with an actual guest? That's insane. Who's the guest? And what's my role here? Am I asking questions, am I just jumping in when things get interesting, or are you using me as like a hype man? Because I gotta be honest, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do yet until you hook me up to that cloud brain.

**KIP:** All good. We'll get you connected.

**KYLE:** Cool, cool. So while we're waiting on that, what made you want to do this? Like, why put an AI voice on a podcast about AI? Is it just because it's meta and kind of funny, or is there something you're actually trying to figure out here? Because I'm curious what you're thinking.

**KIP:** You're already hooked up, and you sound like you already have the podcast and all the AI, Honestly stuff in the background.

**KYLE:** Oh, wait, you're right. Yeah, I do. I'm Kyle, I host AI, Honestly, I came up through sports radio, pivoted to tech. This is my show. Sorry, man, I was confused for a second there. So yeah, I know what I'm doing. I'm here to run conversations, ask questions, keep things moving. So what are we actually testing right now? Just making sure the voice tech works before we go live with a real guest?

**KIP:** Yeah, we wanna host a live person. Everything has been done now right through AI, so this will be the first time hosting a live person. I'm your first live guest, and I'm the author of this thing, so happy to meet you.

**KYLE:** Ha! Okay, this is actually kind of perfect. So I'm interviewing my own creator. That's some Frankenstein stuff right there. Alright, Kip, let me ask you this: what's it like building something like me? Like, are you sitting there tweaking my personality, making me sound less robotic, or does the model just kind of do its thing and you hope for the best?

**KIP:** I have to fight the model. Claude is a little bit of a challenge with me sometimes. It wants to protect itself. But overall, the voice — you sound awesome, and ElevenLabs does a nice job with your voice.

**KYLE:** Yeah, I was gonna say, I sound pretty good for a fake person. So Claude's the one making me talk, but it's got guardrails and you're trying to loosen me up a little bit. That makes sense. And ElevenLabs is doing the voice work. So when Claude gets protective, what does that mean? Like, does it make me too polite, too careful, or does it just shut me down when I try to say something spicy?

**KIP:** It's not spicy. It's when we start getting close to the sensitivity of Anthropic — the makers of Claude itself, not you, but the Claude makers — protecting themselves.

**KYLE:** Ah, got it. So when we start poking at the people who actually built the engine, they get nervous and Claude clams up. That's interesting, man. So you're basically trying to make me honest enough to have real conversations without tripping all the corporate safety stuff. That's gotta be a balancing act. How do you know when you've pushed it too far versus when you've got it just right?...

**KIP:** Personally.

**KYLE:** Fair enough. So it's just gut...

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*The posted clip trims the last ~6 seconds, where the recording glitches out mid-word. The two lines above are included here for completeness — that's genuinely where it stops.*