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In a world where AI is ever-present, information never stops, and external opinions flood our feeds, it’s easy to lose touch with the one voice that truly knows: your own.
Return to Intuition is a podcast for conscious leaders, working parents, creatives, and seekers who are ready to pause the noise and tune back in. Hosted by Erin McMahon—marketing executive, mother of two, and intuitive seeker—this show explores how reconnecting with your inner voice can transform the way you lead, parent, create, and live.
Each episode offers grounded insight, personal reflection, and meaningful conversations with founders, intuitive leaders, and thoughtful creators navigating growth, ambition, and soul-aligned choices in a fast-changing world.
Let’s face the future knowing our greatest guide is within—and talk to each other about how to use the world around us to build the best every day and an even better future.
00:00:03:01 - 00:00:34:05
Unknown
Hello. This is Erin welcome to Seek Magic. So today we're going to talk a little bit about the magic of AI. And what is magic about it and that magic about it. I come to this topic because I work in AI. I have since 2021 and brought up officially classified as AI, one that holds the companies like UBS, Credit Suisse, Intel, go, help them monitor their systems and detect anomalies before they went down.
00:00:34:07 - 00:01:02:02
Unknown
This was patented AI technology that an NC state professor does for my boss and founded the company created, and that was very forward thinking apps before it became the buzzword of the day. When ChatGPT became part of everybody's daily vocabulary. And now it's, AI's really emerge not only as a buzzword, but almost as a solution is provided.
00:01:02:22 - 00:01:31:17
Unknown
Many parts of the psyche and conversation now, it's really been part of our lives for much longer than many of us would talk about. Google uses AI extensively. Everybody searches. AI is used in a lot of machines that we are aware of. It's like how we get a lot of information. But now AI is top of mind, and people are talking about it and thinking about how they can use it in their personal and professional lives.
00:01:31:17 - 00:01:57:01
Unknown
And so I thought I would just give my perspective on what it is, what it's good for, different types of AI. And yeah, so we'll go from there. So first of all, since this is seek the magic, what is the magic of AI? AI helps us think differently. Faster and more expansively. How does it do that? It does that because it allows us to ask questions is more of a basis of how we're thinking.
00:01:57:06 - 00:02:31:26
Unknown
So instead of asking questions to ourselves, which we do inherently, it allows us to articulate that and ask it to an expansive database of information that can understand what we're asking and deliver us information in an organized and useful fashion. We've been asking questions to Google all the time, but mostly the answers have been delivered to us in the form of, you know, pictures, links, etc. so it's cause we've had to do more of the the hunting and gathering to understand what is important and what's not important.
00:02:32:03 - 00:02:58:17
Unknown
It makes work more efficient. So it helps with idea generation, summaries, campaign dress editing, etc. you know, getting started. That's a big mental hurdle for a lot of people. I know. It certainly is for me. And so I certainly helps with that. And again, that question answered dialog that comes with using these large language models like ChatGPT. You ask something, it gives you back answers.
00:02:58:19 - 00:03:22:24
Unknown
You can have a dialog back and forth. I want to look more into this. This sounds right. This doesn't sound right. Give me more information. Helps you organize our thoughts. It's like an on demand strategy for creative partner if you want it to be. So again, start with one question. It can give you information in a digestible format and then you can dig deeper into one thing or another thing.
00:03:22:26 - 00:03:43:27
Unknown
And, you know, a key component is saying, I think this is right. I think this is all right. Let's look at it into it in a bit more details. Surfaces inside that gives us new angles and information. When we use Google, sometimes we'll ask question and we have to dig and we can look at Wikipedia which is a general source, and then we can look at specific source of information.
00:03:43:27 - 00:04:16:20
Unknown
But what ChatGPT does is it can condense this information to make us in some different data sources in very quick amounts of time. And then we can make judgments for ourselves and expand our creative capacity and really go extend beyond our horizon in terms of what we're thinking, to advance thought further, faster. So AI is sort of like that wise, but sometimes a centric partner who's reading every book in the library, brilliant, but not always grounded in reality.
00:04:16:20 - 00:04:46:21
Unknown
And I think that's a key part, although it is magical and useful in terms of how it can deliver you information and expand your knowledge set. And when you're thinking about and how you're thinking about it, it is not truth. And you do have to come to it with a very skeptical mindset. And, you know, sort of like opening in terms of having it present information to you, but then questioning what makes sense and doesn't make sense.
00:04:46:23 - 00:05:11:28
Unknown
You very much need to rely upon yourself to validate what what is being delivered or not delivered, and then optimize accordingly. So that gets into why it's not magic. Human may data biases and blindspots so built by humans key because, just as Google is built by humans and Facebook and a lot of the other tools we made, it's not perfect.
00:05:11:28 - 00:05:41:21
Unknown
And so we shouldn't take what is delivered to us for granted. And that can it can be easy to fall into that trap if something seems like great and useful information, but it's important to check what you're looking at, verify the different sources of information. So even going from one one tool and chat tool to another 1 or 1 chat qubit tool and then checking on Google or checking on another reliable source and making sure the information is correct.
00:05:41:21 - 00:06:05:29
Unknown
So I doesn't understand in the way humans understand which is a key point that some people get tripped up on because they can have conversations with you. It seems like it understands, but it is predicting based on pattern patterns of information in the world based on the data that it is given, and then patterns based on the information and the questioning that you're giving to it.
00:06:06:01 - 00:06:54:04
Unknown
It's trained on internet. Well, most large language models are trained on internet scale information, but it doesn't have access to all data. And this will certainly play a role in AI moving forward, which again, is why it's important to look at it with a a research mind as a tool. But not the ultimate answer to things. Specific AI tools within, let's say, universities or certain catalogs of information will be key to helping us do research and find out more pinpoint and information from certain authorities, because that information is extremely valuable and people don't necessarily want to open that up to the global databases for consumption.
00:06:54:04 - 00:07:20:15
Unknown
So looking at is access to certain levels of information for general ideation. Pointing you in certain directions is really good, but it doesn't access all data. I do think all data will have a layer of to help us interact with it. So that is being developed now, many different companies and research laboratories and things like that. So I think that's very exciting.
00:07:20:17 - 00:07:50:02
Unknown
But again, key doesn't have these large language models and a lot of tools don't have access to all data that can be inaccurate. And I'll get into this more. But the company I currently work for does AI observability. And part of that is to judge how accurate an AI model is, because they do have information that's not they can lead you in a certain direction because again, they recognize certain patterns that may seem correct and they're not.
00:07:50:04 - 00:08:15:25
Unknown
And it also can hallucinate effects. So for example, there is a certain online tool that said, you know, the San Francisco Bay bridge was built in the Egyptian age or something. You know, silly like that that we know is not true. But it came up with various internet sources that, you know, predicted this fact. So AI tools need iteration, context, and your judgment to be effective.
00:08:15:25 - 00:08:37:02
Unknown
And, you know, that is under the category of, you know, maybe not not magic because it can't do anything for you, but is magic invaluable because it shows how important the human component is of what you're doing and how you're doing it. So tool, an analogy is like, I don't know if I completely agree with this one, but it's like G.P.S..
00:08:37:05 - 00:09:00:05
Unknown
It helps you navigate where you're going. But if you're driving a car and you realize that the map is leading you towards a construction site or a lake, then you need to re optimize. So the real magic isn't the machine, it's how we use it. Now we're going to get into some definitions about what general terms in AI are and some analogies.
00:09:00:08 - 00:09:27:27
Unknown
So AI is technology that mimics human intelligence keeping mimics. And that's why it's, you know, connected to to us and how we're doing things because it, it works how our brain works. So it's like a clever intern fast, useful. But it doesn't always know. And it's wrong. Machine learning is AI that learns from data over time. So it's like showing a child 10,000 pictures of dogs until they just get it and understand.
00:09:28:02 - 00:09:54:22
Unknown
And actually, part of you know, how a kid learns is pretty magical because they can see similar pictures and pick up patterns very quickly. It doesn't necessarily take 10,000. But anyway, for machine learning, that's that's how it works. Large language models are trained on massive text datasets to understand and generate language. So it's like a parrot who mimics speech but doesn't necessarily know what it means.
00:09:54:22 - 00:10:19:26
Unknown
It's based on the information it's given. It's not based on holistic all information, which is again where we need that human judgment. Generative AI is AI that creates content, including text, images, audio and code. So I have experimented with AI images and it produces some amazing and fascinating things. And it also produces some things that are so weird and wrong.
00:10:20:15 - 00:10:49:14
Unknown
So this is certainly one of those things that is being developed and will do will expand very quickly. I think it, will help, certainly in the marketing creation realm in terms of how we communicate with each other. But it is something that I believe certainly needs that component of, of humans. Another key term, hallucinations, which is a good one to remind us of what AI is in these different contexts.
00:10:49:16 - 00:11:20:04
Unknown
It's a tool that helps us grow and learn, but it makes mistakes and it is growing and learning, and it needs humans to monitor it and optimize it. So I make false information or misleading content. The analogy could be direct storytelling, convincing, but likely fictional. So just to quickly get into some of the key, tools that are used for business and personal life and things like that, one is open.
00:11:20:04 - 00:11:47:13
Unknown
I feel like that's the most famous one as it emerged on onto the global stage a few years ago, it really brought AI to the forefront. And in terms of the buzziest, the buzzwords that one can ever find and AI is part of, you know, every company's mission statement, goals, objectives, etc., which I think it certainly should be and it should be leveraged and incorporated into how we live.
00:11:47:13 - 00:12:21:28
Unknown
But the key is understanding what we mean when we say AI and, how we plan to apply it and what tools we're using when we are going about it. So again, open AI strengths is the best generally strong logic. This is it is slower and costly and can hallucinate confidently. In my case, I use it for coming up with ideas, summarization, coming up with different points, and I feel like it's the most powerful tool in the market for general general, use cases.
00:12:22:00 - 00:12:47:26
Unknown
Claude, which is by anthropic, is emotionally sensitive and has a longer memory. So, it can work in different data sources, and give you, give you sources from almost across different models. It can be cautious, too cautious and vague in terms of the answers it delivers. You can be used for planning, writing, support and, coaching style outputs.
00:12:47:29 - 00:13:17:16
Unknown
Two is Meta's open source model. It is, customizable and private, certainly dev heavy. The meta has invested significantly in using it and getting businesses to use this platform. When I was at the GTC conference a few weeks ago, they had a huge in GTC as provides the infrastructure hardware for a lot of the models, and Lamo is there with a big booth trying to get developers to build on their open source platform.
00:13:17:19 - 00:13:46:21
Unknown
So it's good for internal enterprise tools, and it's legal and finance focused. Deep SIC. That's an emerging player that came out this year because it emerged from China, and they boldly stated that they could run a large language model for a small fraction of the cost of what open AI and large competitors run their own platform for, and as a result, they really disrupted the market.
00:13:46:21 - 00:14:10:02
Unknown
It made a lot of headlines, and I think they have some operational efficiencies that they've introduced, but they also made a splash for a reason to be at the forefront. But the other large language models are certainly using the most cutting edge technology and are, assessing in other ways right now, mostly being used for R&D, technical use and, data modeling.
00:14:10:05 - 00:14:45:22
Unknown
So, as I said, I started work in AI before GPT came out, when I was certainly used across businesses, but it was in an emerging keyword. And there's this buzz buzzword as it is today. And today I hear it at least 50 times a day in the work I do, in the personal conversations I have in the spiritual communities when, I, you know, listen to podcasts about talking to your inner voice or connecting to higher wisdom.
00:14:45:22 - 00:15:10:16
Unknown
Some leaders are using AI and, you know, some positive ways and some negative ways. Again, reflecting on the principles that I showed before, how how we should think of AI is as good and, you know, magic and useful. And then where we're we're coming to are I think those are important things to keep in mind as we use it and tools in our individual lives as well as business.
00:15:10:23 - 00:15:43:14
Unknown
So right now, I'm connected to AI because I work as, marketing leader, added AI infrastructure, a company called ether that sells AI infrastructure for emerging teams, building AI. So it's exciting because I get to see a lot of different potential use cases for how I can help people, whether it's, building videos, generating videos, generating content, understanding and navigating blockchain, helping customer service in interesting ways.
00:15:43:14 - 00:16:11:22
Unknown
There's lots of emerging examples of how it's used across industries, and I'm excited to see where it goes. And maybe I'll I'll get into that a little more in a different episode. So how I can be embedded already in our lives is there for work, brainstorming, writing and analysis. It can help with ideas and organizations, trips or going on, routine planning, etc. certainly creativity for helping spark ideas or build out ideas.
00:16:11:24 - 00:16:34:12
Unknown
And you know, for those of us who consume a lot, it can help with, you know, remembering what we've listened to, whether it be on podcasts, video meetings, etc. and it can all of us organize our thoughts. So what this matter, why this matters? And you know what I'm thinking about in terms of more content moving forward? AI is powerful, but it needs human discernment.
00:16:34:15 - 00:16:57:25
Unknown
I think several episodes will hopefully help this audience use AI with intention, understand it without fear, and think about how it can be used in positive ways and keep humanity in the loop. So how I'm thinking about it moving forward. AI and work, how to stay relevant and ahead. Yeah, and parenting. Raising thoughtful humans in a machine world AI and spirituality.
00:16:57:25 - 00:17:18:01
Unknown
Tech is mirror, not a master, an AI and creativity. Knowing. Wanting to collaborate, collaborate and unplug. So think about how you've been using AI. What I mean is you. And is there any topics that you'd like me to dive more deeply into? And I hope them you find the magic in your day to day. Thanks.