Adam Spencer has spent decades making difficult things feel accessible. Through his sextuple threats of maths, science, technology, AI, public speaking and comedy he has developed a rare ability to move between worlds, explore frontier topics and somehow take people with him. That made him a particularly interesting person to talk to at a moment when artificial intelligence is beginning to change not just what we can do, but what expertise itself looks like.
In this episode of StoryWork, Adam talks about the rapid evolution of AI, from reinforcement learning and AlphaGo to conversational large language models, vibe coding, real-time translation and the emerging possibilities of AI-generated film. We explore what happens when capabilities that once took years to acquire become available through natural language, and whether that makes expertise less valuable or simply changes the kind of expertise that matters.
Adam also talks about the importance of knowing where your own knowledge ends. It’s a theme that led to one of Adam’s best phrases in the episode: his role as an “expertise midwife”, helping people become curious enough to engage with complex ideas and then guiding them towards the people who really know.
We also get into humour as a serious communication tool. And before things got too funny we explored the possibilities of AI consciousness and whether machines might ever become truly sentient. So it’s a conversation about AI, but also about curiosity, humility, humour, communications and what capabilities will remain distinctly human.
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