Peripety Labs

Remember the days when every electronic device had its own unique charging cable? Travelers carried tangled knots of connectors—one for a smartphone, another for a tablet, and yet another for a laptop. The arrival of USB-C changed everything. One universal standard replaced a chaotic mess, simplifying our lives and enabling seamless compatibility across devices and brands. Artificial intelligence currently faces a similar problem. Every AI model or tool often requires its own unique integration with business data sources, software, and workflows. The result is complexity, inefficiency, and missed opportunities. Enter the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—what some are calling the "USB-C for AI." Just as USB-C created universal compatibility among electronics, MCP aims to standardize how AI models interact with business systems, data sources, and tools. No longer does every AI assistant require a custom-built integration for every unique data source or application. MCP creates a common language, simplifying AI deployments and empowering businesses to plug and play different models, services, and systems seamlessly. This week’s edition is a little geekier than normal but it’s a really interesting and important topic.?

So I know we just closed the books on All Things Open AI. But we have already partnered with the All Things Open Conference to bring the AI Things AI to the southeast's premier technical conference on October So if you are interested in giving a talk on open source. Or if you are submitting for the AI track just AI is fine. I'll be look for best and brightest in the field to share their successes and learnings from generative AI. Check out the post below.

AI isn’t heading toward a single dominant model. ?? Instead, businesses will route tasks dynamically—using different LLMs based on security, expertise, and cost. ? ChatGPT for general tasks ? EnterpriseGPT for proprietary data ? Specialized LLMs for industry-specific insights Stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition as we’re diving into the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard designed to make AI integration as seamless as plugging in a USB-C cable. This shift toward LLM routing is redefining AI strategy. If you haven’t read last week’s deep dive yet, this is your chance. Read here: https://cstu.io/10f446

Last summer, I was all set for a perfect day on the lake—until I couldn’t figure out how to pair my phone to the boat’s stereo. No manual, no instructions, just a mysterious set of buttons. Instead of guessing, I snapped a photo and let ChatGPT’s mobile app do the troubleshooting for me. In seconds, I had step-by-step guidance, and soon, "Sweet Home Alabama" was blasting over the water. This week’s AI Lesson breaks down how you can use ChatGPT’s image analysis to fix tech issues on the spot—whether it’s a stereo, a home appliance, or a tangled mess of cables. No more hunting for manuals. Just snap a picture and get instant answers.

I may be weird, but I love to hear keynotes. Not blatant product pitches but those things that set the tone for a conference. Inspirational stories always win and last week I got a few. Here are the keynotes from last week's All Things Open AI event. I was really inspired by SAS 's Ruth A. 's journey to AI in her keynote - Open-Source GenAI vs. Enterprise GenAI: Navigating the Future of AI Innovation I loved seeing IBM continue to be committed to open source in Sriram Raghavan's keynote, Artificial Intelligence Needs Community Intelligence congrats on their announcement of donating some cool tech to the The Linux Foundation My old friend Sheng Liang showed off their open source Obot Agent project from his company Acorn Labs. And actually showed how agents can enhance our work. Last but certainly not least was Rachel-Lee Nabors from AgentQL had a great look at The Death of the Browser, and the agentic web. Probably some of the best keynotes that were actually connecting the dots from the promise of AI to the world powered by AI we are moving into. Also, I did a keynote about the community I want to build with my partner Todd Lewis around All Things AI - Don’t Panic: AI is coming – The Hitchhiker’s guide to AI. Thanks to our media sponsor All Things Open Conference for recording, editing, and posting the videos. https://lnkd.in/ev_yhBrF

Last summer, I was all set for a perfect day on the lake—until I couldn’t figure out how to pair my phone to the boat’s stereo. No manual, no instructions, just a mysterious set of buttons. Instead of guessing, I snapped a photo and let ChatGPT’s mobile app do the troubleshooting for me. In seconds, I had step-by-step guidance, and soon, "Sweet Home Alabama" was blasting over the water. This week’s AI Lesson breaks down how you can use ChatGPT’s image analysis to fix tech issues on the spot—whether it’s a stereo, a home appliance, or a tangled mess of cables. No more hunting for manuals. Just snap a picture and get instant answers.

All Things Open Conference AI confirmed what we’ve been saying all along: AI adoption isn’t just about technology!! Both the sessions and the conversations we had this week made one thing clear...companies want AI, but they are struggling to implement it in a way that actually works for their teams. ?????????????????? ???????? ???? ???????? ?????????????? ????????. ???????????????????? ??????’?? ???????? ?????? ???? ???????? ???? ??????. ???????????????????? ???? ???? ???????????????????????? ?????????? ???? ?????????????? ?? ??????????????. That is exactly why FractionX takes a culture-first approach to AI. AI isn’t a magic button. It needs to be messaged correctly, integrated into workflows, and aligned with real business outcomes. Great job to Todd, Mark, the speakers, volunteers, and the board of All Things Open Conference AI for putting together such a fantastic event. We enjoyed being part of the first dedicated AI track and look forward to continuing the conversation. At FractionX we believe AI only works when people understand it, trust it, and see how it fits into their day-to-day work. Want to talk about how to bring AI into your business without chaos and confusion? We’re here.??

So I got to spend 2 amazing days at the All Things Open AI event. Day 1 800 people came and got trained in AI, day 2 we had 1000 conference participants. Just to clear the air Yes I wore the same shirt 2 days in a row and yes you can not spell AI without Latinos y en Espanol No puedes escribir IA sin Latinos! It was amazing. 2 days filled with learning from some of the great minds in AI. Getting to sit under the learning tree of folks like Mark Hinkle, Ben Heller, Nick Taylor, Melanie M. just to name a few. Learning about automation, the importance of building security into your AI solutions, not doing AI for the sake of AI but for valid use cases and actual ROI. Learning from a Duke professor in the AI masters program without spending 90k. Mark Hinkle made me realize prompting is like programming, you prompt and get a result but you have to have well defined variables and once you get the output you may have to recompile, ie ask the AI for something again but with other criteria. Also Mark is to blame if I end up watching Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy this weekend. Getting to have conversations with people who are just as passionate about AI as you are fed my soul. I got to have some great conversations with people like Kevin Blanco ??, Roxana Rodriguez-Becker(keep an eye out for her she is doing some awesome stuff), Paula Ramos, PhD, (also keep an eye out, the work she is doing with computer vision is a game changer and the work that we are planning to bring more AI resources in the triangle is going to be ??) Mark Peters, Brenda Killingsworth and so many more. Spending time with my fellow Dads in Tech Mazen Chami Pat Clarke Matt Edenfield Matthew Wood always reminds me that being a dad who works in tech will be the coolest title I will ever have. Thanks to Torc for the really cool swag and the meetup, although I hope to eventually get that hoodie. taylor desseyn, Jason Torres and Briana Holmes are building a community that any dev should be a part of. Also the discord they run is ??!!! Big shout out to Todd Lewis, Marcia Olson and the other leaders who organized this. The commitment and care in all you do is evident and so appreciated. Doing things such as giving away tickets to those in underrepresented groups, people in career transition and ensuring that their is a platform for unique voices to be heard. This event felt like a giant family reunion where I got to see my triangle AI family, got to see my family I only see a couple of times a year. I also realized Benito was right #debitirarmasfoto IYKYK! #atoai

I had the remarkable opportunity to present a session on **“Unleashing the power of vector databases for AI Driven applications “** at the recently concluded All Things Open AI conference this week at the quaint and picturesque Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC. It was a truly wonderful experience to address a room filled—quite literally—with talented technologists, C-suite executives, and other industry leaders. The event was impeccably organized by Todd Lewis, Mark Hinkle, and their amazing team of volunteers, which included many C-level executives and accomplished leaders from across the industry.

I love hooks, that's the beginning to a story or a title or something that makes you stop scrolling. This week, The New Stack published the podcast I did with my friend Alex Williams, founder of The New Stack, where riffed on on AI. I don't recall saying it but I am sure I did but it was today's state of LLM reasoning, so if you want to benefit from Alex' and my conversation, then listen to, "AI Agents Are Dumb Robots, Calling LLMs"