s04e03 Canada’s Secret 
Advantage in the AI Race

Welcome back to The Big Cheese AI Podcast! In this episode, recorded on September 18, 2025, the crew dives deep into how AI adoption is unfolding across different regions, the potential long-term risks of replacing junior roles with AI, and the new innovations sparked by global competition. From Canada’s rapid AI uptake to China’s energy-efficient spiking brain model, we explore what national strategies might mean for the future of workers, businesses, and economies. We also preview the upcoming Vibe Coding Competition at Rally in Indianapolis, share some wild hackathon stories, and swap insights on the tools we’ve been using for vibe coding.

If you’ve ever wondered how AI regulation, capitalism, and innovation will collide—or what happens when you try to build “Tinder for farm animals” at a hackathon—this episode is one you won’t want to miss.

Episode Timeline:

[1:21] - Behind the scenes: how we create shorts, Riverside frustrations, and other editing tools

[4:57] - Canada’s faster AI adoption and how culture impacts workforce strategies

[7:21] - The risk of losing “junior roles” to AI and parallels with the middle class

[15:56] - China’s “spiking brain” research and the innovation race sparked by restrictions

[22:10] - Preview of the Vibe Coding Competition at Rally and team lineups

[27:44] - Hackathon story: building “Tinder for farm animals”

[38:47] - Using Codex, Cursor, and other AI tools for coding workflows

[47:54] - Small language models, privacy concerns, and building specialized knowledge agents

[52:44] - What to expect next: Amazon’s big push into business AI

Links & Resources:

•Riverside.fm (podcast editing platform)

•Descript (AI editing software)

•DaVinci Resolve & Final Cut Pro (video editing)

•Vibe Coding Competition at Rally, Indianapolis

•Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation (spiking brain research)

•Amazon Bedrock (enterprise AI offerings)

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