What happens when the AI revolution collides with the physical limits of our infrastructure? In this episode of Debug Mode, Erica Hughberg is joined by Zachary Smith to explore how AI is transforming the world of cloud computing, data centers, and hardware — and why the biggest challenges ahead go far beyond GPUs and model performance.

AI can write your code, choose its own tools, and book your next trip. But who checks that it actually did the job? In this episode of Debug Mode, we explore what it takes to give AI agents more responsibility—and how to keep track of what they’re doing. We discuss intent-based tool selection, MCP and WebMCP, and why a convincing demo doesn’t always translate into reliable automation. We also get into the personal AI assistant everyone seems to be building: one that manages travel, handles household tasks, and hopefully remembers to order coffee before you run out. Then it’s back to code: QA agents, automated verification, tests that capture business intent, and the growing challenge of reviewing AI-generated contributions.

A large language model knows everything and nothing at the same time. Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, joins us ahead of his keynote at AGNTCon + MCPCon North America to talk about what that paradox means for the people building with these models.