NOT a swarm! (Friends)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Practical AI co-host, Chris Benson, joins us to discuss the latest advancements in AI, drones, home automation, and robotic swarming tech. Chris defines “swarm” with detail/precision and it turns out that what most people are calling a swarm today is NOT a swarm!

Join the discussion

Changelog++ members save 8 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!

Sponsors:

• Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more.
• Namespace – Speed up your development and testing workflows using your existing tools. (Much) faster GitHub actions, Docker builds, and more. At an unbeatable price.
• Augment Code – Developer AI that uses deep understanding of your large codebase and how you build software to deliver personalized code suggestions and insights. Augment provides relevant, contextualized code right in your IDE or Slack. It transforms scattered knowledge into code or answers, eliminating time spent searching docs or interrupting teammates.
• NordLayer – Protect your business with NordLayer, the toggle-ready network security platform built for modern teams. VPN, access control, and threat protection—no hardware or complex setup required. Get 28% off NordLayer yearly plans this Black Friday with code changelog-28 at nordlayer.com/thechangelog

Featuring:

• Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Bluesky, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Practical AI
• Jeff Bezos takes Co-CEO role at Project Prometheus
• I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Got Weird.
• IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products
• Swarm Robotics – Wikipedia
• Swarm Robotic Platforms – Wikipedia
• Swarm Intelligence – Wikipedia
• Ant Robotics – Wikipedia
• The Matter specifications
• Home Assistant – Open Source Home Automation
• The Besieged Fortress (2006)
• Programming Multiple Robots with ROS 2
• ROS 2 Multi-Robot Simulation Best Practices
• Hugging Face AI Agents Course
• Embassy – Embedded async framework for Rust
• Tokio – Asynchronous Runtime for Rust
• Beginner’s Guide to Self-Hosting Your Own AI

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Luvut

1. Let's talk! (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Tiger Data (00:00:37)

https://www.tigerdata.com

3. Skype & Friends (00:02:20)

4. Too late for NVDA? (00:05:40)

5. Not a recent thing (00:07:00)

6. Picking winners (00:09:18)

7. Open models FTW (00:13:02)

8. Peak parameter? (00:13:45)

9. Project Prometheus (00:15:46)

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/17/jeff-bezos-reportedly-returns-to-the-trenches-as-co-ceo-of-new-ai-startup-project-prometheus/

10. What is cool? (00:19:49)

11. Roomba is the future (00:26:22)

12. Home automation (00:29:43)

13. Sponsor: Namespace (00:31:53)

https://namespace.so

14. IKEA gets in the game (00:33:31)

https://www.ikea.com/global/en/newsroom/retail/the-new-smart-home-from-ikea-matter-compatible-251106/

15. Matter-compatible (00:33:53)

https://handbook.buildwithmatter.com/specification/

16. Air autonomy (00:34:48)

17. Animals swarm (00:36:55)

18. The swarm definition (00:38:55)

19. E pluribus unum (00:41:05)

20. The Besieged Fortress (00:44:14)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0474427/

21. Not a swarm! (00:49:23)

22. Mission control (00:51:24)

23. The case of the queen (00:55:06)

24. Humans on-the-loop (00:59:16)

25. Jerod sniffs danger (01:02:38)

26. Inflating billions (01:05:50)

27. Sponsor: Augment Code (01:06:33)

https://www.augmentcode.com

28. Sponsor: NordLayer (01:08:03)

https://nordlayer.com/thechangelog

29. Aladdin's genie problem (01:10:49)

30. State of the art (01:14:23)

31. The next three years (01:15:46)

32. Adam's three use cases (01:18:58)

33. Also not a swarm (01:21:57)

34. Where the people swarm (01:24:01)

35. Go make stuff (01:30:52)

36. Chris on Alexa (01:33:49)

37. Take the power back (01:36:38)

38. Adam's idea (01:37:23)

39. Bye, friends (01:38:32)

40. Next week on the pod (01:39:35)