How to Use AI in Thought Leadership Without Losing Credibility

How this transcript was made

Transcribed by machine from the published audio, then corrected by hand. It is not a verbatim record: the changes below were made, and are counted.

This episode

56 speaker turns, 83 changes.

• 30 turns labelled "Guest" resolved to Alastair McDermott, Announcer
• closing CTA identified as CTA 3 - Resources (match 100%), replaced with the authored script and attributed to Max

What was changed in these transcripts, and what was not

Generated: 2026-09-20 from 2026-09-20-named/, itself transcribed from the audio that is live on the feed. Every change below is mechanical and counted. No sentence was reworded, no claim altered, nothing removed for being awkward.

The editorial decision

Owner's choice, 2026-09-20: light clean. "Um", "uh" and stammered word repeats ("and, and") are removed, because nobody intends to say them. "You know", "I mean", "kind of" and "sort of" are KEPT - they run to roughly 2,300 instances across the catalogue and stripping them would make the page read as somebody else.

Counts across the whole set

Change	Count
stammered repeat removed	667
um / uh removed	654
space before punctuation	241
split contraction	132
guest turn named (Joe Casabona)	101
organization -> organisation	71
diarisation fragment returned to the host	62
ai -> AI	57
empty turn dropped (was filler only)	36
synthetic outro restored from script	21
organizations -> organisations	18
hyphen followed by space	14
realize -> realise	14
A.I. -> AI	10
recognized -> recognised	9
gray -> grey	9
summarize -> summarise	9
color -> colour	9
behavior -> behaviour	8
synthetic intro restored from script	8
analyze -> analyse	7
behavioral -> behavioural	7
recognize -> recognise	6
percent -> %	5
personalized -> personalised	5
skeptical -> sceptical	5
analyzing -> analysing	5
center -> centre	5
optimization -> optimisation	4
realized -> realised	4
favorite -> favourite	4
realizing -> realising	4
canceled -> cancelled	4
recognizing -> recognising	4
announcer turn relabelled from Guest	4
summarizing -> summarising	4
labor -> labour	4
behaviors -> behaviours	4
colors -> colours	4
organizational -> organisational	4
customized -> customised	3
analog -> analogue	3
optimize -> optimise	3
honor -> honour	2
optimizing -> optimising	2
summarizes -> summarises	2
personalize -> personalise	1
prioritize -> prioritise	1
prioritized -> prioritised	1
organize -> organise	1
rumor -> rumour	1
organized -> organised	1
capitalize -> capitalise	1
centered -> centred	1
organizes -> organises	1
emphasize -> emphasise	1
split name repaired (Schaefer)	1
humor -> humour	1
traveling -> travelling	1
defense -> defence	1
maximize -> maximise	1
Organizations -> Organisations	1
apologize -> apologise	1
digitized -> digitised	1
monetize -> monetise	1
analyzed -> analysed	1
narrator opener re-attributed to Max, words left as transcribed	1
theater -> theatre	1
specialized -> specialised	1
split name repaired (Wadsworth)	1
aluminum -> aluminium	1
specializes -> specialises	1
skeptic -> sceptic	1
customize -> customise	1
personalization -> personalisation	1
optimized -> optimised	1
visualize -> visualise	1
spoken domain -> humanspark.ai	0

What was deliberately left alone

• "Program". A computer program keeps that spelling in UK English; only a broadcast or a scheme is a "programme", and only a reader can tell which was meant.
• "License" and "practice". Both have a noun/verb spelling split in UK English that a rule cannot decide.
• Capitalised words mid-sentence that would otherwise have been respelled: 4 of them, most often part of a name. Left as spoken.
• Retired show and brand names. Spoken by the host and guests. A transcript that removes what was said is not a transcript.
• "Co-pilot". Sometimes Microsoft's product, sometimes the metaphor. A rule would corrupt the honest ones.

The synthetic segments

The opening voiceover on the archive episodes and the closing call to action are read by Max, the show's AI narrator, from a script written in advance. Transcribing them means guessing at words already on file, and the guesses were wrong in places - one opener came back as "an AI that boned him up" where the script says "phoned him up". Those passages carry the authored text instead, and are attributed to Max rather than to the guest: the diariser groups Max with the non-host speaker, which would otherwise put a real person's name on words they never said.

Alastair McDermottCan thought leaders use AI in an authentic way, or is that a contradiction in terms? How can we use AI without compromising ourselves as thinkers and pioneers in thought?

How do we resolve the tension that occurs between these conflicting concepts? I'm going to speak with experts in thought leadership and

AI.

I'm going to demonstrate some of the tools and processes that I use myself that use AI. I'm going to talk to others about the tools that they're

Using.

And I'm going to explore some of the cutting edge of technology that's coming online now.

This show is going to cover practical issues, as well as some of the more difficult questions about ethics, intellectual property, and thought leadership

How we bridge that gap of can we use AI in an authentic way for thought leadership? That's what we're going to talk about and explore in the AI -powered Thought Leader.

AnnouncerWelcome to the AI-powered Thought Leader.

This is the show that helps thought leaders and aspiring thought leaders to explore the challenges and contradictions that occur at the intersection of AI and authentic thought leadership.

Here is your host, Alastair McDermott.

Alastair McDermottI think that the reality is that just like in every other field, the integration of AI and thought leadership is inevitable. It's more a question of how it happens rather than if it happens.

And you might not be concerned about AI making your ideas obsolete, but you might be concerned about the fact that AI can generate really high quality content in seconds.

And if you think that it can't, then you maybe you need to take another look at some of the tools. And we're going to do that on this podcast.

And what then becomes of the human journey and the intellectual labour creating and cultivating these insights is our role to be reduced to curator or editor of machine generated content and

machine generated thinking. If AI can help with distribution and idea generation and content generation, where does authenticity and originality fit in?

Does AI undermine our value and commoditize our work? Does it marginalize our human effort? Will it be impossible to tell what is authentically human versus artificially created?

And does that even matter? But first I'd like to define what is thought leadership. And I'm going to ask a friend of mine and please just bear with her.

We're on a little bit of a slow connection, so it's going to take her a second to answer, but she's pretty smart. And I just want to get her perspective on this.

Hey, I'd like to have a quick conversation with you about AI and thought

Leadership for my podcast. Is that okay? Absolutely. That sounds great. What specific aspects of AI and thought leadership would you like to

Discuss? Well, first off, can you define thought leadership for me? I'm really interested in a definition of thought leader and thought

Leadership. A thought leader is recognised for their expertise and perspective that contribute to the advancement of their field, often influencing trends, innovations, and best practices.

They share their knowledge through various channels like articles, speeches, and social media, aiming to educate and inspire others. Does this help clarify the concept for you?

Yeah, it does. I'm interested and maybe concerned about the tension between the concepts of being a thought leader and the credibility and authenticity that comes with that.

And then the concept of using AI assistance in creating content in specifically in creating thought leadership content, because it seems like those two things are at odds.

Can you tell me a little bit more about how you think about

That? That's a really interesting point. The tension between thought leadership and using AI for content creation is indeed a nuanced issue.

On one hand, thought leadership is deeply tied to personal expertise, experience, and authentic insights.

It's about bringing something new and valuable to the conversation, which is inherently human.

On the other hand, AI can assist in various ways, like enhancing the efficiency of content production, offering data-driven insights,

and even suggesting novel ideas based on vast amounts of information it can process.

Okay, so can you tell me what is the most important thing for me as an aspiring thought leader in my use of AI and how I approach it?

The most important thing as an aspiring thought leader using AI is to ensure that your unique voice, expertise, and authentic insights remain at the forefront of your content.

Think of AI as a tool to augment your abilities, not oversh adow them.

Here are a few tips: One, use AI to handle research and data analysis, giving you more time to focus on interpreting the findings and adding your personal insights.

Two, leverage AI for content suggestions, but always infuse the final output with your experiences, perspective, and voice to maintain authenticity.

Three, stay informed about the capabilities and limitations of AI in your field to ensure accurate and credible content.

In essence, it's about striking a balance where AI enhances your work, but doesn't dilute your personal touch and the value you bring as a human expert. Okay, so that was dual purpose.

I wanted to get a

Definition of thought leadership at the start of this podcast so that we have something to refer back to.

And, but I also wanted to demonstrate to you where the cutting edge is right now of AI in terms of interaction. And that sequence was recorded. It's not edited in any way.

I know there's a gap between me speaking and then the response that it waits half a second or so for me to stop

Speaking.

And then it goes off. It uploads my voice up onto the servers. It transcribes it, and then it goes through what I just said and then figures out how to answer it.

And then it translates that back into sound. So that was all done live.

That wasn't like the voiceover intro, which you heard at the start of this episode is something where I took a script and I put that into a tool and I said,

Hey, I want you to read this out and give me the sound file for it.

that wasn't what I just did now with this conversation about thought leadership that was completely recorded live and, in one straight through uncut session.

So that's where the cutting edge of these tools are right now.

And that's what I find really fascinating is that we are now at the point where we can have this conversation back and forth and get really solid,

good answers to a conversation that we're having.

And I use this tool all the time now, particularly when I'm driving or sometimes when I'm cooking in the kitchen, and I get it to help me with recipes and suggestions and

Things like that.

So those are, you know, like, that's the, by the way, just so in case you're interested in testing this out, that's using the ChatGPT app from open AI on my iPhone.

And, so that's the latest version of that. I'm recording this in March of 2024.

So that's where it's at now in early days of, of AI really, I think this is going to get much better and better, which is, very exciting and also very scary.

And that's why I think it's really important that we learn more about these tools, about how they work. We think about

How we integrate them.

We think about how we use them, how we acknowledge our use of them. you know, that was something that, that ChatGPT, suggested there is talking about authenticity

And that's one of the things that I really like about doing this particular podcast is I can be very transparent and honest and straight up about telling you know,

all of the things, not that I wouldn't want to do that, otherwise, but you know, it is a consideration where, you know,

we use a tool, for example, if we use an AI now, do we need to think about, okay, do we acknowledge that we used it?

So for example, if I use Microsoft word with spell check, you know, in 2007, I didn't acknowledge Microsoft word spell check in my writing.

Do I need to do, if I ask a ChatGPT to do a spelling and grammar check, if I ask it to reward something, do I need to acknowledge it?

So, you know, there's these kinds of nuanced, things that we need to figure out that are not so straightforward.

I had a great conversation with my friend, Joe Casabona, and I'm going to run that podcast episode.

on this podcast at some point, because, it really helped to develop my thinking about this.

And, and I think that, you know, there's a lot of nuance to this discussion that I think needs to be aired.

So I'm going to be talking to a lot of people who are experts in AI, people who are just using AI a lot, people who are thought leaders,

and I'm going to be talking to them about how they think about all of these things.

Cause I think it's something that we really need to think a lot more about discuss and figure out, you know, there's a lot of other issues that need to be figured out with AI

But at least we can approach, on this podcast, we can approach how we can think about using it for thought leadership.

Okay.

Final thing before I wrap this up, I want to give you a quick rundown of the tools that I actually used in making this episode.

And it's important to note that this is also available as a video.

So wherever you got this, if you're accessing the audio only version of the podcast, there is a link in the show notes somewhere to access this on YouTube.

And you'll be able to see what I'm talking about.

So I want to give you a rundown of all of the tools that I use to help me create the podcast, this episode and plan the podcast in general, as well as create the titles.

And I'm not planning to get into specific details as much in future episodes, but just for episode one, I want to give you a real world example of using AI assistance in creating thought

leadership content. And demonstrate where the capabilities are at right now, and I want to emphasise that the capabilities that we're seeing today are the worst these tools will ever be,

and that they will only improve and they're improving at an exponential rate.

So I'm probably not going to get into tools as much in future episodes, but I want to give for anybody who's not using these tools on a regular basis.

I want to give you kind of an overview of what it's capable of. If I go back to the very start of the planning and ideation, I started planning this while I was on a drive last week,

cross country, and I was brainstorming and using the paid version of ChatGPT as an app on my phone.

I had my headset in, and I was just using the conversation feature of ChatGPT in order to have a conversation and start to plan out the podcast.

And it was just a slightly longer version of what I just did with you earlier on, where I had that conversation back and forth. And so I started to do planning for the podcast in that way

Now, there is another thing that I used, which is part of ChatGPT, which is called a custom GPT.

And this is where you can make your own version of ChatGPT as a chat, where you give it your own information and documents. And I made one of these with my books.

So for example, in particular, I've written a book called 33 ways not to screw up your business podcast.

And obviously that's about planning and creating a business podcast and mistakes that people make. And there's also a companion workbook called your podcast launch workbook.

And so I use this custom GPT and I was having a conversation with this custom GPT in particular to help plan out my podcast because I have a lot of information on there about planning a

podcast.

And so what I was able to do was get ChatGPT using my own podcast planning and information guides to actually help me plan out everything that I needed for this podcast and walk me through

step by step through the process. And so we ended up with a table, you know, rows and columns with all of the planning, all the things I need to do on a to do list of items.

And this was all done completely hands off while I was

Driving.

So that was the basic planning done using ChatGPT. The next thing that I needed to do was I need to create some initial images, some artwork.

And so I did actually ask ChatGPT again using the DALI version of the image generator. So there's an image generator built into ChatGPT called D

ALI.

And so I use that. I also used a tool called Midjourney, which is another

Image generator.

I think it's a bit more advanced than DALI, but it's also harder to use just because of the way that we access it currently through Discord. So I use that tool.

I use both of those to create some images for the podcast and create some like the title images and cover art and things like that.

So that got me to the stage where I had most of the planning done, most of the kind of the basic assets for the podcast in general.

Okay, so the next thing I wanted to do was I wanted to actually start recording the voiceover intro.

So I want to have a voiceover intro where there's a somebody introducing me and the podcast.

And what I like to do is I like to have that person be the opposite gender to whoever the host is. So because I'm male, I wanted to get a female voiceover.

If it was a female host, by the way, I'd recommend that it's a male voiceover just for that contrast and just to break up the audio a bit for the listener.

So I took the script of the voiceover intro that I had written with the assistance of ChatGPT and I put it into a tool called 11Labs.

And I tested a few different voice types and eventually I picked the one that I'm using here.

This is a demo of me using 11Labs to convert text to speech for the AI-powered thought leader.

So now from 11Labs, I have an MP3 audio file of the intro script. And so now what I want to do is create some video images to go along with that and also some background music.

So just to start with the background music, I tested a few different AI music generators.

And so the one that I used in the end, I think it was called Boomy, I tested one called Splash, one called Iva.

And I wasn't happy with many of them, but this one gave me kind of the feel that I was going for this kind of interesting,

maybe slightly eerie, but kind of just kind of low key or a kind of a low key introduction. And so have that voiceover background music. We've got the voiceover script itself.

And so the next thing I wanted to do was I wanted to create some actual images, some images representing thought leadership in particular.

And so I went back to brainstorm with ChatGPT and specifically I asked it for suggestions for iconic thought leaders from various different stages of history.

And I gave it some examples, like I said, for example, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, but I also wanted to make sure that women were represented.

So I asked specifically for some suggestions for that.

And so it suggested, for example, Hypatia of Alexandria in the great library and Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the thought leaders in women's rights.

She wrote thoughts on the education of daughters in 1787. So now I have some really great iconic thought leaders to represent in this video.

And what I wanted to do next was create the actual pictures

Of the video.

So what I did was I asked ChatGPT to use DALI to generate some images of the thought leader created in the style of drawing or recording that they had available to them in the

Time.

So, for example, there's a like a hand drawing of the ancient Greek Agora where Socrates and Plato might have spoken with other philosophical leaders with the image of Einstein.

For example, I asked for it to be generated in the style of a black and white film camera that might have been used at

The time.

So that got me now still images of each one of these thought leaders. And I could have put this together.

This would have been good enough with the background music to put together a slideshow style. But I wanted to I wanted to make it a bit more than that. I wanted to add some motion into it.

And so I used a tool called Runway, which is a video generation tool. And you can actually give Runway a text prompt and ask it to generate video for you from that.

But I wasn't crazy about the quality of video that it created from that. So what I did was I gave it the images as input.

And so if you give an input image to Runway, it can add some motion and movement into the image that you give it. And so I tested that with a few different things and it worked very well.

It gave me a short, maybe four or five second video clip for each of the images that I generated.

And then I manually stitched those together one by one in order, actually in order of the real world timeline.

So starting with the Greeks and then Alexandria and then Da Vinci and then Newton, Einstein and so on.

And then actually, just for fun, I added a futuristic robot and a human having a discussion, kind of like that's the future of AI and thought leadership.

So I put all that together and I ran the voiceover intro with the background music.

AnnouncerWelcome to the AI Powered Thought Leader.

This is the show that helps thought leaders and aspiring thought leaders to explore the challenges and contrad ictions that occur at the intersection of AI and authentic thought leadership.

Here is your host, Alastair McDermott.

Alastair McDermottSo if you're watching the video, you'll see that this video is far from perfect.

In fact, there's some glitches that you can see, like, for example, Einstein's face is definitely not perfect, but it's still pretty good. But here's the really key part.

So in the context of everything that I just described to you, start to finish, in terms of making the video, I did all of that in under two hours.

And that's not because I'm amazingly skilled or anything

Like that.

It's simply because the tools are available to do these

Things quickly.

And if you know how to put together these basic tools, you can do stuff like this very quickly. And so for me, it's the accelerating effect of this. And, you know, that's the real power.

Finally, probably my favourite of the ChatGPT competitor is Claude.AI, from Anthropic. And I use Claude quite a lot for two reasons.

So number one is I much prefer the text output that I get from Claude compared to ChatGPT.

And then the second issue is Claude has a much larger context window, which means it can read larger documents as

Input.

And so I find it very useful as a podcaster because I can feed an entire podcast transcript into Claude and ask it to do various things like,

for example, suggest title options and write show notes for me. And that's what I've used it for in the specific circumstances. I'm using it to write show notes for this episode.

So that's the final tool. That's Claude.AI.

And I'm actually using the free version of that because Anthropic is preventing me from signing up for the paid version right now because I'm based outside of the US.

We don't have access to it in the EU yet.

So I'm still using the free version.

But I find that the free version of Claude is very

Good.

So I highly recommend checking that out as well. So again, I'm not going to go into the tools as much in future episodes.

I just wanted to give you an overview for people who were curious about specifics and also just to give you an idea of some of the ways,

like a real example of some of the ways that you might actually use these tools.

And that allowed me in the course of, you know, a three hour drive and then a morning with my computer in the office, put together pretty much everything that you see here.

I'm going to give you a list of all of those tools again, and I'm going to link to all of them in the show notes.

So I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about AI, anything that we've covered today. And I'd love to get your feedback. I'd love to get your thoughts on this.

And the amount of feedback and shares and comments and things like that kind of engagement, that will tell me how much effort I should put into this podcast.

So if you do like it, please do share it and tell people

About it.

So please stick around.

I hope that you enjoyed this first episode and I'm going to bring you some more great episodes, some great conversations with people who are absolutely at the forefront and cutting edge of

this. So thanks for listening. Thanks for watching and see you in the next episode.

MaxThanks for listening to Something About AI. Everything discussed here, and a good deal more, is backed up by free resources over at humanspark.ai. No cost, no catch.

If this episode was useful, pass it on to someone who would use it, and subscribe so the next one finds you.