AI, Oil & the Future of Energy | Inside Machine Learning with Dr. James Cassanelli (Talk Show! EP16)

Artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping the oil and energy industry—and most people have no idea how deep it already goes.

In Episode 16 of Talk Show!, we sit down with Dr. James Cassanelli, a Machine Learning Engineer with a PhD in Planetary Science, to unpack how AI and large language models are actually being used inside one of the world’s most complex and misunderstood industries.

We cover:
How machine learning is changing drilling decisions in real-world oil operations
What extreme environments do to data quality, model reliability, and risk
How AI usage in energy has evolved in just the last year vs. the past decade
Whether fully autonomous drilling and self-optimizing pipelines are closer than people think
The ethical and technical risks of deploying AI in high-stakes energy infrastructure
Advice for junior ML engineers breaking into applied, industrial AI

Plus: the strangest data sources, future predictions, and questions no one ever asks

This conversation cuts through hype and fear-mongering to show what AI actually looks like when it leaves the lab and hits the field—with real consequences, real constraints, and real engineering tradeoffs.

Whether you’re into AI, machine learning, energy, climate, engineering, or the future of work, this episode offers rare insight from someone building the systems—not just talking about them.

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