What’s up with “the MIT study” that claims 95% of all AI pilots fail? Did anyone actually read it beyond the headline? (Dan did—and he has thoughts.)

Also: the good, the bad, and the quietly dystopian side of putting AI in kids’ classrooms.

And… are robots really the thing Melania should be worrying about?

That’s just some of what Kwaku Aning, return guest and founder of Retrofuturism, and I get into on this very lively, very bubbly, and very uncrafted edition of CRAFTED.

More new episodes—and a major update to the show—are coming soon. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app and get the newsletter at crafted.fm

---

Come hang with us at PopTech

Come hang with us and see live recordings of CRAFTED., at PopTech!

PopTech is a “curator of what’s next” and this will be my third time at the conference. I keep going back because I get new ideas, new inspiration, and really get to know the attendees and speakers. This year’s talk’s include “A possibilist’s guide to the future”, “AI: In service to human(ity),” “Vibe coding for human rights” and more.

To see the full list of talks and speakers, see PopTech.org and if you’ve never been before and would like a discount, DM me on LinkedIn or email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

---
Referenced in this episode:

• MIT study on AI profits rattles tech investors (Axios)
• Full 26-page MIT study (Scribd)
• AI Is a Money Trap (Ed Zitron)
• The Fever Dream of Imminent Superintelligence Is Finally Breaking (Gary Marcus in the NYTimes)
• How Chatbots and AI Are Already Transforming Kids’ Classrooms (Bloomberg)
• Alpha School – the “AI-Powered Private School”
• Melania Trump Has a Warning for Humanity: ‘The Robots Are Here’ (NYTimes)

---
Like this episode?
You’ll also like my conversation with Khan Academy’s Chief Product & Learning Officer on what happens when AI becomes your tutor—and what it means for the future of learning.

Software is eating the world, right? We've all heard this phrase by now, but inventor and investor Pablos Holman has something important to add: “The world can't eat software.”

That’s why Pablos focuses on “deep tech”, i.e. how to invent new solutions to real world problems like energy, water, waste, construction, and sanitation. Pablos says we’re still mostly using version 1.0 technology for these fundamental systems, but recent advances, including AI and the ability to prototype and test in software, are enabling incredible innovation in hardware.

Pablos has worked with Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and more. He's kind of a mad scientist and in this episode we’ll discuss things that sound like science fiction, but that Pablos says are coming soon, such as solar panels in outer space that can beam clean energy down to earth, autonomous cargo ships blown by the wind across the ocean, and tiny nuclear reactors buried a mile underground that power the world above.

At Deep Future, Pablos is on a mission to solve the world's biggest problems, and he's hoping more people will make the jump that he did from software to hardware and into deep tech, because, as he says, “ all the people who've been building software their entire career, those are the ones who are going to save the world.”

—
Chapters

02:25 Deep tech and why it’s so important

05:56 How Pablos became an inventor

07:44 Getting Blue Origin off the ground

11:35 Running an invention lab at Intellectual Ventures

13:40 Why solar panels in space will soon power Earth

16:46 Why all problems are energy problems

21:33 Better nuclear reactors are coming

28:25 How rapid iteration in software enables better hardware

31:35 An appeal to software people to get into deep tech — and save the world

—

Links:

• Deep Future book, podcast, and firm: deepfuture.tech
• PopTech conference: poptech.org (if you're new to PopTech and would like a discount, email me or DM me on LinkedIn)
• Sign up for the CRAFTED. newsletter: crafted.fm
• Learn more about how Modern Product Minds can help you build the future: modernproductminds.com
• Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

As AI models grow larger and more powerful, they promise incredible capabilities — but at what cost?

Karen Hao is an AI journalist and her new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI, is a New York Times bestseller.

We discuss whether the largest AI models are worth their hefty footprint: They consume massive amounts of electricity and water and Karen argues that smaller models better balance cost vs. benefit.

Karen, who has reported for The Atlantic, MIT Technology Review, and the Wall Street Journal, will also provide a view of AI from outside — far outside — Silicon Valley. She’s reported on AI from across the Global South and says many there feel that AI is a new form of colonialism.

We’ll hear about the fight over data centers in Chile, how New Zealand’s Maori people are using AI to preserve their indigenous language, and why it’s a problem that AI can speak any language, but can only really be policed in a few.

(Our interview was first broadcast in October, while Karen was still writing the book, so we do not discuss her deeply sourced reporting from inside OpenAI.)

—
CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com

Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm