What We Learned This Week | 7-6-25
Software 3.0, Builder's Playbook for AI, State of Cybersecurity, How to Invest in AI, Utilities Workforce Talent Strategy, and more..
Hope you enjoyed the much needed July 4th Break! Below are some of the articles and podcasts which caught my attention past week. As always, welcome your feedback and ideas.
Articles
Andrej Karpathy’s Software 3.0: Software Eating Software Eating Software | Interference | Model mashup: The new software stack and the inexorable march towards abstraction
2025 State of AI Report: The Builder’s Playbook | ICONIQ | Across all dimensions - from infrastructure to GTM and talent - the leading AI builders are defined not just by model sophistication, but by their strategic agility, cost discipline, and willingness to experiment fast
Unsticking Your AI Transformation | Bain | Treating GenAI as a tool isn’t working. It’s time to redesign work, rethink operating models, and lead from the top
State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2025 | Accenture | What are the key strategies for enhancing cybersecurity resilience in an AI-driven world? How can your organizations boost their security posture maturity?
How to Invest in AI | HBR | How should companies be thinking about investing resources toward AI capabilities — Four different approaches: build, buy, blend, and partner
Podcasts/Videos
Inside ChatGPT, AI assistants, and building at OpenAI | The OpenAI Podcast | OpenAI Head of ChatGPT Nick Turley and Chief Research Officer Mark Chen unpack the making of OpenAI’s most iconic product — Why was OpenAI surprised by ChatGPT’s success? What does it really mean to “reason” in an AI system? And what’s next for agentic coding and multimodal assistants?
How to Compete with AI -- and Win | TEDx | HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah reveals his views on AI
Aaron Levie: White Collar Jobs, Future of SaaS, Agents, Concentration of Power | Matthew Berman | Latest of AI from BOX founder Aaron
Utility Workforce Wakeup Call | Energy Central | How we can rescue the skilled trades pipeline, attract new talent, and modernize training for a rapidly evolving energy industry. Whether you’re a utility executive, HR leader, regulator, or simply someone concerned about energy’s future, this episode will give you a fresh look at why skilled trades matter more than ever, what you can do to help keep this essential workforce strong, and how to attract new, young talent to our sector
GitHub CEO: the AI Coding Goldrush | The MAD Podcast with Matt truck | AI coding is in full-blown gold-rush mode, and GitHub sits at the epicenter. In this episode, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke tells Matt Turck how a $7.5 B acquisition in 2018 became a $2 B ARR rocket ship, and reveals how Copilot was born from a secret AI strategy years before anyone else saw the opportunity
A Book We are Reading in July
The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines | Matt Beane | A technology researcher shows how AI and robots threaten the traditional skill-development model and outlines how challenge, complexity, and connection remain essential for building expertise.
A Quote We Are Pondering This Week
"Three qualities that have nothing to do with talent or intelligence, but can make a dramatic impact on your results:
Cheerful. You are pleasant to work with and generally raise the level of energy in the room.
Accountable. You feel personally responsible for what you want to accomplish. It is not someone else's job. It's your job.
Adaptable. You can find alternate paths to success. You don't need things to be a certain way to be happy."
- James Clear
Upcoming Interesting Data & AI Conferences
CDOIQ Conference | 7-15 to 7-17 | Cambridge, MA
AWS Summit New York City | 7-16 | New York (Free)
2025 MIT Platform Strategy Summit | 7-17 | Cambridge, MA
Ai4 2025 | 8-11 to 8/13 | Vegas
Northeast Utilities Credit and Collections | 9/10 - 9/12 | Atlantic City, NJ
Boston AI Week 2025 | 9/29 - 10/3 | Boston
UA Week 2025 | 10/28-10/30 | Austin
AWS re:invent 2025 | 12/1-12/5 | Vegas
#LetsGrowTogether