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Is AI a bubble, and will it pop like the dot-com crash? Jon Bond, co-founder of the legendary ad agency Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, has seen this movie before. He predicts 95% of today's AI companies will be gone, and asks the big question of the AI gold rush: what are the picks and shovels?

In the late '90s, Jon took an idea called Wattage Monitor public, and it was valued at $250 million. Then Enron blew up energy deregulation and the company went to zero. In this episode of The Human Code, Jon and host Don Finley compare the AI bubble with the dot-com bubble, and talk about why "human slop" is a bigger problem than AI slop, what AI means for entry-level jobs, and how to use AI for mass personalization without sounding like spam.

In this episode:
• AI bubble vs dot-com bubble: land grab, overvaluation, crash, a few winners
• What are the picks and shovels of the AI gold rush?
• AI slop vs human slop: where do you think AI learned it?
• Why the same 10 people show up on every project
• Entry-level jobs, the U-shaped hiring curve and the future of work
• The huge middle of your network: recency, frequency and mass personalization
• How AI-written personal emails to 30 past guests brought 5 referrals in one day
• The singularity, AI regulation, China and open-weight models
• Monopolies, fewer IPOs and keeping value in local markets
• The "near future" rule: be one step ahead, not ten
• Agentic search vs SEO, TikTok Shop and where marketing is heading

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro: Jon Bond on humanity and technology
00:00 Wattage Monitor: from $250M to zero after Enron
00:00 Greed, fear and why tech makes markets move faster
00:00 Entry-level jobs and the U-shaped hiring curve
00:00 Attention spans and marketing to goldfish
00:00 "We've seen this movie before": 95% of AI companies will fail
00:00 What are the picks and shovels of AI?
00:00 AI slop vs human slop
00:00 The same 10 stars on every project
00:00 5 million new businesses a year
00:00 Your network: the huge middle you're missing
00:00 Mass personalization with AI: 30 emails, 5 referrals
00:00 The singularity, regulation and open-weight models
00:00 Monopolies, IPOs and local markets
00:00 The near future: be one step ahead
00:00 Final advice: agentic search, TikTok Shop and where to jump in

🎧 Listen to The Human Code:
🌐 Website: https://thehumancode.buzzsprout.com
🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6SdOzNrG63cUIYz6rUri68
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-human-code/id1738092975
📝 Blog: https://findustries.co/blog/
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The Human Code, hosted by Don Finley, explores the intersection of technology, leadership and personal growth.

#AIBubble #AIGoldRush #FutureOfWork

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Hosted by Don Finley

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AI governance is now the most important question in tech: when an AI agent makes decisions on your behalf, can you still step in and stop it? Don Finley sits down with Ravi S. Bhagavatula, PhD, CFA, Managing Partner of WFA Global Investments and a former MD at UBS and AIG, and author of "Bounded Agency: Who Is in Control in the Age of AI?", to break down the 6 controls every AI agent needs.

Ravi is a theoretical physicist turned multi-strategy investor with over three decades in finance, quantitative trading and applied AI. Building on Herbert Simon's "bounded rationality," he argues that humans had limited cognition, but AI's limit is control. That's why agentic AI needs bounded agency to preserve human agency.

In this episode:
• The 6 primitives of bounded agency: authority boundaries, tempo matching, intervention rights, reauthorization cycles, rollback/degradation controls and accountability mapping
• Why "reclaimability" should be a test on every AI deployment
• The real story of an AI agent that deleted 4 servers in seconds
• How to govern multi-agent systems and sub-agents (who sets the boundaries?)
• Is AI making us stop thinking? Judgment vs. intelligence
• The Entrepreneur's Journey: mapping the Bhagavad Gita's 18 chapters to founder, leadership and stewardship phases
• Why responsibility, not capability, is the future of AI in finance and business

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro: Humanity and technology in the age of AI
00:00 A shovel that chooses where it digs
00:00 Can we intervene when AI decides for us?
00:00 The AI agent that deleted 4 servers
00:00 Bounded agency: the 6 controls of AI governance
00:00 Herbert Simon and bounded rationality
00:00 Reclaimability and the paperclip problem
00:00 Governing multi-agent systems and sub-agents
00:00 Is AI weakening critical thinking?
00:00 The Entrepreneur's Journey and the Bhagavad Gita
00:00 Responsibility: final advice for leaders

📚 Ravi's books:
Bounded Agency: Who Is in Control in the Age of AI? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYKPXKJ6
The Entrepreneur's Journey (A Gita-Inspired 18-Stage Framework): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX312XCN
Bounded Agency in AI Systems - Ravi S Bhagavatula: https://ravisbhagavatula.substack.com/p/bounded-agency-in-ai-systems
Action Under Uncertainty - Ravi S Bhagavatula: https://ravisbhagavatula.substack.com/p/action-under-uncertainty
Substack: https://ravisbhagavatula.substack.com/

🎧 Listen to The Human Code:
🌐 Website: https://thehumancode.buzzsprout.com
🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6SdOzNrG63cUIYz6rUri68
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-human-code/id1738092975
📝 Blog: https://findustries.co/blog/
📧 Newsletter: https://findustries.beehiiv.com/subscribe
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findustriesllc
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@donfinley815

The Human Code, hosted by Don Finley, explores the intersection of technology, leadership and personal growth.

#AIGovernance #AgenticAI #AIAgents

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Hosted by Don Finley

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Is AI a bubble, and what does that mean for anyone starting their career right now? Wharton senior Andre Chulo (Finance + AI, University of Pennsylvania) joins Don Finley on The Human Code to break down the AI hype cycle, the future of entry-level jobs, and why human skills matter more than ever.

Andre shares what he saw working with hyperscalers at Accenture, why he doesn't buy the AGI hype yet, and how startups can build a real moat by solving the problems AI creates rather than competing with the frontier labs.

In this episode:
• Why AI is turning the corporate "pyramid" into a "diamond," and what that means for analyst and entry-level roles
• Are we in an AI bubble? Scaling laws, compute costs and the ROI gap
• Circular AI funding: NVIDIA, AI labs and what happens if the chain breaks
• How startups can build a moat: distribution, and solving AI's knock-on effects (like GEO, generative engine optimization)
• Lessons from the dot-com bubble: Cisco, Amazon and building resilient businesses
• Should pre-professionals ignore AI and focus on critical thinking and soft skills?
• Why skeptical users get better answers from AI
• US vs China: distillation, energy infrastructure and regulatory moats
• Why open-weight and open-source AI models matter

Chapters:
00:00 Intro: Andre Chulo, Wharton Finance & AI
00:00 AI and the "diamond" org chart: entry-level jobs at risk
00:00 Why Andre doesn't buy the AGI hype (yet)
00:00 Is AI in a bubble?
00:00 Hyperscalers, demand and circular funding
00:00 How startups build a moat in the AI era
00:00 Dot-com lessons: Cisco vs Amazon
00:00 Preparing your career: soft skills vs AI skills
00:00 Skeptics vs blind trust: getting better AI output
00:00 New roles AI will create: agents and workflow coordination
00:00 Geopolitics: US, China, Europe and Mistral
00:00 Open-weight models and who decides AI's future
00:00 Closing thoughts

Listen & follow The Human Code:
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🍎 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-human-code/id1738092975
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#AIBubble #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TheHumanCode #AGI

Sponsored by FINdustries
Hosted by Don Finley