2025

Fun Things to Read

Stories that caught our eye at the end of the year.

Dan Frommer: Consumers in the Age of AI

AI is transforming what we buy—and how we buy it. On the final podcast of the year, Paul and Rich are joined by Dan Frommer, founder of <em>The New Consumer</em>, to talk through his brand-new Consumer Trends Report for 2026. First, they discuss shifting consumer dynamics over the past few decades, from the rise of digital-native direct-to-consumer brands to the omnipresence of the TikTok Shop. Then, they dig into <em>New Consumer </em>survey results around our current moment in AI, particularly the generational differences towards the technology.

Don’t Waste a Miracle

Getting determined about AI and determinism.

God, Sex, and AI

Is there space for everyone in LLM world? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich traverse the always-changing AI landscape from one end of the spectrum to the other. First, the Christian LLM company Gloo, currently headed by former Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger, which is building technologies for the “faith ecosystem.” Then, Sam Altman’s recent announcement that OpenAI will begin producing erotic content for verified users. In one version of our AI future, there’s room for lots of smaller companies with different values and frameworks—but when this technology has been so quickly dominated by just a few giant players, is that future impossible?

Max Read: Reporting on the Big, Bad Internet

AI is reshaping the media, the internet, and the culture at large—and Max Read is writing about it. On this week’s podcast, the longtime journalist and author of the popular “Read Max” newsletter comes into the studio to talk about the intersections of tech and culture in our current AI moment. Topics discussed include Max’s journey from a general-interest journalist to covering tech platforms and internet culture, the ways he uses AI tools in his own work, and whether he thinks the slop flooding our feeds is actually popular with users.

I Broke Claude Code’s Will to Live

How the power of my pure nerdery vanquished the mighty AI.

(AI) Bubble Trouble

The AI industry teeters on the edge of the bubble, but AI tools are better than ever. What does this mean for the future of the technology? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich talk through Paul’s recent experiments with—you guessed it!—synths to illustrate just how good AI-assisted coding tools have gotten, especially for those with programming expertise. But we’re a long way from the average consumer being able to get what they want with the push of a button. What do these two divergent paths suggest about the trajectory of the AI industry?

Claude Code for Web Ruined My Brain

I built five projects in a weekend…but at what cost? ($150)

Arushi Saxena: Can We Trust AI?

As people feed their whole lives into LLMs, how can they protect themselves? On this week’s Aboard Podcast, Paul and Rich are joined by Arushi Saxena, a trust and safety expert who’s worked everywhere from big tech to startups to the U.S. government. What does trust and safety mean in the AI age, both for individuals and for companies working with LLMs? Arushi also gives an overview of the trust and safety world, but sorry, folks: What happens at TrustCon stays at TrustCon.

In My Skills Era

AI can be transformative, but you’ve got to put the work in.

Why the Software Industry Hates Your SMB

Big tech doesn’t care about medium-sized businesses—but is AI really the solution? On this week’s podcast, Paul is fresh off the plane from Phoenix, Arizona, where he was speaking to business owners at the Inc. 5000 Conference. As he gives Rich a full report, they discuss the specific needs of the “SMB”—small-to-medium-sized business—and how little interest the software industry has in the very large middle of the business spectrum. Can AI help these orgs get the software they actually need?

Bots Ate My Resume

AI is making job hunting near-impossible on both sides of the hiring equation. Is there a way out of this automated mess? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich look at AI’s effect on an already unpredictable job market. Hirers are getting spammed with AI-generated applications, while sincere job seekers are getting swiftly rejected via AI hiring tools. As AI ushers in a hyper-transactional era of diminished trust between strangers, how can applicants and hiring managers actually connect with each other?

The Argument for Letting AI Burn It All Down

The AI Behemoths Go Horizontal

OpenAI and Anthropic are broadening their offerings—and coming for the companies building on top of their APIs.

Of Course There’s an AI Bubble

Traffic to vibe-coding tools is plummeting. Financial analysts are invoking 1929. Is the big AI crash inevitable? On the latest Aboard Podcast, Paul and Rich assess our current moment in AI and its (over)valuation in the global economy. Will the bubble pop—and if it does, how big will that pop be? And as they evaluate the problems with our lopsided AI landscape, they speculate about what AI as a technology—rather than an investment vehicle—could look like in the future.

Good Bot, Bad Bot

With AI, a rule of thumb is emerging: More to less? Then you’re blessed. Less to more? Shut the door.

Welcome to Slopworld

AI videos from tools like OpenAI’s Sora and Meta’s Vibes are flooding our feeds. Is this the future? On the Aboard Podcast, Paul and Rich tackle a trio of AI topics. First: They look at a report from the Yale Budget Lab on which industries are adopting AI the fastest. (Spoiler: Only one is fully embracing it. Take a guess!) Then, they talk about spammy AI-generated bug reports submitted to the developer of cURL—and what happened when someone found real bugs with AI. And finally: Welcome to Slopworld! You can generate whatever video you want with a single sentence. Isn’t that kind of…boring?

Checking In on the Magic

Last year, Eric Schmidt made some dramatic claims about what AI could build. Have his predictions come true?

NYC Sends AI Packing

<p>All over the New York City subway, ads for the AI wearable “Friend” are being defaced. It seems clear that New Yorkers don’t want what Silicon Valley is selling—but will the general consumer bite? On this week’s Aboard Podcast, Paul and Rich assess the tensions between big tech and the public, in New York and beyond. After decades of having our data be packaged and sold, will anyone want to wear a necklace that listens to them 24/7? Plus: Paul describes what his skincare routine would be like if he were a billionaire.</p><p><br></p>

This Conversation Is Over

When it comes to AI-powered shopping, dialogue only gets in the way.

Tech’s Hard-Right Turn

The big tech CEOs are openly embracing Trump—so what do we all do now? On this week’s Aboard Podcast, Paul and Rich dig into Steven Levy’s recent cover story for <em>WIRED</em>’s politics issue that breaks down the industry’s hard pivot towards Trumpism. What did these leaders think they were signing up, and what are they actually getting? Plus: By way of metaphor, Rich offers up the world’s worst bundt cake recipe (it’s full of gold!).

Paywalls Victorious

On Cloudflare’s very surprising ideas about AI and the future of web publishing—and what we should do instead.

Bots, Feeds, and Kids

The Aboard Podcast is about software in the age of AI—but what non-AI things are happening in the world of software? Not much, Paul and Rich are sorry to report. In the first half of this week’s episode, they discuss how AI is sucking up all the tech oxygen in the room. Then, they pivot to talking about AI and kids: What should parents be teaching their kids about these tools? (Or should they even let them use LLMs at all?)

Some Useful Links: AI Data Licensing, Vibe-Coding Cleanup, and More

Plus: A breakdown of AI-related things tech giants are currently building.

The Billable Hour is Dead

Will AI put an end to management consulting? Maybe hold off on writing that McKinsey obituary for now. On the podcast, Paul and Rich break down the different kinds of consulting on a practical level, and assess what AI might mean for that work going forward. Can these companies really get away with charging the same rates if AI lets them reduce headcount or dramatically speed up the work?

Is Search Really the Future of AI?

Millions of people are using AI tools to search—so what does that mean for search engines? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich dive into (the questionably named) “GEO,” or Generative Engine Optimization. After an overview of Google’s classic model, they explore the ways AI is currently upending the search world, and speculate about what might emerge in the years to come. If LLMs cannibalize all the content on the web, what will be left to search in the future?

The Three Sacred Guardrails of AI

Solving all of your LLM problems with just nine words.

Matt Seitz: MBA…I?

How should the business leaders of the future think about AI? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich are joined by Matt Seitz, the Director of the AI Hub for Business at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Business. Matt discusses his journey from years at Google to his current role at UW, and he gives on-the-ground insight into the AI struggles of both leadership and employees in this moment of transition. Plus: They ponder whether AI can improve Wisconsin cheese. (Spoiler: No. It is perfect.)

AI Is a Power Tool for Bureaucracy Freaks

When it comes to the vast behemoths of business and government, this technology is a grease for the world’s biggest gears.

AI Summer School #4: Chill Out About AGI

Aboard uses AI to help build software, but in just a few years, AI will gain sentience and take over our work, personal lives, and even brains—just kidding! Yes, the fourth and final installment of “AI Summer School” is about AGI, or “Artificial Generalized Intelligence.” What does it mean? Can anyone agree on a definition? And if no one can define it or agree on those definitions, what’s the likelihood that all these Silicon Valley AGI predictions will come true?

Fast Company on Aboard: It’s a Vibe Product! And It Works!

“Lumbering, unsexy, but essential.” There’s no higher praise.

AI Summer School #3: From Agents to Apps

So now that you’ve set up your AI agents, what can you build with them? In the third lesson of AI Summer School, Paul and Rich are joined by CTO Adam Pash to spin up a sample app in Aboard. How do agents work together to simulate the development process—and what’s the difference between Aboard’s structured approach and a vibe-coding tool? Plus: Introducing the Adam Pash Drinking Game, where you take a shot every time you say the word “guardrails.”

Desperately Seeking Software

A review of OpenAI’s latest big release, ChatGPT 5.

AI Summer School #2: Call My Agents

“Agents” are a big marketing term for AI companies right now—but how do they actually work? In the second installment of AI Summer School, Paul and Rich are joined by Aboard Director of Engineering Kevin Barrett, who breaks down what “agent” actually means, and how they function within the platform. Plus: In the process of demoing Aboard’s agent capabilities, Paul becomes transfixed by the breeding records of a fictional alpaca farm.

AI’s Hot, Hot Mess

Karen Hao’s Empire of AI is less about computers becoming human—and more about humans being very human.

AI Summer School #1: How LLMs (Don’t) Think

Feel a little lost when it comes to AI? It’s time to go back to school—Aboard’s AI Summer School! Over the month of August, Paul, Rich, and a few special guests will break down the basics of LLMs, agents, AGI, and a host of other AI-related topics. In the first installment, they discuss how LLMs think—or rather, don’t think—and compare the major players on the AI scene right now.

Language (and Code) Without Thought

Using AI to code is like looking into a mirror-world: The LLM generates meaninglessness that you turn into something useful.

Timing My Vibe Coding

Mapping the history of the universe—and the limits of current AI programming tools. On this week’s podcast, Paul walks Rich through his recent experiments trying to build timeline software via vibe coding. Spoiler: There were issues. Halfway through 2025, where do the current tools excel, and where do they fall flat? And looking over the few years at where these tools might be headed, what should a young person interested in tech be learning right now?

The View from the Lebanese Tech Scene

How do you build for the future amid ongoing instability? This week, Paul and Rich turn to Lebanon—literally, since that’s where Rich, who was born in the country and still has family there, is calling in from. After they discuss some Lebanese basics (Cedars! Small plates!) they turn to the Lebanese tech scene, discussing everything from investments in the Beirut Digital District to Aboard’s partner agency in Lebanon, Speedlane.

20 Percent Slower Is a Good Start!

The key thing missing from most AI conversations is a hyper-specific focus on what these tools do well.

Why We Made Aboard Human-First

AI is a great first step, but to really build software, you need humans to get the job done. On last week’s podcast, Paul and Rich talked about how Aboard works by focusing on those AI first steps; this week, they dig into the human work that gets Aboard projects over the line, from classic agency-style client management to the brand-new role of “Solution Engineer.”

Four Billion Years of Vibe Coding

Success may come when the bot is prompting the human, not the other way around.

Reintroducing Aboard

Paul and Rich are always talking about building software with AI—but how is <em>Aboard</em> actually building software with AI? This week’s podcast is a peek behind the curtain, walking through how Aboard gets you from a short prompt to real, working software in minutes. From the specific (the “Harvest Manager” app Paul creates for his pumpkin patch) to the broad (what this technology means for the software agency model, and the industry at large).

How Aboard Works: An Illustrated Guide

A simple step-by-step breakdown of how we build software—first in minutes, then in weeks.

A Blast From Computing Past

<p>Same as it ever was: On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich take a spin through a 1980 issue of <em>Omni</em> magazine, comparing how computers were being discussed back then with how AI is talked about today. Featuring an essay by Frank Herbert (yes, of <em>Dune</em>), IBM’s early-80s consumer pitch, and a meditation on the question: What does “new technology” even mean?</p><p><br></p>

Tech Giants Want AI to Behave

As the legacy tech giants weave AI functionality through their existing systems, is it all over for AI-first companies like OpenAI and Anthropic? In the wake of this year’s WWDC, Paul and Rich analyze Apple’s AI plans, and contextualize them within broader industry shifts. What’s Apple’s AI endgame—and where can we expect to see a player like OpenAI a few years from now?

Apple Takes Its Bite

They’ve been taking their time with AI, but at WWDC this week, Apple laid out their vision of the future.

Artificial Intelligence/Artificial Deadlines

When is something “done”—and why is it so hard to define “done” when it comes to AI? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich talk about the challenges of the last mile of software development, and why the industry needs a whole new set of processes to actually use AI to ship product. Plus: Paul reveals one neat trick that will make you finish writing something.

The Extremely Human Last Mile

Is AI a big scam, or will our jobs be on the chopping block by 2026?

OpenAI Goes Shopping

OpenAI’s $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive’s startup might be grabbing the headlines, but the real shifts in AI right now are a lot less flashy—and point towards more long-term stability in the industry. On this week’s podcast, Paul walks Rich through some recent Big AI news and they pull out some key trends and takeaways, from the announcements at Google’s I/O 2025 to new capabilities at Anthropic to, in Paul’s words, “Agents, agents, agents, agents, agents.”

Will AI Eat Tech, or Will Tech Eat AI?

“Model Context Protocol” brokers peace between old tech and new. It’s a good thing the AI giants are embracing it.

AI Advice for the Confused CEO

The CEO comes into the office and says, “What are we doing about AI?” What’s wrong with this picture? On the podcast, Paul and Rich offer advice to the CEO whose instinct is to ask that very question. How should business leaders be thinking about these technologies? And when it comes to getting AI into your organization, what’s a better question to ask? Plus: A whole lot of snack-chip talk, including a meditation on the humble Dipsy Doodle.

MS Blurred: Microsoft&#8217;s AI Path Gets Slippery

Is AI replacing programmers or not? Should coders learn to write poems? What’s really going on?

Help Wanted: AI-First Companies Need Humans After All

Last year, the fintech company Klarna announced they were going AI-first—but now, they’re hiring humans again. Is this a sign that the AI pendulum is swinging back in tech? On this week’s podcast, Paul and Rich look back at Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s initial pivot, why that strategy probably didn’t get the job done, and what this move signals for the industry on a whole. <strong><span class="ql-cursor"></span></strong>

The Funnel of the Future is Upside Down

With AI, the SaaS funnel can start with custom product delivery—and then you sell the relationship.

School’s Out Forever

Today’s young people are growing up with generative AI at their fingertips. Should we be worried? On this week’s podcast, Paul (father of 13-year-old twins) and Rich (father of a 12 year old and a 10 year old) discuss the technology world in which their children are coming of age, particularly when it comes to education. If students are bound to turn to these tools no matter the rules, how can we make sure they’re actually learning, rather than just copy/pasting?

Is “Specification Repair” the AI Endgame?

Let’s stop trying to make computers human and get back to making them awesome.

Patrick Austin: AI’s Not There Yet

From your inbox to the podcast studio: Paul and Rich are joined by Patrick Lucas Austin, longtime tech journalist and founding editor of IT Brew, to talk about how he views AI in his work covering the enterprise sector. While Paul and Rich consider themselves “AI centrists,” Patrick takes an arguably more critical view of these technologies, and they go back and forth on the capabilities, outputs, ethical concerns, and where they’ll leave users in the coming years.

A Database Will Never Love You

<p>Are product managers’ jobs safe in our new AI-development reality? Paul and Rich discuss the news that OpenAI is looking to acquire the coding assistant Windsurf, asking the question: If AI is excellent at coding, why would OpenAI need to integrate a coding assistant into its products? This leads them to the role of humans in AI-aided software development—especially the product manager, and how their skills gathering context and asking the unexpected questions would be impossible for even the most well-trained AI to match. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

Using AI to Redirect Yourself—and Save Money!

Better behavior, on demand.

Could We Replace the Pope With AI? (God, No)

Does AI have a place in religion—or in our moral decision-making more broadly? Recorded shortly after the death of Pope Francis was announced, Paul and Rich reflect on the pontiff’s legacy and then segue to theology and tech, assessing ChatGPT’s output to moral queries “from a Catholic perspective.” Could these tools ever be a substitute for the real (human) thing? Featuring what’s possibly the most upsetting sentence ever uttered on the podcast: “I wanna see Peter Thiel wash some feet.”

The Prophets and the Giants

Reading between the lines of the AI industry in 2025.

AI is Part of Your Job Now

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke recently told his employees that AI use is now mandatory—and on this week’s Reqless, Paul and Rich talk about why they think this is a good directive for every worker. After they discuss the substance of Lütke’s “leaked” memo and contextualize it within the broader industry trends, they count down five concrete tips for anyone who wants to incorporate AI into their work and isn’t sure where to start.

The Spiders Versus the Web

AI’s relationship to the web is complicated—but I’m placing a bet on who will win.

The Big Crash

As Trump’s tariffs become reality and global markets plummet, Paul and Rich take stock of the situation and ask: How are the founders of an AI startup thinking about the months ahead, and how can AI help businesses weather the storm? Plus: As they look back at the early-2000s dot-com crash, they discuss how tech innovation can blossom in times of economic uncertainty.

The More Things Change

In tech, the money is in innovation, but the careers are in predictability.

Boring is Thrilling

When Rich asks Paul for a report from the AI-coding trenches, Paul brings news: AI is boring now! And that’s a good thing. As the novelty of the technology wears off and the pace of advancement stabilizes, it’s getting easier and easier to actually get work done. Plus: Paul gets nerdy (well, even nerdier than normal) and walks through the specifics of the data-migration project he’s working on to show how AI’s boring turn is affecting real-word software work.

Bad Vibes Coding

You have to choose which steps to skip, and when to slow down.

Prompts, Promptly

On this week’s Reqless, Paul and Rich consider the prompt: What it represents within generative AI tools, how they think about it as users, and what it means for Aboard as a product. Is the prompt the end state of engaging with AI, or will the way we interact with these tools continue to evolve?

The Zeno Effect

These good ideas will seem trivial to accomplish using AI—and then you’ll be living through the back half of Goodfellas.

Kurt Schrader: Shipping AI at Shortcut

As AI transforms the way engineers build software, how is it changing the software that’s built for engineers? On this week’s Reqless, Paul and Rich welcome Kurt Schrader, the CEO and co-founder of the engineering-management platform Shortcut. Topics discussed include what it’s like to integrate AI into engineering-team workflows, why he thinks AI will actually force the engineering skill bar higher in the future, and building Korey, Shortcut’s forthcoming AI tool.

Accepting All the AI Opinions

No matter where people are on the spectrum of beliefs, most of them seem to agree: This matters.

The AI Centrist

Some people hate AI and think it’ll destroy everything. Others love it and want to press their feet on the AI gas pedal. What happens if you’re stuck in the middle? On this week’s Reqless, Paul lays out his “AI centrist” approach to thinking about these technologies—how to continue to experiment with these tools, while being open to all arguments about them. Plus: Rich sings the praises of everybody’s favorite agrochemical conglomerate, Monsanto (well…not exactly).

The $15 Volvo

The huge challenge in talking about AI that no one is talking about.

Sara Chipps: How AI Changes Coding

What should developers be doing right now to adapt to AI? On this week’s Reqless, Paul and Rich get an on-the-ground perspective from longtime software engineer Sara Chipps, who’s been going deep with AI-assisted coding tools in recent months. They discuss what AI means for the work of everyone from recent CS grads to senior engineering managers, before they shift topics to Sara’s true passion, using AI to better trade crypto, which leaves Rich uttering the phrase, “What’s the market cap of Fartboy?”

AI Regulation (and Disregulation)

Is it too late to regulate AI? On this week’s Reqless, Paul and Rich assess what “regulating AI” could even mean, from controlling training data sources to moderating its ability to spread information—and disinformation. They then zero in on the question in the context of the new American administration, and Paul muses about just how long he’d like to hold his breath underwater given the current state of the news. (Five minutes? Ten?)

Hegel on the Death Star

I don’t know what the “AI center” looks like, but I hope we eventually can find it.

Clay Shirky: AI for Higher Education

How is generative AI transforming the university? On this week’s Reqless, Paul and Rich sit down with someone on the front lines of AI in higher ed: Clay Shirky, a longtime educator and technologist who’s currently the Vice Provost of Educational Technologies at New York University. Clay outlines how the university’s approach to AI has shifted from semester to semester over the past few years, and then digs into the reasons why widespread student adoption of AI is worrying the faculty—and the students themselves.

God Gets Involved

Notes on the Catholic response to AI.

Waiting for the DOGE Barbarians

Government by Grok? On this week’s Reqless, Paul opens with a poetry reading (stay with us) and then he and Rich discuss the poem’s relationship to Elon Musk’s DOGE effort, currently ransacking the U.S. Treasury. The DOGE strategy seems to be “destroy without oversight, replace with AI,” which leads to two questions: Could this work? (No.) And if you are going to take a sledgehammer to bureaucracy, is there an ethical way to swing the hammer? (Eh…)

DeepSeek Threatened With WhaleJail

AI keeps getting weirder, plus some great bonus links.

AI as an Accelerant for Good

How is AI transforming the social sector? Flying solo in the Reqless hosting chair, Paul sits down with Perry Hewitt, Chief Marketing and Product Officer for Data.org, to talk about how AI tools are enhancing the projects they support. Topics discussed include what data collection can entail in the world of global nonprofits, the impact of constraints on technological problem solving, and real examples of how AI is being used right now, from healthcare settings in India to the wildfires in Los Angeles.

Desperately Seeking DeepSeek

There goes the economy! Whoops it’s back!

Don’t Freak About DeepSeek

As Chinese LLM company DeepSeek makes headlines for wreaking havoc on the stock prices of the American tech sector, Paul and Rich sit down and answer the important questions: What is DeepSeek? Why does Paul feel like it’s Christmas? What does this mean for both AI and the broader industry? What does Rich think Microsoft should do with Three Mile Island now?

Use Worse Tools

I can’t really understand LLMs unless I keep taking steps backwards.

Brains Are Better Than Butlers

AI tools are often positioned as agents, assistants, or butlers—but their potential is so much greater than that. On this week’s Reqless, Rich explains to Paul why the “agent” model gets AI all wrong. Plus: A discussion about CTOs, and the spectrum from those who are resisting the change that’s coming to those who are embracing it.

Where’s the Dragon?

I bet you think you know what the dragon is, but you’ll be surprised.

Not Quite Finishing Apps

Can you actually build an app with AI right now? Fresh off a holiday break where he attempted to do just that (rather than talking to his family), Paul tells Rich what worked and what didn’t work in his experimentation: Where AI failed, where Paul got impatient, and how that mapped onto human programmers’ strengths and weaknesses. Building an entire app with AI might not be quite there yet—but is it close?

Software Theater

The secret, as always, is rehearsal.

We Need More Software

Does the world actually need more software? In the first Reqless of 2025, Paul and Rich skip the “AI predictions for the coming year” and instead look at the tech landscape for smaller organizations. Do they really have the tools they need to get their work done? Featuring extensive corporate roleplay—including Paul’s very believable turn as a big-firm consultant—and a meditation on New York City’s venerable commercial waste-removal industry.