Modern CTO

Sean Phelps, President of College Works and former fintech founder, explores how a business can thrive with annual employee turnover. He discusses training student entrepreneurs through real house-painting operations, hiring with evidence instead of instinct, and keeping leaders sharp through regular shadowing. The conversation also tackles AI’s impact on work, the evolving value of college degrees, and launching businesses across all 50 states.

Konstantinos Karagiannis, Protiviti’s Senior Director of Quantum Computing Services and creator of The Post Quantum World Podcast, explores the quantum threats arriving before mass decryption. Topics include “harvest now, forge later,” the shifting Q Day timeline, Bitcoin’s post-quantum crisis, forged software drivers, AI-powered attacks, and why crypto-agility and migration planning can’t wait.

Andrius Buinovskis, NordLayer’s Head of Product and a cybersecurity leader with experience across telecom, aviation, banking, and SaaS, explores the rise of shadow AI. They discuss browser-based data leaks, enterprise browsing, AI agents, MCP integrations, least privilege, and why secure enablement beats blanket bans. Plus, practical steps for visibility, compliance, backups, and protecting sensitive data.

Mario Ciabarra, founder and CEO of Quantum Metric, builds technology that improves digital customer journeys. He discusses why flashy generative AI demos rarely translate to dependable products, testing many ideas with real customers, and the persistence behind ambitious companies. He also shares how Felix AI reduces support friction, how fixing a mobile promo-code error unlocked millions in revenue, and why integrity matters in leadership.

Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist and UT Austin professor, explores AI’s leap into mathematical creativity, including hundreds of machine-generated proofs. He discusses the limits of proof without understanding, education after generative AI, watermarking, alignment, model transparency, and safety. He also demystifies P versus NP, AI regulation through hardware, and safeguards for increasingly capable systems.

Kolton Andrus, founder and CEO of Gremlin and former Amazon and Netflix incident leader, explores reliability without guesswork. He discusses safely injecting failures into live systems, Gremlin’s Foresight AI, and why proactive chaos testing beats reactive root-cause hunting. The conversation also covers AI-generated software risks, founder burnout, and the human judgment behind trustworthy engineering.

Erran Berger, LinkedIn’s CTO of Engineering and a longtime software leader, explores the hidden economics of AI at scale. He discusses tracking the cost of individual features, making compute efficiency a company-wide discipline, and building sustainable AI businesses. He also covers personal agents, smarter feeds, purpose-built automation, cross-functional pods, and why AI transformation can prepare employees for what’s next.

Mohak Shroff, former SVP of Engineering at LinkedIn, explores a more human-centered future for AI. They discuss agents that amplify professional agency, recruiting tools that handle algorithmic busywork, and a digital chief of staff connecting specialized assistants. They also examine voice-powered translation, AI’s impact on junior engineers, and why delegation should grow with trust.

Steve Orrin, Federal CTO at Intel, advises government and industry on AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technology. He explores why AI pilots often fail to create value, how mission-specific systems outperform generic chatbots, and how drones detect forest disease. The conversation also dives into model poisoning, prompt injection, stolen AI secrets, and a $25 million deepfake scam, plus lessons from three decades of technology leadership.

Ben Fox, career coach and founder of Ben Fox Coaching, helps engineering leaders find clarity beyond burnout. He explores why financial independence may not make quitting easier, how toxic jobs resemble toxic relationships, and ways to plan a deliberate exit. They also discuss AI’s impact on engineering craft, senior engineers tired of babysitting language models, and designing work around meaning, family, and values.