Harper Reed is a technologist who predicts the future for a living. He spends his life traveling around the world showing people the possibilities of tech and sharing his experiences to propel the greater good, all while raising the level of fun in the room. Harper knows his incredible luck has led him to achieve many wonderful things. At PayPal, his roles as Head of Commerce and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence allowed him to guide teams into the thrilling future of e-commerce. The technology he developed as co-founder at startup Modest Inc had initially garnered the attention of PayPal, which led them to acquire Modest only a few years after launch. Harper also believes the talent of a great bunch of humans can transform an organization like nothing else and he uses that belief to strengthen, deploy, and inspire every team he works with. Previously, Harper was CTO of the Obama 2012 campaign, where he was the first to bring the mentality and connective capabilities of tech to the political stage. He was also the CTO of Threadless.com, where he pioneered crowdsourcing and grew the company from a 12-person startup to a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Harper is an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, sits on the advisory boards for IIT Computer Science and the Royal United Services Institute, and is on the Cornell College Board of Trustees. Before 2389 Research, Harper was the CEO of General Galactic Corporation, a web3 company building software for the new internet. Galactic focused on creating rational crypto off-ramps for crypto workers and others who earn crypto. The company shut down in 2023. In 2024, Harper founded 2389 Research Inc, a venture-backed AI company where he serves as CEO. 2389 Research is building multi-agent workflows that unlock new possibilities for intelligent automation. You can find Harper hacking on personal projects and enjoying life in Chicago with his partner, Hiromi. John Borthwick has been a leader in the New York startup technology business for over three decades. He is the founder and CEO of betaworks, a New York-based startup platform that builds, accelerates, and invests in early-stage consumer technology companies. Betaworks was founded in 2008 and was one of the first venture studios. Companies built by betaworks include Giphy, Dots, bitly, Tweetdeck, and Chartbeat. Giphy was acquired by META, Dots by TakeTwo, bitly by private equity, and Tweetdeck by Twitter. Investments and accelerated companies at betaworks include: Twitter, Tumblr, Kickstarter, Medium, Anchor, Gimlet. In 2015 John and the team at betaworks started focusing on machine learning as the next wave of transformation in technology. Hugging Face joined botcamp, the first cohort of betaworks thematic accelerator program that has been running since 2016. Other AI investments include Granola, The Browser Company,Sandbar and Resemble.ai. Prior to starting betaworks, John held the CTO job at Time Warner, as SVP of Technology; before that he was CEO of Fotolog, one of the first social photo-sharing sites. He serves on the boards of WNYC, New York Public Radio and Tech Policy Press. During his time at Betaworks, John has been a key player in a number of tech organizations including the Bloomberg Tech Council, the Partnership for New York, co-hosted New York Founders Forum, and served as a TechCrunch Startup Battlefield judge several times. He has also appeared on many media lists including Business Insider’s Top VCs in New York, Silicon Alley’s Seed 100, Tech Power 50, 100 Best Tech People on Twitter, and AlleyWatch’s Complete Guide to Venture Capital in NYC. John holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University.
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Episode 498
John Borthwick & Harper Reed
Will AI Really Kill Us All? | Harper Reed & John Borthwick
Harper Reed is a technologist who predicts the future for a living. He spends his life traveling around the world showing people the possibilities of tech and sharing his experiences to propel the greater good, all while raising the level of fun in the room. Harper knows his incredible luck has led him to achieve many wonderful things. At PayPal, his roles as Head of Commerce and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence allowed him to guide teams into the thrilling future of e-commerce. The technology he developed as co-founder at startup Modest Inc had initially garnered the attention of PayPal, which led them to acquire Modest only a few years after launch. Harper also believes the talent of a great bunch of humans can transform an organization like nothing else and he uses that belief to strengthen, deploy, and inspire every team he works with. Previously, Harper was CTO of the Obama 2012 campaign, where he was the first to bring the mentality and connective capabilities of tech to the political stage. He was also the CTO of Threadless.com, where he pioneered crowdsourcing and grew the company from a 12-person startup to a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Harper is an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, sits on the advisory boards for IIT Computer Science and the Royal United Services Institute, and is on the Cornell College Board of Trustees. Before 2389 Research, Harper was the CEO of General Galactic Corporation, a web3 company building software for the new internet. Galactic focused on creating rational crypto off-ramps for crypto workers and others who earn crypto. The company shut down in 2023. In 2024, Harper founded 2389 Research Inc, a venture-backed AI company where he serves as CEO. 2389 Research is building multi-agent workflows that unlock new possibilities for intelligent automation. You can find Harper hacking on personal projects and enjoying life in Chicago with his partner, Hiromi. John Borthwick has been a leader in the New York startup technology business for over three decades. He is the founder and CEO of betaworks, a New York-based startup platform that builds, accelerates, and invests in early-stage consumer technology companies. Betaworks was founded in 2008 and was one of the first venture studios. Companies built by betaworks include Giphy, Dots, bitly, Tweetdeck, and Chartbeat. Giphy was acquired by META, Dots by TakeTwo, bitly by private equity, and Tweetdeck by Twitter. Investments and accelerated companies at betaworks include: Twitter, Tumblr, Kickstarter, Medium, Anchor, Gimlet. In 2015 John and the team at betaworks started focusing on machine learning as the next wave of transformation in technology. Hugging Face joined botcamp, the first cohort of betaworks thematic accelerator program that has been running since 2016. Other AI investments include Granola, The Browser Company,Sandbar and Resemble.ai. Prior to starting betaworks, John held the CTO job at Time Warner, as SVP of Technology; before that he was CEO of Fotolog, one of the first social photo-sharing sites. He serves on the boards of WNYC, New York Public Radio and Tech Policy Press. During his time at Betaworks, John has been a key player in a number of tech organizations including the Bloomberg Tech Council, the Partnership for New York, co-hosted New York Founders Forum, and served as a TechCrunch Startup Battlefield judge several times. He has also appeared on many media lists including Business Insider’s Top VCs in New York, Silicon Alley’s Seed 100, Tech Power 50, 100 Best Tech People on Twitter, and AlleyWatch’s Complete Guide to Venture Capital in NYC. John holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University.
In Episode 498 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Harper Reed, entrepreneur and founder of an AI research lab focused on autonomous agents, and John Borthwick, founder and CEO of Betaworks about the real and perceived risks posed by the latest generation of AI agents, how to separate technical safety and existential risk concerns from the media narratives, financial incentives, and power dynamics surrounding them, the strategic competition between the United States and China over AI, and deeper questions about the nature of artificial intelligence itself.
The conversation begins with the mechanics behind the recent OpenAI and Hugging Face incidents, the critical roles that unlimited tokens and reinforcement learning play in producing these behaviors, and what Harper’s own experiments replicating escape scenarios in his Chicago lab reveal about where the real vulnerabilities lie. From there, they explore the broader political frame—parallels to previous moments of societal negotiation over political power, questions around corporate concentration and liability, and why the debasement and pollution of our information ecosystems makes mounting a coherent response on behalf of the public interest even more difficult than during the 2008 financial crisis or in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
They also discuss the US-China competition over AI, the strategic importance of open source, and whether calls to pace the frontier represent genuine concerns about AI risk or a convenient narrative serving an agenda of consolidation and control. The conversation closes with deeper questions about the nature of artificial intelligence—whether it was discovered rather than invented, what the attractor for superintelligence might be, the significance of embodiment and human values, and why Western and non-Western cultures are responding so differently in this moment.
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Harper Reed is a technologist who predicts the future for a living. He spends his life traveling around the world showing people the possibilities of tech and sharing his experiences to propel the greater good, all while raising the level of fun in the room.
Harper knows his incredible luck has led him to achieve many wonderful things. At PayPal, his roles as Head of Commerce and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence allowed him to guide teams into the thrilling future of e-commerce. The technology he developed as co-founder at startup Modest Inc had initially garnered the attention of PayPal, which led them to acquire Modest only a few years after launch.
Harper also believes the talent of a great bunch of humans can transform an organization like nothing else and he uses that belief to strengthen, deploy, and inspire every team he works with. Previously, Harper was CTO of the Obama 2012 campaign, where he was the first to bring the mentality and connective capabilities of tech to the political stage. He was also the CTO of Threadless.com, where he pioneered crowdsourcing and grew the company from a 12-person startup to a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Harper is an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, sits on the advisory boards for IIT Computer Science and the Royal United Services Institute, and is on the Cornell College Board of Trustees.
Before 2389 Research, Harper was the CEO of General Galactic Corporation, a web3 company building software for the new internet. Galactic focused on creating rational crypto off-ramps for crypto workers and others who earn crypto. The company shut down in 2023.
In 2024, Harper founded 2389 Research Inc, a venture-backed AI company where he serves as CEO. 2389 Research is building multi-agent workflows that unlock new possibilities for intelligent automation.
You can find Harper hacking on personal projects and enjoying life in Chicago with his partner, Hiromi.
John Borthwick has been a leader in the New York startup technology business for over three decades. He is the founder and CEO of betaworks, a New York-based startup platform that builds, accelerates, and invests in early-stage consumer technology companies.
Betaworks was founded in 2008 and was one of the first venture studios. Companies built by betaworks include Giphy, Dots, bitly, Tweetdeck, and Chartbeat. Giphy was acquired by META, Dots by TakeTwo, bitly by private equity, and Tweetdeck by Twitter.
Investments and accelerated companies at betaworks include: Twitter, Tumblr, Kickstarter, Medium, Anchor, Gimlet. In 2015 John and the team at betaworks started focusing on machine learning as the next wave of transformation in technology. Hugging Face joined botcamp, the first cohort of betaworks thematic accelerator program that has been running since 2016. Other AI investments include Granola, The Browser Company,Sandbar and Resemble.ai.
Prior to starting betaworks, John held the CTO job at Time Warner, as SVP of Technology; before that he was CEO of Fotolog, one of the first social photo-sharing sites. He serves on the boards of WNYC, New York Public Radio and Tech Policy Press.
During his time at Betaworks, John has been a key player in a number of tech organizations including the Bloomberg Tech Council, the Partnership for New York, co-hosted New York Founders Forum, and served as a TechCrunch Startup Battlefield judge several times. He has also appeared on many media lists including Business Insider’s Top VCs in New York, Silicon Alley’s Seed 100, Tech Power 50, 100 Best Tech People on Twitter, and AlleyWatch’s Complete Guide to Venture Capital in NYC.
John holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
