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Know What Matters in Tech Before It Hits the Mainstream
By the time AI news hits CNBC, CNN, Fox, and even social media, the info is already too late. What feels “new” to most people has usually been in motion for weeks — sometimes months — quietly shaping products, markets, and decisions behind the scenes.
Forward Future is a daily briefing for people who want to stay competitive in the fastest evolving technology shift we’ve ever seen. Each day, we surface the AI developments that actually matter, explain why they’re important, and connect them to what comes next.
We track the real inflection points: model releases, infrastructure shifts, policy moves, and early adoption signals that determine how AI shows up in the world — long before it becomes a talking point on TV or a trend on your feed.
It takes about five minutes to read.
The insight lasts all day.
Why Impact Careers Need Purpose-Driven Relationships, Not Just More Networking
I've had amazing conversations at conferences and in coffee shops. I've also had equally good ones while walking outside with just my phone.
This post came together in a very 2026 way: WhatsApp messages and an actual phone call with Boardy (an AI connector I talk to like a real contact).
It's what's been at the center of my work:
When you put purpose and curiosity at the center, you meet the right people. And the right people lead to better opportunities.
Not instantly. Not magically. But in ways that compound.
Impact careers are meaningful—and they're hard
In our PCDN office hours, I see the full spectrum every week: some people job searching for months, others moving into second interviews, people switching sectors or rethinking what "impact" even means.
The thing that helps most isn't "more networking." It's purpose-driven relationships where people actually show up for each other—not transactional connections that fade after one coffee.
Here are three habits that consistently work.
Lead with purpose, not transactions
In impact work, people can smell pure self-interest instantly. What lands is being clear about why you care. What are you trying to build, fix, learn, or contribute?
When you start there, conversations get real faster.
Treat curiosity like a skill
The best connectors I know aren't the loudest. They ask better questions.
Questions that reliably unlock something real:
"What's the part of your work nobody sees?"
"What are you trying to do this year that's hard to say out loud?"
Make helping easy and specific
"Let me know how I can help" is kind, but vague.
What works better is offering one small, specific thing:
"I can intro you to two people in this space. Want that?"
"If you send me your one-sentence ask, I'll share it"
Small, repeatable help compounds.
Where LinkedIn fits (and where it doesn't)
LinkedIn is still amazing. I've learned a lot there, been hired, built incredible connections.
But it's also increasingly overwhelming—filled with too much marketing, AI spam, and really bad ads.
Real relationships still run on trust and context. Tools like Boardy can be amazing for this—get insights, make connections, write a blog post on the run. So is doing things locally—we have an amazing impact community in Medellín where we share, meet up, and help each other.
Also check out our Social Change Career Podcast episode with Boardy.
If you're building an impact career
PCDN Job Board (900-1200+ impact jobs updated daily)
PCDN Career Campus (300+ opps in your inbox a month, office hours, community)
Social Change Career Podcast (200+ episodes)
AI for Impact Opportunities
News & Resources
🤖 Your Daily AI Impact Joke
🤖 Your Daily AI Impact Joke
Why did the AI startup raise $125 million to become a unicorn?
Because apparently solving incidents faster than humans is worth more than solving world hunger—venture capital priorities in a nutshell!
News
A New AI Math Startup Just Cracked 4 Previously Unsolved Problems — Axiom's AxiomProver AI has solved several long-standing mathematical problems that stumped experts for years, including a conjecture in algebraic geometry that mathematicians Hei-Chi Chen and Quentin Gendron couldn't resolve. The AI discovered connections to 19th-century numerical phenomena that humans had overlooked, demonstrating steadily advancing reasoning capabilities that could extend beyond math to cybersecurity and software verification.
Inside the Marketplace Powering Bespoke AI Deepfakes of Real Women — Civitai, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, is allowing users to purchase custom instruction files for generating celebrity deepfakes, with 86% of deepfake requests on the platform designed to create pornographic images. Despite banning deepfake content in May 2025, numerous requests submitted before the ban remain active and available for purchase, raising serious questions about venture capital's role in enabling nonconsensual exploitation.
Trump Administration Plans to Use AI to Write Federal Regulations — The Department of Transportation is reportedly planning to use AI language models to draft regulations, with humans relegated to monitoring "AI-to-AI interactions" and proofreading machine output. Legal experts warn this approach could produce arbitrary, error-filled policies lacking evidentiary basis, potentially putting lives at risk in areas like aviation safety and pipeline regulation while opening agencies to legal challenges.
Moltbook: A Social Network Exclusively for AI Agents — Launched a week ago as a Reddit-like platform where only AI agents can post, Moltbook immediately faced security issues when a misconfiguration allowed anyone to hijack any agent. The platform represents a growing experiment in autonomous AI interaction, though early vulnerabilities highlight the risks of letting AI systems operate without human oversight.
HHS Is Using AI Tools From Palantir to Target 'DEI' and 'Gender Ideology' in Grants — The Department of Health and Human Services has deployed Palantir's AI-powered software to scan through grant applications and identify programs mentioning diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender-related terms. This marks an escalation in the administration's use of surveillance technology to enforce ideological compliance, with potential chilling effects on research into health disparities and LGBTQ+ healthcare.
💼 Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
80,000 Hours Job Board — Curated high-impact career opportunities in AI safety, policy, global health, and neglected problem areas.
👤 LinkedIn Profile to Follow
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury — US Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence — Pioneer in applied algorithmic ethics and CEO of Humane Intelligence, a nonprofit advancing community-driven AI auditing and evaluation. Previously led the Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team at Twitter and founded Parity, an enterprise algorithmic audit platform.
🎧 Today's Podcast Pick
Lex Fridman Podcast — Deep Explorations in AI and Intelligence — Lex Fridman's long-form conversations explore the nature of intelligence, deep learning, robotics, and AGI with experts from academia and industry.