Send us a text

Human Centered AI | Ep. 010 | Why Netflix is paying $83 billion for the stories we watched before school.

Netflix has led AI in entertainment for over a decade. Personalized thumbnails, recommendation engines, rapid production. They're exceptional at it.

So why spend $83 billion on Warner Brothers Discovery?

Because they noticed something interesting about their own catalog.

Netflix makes series you watch once. Warner Brothers made the ones you watch with your kids because your parents watched them with you.

Emotional compound interest, built over 80 years. That's not a technology problem. It's a time problem. And Netflix decided it was easier to buy than to wait.

This got us thinking about what it means for everyone else.

Warner Brothers didn't have the best AI. They had something AI needed. Decades of stories, characters, and trust that couldn't be built faster with better technology.

Most organizations have a version of this. Customer relationships measured in decades. Institutional knowledge that lives in people, not systems. A reputation earned by showing up consistently.

That's not legacy to modernize away. That's your data. The real kind - built over years, not downloaded. And AI is only as good as what you feed it.

In this episode we explore:

✨ Human value in an AI world - what can't be replicated

✨ Infrastructure reality - the gap between AI's promise and today's reality

✨ Legacy as asset - reframing what "old" means

✨ New roles emerging - how jobs are shifting

✨ Shared responsibility - ethics and safety aren't one person's job

AI multiplies what exists.

So let's ask, "what have you been building all this time that's about to become even more valuable?"

Send us a text

Human Centered AI: Ep.009 - The Iwakura Principle

See comments on where to listen 🎧

In 1871, Japan sent half its government overseas. For two years.

This isn't ancient history. It's a blueprint for AI transformation.

The Iwakura Mission included sitting cabinet ministers, future prime ministers, and a six-year-old girl who would later appear on the 5,000-yen note.

They didn't send junior staff to "figure it out." They sent the decision-makers.

The result? Mitsubishi. Mitsui. The Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nearly 500 companies founded by one mission member alone.

Most organizations today respond to AI with a pilot program and a steering committee.

The Japanese have two words for "leaving something to someone":

→ 任せる (makaseru) - entrusting

→ 放置する (hōchi suru) - abandoning

One built modern Japan. The other builds slide decks nobody reads.

Three Critical Insights:

→ Send Decision-Makers, Not Researchers - The people who will implement change need to do the learning. Waiting for a summary is abdication, not delegation.

→ Give It Real Time - The mission lasted nearly two years. Most AI initiatives get a quarter to show ROI. That's not transformation—that's a pilot.

→ Study Systems, Not Just Technology - They visited factories, yes. But also schools, courts, prisons, slums. They learned what NOT to copy as much as what to adopt.

Four Implementation Principles:

→ Literacy Before Strategy. If leadership hasn't personally used the tools, they're not ready to set direction.

→ Document With Intention. The mission produced a 5-volume, 2,000-page report. Most AI pilots end with a deck nobody reads.

→ Filter Through Context. They studied multiple countries, then built something Japanese. "Best practices" from Silicon Valley won't work in Tokyo—or your organization.

→ Build the Next Generation. The young officials on that mission led Japan for 50 years. Who are your future AI leaders? Not the consultants.

The Iwakura Mission wasn't a project. It was a commitment.

150 years later, we're still talking about it because it worked.

In this episode, Nathan Paterson and Brittany Arthur explore what this 150-year-old voyage teaches us about taking AI transformation seriously and why most organizations are confusing delegation with abandonment.

How you commit matters more than how much you invest.

Send us a text

Microsoft Partnership, Academy Updates, and Spatial Intelligence | Human-Centered AI Ep. 008

Three signals from the AI frontier this week. Each one reshapes how we think about AI readiness.

SIGNAL 1: Microsoft Partnership
DTJ is now Microsoft's official training partner for AI education in Japan—working with government officials and policymakers. When governments invest in AI literacy (not just tools), it confirms: this skill is baseline now.

SIGNAL 2: Academy Confidence
Our graduates walk into interviews ready when asked "How do you think about AI trade-offs?" They've built conviction, not memorized answers. December and January cohorts now open.

SIGNAL 3: Spatial Intelligence Is Live
Dr. Fei-Fei Li's work on AI that understands 3D space just dropped. Take one photo, AI generates a navigable 3D environment. For manufacturing, logistics, robotics—the next wave isn't coming. It's here.

THREE CRITICAL INSIGHTS:

1. AI Literacy Moved From Vertical to Horizontal - This isn't specialized anymore. It's baseline. Every role. Every level.

2. Confidence Is the Competitive Advantage - Technical knowledge is optional. Strategic conviction about AI is not.

3. The Frontier Keeps Revealing Itself - While most organizations are figuring out ChatGPT, AI just moved from digital to physical.

We watch the frontier so you don't get blindsided. 37 minutes that translate what's coming into what it means for your work.

LINKS:
🔗 Human-Centered AI Leadership Academy: https://www.designthinkingjapan.com/ai-leadership
🔗 DTJ Website: https://www.designthinkingjapan.com/
🔗 Microsoft Elevate Japan: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/elevate
🔗 World Labs (Spatial Intelligence): https://www.worldlabs.ai/

ABOUT HUMAN-CENTERED AI PODCAST:
Weekly insights on AI, leadership, and what's actually happening on the frontier. Hosted by Design Thinking Japan (DTJ), a human-centered AI company in Tokyo.

We help leaders navigate AI strategy with clarity and confidence—not hype.