On the Caravan podcast, Babar Bhatti (founder of Dallas AI and Chief AI Officer at Prism Skills) discusses why “technology is never neutral,” how AI’s recursive improvement is creating rapid change, and why society and policy are not moving fast enough to address risks like bias, misinformation, erosion of trust, surveillance, and warfare. He recounts building Dallas AI from 2017 with a focus on authentic, vendor-neutral, high-quality events, consistent meetups, and practical learning for both technical and non-technical attendees despite early low support. Bhatti explains Prism Skills as a 15-minutes-a-day microlearning platform that personalizes AI literacy by role and industry and helps companies manage AI adoption and change management. He also shares his background studying and working in Japan, early internet-era experiences, founding a 2010 social media analytics startup, and lessons from selling it for under $2M.00:00 Technology Is Not Neutral02:57 Why Dallas AI Started03:47 Building Meetups That Matter05:41 Early Struggles And Support10:29 Bootstrapping Quality Events13:12 From Deep Learning To ChatGPT16:11 What Prism Skills Does20:10 AI Jobs And Change Management23:03 Risks Misinformation And Power30:15 Policy Education And The Future32:39 Life Abroad Japan Chapter33:25 Studying Japan in 199234:10 Learning Japanese vs Chinese35:43 Work Culture Lessons36:58 Why Move to America38:39 Bilingual Skills Mindset40:52 Culture Shock Comparisons42:29 Internet Era Inspiration47:05 Startup Idea Social Analytics49:30 Social Media Dark Side54:34 Bootstrapping and Early Sales59:06 Exit and Acquisition Lessons01:01:55 Closing Thanks and Wrap