AI, Creativity, and Soul: How Hilary Mason Chooses Her Own Adventure (Co-Founder & CEO of Hidden Door)

CRAFTED. | The Tech Podcast for Founders, Makers, and Innovators

Hilary Mason is a world-builder. She’s a serial entrepreneur, machine learning expert, and now, as the founder and CEO of Hidden Door, she’s creating immersive experiences where fans can interact with their favorite characters from books and movies.

The choose-your-own-adventures style games are an amazing blend of AI and human creativity — and Hilary is passionate about both:

“If I write a manifesto, this is what it'll be: I don't think the power of generative AI is to create the next amazing novel. I don't think it's gonna create the next amazing movie. I think it is not opinionated, but people are opinionated and people will create those things using these tools.”

On this episode of CRAFTED., we discuss what AI is good at and how to create a great marriage of human and machine. And Hilary is not holding back…

“Doing data work without a soul or without philosophy is, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.”

“I think prompts are gonna go away. We're in a moment of industry-wide product design, chaos…”

Listen for a masterclass on building with AI and building with creativity and soul.

• (02:00) - – This moment in AI: figuring out the right use cases and design patterns
• (05:00) - – Founding Hidden Door
• (09:00) - – Why “controllability” is so important
• (11:00) - – Enabling fans want to play with their favorite characters
• (13:00) - – Why text-based games are so great
• (15:00) - – Behind the scenes of how Hidden Door builds for fun
• (19:00) - – AI has caused a moment of “industry-wide product design chaos”
• (23:00) - – Industries and use cases where AI will be really good; where it won’t
• (25:00) - – Effective ways to get beyond AI mediocrity
• (28:00) - – Why Hilary thinks prompts will soon go away
• (31:00) - – Hilary’s liberal arts background: English + Computer Science
• (33:00) - – Why we need philosophy and soul along with the data

Where to find Hidden Door:

• https://www.hiddendoor.co/

Where to find Hilary Mason:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilarymason/
• X: https://x.com/hmason

Where to find Dan Blumberg:

• Website & newsletter: https://www.crafted.fm
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/
• X: https://x.com/dblums

CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com