January, 2025
In 2021, I came across a letter by a young Hunter S. Thompson that offered life-changing advice. One passage stood out:
Let’s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let’s assume that you can’t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN—and here is the essence of all I’ve said—you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.
Since reading those words, I’ve committed to seeking purpose and fulfillment by forging my own path. That journey ultimately led me to modell.ai: my “ninth path” in professional life.
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Throughout my career—first in academia, then in business—I often struggled to find deep meaning in the problems I worked on.
In business, problems are typically framed by short-term goals, leaving fundamental issues unexamined. In academia, research is too often steered by closed communities, limiting its real-world impact. While neither realm is inherently wrong, both felt misaligned with my desire to tackle meaningful, foundational problems.
To truly follow Thompson’s advice, I knew my next chapter had to be different: a place where deep inquiry meets real-world relevance.
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Taking purpose and fulfillment seriously has profound consequences. Unlike a for-hire R&D lab, modell.ai does not take on commissioned research projects. Instead, we pursue high-impact AI challenges grounded in core business problems.
We work from a single, guiding question:
What business practices will break under tomorrow’s AI?
By rigorously and imaginatively answering this question, we expose limitations of current business practices and simultaneously identify frontier AI challenges worth solving.
This approach ensures we address root causes, not just symptoms. It combines business analysis with technical research to define good problems before building solutions. As a result, we don’t chase just any AI challenge—we focus on those with the power to drive genuine business improvement.
You can see this philosophy in action on our Opportunities page.
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We know we’re not alone in thinking this way, but we also know our approach is hard to replicate elsewhere. That’s why modell.ai is more than an R&D lab: it’s also an R&D hub.
Through strategic partnerships, we collaborate with:
Forward-looking companies eager to engage with AI research and unlock transformative opportunities.
Academic researchers who want to apply their AI expertise to reinvent business practices.
These partnerships create a dynamic exchange of knowledge, resources, and opportunity—delivering meaningful value to everyone involved.
To see what these collaborations might look like in practice, visit our Partnerships page.
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Artificial Intelligence may be the trend of the moment, but our commitment to it runs far deeper than hype. My nearly two decades of experience in AI, spanning academia and industry, have shaped an approach based on expertise, not fashion. More importantly, our problem-first philosophy ensures we focus on the AI challenges that matter most: the ones with the potential for lasting, transformative impact.
Hype aside, AI is here to stay. The commercial rise we’re witnessing today echoes the dot-com era, when pioneering teams at Amazon, Google, PayPal, and others redefined industries and accelerated the digital revolution.
Today, AI offers a similar frontier: one open to those with the expertise and courage to lead.
If my “ninth path” resonates with you, I invite you to join us. Whether as a partner or a team member, let’s push the boundaries of AI and business—and reshape the future together.
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Igor Braga
Founder & Chief Scientist