AI Assembled - Episode AIA082426

What’s inside:

• Washington’s Pax Silica ultimatum — U.S. allies are being told to pick a side in the AI race with China, and your supply chain is on the chessboard

• Pope Leo XIV tells the world’s Catholic legislators exactly where he thinks AI guardrails should go

• AI literacy becomes graduation law — 77 bills across 27 states, and what it means for your future entry-level hires

• Agentic AI and the Model Context Protocol go mainstream — the “USB-C of AI,” plus our host’s own multi-AI company knowledge base

• The data on why unstructured AI pilots fail at eye-watering rates — and what the winners do differently

• Google’s $12.2 billion Marvell chip pact and Nvidia’s $105 billion OpenAI guarantee — the skyrocketing cost of powering frontier AI

Key source links:

• https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-tell-partners-they-must-pick-sides-ai-race-with-china-2026-08-14/

• https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/pope-leo-to-catholic-legislators-promote-ai-policies-that-protect-families

• https://www.future-ed.org/legislative-tracker-2026-state-ai-in-education-bills/

• https://www.cio.com/article/4136548/why-model-context-protocol-is-suddenly-on-every-executive-agenda.html

• https://www.digitalapplied.com/blog/mcp-97-million-downloads-model-context-protocol-mainstream

• https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/

• https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2680-1.html

• https://www.reuters.com/technology/marvell-grants-google-122-billion-stock-warrant-custom-chip-deal-2026-08-19/

• https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/17/nvidia-financing-open-ai-data-center-ohio.html

• https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/17/nvidia-investing-1-5b-in-softbank-data-center-developer-behind-openai-project/