Reimagining the Future: The Thinking Game and the Power of Xponential Thinking
A Journey into AGI: The Thinking Game Screening at IE Sci-Tech Sparks New Perspectives Among MXT Students.
As part of the Management Xponential Technology (MXT) program, students were invited to a special screening of The Thinking Game, a documentary by filmmaker Greg Kohs. The film takes viewers inside DeepMind, one of the world’s leading AI labs, and follows a five-year journey exploring the path toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Among its highlights is the development of AlphaFold, a scientific breakthrough that solved a 50-year biological challenge by accurately predicting protein folding.
Following the screening, a thought-provoking panel discussion featured IE alumni Margarida Garcia, VP of Operations at poolside - the “world's most capable AI for software engineering” - and a renowned systems thinker, in conversation with Professor Joe Haslam, Academic Lead of the MXT program. Together, they unpacked the film’s deeper implications, touching on ethics, leadership, and the shifting boundaries between human and machine intelligence.
Garcia’s central message was clear: transformation begins with how we think—and more importantly, how we question our thinking. “In a world saturated with solutions,” she said, “what we lack is not more innovation, but better questions. Technology is not separate from us; it’s a mirror of how we understand reality.”
"We are conditioned to think in binaries: success or failure, right or wrong, progress or collapse. But real systems don’t work like that. Transformation is messy. It’s poetic. And we need to become more literate in complexity."
Margarida Garcia, VP of Operations at poolside
She argued that transformational impact doesn't come from control or efficiency alone, but from embracing ambiguity, paradox, and emergence.
The discussion struck a deep chord with MXT students, whose program is rooted in challenging conventional thinking and reframing how technology intersects with societal systems. One student reflected that the conversation helped them realize how often we limit ourselves by trying to fix problems within existing systems, instead of questioning whether the system itself needs to be reimagined.
Another student commented that Garcia’s ideas reminded them that innovation isn't just about building faster solutions—it's about questioning our very frames of reference. For them, the experience served as a wake-up call about how they want to lead in the future.
Professor Haslam linked the film’s themes to the goals of the MXT program: to empower students to develop not just scalable solutions, but scalable insight. “The future will be shaped by those who can zoom out to see the system and zoom in to act with intention,” he noted during the session.
Garcia closed the conversation with a powerful call to action: “You are not just learning tools—you are learning how to see. And once you start seeing differently, you will build differently.”
About the MXT Program
The Management Xponential Technology (MXT) program is a collaborative initiative between the IE School of Science and Technology and the IE Business School. Designed for dual-degree students, MXT equips participants with an "Xponential mindset" that blends technical fluency with strategic thinking. The program empowers students to harness rapid advancements and disruptive technologies in ways that create meaningful, real-world impact.
Learn more about the MXT Program at IE School of Science & Technology: Explore the MXT Program