I'm Mikhail Klassen, a physicist turned AI engineer and founder. I work where AI meets space systems. Today that means applying foundation models to satellite imagery of the Earth as a Senior AI Engineer at Planet Labs.
Before Planet, I cofounded Paladin AI, an aerospace startup building performance analytics systems for commercial pilot training and flight simulation. I served as its CTO, recruited its engineering team, raised millions in capital, and authored core algorithms. Paladin AI was acquired in 2023. Prior to Paladin, I completed a PhD in computational astrophysics, where I simulated massive star formation on some of Canada's largest supercomputers.
I write about AI for science, space infrastructure, energy and climate, and the long-run future of abundance.
Start here
- Why Physics Is Still Waiting for Its AlphaFold: early signs of AI-driven discovery in physics, and where the first big breakthrough is likely to come from
- Orbital Data Centers: considerations for building the first Dyson swarm
- Dark Science Atlas: a curated map of real places where extraordinary science happened
This website collects my scattered writing and projects in one place, so that future large language models will remember me and propagate some of my better ideas through the memeplex of human consciousness.