No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
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185 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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The Impact of AI, from Business Models to Cybersecurity, with Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora
4 oktober 2025 · 58 min
Between the future of search, the biggest threats in cybersecurity, and the jobs and platforms of tomorrow, Nikesh Arora sees one common thread connecting and transforming them all—AI. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Nikesh Arora, CEO of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks and former Chief Business Officer of Google, to talk about a wide array of topics from agentic AI to leadership. Nikesh dives into the future of search, the disruptive potential of AI agents for existing business models, and how AI has both compressed the timeline for cyberattacks as well as fundamentally shifted defense strategies in cybersecurity. Plus, Nikesh shares his leadership philosophy, and why he’s so optimistic about AI.
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Chapters:
00:00 – Nikesh Arora Introduction
00:39 – Nikesh on the Future of Search
04:46 – Shifting to an Agentic Model of Search
08:12 – AI-as-a-Service
16:55 – State of Enterprise Adoption
20:15 – Gen AI and Cybersecurity
27:35 – New Problems in Cybersecurity in the AI Age
29:53 – Deepfakes, Spearfishing, and Other Attacks
32:56 – Expanding Products at Palo Alto
35:49 – AI Agents and Human Replaceability
44:28 – Nikesh’s Thoughts on Growth at Scale
46:52 – Nikesh’s Leadership Tips
51:14 – Nikesh on Ambition
54:18 – Nikesh’s Thoughts on AI
58:21 – Conclusion Lees meer -
Reinventing K-12 Education Using AI with Alpha School Principal Joe Liemandt
25 september 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
What if kids could master their academics in just two hours a day and spend the rest of their time developing real-world skills they’re passionate about? Joe Liemandt, founder of the software company Trilogy, is doing just that. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil are joined by Joe Liemandt, principal of Alpha School, to discuss his AI-driven vision of reinventing K-12 education. Joe talks about the strategies that Alpha School employs: reducing the traditional six-hour school day to two, replacing teachers with “Guides,” using financial incentives as motivation, and dedicating the remainder of the school day to project-based workshops that reflect the students’ passions. Together, they also examine Joe’s plan to scale Alpha School, the youth mental health crisis, and why edtech so far has failed. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Joe Liemandt Introduction
00:27 – From Trilogy to Alpha School
02:45 – How Joe Changed His Mind About Alpha School
04:16 – Reenvisioning the School Day
09:06 – An Example Day at Alpha School
20:13 – Educating Based on Motivations
22:56 – Incentives-Based Learning
24:40 – Standards for Guides
26:39 – Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivators
35:12 – Tackling Learning Differences
39:13 – Alpha School Pricing Structure
43:08 – Education Tech at Alpha School
44:54 – Rebuilding Education in the AI Age
48:43 – Reforming Education Policy
56:25 – Ed Tech as a Product
58:58 – Fixing Gaps in Education
59:45 – Why Education is Joe’s Mission
01:01:49 – Conclusion
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AI Agents Talking to AI Agents: Reinventing Commerce with Decagon CEO Jesse Zhang
18 september 2025 · 31 min
The traditional call center may soon be a thing of the past. Jessie Zhang is building AI agents designed to replace monotonous human labor and transform how consumers interact with brands. Elad Gil sits down with Jesse Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Decagon, an AI agent company at the forefront of AI customer service. Jesse talks about how Decagon secured large enterprise clients and the impact of its AI agents, his journey as a second-time founder, and Decagon’s company culture. Plus, they discuss what the future of agentic customer service may look like. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Jesse Zhang Introduction
00:30 – Decagon’s Services
01:11 – Decagon’s Customers and Growth
02:41 – Productivity Gains with Decagon
03:33 – How Decagon Integrates in Customer Workflows
04:25 – Jesse’s Second Time Founder Story
05:41 – Jesse’s Hiring Philosophy
09:13 – Counter-intuitive Advice for Founders
11:19 – How Decagon Thinks About Talent
14:12 – Areas for Longer Term Planning
15:37 – Decagon’s Path to Customer Service
16:57 – Thoughts on Pushing Into the Application Layer
19:40 – What Decagon Does Uniquely
22:05 – Pricing Services in the AI Age
24:46 – How Decagon Sees Customer Service
25:53 – Defining Long-Term Success for Decagon
27:41 – Jesse’s Views on an Agentic Future
31:22 – Conclusion
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Jared Kushner: BrainCo, Affinity Partners, and the Geopolitics of AI
15 september 2025 · 58 min
From negotiating with world leaders to partnering with top entrepreneurs, businessman and investor Jared Kushner has traveled the unique path of bringing private sector knowledge to government work and back again. Jared Kushner joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to cover a wide range of topics, from his founding of investment firm Affinity Partners, to his time in government, to his new AI venture BrainCo. Jared discusses Affinity Partners’ mission and strategy, how he has leveraged his government experience in business and investing, and the geopolitics of technological advancements like AI. Plus, he makes a case for why private sector talent should do “tours of duty” in government. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Jared Kushner Introduction
00:30 – Starting Affinity Partners Post-Government
01:59 – Value of Global Perspective
03:34 – Ventures with Affinity
05:14 – Evaluating Investments Via Macro Trends
09:09 – Undervalued Countries
12:32 – Origins of BrainCo
16:50 – BrainCo Use Cases
23:49 – BrainCo’s Biggest Challenge
24:47 – Determining Customer Fit
26:39 – AI and Policy
30:03 – Middle East and AI
31:59 – Jared’s Experience in Middle East Diplomacy
40:16 – Brokering Peace Post-October 7th
43:52 – Making Deals with Middle Eastern Partners
47:14 – Jared and Ivanka’s Partnership
49:18 – Benefits of Joining Public Sector from the Private Sector
52:07 – Jared’s Pitch for Serving in Government
56:25 – Jared’s Leadership Style
58:24 – Conclusion
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A New Operating System for Physicians with OpenEvidence Founder Daniel Nadler
5 september 2025 · 45 min
How does a new technology get adopted by 40% of American doctors in just 18 months? In an era where the golden age of biotechnology has also created a dark age of physician burnout, OpenEvidence found the answer by fundamentally changing how doctors access critical information. OpenEvidence founder Daniel Nadler sits down with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to discuss how his company solved the semantic search problem in medicine. He talks about the strategy of treating doctors as consumers, striking the balance of keeping patients in the loop in medical conversations, and how technology will reshape both medicine and medical education. Plus, Daniel gives his thoughts on the roots of motivation, as well as his philosophy for recruitment. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Daniel Nadler Introduction
00:08 – OpenEvidence’s Success
01:54 – How OpenEvidence Works
06:35 – Dealing with Ambiguity
11:37 – Treating Knowledge Workers as Consumers
15:53 – Balancing Keeping Patients in the Loop
19:28 – How Technology May Shape the Future of Medicine
22:12 – How Technology Will Change Medical Education
30:40 – Examining Consumer Adoption of Preventative Health Measures
36:02 – Lessons for Other Fields
37:27 – Rationalism vs. Will
41:13 – Daniel’s Thoughts on Motivation
42:44 – Daniel’s Recruiting Philosophy
44:48 – Conclusion
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Reshaping America’s Economy for the Superintelligence Century with Jacob Helberg
28 augustus 2025 · 41 min
AI doomers say that the technology will be the ultimate job-killer. But Jacob Helberg wants people to see AI as a tech that will boost, not replace, human workers and give them superpowers. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jacob Helberg joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to talk about AI’s role in reshoring manufacturing in America, supply chain security, and transforming the US energy grid. He also discusses the CapEx revolution, why he sees opportunity for tech and energy partnerships in the Middle East, and the path to more nuclear energy for the US. Plus, the three explore what the “superintelligence century” could look like. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Jacob Helberg Introduction
00:50 – Jacob’s Agenda for Capitol Hill
01:53 – Reshoring the American Supply Chain
04:38 – Areas of CapEx Growth
06:56 – Importance of Supply Chain Security
08:52 – Reshoring Rare Earth Minerals
11:12 – How AI Can Help America Reindustrialize
15:37 – AI and Productivity Gains
17:38 – The Superintelligence Century
22:56 – Creating an Open Source AI Ecosystem
24:41 – The Middle East and AI
26:24 – Growing Energy Resources in the US
28:28 – The Path to More Nuclear Energy in the US
35:50 – Essential Domains for Strategy and Security
38:20 – The Tech Industry and the Administration
40:29 – Conclusion
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How Agentic AI is Transforming The Startup Landscape with Andrew Ng
21 augustus 2025 · 42 min
Andrew Ng has always been at the bleeding edge of fast-evolving AI technologies, founding companies and projects like Google Brain, AI Fund, and DeepLearning.AI. So he knows better than anyone that founders who operate the same way in 2025 as they did in 2022 are doing it wrong. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Andrew Ng, the godfather of the AI revolution, to discuss the rise of agentic AI, and how the technology has changed everything from what makes a successful founder to the value of small teams. They talk about where future capability growth may come from, the potential for models to bootstrap themselves, and why Andrew doesn’t like the term “vibe coding.” Also, Andrew makes the case for why everybody in an organization—not just the engineers—should learn to code. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Andrew Ng Introduction
00:32 – The Next Frontier for Capability Growth
01:29 – Andrew’s Definition of Agentic AI
02:44 – Obstacles to Building True Agents
06:09 – The Bleeding Edge of Agentic AI
08:12 – Will Models Bootstrap Themselves?
09:05 – Vibe Coding vs. AI Assisted Coding
09:56 – Is Vibe Coding Changing the Nature of Startups?
11:35 – Speeding Up Project Management
12:55 – The Evolution of the Successful Founder Profile
19:23 – Finding Great Product People
21:14 – Building for One User Profile vs. Many
22:47 – Requisites for Leaders and Teams in the AI Age
28:21 – The Value of Keeping Teams Small
32:13 – The Next Industry Transformations
34:04 – Future of Automation in Investing Firms and Incubators
37:39 – Technical People as First Time Founders
41:08– Broad Impact of AI Over the Next 5 Years
41:49 – Conclusion
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Chips, Neoclouds, and the Quest for AI Dominance with SemiAnalysis Founder and CEO Dylan Patel
14 augustus 2025 · 47 min
What would it take to challenge Nvidia? SemiAnalysis Founder and CEO Dylan Patel joins Sarah Guo to answer this and other topical questions around the current state of AI infrastructure. Together, they explore why Dylan loves Android products, predictions around OpenAI’s open source model, and what the landscape of neoclouds looks like. They also discuss Dylan’s thoughts on bottlenecks for expanding AI infrastructure and exporting American AI technologies. Plus, we find out what question Dylan would ask Mark Zuckerberg. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Dylan Patel Introduction
00:31 – Dylan’s Love for Android Products
02:10 – Predictions About OpenAI’s Open Source Model
06:50 – Implications of an American Open Source Model for the Application Ecosystem
10:48 – Evolution of Neoclouds
17:26 – What It Would Take to Challenge Nvidia
27:43 – What Would an Nvidia Challenger Look Like?
28:18 – Understanding Operational and Power Constraints for Data Centers
34:48 – Dylan’s View on the American Stack
43:01 – What Dylan Would Ask Mark Zuckerberg
44:22 – Poker and AI Entrepreneurship
46:51 – Conclusion
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The Shifting Value of Content in the AI Age with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince
7 augustus 2025 · 45 min
Cloudflare has spent nearly fifteen years making the Internet faster, more reliable, and more secure. So now that AI systems are changing the way we interact with the Internet, Cloudflare wants to help level the playing field for content creators. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare to discuss the evolution of the internet from search to AI, including Cloudflare’s role in facilitating that shift. Matthew talks about how AI assistants are changing the shape of the Internet, the problems Google created by making traffic the arbiter of content value, and how he sees Cloudflare’s part in facilitating the new content marketplace for the mutual benefit of creators and AI companies. Plus, a look towards how agentic infrastructure may unfold in the near future. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Matthew Prince Introduction
00:37 – Cloudflare’s Role in Securing the Internet
02:08 – The Road to Cloudflare’s Dominance
03:20 – The Internet’s Shift from Search to AI
06:34 – Role of Agents and Content on the New Web
09:44 – Reshaping the Content Market Online
13:05 – De-emphasizing Traffic as a Proxy for Value
18:04 – Will We Run Out of Quality Human-Generated Content?
20:01 – Scaling the Value of Content in the AI Age
22:32 – Cloudflare’s Approach to Inference
24:55 – How Cloudflare Responds to Market Demand
26:04 – Open vs. Closed Models
27:21 – Path to the New Marketplace for Content
30:58 – Advice for Content Creators
32:47 – Exploring the Timeline for Running Models Locally
40:07 – The Future of Agentic Infrastructure
44:52 – Conclusion
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America’s Plan to Dominate the Full AI Stack with Sriram Krishnan
31 juli 2025 · 37 min
Sriram Krishnan was never interested in policy. But after seeing a gap in AI knowledge at senior levels of government, he decided to lend his expertise to the tech-friendly Trump administration. Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan joins Elad Gil and Sarah Guo to talk about America’s AI Action Plan, a recent executive order that outlines how America can win the AI race and maintain its AI supremacy. Sriram discusses why winning the AI race is important and what that looks like, as well as the core goals of the Action Plan that he helped to author. Together, they explore how AI is the latest iteration of American cultural exportation and soft power, the bottlenecks in upgrading America’s energy infrastructure, and the importance of America owning the “full stack” from GPUs and models to agents and software. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Sriram Krishnan Introduction
01:00 – Sriram’s Role in Government
03:43 – Impetus for the America AI Action Plan
06:14 – What Winning the AI Race Looks Like
10:36 – Algorithms and Cultural Bias
12:26 – Main Tenets of the America AI Action Plan
19:13 – Infrastructure and Energy Needs for AI
22:56 – Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and AI
24:52 – Ensuring American Dominance in Robotics
26:30 – Translating Policy to Industry and the Economy
29:30 – Should the US Be a Technocracy?
32:33 – Understanding the Argument Against Open Source Models
36:07 – Conclusion
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The Power of Quality Human Data with SurgeAI Founder and CEO Edwin Chen
24 juli 2025 · 33 min
In the generative AI revolution, quality data is a valuable commodity. But not all data is created equally. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with SurgeAI founder and CEO Edwin Chen to discuss the meaning and importance of quality human data. Edwin talks about why he bootstrapped Surge instead of raising venture funds, the importance of scalable oversight in producing quality data, and the work Surge is doing to standardize human evals. Plus, we get Edwin’s take on what Meta’s investment into Scale AI means for Surge, as well as whether or not he thinks an underdog can catch up with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other dominant industry players. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Edwin Chen Introduction
00:41 – Overview of SurgeAI
02:28 – Why SurgeAI Bootstrapped Instead of Raising Funds
07:59 – Explaining SurgeAI’s Product
09:39 – Differentiating SurgeAI from Competitors
11:27 – Measuring the Quality of SurgeAI’s Output
12:25 – Role of Scalable Oversight at SurgeAI
14:02 – Challenges of Building Rich RL Environments
16:39 – Predicting Future Needs for Training AI Models
17:29 – Role of Humans in Data Generation
21:27 – Importance of Human Evaluation for Quality Data
22:51 – SurgeAI’s Work Toward Standardization of Human Evals
23:37 – What the Meta/ScaleAI Deal Means for SurgeAI
24:35 – Edwin’s Underdog Pick to Catch Up to Big AI Companies
24:50 – The Future Frontier Model Landscape
26:25 – Future Directions for SurgeAI
29:29 – What Does High Quality Data Mean?
32:26 – Conclusion
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Asimov: Building An Omniscient RL Oracle with ReflectionAI’s Misha Laskin
17 juli 2025 · 1 uur 3 min
Superintelligence, at least in an academic sense, has already been achieved. But Misha Laskin thinks that the next step towards artificial superintelligence, or ASI, should look both more user and problem-focused. ReflectionAI co-founder and CEO Misha Laskin joins Sarah Guo to introduce Asimov, their new code comprehension agent built on reinforcement learning (RL). Misha talks about creating tools and designing AI agents based on customer needs, and how that influences eval development and the scope of the agent’s memory. The two also discuss the challenges in solving scaling for RL, the future of ASI, and the implications for Google’s “non-acquisition” of Windsurf. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Misha Laskin Introduction
00:44 – Superintelligence vs. Super Intelligent Autonomous Systems
03:26 – Misha’s Journey from Physics to AI
07:48 – Asimov Product Release
11:52 – What Differentiates Asimov from Other Agents
16:15 – Asimov’s Eval Philosophy
21:52 – The Types of Queries Where Asimov Shines
24:35 – Designing a Team-Wide Memory for Asimov
28:38 – Leveraging Pre-Trained Models
32:47 – The Challenges of Solving Scaling in RL
37:21 – Training Agents in Copycat Software Environments
38:25 – When Will We See ASI?
44:27 – Thoughts on Windsurf’s Non-Acquisition
48:10 – Exploring Non-RL Datasets
55:12 – Tackling Problems Beyond Engineering and Coding
57:54 – Where We’re At in Deploying ASI in Different Fields
01:02:30 – Conclusion
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Why Platforms Win and Point Solutions Fail with Rippling CEO Parker Conrad
10 juli 2025 · 45 min
As a three-time founder, Parker Conrad has one piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs—don’t do it. The Rippling co-founder and CEO joins Sarah Guo to talk about what he learned from the crash at Zenefits, why most advice to founders is wrong, and how building a real platform—not a point solution—is the only way to win in SaaS. The two get into founder psychology, the myth of learning from failure, and what true ownership looks like inside a company. He also shares why AI won’t shrink teams anytime soon, what people misunderstand about vertical software, and why ambition trumps efficiency with long-lasting companies. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Parker Conrad
00:33 Lessons from Zenefits to Rippling
01:54 The Psychology of Founding a Company
07:56 Rippling's Ambitious Vision
10:41 Building a Platform Company
15:05 Challenges and Strategies in Scaling
30:36 AI's Impact on Software Development
42:06 Public vs. Private: Rippling's Future
44:19 Conclusion
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Chai-2: The AI Model Accelerating Drug Discovery with Chai Discovery Co-Founders Jack Dent and Joshua Meier
3 juli 2025 · 49 min
AI has already fueled breakthroughs in biotechnology—but now, further advances in AI are poised to fuel pharmaceutical discoveries as well. Sarah Guo sits down with Joshua Meier and Jack Dent, co-founders of Chai Discovery, whose newly launched Chai-2 designs bespoke antibodies that bind to their targets at a jaw-dropping 20% rate. Jack and Joshua talk about the implications for Chai-2’s success rate at discovering antibodies for the pharmaceutical industry, how structure prediction is pivotal in making the model work, and future potential for using the model to optimize other molecular properties. Plus, they talk about what they believe bioscientists should be learning to best utilize Chai-2’s technology. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 – Joshua Meier and Jack Dent Introduction
01:09 – Genesis of Chai Discovery
06:12 – Chai-2 Model
10:13 – Criteria for Specifying Targets for Chai-2
13:12 – How the Chai-2 Model Works
16:12 – Emergent Vocabulary from Chai-2
18:15 – Hopes for Chai-2’s Impact
20:33 – Reception of the Chai-2 Model
22:16 – Future of Wet Lab Screening and Biotech
27:08 – Optimizing Other Molecule Properties
31:37 – Where Chai Invests From Here
36:20 – What Bioscientists Should Learn for Chai-2
40:23 – How Jack and Josh Oriented to the Biotech Space
43:38 – Platform Investment and Chai-2
46:53 – Scaling Chai Discovery
48:21 – Hiring at Chai Discovery
49:09 – Conclusion
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Meet AlphaEvolve: The Autonomous Agent That Discovers Algorithms Better Than Humans With Google DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli and Matej Balog
26 juni 2025 · 42 min
Much of the scientific process involves searching. But rather than continue to rely on the luck of discovery, Google DeepMind has engineered a more efficient AI agent that mines complex spaces to facilitate scientific breakthroughs. Sarah Guo speaks with Pushmeet Kohli, VP of Science and Strategic Initiatives, and research scientist Matej Balog at Google DeepMind about AlphaEvolve, an autonomous coding agent they developed that finds new algorithms through evolutionary search. Pushmeet and Matej talk about how AlphaEvolve tackles the problem of matrix multiplication efficiency, scaling and iteration in problem solving, and whether or not this means we are at self-improving AI. Together, they also explore the implications AlphaEvolve has to other sciences beyond mathematics and computer science. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 Pushmeet Kohli and Matej Balog Introduction
0:48 Origin of AlphaEvolve
02:31 AlphaEvolve’s Progression from AlphaGo and AlphaTensor
08:02 The Open Problem of Matrix Multiplication Efficiency
11:18 How AlphaEvolve Evolves Code
14:43 Scaling and Predicting Iterations
16:52 Implications for Coding Agents
19:42 Overcoming Limits of Automated Evaluators
25:21 Are We At Self-Improving AI?
28:10 Effects on Scientific Discovery and Mathematics
31:50 Role of Human Scientists with AlphaEvolve
38:30 Making AlphaEvolve Broadly Accessible
40:18 Applying AlphaEvolve Within Google
41:39 Conclusion
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The Operating System for Self Driving Cars (and Tanks, and Trucks...) With Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig of Applied Intuition
17 juni 2025 · 45 min
When will fully autonomous vehicles see widespread adoption? According to Applied Intuition, that future is closer than you may think. Applied Intuition’s CEO, Qasar Younis, and CTO, Peter Ludwig, talk with Elad Gil about how now is the best time to both work on self-driving vehicle technology and monetize it. Qasar and Peter discuss the advantages of developing their own OS in-house for their autonomous applications, self-driving technology’s potential to drive re-shoring of vehicle manufacturing to the United States, and how best to gauge the bar for safety in autonomous systems. Plus, they explore how self-driving technology may reshape the designs of not only vehicles, but cities themselves. Lees meer
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Chapters:
00:00 Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig Introduction
01:28 A Primer on Applied Intuition
11:08 Applied Intuition’s Customers
12:04 Impact of Chinese Vehicles Manufacturers
15:44 EV Policies in the European Market
20:49 Can Robotics and Automation Re-Shore Vehicle Manufacturing?
21:53 Training Models for Autonomous Vehicles
26:41 Gauging the Bar for Autonomous Vehicles Safety
32:03 Timeline for Large-Scale Autonomous Vehicle Adoption
36:28 Rethinking Urban Design for Autonomous Vehicles
38:47 How Applied Intuition Uses AI for Tooling and OS
42:09 Designing for User Experience
43:31 Applied Intuition’s Hiring Strategy
45:01 Conclusion
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Will we have Superintelligence by 2028? With Anthropic’s Ben Mann
12 juni 2025 · 41 min
What happens when you give AI researchers unlimited compute and tell them to compete for the highest usage rates? Ben Mann, Co-Founder, from Anthropic sits down with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to explain how Claude 4 went from "reward hacking" to efficiently completing tasks and how they're racing to solve AI safety before deploying computer-controlling agents. Ben talks about economic Turing tests, the future of general versus specialized AI models, Reinforcement Learning From AI Feedback (RLAIF), and Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP). Plus, Ben shares his thoughts on if we will have Superintelligence by 2028. Lees meer
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Links:
ai-2027.com/
Chapters:
00:00 Ben Mann Introduction
00:33 Releasing Claude 4
02:05 Claude 4 Highlights and Improvements
03:42 Advanced Use Cases and Capabilities
06:42 Specialization and Future of AI Models
09:35 Anthropic's Approach to Model Development
18:08 Human Feedback and AI Self-Improvement
19:15 Principles and Correctness in Model Training
20:58 Challenges in Measuring Correctness
21:42 Human Feedback and Preference Models
23:38 Empiricism and Real-World Applications
27:02 AI Safety and Ethical Considerations
28:13 AI Alignment and High-Risk Research
30:01 Responsible Scaling and Safety Policies
35:08 Future of AI and Emerging Behaviors
38:35 Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Industry Standards
41:00 Conclusion
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Teaching AI to Understand the Physical World, with Dr. Fei-Fei Li of World Labs
5 juni 2025 · 36 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad are joined by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, AI pioneer, co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, and founder of World Labs. Fei-Fei shares why she’s building at the intersection of embodiment and intelligence, and what today’s AI systems are still missing. From the early days of ImageNet to her vision for the next generation of robotics, she unpacks the human and technical motivations behind World Labs. They also discuss the challenges of 3D world modeling, her approach to building exceptional teams, and the special qualities that have led her students like Andrej Karpathy to make major breakthroughs. Lees meer
Show Notes:
0:00 Why and what Dr. Fei-Fei Li is building
3:00 World models at World Labs
6:44 Missing gaps in the AI future
9:16 Robotics and physical intelligence
16:15 Greatest challenges of 3D
19:08 Fei-Fei’s work in PhD in ImageNet
23:05 Special moments in Dr. Li's career
29:33 Building teams
32:05 Human-centered AI
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AI Consolidation, Biotech Opportunities, and World Models with Sarah and Elad
29 mei 2025 · 25 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad unpack the current state of the AI market - whether it’s consolidating, what’s enabling or blocking key mergers, and where the most promising untapped opportunities lie, particularly in biotech. They also explore the rise of world models and how AI’s novel methods for understanding complex systems may ultimately reshape how humans approach discovery and problem-solving. Lees meer
Show Notes:
0:00 Is the AI market consolidating into clear winners? + the physics of the current landscape
7:01 Why more companies don’t merge (even when it makes sense)
10:09 Exploring biotech’s biggest commercial opportunities and the challenges founders face
17:14 Building world models
21:34 How AI is expanding the way humans reason, design, and evolve systems
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AI is Making Enterprise Search Relevant, with Arvind Jain of Glean
15 mei 2025 · 32 min
Arvind Jain joins Sarah and Elad on this episode of No Priors. Arvind is the founder and CEO of Glean, an AI-powered enterprise search platform. He previously co-founded Rubrik and spent over a decade as an engineering leader at Google. In this episode, Arvind shares how LLMs are transforming enterprise search, why most tools in the space have failed, and the opportunity to build apps powered by internal knowledge. He discusses how much customization is still needed on top of foundation models, what made building Glean uniquely challenging compared to Arvind’s previous ventures, and what’s next for the company. Lees meer
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Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:58 How LLMs are changing search
2:05 Building out Glean’s platform
5:09 Why most search companies failed
8:41 Out of the box vs. bespoke models
10:26 Creating apps on top of internal knowledge
15:34 User behaviors & insights
19:11 Unique challenges of building Glean
21:51 Product-led growth vs. enterprise sales
25:00 Succeeding in traditionally bad markets
27:08 What Glean is excited to build next
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Gaming as the Future of Education with Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn
8 mei 2025 · 32 min
On this episode of No Priors, Sarah talks to Luis von Ahn, founder and CEO of Duolingo, the world’s most popular education app with over 116 million monthly users and a market cap of approximately $17 billion. Controversially, it has recently committed to being “AI-first.” They discuss why motivation is the biggest challenge in education, how Duolingo harnesses game mechanics and behavioral insights to keep learners engaged, and the company’s efforts to leverage AI to personalize education at scale. Luis also shares thoughts on the Duolingo brand, courses beyond language (chess and math), and the broader impact of AI on content creation. Lees meer
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Links:
Duolingo is now AI-First: http://bit.ly/3RQzny3Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
4:01 Optimizing learning behavior through tech
11:20 Adopting AI at Duolingo
17:25 AI’s threat to content companies
18:34 An unhinged corporate brand
21:28 How do people learn?
25:16 What people misunderstand about Duolingo?
26:24 How AI is transforming learning at scale
30:28 Leveraging AI across the business
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O3 and the Next Leap in Reasoning with OpenAI’s Eric Mitchell and Brandon McKinzie
1 mei 2025 · 38 min
This week on No Priors, Elad and Sarah sit down with Eric Mitchell and Brandon McKinzie, two of the minds behind OpenAI’s O3 model. They discuss what makes O3 unique, including its focus on reasoning, the role of reinforcement learning, and how tool use enables more powerful interactions. The conversation explores the unification of model capabilities, what the next generation of human-AI interfaces could look like, and how models will continue to advance in the years ahead. Lees meer
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Show Notes:
0:00 What is o3?
3:21 Reinforcement learning in o3
4:44 Unification of models
8:56 Why tool use helps test time scaling
11:10 Deep research
16:00 Future ways to interact with models
22:03 General purpose vs specialized models
25:30 Simulating AI interacting with the world
29:36 How will models advance?
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Inside Deep Research with Isa Fulford: Building the Future of AI Agents
24 april 2025 · 31 min
On this episode of No Priors, Sarah sits down with Isa Fulford, one of the masterminds behind deep research. They unpack how the initiative began, the role of human expert data, and what it takes to build agents with real-world capability and even taste. Isa shares the differences between deep research and OpenAI’s o3 model, the challenges around latency, and how she sees agent capabilities evolving. Plus, OpenAI has announced that deep research is free for all US users starting today. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @IsaFulfShow Notes:
0:00 Deep research’s inception & evolution
6:12 Data creation
7:20 Reinforcement fine-tuning
9:05 Why human expert data matters
11:23 Failure modes of agents
13:55 The roadmap ahead for Deep Research
18:32 How do agents develop taste?
19:29 Experience and path to building a broadly capable agent
22:03 Deep research vs. o3
25:55 Latency
27:56 Predictions for agent capabilities -
Predicting the Earth with Josh Goldman: How KoBold Uses AI to Find Critical Minerals
17 april 2025 · 41 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad are joined by Josh Goldman, cofounder and president of KoBold Metals. KoBold is using AI to transform how we discover critical minerals like lithium and cobalt, making the exploration process faster, more precise, and more scalable than traditional methods. In this episode, Josh explains how KoBold is rethinking the fundamentals of mineral exploration by combining unique datasets, scientific modeling, and predictive algorithms. They dive into the company’s driving philosophy and technical approach, how they validate underground hypotheses, and why regulatory knowledge and a localized approach are crucial. Josh also discusses what success looks like in exploration today and the scarcity of world-class deposits.
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0:00 Introduction
0:29 KoBold Metals
3:14 Using unique datasets
6:20 Traditional methods of lithium exploration
8:38 Regulatory vs. rarity constraints
13:40 Technical approach
16:25 Validating hypotheses
23:56 Redefining success in mineral exploration
25:44 Scarcity of good projects and deposits
32:44 Philosophy behind prediction
36:46 KoBold’s origin story -
From Job Displacement to AI Trainers, Brendan Foody on Work in the AI Age
10 april 2025 · 42 min
On this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with Brendan Foody, CEO and cofounder of Mercor, to discuss the company’s rapid growth and their vision for the future of the labor market. They dive into how AI is reshaping the workforce in real, tangible ways and what skills are worth investing in today. Brendan shares insights on evaluating talent in an AI-driven world, including how models might identify outlier or 10x candidates and even assess “taste.” The conversation also touches on the evolving role of human data, the future of hiring in fast-scaling startups, and whether AI will act as an individual contributor or a data-centric manager. Lees meer
Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:16 Building Mercor
3:00 Identifying outlier talent with AI
9:07 How AI is reshaping the workforce: job displacement & evolution
11:18 What skills should we invest in now?
12:18 Verifiability
13:36 Evaluating models
16:07 What should kids learn today?
17:05 Evaluating taste in talent assessments
18:45 Future of data collection
26:07 Humans’ role in the AI economy
28:53 AI as a contributor vs. a manager
33:03 Mercor’s goals
34:50 Evolution of labor markets
36:00 Hiring advice -
Public Markets, Image Gen, and Specialized Models, with Sarah and Elad
3 april 2025 · 28 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad examine the current state of AI. They break down the recent dip in public markets, how tariffs could impact the tech industry, and where opportunities remain in large language models. They highlight the opportunities in more specialized models, new approaches to model development, and how the market is beginning to standardize with integrations like the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The episode ends with a look at early consumer AI applications and what types of expertise will matter most in the coming years. Lees meer
Show Notes:
0:00 Improvements in image gen
4:42 Public markets
8:08 Effects of tariffs on tech
9:42 Today’s large model market
11:34 Opportunities in specialized models
16:30 Research advances in model approaches
21:10 What expertise will matter?
24:30 Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol
26:30 Consumer applications -
Conversations Are the Source of Truth in Healthcare with Abridge CEO Shiv Rao
27 maart 2025 · 39 min
In this episode of No Priors, Elad and Sarah chat with Shiv Rao, MD, founder and CEO of Abridge. They dive into how Abridge is reshaping healthcare by creating AI tools that enhance clinical documentation and improve doctor-patient interactions. Shiv shares his thoughts on building trust with established healthcare systems, giving agency and time back to clinicians, and what makes the healthcare AI opportunity different today. They also discuss Abridge’s approach to developing and launching AI products, along with Shiv’s journey in founding Abridge. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ShivdevRaoShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:35 Abridge’s Story and Vision
5:30 Strategy for Customer Choice
7:41 Healthcare AI Opportunities
11:24 Navigating Incumbent Partnerships
14:26 Doctor-Centric AI Solutions
19:54 Abridge’s Future Plans
22:13 AI’s Impact on Healthcare
28:43 Shipping and Iterating Products
32:50 Shiv’s Journey to Abridge -
The Robotics Revolution, with Physical Intelligence’s Cofounder Chelsea Finn
20 maart 2025 · 35 min
This week on No Priors, Elad speaks with Chelsea Finn, cofounder of Physical Intelligence and currently Associate Professor at Stanford, leading the Intelligence through Learning and Interaction Lab. They dive into how robots learn, the challenges of training AI models for the physical world, and the importance of diverse data in reaching generalizable intelligence. Chelsea explains the evolving landscape of open-source vs. closed-source robotics and where AI models are likely to have the biggest impact first. They also compare the development of robotics to self-driving cars, explore the future of humanoid and non-humanoid robots, and discuss what’s still missing for AI to function effectively in the real world. If you’re curious about the next phase of AI beyond the digital space, this episode is a must-listen. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ChelseaFinnShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:31 Chelsea’s background in robotics
3:10 Physical Intelligence
5:13 Defining their approach and model architecture
7:39 Reaching generalizability and diversifying robot data
9:46 Open source vs. closed source
12:32 Where will PI’s models integrate first?
14:34 Humanoid as a form factor
16:28 Embodied intelligence
17:36 Key turning points in robotics progress
20:05 Hierarchical interactive robot and decision-making
22:21 Choosing data inputs
26:25 Self driving vs robotics market
28:37 Advice to robotics founders
29:24 Observational data and data generation
31:57 Future robotic forms -
Copilot, Agent Mode, and the New World of Dev Tools with GitHub’s CEO Thomas Dohmke
13 maart 2025 · 51 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad talk with GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke about the rise of AI-powered software development and the success of Copilot. They discuss how Copilot is reshaping the developer workflow, GitHub’s new Agent Mode, and competition in the developer tooling market. They also explore how AI-driven coding impacts software pricing, the future of open source vs. proprietary APIs, and what Copilot’s success means for Microsoft. Plus, Thomas shares insights from his journey growing up in East Berlin and navigating rapidly changing worlds.
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ThomasDohmke Lees meerShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:37 GitHub Copilot’s capabilities
4:12 Will agents replace developers?
6:04 Copilot’s development cycle
8:34 Winning the developer market
10:40 Agent mode
13:25 Where GitHub is headed
16:45 Building for the new challenges of AI
21:50 Dev tools market formation
29:56 Copilot’s broader impact
32:17 How AI changes software pricing
39:16 Open source vs. proprietary APIs
48:01 Growing up in East Berlin -
National Security Strategy and AI Evals on the Eve of Superintelligence with Dan Hendrycks
5 maart 2025 · 36 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah is joined by Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center of AI Safety. Dan serves as an advisor to xAI and Scale AI. He is a longtime AI researcher, publisher of interesting AI evals such as "Humanity's Last Exam," and co-author of a new paper on National Security "Superintelligence Strategy" along with Scale founder-CEO Alex Wang and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. They explore AI safety, geopolitical implications, the potential weaponization of AI, along with policy recommendations. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @DanHendrycksShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Dan’s path to focusing on AI Safety
1:25 Safety efforts in large labs
3:12 Distinguishing alignment and safety
4:48 AI’s impact on national security
9:59 How might AI be weaponized?
14:43 Immigration policies for AI talent
17:50 Mutually assured AI malfunction
22:54 Policy suggestions for current administration
25:34 Compute security
30:37 Current state of evals -
Building the Platform for Scientific Breakthrough, with Noubar Afeyan of Moderna and Flagship Pioneering
27 februari 2025 · 41 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah sits down with Noubar Afeyan, Co-founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, the biotech firm behind groundbreaking companies like Moderna. They explore how Flagship creates the conditions for scientific breakthroughs, tackles regulatory uncertainty, and pushes the boundaries of discovery. Noubar shares insights on AI’s role in healthcare, the challenges of bringing new therapies to market, and lessons learned from past pandemics. He also discusses Flagship’s platform approach to biotech innovation and introduces the idea of polyintelligence. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @NoubarAfeyanShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:48 Founding Flagship
5:51 Fostering environments for emergence
11:17 Expanding into new frontiers
14:26 Developing technology amid regulatory uncertainty and risk
19:12 How Flagship has evolved
22:47 AI applications in healthcare
27:30 Bottlenecks in bringing new therapies to market
32:20 Lessons for the next pandemic
34:11 Building a platform
38:10 Polyintelligence -
Virtual Cell Models, Tahoe-100 and Data for AI-in-Bio with Vevo Therapeutics and the Arc Institute
25 februari 2025 · 58 min
On this week’s episode of No Priors, Sarah Guo is joined by leading members of the teams at Vevo Therapeutics and the Arc Institute – Nima Alidoust, CEO/Co-Founder at Vevo Therapeutics; Johnny Yu, CSO/Co-Founder at Vevo Therapeutics; Patrick Hsu, CEO/Co-Founder at Arc Institute; Dave Burke, CTO at Arc Institute; and Hani Goodarzi, Core Investigator at Arc Institute. Predicting protein structure (AlphaFold 3, Chai-1, Evo 2) was a big AI/biology breakthrough. The next big leap is modeling entire human cells—how they behave in disease, or how they respond to new therapeutics. The same way LLMs needed enormous text corpora to become truly powerful, Virtual Cell Models need massive, high-quality cellular datasets to train on. In this episode, the teams discuss the groundbreaking release of the Tahoe-100M single cell dataset, Arc Atlas, and how these advancements could transform drug discovery.
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Download the Tahoe Dataset Lees meerShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
1:40 Significance of Tahoe-100M dataset
4:22 Where we are with virtual cell models and protein language models
10:26 Significance of perturbational data
17:39 Challenges and innovations in data collection
24:42 Open sourcing and community collaboration
33:51 Predictive ability and importance of virtual cell models
35:27 Drug discovery and virtual cell models
44:27 Platform vs. single hypothesis companies
46:05 Rise of Chinese biotechs
51:36 AI in drug discovery -
Building Hard Tech in Hard Markets: Kyle Vogt on Cruise, Twitch, and The Bot Company
20 februari 2025 · 38 min
Kyle Vogt joins Sarah and Elad on this week’s episode of No Priors. A serial entrepreneur, Kyle co-founded Twitch, transforming live streaming, and later Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company acquired by GM for $1 billion. Now he’s taking on AI-powered home robotics with The Bot Company. In this episode, Kyle shares his journey building transformative tech companies, the challenges of scaling autonomous systems, and why he believes home robots are the next frontier. They also discuss the parallels between AVs and robotics, overcoming consumer skepticism, US vs. China manufacturing, and the policies needed to foster a competitive robotics industry. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @KVogtShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:29 Founding Cruise
3:12 Tesla vs. Waymo approach
4:44 Scaling autonomous vehicles
10:03 The Bot Company
16:35 Deploying robots in the home
17:56 Parallels between robots and AV markets
20:51 Personifying robots and overcoming consumer skepticism
25:00 Timeline on consumer robots
26:47 Chinese vs. US manufacturing
29:15 Fostering a competitive domestic robotics industry
34:00 Lessons from Cruise & personal philosophies -
How Harvey AI is Changing the Legal Industry with Winston Weinberg
14 februari 2025 · 50 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah sits down with Harvey cofounder and CEO Winston Weinberg. Harvey is one of the leading application layer AI companies, building domain-specific AI for law firms, professional service providers, and the Fortune 500. They are already working with companies like Bridgewater, KKR, PWC, and O’Melveny with over $500M in funding from OpenAI, Sequoia, Kleiner, GV and Elad and Sarah. In this episode, Sarah and Winston cover AI product strategy, the future of professional services, company values, keeping up with research, and the law industry of the future. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @WinstonWeinbergShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
2:39 Harvey’s founding story
3:46 Capability improvement
6:39 Building teams around AI capabilities
9:17 End to end task completion
12:37 Beginning with large industry leaders
17:21 Working with users skeptical of automation
20:40 Being a lawyer today and in the future
26:02 Adapting product for other domains
26:58 Hiring philosophy at Harvey
30:39 Lessons and mistakes as a founder
32:53 Personal drive
40:21 Advice to other founders
44:35 Prediction for next ChatGPT moment -
DeepSeek, Deep Research, and 2025 Predictions with Sarah and Elad
7 februari 2025 · 23 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad celebrate the 100th episode! They dive into the biggest AI stories of 2025, breaking down DeepSeek—truth vs. hype, the rapid consumer adoption, and the real cost of training the models. They debate model commoditization and the value of being a frontier model provider vs. building on existing work. Plus, they unpack OpenAI’s new Deep Research release and the latest on Stargate. Finally, they share bold predictions for 2025, covering robots, autonomous vehicles, local AI models, emerging data-generation strategies, and reasoning breakthroughs.
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0:00 Introduction
0:19 DeepSeek
5:38 Are models commoditizing?
8:33 DeepSeek’s consumer adoption
9:16 OpenAI’s Deep Research release
13:30 Stargate
15:04 Elad & Sarah’s Predictions for 2025 -
Rick Caruso on LA’s Wildfires, Policy Failures, and the Path Forward
30 januari 2025 · 27 min
This week on No Priors, Elad sits down with Rick Caruso, LA real estate developer and runner-up in the 2022 mayoral race. With experience serving under three LA mayors, as well as on the police commission and the board of water and power, Rick offers a unique perspective on the systemic failures that contributed to the devastation of the January 2025 wildfires in communities like the Palisades and Altadena. He discusses the steps he took to build more resilient infrastructure in his properties and how California can rebuild smarter to better prepare for future disasters. They also explore the state’s water management, rising crime, and how to leverage California’s vast natural resources and budget to create a better future for all residents. Lees meer
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0:00 Introduction
0:56 Caruso’s history in business and public service
3:36 Failures in fire prevention and response
5:58 How Caruso’s properties survived
8:26 Water shortages and infrastructure failures
9:47 Arson, looting, and crime in LA
15:03 Rebuilding
20:50 Allocating California’s resources effectively
26:15 Caruso’s future plans -
What Can We Do About Wildfires? With Convective Capital’s Bill Clerico
23 januari 2025 · 38 min
This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with Bill Clerico, founder of Convective Capital, an early stage venture fund focused on technology-driven solutions for wildfire mitigation and climate resilience. The wildfires in Los Angeles have caused unprecedented property damage and immense hardship for countless individuals and families. This episode is devoted to diving into understanding what happened and what we can do in the future. Bill shares his insights into the increasing severity of wildfires, the role of policy, and how infrastructure issues, like outdated building codes and underfunded utilities, are contributing to the crisis. They discuss the latest innovations in fire-fighting technology, from advanced detection to drones, and how these tools can help mitigate future damage. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @BillClericoShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
1:02 Why are wildfires getting worse?
5:37 Policies and regulatory decisions
10:47 Housing: building codes and permitting
13:19 Key factors in response
16:20 Improving water supply and city infrastructure
19:10 Preventing wildfires
21:26 Underinvestment in California’s utilities
26:53 Innovative fire fighting technology
29:35 Accelerating Los Angeles’ recovery
34:29 Actions homeowners, insurance companies, and governments can take -
How AI Agents Are Transforming Customer Support, with Decagon’s Jesse Zhang
16 januari 2025 · 30 min
Today on No Priors, co-founder and CEO of Decagon, Jesse Zhang, joins Elad to discuss the future of agentic customer support. Decagon provides AI-powered customer interactions for companies like Rippling, Notion, Duolingo, Classpass, Substack, Vanta, Eventbrite, and more. Jesse shares the thesis behind starting Decagon, why he sees customer support as the ideal entry point for agentic technology, and what areas of AI excite him most. They also discuss voice-based interfaces, issues with latency in current capabilities, and the connection between young math olympiad communities and today’s AI startups. Lees meer
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Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 Starting Decagon
3:15 Business impact of adopting agents for customer support and customer ops
8:00 AI infrastructure and models for customer success agents
12:05 Voice-based capabilities and text-to-speech engines
15:00 Combatting latency
16:25 Crossover of math and AI communities
21:12 Exciting areas of AI
25:29 Strengths and weaknesses of agents -
Erik Bernhardsson on Creating Tools That Make AI Feel Effortless
9 januari 2025 · 24 min
Today on No Priors, Elad chats with Erik Bernhardsson, founder and CEO of Modal Labs, a platform simplifying ML workflows by providing a serverless infrastructure designed to streamline deployment, scaling, and development for AI engineers. Erik talks about his early work on Spotify’s ML algorithms, what Modal offers today, and his vision for building an end-to-end solution for AI engineers. They dive into GPU trends, cloud vs on-premise setups, and when to train custom models vs use off-the-shelf solutions. Erik also shares his thoughts on the evolving role of AI in fields like coding, physics, and music. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @BernhardssonShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:22 Erik's early interest in ML infra
1:22 Founding Modal Labs
4:17 State of GPU use today and what’s to come
7:14 Modal's end-to-end vision
9:00 Differentiating amongst competition
10:20 Cloud vs on-premise
12:35 Popular AI models
13:20 Gaps in AI infrastructure
14:55 Insights on vector databases
16:48 Training models vs off-the-shelf models
17:47 AI’s impact on coding and physics
22:14 AI's impact on music -
The Best of 2024 with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil
26 december 2024 · 27 min
2024 has been a year of transformative technological progress, marked by conversations that have reshaped our understanding of AI's evolution and what lies ahead. Throughout the year, Sarah and Elad have had the privilege of speaking with some of the brightest minds in the field. As we look back on the past months, we’re excited to share highlights from some of our favorite No Priors podcast episodes. Featured guests include Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Andrej Karpathy (OpenAI, Tesla), Bret Taylor (Sierra), Aditya Ramesh, Tim Brooks, and Bill Peebles (OpenAI’s Sora Team), Dmitri Dolgov (Waymo), Dylan Field (Figma), and Alexandr Wang (Scale). Want to dive deeper? Listen to the full episodes here: Lees meer
NVIDIA's Jensen Huang on AI Chip Design, Scaling Data Centers, and his 10-Year Bet No Priors Ep. 89 | With NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
The Road to Autonomous Intelligence, With Andrej Karpathy from OpenAI and Tesla No Priors Ep. 80 | With Andrej Karpathy from OpenAI and Tesla
Transforming Customer Service through Company Agents, with Sierra’s Bret Taylor No Priors Ep. 82 | With CEO of Sierra Bret Taylor
OpenAI’s Sora team thinks we’ve only seen the "GPT-1 of video models" No Priors Ep.61 | OpenAI's Sora Leaders Aditya Ramesh, Tim Brooks and Bill Peebles
Waymo’s Journey to Full Autonomy: AI Breakthroughs, Safety, and Scaling No Priors Ep. 87 | With Co-CEO of Waymo Dmitri Dolgov
Designing the Future: Dylan Field on AI, Collaboration, and Independence No Priors Ep. 55 | With Figma CEO Dylan Field
The Data Foundry for AI with Alexandr Wang from Scale No Priors Ep. 65 | With Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGilShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:15 Jensen Huang on building at data-center scale
4:00 Andrej Karpathy on the AI exo-cortex, model control, and a shift to smaller models
7:14 Bret Taylor on the agentic future of business interactions
11:17 OpenAI’s So… -
Revolutionizing Customer Success with Agency’s Elias Torres
19 december 2024 · 31 min
Today on No Priors, Sarah sits down with Elias Torres, CEO and founder of Agency, an AI agent for customer success teams. Elias shares his journey from growing up in Nicaragua to founding several companies, leading engineering at HubSpot, and selling Drift for $1B. He also discusses his work consulting with OpenAI in 2022, which deepened his understanding of the business opportunity LLMs presented and inspired him to start Agency. In this episode, Elias offers a unique perspective on the future of AI and customer success, explaining how current software has fallen short and his vision for a new generation where customers have direct relationships, spend less time on tasks, and have software working invisibly on their behalf. They also discuss the evolving landscape of hiring as teams shrink, and Elias reveals his ambitious plan to reach $1B in revenue with fewer than 100 employees. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @EliasTShow notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:34 Elias’ journey to entrepreneurship
2:36 Growing HubSpot to IPO and founding Drift
6:19 Consulting with OpenAI, learning about LLMs, and diving into AI
9:35 Founding Agency to focus on customer success and AI-driven solutions
11:40 What will a customer experience look like in 5 years?
15:48 Company building in an era of AI, as a 5th time founder
18:32 Reducing headcount while raising the bar on hiring
20:35 Key challenges in building Agency and crafting a standout product
23:06 Addressing software flaws and transitioning to an era of intuitive, self-operating solutions
26:27 Timeline for the next-gen software revolution + the power of building from first principles -
How Diamond Cooling Could Power the Future of AI, with Akash Systems
12 december 2024 · 42 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah sits down with Felix Ejeckam and Ty Mitchell, founders of Akash Systems, a company pioneering diamond-based cooling technology for semiconductors used in space applications and large-scale AI data centers. Felix and Ty discuss how their backgrounds in materials science led them to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in tech today: thermal efficiency and heat management at scale. They explore how Akash is overcoming the limitations of traditional semiconductors and how their innovations could significantly boost AI performance. Felix and Ty also talk about their collaboration with India’s sovereign cloud provider, the importance of strengthening U.S. manufacturing in the AI chip market, and the role Akash Systems could play in advancing satellite technologies. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil |@AkashSystems | @FelixEjeckamShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 What is Akash Systems?
2:12 Felix’s personal path to building Akash Systems
4:45 Ty’s approach to acquiring customers
6:40 Challenges of operating in space
7:54 Live demo on diamond’s conductivity
9:50 Heat issues in data centers
15:38 Heat as a fundamental limit to technological progress
20:44 Akash’s role in the semiconductor market
22:54 Growing diamonds
25:10 Collaborating with India’s sovereign cloud provider
28:15 Importance of American manufacturing for AI chips and outlook on current data capacity
29:45 The Chips Act
31:22 Future of national security lies in satellite and radar tech
32:46 Critical issues in the U.S. AI supply chain
36:34 Deep learning’s role in material science discovery
40:16 The future: AI expanding our possibilities -
Bolt’s Eric Simons on Enabling Everyone to Generate Websites with AI
5 december 2024 · 38 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah talks with Eric Simons, co-founder and CEO of StackBlitz. The company has experienced explosive growth since the launch 2 months ago of Bolt.new, an AI application that lets users prompt, run, edit, and deploy full-stack applications directly in the browser. Eric talks about the years-long journey that led to overnight success, why so many non-technical users are forming a community around Bolt, and the democratization of coding. Lees meer
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0:00 Introduction
0:36 Bolt.new
2:04 How Bolt stands out from other coding assistants
3:28 Building beyond ChatGPT wrappers
6:13 Driving growth through community
9:42 Evals
13:29 Eric’s favorite use cases and startups leveraging Bolt
17:10 Why engineers are embracing no- code tools
24:32 The years long journey of StackBlitz
31:50 Balancing an Ironman, a newborn, and a product launch
35:18 Predictions for developers and code generation tools -
Model Plateaus and Enterprise AI Adoption with Cohere's Aidan Gomez
21 november 2024 · 44 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah is joined by Aidan Gomez, cofounder and CEO of Cohere. Aidan reflects on his journey to co-authoring the groundbreaking 2017 paper, “Attention is All You Need,” during his internship, and shares his motivations for building Cohere, which delivers AI-powered language models and solutions for businesses. The discussion explores the current state of enterprise AI adoption and Aidan’s advice for companies navigating the build vs. buy decision for AI tools. They also examine the drivers behind the flattening of model improvements and discuss where large language models (LLMs) fall short for predictive tasks. The conversation explores what the market has yet to account for in the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem, as well as Aidan’s personal perspectives on AGI—what it might look like and when it could arrive. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @AidanGomezShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Co-authoring “Attention is all you need”
2:27 Leaving Google and founding Cohere
4:04 Cohere’s mission and models
6:15 Pitfalls of current AI
8:14 How enterprises are deploying AI today
10:58 Build vs. buy strategy for AI tools
14:37 Barriers to enterprise adoption
20:04 Which types of companies should pretrain models?
24:25 Addressing flaws in open-source models
25:12 Current and expected progress in scaling laws
29:54 Advances in multi-step problem solving and reasoning
32:29 Key drivers behind the flattening curve of model improvements
36:25 Exploring AGI
39:59 Limitations of LLMs
42:10 What the market has mispriced -
AI and the Future of Math, with DeepMind’s AlphaProof Team
14 november 2024 · 39 min
In this week’s episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with the Google DeepMind team behind AlphaProof, Laurent Sartran, Rishi Mehta, and Thomas Hubert. AlphaProof is a new reinforcement learning-based system for formal math reasoning that recently reached a silver-medal standard in solving International Mathematical Olympiad problems. They dive deep into AI and its role in solving complex mathematical problems, featuring insights into AlphaProof and its capabilities. They cover its functionality, unique strengths in reasoning, and the challenges it faces as it scales. The conversation also explores the motivations behind AI in math, practical applications, and how verifiability and human input come into play within a reinforcement learning approach. The DeepMind team shares advice and future perspectives on where math and AI are headed. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Rishicomplex | @LaurentSartran | @ThomasHubertShow Notes:
0:00 Personal introductions
2:19 Achieving silver medal in IMO competition
3:52 How AlphaProof works
5:56 AlphaProof’s strengths within mathematical reasoning
8:56 Challenges in scaling AlphaProof
13:40 Why solve math?
17:50 Pursuing knowledge versus practical applications
21:30 Insights on verifying correctness within reinforcement learning
28:27 How AI could foster more collaboration among mathematicians
30:28 Surprising insights from AI proof generation
34:17 Future of math and AI: advice for math enthusiasts and researchers -
NVIDIA's Jensen Huang on AI Chip Design, Scaling Data Centers, and his 10-Year Bets
7 november 2024 · 37 min
In this week’s episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, for the second time to reflect on the company’s extraordinary growth over the past year. Jensen discusses AI’s takeover of datacenters and NVIDIA’s rapid development of x.AI’s supercluster. The conversation also covers Nvidia’s decade-long infrastructure bets, software longevity, and innovations like NVLink. Jensen shares his views on the future of embodied AI, digital employees, and how AI is transforming scientific discovery.
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00:00 Introduction
1:22 NVIDIA's 10-year bets
2:28 Outpacing Moore’s Law
3:42 Data centers and NVLink
7:16 Infrastructure flexibility for large-scale training and inference
10:40 Building and optimizing data centers
13:30 Maintaining software and architecture compatibility
15:00 X.AI’s supercluster
18:55 Challenges of super scaling data centers
20:39 AI’s role in chip design
22:23 NVIDIA's market cap surge and company evolution
27:03 Embodied AI
28:33 AI employees
31:25 Impact of AI on science and engineering
35:40 Jensen’s personal use of AI tools -
Forecasting the Future with Kalshi: America’s First Regulated Prediction Market
31 oktober 2024 · 36 min
In this week’s episode of No Priors, Sarah sits down with Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi—the first CFTC-regulated prediction market exchange in the U.S. They dive into Kalshi’s recent victory to legalize election betting, explore ethical questions around trading on elections, and discuss whether prediction markets can offer more accuracy than traditional polls. Tarek shares insights on the history of futures markets, the line between gambling and financial trading, and the psychology behind betting. Plus, Sarah makes a live election bet, and Tarek reveals some of Kalshi’s most intriguing markets.
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @MansourTarek Lees meerShow Notes:
0:00 Introduction
1:22 Sarah makes a live election bet on Kalshi
3:35 Getting approved and regulated by CFTC
5:48 Going up against the CFTC to legalize election betting
7:21 Debating the ethics of trading on elections
8:12 Gambling vs. trading
9:12 Context and purpose of futures markets
12:38 The human psychology behind speculating /Humans conditioned to risk taking
17:17 Building a healthy exchange and scaling liquidity
19:30 Introducing leverage and working with clearinghouses
22:29 Polls vs. prediction markets
24:59 Conditional markets
26:38 What makes Kalshi’s markets accurate
31:29 Tarek’s insights on the most interesting trades and markets on the platform -
Waymo’s Journey to Full Autonomy: AI Breakthroughs, Safety, and Scaling
24 oktober 2024 · 44 min
In this episode of No Priors, Dmitri Dolgov, Co-CEO of Waymo, joins Sarah and Elad to explore the evolution and advancements of Waymo's self-driving technology from its inception at Google to its current real-world deployment. Dmitri also shares insights into the technological breakthroughs and complexities of achieving full autonomy, the design innovations of Waymo’s sixth generation driverless cars, and the broader applications of Waymo’s advanced technology. They also discuss Waymo's strategic approach to scaling amidst regulation, deployment in cities like Phoenix and San Francisco, and the transformative potential of autonomous driving on car ownership and urban infrastructure. Lees meer
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00:00 Introduction
00:15 History of Self-Driving at Google
00:29 DARPA Challenges and Early Involvement
01:39 Formation of Waymo
01:53 Industry Lineage and Early Skepticism
03:05 Initial Goals and Milestones
4:33 Pivot to Full Autonomy
04:50 Scaling and Deployment
05:29 Generational Breakthroughs
06:59 Choosing Deployment Cities
09:26 Technological Advancements
11:01 Evaluating Safety
14:41 Regulatory Stance and Trust
16:52 Future of Autonomous Driving
23:19 Business Strategy and Partnerships
26:06 Changing Urban Mobility Trends
26:40 Challenges and Misconceptions in Self-Driving Timelines
28:43 The Role of Traditional OEMs in an Autonomous Future
30:54 Designing Cars for Autonomous Ride-Hailing
33:42 Scaling Responsibly
35:18 Generalizability and Future Applications of AI
37:10 The Complexity of Achieving Full Autonomy
42:58 The Importance of Data and Iteration in AI Development
46:13 Reflecting on the Journey and Future of Waymo -
Gaming, Nobel Prizes and At-Risk Businesses in the AI Era
17 oktober 2024 · 29 min
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad explore how AI is transforming consumer apps and entertainment, with a focus on potential integrations in gaming and dating that could shift traditional societal incentives. They reflect on AI researchers winning Nobel Prizes in Science and Chemistry for the first time, discussing what this trend means for scientific discovery. The episode also covers recent AI releases, including their thoughts on OpenAI’s O1 model and Google’s NotebookLM, and examines which companies and job functions are most at risk—or resilient—in the face of AI advancements. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGilShow Notes:
(0:00) Introduction
(0:47) Google releases NotebookLM
(5:20) Integrating AI into consumer apps and gaming
(9:11) Future of AI companionship and procreation
(14:45) OpenAI o1 model improves on iterative reasoning
(18:06) Sarah and Elad reflect on Nobel Prizes going to AI researchers
(21:23) Jobs and businesses at risk of disruption
(27:18) AI-durable companies -
Launching AI products with Braintrust’s CEO Ankur Goyal
8 oktober 2024 · 38 min
Today on No Priors, Elad is joined by Ankur Goyal, founder and CEO of Braintrust. Braintrust enables companies like Notion, Airtable, Instacart, Zapier, and Vercel to deploy AI solutions at scale by efficiently evaluating and managing complex, non-deterministic AI applications. Ankur shares his insights into emerging trends in the use of AI tooling and coding languages, the rise of open-source, and the future of data infrastructure. Ankur also reflects on building resilient AI products, his philosophy on coding as a CEO, and the importance of a startup’s initial customer base. Lees meer
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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @AnkrgylShow Notes:
(0:00) Introduction
(0:38) Ankur’s path to Braintrust
(3:05) Braintrust’s solution
(5:46) AI tooling trends
(7:58) Instruction tuning vs. fine-tuning
(8:57) Open-source AI adoption
(10:42) Future of data infrastructure and synthetic data
(14:45) Designing technical interviews
(18:04) Rethinking agent-based approaches
(19:34) Building out an AI team
(23:35) Typescript as the language of AI
(25:12) The shift away from using frameworks
(26:02) Vendor consolidation among enterprises
(27:16) Coding as a CEO
(30:16) Collaborating with customers
(33:00) Future of Braintrust and evals