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No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

Conviction

At this moment of inflection in technology, co-hosts Elad Gil and Sarah Guo talk to the world's leading AI engineers, researchers and founders about the biggest questions: How far away is AGI? What markets are at risk for disruption? How will commerce, culture, and society change? What’s happening in state-of-the-art in research? “No Priors” is your guide to the AI revolution. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com.

Sarah Guo is a startup investor and the founder of Conviction, an investment firm purpose-built to serve intelligent software, or "Software 3.0" companies. She spent nearly a decade incubating and investing at venture firm Greylock Partners.

Elad Gil is a serial entrepreneur and a startup investor. He was co-founder of Color Health, Mixer Labs (which was acquired by Twitter). He has invested in over 40 companies now worth $1B or more each, and is also author of the High Growth Handbook.

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  • 181 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 38 min
  • English

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  • S1 · E100
    Feb 7, 2025 · 22 min

    DeepSeek, Deep Research, and 2025 Predictions with Sarah and Elad

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil Show Notes: 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

  • S1 · E99
    Jan 30, 2025 · 27 min

    Rick Caruso on LA’s Wildfires, Policy Failures, and the Path Forward

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @RickCarusoLA Show Notes 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

  • S1 · E98
    Jan 23, 2025 · 37 min

    What Can We Do About Wildfires? With Convective Capital’s Bill Clerico

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @BillClerico Show 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

  • S1 · E97
    Jan 16, 2025 · 30 min

    How AI Agents Are Transforming Customer Support, with Decagon’s Jesse Zhang

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @TheJesseZhang 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

  • S1 · E96
    Jan 9, 2025 · 23 min

    Erik Bernhardsson on Creating Tools That Make AI Feel Effortless

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Bernhardsson Show 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

  • S1 · E95
    Dec 26, 2024 · 27 min

    The Best of 2024 with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil

    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: 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 Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil Show 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 Sora team on visual models and their role in AGI 15:53 Waymo’s Dmitri Dolgov on bridging the gap to full autonomy and the challenge of 100% accuracy 19:00 Figma’s Dylan Field on the future of interfaces and new modalities 23:29 Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang on the journey to AGI 26:29 Outro

  • S1 · E94
    Dec 19, 2024 · 31 min

    Revolutionizing Customer Success with Agency’s Elias Torres

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @EliasT Show 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

  • S1 · E93
    Dec 12, 2024 · 42 min

    How Diamond Cooling Could Power the Future of AI, with Akash Systems

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil |@AkashSystems | @FelixEjeckam Show 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

  • S1 · E92
    Dec 5, 2024 · 38 min

    Bolt’s Eric Simons on Enabling Everyone to Generate Websites with AI

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @EricSimons40 Show Notes: 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

  • S1 · E91
    Nov 21, 2024 · 44 min

    Model Plateaus and Enterprise AI Adoption with Cohere's Aidan Gomez

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @AidanGomez Show 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

  • S1 · E87
    Nov 14, 2024 · 39 min

    AI and the Future of Math, with DeepMind’s AlphaProof Team

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Rishicomplex | @LaurentSartran | @ThomasHubert Show 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

  • S1 · E86
    Nov 7, 2024 · 36 min

    NVIDIA's Jensen Huang on AI Chip Design, Scaling Data Centers, and his 10-Year Bets

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Nvidia Show Notes: 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

  • S1 · E85
    Oct 31, 2024 · 35 min

    Forecasting the Future with Kalshi: America’s First Regulated Prediction Market

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @MansourTarek Show 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

  • S1 · E87
    Oct 24, 2024 · 44 min

    Waymo’s Journey to Full Autonomy: AI Breakthroughs, Safety, and Scaling

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Dmitri_Dolgov Shownotes: 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

  • S3 · E86
    Oct 17, 2024 · 29 min

    Gaming, Nobel Prizes and At-Risk Businesses in the AI Era

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil Show 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

  • S1 · E85
    Oct 8, 2024 · 38 min

    Launching AI products with Braintrust’s CEO Ankur Goyal

    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. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Ankrgyl Show 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

  • S1 · E79
    Oct 3, 2024 · 26 min

    The Sheriff of Silicon Valley: Lina Khan’s FTC agenda for M&A, AI Acquisitions, and Non-Competes

    Lina Khan’s FTC has been the most active in decades, notably challenging tech giants and adopting a more hands-on approach to regulating the digital age. On today’s episode of No Priors, Lina Khan joins Elad and Sarah to discuss her regulatory philosophy for tech markets and what the industry can expect for future M&A deals. She shares her approach to overseeing emerging technology sectors, including AI at the model layer, and her work to ban non-competes on a federal level. Khan also offers insights into the realities of leading a government agency, the scarcity of young leaders in power, and how she measures the FTC’s impact. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @LinaKhanFTC Show Notes: (0:00) Introduction (0:56) Lina Khan’s background and path to the FTC (2:35) Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox (4:20) Frameworks for regulating M&A in young markets (8:50) Khan’s perspective on AI acquisitions (12:18) What founders can expect from Khan’s M&A environment (14:55) Promoting competition at the large model layer (17:01) Creating fair AI regulation (18:40) FTC’s work to ban non-competes (20:31) Why so few young people hold power in government today (22:18) The realities of running a government agency (24:20) Measuring the impact of FTC

  • S1 · E83
    Sep 25, 2024 · 31 min

    Using AI to evaluate employee performance with Rippling’s COO Matt MacInnis

    In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with Matt MacInnis, COO of Rippling, to discuss the company’s unique product strategy and the advantages of being a compound startup. Matt introduces Talent Signal, Rippling’s AI-powered employee performance tool, and explains how early adopters are using it to gain a competitive edge. They explore Rippling’s approach to choosing which AI products to build and how they plan to leverage their rich data sources. The conversation also delves into how AI shapes real-world decision-making and how to realistically integrate these tools into organizational workflows. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Stanine Show Notes: 0:00 Introduction 0:32 Rippling’s mission and product offerings 2:13 Compound startups 3:53 Evaluating human performance with Talent Signal 13:19 Incorporating AI evaluations into decision-making at Rippling 14:56 Leveraging work outputs as inputs for models 18:23 How Rippling chose which AI product to build first 20:53 Building out bundled products 23:26 Merging and scaling diverse data sources 25:16 Early adopters and integrating AI into decision-making processes

  • S1 · E82
    Sep 19, 2024 · 48 min

    Transforming Customer Service through Company Agents, with Sierra’s Bret Taylor

    Bret Taylor, Cofounder of Sierra, Chairman of the board at OpenAI, and former co-CEO of Salesforce and CTO of Facebook, joins Sarah and Elad in this week’s episode of No Priors. Bret discusses building company-branded AI agents with unique personalities, goals, and guardrails at Sierra, and their potential to revolutionize customer engagement while cutting costs. The conversation explores the next sectors for enterprise AI adoption, building resilient AI products, and the parallels between today’s AI market and the evolution of the cloud industry. Bret also shares his unique insights on future business models and upcoming technology shifts. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Btaylor Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (0:42) Defining agentic systems and types of agents (3:55) Customer-facing company agents (5:43) Sierra AI (8:11) Transforming customer service and reducing costs (9:57) Challenges in implementing LLMs for company agents (14:45) Drawing parallels between AI and the cloud market’s evolution (17:50) Future of the AI landscape (19:15) Building durable AI products (24:39) Outcome-based business models and tangible ROI in AI solutions (29:22) Next wave of AI sectors for enterprise adoption (31:15) Customizing goals and guardrails with customers (35:55) Creating distinct personalities for Sierra's agents (41:05) Bret’s insights on upcoming technology and hardware shifts (46:50) How AI software could enhance human agency

  • S1 · E81
    Sep 12, 2024 · 26 min

    Future of LLM Markets, Consolidation, and Small Models with Sarah and Elad

    In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad go deep into what's on everyone’s mind. They break down new partnerships and consolidation in the LLM market, specialization of AI models, and AMD’s strategic moves. Plus, Elad is looking for a humanoid robot. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil Show Notes: (0:00) Introduction (0:24) LLM market consolidation (2:18) Competition and decreasing API costs (3:58) Innovation in LLM productization (8:20) Comparing the LLM and social network market (11:40) Increasing competition in image generation (13:21) Trend in smaller models with higher performance (14:43) Areas of innovation (17:33) Legacy of AirBnB and Uber pushing boundaries (24:19) AMD Acquires ZT (25:49) Elad’s looking for a Robot

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