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This Week in AI

Jason Calacanis

An experts-only AI podcast: Think the 'All In' podcast for AI. Jason + 3 CEO-level experts breaking down the news & trends.

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  • 24 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 16 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • #9
    April 15 · 1 hr 14 min

    The Future of AI: Personal Agents, Taste & Private Data | Lin Qiao & Demi Guo | E9

    This week we sit down with Lin Qiao and Demi Guo on This Week in AI Episode 9. Lin is the co-founder and CEO of Fireworks AI, a frontier inference platform processing tens of trillions of tokens per day, built by seven ex-Meta engineers who created PyTorch. Demi is the co-founder and CEO of Pika, building humanized AI agents for creative work, agents you interact with like a person, not a prompt box. This Week In AI is made possible by: PayPalOpen - One Platform for all Business: https://paypalopen.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Welcome & intro to Lin Qiao and Demi Guo 02:38 Lin's journey from Meta to Fireworks AI 05:13 Building PyTorch and bootstrapping AI infrastructure 06:58 Who Fireworks competes with and why enterprises need it 08:43 Activating the 95% of private data locked in enterprises 11:31 Demi's journey building Pika and the pivot to humanized agents 16:03 The best interface for creation is a human-like agent 16:42 The AI layoff trap — a prisoner's dilemma for firms 19:00 Cambrian explosion of startups and the hobbyist-to-inventor pipeline 22:07 Flattening organizations and the death of middle management 28:03 Taste, judgment, and why "slop" is the real risk 31:22 Why agents drift and the case for constant iteration 33:40 Rethinking agents: not tools, but children you raise 39:36 How close are open-source models to frontier? 43:20 Token usage and the economics of running agents 46:15 Toys becoming tools — the hobbyist signal 48:59 Public perception of AI: America vs. China vs. Silicon Valley 53:04 Agents as self-expression and identity creation 57:06 The expert vs. public perception gap on AI's impact 63:17 Meta's Muse model and the open-source debate 68:26 Data drought, synthetic data, and the next architecture leap 72:06 Hiring at Fireworks AI and Pika Subscribe to This Week in AI on Apple: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotify Subscribe to This Week in AI on Spotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/apple Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Follow Oliver: https://x.com/oliverkorzen Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Links Mentioned on the Show: Fireworks AI: https://fireworks.ai/ Pika: https://pika.art/ PyTorch: https://pytorch.org/ "The AI Layoff Trap" paper (UPenn & Boston University): https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20617 Fortune: CFOs say AI cuts will be 9x bigger than reported: https://fortune.com/2026/03/24/cfo-survey-ai-job-cuts-productivity-paradox-2026/ HBR: Companies firing based on AI potential, not performance: https://hbr.org/2026/01/companies-are-laying-off-workers-because-of-ais-potential-not-its-performance New Yorker profile on Sam Altman (Ronan Farrow): https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/11/sam-altman-responds-to-incendiary-new-yorker-article-after-attack-on-his-home/ Sam Altman home attack: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/sam-altman-house-hit-with-molotov-cocktail-openai-office-threatened.html Block layoffs — Jack Dorsey cites AI: https://fortune.com/2026/02/27/block-jack-dorsey-ceo-xyz-stock-square-4000-ai-layoffs/ Pew Research — AI experts vs. public perception: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/04/03/how-the-us-public-and-ai-experts-view-artificial-intelligence/ Meta Muse Spark announcement: https://ai.meta.com/blog/introducing-muse-spark-msl/ DeepSeek V3: https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3 Bubble Pal AI toy (Shenzhen): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hugging-every-fun-thought-haivivi-unveils-the-worlds-first-aigc-toy-bubblepal-302209714.html Cursor (Composer): https://cursor.sh/ NVIDIA Nemotron: https://developer.nvidia.com/nemotron Qwen (Alibaba): https://qwenlm.github.io/ Mistral AI: https://mistral.ai/

  • #8
    April 8 · 1 hr 26 min

    What's Left for Humans When AI Builds Everything?

    This week on TWiAI, Jason sits down with three founders at the center of the AI stack: Kanjun Qiu (CEO of Imbue), Carina Hong (CEO of Axiom), and Jonathan Siddharth (CEO of Turing). They break down Anthropic's explosive $30B run rate, why it just overtook OpenAI in revenue, Meta's bizarre internal token-burning leaderboard, and what happens when every person on Earth has 100 AI agents running for them. Anthropic's Revenue Explosion: Anthropic hit a $30B run rate, up from $9B just six months ago, and appears to have overtaken OpenAI in token sales. The panel breaks down where the money is coming from and why Meta might be the biggest customer. Meta's Token-Burning Leaderboard: Reports surfaced of an internal Meta contest rewarding teams for burning the most tokens, with employees building bots that loop just to rack up usage. Is it brilliant adoption strategy or pure waste? Open Source Agents vs. Lock-In: Kanjun argues that handing your entire business, memories, and workflows to closed AI platforms is a recipe for lock-in. She's building open agent infrastructure so users can swap models freely and own their data. OpenAI's Identity Crisis: The panel dissects OpenAI's dropped Disney deal, its $100B+ raise, internal CFO tensions, and whether the company is doing too many side quests while Anthropic eats its lunch. The Commodification of Developers: A year ago, the debate was whether AI makes developers 5% or 15% more efficient. Now the question is whether everyone is a developer, and what that means for the industry. Why Open Source Must Win: From Apple Silicon to local models, the case for owning your AI stack and why Jason is going all-in on open source hardware and software. Learn more about Imbue: https://imbue.com Learn more about Axiom: https://axiommath.ai Learn more about Turing: https://www.turing.com This Week In AI is made possible by: PayPalOpen - One Platform for all Business: https://paypalopen.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Cold open 01:03 Welcome and intro to this week's panel 01:31 Kanjun Qiu on open source agents and Imbue 05:10 Carina Hong on building an AI mathematician at Axiom 06:30 Formal verification and why superintelligence needs proof 09:52 Jonathan Siddharth on Turing's superintelligence accelerator 15:53 Anthropic's $30B run rate and overtaking OpenAI 22:27 OpenAI's strategy, Disney deal, and $100B raise 28:27 Meta's internal token-burning leaderboard 44:08 The commodification of developers 50:31 God mode for code: formal verification in practice 58:27 Superintelligence in 36 months: what happens next 01:08:41 Apple, Siri, and why Big Tech is failing at AI products Subscribe to This Week in AI on Apple: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotify Subscribe to This Week in AI on Spotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/apple Thanks for watching! 🤖 If you want to stay ahead of the curve on all things AI, make sure to join our community across all platforms: 📩 Get the Weekly Newsletter: https://thisweekinai.ai/ 📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZo46NiqoWMnuJo1SxCnX0g 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinaipodcast 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinaipodcast ✖️X: https://x.com/ThisWeeknAI Follow Jason: https://x.com/jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/ Follow Oliver: https://x.com/oliverkorzen Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

  • #7
    April 1 · 1 hr 11 min

    How Focus Killed Sora and Saved Anthropic | This Week in AI with Victor Riparbelli, Nick Harris & Jeremy Fraenkel

    This Week in AI, JCal sits down with three CEOs building the infrastructure, intelligence, and interfaces for the next era of AI: Jeremy Fraenkel (CEO, Fundamental), Victor Riparbelli (CEO, Synthesia), and Nick Harris (CEO, Lightmatter). We break down what's actually happening beneath the AI hype: the data modality LLMs completely missed, why copper is the real bottleneck in AI data centers, OpenAI shutting down Sora, the build vs. buy debate for AI tools, and how close we really are to AGI. AI's Biggest Blind Spot, Tabular Data: LLMs transformed text, images, and code, but 70-80% of enterprise data lives in rows and columns. Copper Can't Keep Up: Nick explains why AI data centers are hitting a wall. GPUs compute faster than they can communicate. Lightmatter's photonic chips push 1.6 terabits per fiber and can 3x training speed. Why OpenAI Killed Sora & Anthropic's Focus is Winning: Victor breaks down why even OpenAI had to learn the lesson of focus, and why Claude Code has every founder talking. Vibe Coding Your Own CRM vs. Buying Salesforce: Jeremy reveals Fundamental built their own internal CRM using vibe coding. The panel debates when building beats buying and when it's a distraction. The Omnipresent CEO: Jason shares how he's using AI agents for root access to Slack, Gmail, and Notion, resurrecting former employees as AI personas, automating SDR workflows, and summarizing employee inboxes while they're on vacation. Are We Already at AGI?: Nick says the rate of progress is a double exponential. Jeremy argues AGI is a moving goalpost. Victor warns of "Future Shock" and societal disruption. 🔗 Learn more about Fundamental: https://fundamental.tech🔗 Learn more about Synthesia: https://www.synthesia.io🔗 Learn more about Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.coThis Week In AI is made possible by:PayPal Open - One Platform for all Business: paypalopen.comTimestamps:00:00 Welcome & intro to Jeremy Fraenkel, Victor Riparbelli, and Nick Harris01:47 What is Fundamental? Large tabular models explained07:01 Victor Riparbelli on Synthesia & why OpenAI killed Sora11:09 Claude Code dominance & the Lightspeed founder retreat12:08 Nick Harris on Lightmatter, photonics & the new Moore's Law14:38 Copper vs. fiber: why AI data centers are hitting a wall18:44 Reinventing video: interactive, real-time, personalized21:32 The economics of a custom AI movie23:55 Why Amazon, Google & Meta are building their own chips28:06 Tables have a bandwidth problem too32:27 When will compute be as cheap as storage?36:10 The future of software: every company gets a custom stack38:06 Vibe coding your own CRM vs. buying Salesforce45:57 Jason's quest for root access to Slack50:18 The omnipresent CEO: Doctor Manhattan meets Jesus CEO52:13 Resurrecting former employees as AI personas53:25 Victor's executive changelog for a 650-person company55:07 Whisper Flow & the Plaud Pin1:00:03 AGI: is it already here?1:03:37 Jeremy: we've only solved half the brain1:06:30 70% of Americans fear AI will impact jobs1:08:47 Future Shock & keeping the rope tight*Mentioned in the show:* Wisper Flow: https://wisperflow.ai Plaud Pin: https://www.plaud.ai Athena Executive Assistants: https://www.athenawow.com WHOOP: https://www.whoop.com "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler: https://www.amazon.com/Future-ShockAlvin-Toffler/dp/0394425863 Victor on TWiST, E1776: https://youtu.be/jxET4fq_2eA Nick on TWiST, E1787: https://youtu.be/FPW2nnEqfMsSubscribe to This Week in AI on Apple: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotifySubscribe to This Week in AI on Spotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/appleThanks for watching!🤖 If you want to stay ahead of the curve on all things AI, make sure to join our community across all platforms:📩 Get the Weekly Newsletter: https://thisweekinai.ai/📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinAIPodcast📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinaipodcast

  • #6
    March 25 · 1 hr 15 min

    $2.5B Chip Heist, The Future of American AI, and Purpose-Built Robots | This Week in AI Ep 6

    This week Jason sat down with Jake Loosararian and Chris Lattner on Episode 6 of This Week in AI. Jake is the CEO and co-founder of Gecko Robotics, a company deploying purpose-built robots and AI for mission-critical infrastructure inspection across energy, defense, and manufacturing. Chris is the CEO and co-founder of Modular, building a universal software layer that lets developers run AI models across Nvidia, AMD, and Apple silicon without being locked into any single hardware vendor. We explore the GPU shortage, why China's chip smuggling reveals the stakes of the AI cold war, how purpose-built robotics are beating humanoids on ROI, the case for American reindustrialization, and why the next decade could be the best ever for private equity in capital-intensive industries. Purpose-Built Robots vs. Humanoids: Jake has been building mission-critical robots for 13 years. He explains why general-purpose humanoids still have too little ROI for industrial use, and why specialized robots that find and fix problems are winning in the field. The GPU Shortage Is Real: Chris breaks down why you can't just go buy 100 Blackwell chips today, why Nvidia's Cuda creates massive lock-in, and how Modular is building a unified software layer across all major chip architectures. Google TPUs Are the Sleeper: Chris ranks Google as the number one threat to Nvidia's dominance, ahead of Amazon's Trainium and AMD. China's Chip Smuggling & the AI Cold War: A Supermicro co-founder allegedly smuggled $2.5B in Nvidia chips to China using fake serial numbers and a hairdryer. The Best Decade for Private Equity: Jake makes the case that capital-intensive, commoditized infrastructure assets: waste-to-energy, water treatment, old power plants will all generate incredible returns. Self-Driving State of Play: Chris, a former Tesla Autopilot lead, gives his read on Waymo's lead, Tesla's small Austin pilot, and why the real signal is when Tesla starts filing for fully autonomous permits in California. Figure's New AI Lab, Hark: Breaking news mid-episode: Brett Adcock announces a new personal intelligence lab. Learn more about Gecko Robotics: https://www.geckorobotics.com Learn more about Modular: https://www.modular.com/ This Week In AI is made possible by: *PayPalOpen* - One Platform for all Business: paypalopen.com *Timestamps:* 00:00 Welcome & intro to Jake Lu (Gecko Robotics) and Chris Lattner (Modular) 01:34 Gecko's 13-year journey & the Cantilever platform 05:15 Chris Lattner on Modular: replacing Cuda & unifying AI hardware 11:10 Nvidia lock-in, AMD's Rock & why the software stack is broken 19:49 The GPU shortage: how real is it? 22:13 Who challenges Nvidia? Google TPUs, Amazon Trainium & AMD ranked 28:17 China chip smuggling: $2.5B in Nvidia GPUs & the AI cold war 37:43 Self-driving update: Waymo, Tesla's Austin pilot & Chris's Tesla history 42:20 Figure's humanoid package sorting — real or demo magic? 43:47 The best decade for private equity in capital-intensive assets 51:04 Reindustrialization, the trades boom & making manufacturing cool 58:39 Building tech companies outside Silicon Valley 1:06:46 Breaking news: Brett Adcock launches Hark from Figure 1:10:15 Closing thoughts: grit over hype, customers over valuations Subscribe to This Week in AI on Apple: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotify Subscribe to This Week in AI on Spotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/apple Thanks for watching! 🤖 If you want to stay ahead of the curve on all things AI, make sure to join our community across all platforms: 📩 Get the Weekly Newsletter: https://thisweekinai.ai/ 📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinAIPodcast 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinaipodcast 📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinaipodcast ✖️X: https://x.com/ThisWeeknAI Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason Follow Oliver: https://x.com/oliverkorzen Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

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