
Timestamps00:00 Claude Fable gets blocked03:26 Does the ban actually help Anthropic?08:49 AI becomes a national security issue09:28 Why countries want sovereign AI13:30 NVIDIA, Taiwan, and the AI supply chain17:04 Who should fund AI infrastructure?18:28 Are AI models actually profitable?21:27 What went wrong with GPT-4.5?24:20 Can India build its own frontier model?28:27 RL environments and the new data bottleneck30:02 Is this good or bad news for India?32:41 What this means for frontier AI labs33:36 Recursive self-improvement begins35:23 Do AI products have switching costs?40:46 Are we already in AI takeoff?42:32 Why hasn’t AI caused runaway growth yet?44:42 Where do AI use cases stop?50:16 What does AI safety actually mean?52:51 Why would AI become dangerous?56:08 What safety teams are working on59:32 Does RLHF solve alignment?1:00:26 Reward hacking and Goodhart’s law1:03:40 Why safety research needs compute1:07:38 What should normal AI users do?1:08:03 Gradual disempowerment1:11:27 Are we already seeing warning signs?1:13:48 Are LLMs the path to AGI?1:15:23 Timelines for automated AI researchers1:18:20 Can independent researchers contribute?1:22:45 ClosingIn this episode, I sit down with Raghav Toshniwal to unpack why AI is no longer just a product race, but increasingly a geopolitical one.We discuss the Claude Fable controversy, why countries are thinking about sovereign AI, what the US-China AI race means for India, and how compute, chips, NVIDIA, Taiwan, and frontier labs all fit into the bigger picture.We also get into recursive self-improvement, whether we are already in an AI takeoff, and why AI safety researchers worry about alignment, reward hacking, and gradual disempowerment.Topics covered: The AI arms race between the US and China Sovereign AI and why countries want their own models India’s position in the frontier model race NVIDIA, Taiwan, TSMC and the compute bottleneck OpenAI, Anthropic and recursive self-improvement AI safety, alignment and existential risk Whether automated AI researchers change everythingMore on RaghavPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Jun 29
1 hr 23 min

In this episode, I sit down with Ravi Handa — ex teacher turned edtech founder (his business was acquired by Unacademy), who FIRE'd at 40 and now lives in Jaipur — to make the case for why most ambitious young Indians should seriously consider leaving the country.We cover two big things. First, the move-abroad argument: why he thinks you should take a decade-plus view rather than a 2–5 year one, why India's growth story can be intact while still being a worse bet for you as an individual, and the quality-of-life basics India doesn't deliver even for the 1% — clean water, clean air, unadulterated food, and education beyond the top 5% of institutions. We get into "scarcity mindset" and "crab mentality," why taxes feel like a raw deal for the top 2%, who this advice actually applies to (and why it's easier the higher up the ladder you are), and why 35 is roughly the deadline.Then we pivot to FIRE — the five lucky breaks that let him retire at 40, why you shouldn't anchor on retiring at 35 or 40, how cost of living in India is "not a monolith" (Jaipur vs Bangalore), and why he's building again despite preaching financial independence.More on Ravi ,Handa Uncle : https://www.handauncle.com/Twitter : https://x.com/ravihanda?lang=enLinkedin : https://in.linkedin.com/in/ravihandaInstagram : https://www.instagram.com/ravihanda/?hl=enFacebook : https://www.facebook.com/ravihanda/YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/ravihandaPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Jun 19
1 hr 7 min

At Mumbai Tech Week 2026, the conversation around “AI in Action” is shifting from hype to real-world execution.In this deep-dive conversation, GetVantage Founder Bhavik Vasa joins Ryan to discuss why India’s biggest AI opportunity isn’t in building trillion-parameter LLMs — but in Applied AI powered by proprietary enterprise data, digital infrastructure, and embedded finance.From MSME lending and OCEN to cashflow-based financing, underwriting automation, due diligence, and workflow intelligence — this episode explores how India can become a global powerhouse in AI-led economic productivity.Key topics covered:• Why AI FOMO around public LLMs is fading• The rise of Small Language Models (SLMs)• Proprietary data as the real competitive moat• India Stack, UPI, GST & the MSME credit gap• How GetVantage uses Applied AI for underwriting• GrowthSahay, OCEN & embedded finance infrastructure• Revenue-based financing vs founder dilution• AI-powered due diligence & tender automation• The future of invisible finance and automated enterprise workflowsIf you're attending Mumbai Tech Week, building in AI, fintech, SaaS, embedded finance, digital lending, or enterprise infrastructure — this conversation is for you.Keywords:Mumbai Tech Week, MTW 2026, AI in Action, Applied AI, Proprietary Data, Small Language Models, SLMs, India AI ecosystem, Embedded Finance, OCEN, Revenue Based Financing, MSME Credit Gap, Digital Lending India, India
May 30
42 min

In this episode, I sit down with Aditya Karanam — part of the Effective Altruism community in India and an animal advocate working with Electric Sheep and Animal Ethics — to figure out what it actually means to "do good" well.We cover two big things. First, the basics of Effective Altruism: what it is, where it came from, and the three things the community uses to decide which problems to work on first (scale, neglectedness, and tractability). Why so much of the EA crowd seems to come from tech, what counts as an "EA intervention," and what the community in India actually looks like today.Then we pivot to animal advocacy — why Aditya has chosen this cause over every other one, what factory farming in India actually looks like (we're the second-largest beef producer in the world, by the way), and whether tech like lab-grown meat is the answer or just part of it.I push back through a lot of it — I'm a meat eater myself — so this is less a lecture and more me trying to figure it out in real time.EPISODE LINKS:Electric Sheep : https://www.electricsheep.is/Aditya's Linkedin : https://in.linkedin.com/in/aditya-s-karanam-84859b10280,000 Hours : 80000hours.orgGiving What We Can — givingwhatwecan.orgPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
May 12
1 hr 15 min

Subhash Choudhary | Impact of AI in development
Apr 21
59 min

Diganth Jagadish is the Co-founder of Incentiv, where he works on private market equity, secondaries, and ESOP design and management.EPISODE LINKS:Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/diganth_jagadish?igsh=MWo4NnZhYTljN25haw==Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Apr 7
41 min

Parsuram Venkatesh is a PhD candidate in Mathematics at TIFR-CAM (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) in Bengaluru, a vegan advocate, and an activist with the Bengaluru Brigade for Animal Liberation (BBAL).EPISODE LINKS:Substack: https://dabchick.substack.comTwitter: https://x.com/dab_chickPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Mar 30
57 min

Ranjith Menon is Partner and Managing Director at Chiratae Ventures . EPISODE LINKS:Chiratae Profile : https://www.chiratae.com/team/Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranjith-menon-30715b4/Twitter : https://twitter.com/ranjith_menonPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Jan 15
1 hr 1 min

Vikram Gawande is the Director of Growth Investments at Blume VenturesEPISODE LINKS:Blume Profile : https://blume.vc/team/vikram-gawandeLinkedin : https://in.linkedin.com/in/vikramgawandeTwitter : https://x.com/vikramg05Podcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Nov 28, 2025
42 min

Marmik Mankodi is Associate Vice President at Blume VenturesEPISODE LINKS:Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/marmik-mankodi/Twitter : https://x.com/mar_kodiPodcast Socials :Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/decentmakeoverTwitter : https://twitter.com/decentmakeovrLinkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dsouza-74542b295/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://anchor.fm/ryandsouzaApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3NQhg6SSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3qJ3tWJAmazon Music: https://amzn.to/3P66j2BGoogle Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3am7rQcGaana: https://bit.ly/3ANS4v1RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/609210d4/podcast/rss
Nov 21, 2025
47 min
Load more
