No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
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 [email protected]. 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.
The Changing Physics of Cybersecurity and Drug Development with OpenAI President Greg Brockman
Technology has always been the fundamental driver of improvement for human quality of life. And with the recent rollout of advanced frontier models, like OpenAI’s GPT-6, humanity can now massively accelerate scientific discovery for its benefit. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil are joined by OpenAI President and co-founder Greg Brockman to discuss the company’s rapid progress across frontier models, cybersecurity, and scientific discovery. Greg shares how nearly 400 century-old math problems have been solved using its AI agents, and how the technology has the potential to transform other fields like biology in the realm of drug discovery. He also talks about how proactive, always-on AI agents like Dots impact modern productivity, why he believes the best UI is no UI at all, how cybersecurity is in a critical window of time to use peak intelligence to find and fix vulnerabilities in systems, and why OpenAI remains committed to keeping humans in the driver’s seat even as models surpass us in capability. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @gdb | @OpenAI Chapters: 00:42 – Trailer 00:59 – Greg Brockman Introduction 01:11 – AI and Advancements in Mathematics 05:55 – AI Communication and Oversight 07:45 – AI for Overcoming Biology Data Bottlenecks 11:28 – Revolutionizing Drug Discovery 14:18 – Changing Regulations to Accelerate Progress 16:51 – Dots the Proactive Agent 19:19 – Unifying Work and Consumer Agents 22:02 – How UI Will Evolve 26:08 – Cybersecurity in the AI Age 32:55 – Shift in Security Investment 35:49 – OpenAI’s Human-Centric Ethos 38:28 – Conclusion
Oct 15
39 min
Beam: The Great American Open Model with ReflectionAI Co-Founder and CEO Misha Laskin
Is the future of frontier AI open or closed? ReflectionAI co-founder and CEO Misha Laskin joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to discuss the launch of Beam, the company’s 500 billion parameter open-weight reasoning model. Misha breaks down the pre-training and reinforcement learning required to produce Beam’s reasoning efficiency, the shift in enterprise compute from renting to owning intelligence, and how he believes that open models will capture the majority of global token demand. He also talks about the open model ecosystem in China and why competition with China’s models is a good thing, safety considerations around open models, and how frontier-level open models may accelerate the pace of scientific discovery.   Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @MishaLaskin | @reflection_ai Chapters: 00:42 – Misha Laskin Introduction 00:59 – Latest with ReflectionAI 02:07 – Challenges Building an Open Model 03:56 – ReflectionAI’s Agentic Shift 07:37 – Resources for Model Training 10:09 – Scaling Efficiency 12:18 – Training Beam 16:51 – Where Model Value Comes From 19:55 – Beam’s Reasoning Efficiency 22:35 – Monetizing Open Weight Models 25:03 – Future of Open Versus Closed Tokens 31:29 – Competition with Open Models 34:38 – Chinese Open Source Model Ecosystem 38:40 – Will Chinese Models Remain Open 44:44 – Safety and Open Models 53:02 – Debating Access to Powerful Tools 57:16 – AI and Scientific Progress 01:00:36 – Data Centers and Jobs 01:02:07 – Beam and Scientific Research 01:05:37 – Research Head Count to Compute Ratio 01:10:29 – Conclusion
Oct 9
1 hr 9 min
Frontier Chips for Frontier AI Labs, with Walter Goodwin, Founder/CEO of Fractile
Founder and CEO of full-stack AI chip company Fractile, Walter Goodwin, joins Sarah Guo to discuss the bets he’s made on the future of the chip market as other major players like Broadcom, NVIDIA, and AMD try to accelerate their workloads. They discuss the difference in Fractile’s newer approach on model architecture with a full-stack team in the current chip landscape and the technical bets they’re making in that direction. Walter also talks about compressing the gap between the chip design cycle and its payoff period, and making a generational leap in AI inference to realize the bet in volume against the value to be captured.  Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @goodwin_ml | @fractile_ai Chapters: 00:46 – Walter Goodwin and Fractile Introduction  02:29 – The Chip Landscape Now 04:56 – Common Handoffs From Architecture-Focused Players 07:18 – Full Stack Approach and Team Setup 09:49 – Fractile’s Most Important Technical Bets  15:32 – Workload Predictions and Compressing the Chip Design Cycle 23:03 – Architect Intent to Output Bottlenecks and Accelerating Trials 28:16 – Workload Bets on Model Architectural Shifts 31:20 – The Future of AI Chip Players and Market Structure   35:14 – Conclusion
Oct 2
35 min
Re-Founding Incumbents for the AI Era with Sequence Holdings Co-Founder and CEO Michael Lee
Can AI transform legacy incumbents rather than replacing them? Sequence Holdings co-founder and CEO Michael Lee joins Sarah Guo to discuss how holding company structures and engineering integrations are reshaping market leaders from the inside out. Michael details Sequence’s $7.7 billion take-private transaction of Baldwin alongside Dell Family Office (DFO), and shares his thesis on why traditional consulting models and software sales fall short for real enterprise AI transformations. They also talk about why permanent holding company structures are good for long-term compounding, real-world results from applying frontier engineering to BankSouth, and Michael’s lessons from his time in public investing, private equity, and operating at the intersection of market incumbents and AI. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @mjlee_2014 | @seqholdings Chapters: 00:34 – Michael Lee Introduction 01:03 – Sequence Holdings and Baldwin 01:54 – Idea for Sequence 04:36 – Incumbents in the AI Era 06:32 – Why a Holding Company 11:21 – Recruiting Top Engineers 13:08 – Investing in BankSouth 17:46 – Why an Insurance Brokerage 20:17 – Atlas Platform Explained 23:53 – Traditional Private Equity Limitations 27:23 – What Sequence Looks For in Management Teams 31:04 – Accomplishments at BankSouth 34:45 – Founder Lessons 36:08 – Story of Dell Partnership 37:10 – Career and Investment Approach 40:00 – Value of Exceptional People 42:23 – Conclusion
Sep 24
42 min
Why Diffusion Will Win AI Inference with Inception Co-Founder and CEO Stefano Ermon
As generative AI hits hardware and latency bottlenecks, Stanford professor, diffusion pioneer, and Inception co-founder and CEO Stefano Ermon is betting on a radical new architecture. Stefano joins Sarah Guo to talk about Inception, and how his team is applying diffusion architecture beyond images and video into discrete text and code generation. Stefano explains the limitations of autoregressive LLMs, as well as why parallel token generation in diffusion models offers superior inference scaling and hardware utilization on standard GPUs. He also shares details about Inception’s Mercury models, real-world voice agent applications, the software stack required to serve diffusion-based models at scale, academia’s role at the frontier of AI innovations, and why the next era of AI competition will be defined by efficiency.  Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @StefanoErmon | @_inception_ai Chapters: 00:00 – Stefano Ermon Introduction 00:35 – Research Background 02:54 – Starting Inception 05:59 – Why Diffusion Beats Autoregressive 11:10 – Discrete vs. Continuous Modalities 13:19 – Inception Today 16:45 – Where Speed Wins 17:31 – Inception Customer Base 18:49 – Interaction with Hardware Landscape 19:34 – Inception and the Broader Industry 21:41 – Data Compression and Structure 24:45 – Controllability of Diffusion Modeles 27:25 – Emergent Capabilities at Scale 29:02 – Future Workload Split Between Diffusion vs. Traditional 30:03 – Adoption Challenges 31:44 – Hiring and Team Organization 32:50 – Recursive Self Improvement 34:02 – Resource Allocation 35:10 – Impact of Academia 38:13 – Conclusion
Sep 18
38 min
Coinbase’s Everything Exchange: Agentic Finance, Stablecoins, and Tokenization with CEO Brian Armstrong
From the tokenization of real-world assets to funding research on anti-aging therapeutics, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong is focused on solving meta-problems for the benefit of society. Brian joins Elad Gil this episode to discuss the intersections of artificial intelligence, crypto rails, and biotechnology. He details Coinbase’s vision for agentic finance, as well as how Coinbase is becoming the ‘Everything Exchange’, which includes tokenized real-world stocks, stablecoin payment adoption, and prediction markets. Brian also introduces his new venture, New Limit, a company founded to tackle longevity through epigenetic reprogramming, and outlines initial therapeutic programs and the roadmap toward clinical trials.   Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @brian_armstrong | @Coinbase Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open Trailer 00:45 – Brian Armstrong Introduction 01:13 – Coinbase and the Everything Exchange 05:52 – Agentic Commerce 10:00 – AI and Crypto 10:49 – AI Inside Coinbase 15:39 – Productivity and Company Size 17:26 – The Everything Exchange and Tokenization 20:53 – Prediction Markets 23:15 – Introducing New Limit 34:17 – Looking Forward Five Years 40:24 – Special Economic Zones 44:26 – Conclusion
Sep 10
45 min
Redefining Chip Architecture with Arm CEO Rene Haas
From data center orchestrators to AGI and robotics, CPUs remain the heart of modern computing. Arm CEO Rene Haas joins Elad Gil and Sarah Guo to explore how Arm is positioned at the epicenter of AI-driven demands for compute. Rene explains Arm’s position in the chip supply chain, and how Arm transitioned from an IP licensing model to producing physical chips like the Arm AGI CPU for Meta. He also discusses bottlenecks in hardware supply chains, SoftBank’s ecosystem and capital strategy, why US semiconductor manufacturing independence is critical, the future of robotics, and why CPUs remain crucial for executing AI workloads. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @renehaas237 | @Arm Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open Trailer 00:49 – Rene Haas Introduction 01:14 – Arm and Chip Supply Chain 02:37 – Shift from IP to Manufacturing CPUs 04:23 – CPU IP and Customers 06:55 – AI Adoption at Arm 10:15 – Changes in Chip Time to Market 13:27 – Data Center Buildout Bottleneck 15:13 – Softbank Leverage and Capital Strategy 17:43 – Softbank Portfolio Overview 20:13 – Robotics Opportunities for Arm 24:49 – US Manufacturing Protectionism 28:59 – Data Center Backlash 32:30 – Arm Outlook 33:31 – CPU Opportunity 37:06 – Conclusion
Sep 3
37 min
Rethinking Legacy Data Infrastructure with Eon Co-Founders Ofir Ehrlich and Gonen Stein
Google’s purchase of Spirit Airlines’ data out of bankruptcy signaled a shift in how the tech world values real-world datasets. Although compute and models get much of the attention, in this landscape, it’s data that is a company’s protective moat. Eon CEO / Co-Founder Ofir Ehrlich and President / Co-Founder Gonen Stein join Elad Gil to talk about how Eon is redefining cloud backup into a secure data foundation designed to power and protect enterprise AI. Ofir and Gonen discuss why historical enterprise data is in demand by AI labs, and how Eon facilitates access to scattered and locked data across business units through providing the mapping, classification, and access controls needed to connect it into AI workflows. They also explore how traditional ransomware defenses must now protect against rogue AI agents with legitimate system permissions, concerns around the influx of autonomous agents and non-human identities, and the implications for the breakneck speed of AI adoption compared to the slowness of the cloud era.  Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Eon_io_ | @OfirEhrlich Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open Trailer 00:59 – Ofir Ehrlich and Gonen Stein Introduction 01:27 – What Eon Does 02:41 – Data as Moat 06:43 – Training Agents with Good Data 09:39 – Data is the New Oil  15:00 – Autonomous Security Threats 18:15 – How Agents Change the Enterprise Stack 22:11 – Re-imagining Data Infrastructure 27:52 – Cloud vs. AI Era Shift 30:26 – How AI is Changing Companies 34:31 – Conclusion
Aug 27
34 min
From Restoring Sight to Reimagining the Brain, with Max Hodak
Max Hodak, co-founder and CEO of Science Corporation, joins Sarah Guo to discuss the future of vision, brain-computer interfaces, and the human experience. Max explains how Science’s PRIMA retinal implant could restore functional vision for people who have lost their sight, and why treating the brain as a computational system could unlock new approaches to medicine. They explore the broader potential of neural devices, from restoring lost capabilities to expanding human potential, as well as deeper questions around identity, consciousness, and whether the human experience can persist as our biological hardware changes. Max also shares Science’s long-term vision for reducing the fragility of the human condition by repairing, replacing, and ultimately upgrading parts of ourselves. Finally, he discusses the surprising parallels between AI models and biological brains, and why AI may offer a powerful new lens for understanding intelligence. Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open Trailer 01:40 – Max Hodak Introduction 02:00 – Science Corporation Overview and Origin 02:53 – A Revolutionary Solve for Blindness  06:32 – Scope of Timeline and Engineer Cost 09:10 – Clinic Trial Process 09:45 - The Response from Clinicians 12:21 – Broader Biotech Landscape 14:59 – Brain’s Relationship to Senses 17:35 – The Study of Consciousness  19:50 – Investments in Brain Computer Interface 22:10 – Fertile Ways to Study Neuroscience 24:46 – Biotech Expansion for Science Corporation 27:50 – What Success Looks Like in Neuroscience and Tech 29:06 - Goals Within Human Preservation vs. Adaptation  30:25 – Conclusion
Aug 20
31 min
What Chess.com Teaches US About Superhuman Capabilities, with CEO Erik Allebest
In a world of infinite gaming and entertainment possibilities, how does a centuries-old game stay so popular? Chess.com co-founder and CEO Erik Allebest joins Sarah Guo to explain how the evolution of technology has kept people coming back to chess, even when machines can beat us at the game. Erik talks about how the desire to build a MySpace-like community for chess led to the purchase of a domain name from a bankruptcy sale back in 2005, and scaled into a community with 10 million daily active users and 250 million total registered members. He also discusses the growth of the cultural relevance of chess, how investments from private equity firms General Atlantic and CVC helped grow and strengthen their platform, and how Chess.com is leveraging AI both within the business itself and to make a better product for its community. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @chesscom | @erikallebest Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open Trailer 01:05 – Erik Allebest Introduction 01:48 – Chess.com Today 02:57 – Buying and Scaling Chess.com  06:29 – Competition and Growth 11:52 – Chess and Cultural Relevance 14:32 – Private Equity Investment 19:31 – Playing Games Amid Evolving Tech 25:09 – Tech, Skill Distribution, and Expertise 28:40 – Chess and Cheating 31:20 – What Makes Chess Special 33:17 – Chess.com Future Vision 34:54 – Founder Advice 36:48 – AGI/ASI Predictions 40:02 – AI Investments at Chess.com  42:13 – How AI May Change Product at Chess.com 43:27 – Poker Rating Algorithms 46:07 – Conclusion
Aug 13
46 min
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