Best Nathan Labenz Podcasts (2025)

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Nathan Labenz on the Next Generation of AI Agents | The Cognitive Revolution at Imagine AI Live 25 32:25

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1d ago32:25

32:25

Nathan Labenz (Founder of Waymark and host of The Cognitive Revolution) reveals how to build enterprise-grade AI agents that are reliable, scalable, and safe. He shares a blueprint for automation systems that don’t just run — they think, adapt, and earn human trust. From architecture to real-world deployment, this session dives deep into the next w…

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Is AI Slowing Down? Nathan Labenz Says We're Asking the Wrong Question 1:31:02

8d ago1:31:02

1:31:02

Nathan Labenz is one of the clearest voices analyzing where AI is headed, pairing sharp technical analysis with his years of work on The Cognitive Revolution. In this episode, Nathan joins a16z’s Erik Torenberg to ask a pressing question: is AI progress actually slowing down, or are we just getting used to the breakthroughs? They discuss the debate…

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Always Bet on the Models: How Tasklet Puts the Agency in Agents, with CEO Andrew Lee 2:13:06

3h ago2:13:06

2:13:06

Today Andrew Lee, founder and CEO of Shortwave and Tasklet.ai, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss building a new AI agent automation platform that replaces traditional workflow tools with conversational, long-lived agents, exploring how betting on rapidly improving model capabilities enables more flexible automation across thousands of busin…

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Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code 1:25:15

5h ago1:25:15

1:25:15

In this episode, a16z's Anish Acharya joins Kevin Rose for an in-depth, fast-paced conversation on the rebirth of consumer technology, and how AI is reshaping what it means to build, invest, and create. They talk about why AI has reignited the consumer renaissance, what it means to build “weird and working” products, and how the next wave of apps w…

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How Kong Was Born: APIs, Hustle, and the Future of AI Infrastructure 37:57

1d ago37:57

37:57

Augusto Marietti, CEO and cofounder of Kong, has one of the most remarkable founder stories in Silicon Valley history. In this conversation with Martin Casado, Aghi shares how he went from a garage in Milan to building one of the world’s leading API infrastructure companies, surviving years of rejection, living in the U.S. on $1,000 a month, and ra…

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Reid Hoffman on AI, Consciousness, and the Future of Humanity 53:00

2d ago53:00

53:00

Reid Hoffman has been at the center of every major tech shift, from co-founding LinkedIn and helping build PayPal to investing early in OpenAI. In this conversation, he looks ahead to the next transformation: how artificial intelligence will reshape work, science, and what it means to be human. In this episode, Reid joins Erik Torenberg and Alex Ra…

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Chinese AI – They're Just Like Us? With Beijing-Based Concordia AI CEO Brian Tse 2:44:31

4d ago2:44:31

2:44:31

Nathan interviews Brian Tse, founder and CEO of Concordia AI, about China's approach to AI development, safety and governance. They discuss China’s pragmatic vision emphasizing AI integration into the economy, the country’s multiple AI hubs, regulations requiring pre-deployment testing and AI content labelling, and areas where China's approach over…

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Marc Andreessen on the State of Film and Hollywood 1:07:46

5d ago1:07:46

1:07:46

Hollywood is going through a major cultural and creative reset, and Marc Andreessen thinks it’s long overdue. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc joins Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle to dissect the past decade of filmmaking, from the rise of “the message” in every movie to the return of genuine comedy and art. They cover the post-…

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Keith Rabois: Israel, OpenAI, Opendoor, and DOGE 49:08

6d ago49:08

49:08

From politics to technology to real estate, Keith Rabois has bold predictions for America’s next decade. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg, Keith breaks down why he believes the U.S. is entering a new economic expansion driven by AI, productivity, and sovereign technology. They discuss how AI could lift GDP growth to 5%, why sovereign AI pro…

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Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi: How to Run a Billion-Dollar Business 1:04:36

7d ago1:04:36

1:04:36

By Ali Ghodsi, Erik Torenberg, Ben Horowitz

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How AI is Creating the Billion-Dollar Companies of Tomorrow | Michael Moe at Imagine AI Live 25 | E153 17:58

8d ago17:58

17:58

Join Michael Moe, founder of GSV, as he reveals how AI’s “time divident” is accelerating entrepreneurship and business innovation - all in his presentation at Imagine AI Live 25 at Fontainebleau, Las Vegas. Discover the Five P’s—People, Product, Potential, Predictability, and Purpose—that separate the stars of tomorrow from the rest. Packed with fr…

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AI Discovered Antibiotics: How Small Data & Small GNNs Led to Big Results, w/ MIT Prof. Jim Collins 1:24:53

8d ago1:24:53

1:24:53

Jim Collins, Termeer Professor at MIT, unveils his AI-powered project that has discovered several new antibiotics, effective against resistant strains and often employing entirely new mechanisms of action. He details how their refined multi-step AI process, even with small datasets and modest compute, can efficiently screen vast chemical spaces to …

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Columbia CS Professor: Why LLMs Can’t Discover New Science 50:54

9d ago50:54

50:54

From GPT-1 to GPT-5, LLMs have made tremendous progress in modeling human language. But can they go beyond that to make new discoveries and move the needle on scientific progress? We sat down with distinguished Columbia CS professor Vishal Misra to discuss this, plus why chain-of-thought reasoning works so well, what real AGI would look like, and w…

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Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land? 52:44

10d ago52:44

52:44

Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about t…

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Education in the AI Age: a Teacher Rethinks Learning & Purpose, w/ Johan Falk of Graspable AI 1:52:02

14d ago1:52:02

1:52:02

Today Johan Falk, author, speaker, and AI analyst from Stockholm, Sweden, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his work reimagining education for the AI era, exploring why teaching students to use AI responsibly is now urgent, how traditional grades and standardized tests may become obsolete, and why education systems must develop unprecedente…

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Beyond Memory: Dan Siroker on Personalized AI & Mind Emulation | Limitless AI @ Imagine AI 25 | E152 26:07

14d ago26:07

26:07

Dan Siroker, CEO of Limitless AI, reveals the future of personalized AI and mind emulation at Imagine AI Live 25 in Las Vegas. Discover how wearable AI can augment your memory, improve productivity, and even pave the way for digital versions of ourselves. This session explores real-world applications today and the audacious vision of preserving hum…

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Sam Altman on Sora, Energy, and Building an AI Empire 48:25

14d ago48:25

48:25

Sam Altman has led OpenAI from its founding as a research nonprofit in 2015 to becoming the most valuable startup in the world ten years later. In this episode, a16z Cofounder Ben Horowitz and General Partner Erik Torenberg sit down with Sam to discuss the core thesis behind OpenAI’s disparate bets, why they released Sora, how they use models inter…

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How to Build a Real Estate Marketplace - Kaz Nejatian, Opendoor CEO 55:44

15d ago55:44

55:44

By Kaz Nejatian, Alex Rampell

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Can the US Beat China’s Engineering State? 1:03:10

16d ago1:03:10

1:03:10

From high-speed rail to electric cars to batteries to AI, it’s clear that China can operate with incredible speed at massive scale. Can the US still compete? We sat down with Dan Wang, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” to discuss. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 1:36 Lawyers…

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Monitoring the Situation #2: Alana Newhouse 58:58

17d ago58:58

58:58

Two trends in media have been abundantly clear since 2020: legacy media is dying, and independent media is rising. a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle sit down with Tablet founder and editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse to discuss the great media realignment, why real institutions will outlast the new “internet pirates", Alana’s dee…

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The Customer Service Revolution: Building Fin, with Eoghan McCabe & Fergal Reid of Intercom 1:34:04

17d ago1:34:04

1:34:04

Today Eoghan McCabe and Fergal Reid of Intercom join The Cognitive Revolution to discuss building their AI customer service agent Fin, exploring how they achieved a 65% resolution rate through rigorous optimization and custom model training rather than relying on base model improvements, while pioneering outcome-based pricing at $0.99 per resolutio…

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Software is Eating Labor 26:49

19d ago26:49

26:49

Software has fundamentally changed the way we record, store, and share information. Its next act is to fundamentally change the nature of our economy, capturing trillions of dollars of value in the process. In this talk from the 2025 a16z LP Summit, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell discusses the history of filing cabinets and databases, how SaaS p…

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The Ben & Marc Show: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up? 57:16

20d ago57:16

57:16

Ben, Marc, and Erik Torenberg are joined by Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder & CEO of Anduril, and Chris Power, Founder & CEO of Hadrian. Together, they dig into America’s defense production gap: why the U.S. can out-innovate but not out-produce—and what it will take to turn that around. They discuss why U.S. war games show we run out of munitions in a we…

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Building AI-Driven Organizational Memory w/ Knowledge Graphs | Daniel Cohen Dumani of Experio Labs | E151 25:44

20d ago25:44

25:44

Join Daniel Cohen Dumani, founder and CEO of Experio Labs, as he reveals how knowledge graphs and Graph-RAG - an AI method that organizes information by understanding the relationships between data points - are transforming fragmented data into precise, explainable insights. Learn why traditional AI search often fails and discover actionable framew…

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Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z) 1:00:33

20d ago1:00:33

1:00:33

Today’s special crosspost features a16z General Partner Anjney Midha with Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk of Periodic Labs. They discuss experiments in training frontier AI models on real-world physics lab experiments—rather than digital reward functions—and how coupling language models with automated materials synthesis could accelerate the discov…

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Cheeky Pint: Marc Andreessen, John Collison & Charlie Songhurst on Tech’s Big Questions 2:09:12

21d ago2:09:12

2:09:12

Today we’re sharing a feed drop from Cheeky Pint, where Stripe cofounder and president John Collison chats with legends in technology over a pint of Guinness. In this episode, John is joined by a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen and tech investor Charlie Songhurst for a candid conversation about bubbles, downturns, and the psychology of markets. They d…

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Building an AI Physicist: ChatGPT Co-Creator’s Next Venture 54:20

22d ago54:20

54:20

Scaling laws took us from GPT-1 to GPT-5 Pro. But in order to crack physics, we’ll need a different approach. In this episode, a16z General Partner Anjney Midha talks to Liam Fedus, former VP of post-training research and co-creator of ChatGPT at OpenAI, and Ekin Dogus Cubuk, former head of materials science and chemistry research at Google DeepMin…

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Meta CMO: How Advertising Works Under the Hood 1:02:52

23d ago1:02:52

1:02:52

Ads pay for the internet—and they’re about to change again. a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg, entrepreneur and author Antonio García Martínez, and Meta CMO Alex Schultz dive into growth and performance marketing, privacy myths, retail media, and the AI future of “audience-of-one” advertising—plus Instagram what-ifs, WhatsApp as a super-app, and …

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The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days 2:16:08

24d ago2:16:08

2:16:08

Today, Emad Mostaque, founder of Intelligent Internet, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his book "The Last Economy" and his radical "intelligence theory" framework for reimagining economics in the AI age, exploring concepts like the abundance trap, metabolic rift, and his proposed cryptocurrency-funded system of collectively-owned AI infra…

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The Common Thread of All Technology: Monitoring the Situation, Ep.1 1:00:02

25d ago1:00:02

1:00:02

Announcing our new show, Monitoring the Situation, hosted by a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle, with guest Eddie Lazzarin, CTO of a16z crypto. In this first episode, we ask how American Dynamism, consumer, games, and crypto all fit together, from Palmer/Oculus to Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto, while also explori…

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CoreWeave Acquired OpenPipe — Kyle Corbitt on Reinforcement Learning & Reliable AI Agents | E150 21:37

27d ago21:37

21:37

CoreWeave just announced its acquisition of OpenPipe — a pivotal moment for reinforcement learning and reliable AI agents. Let’s take a step back and watch Kyle Corbitt, Co-founder and CEO of OpenPipe, talk about how reinforcement learning turns prototypes into production-ready systems. In this exclusive Imagine AI Live 25 talk, Kyle explains the “…

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Stripe's Payments Foundation Model: How Data & Infra Create Compounding Advantage, w/ Emily Sands 1:21:09

27d ago1:21:09

1:21:09

Today, Emily Sands, head of data and AI at Stripe, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss how the company built a payments foundation model that processes tens of billions of transactions into dense embeddings, exploring the technical architecture behind fraud detection improvements and the modular approach that enables rapid deployment of AI ac…

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From Vibe Coding to Vibe Researching: OpenAI’s Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki 52:05

27d ago52:05

52:05

What comes after vibe coding? Maybe vibe researching. OpenAI’s Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki, and Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, join a16z general partners Anjney Midha and Sarah Wang to go deep on GPT-5—how they fused fast replies with long-horizon reasoning, how they measure progress once benchmarks saturate, and why reinforcement learning …

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Software finally eats services - Aaron Levie 59:33

28d ago59:33

59:33

Should the US put a price on H-1B visas, or would that block the flow of new talent? Are AI coding agents actually making teams way more productive, or is it just hype? And in the AI platform shift, will the big winners be incumbents or new AI-native startups? Erik Torenberg is joined by Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie, a16z board partner Steven…

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America's Autism Crisis and How AI Can Fix Science with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya 58:13

29d ago58:13

58:13

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is one of the country’s top medical experts and a 24-year professor of medicine at Stanford. After being censored and deplatformed during COVID for his role in opposing harsh lockdowns, he was appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health by President Trump in 2025. a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Vineeta Agarwa…

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Dylan Patel on the AI Chip Race - NVIDIA, Intel & the US Government vs. China 1:40:00

1M ago1:40:00

1:40:00

Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel is one of the biggest surprises in semiconductors in years. Two longtime rivals are now teaming up, and the ripple effects could reshape AI, cloud, and the global chip race. To make sense of it all, Erik Torenberg is joined by Dylan Patel, chief analyst at SemiAnalysis, joins Sarah Wang, general partner at a1…

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Charlie Kirk and the Rise of Political Violence 23:39

1M ago23:39

23:39

In this episode of Honestly with Bari Weiss, we share a special conversation featuring a16z general partner Katherine Boyle in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shocking assassination. Katherine reflects on what courage means in a culture where words and debate are increasingly met with violence. Drawing on faith, history, and her own response to recent t…

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Full-Stack AI Safety: Why Defense-in-Depth Might Work, with Far.AI CEO Adam Gleave 1:27:00

1M ago1:27:00

1:27:00

Today Adam Gleave, co-founder and CEO of FAR.AI, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his cautiously optimistic vision for post-AGI futures and AI capability timelines across three distinct tiers, exploring the safety challenges and alignment techniques needed as FAR.AI scales from foundational research to policy advocacy to ensure their innov…

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Can We Stop AI Deception? Apollo Research Tests OpenAI's Deliberative Alignment, w/ Marius Hobbhahn 2:08:56

1M ago2:08:56

2:08:56

Today Marius Hobbhahn of Apollo Research joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss their collaboration with OpenAI using "deliberative alignment" to reduce AI scheming behavior by 30x, exploring the safety challenges and concerning findings about models' growing situational awareness and increasingly cryptic reasoning patterns that emerge when fron…

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The Death of Search: How Shopping Will Work In The Age of AI 45:22

1M ago45:22

45:22

The web is unhealthy, and AI agents are about to rewrite how we shop. In this episode, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell and Partner Justine Moore explore how AI agents will change commerce and the implications for Google’s business model, affiliate marketing, online shopping, and more. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 0:12 The Role of AI Agents in Com…

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How OpenAI Built Its Coding Agent 1:20:12

1M ago1:20:12

1:20:12

OpenAI’s Codex has already shipped hundreds of thousands of pull requests in its first month. But what is it really, and how will coding agents change the future of software? In this episode, General Partner Anjney Midha goes behind the scenes with one of Codex’s product leads- Alexander Embiricos - to unpack its origin story, why its PR success ra…

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Faster Science, Better Drugs 56:26

1M ago56:26

56:26

Can we make science as fast as software? In this episode, Erik Torenberg talks with Patrick Hsu (cofounder of Arc Institute) and a16z general partner Jorge Conde about Arc’s “virtual cells” moonshot, which uses foundation models to simulate biology and guide experiments. They discuss why research is slow, what an AlphaFold-style moment for cell bio…

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User-Owned AI: On-Chain Training, Inference, and Agents, with NEAR's Illia Polosukhin 1:33:08

1M ago1:33:08

1:33:08

Today Illia Polosukhin, founder of Near Protocol joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss the intersection of AI and blockchain technologies, exploring how decentralized infrastructure can enable "user-owned AI" through privacy-preserving model training, confidential computing, and autonomous agents that operate via smart contracts without central…

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Ben Horowitz: Why Hesitation is a CEO’s Worst Enemy 1:35:38

1M ago1:35:38

1:35:38

In this conversation from Lenny’s Podcast, Ben Horowitz joins Lenny to discuss the psychological muscle every founder needs, why hesitation can be fatal for CEOs, when it’s time to replace a founder, and how to normalize failure while building confidence. They also explore the Databricks founding story, investing in Adam Neumann after WeWork, wheth…

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Inside the $13T Mortgage Machine 54:48

1M ago54:48

54:48

The $13T U.S. mortgage market serves 50M homeowners but still runs on decades-old software. In this episode, a16z GP Angela Strange hosts Tim Mayopoulos (ex-CEO of Fannie Mae and ex-president of Blend), Mike Yu (co-founder and CEO of Vesta), and Andrew Wang (co-founder and CEO of Valon) to unpack why standardization and regulation slow change, and …

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Coaching the Creators: Inside the Minds Building Frontier AI with Executive Coach Joe Hudson 1:44:57

1M ago1:44:57

1:44:57

Today Joe Hudson, founder of Art of Accomplishment and coach to executives at major AI labs including OpenAI and Anthropic, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss the psychological patterns he observes among AI researchers and leaders, exploring what's missing beyond pure intelligence in current AI systems and arguing for supportive rather than …

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Chris Dixon on How to Build Networks, Movements, and AI-Native Products 42:59

1M ago42:59

42:59

Why do some consumer products explode into networks that reshape the internet, while others fade away? Today on the podcast, a16z general partners Anish Acharya and Chris Dixon take on that question. Anish invests in AI-native consumer products and the next wave of consumer tech. Chris is best known for his work in Web3 and network economies, and h…

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Mark Cuban on the NBA, Cost Plus Drugs, and How to Fix Politics 1:01:04

1M ago1:01:04

1:01:04

What happens when AI collides with salesmanship, streaming-era sports, and healthcare? In this episode, Erik Torenberg is joined by Mark Cuban, entrepreneur, Dallas Mavericks co-owner, and founder of Cost Plus Drugs. Topics include fiery group chats and how dissent sharpens thinking, the sales playbook of modern politics, and concrete fixes for U.S…

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The Little Tech Agenda for AI 57:10

1M ago57:10

57:10

Who’s speaking up for startups in Washington, D.C.? In this episode, Matt Perault (Head of AI Policy, a16z) and Collin McCune (Head of Government Affairs, a16z) unpack the “Little Tech Agenda” for AI- why AI rules should regulate harmful use, not model development; how to keep open source open; the roles of the federal government vs states in regul…

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Zvi Mowshowitz on Longer Timelines, RL-induced Doom, and Why China is Refusing H20s 3:13:14

2M ago3:13:14

3:13:14

Today, Zvi Mowshowitz returns to The Cognitive Revolution to discuss how recent AI developments like GPT-5 and IMO gold medals have led to modestly extended timelines despite being on-trend, while policy missteps around chip exports to China and alignment challenges from reinforcement learning have increased risk assessments, covering everything fr…