Latest Interviews

Alex Laubscher, CTO of Windsurf: Engineering at the Speed of Change

Alex Laubscher, Dimitris Bontolos

Windsurf has transitioned from a basic coding tool to an AI agentic IDE, rapidly evolving to enable enterprises to write approximately 90% of their code while tackling complex legacy systems through advanced retrieval and memory capabilities. The platform supports this high-velocity adaptation by integrating design files, reducing project iteration times from months to days as seen with partners like Ferrovial, and targeting a 99% productivity increase in software engineering. To secure global enterprise adoption, the company recently established a Frankfurt data center to guarantee GDPR and FedRAMP compliance, ensuring data sovereignty for clients in sensitive sectors while preparing to scale from 100 to hundreds of large European organizations.

Inside the GLP-1 Gold Rush: Eli Lilly CEO on New Breakthroughs, Addiction & Mental Health, Pricing

Dave Ricks, Chamath, Jason, Friedberg

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks has steered the company to an 860% market capitalization increase and record-breaking Mounjaro sales by leveraging a massive research workforce and aggressive manufacturing expansion to secure global dominance in GLP-1 therapies. While the firm faces capital shortages in the broader biotech sector, it is diversifying its pipeline beyond weight loss to address brain disorders and developing oral formulations to improve accessibility without compromising the high R&D reinvestment model Ricks defends. Personalized by Ricks' own successful treatment, the company balances aggressive clinical innovation with strategic supply chain controls to maintain its competitive edge against emerging international rivals.

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

Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, Eddie Lazzarin

Eric Jackson, Mark Andreessen, and other industry leaders explore how a shared techno-optimist ethos unifies diverse sectors ranging from crypto and defense to consumer hardware, arguing that American innovation culture remains the primary competitive advantage against global rivals. The discussion also addresses critical societal shifts, including the redefinition of medical authority through AI diagnostics, the misaligned incentives driving rising ADHD diagnoses, and the changing role of traditional schooling in an era of hyper-specialized learning. Finally, panelists analyze the fragmentation of internet culture and the evolution of social media platforms like X, emphasizing their function as translation layers that bridge isolated digital subcultures while reshaping public discourse.

H-1B Shakeup, Kimmel Apology, Autism Causes, California Hate Speech Law

Jason, Jimmy Kimmel, Biden, Dave Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, Nick

David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya discuss a proposed $100,000 fee for H-1B visas intended to eliminate labor arbitrage and systemic abuses in favor of a high-skilled auction model. The dialogue also covers the Trump administration's autism research on folate receptor autoimmunity and controversial links to prenatal acetaminophen use, alongside critiques of emerging political censorship laws in California. Finally, the hosts highlight significant AI infrastructure breakthroughs, including new MIT planning frameworks and German GPU architectures that promise orders-of-magnitude improvements in energy efficiency.

Will macro fuel more stock gains?

Dominic Wilson, Josh Schifrin

Analysts project the Federal Reserve will implement two additional rate cuts by year-end to address labor market risks, targeting a terminal rate near 3% as the economy navigates mixed employment signals and structural uncertainties. This easing cycle, expected to conclude by December 2026, aims to support risk assets and sustain growth while keeping inflation pressures contained amid a bearish outlook for oil and tariff impacts. Despite valuation concerns and skepticism regarding AI capital expenditure sustainability, the prevailing view suggests that resilient fundamentals and policy shifts will maintain upside momentum for the broader market through 2026.

Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead end

Richard Sutton, Dvarkash

Richard Sutton argues that true intelligence requires Reinforcement Learning systems to actively predict and adapt to a physical world through trial and error, contrasting this with Large Language Models that merely mimic human language patterns without establishing ground truth. He identifies the inevitability of AI succession as a new evolutionary stage, warning that future superintelligences must be engineered with high integrity and pro-social values to survive the risks of external corruption and logical divergence. Ultimately, Sutton contends that the most scalable path forward abandons human-imbued knowledge in favor of self-correcting experience-driven learning across distributed digital agents.

An insider perspective on China and AI, from Biden’s NSA | The Cognitive Revolution

Biden, Jake Sullivan, Nathan Labenz, Luisa

Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan outlines a framework for US-China relations centered on "intensive management" of AI competition to prevent conflict while rejecting zero-sum outcomes or grand bargains. He emphasizes immediate national security risks, advocating for targeted semiconductor export controls to counter China's civil-military fusion and urging the US to accelerate domestic AI adoption within the military to avoid strategic stagnation. Sullivan dismisses the feasibility of near-term arms control treaties, instead favoring a pragmatic approach that addresses current disruptions like job displacement and misinformation while preparing for potential transformative AI scenarios.

A Contrarian Call on Europe

Mark Wilson, Chris Hussey

Despite a historic six-month equity rally, professional investors maintain a constructive stance with deployed capital levels indicating the market remains unsretched. The event highlights a divergence where European value stocks and small caps outperform US large-cap growth, while specific opportunities arise in Chinese AI and German domestic beneficiaries driven by defense spending. Participants further examine strategies to capitalize on compressed index volatility and persistent single-stock dispersion amidst upcoming inflation data and month-end rebalancing pressures.

How much protein do you really need?

Alok Jha, Tim Cross

A recent discussion detailed the physiological role of proteins as primary structural materials while analyzing dietary guidelines that range from the World Health Organization's 0.8 grams per kilogram recommendation to sports science suggestions of up to 1.6 grams per kilogram. The presentation highlighted that excessive protein intake above this threshold offers no additional muscle growth benefits and may pose kidney risks, particularly when derived from saturated fats and processed meats. Instead of prioritizing extreme dietary calculations, experts advised combining consistent strength training with enjoyable exercise routines to ensure long-term health and muscle maintenance.

How Reliable is Economic Data?

Erica Groshen, Arthur Laffer, Alberto Cavallo, Joseph Briggs, Allison Nathan

Recent concerns regarding the reliability of U.S. economic data stem from funding cuts, a 15–20% staffing reduction at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the dismissal of its Commissioner by President Trump. Goldman Sachs research indicates that these operational constraints and declining survey responsiveness are increasing standard errors in key indicators like the CPI and JOLTS, creating a risk of data divergence. While current safeguards and institutional checks may prevent a total collapse of credibility, analysts warn that prolonged political interference and resource depletion could eventually erode market trust to the extent seen in Argentina.

The Impact of H1B Visas on Startups in the US & NVIDIA Invests $100BN Into OpenAI

Jason Lemkin, Rory O'Driscoll, Harry Stebbings

NVIDIA's $100 billion investment in OpenAI has ignited a massive capital feedback loop that concentrates the majority of the AI boom's revenue among six dominant customers, including Microsoft, Google, and Oracle. While venture capital flows remain hyper-concentrated with 75% of 2025 funding directed to just 19 firms, investors are increasingly bypassing traditional due diligence and demanding growth metrics far exceeding historical benchmarks to justify valuations. This aggressive financial engineering is underpinned by robust cash flows that allow major players to sustain solvency, even as market dynamics shift toward testing whether AI scaling laws can endure a three-order-of-magnitude increase in compute without triggering a bubble collapse.

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

Mark Chen, Jakub Pachocki, Anjney Midha, Sarah Wang

OpenAI researchers Mark and Jakob Sutskever outline a strategic roadmap centered on GPT-5, which aims to mainstream advanced reasoning and automate scientific discovery by merging the capabilities of instant-response and deep-thought models. This approach shifts evaluation metrics from solving static competition problems to generating economically relevant insights and extending autonomous time horizons to several hours through reinforcement learning. The organization distinguishes itself by balancing protected fundamental research teams with product accountability, prioritizing talent that persists through failure to overcome current limitations in coding autonomy and physical robotics.

Eric Schmidt on AI, the Battle with China, and the Future of America

Eric Schmidt, Chamath, Jason, Friedberg

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt outlines a strategic framework where the immediate AI revolution remains underhyped and distinct from the imminent arrival of autonomous agents, while warning that Western nations must counter China's aggressive pivot toward open-weight models and advanced robotics. Schmidt anticipates a future military doctrine defined by millions of AI-driven drones that create high-deterrence stalemates rather than traditional combat, driven by the obsolescence of fixed military infrastructure. Simultaneously, he emphasizes that US geopolitical resilience depends on leveraging domestic capital markets and releasing smaller open-source models to maintain control over handheld device proliferation amidst global demographic declines.

Latin America: A New Era of Opportunity | Global Conference 2025

Carlos Diaz-Rosillo, Cate Ambrose, Iván Duque Márquez, Ilan Goldfajn, Guillermo Lasso

Moderated by Carlos Diaz-Rosillo, former Latin American heads of state Ilan Goldfajn, Ivan Duque, and Guillermo Lasso joined global finance leader Kate Ambrose to analyze shifting U.S.-hemisphere dynamics against China's growing economic dominance. The panelists identified nearshoring, critical mineral reserves, and fintech innovation as key economic drivers while warning that unresolved security issues and artificial intelligence displacement threaten regional stability and employment. They urged the United States to actively deploy development finance tools and align regulatory frameworks to capitalize on these opportunities and counter Beijing's Belt and Road influence.

Early Decision for Students

Y Combinator is launching an "Early Decision" track specifically for graduating seniors to apply during their final year of study, securing guaranteed funding and a spot in the Summer 2026 batch. This program eliminates the immediate pressure to interview for traditional employment by providing financial support and a committed place in a future cohort before graduation. By allowing founders to receive capital and enrollment immediately, the initiative enables students to focus entirely on building their startups while completing their degrees.