Latest Interviews

Stephanie Cohen - CSO @ Cloudflare: Future of Content & Fair Compensation in the Age of AI

Stephanie Cohen

On July 1, Cloudflare implemented a permission-based default policy to block AI scrapers while launching a beta for micropayments via HTTP 402, aiming to transition the web into a value-based economy where content creators control data access. This strategic shift, supported by data showing a 65% surge in training crawler traffic, has drawn criticism from industry figures like BrightData's David Bossert but is defended by CEO Matthew Prince as necessary to repair the broken economic relationship between publishers and tech giants. Complementing this infrastructure, newly appointed Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Cohen leverages her Wall Street background to guide Cloudflare's expansion into cybersecurity and AI financial services, predicting that high-value human judgment will remain essential even as automation transforms data-rich sectors.

Science Corner Special! David Friedberg, Cleo Abram, Alex Filippenko, and Keller Rinaudo Cliffton

David Friedberg, Cleo Abram, Alex Filippenko, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton

Vox alumna Cleo Abram, astrophysicist Alex Filippenko, and Zipline CEO Keller Renato Clifton converge to discuss the transformative potential of optimistic technology, from Abram's independent media platform that champions solutions over fear-mongering to Filippenko's insights on the James Webb Space Telescope's discovery of early galaxy formation and the critical funding crisis threatening scientific research. Clifton details Zipline's success in delivering over 115 million autonomous miles to save lives in developing nations and its rapid scaling in the U.S., arguing that reliable robotics are essential for future logistics and geopolitical stability. Together, these leaders emphasize that sustained investment in independent innovation and basic science is vital for creating better futures and expanding access to life-saving infrastructure globally.

Block CTO Dhanji Prasanna: Building the AI-First Enterprise with Goose, their Open Source Agent

Dhanji Prasanna, Sonya Huang, Roelof Botha

Block CTO Dhanji Prasanna drives a strategic shift from a siloed management model to a centralized AI-first architecture, spearheading the "Goose" project that functions as an open-source agent to orchestrate workflows across internal systems. This initiative, which evolved from an internal hack week, enables high autonomy for engineers by integrating diverse LLMs and saving 25% of manual hours through shared, self-learning scripts. Looking forward, Block aims to transition from single-agent co-pilots to collaborative swarm intelligence by 2030, while simultaneously extending this technology to its public-facing Square AI for merchant financial simulations.

Groq Founder, Jonathan Ross: OpenAI & Anthropic Will Build Their Own Chips & Will NVIDIA Hit $10TRN

Jonathan Ross, Harry Stebbings

Jonathan Ross projects that within five years, the AI sector's trajectory will be defined by a critical convergence of energy capacity and compute availability, with NVIDIA potentially reaching a $10 trillion valuation due to a competitive temporal moat. While the market remains concentrated among approximately 36 entities, firms like Grok are leveraging proprietary hardware cycles and massive speed advantages to capture value, contrasting sharply with competitors hindered by supply chain constraints. Ross further argues that this rapid evolution will drive significant deflationary economic shifts and create new labor categories, ultimately positioning energy-sufficient nations with rapid deployment capabilities to dominate the global landscape.

Anduril CEO: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up?

Ben, Marc, Erik Torenberg, Brian Schimpf, Chris Power

A strategic assessment reveals a critical gap in U.S. defense industrial capacity, where Russia currently outproduces NATO on 155mm munitions and existing stockpiles would deplete within six to seven days of conflict. This deficit stems from decades of offshoring, an aging skilled workforce, and a reliance on technical superiority rather than mass production, leaving the U.S. unable to sustain high-intensity wars or effectively deter China in scenarios such as an invasion of Taiwan. To address these vulnerabilities, experts recommend a "factory-first" approach featuring government-backed long-term offtake agreements, concentrated capital investment in scaled manufacturing entities, and regulatory reforms to rebuild domestic supply chains and reinvigorate the talent pipeline.

Wes Cummins, Founder & CEO of Applied Digital: Ellendale’s Purpose Built AI Factory in North Dakota

Wes Cummins

Applied Digital is expanding its high-power density data center operations by securing a 400-megawatt contract with CoreWeave to construct a North Dakota campus utilizing stranded wind energy and designed for AI workloads. The company transitioned from Bitcoin mining to Tier 3 semiconductor-grade infrastructure after spending $5 billion on this project to ensure "five nines" reliability and extreme cooling standards for hyperscalers. With approximately 3% ownership by NVIDIA, the firm is capitalizing on the shortage of available power sites in the U.S. heartland while planning future phases that will integrate gas assets and explore nuclear options like small modular reactors.

RAISE 2025: Building AI for Security-Minded Enterprises

A French math PhD turned AI leader leveraged their academic background to build the Llama family at Meta before joining Cohere to prioritize business traction and secure, localized enterprise solutions. The speaker details a strategy where data quality and strategic partnerships, such as those with Fujitsu and RBC, drive the development of models optimized for specific languages and industries rather than pursuing Artificial General Intelligence. By focusing on grounded generation and flexible hosting options, the organization ensures data sovereignty and verifiable outputs for regulated sectors while avoiding the inherent risks of trying to mimic human cognition.

RAISE 2025 : Fireside Chat with Amit Bendov, CEO & Co Founder of Gong

Amit Bendov, Brian Bauman, Amit Bhandav

Founded by Amit Bhandav to solve CRM data gaps, Gong.io leverages autonomous AI to capture sales communication and transform enterprise productivity from manual entry to instant, context-aware insights. Operating on a maturity scale between assisted and near-autonomous levels, the platform currently handles high-volume administrative tasks while preserving human judgment for high-liability decisions. As enterprise leaders demand integrated AI for revenue generation, Gong drives adoption by eliminating briefing bottlenecks for Fortune 500 clients while fostering a unique culture that prioritizes employee personal branding and deep client relationships.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What is the future of the UN?

Anton La Guardia, Jason Palmer

Amidst its 80th anniversary and severe funding crises driven by potential US abandonment, the United Nations faces existential threats from eroding border sanctity and budget cuts forcing agencies to reduce spending by up to one-third. While a French-led coalition recently recognized a Palestinian state to offer symbolic momentum, the organization's future remains uncertain as it navigates three divergent scenarios: becoming a rogue entity separated from Washington, decaying into a shrunken but bureaucratic shell, or being reshaped into a transactional tool for American leadership. Ultimately, experts warn that a strategic vacuum left by US withdrawal could allow Russia and China to dominate global diplomacy, despite the independent continuity of technical agencies like the ICAE and IAEA.

Software Finally Eats Services - Aaron Levie

Aaron Levie, Erik Torenberg, Steven Sinofsky, Martin Casado

The event analyzes how AI is accelerating a universal adoption curve that empowers young founders and small teams to achieve unprecedented productivity gains by acting as a turbocharger for domain expertise rather than a replacement for it. Participants debate the implications of Reed Hastings' visa salary proposal and discuss how incumbent corporations face disruption from agile startups leveraging non-deterministic workflows to redefine vertical industries. The discussion concludes that while historical leaders will likely expand, the most significant future value creation will emerge from entirely new categories built by the next generation of AI-native entrepreneurs.