Latest Interviews

America Powers On: Why US equities are still poised to outperform in 2024

Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Alison Nathan

Goldman Sachs Investment Strategy Group projects U.S. equities to deliver approximately 6% returns in 2024, driven primarily by earnings growth amid potential valuation contraction despite a 14-year legacy of U.S. preeminence. The firm maintains a strategic overweight on U.S. stocks while issuing tactical recommendations for energy infrastructure and physical uranium, warning that geopolitical escalation in the Middle East poses the primary downside risk to this outlook.

The World Ahead 2024: five stories to watch out for

Tom Standage, Chen Boyen

The 2024 global landscape is defined by simultaneous high-stakes political shifts, including the historic U.S. and Taiwanese elections that could alter cross-strait security and U.S. foreign policy trajectories. Concurrently, the eVTOL industry aims to launch commercial pilot services during the Paris Olympics while facing regulatory hurdles that prioritize safety over autonomy. Furthermore, the BRICS bloc is expanding to challenge the U.S.-led order through new financial mechanisms, even as AI regulation pivots toward addressing immediate algorithmic harms and industrial decarbonization accelerates via new thermal technologies.

Big Ideas 2024: New Applications for Computer Vision and Video Intelligence with Kimberly Tan

Kimberly Tan

A16Z partners identified a pivotal 2024 thesis centered on applying computer vision to real-world industries, driven by the convergence of abundant video data, affordable edge computing, and transformer-based model innovation. Kimberly Tan highlighted the emergence of hybrid hardware-and-software business models, exemplified by Flock Safety, which are now expanding from residential safety into transportation, agriculture, and mining sectors to solve labor shortages. This shift enables natural language querying of visual data for efficiency and compliance while mitigating privacy risks through strict regulatory design and non-biometric tracking.

The Top 7 Belly Fat Burning Hacks For 2026 That Are PROVEN To Work!

Giles Yeo, Dr Mindy Pelz, Matthew Walker, Dr. Daniel Amen, Gary Brecka, Tim Spector, Tara Swart, Mo Gawdat

The event delivers a comprehensive analysis of human optimization strategies, detailing how resistance training, specific fasting protocols, and sleep hygiene interact to preserve muscle mass and regulate metabolic health. It further explores the physiological impacts of stress, the neurological consequences of weight gain, and the psychological frameworks required to achieve genuine happiness by correcting cognitive illusions. Finally, the session concludes with commercial updates regarding new nutritional supplements and deep-connection conversation tools designed to support the audience's physical and mental well-being.

Big Ideas 2024: The Rise of the Developer as a Buyer in Financial Services with Angela Strange

Angela Strange

The financial services sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation where developers have emerged as influential buyers, driving a shift from legacy "marble" infrastructure to composable, code-based "as-a-service" architectures. This transition is accelerating the adoption of open-source libraries and generative AI tools to modernize the estimated 40% of banking code still running on COBOL, while open banking mandates in regions like the UK and Brazil are replacing fragmented systems with standardized APIs. Ultimately, these technological advancements aim to reduce infrastructure costs and improve product quality, creating new opportunities to serve the two billion people currently underserved by traditional banking models.

2024 Big Ideas: AI-First Games That Never End with Jonathan Lai

Jonathan Lai

A16Z partner Jonathan Lai forecasts a 2024 shift toward "AI-native" games that utilize Large Language Models to create dynamic, non-repeating narratives and lifelike companions rather than merely accelerating development. While current studios leverage AI for efficiency, new entrants are poised to disrupt the $200 billion market by pioneering subscription-based models designed to manage the variable costs of real-time generative processing. This evolution promises to reinvent core mechanics across genres, transforming static experiences into emergent worlds where players interact with adaptive agents.

Middle East risks

Edward P. Djerejian, Emile Hokayem, Alison Nathan

Former U.S. Ambassador Edward Jerijian and IIS Senior Fellow Emile Hokeyem analyze how the October 7th attacks successfully recentered the Palestinian cause while triggering a broader regional conflict involving Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Experts warn that although Hamas has achieved its goal of ending the marginalization of Palestine, Israel remains committed to its military destruction while facing significant risks of miscalculation due to Hezbollah's involvement and disruptions to global oil flows. The prevailing consensus identifies a two-state solution as the only viable long-term resolution, yet current Israeli political constraints and the absence of credible Palestinian leadership render such a framework impossible in the immediate future.

Scrutinising classic AI risk arguments | Ben Garfinkel

Ben Garfinkel, Rob Wiblin, Howie Lempel

Ben Garfinkel argues that while AI presents a civilization-altering risk comparable to the Industrial Revolution, the classic "brain-in-a-box" scenario of sudden existential threat is unlikely due to the gradual nature of technological emergence and the entanglement of capabilities with alignment. He estimates the probability of a catastrophic discontinuity below 5%, yet warns that current funding for AI safety remains negligible despite the technology's long-term impact. Consequently, Garfinkel calls for the community to replace informal intuition with rigorous, detailed arguments and significantly increase investment in governance and safety research.

Leadership Lessons with Cradles to Crayons’ Lynn Margherio

Lynn Margherio, Dean Athanasia

Founded by Lynn Magirio over two decades ago, Cradles to Crayons operates a volunteer-powered network of five "Giving Factories" to distribute clothing and essential items to 20 million children facing clothing insecurity across the United States. The organization has facilitated more than 4.5 million packages for families and agencies by leveraging a unique supply-demand model that transforms donated goods into dignified resources for over one million volunteers. Serving as a core component of a leadership series exploring philanthropy and business, the nonprofit continues to expand its reach while fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion driven by both corporate partners and youth ambassadors.

Tucker Carlson: State of America, leaving Fox News, Media Control, Politics, and more

Tucker Carlson, Chamath, Jason, Friedberg, Elon, David Sacks

Tucker Carlson analyzes his dismissal from Fox News as a result of corporate pressure regarding controversial geopolitical views and offers a sweeping critique of American society, arguing that affluence and unchecked immigration are driving national decline. He further assesses the upcoming US election landscape, identifying Donald Trump as the sole viable Republican alternative while characterizing the OpenAI board's failed attempt to oust Sam Altman as a critical exposure of governance flaws in the AI sector. The commentary concludes that the erosion of traditional civic cohesion and the concentration of media power necessitate new platforms for free speech to prevent authoritarian drift.

Can AI help weather forecasting save lives?

Following Hurricane Otis's devastating Category 5 landfall in 2023, experts highlight a critical global disparity where underfunding has degraded weather station infrastructure in the Global South. This gap is being addressed through private sector AI initiatives from companies like Google DeepMind and Atmo, which offer affordable, high-resolution forecasting tools now deployed in nations like Uganda and Kenya. While these disruptive technologies complement traditional models to reduce prediction costs, widespread investment is essential to ensure functional disaster warning systems protect vulnerable populations from rising climate volatility.

What China’s struggling property sector means for the global economy and markets

Kenneth Ho, Hui Shan, Yi Wang, Alison Nathan, Ken Ho

With China's property sector accounting for 30% of national GDP, the market correction since 2021 has triggered a liquidity crisis affecting roughly 70% of top developers and suppressed GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points in 2023. Despite outstanding debt reaching $8.4 trillion, Goldman Sachs analysts and the People's Bank of China argue that systemic banking collapse remains unlikely due to lower household leverage and distinct structural differences from the 2008 U.S. subprime crisis. However, resolving the crisis requires a strategic pivot toward managing secondary market oversupply and restoring consumer confidence, as current easing measures have failed to address the fundamental mismatch between developer inventory and urban purchasing power.

No.1 Neuroscientist: NEW RESEARCH Your Life, Your Work & Your Sex Life Will Get Boring! (THE FIX)

Dr. Tali Sharot

Dr. Tali Sharot's presentation explores habituation as the neurological mechanism by which the brain filters out constant stimuli, a process that fundamentally shapes human happiness, relationship dynamics, and professional engagement. The session details how this adaptation drives the hedonic treadmill and risk escalation while offering actionable strategies, such as introducing novelty and strategic breaks, to counteract complacency and enhance creativity. Ultimately, the talk connects these biological insights to broader societal trends, explaining the link between digital overuse and declining mental health while emphasizing that meaning and control remain the primary drivers of lasting well-being.

Hoax school shootings: inside America's epidemic

In February 2023, a coordinated wave of sophisticated SWAT hoaxes targeting schools across the United States, including a specific incident at Aspen Elementary School that triggered a lockdown for 500 students and deployed over 90 first responders, highlighted the rise of organized criminal enterprises utilizing dark web services and AI-generated voices. Investigators linked these events to known swatters and characterized the attacks as potential domestic terrorism after finding consistent scripts and high-tech anonymization tactics that evade traditional tracking. While 16 states have since elevated these offenses to felonies and VoIP providers like TextNow have tightened security measures, the FBI continues to struggle with identifying perpetrators due to the anonymity provided by VPNs and cryptocurrency payments.

Inside AI Town: What AI Can Teach Us About Being Human

Joon Park, Martin Casado, June Park, Yoko, Ian

A16Z's infrastructure team hosted a panel featuring lead author June Park and GP Martin Casado to dissect the architecture of Generative Agents, which utilize Large Language Models paired with external memory systems to simulate human behavior through observe-plan-reflect loops. The discussion emphasized applications ranging from testing economic policies to modeling social theories, while advocating for a "grad student" collaboration model over rigid API interactions. Furthermore, the speakers addressed critical ethical considerations, including the necessity for transparency and a regulatory stance that prioritizes freedom of development to avoid stifling transformative enterprise use cases.