On Unsupervised Learning we probe the sharpest minds in AI in search for the truth about what’s real today, what will be real in the future and what it all mean...
Ep 58: Google Researchers Noam Shazeer and Jack Rae on Scaling Test-time Compute, Reactions to Ilya & AGI
On the latest episode of Unsupervised Learning, Jacob is joined by two of the most influential minds in AI today. 🔹 Noam Shazeer, co-inventor of the Transformer🔹 Jack Rae, Research Director at DeepMind and one of the leads behind Gemini’s Flash ThinkingWe got to ask them all of the top-of-mind questions in AI today about where we are, where we’re headed and what it means for businesses and the world. Some key take-aways: [0:00] Intro[1:30] Exploring Gemini 2.0[4:04] Challenges with Evals and Benchmarks[6:14] Reinforcement Loops and AI Productivity[8:15] Agentic Coding and AI in Development[13:02] Multimodal Capabilities and Applications[15:21] Future of AI: Complexity and Reliability[19:02] Test Time Compute and Data Efficiency[31:20] AI Research Culture and Breakthroughs[38:59] Reflecting on Large Language Models[39:37] The Rise of Vision-Based Models[41:01] Native Image Generation and General Purpose Models[41:35] AI in Healthcare and Specialized Models[43:32] Shifting Timelines and Rapid Adoption[46:48] Open Source Models and Competitive Edge[49:30] AI's Impact on Education and Personal Lives[55:10] AGI Risks and Safety Considerations[57:33] Future of AI Companions[1:02:17] Quickfire With your co-hosts: @jacobeffron - Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health @patrickachase - Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn @ericabrescia - Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq’d by VMWare) @jordan_segall - Partner at Redpoint
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Ep 57: Former CTO of Meta Mike Schroepfer on the Path to Powering the AI Revolution
On today’s Unsupervised Learning, Mike Schroepfer (ex-CTO of Meta and founder of Gigascale Capital) reveals why energy is a key bottleneck holding AI progress back. Mike discusses how we can scale energy production to democratize AI globally and explores AI’s role in climate change. He also reflects on a decade as Meta’s CTO and how AI coding is transforming the CTO role. Finally, he offers predictions on the future of AI developer tools, VR, and open-source models. [0:00] Intro[0:43] AI's Role in Energy and Climate Change[4:32] Innovative Energy Solutions[14:50] Open Source and AI Development[22:35] Challenges in Chip Design[24:04] Balancing Data Center Capacity[25:55] The Future of VR and AI Integration[29:41] AI's Role in Climate Solutions[31:41] AI in Material Science and Beyond[34:31] Personal AI Assistants and Their Impact[38:47] Reflections on AI and Future Predictions[41:23] Quickfire With your co-hosts: @jacobeffron - Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health @patrickachase - Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn @ericabrescia - Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq’d by VMWare) @jordan_segall - Partner at Redpoint
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Ep 56: Distinguished Engineer at Waymo Vincent Vanhoucke Unpacks the Breakthroughs and Bottlenecks of Self-Driving
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. The company operates a 24/7 public ride-hail service and provides over 150,000 trips each week across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, making mobility more accessible, sustainable, and safer for everyone.In this week’s episode of Unsupervised Learning, we dive deep into the frontier where AI meets hardware — and there’s no better guide than Vincent Vanhoucke, Distinguished Engineer at Waymo and former Head of Robotics at DeepMind. [0:00] Intro[0:50] Waymo's Technological Evolution[2:40] The Role of LLMs in Autonomous Driving[6:02] Vincent's Journey to Waymo[9:17] Challenges in Autonomous Driving[11:58] Simulation and World Models[27:44] Future Milestones and Expansion[30:10] Broader Robotics and AI[36:12] Future of General Robotics Models[38:14] Hardware vs. Software Approaches in Robotics[40:19] Challenges in Robotic Data Acquisition[40:38] Simulation vs. Real-World Data in Robotics[43:02] Human-Robot Interaction for Data Collection[45:03] Advancements in Multimodal Models[47:08] Unanswered Questions in Robotics[52:02] Reasoning Capabilities in AI[54:57] Future of Robotics and AI[1:00:51] Quickfire With your co-hosts: @jacobeffron - Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health @patrickachase - Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn @ericabrescia - Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq’d by VMWare) @jordan_segall - Partner at Redpoint
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Ep 55: Head of Amazon AGI Lab David Luan on DeepSeek’s Significance, What’s Next for Agents & Lessons from OpenAI
David is an OG in AI who has been at the forefront of many of the major breakthroughs of the past decade. His resume: VP of Engineering at OpenAI, a key contributor to Google Brain, co-founder of Adept, and now leading Amazon’s SF AGI Lab. In this episode we focused on how far test-time compute gets us, the real implications of DeepSeek, what agents milestones he’s looking for and more.[0:00] Intro[1:14] DeepSeek Reactions and Market Implications[2:44] AI Models and Efficiency[4:11] Challenges in Building AGI[7:58] Research Problems in AI Development[11:17] The Future of AI Agents[15:12] Engineering Challenges and Innovations[19:45] The Path to Reliable AI Agents[21:48] Defining AGI and Its Impact[22:47] Challenges and Gating Factors[24:05] Future Human-Computer Interaction[25:00] Specialized Models and Policy[25:58] Technical Challenges and Model Evaluation[28:36] Amazon's Role in AGI Development[30:33] Data Labeling and Team Building[36:37] Reflections on OpenAI[42:12] Quickfire With your co-hosts: @jacobeffron - Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health @patrickachase - Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn @ericabrescia - Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq’d by VMWare) @jordan_segall - Partner at Redpoint
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Ep 54: Princeton Researcher Arvind Narayanan on the Limitations of Agent Evals, AI’s Societal Impact & Important Lessons from History
Arvind Narayanan is one of the leading voices in AI when it comes to cutting through the hype. As a Princeton professor and co-author of AI Snake Oil, he’s one of the most thoughtful voices cautioning against both unfounded fears and overblown promises in AI. In this episode, Arvind dissects the future of AI in education, its parallels to past tech revolutions, and how our jobs are already shifting toward managing these powerful tools. Some of our favorite take-aways: [0:00] Intro[0:46] Reasoning Models and Their Uneven Progress[2:46] Challenges in AI Benchmarks and Real-World Applications[5:03] Inference Scaling and Verifier Imperfections[7:33] Agentic AI: Tools vs. Autonomous Actions[12:07] Future of AI in Everyday Life[15:34] Evaluating AI Agents and Collaboration[24:49] Regulatory and Policy Implications of AI[27:49] Analyzing Generative AI Adoption Rates[29:17] Educational Policies and Generative AI[30:09] Flaws in Predictive AI Models[31:31] Regulation and Safety in AI[33:47] Academia's Role in AI Development[36:13] AI in Scientific Research[38:22] AI and Human Minds[46:04] Economic Impacts of AI[49:42] Quickfire With your co-hosts: @jacobeffron - Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health @patrickachase - Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn @ericabrescia - Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq’d by VMWare) @jordan_segall - Partner at Redpoint
On Unsupervised Learning we probe the sharpest minds in AI in search for the truth about what’s real today, what will be real in the future and what it all means for businesses and the world. If you’re a builder, researcher or investor navigating the AI world, this podcast will help you deconstruct and understand the most important breakthroughs and see a clearer picture of reality. Follow this show and consider enabling notifications to stay up to date on our latest episodes.
Unsupervised Learning is a podcast by Redpoint Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund that has invested in companies like Snowflake, Stripe, and Mistral.
Cohosted by Redpoint investors Jacob Effron, Patrick Chase, Jordan Segall and Erica Brescia.
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