Vladlen Koltun — The Power of Simulation and Abstraction

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with Mike Knoop, Co-founder and CEO of Ndea, a cutting-edge AI research lab. Mike shares his journey from building Zapier into a major automation platform to diving into the frontiers of AI research. They discuss DeepSeek’s R1, OpenAI’s O-series models, and the ARC Prize, a competition aimed at advancing AI’s reasoning capabilities. Mike explains how program synthesis and deep learning must merge to create true AGI, and why he believes AI reliability is the biggest hurdle for automation adoption.This conversation covers AGI timelines, research breakthroughs, and the future of intelligent systems, making it essential listening for AI enthusiasts, researchers, and entrepreneurs.Mentioned Show Notes:https://ndea.comhttps://arcprize.org/blog/r1-zero-r1-results-analysishttps://arcprize.org/blog/oai-o3-pub-breakthrough🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with Mike Knoop"@mikeknoopFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

4 Helmi 1h 12min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with David Cahn, partner at Sequoia Capital, for a compelling discussion on the dynamic world of AI investments. They dive into recent developments, including DeepSeek and Stargate, exploring their implications for the AI industry. Drawing from his articles, "AI's $200 Billion Question" and "AI's $600 Billion Question," David unpacks the financial challenges and opportunities surrounding AI infrastructure spending and the staggering revenue required to sustain these investments. Together, they examine the competitive strategies of cloud providers, the transformative impact of AI on business models, and predictions for the next wave of AI-driven growth. This episode offers an in-depth look at the crossroads of AI innovation and financial strategy.Mentioned Articles:AI’s $200B QuestionAI’s $600B Question🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with David Cahn:@DavidCahn6Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

28 Tammi 58min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Akshay Agrawal, Co-Founder of Marimo, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss the future of collaborative AI development. They dive into how Marimo is enabling developers and researchers to collaborate seamlessly on AI projects, the challenges of scaling AI tools, and the importance of fostering open ecosystems for innovation. Akshay shares insights into building a platform that empowers teams to iterate faster and solve complex AI challenges together.Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

7 Tammi 41min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Joseph E. Gonzalez, EECS Professor at UC Berkeley and Co-Founder at RunLLM, joins host Lukas Biewald to explore innovative approaches to evaluating LLMs.They discuss the concept of vibes-based evaluation, which examines not just accuracy but also the style and tone of model responses, and how Chatbot Arena has become a community-driven benchmark for open-source and commercial LLMs. Joseph shares insights on democratizing model evaluation, refining AI-human interactions, and leveraging human preferences to improve model performance. This episode provides a deep dive into the evolving landscape of LLM evaluation and its impact on AI development.🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

17 Joulu 202455min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Julian Green, Co-founder & CEO of Brightband, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss how AI is transforming weather forecasting and climate solutions.They explore Brightband's innovative approach to using AI for extreme weather prediction, the shift from physics-based models to AI-driven forecasting, and the potential for democratizing weather data. Julian shares insights into building trust in AI for critical decisions, navigating the challenges of deep tech entrepreneurship, and the broader implications of AI in mitigating climate risks. This episode delves into the intersection of AI and Earth systems, highlighting its transformative impact on weather and climate decision-making.🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with Julian Green:@juliangreensfFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

26 Marras 202449min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Jonathan Siddharth, CEO & Co-Founder of Turing, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss the path to AGI.They explore how Turing built a "developer cloud" of 3.7 million engineers to power AGI training, providing high-quality code and reasoning data to leading AI labs. Jonathan shares insights on Turing’s journey, from building coding datasets to solving enterprise AI challenges and enabling human-in-the-loop solutions. This episode offers a unique perspective on the intersection of human intelligence and AGI, with an eye on the expansion of new domains beyond coding.✅ *Subscribe to Weights & Biases* → https://bit.ly/45BCkYz 🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with Jonathan Siddharth:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsid/ Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

7 Marras 202454min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Guillermo Rauch, CEO & Founder of Vercel, joins host Lukas Biewald for a wide ranging discussion on how AI is changing web development and front end engineering. They discuss how Vercel’s v0 expert AI agent is generating code and UI based on simple ChatGPT-like prompts, the importance of releasing daily for AI applications, and the changing landscape of frontier model performance between open and closed models.Listen on Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsListen on Spotify: http://wandb.me/spotify Subscribe to Weights & Biases: https://bit.ly/45BCkYzGet our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with Guillermo Rauch:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauchg/ https://x.com/rauchgFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

24 Loka 202456min

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy joins host Lukas Biewald to explore how AI is transforming enterprise data strategies.They discuss Sridhar's journey from Google to Snowflake, diving into the evolving role of foundation models, Snowflake’s AI strategy, and the challenges of scaling AI in business. Sridhar also shares his thoughts on leadership, rapid iteration, and creating meaningful AI solutions for enterprise clients. Tune in to discover how Snowflake is driving innovation in the AI and data space.Connect with Sridhar Ramaswamy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridhar-ramaswamy/ Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

10 Loka 202455min