Knicks and OpenAI: A Tale of Investment and Team Dynamics

This is the second episode of This Won’t Last. The show is a monthly conversation between Logan Bartlett of Redpoint, Keith Rabois at Khosla Ventures, Kevin Ryan at Alleycorp, and Zach Weinberg, biotech founder (Curie.Bio) and investor. This episode covers Khosla’s initial investment into OpenAI, runaway AI CapEx, long-term AI leaderboards, and regulatory implications in AI.

This Won't Last is part of the Turpentine podcast network.

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Check out Modern Relationships, where Erik Torenberg interviews tech power couples and leading thinkers to explore how ambitious people actually make partnerships work. Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov and researcher Nadia Asparouhova kick off the series with an unfiltered conversation about their relationship evolution.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1786227593

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5hJzs0gDg6lRT6r10mdpVg

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRelationshipsPod

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Links:

• OpenAI and Anthropic revenue data: https://www.tanayj.com/p/openai-and-anthropic-revenue-breakdown
• Anthropic CEO on future $10B model: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/dario-amodei
• Hardware costs in Scaling AI: https://fortune.com/2024/04/04/ai-training-costs-how-much-is-too-much-openai-gpt-anthropic-microsoft/
• Comparing Quality/Speed/Price of AI models: https://artificialanalysis.ai/
• CA banning election deep fakes on social media: https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/17/californias-5-new-ai-laws-crack-down-on-election-deepfakes-and-actor-clones/
• Life expectancy relative to spending in Healthcare: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health-expenditure

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:39) Show origins

(02:39) OpenAI funding, Khosla’s initial investment

(06:40) Talent shortage and power law engineers

(11:47) Engineer tenure at startups

(15:12) OpenAI metrics

(19:26) AI CapEx

(25:01) Zach’s Pixel vs iPhone

(25:36) OpenAI vs Perplexity and Google

(32:03) Safety concerns in AI

(40:38) Misinformation regulation

(46:38) Regulations in healthcare

(48:44) Gambling regulations

(58:49) Hidden downsides of regulations

(01:03:59) Individual responsibilities

(01:13:33) Closing