Astronomer CEO Affair at Coldplay Concert, JUUL Approved by the FDA, Is AI Causing Historic Crashouts? | Chris Power, Jeremie Eliahou, Chris Best, Alex Mashrabov, Jesse Pollak, Billy Thalheimer, Jonathan Mortensen, Douwe Kiela & More
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Journey to Decentralization
In this chapter, the speaker shares their transformative journey from a failed venture into a key role at a leading cryptocurrency exchange. The discussion highlights the evolution of Coinbase towards decentralization while addressing the complexities faced by users and developers in the crypto space. It culminates in the unveiling of a new app aimed at enhancing user experience and supporting the emerging creator economy.
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Episode notes
- (00:09) - Astronomer CEO Affair at Coldplay Concert
- (11:31) - New Tesla Model Y L Breakdown
- (16:18) - JUUL Approved by the FDA
- (01:02:49) - Is AI Causing Historic Crashouts?
- (01:29:16) - Chris Power, founder and CEO of Hadrian, discusses the company's recent $260 million funding round led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital, which will support the expansion of their manufacturing capabilities, including a new 270,000-square-foot facility in Mesa, Arizona, and the launch of a "factories-as-a-service" model to enhance defense production. He emphasizes the importance of revitalizing American manufacturing through automation and advanced technologies to address workforce shortages and strengthen national security.
- (01:45:00) - Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros, Head of Datacenter & Energy Infrastructure Research at SemiAnalysis, specializes in analyzing hyperscaler and neocloud infrastructures, large-scale AI clusters, and associated cooling and electrical systems. In the conversation, he discusses Meta's substantial investments in AI infrastructure, including the construction of massive data centers in Ohio and Louisiana, each aiming to provide up to 2 gigawatts of compute power by 2027. He also highlights the competitive landscape in data center development, noting the intense search for power resources and the strategic decisions companies are making to expedite construction and enhance efficiency.
- (02:13:43) - Jesse Pollak is Vice President of Engineering at Coinbase and the creator and lead of Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer‑2 blockchain. He previously headed Coinbase’s consumer engineering teams, where he significantly grew the team and helped develop Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Wallet.
- (02:36:34) - Alex Mashrabov, CEO and co-founder of Higgsfield AI, is a veteran in the video generative AI space, having previously developed Snap's face filters and other viral products. In the conversation, he discusses Higgsfield's mission to create next-generation AI tools for social media content, emphasizing the importance of building reasoning engines to enhance video generation and the potential for AI to revolutionize content creation by enabling users to produce high-quality videos with minimal effort.
- (02:49:11) - Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO of REGENT, discusses the company's development of all-electric seagliders designed for high-speed, low-cost coastal transportation and defense applications. He highlights the recent launch of REGENT Defense, emphasizing the seagliders' suitability for military operations in island chains due to their speed, low operating costs, and low radar visibility. Thalheimer also mentions ongoing collaborations with the U.S. Marine Corps and plans for full-scale prototyping to meet both commercial and defense needs.
- (02:52:21) - Jonathan Mortensen, founder and CEO of Confident Security, announced the company's emergence from stealth mode with $4.2 million in funding from Decibel Commons. He emphasized the importance of confidential AI to prevent large-scale data privacy issues, highlighting the need for privacy measures beyond those offered by companies like Apple. Mortensen explained that Confident Security's product involves a server-side wrapper and client-side SDK, utilizing advanced cryptography to ensure that user data remains private and is not used for training, with technical guarantees enforced at the engineering level.
- (02:57:13) - Douwe Kiela, CEO and Co-Founder of Contextual AI and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University, is a pioneer in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology. In the conversation, he discusses the evolution of RAG, emphasizing its role in enhancing generative AI by integrating real-time data retrieval to improve accuracy and relevance. He highlights the transition to RAG 2.0, which introduces active retrieval mechanisms, enabling AI agents to proactively seek information, thereby transforming them into more dynamic and context-aware systems.
- (03:02:56) - Yash Kumar & Isa Fulford. Members of Technical Staff at OpenAI, discuss the development and capabilities of ChatGPT Agent, a new AI tool designed to perform complex, multi-step tasks by interacting with various applications and services. Explaining that ChatGPT Agent combines features from previous OpenAI tools, such as Operator and Deep Research, to create a versatile assistant capable of tasks like scheduling meetings, planning events, and generating presentations.
- (03:15:12) - Dan Shipper, CEO and co-founder of Every, discusses his experience using ChatGPT Agent to analyze customer feedback for Quora, his email management AI app. He highlights the agent's ability to autonomously process large volumes of data, identify customer archetypes, and generate detailed reports, tasks that would traditionally require significant time and effort. Shipper also compares ChatGPT Agent's user-friendly, consumer-focused design to Anthropic's Claude code, noting that while Claude offers greater customization and power for developers, it is less accessible to general consumers.
- (03:28:07) - Chris Best, co-founder and CEO of Substack, discusses the company's recent $100 million Series C funding round, which has elevated its valuation to over $1.1 billion. He emphasizes Substack's evolution from a simple email newsletter platform to a comprehensive network empowering creators with tools for direct audience engagement and monetization. Best outlines plans to invest the new funds in enhancing the platform's features, supporting long-term growth, and building a robust ecosystem that benefits both writers and readers.
- (03:38:00) - Dean Leitersdorf, founder of Decart, discusses the launch of Mirage, the first real-time video model capable of transforming live video streams based on user prompts. He demonstrates how Mirage can apply various styles—such as "wild west" or "cyberpunk"—to live video, showcasing its potential for interactive and immersive experiences. Leitersdorf also highlights the model's efficiency, noting that it runs on servers and is optimized to be cost-effective, enabling free access for users.
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