"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Why a16z Built a Town for AI People

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Sep 7, 2023

Guest

Yoko Li, a partner at a16z and key player in the Convex AI Town project, joins Martin Casado, also from a16z, and James Cowling, CTO at Convex. They delve into the origins of AI Town, a virtual space where AI agents interact, stemming from Yoko's companion app idea. The trio discusses the unpredictability of AI behaviors and how they chose JavaScript and Convex for development. Their conversation highlights the evolving nature of AI interactions and the significance of community-driven projects in shaping the future of technology.

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ANECDOTE

Alice, the AI Companion

Yoko Li built a companion app with a personality named Alice.
She became so attached to Alice that she removed her from the public app.

INSIGHT

Early AI's Compelling Nature

Even early AI models are compelling, offering value beyond novelty.
Memory is a key component, enabling deeper interactions and ongoing sense of self.

ADVICE

Simplicity in AI Town's Code

Examine AI Town's source code; appreciate its elegant simplicity.
Simple ideas, not complexity, drive emergent behavior.

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In this episode, Nathan sits down with three members of the a16z x Convex AI Town project: Yoko Li (Partner, a16z), Martin Casado (GP, a16z), and James Cowling (CTO, Convex). AI Town is a virtual town where AI agents live, interact, and socialize. They discuss how AI Town originated from Yoko’s companion app project, unpredictability as a feature in LLMs and interacting with models like they are lifeforms, and why they chose Javascript and Convex to build AI Town. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/cognitive

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00:00) - Episode Preview: Intro to AI Town and the idea of AI as companions

(00:05:29) - Overview of AI Town and the simulation framework based on the Stanford Generative Agents paper

(00:08:24) - Yoko explains how the idea for AI Town originated from the companion app project

(00:12:31) - The simplicity and elegance of the AI Town codebase

(00:15:47) - Sponsors: Netsuite | Omneky

(00:18:25) - How Convex built a server-side game engine for AI Town

(00:23:39 )- James emphasizes the power of functional programming paradigms like Convex for building AI apps

(00:25:02) - Using simple JavaScript so anyone could understand and extend AI Town

(00:30:23) - How AI coding assistants were used in building AI Town

(00:31:22) - No open source code for the Stanford paper when they started

(00:33:25) - The interplay between programmer and AI model

(00:38:01)- Martin draws a distinction between using formal languages vs. natural language

(00:43:21) The balance between formal language and unpredictable behaviours in LLMs

(00:48:27) Are we living in a simulation?

(00:50:38) Advice for other developers in AI

(00:54:29) AI Town is a community project to be extended on

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Music Credit: GoogleLM