Poolside: AI for Software Development with CTO Eiso Kant

Dec 20, 2023

Eiso Kant, CTO and co-founder of Poolside, shares his journey from a young programmer to co-founding a trailblazing AI startup. He discusses Poolside's foundational model designed for software developers and emphasizes the critical role of data quality. Eiso unveils their approach to creating AI tools that leverage executable code for scalable improvement, and highlights the importance of building a vertically integrated model tailored for developers. He also reflects on the benefits of establishing the company in Europe, focusing on global talent and competition.

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INSIGHT

Code As A Path To Broader Intelligence

Poolside focuses on software development as a proxy task to accelerate general AI capabilities.
Executable source code enables programmatic evaluation and large-scale improvement loops for models.

ADVICE

Sequence: Assist First, Automate Later

Start by shipping an AI pair-programming assistant before pursuing full autonomy.
Expose your models via APIs so others can build complementary autonomous experiences.

INSIGHT

Programmatic Rewards Scale Learning

Reinforcement learning from code execution feedback (RLCF) uses tests and compilers as programmatic oracles.
This enables scaling reward signals far beyond human feedback and can teach new capabilities.

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Today, we’re thrilled to be joined by Eiso Kant, CTO + Co-Founder of Poolside, the buzzy new AI tool for software development. Eiso and Matt talk about Poolside’s foundational model, the critical role of data quality in AI, the importance of controlling all levels of the stack and the merits of building a global AI company out of Europe, and more.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us for Season 1 of the MAD Podcast. We will be taking a short break for the winter holidays and will be back with an exciting new lineup of great speakers for Season 2 on Wednesdays in January. If you like this show, you can find the video recording of this episode -- along with many more -- on the Data Driven NYC channel on YouTube. Important links are in the show notes below.

Data Driven NYC YouTube Channel

FirstMark Capital Eventbrite

twitter.com/eisokant

poolside.ai

twitter.com/mattturck

linktr.ee/mattturck

Show Notes:

[00:38:00] Introducing Eiso Kant, Co-founder and CTO of the AI startup, Poolside;

[00:39:16] Eiso's Background; his journey, from starting as a young programmer to founding several companies, including Source{d}, a pioneer in applying deep learning to software source code;

[00:40:33] Formation of Poolside; the collaboration between Eiso and his co-founder, Jason Warner, who was previously the CTO of GitHub and VC with Redpoint Ventures;

[00:42:14] Poolside's Vision and potential to improve software development;

[00:47:17] Narrowing Vision to Product Development; the importance of sequence in a company's growth, focusing on AI pair programming assistants as a start, moving towards a more autonomous future;

[00:50:32] Initial Product Focus, user base, and approach to providing a vertically integrated AI stack for developers;

[00:53:05] Reinforcement Learning from Code Execution Feedback;

[01:02:29] Data Handling and Synthetic Data Generation; the importance of data quality and Poolside's strategy for generating and refining training data;

[01:12:05] Engineering Behind Poolside's AI; the challenges and strategies Poolside is adopting, including building a team of strong engineers and creating a scalable architecture from scratch;

[01:16:52] Choosing Europe as a Base for Poolside;

[01:20:22] Poolside's Future Plans; the roadmap for Poolside, including launching products and APIs, exploring enterprise solutions, and creating a sustainable revenue-generating business;