Learning from Machine Learning Lukas Biewald | You think you're late, but you're early | Learning from Machine Learning #13
On this episode of Learning from Machine Learning, I had the privilege of speaking with Lukas Biewald, co-founder and CEO of Weights & Biases. We traced his journey from programming games as a kid to building one of the most essential tools in AI development today. Lukas's career demonstrates that conviction often matters more than consensus—from surviving the AI winter in the mid-2000s when he was coached to remove "AI" from investor pitches, to the AlphaGo moment that changed everything and led him to take an unpaid internship at OpenAI in his thirties.
Lukas's philosophy on "automating the automation" reveals why AI developers have become the most powerful people within organizations—they're a smaller market but wield disproportionate influence. He shares his view that "if you zoom out, AI is so underhyped, you can't hype it enough." The recursive potential of machines improving machines is barely understood, yet it represents "the most powerful technology you could possibly build."
Most importantly, Lukas's philosophy that "feedback loops are your units of work" transforms how we approach both machine learning and life. He explains the necessity to stay technical as a leader: "If you're going to work for me, you better be able to do the IC job. And I do not know how companies function without that mindset." His advice to his younger self cuts through common doubts in emerging technologies: "you think you're late, but you're early." In a world racing towards progress at all costs, this reminder couldn't be more relevant.
Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share with a friend or colleague. Until next time... keep on learning.
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https://mindfulmachines.substack.com/
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Chapters
00:00 Open
00:46 Early Fascination with AI
03:57 Founding CrowdFlower During AI Winter
09:22 The AlphaGo Awakening
16:02 Birth of Weights & Biases
23:50 The LLM Revolution's Impact
29:12 CoreWeave Acquisition & Future Vision
32:56 The Entrepreneurship Philosophy
37:29 Technical Leadership Philosophy
49:01 The Future of Software Development
53:07 Leadership Lessons & Career Advice
1:00:38 Life Lessons from Machine Learning
1:01:46 Closing Thoughts & Gratitude
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References
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
- Genius Makers
- Weights & Biases
- CrowdFlower/Figure 8 (now part of Appen)
- OpenAI
- CoreWeave
- Scale AI
- GitHub
- Stanford University
- Y Combinator
- Daphne Koller - Stanford Professor, Co-founder of Coursera
- Lee Sedol - Professional Go player defeated by AlphaGo
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A machine learning podcast that explores more than just algorithms and data: Life lessons from the experts. Welcome to "Learning from Machine Learning," a podcast about the insights gained from a career in the field of Machine Learning and Data Science. In each episode, industry experts, entrepreneurs and practitioners will share their experiences and advice on what it takes to succeed in this rapidly-evolving field.