Can AI Infrastructure Work Like Magic? | Erik Bernhardsson, CEO, Modal

Before he founded Modal, Erik Bernhardsson created Spotify's music recommendation system. Today he's bringing a consumer app approach to radically simplifying developer experience for data and AI projects on the Modal platform.

In this episode, we dive into the broader AI compute landscape, discussing the roles of hyperscalers, GPU clouds, inference platforms, and the emergence of alternative AI cloud providers. Erik gives us a product tour of the Modal platform, provides insights into the AI industry's shift from training to inference as the primary use case, and speculates on the future of AI-native consumer applications. Learn about Modal's commitment to fast feedback loops, their cloud maximalist approach, their dedication to building a product that developers truly love, as well as founder lessons Erik learned along the way.

Erik's blog: https://erikbern.com

"It's hard to write code for humans": https://erikbern.com/2024/09/27/its-hard-to-write-code-for-humans

Modal

Website - https://modal.com

Twitter - https://x.com/modal_labs

Erik Bernhardsson

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikbern

Twitter - https://x.com/bernhardsson

FIRSTMARK

Website - https://firstmark.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap

Matt Turck (Managing Director)

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturck

(00:00) Intro

(01:35) What is Modal?

(02:18) Current state of AI compute space

(09:54) Erik's path to starting Modal

(13:57) Core elements of the Modal platform

(28:52) Is serverless the right level of abstraction for AI compute?

(33:35) Balancing costs: GPU vendor fees vs. customer pricing

(37:56) Designing products for humans

(42:43) Modal's early go-to-market motion

(45:32) Managing early engineering team

(48:26) The only correct way to add a new function to the company

(50:07) Building company in NYC

(52:05) Modal's roadmap

(54:04) Erik's predictions on AI