

AI & I
Dan Shipper
Learn how the smartest people in the world are using AI to think, create, and relate. Each week I interview founders, filmmakers, writers, investors, and others about how they use AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Midjourney in their work and in their lives. We screen-share through their historical chats and then experiment with AI live on the show. Join us to discover how AI is changing how we think about our world—and ourselves.
For more essays, interviews, and experiments at the forefront of AI: https://every.to/chain-of-thought?sort=newest.
For more essays, interviews, and experiments at the forefront of AI: https://every.to/chain-of-thought?sort=newest.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 4, 2024 • 1h 35min
How to Supercharge Your Writing With AI Tools - Ep. 33 with Evan Armstrong
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Evan Armstrong: @itsurboyevanThe column Evan writes at Every: Napkin MathEvan’s upcoming course about how to write with AI: https://www.writewithai.xyz/ The piece Dan wrote about using LLMs to articulate his taste: "What I Do When I Can’t Sleep"Dan’s article about admitting that he wants to be a writer: "Admitting What Is Obvious"

Aug 28, 2024 • 1h 9min
The Browser Company Is Building a Brand That Drives Viral Growth - Ep. 32 with Nashilu Mouen-Makoua
The Browser Company isn’t just building a browser, they’re building a formidable brand—and they’re doing it with AI. The Browser Company has driven viral user growth, a $550 million valuation, and close to 100,000 YouTube subscribers. Its brand centers people, not products. It’s messy, authentic, and refreshing—and it seeps into everything the team does, from the job descriptions on their website to announcing new features through short films and giving keynote addresses in diners. I sat down with Nashilu Mouen-Makoua, the head of storytelling and a strategic advisor to the CEO at The Browser Company, to talk about how she’s weaving relatable stories around new technology.We get into her philosophy around storytelling, including why she believes centering people is the key to building a memorable brand, The Browser Company’s focus on making technology accessible to a wide audience, and the brass tacks of how Nash’s team structures meetings to generate great ideas. Nash also tells me how she’s integrated LLMs into her workflow, to do deep research, get a gut check on a new article she’s written, and put the finishing touches on her words. As Nash explains that the best way to position a product is in response to contemporary social context, we screenshare through her conversations with ChatGPT about the socio-political climate in America preceding the release of a Tracy Chapman song. We also use the LLM to simulate a group of Arc users and interview one of these imaginary personas live on the show to gather preliminary customer insights.This is a must-watch for people who want to use AI to tell compelling stories about what they’re building in tech.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Nashilu Mouen-Makoua: https://twitter.com/lafillemouen The Browser Company: https://thebrowser.company/, https://twitter.com/browsercompany Arc, the browser that reimagines the way we use the internet: https://arc.net/, https://twitter.com/arcinternetTracy Chapman’s song, Talkin’ About a Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8FBjo1Y8I

Aug 23, 2024 • 1h 56min
Building an AI Media and Software Empire - Ep. 31 with Brandon Gell
We’re building a mini-AI media and software empire at Every. Today on AI & I, Brandon Gell joins the show to turn the tables on me and act as podcast host to explore what we’re doing as a company, how we got here, and where we’re going.Brandon is Every’s first entrepreneur in residence, and he was the perfect person to host, because he’s one of the key reasons for our recent acceleration.Before joining Every, Brandon was the cofounder and CEO of Clyde, a startup that helped brands launch their own insurance and warranty programs, where he raised $50 million and led a team of 100 before selling it to global insurance tech company Cover Genius in early 2023.In this episode, he interviews me about how I learned to code in middle school, how I built and sold my first startup coming out of college, and how it all led to Every.We also talk about Brandon’s story. He joined Every just four months ago—and it feels like we’ve done the work of years since. We’ve launched two new AI products, an incredible amount of great writing, a new course, and more.We get into my candid thoughts on entrepreneurship in the AI age—including why you should ship fast, and how not to be misled by metrics like TAM; how AI startups can find valuable niches—and live demos of our apps Spiral and Sparkle; Brandon’s hard-earned lessons from running a insuretech business for seven years; the confusing realities of being an exited founder, and how we navigated through those times; what brought Brandon to Every—including the email he sent me before joining; and Every’s master plan and what we hope to build over the next few months and yearsThis is a must-watch for anyone interested in building a calm, profitable business empire in the age of AI. If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Brandon Gell: https://twitter.com/bran_don_gellThe piece Dan recently published about Every’s Master Plan: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/every-s-master-plan Dan’s piece about the unbundling of Excel, and why it serves as an important story in the age of AI: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/the-great-ai-unbundling Tomasz Tunguz, the VC who has also written about Excel: https://tomtunguz.com/ Every cofounder Nathan’s word processor, Lex: https://lex.page/ Spiral, the app that automates 80 percent of repetitive creative work: https://spiral.computer/ Sparkle, the app that automatically organizes your files: https://makeitsparkle.co/

Aug 14, 2024 • 1h 20min
How to Be a Smarter Reader in the Age of AI - Ep. 30 with Alex Wieckowski
Alex Wieckowski is on a mission to make you fall in love with reading again—and he thinks AI can help.Alex, who writes a newsletter that captures lessons from books he’s read and tips to become a better reader, Alex & Books, is a creator with over 1 million followers across social platforms. He’s also the author of a book of quotes that will inspire you to read more, Learn to Love Reading.We spent an hour talking about how Alex uses AI to be a smarter reader, and we tested out a few strategies live on the show, including:prompting ChatGPT to recommend books that will help me lead a creator-run business better, understanding the deeper themes in Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha with large language models, andusing AI to create an actionable strategy for Alex to build a course based on the frameworks in Alex Hormozi’s business strategy book $100M Offers. Alex clued me into what he’s learned about developing a good reading habit, and his best advice on how to reignite your passion for books. We also discuss Alex’s predictions on how companies like Neuralink, which make use of a brain-computer interface—a technology that allows users to control external devices through brain activity—will change the future of reading and books. Here’s a link to the transcript of this episode. This is a must-watch for book lovers, people struggling to finish books, and anyone who wants to take their reading to the next level with AI.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Links to resources mentioned in the episode:Alex Wieckowski: https://twitter.com/AlexAndBooks_Alex’s newsletter: https://alexandbooks.beehiiv.com/The self-improvement book that got Alex into reading: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale CarnegieThe books that Dan is reading: Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism by Richard Rorty The books that Alex is reading: Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire by Andrew Wilkinson, $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Outlive by Peter Attia

Aug 7, 2024 • 1h 14min
How Packy McCormick Finds His Next Big Idea - Ep. 29
One of the most influential voices in tech explains how AI helps him write and invest.This episode is sponsored by Create. If you want to maximize your gains, both with your body and with ChatGPT, try creatinine gummies from Create. Place your order through this link to get a 30 percent discount: https://trycreate.co/products/creatine-monohydrate-gummies-270-count?discount=every24 Packy McCormick’s job is to find, articulate, and invest behind the next big idea.He writes Not Boring, a newsletter that analyzes technology and startups for 200,000 subscribers every week. He also invests in early stage companies through his fund Not Boring Capital and is an advisor at a16z crypto.I spent an hour with him to understand how he’s baked AI into the way he thinks, writes, and invests. We get into:- How he uses AI to understand dense concepts and refine his arguments- His thesis around vertically integrated businesses being the future of tech- How Packy uses Claude Projects to edit his newsletter- How he makes interactive graphics that represent concepts from his essays - The tools Packy uses to research, write, and edit Not Boring- When he thinks the next crypto bull run will take placeWe also use Projects to build an AI tool that grades Packy’s essays live on the show.This is a must-watch for writers, investors, and anyone trying to understand the cutting edge of technology.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Timestamps:00:00:00 - Teaser00:01:24 - Introduction00:02:40 - Packy's thesis about the future of technology 00:07:42 - What Packy quick takes on your crypto portfolio 00:14:31 - Use LLMs to validate your understanding of complex concepts 00:18:26 - How Packy used Claude Projects to write an essay he published recently 00:24:00 - Packy's process to make interactive visual graphics for his essays 00:31:10 - How to use AI to be thorough in your research 00:35:04 - How Packy uses Claude to edit his writing 00:36:44 - The tools Packy uses to create his newsletter 00:44:12 - Using Claude Projects to make a tool that grades Packy's essaysLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Packy McCormick: https://twitter.com/packyMPacky’s newsletter, Not Boring: https://www.notboring.co/ Packy’s fund, Not Boring Capital: https://www.notboring.co/p/introducing-not-boring-capital One of Packy’s first essays, about natively integrated companies: https://www.packym.com/natively-integrated-companies Anduril, the company Packy thinks is an example of a Techno-industrial: https://www.anduril.com/ Packy’s portfolio company that’s integration crypto into its product: https://v2.oncyber.io/ The interactive tool Packy made for a recent newsletter: https://goventvectorsum.replit.app/ for https://www.notboring.co/p/the-american-millennium Packy’s essay about America’s tolerance for risk: https://www.notboring.co/p/riskophilia Packy’s essays about Blackbird: https://www.notboring.co/p/blackbird

14 snips
Jul 31, 2024 • 1h 9min
How a Top Podcaster Rides the AI Wave - Ep. 28 with Nathaniel Whittemore
Nathaniel Whittemore, founder of Superintelligent and host of The AI Daily Brief, dives into the intricate dance of creating daily AI content. He shares his workflow secrets for producing two podcasts each day, highlighting the power of small efficiencies. Nathaniel discusses curating AI news, the practical wins for non-experts, and how AI tools can democratize creativity. He also provides insights on using LLMs for scripting and the challenges they pose in emulating personal voice. A must-listen for anyone wanting to harness AI effectively!

16 snips
Jul 24, 2024 • 1h 13min
Dwarkesh Patel’s Quest to Learn Everything - Ep. 27
Dwarkesh Patel, a dynamic podcaster famous for interviewing influential figures in AI and geopolitics, shares his quest for knowledge. He dives into how he uses language models like Claude for enhanced learning and interview preparation. The conversation covers his innovative reading techniques, the importance of structured knowledge retention, and the role of AI in grasping complex topics. Dwarkesh also discusses the implications of AGI and the existential risks tied to technological advancements, making for a thought-provoking and insightful dialogue.

25 snips
Jul 17, 2024 • 1h 19min
The Internet Creator's Guide to the Future - Ep. 26 with Steph Smith
Join Steph Smith, host of the @a16z podcast and creator of Internet Pipes, as she dives into the evolving digital landscape shaped by AI. Discover how AI transforms creative processes, making it easier to translate abstract ideas into visually compelling art. Steph highlights quirky niche creators and discusses the importance of maintaining authenticity amidst tech advancements. Explore innovative AI tools that enhance creativity and even aid in scientific research. This lively conversation is a feast for anyone passionate about internet creation!

Jul 10, 2024 • 59min
The AI-powered Era of Scientific Discovery Is Here - Ep. 25 with Dr. Bradley Love
Dr. Bradley Love is building a tool that can predict the future.Dr. Bradley Love is transforming neuroscience research with AI.He's the creator of BrainGPT, a large language model that can predict the results of neuroscience studies—before they’re conducted. And it performs better than human experts.We spent 90 minutes exploring how AI is reshaping scientific research and our understanding of the brain.Bradley argues that as scientific knowledge grows exponentially, we need new tools to make sense of it all. BrainGPT isn't just summarizing existing research—it's predicting future discoveries.We get into:• How BrainGPT outperforms neuroscience professors• Why clean scientific explanations may be a thing of the past• The challenges of interpreting complex biological systems• How AI could change the way we approach scientific research• The limitations of our intuitive understanding of the brainThis is a must-watch for anyone interested in the future of science, AI, and how we understand the human mind.If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more?Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.To hear more from Dan Shipper:• Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe • Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Timestamps:00:00:00 - Teaser00:01:00 - Introduction 00:01:58 - The motivations behind building a LLM that can predict the future 00:11:14 - How studying the brain can solve the AI revolution’s energy problem 00:13:32 - Dr. Love and his team have developed a new way to prompt AI 00:18:27 - Dan’s take on how AI is changing science 00:22:54 - Why clean scientific explanations are a thing of the past 00:29:49 - How our understanding of explanations will evolve 00:37:31 - Why Dr. Love thinks the way we do scientific research is flawed 00:40:42 - Why humans are drawn to simple explanations 00:45:03 - How Dr. Love would rebuild the field of scienceLinks to resources mentioned in the episode:Dr. Bradley Love: https://bradlove.org/; https://twitter.com/ProfData BrainGPT: https://braingpt.org/ Thomas Nagel’s book on the philosophy of science that Dr. Love recommends: The View From Nowhere The essay that Thomas Nagel is famous for: What is it like to be a bat?

14 snips
Jun 20, 2024 • 1h 5min
She Built an AI Product Manager Bringing in Six Figures—As A Side Hustle - Ep. 24 with Claire Vo
Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer at LaunchDarkly and founder of ChatPRD, shares her journey of launching an AI-powered project management tool used by over 10,000 users. She reveals how she developed ChatPRD over a holiday weekend, leveraging AI to streamline product specification. Claire predicts a shift in product management roles towards 'proto-managers' focused on prototyping. She also discusses using AI to enhance productivity both at work and as a tech-savvy parent, making her a better PM overall.


