The MAD Podcast with Matt Turck

Join Nathan Benaich, Founder of Air Street Capital and author of the insightful State of AI report, as he unpacks the current AI landscape. He reveals that power, not GPUs, is becoming the critical bottleneck for AI advancement. Discover how reasoning models are revolutionizing science and the shift from theoretical to practical robotics. Nathan also discusses the real revenue flow in the AI sector, examines NVIDIA's dominance versus custom chips, and shares his investment predictions in fields like biology and defense.

Julian Schrittwieser, a senior AI researcher at Anthropic and former member of DeepMind's AlphaGo team, discusses the exponential growth in AI capabilities. He highlights potential breakthroughs in AI, predicting agents could work autonomously by 2026 and possibly achieve Nobel-level discoveries by 2027-2028. Julian delves into the integration of pre-training and reinforcement learning, challenges in AI alignment, and the importance of broader access in tech. He emphasizes gradual productivity gains and the effects on jobs in various sectors.

Join Jerry Tworek, VP of Research at OpenAI, as he dives into the fascinating world of AI reasoning. Discover how GPT-5 evolves from earlier models, emphasizing the crucial roles of pretraining and reinforcement learning. Jerry explains the mechanics of chain-of-thought reasoning, the significance of agentic tools like Codex, and the importance of robust collaboration in research. He even shares insights from his personal journey from math and trading to cutting-edge AI research. Could pretraining combined with RL be key to achieving AGI? Tune in to find out!

Sholto Douglas, AI researcher at Anthropic and former Google engineer, delves into the innovations of Claude Sonnet 4.5, claiming we're mere years away from AI matching human capabilities. He explains how reinforcement learning has suddenly made a breakthrough and how agents can maintain coherence during long coding sessions. Sholto also discusses the cultural differences across major AI labs, Anthropic's focused approach to coding, and the profound implications of AI's upcoming exponential progress, especially in economics and robotics.

Eléonore Crespo, Co-CEO of Pigment, is at the forefront of revolutionizing financial management with her $400 million AI platform. She discusses how Pigment enhances decision-making for companies like Coca-Cola and Uber using its innovative three-agent system. Eléonore argues that Excel will remain relevant, primarily as a user interface, and explains her choice to build from Paris. She highlights the potential for AI to create more CFO positions, making the case for a future where enterprises become increasingly autonomous.

Cristóbal Valenzuela, CEO & Co-Founder of Runway, dives into the revolutionary changes AI is bringing to the filmmaking landscape. He discusses the meteoric rise of AI film festivals, with submissions soaring from 300 to 6,000. Cristóbal highlights how Hollywood is increasingly adopting AI technologies, transforming storytelling and production. He also explores the balance between human creativity and accessible AI tools, emphasizing the evolving narrative possibilities in an AI-driven future.

Chris Pedregal, Co-founder and CEO of Granola, shares insights from transforming a simple idea into a favored AI tool for meeting notes. He discusses the power of community feedback, the importance of simplicity in design, and the lessons learned from onboarding users. With a focus on privacy and productivity, he reveals their tech stack choices and future plans, including dynamic documents and an AI coach. He also touches on the benefits of building an AI startup in London, highlighting local talent and a unique approach to product development.

Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code at Anthropic, shares the fascinating journey of transforming a simple productivity tool into a $400 million AI coding powerhouse. He discusses how Claude Code uses an innovative terminal approach, enabling AI to plan, edit, and manage coding projects efficiently. Cherny reveals stories of drastically reduced onboarding times and highlights Claude's user-friendly design, making powerful coding accessible for non-coders. The conversation dives into the evolving role of AI in coding, advocating for a balanced partnership between humans and intelligent tools.

Misha Laskin, co-founder and CEO of Reflection AI and former DeepMind researcher, dives into the future of enterprise superintelligence. He envisions a digital brain that retains knowledge like a principal engineer. The conversation covers breakthroughs in AI, the role of coding in achieving superintelligence, and the innovative Asimov tool designed to streamline software development. Misha also shares his fascinating journey from a physics prodigy in a Manhattan-Project town to leading AI projects, and discusses the fierce talent competition in the AI startup landscape.

Emily Glassberg Sands, Head of Information at Stripe, dives into the transformative world of agentic commerce. She discusses how autonomous buying bots are set to change online shopping dynamics, emphasizing intention over clicks. Emily sheds light on Stripe's innovative AI foundation model that significantly enhances fraud detection. She also reveals insights on the rapid growth of AI startups, noting their swift international success. The discussion highlights the importance of robust data infrastructures and the shift towards usage-based pricing models in this new AI-driven landscape.