Infinite Curiosity Pod with Prateek Joshi

Vivas Kumar is the cofounder and CEO of Mitra Chem, the first lithium-ion battery materials product company focused on shortening the lab-to-production timeline by over 90%. They recently raised more than $80M in funding from Social Capital, General Motors, Alpha Wave Ventures, and others. Vivas's favorite book: Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Author: Nelson Mandela)(00:01) Introduction(02:25) How Lithium-Ion Batteries Work(04:56) Evolution of Battery Materials(06:46) Development of Lithium-Ion Battery Technology(08:10) Optimizing Battery Properties: Cost, Energy Density, and Cycle Life(10:52) Supply Chain of Battery Materials(13:16) From Lab to Production: Key Bottlenecks(15:26) Using AI to Accelerate Synthesis Design(18:18) Battery Cell Qualification: Process and Importance(20:13) Managing Risk in AI-Driven Battery Experiments(21:20) Data Generation for AI-Driven Battery Development(22:52) Challenges in Manufacturing Large-Scale Batteries(25:02) Current Limitations in Battery Materials Development(26:39) Next-Generation Battery Materials in the Pipeline(27:50) Advancements in Battery Technology Beyond Materials(29:52) Advice for New Founders in the Battery Industry(31:42) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Alan Cowen is the cofounder and CEO of Hume, a company building voice-to-voice foundation models. They recently raised their $50M Series B from Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and others. Alan's favorite book: 1984 (Author: George Orwell)(00:01) Introduction(00:06) Defining Voice-to-Voice Foundation Models(01:26) Historical Context: Handling Voice and Speech Understanding(03:54) Emotion Detection in Voice AI Models(04:33) Training Models to Recognize Human Emotion in Speech(07:19) Cultural Variations in Emotional Expressions(09:00) Semantic Space Theory in Emotion Recognition(12:11) Limitations of Basic Emotion Categories(15:50) Recognizing Blended Emotional States(20:15) Objectivity in Emotion Science(24:37) Practical Aspects of Deploying Voice AI Systems(28:17) Real-Time System Constraints and Latency(31:30) Advancements in Voice AI Models(32:54) Rapid-Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Hassaan Raza is the cofounder and CEO of Tavus, a video API platform for digital twins. They've raised more than $28M in funding from investors such as Sequoia and Scale VP. Hassaan's favorite book: Go Like Hell (Author: A. J. Baime)(00:01) Introduction(00:38) Overview of AI in video generation(01:44) AI models used in video generation(03:35) Capturing intricate facial movements in real-time(06:46) Data capture and 3D modeling from basic video input(09:01) Explanation of neural radiance fields and Gaussian splatting(10:14) Capturing facial expressions for video generation(15:22) Temporal coherence in video generation(18:05) Challenges in conversational video, including lip-syncing and emotion alignment(20:38) Inference challenges in conversational video(22:47) Bottlenecks in the pipeline: LLMs and time-to-first-token(26:58) Multimodal models and trade-offs(27:36) Advice for founders running API businesses(30:04) Pitfalls to avoid in API businesses(32:15) Technological breakthroughs in AI(34:10) Rapid-fire round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Alex Gallego is the founder and CEO of Redpanda, a streaming data platform built for data-intensive applications. They've raised more than $165M in funding from investors such as Lightspeed, GV, and Haystack. He was previously the cofounder and CTO of Concord Systems. (00:01) Introduction(00:07) Defining Streaming Data(04:14) Evolution of Streaming Data Systems Over the Last 10 Years(09:10) Introduction to Sovereign AI(14:14) How Sovereign AI Works in Practice(19:51) Infrastructure Needed for Sovereign AI(23:48) Sensitive Workloads in Enterprise AI(28:01) Foundation Models and Streaming Data(32:41) Breakthroughs in AI Related to Streaming Data(34:39) Rapid Fire Round --------Where to find Alex Gallego: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergallego--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Will Lu is the cofounder and CTO of Orby AI, an AI platform to automate people's repetitive tasks. He was previously the Head of Engineering at Google and a Systems Software Engineer at Nvidia. Will's favorite book: Beyond Enterpreneurship (Authors: Jim Collins and William Lazier) (00:01) Introduction(00:07) History of RPA(01:04) Building Blocks of RPA(02:34) Drawbacks of Traditional RPA(05:06) Introduction to AI-Native RPA(06:38) Advantages of AI-Native RPA(08:14) Defining Generative Process Automation (GPA)(10:15) Explanation of Large Action Models(11:47) Role of AI Agents in Process Automation(13:11) Data for Building Large Action Models(14:44) Benchmarking Large Action Models(15:53) Risk Mitigation in AI-Native RPA(17:44) Changing Roles in the RPA Industry(19:14) Adoption of Agent Technologies(21:03) ROI Measurement in AI-Native RPA(23:05) Explainability in AI Systems(24:25) Fast Adoption Teams in Enterprises(25:15) Handling Unstructured Data(26:12) Digital Organizations and Future Automation(27:09) Exciting AI Breakthroughs(28:03) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Tim Tully is a partner at Menlo Ventures, a VC firm that has invested in companies like Uber, Anthropic, Pinecone, Benchling, Chime, Carta, Recursion, and more. He was previously the CTO of Splunk, a publicly traded company that was acquired by Cisco for $28 billion. Prior to that, he was the VP of Engineering at Yahoo for 14 years. Tim's favorite book: Infinite Jest (Author: David Foster Wallace)(00:01) Introduction(00:07) Evolution of Databases(03:17) Enduring Business Models in Data Management(04:41) Challenges and Trade-offs in Database Choices(06:20) Modern Database Architecture(09:06) Separation of Storage and Compute(10:35) Role of Indexing in LLM Applications(13:20) Handling Different Types of Data in Databases(14:50) Distributed Databases Explained(16:20) Real-time Data Handling and Requirements(18:53) Architecting Data Infrastructure for AI(21:29) ETL in Modern Data Infrastructure(24:53) AI's Role in Database Optimization(27:17) Network Architecture(30:13) Hardware Improvements and Database Performance(33:35) Technological Breakthroughs and Investment Opportunities(35:11) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Brad Porter is the founder and CEO of Collaborative Robotics, where they are building robots that will seamlessly blend into our surroundings. They've raised funding from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and Lux Capital. He was previously the CTO of Scale AI. Prior to that, he was the VP of Robotics at Amazon. He has a bachelors and masters degree from MIT. Brad's favorite book: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (Author: Virginia Lee Burton)(00:00) Introduction(02:11) Collaborative Robots Explained(05:17) Building Blocks in Robotics(11:01) Architecture of a Cobot(14:12) Safety in Industrial Settings(18:08) Sensors in Cobots(20:20) Power Consumption and Optimization(23:31) Zonal Compute Architecture(26:34) AI Models for Task Planning(30:32) Reasoning and Human Interaction(35:00) Simulation to Real-World Deployment(38:49) Multi-Robot Coordination(41:57) Technological Breakthroughs in Robotics(45:29) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Mehul Nariyawala is the cofounder of Matic where they are building the world's most advanced floor cleaning robots. He was previously the cofounder of Flutter, which was acquired by Google. During his career, he has held roles at Google, Like.com, and Salesforce.  Mehul's favorite books: - The Martian (Author: Andy Weir)- Lyndon Johnson series (Author: Robert Caro)- Shoe Dog (Author: Phil Knight)- The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Author: Richard Rhodes)(00:00) Introduction and Core Technologies(01:26) The Evolution of Floor Cleaning Robots(09:42) Constantly Updating Maps for Optimal Cleaning(12:53) Differentiating Between Known and Unknown Objects(16:03) On-Device Processing for Privacy and Energy Efficiency(22:31) Data Collection and Privacy in Home Robotics(24:32) Reducing Noise in Home Robots(30:04) The Importance of Simplicity in AI Products(32:17) Overlooked Trends in Robotics: The Rise of Rust(40:51) Challenges and Opportunities in the Commoditization of Consumer AI--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Krish Ramineni is the cofounder and CEO of Fireflies, an AI meeting assistant that takes notes, transcribes, and analyzes all your meetings. It's used across 300,000 organizations around the world with 70% of the Fortune 500 companies using it. He was previously the cofounder of Rumblii and was at Microsoft working on customer voice analytics. Krish's favorite book: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (Author: Jack Weatherford) (00:04) Introduction(00:11) State of Play in Voice AI Today(01:26) User Perception Shift in Voice AI(01:59) Evolution of Speech to Text Technology(04:05) Extracting Intelligence from Audio Files(07:22) Impact of New Technology on Semantic Parsing(12:46) Modern Capabilities and Gaps in Intent Recognition(17:23) Advances in Speech Generation and Processing(20:58) Role of Reinforcement Learning in Voice AI(24:05) Handling Low Resource Languages with Transfer Learning(28:32) Lessons from Building and Shipping Voice AI Products(35:10) Rapid Fire Round--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

Surge Biswas is the cofounder and CEO of Nabla Bio, an AI platform to enable precise drug design and high-throughput measurement of drug properties. They recently raised $26M Series A led by Radical Ventures. He has a PhD in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics from Harvard University. Surge's favorite book: Permutation City (Author: Greg Egan)(00:01) Introduction(00:07) Generative AI in Drug Design(01:19) Traditional vs. AI-driven Drug Discovery(03:42) Designing Antibodies(05:06) Therapeutic Antibodies Design Process(07:39) Data Sets for AI in Drug Discovery(10:48) High Throughput Measurement in Drug Discovery(13:14) Setting Up High Throughput Screening Assays(18:46) Multiplexed Screens in Drug Discovery(21:55) Protein Characterization Techniques(24:33) Protein-Protein Interactions(28:12) AI in Protein Characterization(30:55) Technological Breakthroughs in AI and Bio(32:36) Rapid Fire Round(36:27) Conclusion--------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: https://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi