AI & I

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!

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?   

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.

An interview with best-selling sci-fi novelist Robin SloanOne of my favorite fiction writers, New York Times best-selling author Robin Sloan, just wrote the first novel I’ve seen that’s inspired by LLMs.The book is called Moonbound, and Robin originally wanted to write it with language models. He tried doing this in 2016 with a rudimentary model he built himself, and more recently with commercially available LLMs. Both times Robin found himself unsatisfied with the creative output generated by the models. AI couldn’t quite generate the fiction he was looking for—the kind that pushes the boundaries of literature.He did, however, find himself fascinated by the inner workings of LLMsRobin was particularly interested in how LLMs map language into math—the notion that each letter is represented by a unique series of numbers, allowing the model to understand human language in a computational way. He thinks LLMs are language personified, given its first heady dose of autonomy. Robin’s body of work reflects his deep understanding of technology, language, and storytelling. He’s the author of the novels Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore and Sourdough, and has also written for publications like the New York Times, the Atlantic, and MIT Technology Review. Before going full-time on fiction writing, he worked at Twitter and in traditional media institutions. In Moonbound, Robin puts LLMs into perspective as part of a broader human story. I sat down with Robin to unpack his fascination with LLMs, their nearly sentient nature, and what they reveal about language and our own selves. It was a wide-ranging discussion about technology, philosophy, ethics, and biology—and I came away more excited than ever about the possibilities that the future holds.This is a must-watch for science-fiction enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the deep philosophical questions raised by LLMs and the way they function. 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:Robin Sloan: https://www.robinsloan.com/ Robin’s books: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Sourdough, MoonboundDan’s first interview with Robin four years ago: https://every.to/superorganizers/tasting-notes-with-robin-sloan-25629085 Anthropic AI’s paper about how concepts are represented inside LLMs: https://www.anthropic.com/news/mapping-mind-language-model Dan’s interview with Notion engineer Linus Lee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeKEXnNP2yA Big Biology, the podcast that Robin enjoys listening to: https://www.bigbiology.org/ 

In this episode, bestselling author Steven Berlin Johnson, known for his influential works on innovation, dives into his role as editorial director for NotebookLM, Google Labs' research assistant. He discusses the amazing capabilities of NotebookLM, demonstrating how it can synthesize 200,000 words of NASA transcripts into clear narratives. Steven explores historical connections to the Apollo 1 fire while unpacking the tool's ability to recognize patterns in research. He emphasizes the exciting potential of AI in creative workflows, making it a must-listen for enthusiasts of technology and storytelling.

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. 

New York Times journalist Kevin Roose has 18 new friends—none of whom are human. Kevin formed a collection of “friends”—AI personas with distinct personalities and backstories—using apps like Kindroid and Nomi. Among these were fitness guru Jared, San Francisco-based therapist Peter, and pragmatic trial lawyer Anna. He talked to them every day for a month, sharing personal stories, seeking advice, and even asking for “fit” checks. And this wasn’t Kevin’s first unusual interaction with AI characters. A year ago, he was the infamous target of Bing’s chatbot Sydney’s romantic overtures.I don’t think anyone has studied AI companionship as deeply as Kevin, and in this episode, I sat down with him to learn more about his experience.Kevin is a tech columnist at the New York Times and cohost of the Hard Fork podcast. He’s also the author of three books, most recently Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, which is about how humans can be happy in a world designed for machines. During our conversation, we also talk about how Kevin is using AI in his work and life every day.This is a must-watch for anyone curious about how AI is changing the way we form relationships.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:Kevin Roose: @kevinrooseHardfork, the podcast that Kevin cohosts: https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork Kevin’s latest book about being human in a world designed for machines: https://www.kevinroose.com/futureproof Kevin’s piece in the New York Times about his experience making AI friends: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/technology/meet-my-ai-friends.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qk0.9dZN.6XiiP3RjRZxv&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb Two of the apps that Kevin used to create AI companions: https://landing.kindroid.ai/; https://nomi.ai/ Dan’s piece that explains why AI writing will feel real through psychologist D.W. Winnicott’s theory: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/will-you-read-writing-from-an-ai   Every’s piece that explores AI companion app Replika: https://every.to/cybernaut/artificial-intimacy 

Nick Dobos, maker of the #1 programming GPT, on prompt-gramming with AIYou can go from having an idea to deploying a live website in minutes.All you have to do is prompt Grimoire, the number-one custom GPT for programming, with an image or even a single word about your idea. As you watch the LLM process your request, Grimoire works with a web host on the backend, and just minutes later, your website will be live on the internet.Grimoire, which has facilitated over 1 million chats, can help you with a lot more than just making websites: It includes a comprehensive guide to learning how to code, from basic concepts to advanced instruction, and serves as a tool for programmers to resolve their questions in real time.The creator of Grimoire is Nick Dobos, who was an iOS developer at Twitter until Musk bought the company and laid off a majority of its staff. With plenty of free time suddenly on his hands, Nick started experimenting with ChatGPT, and ended up building Grimoire. He’s since emerged as one of the foremost experts in the world on building successful custom GPTs and coding with ChatGPT. I think Grimoire is a platform to examine the possibilities that “prompt-gramming”—an emerging way of coding by prompting AI—can enable. I sat down with Nick to explore what this means about the future of programming, the best way to use the coding assistant, and the role AI plays in his life beyond coding. As we talk, Nick uses Grimoire to build a website about coffee and generate a QR code from its URL live on the show.This is a must-watch for coders, creative people, and anyone curious about how AI is changing the way we interact with computers.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:Nick Dobos: @NickADobosGrimoire: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-n7Rs0IK86-grimoire Nick’s website for his experiments with AI: https://mindgoblinstudios.com/ AI-first code editor Cursor: https://cursor.sh/ Open Interpreter: https://www.openinterpreter.com/ Lisa Feldman Barrett’s book: How Emotions Are MadeDemo Hume, the empathetic AI voice: https://demo.hume.ai/ 

The future of AI technology isn’t just faster or more powerful—it’s empathetic. My guest for this episode, Alan Cowen, is leading the charge with the first-ever emotionally intelligent AI.Alan is the co-founder and CEO of Hume, an AI research laboratory developing models trained to identify and measure expressions of emotion from voice inflections and facial expressions. The best part? Once it understands these emotions, the AI is designed to interact with users in a way that optimizes for human well-being and leaves them with a positive emotional experience.  Previously, Alan—who has a Ph.D. in computational psychology—helped set up Google’s research into affective computing, a field focused on developing technologies that can understand and respond to human emotions. He operates at the intersection of AI and psychology, and I sat down with him to understand the inner workings of Hume’s models. Alan walks me through the shortcomings of traditional theories of emotional science and breaks down how Hume is addressing these challenges. While talking about the potential applications of the models, we also discuss the tricky ethical concerns that come with creating an AI that can interpret human emotions.This is a must-watch for anyone interested in the science of emotion and the future of human-AI interactions.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:Alan Cowen: @AlanCowenHume: @hume_AI; hume.aiIf you want to demo Hume: demo.hume.aiThe nonprofit associated with Hume: Hume InitiativeLisa Feldman Barrett’s book: How Emotions Are MadeThe serial based on Paul Ekman’s theory of emotion: Lie to Me

Learn how to use philosophy to run your business more effectivelyReid Hoffman thinks a masters in philosophy will help you run your business better than an MBA.Reid is the cofounder of LinkedIn, a partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners, the host of the Masters of Scale podcast, and a prolific author. But before he did any of these things, Reid studied philosophy—and by helping him understand how to think, it made him a better entrepreneur. A good student of philosophy rigorously engages with questions about truth, human nature, and the meaning of life, and, over time, learns how to think clearly about the big picture. This is a powerful tool for founders faced with existential questions about their product, consumers, and competitors, and enables them to respond with well-reasoned answers and enviable clarity of thought.This show is usually about the actionable ways in which people have incorporated ChatGPT into their lives, but in this episode, I sat down with Reid to tackle a deeper question: How is AI changing what it means to be human? How might it change the way we see ourselves and the world around us?This episode is a must-watch for anyone curious about some of the bigger questions prompted by the rapid development of AI.Thanks again to our sponsor CommandBar, the first AI user assistance platform, for helping make this video possible. ⁠https://www.commandbar.com/copilot/⁠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:Reid Hoffman: @reidhoffmanThe podcast Reid hosts: Masters of ScaleReid’s book: ImpromptuThe book Reid recommends if you want to be more philosophically inclined: Gödel, Escher, BachReid’s article in the Atlantic: "Technology Makes Us More Human"The book about why psychology literature is wrong: The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph HenrichThe book about how culture is driving human evolution: The Secrets of Our Success by Joseph Henrich