AI + a16z

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Artificial intelligence is changing everything from art to enterprise IT, and a16z is watching all of it with a close eye. This podcast features discussions with leading AI engineers, founders, and experts, as well as our general partners, about where the technology and industry are heading.

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Episodes

Security Founders Talk Shop About Generative AI

In this bonus episode, recorded live at our San Francisco office, security-startup founders Dean De Beer (Command Zero), Kevin Tian (Doppel), and Travis McPeak (Resourcely) share their thoughts on generative AI, as well as their experiences building with LLMs and dealing with LLM-based threats. Here's a sample of what Dean had to say about the myriad considerations when choosing, and operating, a large language model: "The more advanced your use case is, the more requirements you have, the more ...

May 15, 2024•23 min•Ep. 8

How to Think About Foundation Models for Cybersecurity

In this episode of the AI + a16z podcast, a16z General Partner Zane Lackey and a16z Partner Joel de la Garza sit down with Derrick Harris to discuss how generative AI — LLMs, in particular — and foundation models could effect profound change in cybersecurity. After years of AI-washing by security vendors, they explain why the hype is legitimate this time as AI provides a real opportunity to help security teams cut through the noise and automate away the types of drudgery that lead to mistakes. "...

May 10, 2024•37 min•Ep. 7

Securing the Software Supply Chain with LLMs

Socket Founder and CEO Feross Aboukhadijeh joins a16z's Joel de la Garza and Derrick Harris to discuss the open-source software supply chain. Feross and Joel share their thoughts and insights on topics ranging from the recent XZutils attack to how large language models can help overcome understaffed security teams and overwhelmed developers. Despite some increasingly sophisticated attacks making headlines and compromising countless systems, they're optimistic that LLMs, in particular, could be a...

May 03, 2024•39 min•Ep. 6

ARCHIVE: GPT-3 Hype

In this episode, though, we’re traveling back in time to distant — in AI years, at least — past of 2020. Because amid all the news over the past 18 or so months, it’s easy to forget that generative AI — and LLMs, in particular — have been around for a while. OpenAI released its GPT-2 paper in late 2018, which excited the AI research community, and in 2020 made GPT-3 (as well as other capabilities) publicly available for the first time via its API. This episode dates back to that point in time (i...

May 01, 2024•33 min•Ep. 5

Vector Databases and the Power of RAG

Pinecone Founder and CEO Edo Liberty joins a16z's Satish Talluri and Derrick Harris to discuss the promises, challenges, and opportunities for vector databases and retrieval augmented generation (RAG). He also shares insights and highlights from a decades-long career in machine learning, which includes stints running research teams at both Yahoo and Amazon Web Services. Because he's been at this a long time, and despite its utility, Edo understands that RAG — like most of today's popular AI conc...

Apr 26, 2024•37 min•Ep. 4

Remaking the UI for AI

a16z General Partner Anjney Midha joins the podcast to discuss what's happening with hardware for artificial intelligence. Nvidia might have cornered the market on training workloads for now, but he believes there's a big opportunity at the inference layer — especially for wearable or similar devices that can become a natural part of our everyday interactions. Here's one small passage that speaks to his larger thesis on where we're heading: "I think why we're seeing so many developers flock to O...

Apr 19, 2024•39 min•Ep. 3

Making the Most of Open Source in AI

There are few terms in the world of AI — if any — that invoke more of a reaction than a simple four-letter word: Open. Whether it’s industry debates over business models and the actual definition of open, or the US government actively discussing how to regulate open models, seemingly everyone has an opinion on what it means for AI models to be open. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But to be fair, there’s good reason for this. In a world where many developers have come to expect open source tool...

Apr 12, 2024•41 min•Ep. 2

Scoping the Enterprise LLM Market

Naveen Rao, vice president of generative AI at Databricks, joins a16z's Matt Bornstein and Derrick Harris to discuss enterprise usage of LLMs and generative AI. Naveen is particularly knowledgeable about the space, having spent years building AI chips first at Qualcomm and then as the founder of AI chip startup Nervana Systems back in 2014. Intel acquired Nervana in 2016. After a stint at Intel, Rao re-emerged with MosaicML in 2021. This time, he focused on the software side of things, helping c...

Apr 12, 2024•44 min•Ep. 1

Welcome to the AI + a16z podcast

The AI + a16z podcast captures our thinking on AI across a broad swath of areas, from the infrastructure that powers today’s foundation models to how specific tools, like LLMs, are reshaping the hiring process. Looking forward, you can expect to hear about a list of topics that includes the latest advances in generative AI, cybersecurity, and the emerging stack of tools for building and running LLMs. Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projec...

Apr 08, 2024•2 min0

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