AI + a16z

a16z

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.

  1. How Foundation Models Evolved: A PhD Journey Through AI's Breakthrough Era

    10 HR AGO

    How Foundation Models Evolved: A PhD Journey Through AI's Breakthrough Era

    The Stanford PhD who built DSPy thought he was just creating better prompts—until he realized he'd accidentally invented a new paradigm that makes LLMs actually programmable.  While everyone obsesses over whether LLMs will get us to AGI, Omar Khattab is solving a more urgent problem: the gap between what you want AI to do and your ability to tell it, the absence of a real programming language for intent. He argues the entire field has been approaching this backwards, treating natural language prompts as the interface when we actually need something between imperative code and pure English, and the implications could determine whether AI systems remain unpredictable black boxes or become the reliable infrastructure layer everyone's betting on. Follow Omar Khattab on X: https://x.com/lateinteraction Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado   Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    57 min
  2. TruffleHog Creator: You Can’t Have AI Agents Without Secrets

    11 NOV

    TruffleHog Creator: You Can’t Have AI Agents Without Secrets

    If you can’t robustly protect your secrets, you can’t have reliable AI agents. In this episode, Truffle Security cofounder and CEO Dylan Ayrey joins a16z partner Joel de la Garza to discuss the emergent security stack for AI agents, why leaks are actually getting worse, and how Truffle evolved from an open-source side project to a major VC-backed startup.   Follow Dylan here: https://x.com/InsecureNature Follow Joel here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/3448827723723234/ Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    29 min
  3. Tigris Data CEO on Building Your Own Datacenters

    7 NOV

    Tigris Data CEO on Building Your Own Datacenters

    In this episode, a16z General Partner Martin Casado sits down with Ovais Tariq, Cofounder and CEO of Tigris Data, to discuss why independent storage is so hard, what operating your own datacenters is like, and what’s in store for the future of cloud. Resources Follow Ovais on X: https://x.com/ovaistariq Follow Tigris Data on X: https://x.com/tigrisdata Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casado Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    39 min
  4. Pylon: Reimagining B2B Customer Support

    31 OCT

    Pylon: Reimagining B2B Customer Support

    Customer support platforms lacked adequate solutions for B2B companies - until Pylon entered the scene. We sat down with Pylon cofounders Marty Kausas, Advith Chelikani, and Robert Eng to discuss why they went into B2B, how they plan to beat huge competitors, and why they still live together in a windowless apartment and work 9-9-6 hours despite having raised tens of millions. Follow Pylon on X: https://x.com/usepylon Follow Marty on X: https://x.com/marty_kausas Follow Advith on X: https://x.com/advith_c Follow Robert on X: https://x.com/rengrenghello Follow Jennifer on X: https://x.com/JenniferHli Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    48 min
  5. Keycard: 2026 is the Year of Agents

    22 OCT

    Keycard: 2026 is the Year of Agents

    In 2025, we saw the first glimpses of true AI agents. In 2026, every company will be rushing to get them into production, and they’ll need companies like Keycard to manage fleets of agents. In this conversation, a16z Partner Joel de la Garza sits down with Keycard Cofounder and CEO Ian Livingstone to discuss the continuum from copilots to agents, the security realities of tool-calling, why enterprises will adopt before consumers, and how to control your agents.   Follow Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/3448827723723234/ Follow Ian on X: https://x.com/ianlivingstone Follow Keycard on X: https://x.com/keycardlabs Learn more about Keycard: https://www.keycard.sh/ Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    33 min
  6. The Trillion Dollar AI Software Development Stack

    10 OCT

    The Trillion Dollar AI Software Development Stack

    AI coding has emerged as a major market for AI: one that’s already rewriting how software gets built. a16z Infra Partners Yoko Li and Guido Appenzeller break down how “agents with environments” are changing the dev loop; why repos and PRs may need new abstractions; and where ROI is showing up first (like legacy code migration). We also cover token economics for engineering teams, the emerging agent toolbox (sandboxes, code search/parsing, agent-optimized docs, orchestration), and founder opportunities when you treat agents as users, not just tools. Read the blog post here. Find Yoko here: https://x.com/stuffyokodraws Find Guido here: https://x.com/appenz Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    38 min
  7. Material Security CEO: How To Find Your Ideal Customer

    6 OCT

    Material Security CEO: How To Find Your Ideal Customer

    What if the hardest part of building a company isn’t the product, but knowing exactly who it’s for? In this episode, a16z General Partner Martin Casado sits down with Abhishek Agrawal, Cofounder and CEO of Material Security, to discuss how an ideal customer profile is discovered, how to manage any kind of customer, and how frothy markets can distort real signal. Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casado Follow Material Security on X: https://x.com/material_sec Follow Abhishek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek--agrawal/ Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    34 min
  8. When Deepfakes Steal $30M: The New Edge of Cybercrime

    26 SEPT

    When Deepfakes Steal $30M: The New Edge of Cybercrime

    AI is transforming both sides of the cybersecurity cat-and-mouse game. Attackers are using LLMs to scale impersonation, phishing, and even deepfake fraud—while defenders are racing to automate detection and takedowns at the same speed. In this episode, a16z partner Joel de la Garza talks with Kevin Tian, cofounder & CEO of Doppel Security (and former Uber engineer), about building in this new landscape. They cover: Why outsider founders sometimes build the most effective security companiesThe “3 V’s” framework for today’s social engineering attacks: volume, velocity, varietyHow Doppel uses reasoning models and reinforcement fine-tuning to cut false positives and improve precisionSimulation tools like “vibe phishing” to train employees on real attacker tacticsThe shift from manual cyber-intelligence services to AI-driven, software-margin businessesWhy the biggest bottleneck now isn’t model cost—but engineering time to deliver the right contextIf you’re building security products or exploring how AI can automate tough edge cases, this is a ground-level look at what’s working—and what comes next. Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts.   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    22 min
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    a16z
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    65
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    AI + a16z

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