Lightcone Podcast

Y Combinator
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Lightcone Podcast

Techno optimism for technical founders

  1. Why The Next AI Breakthroughs Will Be In Reasoning, Not Scaling

    14 NOV

    Why The Next AI Breakthroughs Will Be In Reasoning, Not Scaling

    There's an ongoing debate about whether AI scaling laws will hold or hit a wall in the near future. However, what's clear now is today's models already have the power to increase productivity in ways that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago. In this episode of the Lightcone, we dig into the results of a recent o1 hackathon hosted by YC to find out what can be unlocked when founders leverage a SOTA reasoning model.

    35 min
  2. The 10 Trillion Parameter AI Model With 300 IQ

    1 NOV

    The 10 Trillion Parameter AI Model With 300 IQ

    Earlier this month, OpenAI raised the largest venture round ever at $6.6 billion. The company’s CFO says AI is now at the point where orders of magnitude matter and the next generation of models will be capital intensive. In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts consider what a world with ultra-intelligent models would look like, and what potential unlocks could be made possible.

    34 min
  3. Now Anyone Can Code: How AI Agents Can Build Your Whole App

    18 OCT

    Now Anyone Can Code: How AI Agents Can Build Your Whole App

    With rapid advancements in LLMs, AI can now follow prompts to generate code and build functional custom software. So, how does the tech landscape change when coding becomes accessible to everyone? In this episode of Lightcone, we sat down with Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit—an AI-powered platform for software development and deployment—to explore how anyone can now tap into the power of coding.

    37 min
  4. Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities

    4 OCT

    Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities

    As LLMs continue to improve, it's clear that vertical AI agents are key to the next generation of billion-dollar SaaS opportunities. In this episode of the Lightcone, we sat down with Jake Heller, the co-founder and CEO of Castext— which sold to Thomson Reuters for $650 million in 2023— to discuss what it takes to build a successful vertical AI company.

    37 min
  5. The Hunt for State of the Art (with Suhail Doshi)

    19 SEPT

    The Hunt for State of the Art (with Suhail Doshi)

    Suhail Doshi, a YC alumni who previously founded Mixpanel and Mighty, has created a state-of-the-art (SOTA) AI image diffusion model with Playground. The app allows you to talk to it like a graphic designer and helps you create imagery and text for a wide variety of use cases. In this episode of Lightcone, Suhail sits down with the hosts to talk about his experience building Playground with his team and what it takes to make a SOTA model. Try Playground: https://playground.com/design Read Playground V3 Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.10695

    56 min
  6. How YC Was Created With Jessica Livingston

    6 SEPT

    How YC Was Created With Jessica Livingston

    Familiar with the lore of Y Combinator? Then you'll know Jessica Livingston — one of the original co-founders who started YC back in 2005. On a recent visit to our SF headquarters, she shared with the Lightcone hosts the stories and decisions of the early days that would form the foundations of YC as we know it today.

    59 min
  7. Are We In An AI Hype Cycle?

    22 AUG

    Are We In An AI Hype Cycle?

    Is the latest excitement around AI just another round of dot-com or crypto-style hype? The Lightcone hosts discuss where AI might be if the hype cycle is real, and what may remain once the buzz wears off. Apply to YC's first-ever Fall batch at ycombinator.com/apply.

    38 min

  8. 9 AUG

    Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit On AGI, Open Source Models, Freedom

    It’s the first guest episode of Lightcone! The hosts sit down with Paul Buchheit, one of Google’s earliest employees, the creator of Gmail and current YC Group Partner. (He also came up with Google’s famous tagline “Don’t be evil.”) This discussion covers a wide range of topics including the future of AGI, the early days of OpenAI and the crucial importance of open source models.

    49 min
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Techno optimism for technical founders

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