The Derby Mill Series: Pushing AI to the Limit

Intrepid Growth Partners

A podcast all about artificial intelligence, LLMs, machine learning and reinforcement learning, featuring the founders building the next generation of AI-driven companies. Host Ajay Agrawal leads panellists Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan, Niamh Gavin and Suzanne Gildert through discussions with entrepreneurs. Each episode explores what’s possible when cutting-edge research meets real-world implementation. insights.intrepidgp.com

  1. Jun 23

    AI for Industrial Engineering (ep 32)

    In our latest episode, Intrepid’s Derby Mill podcast features the CEO and co-founder of UK-based PhysicsX, Jacomo Corbo, for a special in-person episode filmed at our Annual General Meeting in London. The interview, conducted by host Ajay Agrawal and panel members Sendhil Mullainathan and Niamh Gavin, comes just weeks after PhysicsX announced an oversubscribed $300 million Series C investment round that valued the company at $2.4 billion, which included Intrepid participation. The PhysicsX origin story includes Corbo and his co-founder, Robin Tuluie, working on the Formula 1 racing circuit for the Renault team that won back-to-back world championships in 2005 and 2006. (Corbo took a year off from studying computer science for his Ph.D. at Harvard after the Renault team noticed his game-theory based research and asked him to apply it to F1 racing environments, eventually becoming Renault’s chief race strategist.) Corbo and Tulule started PhysicsX in 2019 and now say that their machine-learning foundation models can accelerate simulation for industrial engineering by between 10,000 to 100,000 times. That means more efficient product design cycles, Corbo says, delivered under faster timelines, which in turn translates into better products. Based in London and New York with more than 300 employees, PhysicsX counts among its clients leading organizations in aerospace & defense, automotive, semiconductors, materials, and energy & renewables On the agenda in today’s discussion: How do the PhysicsX AI-enabled emulation models differ from conventional simulation? What capabilities does better simulation unlock for today’s industrial engineers? And how will tomorrow’s products differ as a result? In our first-ever in-person episode filmed in London, the Derby Mill tackles it all. PARTICIPANTS Jacomo Corbo, co-founder and CEO, PhysicsX Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms LINKS PhysicsX website PhysicsX press release for its last investment round, in which Intrepid participated Harvard School of Engineering alumni profile on Jacomo Corbo Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau. DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open 01:10 PhysicsX described 03:10 AI Numerical Inference 04:00 Governing Physics Equations 05:57 Engineering Intuition Limitations 08:07 Optimization Computational Barriers 10:01 Democratizing Engineering Simulation 11:05 Deep Learning Models 11:26 Empirical Data Training 12:28 Industrial Customer Segments 14:41 Approximating Ground Truth 15:55 Expanding Design Space 17:01 Dark Factory Vision 18:56 Key Breakthrough Requirements 21:05 Training Data Scarcity 22:10 Reinforcement Learning Approach 24:59 End-of-One Customization 26:27 Influencing Physical World 28:31 Scaling Pre-trained Models 29:21 Model Attention Mechanisms 30:35 High Dimensional Physics 32:41 Reducing Exploration Costs 35:12 Manufacturing Cost Curves 36:52 Sim-to-Real Performance 38:15 Improving Causal Inference 38:40 Quantum Computing Integration 40:01 Innovativeness and Novelty DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    41 min
  2. Last-Mile Delivery (ep 31)

    Jun 9

    Last-Mile Delivery (ep 31)

    UK-based Relay is a fast-growing delivery company whose mission is to lower the cost of last-mile fulfillment. CEO and co-founder Jonathan Jenssen say his team is reinventing networks for modern e-commerce. Relay covers about 23% of the UK, has a 4% share in operating postal codes and includes on its customer list such brands as Vinted, Temu, Shein, TikTok Shop, ASOS and Next. One big challenge for Relay is that the last mile amounts to ~70% of total delivery cost. Also confounding cost decreases is the fact that the parking-to-doorstep journey amounts to ~80% of last-mile time. That all means that about half of the total cost of package delivery is in the last 100 metres of the delivery. To decrease those costs, Jenssen’s team is harnessing the power of AI to make the last few hundred metres of the delivery more efficient. Gone are the days of hub and spoke routing and half-empty delivery trucks. Algorithms provide couriers with next-best-actions, in the form of turn-by-turn driving and parking directions, tips for building entry, and doorstep handover. They also use dynamic per-route pricing and live supply/demand matching, dynamic routing and an asset-light pit stop network of delivery depots that currently includes 10,000 local shops. The Derby Mill team explores where Relay’s efficiency improvements may go at the limit of AI’s capabilities. Where could robots fit in? What if Relay had access to more consumer information? Could that allow the company to actually predict customer requests? And what does all this have to do with something called “the beer game,” an MIT Sloan business case? These questions and more are answered in episode 31 of The Derby Mill Series. HOSTS AND PANELLISTS Jonathan Jenssen, co-founder and CEO, Relay Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners Richard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of Alberta Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms Suzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS Relay website MIT Sloan beer distribution game Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau. DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open 00:43 Introductions 01:35 Explaining Relay 05:02 Relay video 06:28 Clarifying questions: Rich 09:50 Optimization parameters 11:55 Clarifying question: Suzanne 16:22 Sendhil Q: Tech unlock 22:50 Hubs & spokes 26:40 Niamh: Pricing routes 29:33 Reward signals 32:23 Suzanne on robots 36:30 Coordination elements 39:03 Beer game 44:02 Information bottlenecks 47:45 Agentic info passing 49:30 JJ responds 51:40 Lightning round 53:33 Agentic AI agency 55:51 Supply chains 57:20 Wrap up DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    58 min

  3. Jun 2

    Healthcare Customer Experience (ep 30)

    How are companies using AI to improve the healthcare journey for consumers? And how will things evolve at the limit, where wearable technology integrates with electronic medical records and medical agentic AI analyzes everything on the fly to issue recommendations and improve outcomes? In other words, what are the implications of everyone becoming equipped with their own superhuman medical agent?  Seen one way, a superhuman medical agent is what League is aiming to develop. Founded in 2014 in Toronto, League operates an AI-powered healthcare platform for insurance companies and other payers or providers. The platform allows users to manage health benefits as well as their own healthcare. As of early 2026, the company has more than 60 million contracted users and more than a billion consumer interactions annually. Customers include Highmark Health, Manulife, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Medibank. Last year, League gave 100 million healthcare recommendations, of which people clicked through or followed through about 65% of the time.    In this episode, the Derby Mill team explores where League’s technology might go at the limit with League founder and CEO Mike Serbinis, who aims to expand the company’s capabilities to create a 24/7 infinite care platform—basically, an all-knowing doctor who knows as much as possible about you, your healthcare data, and the science of medicine. It’s a fascinating conversation that sees Sendhil observing how little the medical profession currently knows about optimizing health, or patients themselves, and Ajay challenging Rich to decide whether superhuman AI doctors would be better than having a doctor as a spouse today. (Rich says yes.)    More on our guest: A serial entrepreneur, Michael Serbinis has also founded and run Kobo, the digital reading company, cloud storage pioneer, DocSpace, and Critical Path, a messaging service. Serbinis is chair of the board for the Perimeter Institute and on the board at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He sits on Canada's AI Strategy Task Force. HOSTS AND PANELLISTS Mike Serbinis, founder and CEO, League Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners Richard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of Alberta Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms Suzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS     League website. League explainer video Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts  Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau.  DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open 00:38 Introductions 01:19 League explainer 01:55 Serbinis explains League 05:28 League’s AI today 08:09 More AI: Content recommendations 12:00 League’s data inputs 13:55 AB testing 19:10 Healthcare archetypes 22:15 Max health v. max engagement 25:30 Business model 27:00 At the limit: Rich  29:00 Married to a doctor 29:42 At the limit: Sendhil 31:10 Healthcare becomes you 33:37 ROI is huge 38:06 Suzanne: Robot paramedics 42:53 Serbinis responds 46:20 Infinite care team 49:16 Sendhil’s wrap up DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    53 min

  4. May 19

    Automated AI R&D and the Singularity (ep 29)

    A response from the Derby Mill team of AI experts to Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark’s recent Substack essay, “AI systems are about to start building themselves.” In the essay, Clark predicts that “no-human-involved AI R&D - an AI system powerful enough that it could plausibly autonomously build its own successor - happens by the end of 2028.” Clark notes: “If that happens, we will cross a Rubicon into a nearly-impossible-to-forecast future." With that in mind, Ajay tees up a discussion among Rich, Niamh, Sendhil and Suzanne. Is Jack Clark correct that we’re heading toward a future of self-replicating, self-optimizing AI? What are the implications? Does that actually lead to the singularity? And should we, as Rich Sutton says, treat AI the way a parent treats a child, recognizing that mistakes are inevitable?  “There’s some spookiness being implied here,” Mullainathan says, “about it coming alive and taking over a whole set of decisions we didn’t intend to cede it… and if that’s the case, that freaks me out, too.”  “The thing that they’re scared about…” says Niamh Gavin. “It’s the fact that you have, in essence, an irreversible positive feedback loop of successive self-improvement cycles, that accelerate it toward what they call a singularity, whereby artificial intelligence exceeds human intelligence and control.” Are the concerns outlined by Jack Clark warranted? Or are the fears about a harmful singularity overblown? The Derby Mill experts provide their views in our latest episode.  Finally, another fascinating thread in the episode comes from Suzanne Gildert. “It all comes down to the reward function,” says Gildert. “So there’s this thing that [AI is] still limited by us telling them what to do, because we’re the ones who want something… But that’s eventually going to break because the way the whole reward function in ML works at the moment — it’s all based on our economy… It’s based on people exchanging money for goods and services. All that’s going to break if people can’t work anymore... So that’s why I think we really have to understand what the reward function should be, because the way we’re implementing it now is not going to work beyond the point where [AI] can do all human labour for us.”  HOSTS AND PANELLISTS Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners Richard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of Alberta Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms Suzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS     The Jack Clark Substack post that triggered the discussion. Jack Clark is on X @jackclarkSF Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts. We post highlights from the show on YouTube.   Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau.  DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open 01:06 Jack Clark post 02:56 Rich Sutton reaction 08:37 Sendhil’s reaction 16:22 Suzanne’s reaction 18:14 Niamh’s reaction 23:48 Wrap up DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    25 min

  5. May 12

    Will AI Make Litigation Obsolete? (ep 28)

    Not just an episode about tax law! In fact, the Derby Mill team’s conversation with Benjamin Alarie, the co-founder and CEO behind Blue J, the fast-growing tax research platform, explores numerous fascinating threads. How will AI change the practice of law and the litigation process? Will trying a case in the justice system be necessary when AI can predict with high accuracy the likely outcome? In other words, will AI make litigation obsolete? Separately from the discussion about the legal profession, in a section that will be useful for any entrepreneur seeking to tune foundation models to provide the most current results on fast-changing bodies of knowledge, Alarie describes the techniques that Blue J uses to ensure the platform’s responses reflect the latest regulations.  Also useful for entrepreneurs is the discussion on whether specifically tuned, highly specialized models will be more useful to humans than general-purpose LLMs that can provide guidance on a wide variety of topics.  ABOUT BLUE J: Founded in Toronto in 2015, Blue J aims to make the law more transparent and accessible for tax practitioners. In early 2026 the company counted 5,000 businesses in the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada as clients who count on it to provide them with answers on numerous different bodies of tax law. (Intrepid is an investor.) A 2025 Series D investment round valued the company at more than $300 million USD, according to the Globe and Mail.  The platform is able to predict litigation results with greater than 90% accuracy. “Blue J is now the best way to do tax research, flat out, across any other possible technology being deployed today,” Alarie says, arguing that Blue J is better able to provide guidance based on the current state of fast-changing tax law because it licenses proprietary up-to-the-minute regulatory information from taxation organizations in the jurisdictions it services. Just 0.085% of Blue J’s responses are rated thumbs down by clients and the net promoter score is over 80, with both stats improving as Alarie’s team optimizes the platform.  ABOUT GUEST BENJAMIN ALARIE: In addition to being the co-founder and CEO of Blue J, Benjamin Alarie is full professor and holds the Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He earned a B.A. at Wilfrid Laurier University, an M.A. and J.D. at the University of Toronto, and an LL.M. at Yale Law School. In 2004 he joined the University of Toronto after clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada. His research focuses on tax law, judicial decision making, and artificial intelligence. He has published extensively and is responsible for coining the concept of the "legal singularity" in 2016. HOSTS Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners Richard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of Alberta Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms Suzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS     Link to Ben’s books: The Legal Singularity. Superjustice.  Alarie’s co-authored article: Legal Order in the Age of AI Agents Webpage for Blue J. Media coverage on Blue J’s 2025 Series D investment round from BetaKit and the Globe and Mail.  Another podcast featuring Alarie: The Startup CEO Show.  Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts  Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau.  DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open 00:48 Blue J and tax law 02:20 How Blue J works 06:33 Blue J vs. major LLMs 12:30 Managing liability 15:21 Blue J value prop 17:15 The Blue J story 19:36 Blue J operating mechanics 23:02 General purpose vs. special purpose 28:42 Will AI make litigation obsolete? 35:10 Rich: Code is law 40:55 Ben on code is law 45:12 Legal singularity 48:26 Faster settlements? 51:33 Trend toward legal complexity 55:55 Law as learning machine 56:51 Niamh reacts 57:54 Rich reacts 59:50 Suzanne reacts 1:00:57 Ben reacts DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    1h 4m

  6. Apr 28

    Managing AI Platforms for Healthcare (ep 27)

    When the right answer is a matter of life and death, how do you ensure that your AI systems avoid fatal mistakes? Signal 1 is a software platform for healthcare that functions as a control panel for deployed AI systems in hospitals. Rather than building individual models, Signal 1 focuses on improving the safety, observability and governability of pre-existing AI models used throughout the patient experience. The platform enables health systems to track real-world performance, detect drift and risk, enforce approval workflows, and tie AI predictions to improved clinical and operational outcomes. Tomi Poutanen is Signal 1’s CEO and co-founder. His earlier start-up, Layer 6, employed artificial intelligence to provide financial services companies with predictive analytics, and was acquired by TD Bank, where Tomi served as chief AI officer. In this episode, Tomi works with the Derby Mill team to discuss the future of healthcare, whether machine learning could make hospitals obsolete, and how to improve the management of systems that include numerous different AI agents working together.   GUESTS AND HOSTS Tomi Poutanen, CEO, Signal 1 Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth PartnersRichard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of AlbertaSendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MITNiamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent PlatformsSuzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS    Signal 1 website Media on Signal 1 from the Globe and Mail, Betakit and the University of Toronto Derby Mill series website. Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau. Be sure to catch every episode of The Derby Mill Series by subscribing on the following platforms: YouTube // Spotify // Apple Podcasts // Substack DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open 00:44 Ajay’s tee up 01:22 About Signal 1 04:11 Tomi’s Signal 1 explainer 06:25 Mechanics of Signal 1 07:10 Tomi’s first-order question 08:45 Signal 1’s core value prop 09:29 Patient experience perspective 12:27 Taking MD out of the loop 13:56 Why Signal 1 focuses on AI 18:20 Evaluating AI systems 22:46 Rows 23:13 Ajay’s segue 24:42 Part 2: Signal 1 at the Limit 25:12 Niamh’s sci-fi hospital vision 29:04 Rich questions the premise 31:25 Sendhil: Division of labor for AI 34:50 Tomi: Niamh’s vision is real 38:22 Tomi: Competitive healthcare 43:55 Sendhil: Virtues of randomness 49:44 Niamh: Multiple agent drama 52:54 Tomi’s final remarks DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    55 min

  7. Apr 14

    How Will OpenClaw Change Agentic AI? (ep 26)

    OpenClaw, the latest AI chatbot to go viral, has some key differences from ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. The agentic AI developed by Peter Steinberger is open source and hosted on your own computer. You also can talk to it via messaging apps like WhatsApp. So how does OpenClaw work? What are the implications for the AI industry overall? How will it affect the adoption of artificial general intelligence, or household robots? And what are the security concerns that OpenClaw may trigger? Host Ajay Agrawal explores these issues and more with the Derby Mill team.   Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners Richard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of Alberta Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms Suzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS     Background on OpenClaw:  Y Combinator interviews OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger  OpenClaw explained Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts  DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Cold open  01:05 What is OpenClaw? 02:08 Difference from chatbots 03:44 OpenClaw’s abilities (Niamh) 04:49 WhatsApp interaction 06:14 Sendhil Mullainathan’s take 09:39 Suzanne Gildert’s take 12:50 Rich Sutton’s take 14:44 OpenClaw security concern 17:27 Niamh on OpenClaw implications 19:05 Final implications: Sendhil CREDITS Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau.  DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    22 min

  8. Apr 7

    Rethinking Humanoid Robots (The Derby Mill Series ep 25)

    Are humanoid robots using the best possible form factor, or should we consider a wholesale redesign if we’re seeking the most useful mechanical helpers for daily living? Drawing on recent demonstrations at CES, China’s Spring Festival Gala and the India AI Impact Summit, the Derby Mill team explores the implications of ever-advancing robotics capabilities.  Ajay Agrawal and collaborators Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan, Niamh Gavin and Suzanne Gildert explore public hesitancy around in-home robots. They explain why dexterity and reliability in everyday settings remain unsolved problems, and discuss the technical realities of robot hands. Why is learning from trial and error so essential to advance the field? Plus: What’s with the obsession with human-like bodies? What about radically different robot forms inspired by nature, like the octopus? GUESTS AND HOSTS Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth PartnersRichard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of AlbertaSendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MITNiamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent PlatformsSuzanne Gildert, CEO, Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, quantum physicist, co-founder of Sanctuary AI and Kindred LINKS     Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts  Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau.  DISCUSSION POINTS 00:00 Current perceptions and evolving expectations for the future of robotics00:44 Highlights from global robotics summits01:45 Market penetration and the commercial realities of emerging robot types02:58 Consumer sentiment and safety concerns regarding robotics in domestic environments04:15 Sector-specific applications for robots in industrial, data centre and military settings05:40 Roadblocks to general-purpose utility and the timeline for home adoption06:25 Shifting from humanoid to specialized robotic designs in factories and warehouses07:06 Technical limitations of robotic dexterity compared to human fine motor control08:28 Mechanical hand design: tendon and motor placement trade-offs09:25 The software bottleneck and the necessity of trial-and-error learning from experience10:21 De-centering the human form factor in the exploration of robotic physicality11:41 Infrastructure limits and the anthropomorphic design debate in human environments DISCLAIMER The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com

    14 min
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A podcast all about artificial intelligence, LLMs, machine learning and reinforcement learning, featuring the founders building the next generation of AI-driven companies. Host Ajay Agrawal leads panellists Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan, Niamh Gavin and Suzanne Gildert through discussions with entrepreneurs. Each episode explores what’s possible when cutting-edge research meets real-world implementation. insights.intrepidgp.com

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