Kate Clark

Shows

Episodes

  1. An ex-Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning comes at a very interesting time

    1d ago

    An ex-Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning comes at a very interesting time

    An Anthropic researcher resigned this week, warning in a post on X that the company is “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”. The company's own alignment lead even co-signed the message rather than walking it back. It's the kind of doomer warning the AI industry has flirted with before, but the timing, with Anthropic reportedly preparing for an IPO, makes it land differently.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the latest AI safety warning and what it says about the industry's race toward increasingly capable models. Plus, Apple's first big event under new CEO John Ternus and more of the week's headlines.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Apple leaned hard into AI at its hardware event, and how always-on features baked into the Watch and AirPods may matter more than the splashy new foldable iPhone  How Stokes Space's $1 billion raise reflects a launch market that's suddenly wide open now that SpaceX is winding down its Falcon rockets  Why investors poured $2 billion into coding startup Cognition at a $48 billion valuation, and what it says about how much room VCs think is left in AI coding  What a $50 million seed round for floating nuclear reactors says about the scramble to power AI data centers  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:  00:00 Intro  3:28 Anthropic researcher's resignation warning  9:33 What's actually being done about AI risk?  15:56 Apple's AI-first hardware event  19:56 The case against a standalone AI wearable  21:53 Always-on listening: watch, AirPods, and privacy tradeoffs  26:43 The foldable iPhone's odds  27:16 Stoke Space raises $1B for a reusable rocket  31:17 Cognition raises $2B, betting on room for more AI coding players  34:13 BlueCore Energy's floating nuclear reactors  37:38 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  2. ControlAI's Connor Leahy on why superintelligence is ‘not a weapon, it's an adversary’

    3d ago

    ControlAI's Connor Leahy on why superintelligence is ‘not a weapon, it's an adversary’

    AI companies have been talking about superintelligent AI like it's inevitable, but recent safety incidents like OpenAI's Hugging Face breach are demonstrating the potential dangers of deploying AI systems that are more capable than humans. So what happens when we can't reliably control what these systems do?  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Connor Leahy, an AI researcher, entrepreneur, and now the U.S. Executive Director of nonprofit ControlAI, which is pushing for a far more radical approach to AI safety: stopping companies from developing superintelligence altogether. Leahy explains why he thinks the risks have become too great to manage through alignment and containment alone, and how what sounded far-fetched six months ago is now being backed by a wave of new legislation.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  His take on the Sanders-Casar “Ban Superintelligence Act,” the parallel legislation in the U.K. that Control AI advised on, and why he thinks the U.S. bill may go further than necessary.  How he views frontier AI labs less as companies simply chasing returns and more as political actors, and what that means for the trillions of dollars being poured into data center buildouts.  Why Leahy thinks the real point of no return is when AI can build better AI, creating a potentially runaway cycle of self-improvement  The case for international “trust but verify” agreements, and why Leahy thinks it isn't actually in China's interest to build superintelligence.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  3. Apple's Ternus era begins as Nvidia bets on the whole AI stack

    Sep 4

    Apple's Ternus era begins as Nvidia bets on the whole AI stack

    It's officially the Ternus era at Apple.   Tim Cook stepped down as CEO this week, handing the company to former hardware chief John Ternus, whose first memo promised a “huge launch next week” — timing that puts Apple's next iPhone event on his desk before he's even settled in. Cook isn't going far, though: he's staying on as executive chairman, focused on the kind of policy relationships that recently turned something as small as a map label into a very public balancing act. All of which raises an obvious question: what does the Ternus era look like, and how much rope will shareholders give him to figure it out?  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane unpack what Ternus is walking into, why he may actually be better positioned to make progress on software than hardware in this new AI era, and more of the week's news.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Nvidia keeps making moves that look less like a chipmaker and more like a company trying to own the entire AI stack, from its Hugging Face acquisition to its investment in MediaTek and deeper compute deals  A chaotic week for robotaxis: Tesla's Cybercab event, Waymo's expansion into new cities, Zoox's first paid rides, and what happens when these companies start competing head-to-head  What Andreessen Horowitz's new $1.1 billion “Machine Age” fund signals about where early-stage AI hardware bets are headed  Why the $285 million acquisition of GoPro marks the end of an era for one of Silicon Valley's original consumer tech darlings  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Chapters: 00:00 Intro  1:12 Tim Cook steps down & John Ternus takes over as CEO  13:33 Nvidia's spreading its AI bets  21:58 A big week for robotaxis: Tesla, Waymo, Zoox & Uber  29:09 a16z's $1.1B "machine age" fund and $8.5B growth fund  32:39 GoPro's $285M acquisition and pivot to AI/defense  36:34 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  4. We're ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory according to Pangram's CEO

    Sep 2

    We're ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory according to Pangram's CEO

    The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews, and even insurance claims, leaving platforms and users alike scrambling to figure out what’s real.  A handful of startups have cropped up in the past couple of years to become the “trust layer” the internet needs — including Pangram. The startup recently snapped up $9 million for its AI detection system and landed a partnership with Substack, which is now using Pangram’s tech to show readers which of their favorite authors use AI to write their newsletters. Pangram also recently dropped a new AI image detection tool.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Pangram co-founder and CEO Max Spero joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into the promise of AI detection tools and where to draw the line between AI assisted and AI generated.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Spero thinks the internet could be “dangerously close” to the dead internet theory becoming reality within a few years.  Why figuring out how much AI went into something is harder — and potentially more useful — than simply labeling it AI or human.  The stakes of getting AI detection wrong, especially when false positives involve sensitive images.  Why Spero thinks the “bottom tier” of writing jobs may be gone for good, while genuinely good human writing could become more valuable.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters:    00:00 Intro  1:15 Building Pangram: from binary detector to gauging AI assistance  2:06 Why job applications, reviews, and Amazon are drowning in slop  5:39 How Pangram actually spots AI writing  9:26 Where people draw the line on AI-assisted vs. AI-generated  12:50 The false positive problem, and "America has a Pangram problem"  14:30 Detecting fake images, now that AI photos are scarily good  19:13 Competing with GPTZero, Winston, and building "core infrastructure"  21:43 Will good writing jobs actually come back?  23:36 Outro   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  5. Will TikTok and YouTube follow Meta’s new rules for teens?

    Aug 28

    Will TikTok and YouTube follow Meta’s new rules for teens?

    Earlier this week, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion and make sweeping changes to how minors access its social networks to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 states. But the eye-popping settlement figure wasn't what caught the attention of the Equity podcast team. Instead, it was what Meta did next. The social media giant sent an open letter to TikTok and YouTube asking the companies to join it in setting industry-wide standards for teens, including daily time limits, blocking access to apps at night, and restricting notifications during school hours. But will these other companies follow? The Equity team doesn't think they will. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, and Sean O'Kane dig into the Meta settlement, what it could mean for other social media companies, and more of the week’s headlines.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How investors are pouring money into robotics startups and driving up valuations. For instance, Generalist reached a $3 billion valuation, while General Intuition hit the $6 billion mark. Even though robotics is a hot sector, there is pain point: robots still lack the know-how to do value-creating work. What senior reporter Sean O'Kane discovered when he dug into OSHA data connected to robotaxi companies like Waymo and Zoox. What self-driving truck startup Gatik's $200 million raise means for the sector. Hugging Face is reportedly being acquired by Nvidia. The team weighs in what this means for the industry. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  6. The DOJ is investigating a16z. What does this mean for venture capital?

    Aug 21

    The DOJ is investigating a16z. What does this mean for venture capital?

    Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that's rarely used against VCs.  Board conflicts aren't exactly new, and these companies weren't necessarily direct competitors when a16z first invested in them. But as portfolio companies expand into each other's markets, the DOJ's scrutiny raises a much bigger question for venture firms: How do you manage board seats when the boundaries between your portfolio companies keep moving?  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the a16z probe, what it could mean for VCs, and more of the week’s headlines.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Stripe paid $7.5 billion for AI model router OpenRouter, and why the “singularity” isn't the real reason  What happens to the AI companies caught in the middle as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nvidia pull further ahead  Why Rivian spinout Also just raised $150 million to make a bigger bet on autonomous vehicles  Uber’s newest delivery partnership with drone company Zipline, and what it means for the other autonomous startups betting their futures on Uber  Whether we've reached peak valuation for AI dictation apps after Wispr's $280 million raise at a $2 billion valuation  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:    00:00 Intro  1:02 TechCrunch Disrupt and the Startup Battlefield 200  3:17 The DOJ is investigating a16z over board seats  14:47 Why Stripe just paid $7.5B for “the Stripe for AI”  18:18 The mid-tier AI scramble: gateways, pivots, and acquihires  23:17 Anthropic's revenue surges while OpenAI's losses deepen  27:08 Also raises $150M and drops the “micro mobility” label  32:30 Uber teams up with Zipline for drone delivery  37:19 Wispr hits a $2B valuation  38:26 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  7. From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network

    Aug 26

    From the Spotify Mafia to the Lovable Mafia: inside Stockholm's founder network

    Vibe-coding darling Lovable just raised $400 million at a $13.3 billion valuation, roughly doubling its worth in eight months. But Lovable isn’t the only Stockholm startup putting up huge numbers lately — legal AI company Legora and health tech startup Neko Health are right there with it.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis is joined by Sophia Bendz, a partner at Cherry Ventures and longtime fixture of Europe’s startup scene, to unpack what’s driving startup growth in the Nordic ecosystem, from Sweden’s social safety net to the wave of U.S. capital flowing in.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How the “Spotify Mafia” set the template for founders funneling their time, capital, and hard-won lessons back into Stockholm ecosystem, and how the same cycle may be starting again with the “Lovable Mafia”  Why Sweden’s social safety net might be fueling founders’ willingness to take bigger swings  Why Bendz is seeing American investors flying into Stockholm and handing out term sheets with little to no diligence, and the culture clash that’s creating with local funds  How Europe’s sovereignty conversation is shaping how founders and investors think about building, even as most of them still plan to IPO in New York  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Chapters:  00:00 Intro  0:50 Why Stockholm’s startup ecosystem is accelerating  2:34 How Stockholm’s “Spotify mafia” passes knowledge down  4:10 Founders House and building a culture of mentorship  5:50 Does Sweden’s social safety net make founders more ambitious?  10:00 Is there a “Lovable mafia” now?  10:00 Europe’s push for tech sovereignty  14:00 The U.S. venture capital flooding Stockholm  18:08 How Europe can build more growth-stage funds  19:45 Founders are asking VCs, “How can you help me?”  21:05 Stockholm’s tech conferences  25:51 Could robotics become Stockholm’s next big thing?  29:45 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  8. Jill Lepore on the ‘Artificial State,’ and why Silicon Valley's leaders are bad sci-fi readers

    Aug 7

    Jill Lepore on the ‘Artificial State,’ and why Silicon Valley's leaders are bad sci-fi readers

    Historian Jill Lepore has a theory about why tech companies often use soaring language to describe their products — almost as if they're forming a new government. And whether you're thinking of Twitter's old “town hall in your pocket” or Anthropic's Claude constitution, it's a theory that doesn't paint Silicon Valley in a very flattering light.   In Lepore's upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker writer argues that tech companies are gradually taking on the functions of democratic government — whether that’s Twitter giving a distorted picture of the electorate or Facebook displacing local news. In her view, these leaders often mistake technological advancement for political progress, all while outright declaring their intention to replace the nation-state.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha talks with Lepore about her book and why she thinks today's AI leaders — who promise a future where AI makes government more efficient, more responsive, and maybe even unnecessary — are selling an old fantasy in new packaging.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why Lepore sees a straight line from the classic 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's AI constitution and Sam Altman's comments about an “AI president”  How E.M. Forster’s 1909 sci-fi story “The Machine Stops” provides a blueprint for the artificial state, and why Lepore says it now reads like “the diary of a very unhappy YouTuber”  Why Lepore believes the artificial state is ultimately unsustainable, and what she thinks it would take to rein it in  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:  00:00 Intro  0:49 Defining the “artificial state”  2:17 Why corporations quietly took over state functions  4:43 Could the internet have gone another way?  9:01 From the 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic's constitution  10:20 The Twitter “town hall” myth  13:36 Structuring the book: history meets science fiction  17:46 The Machine Stops, and other bad manuals for the future  19:16 Musk, Heinlein, and misreading sci-fi  19:41 Why Lepore thinks the artificial state is “doomed”  21:51 Data centers, local politics, and the death of local news  24:44 Revisiting disruptive innovation, ten years later  26:54 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  9. AI has a GPU pricing problem. Silicon Data wants to fix it.

    Aug 19

    AI has a GPU pricing problem. Silicon Data wants to fix it.

    The AI buildout shows no signs of slowing. And with hundreds of billions of dollars a year going into data centers and GPUs, compute has become the single biggest cost for anyone building AI products. But for all that spending, there still isn’t a straightforward way to put a price on compute — or for firms to hedge their exposure when the price changes.  Silicon Data just closed a $30 million Series A to change that. The startup aims to become the reference price for GPU rental and an index that a Wall Street futures contract would settle against. The company plans to launch its compute futures trading on the CME October 5th, pending regulatory approval.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Steve Hou, head of research at Silicon Data, to discuss the health of the AI buildout, and why the data is telling a different story than the doom and gloom headlines about depreciating chips and stalled data centers.  Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  What happens if OpenAI or Anthropic can’t make good on the massive compute commitments they’ve already promised, and whether “compute default” becomes a risk.  Why rental demand for older A100 chips is holding up, even as newer and more powerful GPUs hit the market.  If compute futures could make it easier for neo-clouds to finance expensive data centers by locking in future rental revenue.  What rising GPU rental rates across every contract length since March say about AI demand.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:    00:00 Intro  0:59 Futures contracts explained  4:01 Can GPU compute actually be a commodity?  7:10 Who's really trading these: hyperscalers, AI labs, and market makers  14:32 Locking in prices to make data center debt easier to swallow  18:21 Inside the pricing data  20:25 The A100 mystery: why an old chip is still in high demand  22:56 Do GPUs depreciate as fast as everyone thinks?  23:20 Making sense of the Texas and New York data center pauses  25:40 What the futures curve says about where prices are headed  28:01 Silicon Data's $30M Series A and what's next  30:36 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  10. Inside Ode with Anthropic, the private equity-backed startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise

    Jul 15

    Inside Ode with Anthropic, the private equity-backed startup betting AI services are the future of enterprise

    Can a handful of engineers really do the work of an army of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode with Anthropic — the joint venture dedicated to embedding forward-deployed engineers in enterprise firms, backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others.     On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Ode’s leaders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel, who founded Fractional AI, the applied AI services startup that Ode acquired earlier this year to serve as the new venture’s core. The three discuss why so many enterprise AI pilots never make it to production and why they think AI-native services are about to become one of the biggest categories in tech.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The case for AI-native services, and why Ode believes small teams of applied AI engineers can unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in business value.  Why the company is hiring experienced generalists and former founders instead of AI researchers, and how it's turning them into elite FDEs.  Whether an AI services company can scale like software, yet maintain a boutique feel, and why Taylor believes Ode could one day become a trillion-dollar business.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:  00:00 Intro   00:30 Fractional AI becomes "Ode with Anthropic"  1:13 Why non-AI companies are the real AI winners  2:04 Working with Blackstone, Anthropic, and beyond  3:05 Inside a real project: fixing LogicGate's bottleneck  7:29 How long does it take from hypothesis to production?  9:19 Measuring ROI: revenue, efficiency, and evals  16:37 Model choice vs. workflow redesign, and why it's Claude-first  23:10 Hiring generalists over specialized AI talent  26:39 Can this scale without turning into another consulting firm?  30:49 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  11. Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital

    Aug 5

    Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital

    Venture firms are turning to creators to build trust with the next generation of founders before a check is ever written. It's a trend that's been building with a16z's acquisition of Erik Torenberg’s Turpentine podcast and OpenAI's acquisition of TBPN. Lightspeed Venture Partners just made its own notable hire in that vein, bringing on Claire Zau, a seed investor with a major following on Instagram and TikTok, to source deals and co-host the firm's new show, Lightwork, alongside CMO Josh Machiz.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis is joined by Zau and Machiz to dive deep into whether the “creator-investor” is becoming a real function in venture or just something firms are still trying to figure out.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  How an Instagram DM turned into a hire, and why Machiz says Zau’s investing instincts (not just her follower count) made her stand out from other creators.  Why Zau thinks tech Twitter is a “minuscule” slice of the tech-curious audience, and what she's learned about public sentiment on AI that doesn't show up on X.  How Lightspeed measures ROI on a media operation that's hard to tie directly to deal flow.  The founder and portfolio-company stories that came out of Zau's content, including how a single video helped land a health-tech founder a meeting with Shaq.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  12. Meta's “open” AI, data centers' hidden costs, and a $250M deal gone very wrong

    Aug 14

    Meta's “open” AI, data centers' hidden costs, and a $250M deal gone very wrong

    Meta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should be “for everyone” rather than controlled by a handful of labs, but as Equity’s hosts point out, the vision comes with some asterisks.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan take a look at Glimmer, Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word manifesto, and more of the week’s headlines, from the true cost of the AI industry’s energy needs to a $250M acquisition gone very wrong.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:    Who’s on the market for a $300 cocktail robot?  Why Anthropic is adding watermarks to its generated text, and users are not happy.  The potential cost Amazon’s planned data center in Texas and the startups racing to fix the grid, including Form Energy’s $750M raise for 100-hour batteries, Reservoir’s $8M bet on smarter water heaters, and Discovered Materials’ hunt for cooler chips.  Why Joby Aviation’s $500M acquisition of a defense contractor reminds Kirsten of its Blade deal last year — and what the 2028 LA Olympics have to do with it.  How a $250M deal between video-clipping startup VideoVerse and sports publisher Minute Media collapsed amidst allegedly forged documents, multiple lawsuits, and a CEO nobody can reach.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    00:00 Intro  1:20 Would you buy a $300 cocktail robot?  3:08 Meta's Glimmer and the “AI for everyone” pitch  8:03 Anthropic starts watermarking its writing, and users have thoughts  14:34 Amazon's data center and its natural gas problem  16:37 The startups racing to keep the grid from melting down: Form Energy, Reservoir, and Discovered Materials  23:28 Joby Aviation buys into defense with Resonant Sciences  28:24 The $250M VideoVerse-Minute Media deal, a missing CEO, and a mess of lawsuits  32:37 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  13. Humble Robotics’ CEO says the tech finally caught up to the vision for autonomous vehicles

    Jul 1

    Humble Robotics’ CEO says the tech finally caught up to the vision for autonomous vehicles

    We've said it before, and we'll say it again: the autonomous vehicle space is starting to feel like a repeat of the 2016 hype cycle. Travis Kalanick is back building a robotics company, and the talent wars and capital are heating up the same way they did the first time around. The money's flowing back, and it's the people who lived through that first wave who are building the next one.  Humble Robotics founder and CEO Eyal Cohen is one of them. Cohen was at Otto when Uber came calling, later followed Anthony Levandowski to Pronto, and after two decades bouncing between deep tech bets in the Bay Area, his new company came out of stealth in April with $24 million to build a fully autonomous, cabless electric hauler for freight.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Cohen joins Kirsten Korosec to talk about AV déjà vu and what he's learned from 15 years of building startups across electrification, solar, and robotics.     Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The bet behind Humble's cabless design and why "the simplest possible robotics platform" was the starting point  How vision models are replacing months of hand-built engineering work that used to go into recognizing things like traffic cones and stop signs  Why Cohen thinks culture beats out compensation when it comes to securing talent in robotics these days  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  14. The multibillion-dollar AI security problem enterprises can't ignore

    Jan 14

    The multibillion-dollar AI security problem enterprises can't ignore

    AI agents are supposed to make work easier. Instead, they're creating a whole new category of security nightmares.    As companies deploy AI-powered chatbots, agents, and copilots across their operations, they're facing a new risk: how do you let employees and AI agents use powerful AI tools without accidentally leaking sensitive data, violating compliance rules, or opening the door to prompt-based injections? Witness AI just raised $58 million to find a solution, building what they call "the confidence layer for enterprise AI."    Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan was joined by Barmak Meftah, co-founder and partner at Ballistic Ventures, and Rick Caccia, CEO of Witness AI, to discuss what enterprises are actually worried about, why AI security become an $800 billion to $1.2 trillion market by 2031, and what happens when AI agents start talking to other AI agents without human oversight.    Listen to the full episode to hear:   How enterprises accidentally leak sensitive data through "shadow AI" usage.  What CISOs are actually worried about right now, how the problem has evolved rapidly over 18 months, and what it will look like over the next year.  Why traditional cybersecurity approaches don't work for AI agents.  Real examples of AI agents going rogue, including one that threatened to blackmail an employee.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  15. Andrew Yang on Noble Mobile, UBI, and why he's done waiting for policy to catch up

    Jun 10

    Andrew Yang on Noble Mobile, UBI, and why he's done waiting for policy to catch up

    Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign was based on a warning that automation and AI would hollow out the labor market and concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. At the time, ideas like Universal Basic Income felt fringe. Now Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Bernie Sanders are all saying versions of the same thing.  An entrepreneur at heart, Yang has found a new way to put money back into the hands of the people — one phone bill at a time. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talks to Yang about his startup Noble Mobile, which pays you to use your phone less, ways to combat the “attention economy,” and what startups can do when the government won't move.  Listen to the full episode to hear:  Why Yang thinks the $100 billion gap between what Americans and Europeans pay for wireless is a startup opportunity.  How a partnership with the Light Phone fits into the growing "together tech" movement, and why Yang has been throwing no-phone parties in LA and NYC.  What he actually thinks of Bernie Sanders' proposed AI sovereign wealth fund, and why he's skeptical the money should flow through government at all.  Why UBI isn't a salary replacement but a "landing pad,” and what Noble Mobile's $600-a-year savings has to do with it.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  16. NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning

    Jun 17

    NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning

    Tokenmaxxing was the hottest trend in Silicon Valley earlier this year, with CEOs encouraging employees to push AI usage as far as it would go. Then the bill came due. Uber reportedly blew through its annual AI budget in a few months, some companies cut Claude licenses for parts of their org, and Meta killed its internal leaderboard.  This tension between hype and ROI is exactly where NEA partner Tiffany Luck lives these days. She got her start convincing companies that e-commerce was the future, and now she's all in on AI, especially when it comes to the possibilities for "magic moments" in the consumer business.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Luck joins Rebecca Bellan to talk about the future of personal agents, her thoughts on this year's AI IPOs, and how startups are stepping in to help enterprises track return on AI spend.  Listen to the full episode to hear:  What the tokenmaxxing-to-ROI shift means for how companies measure AI spend.  Why forward deployed engineers are becoming a "Trojan horse" for AI adoption.  How enterprises are mixing and matching models instead of committing to one provider.  Why Tiffany thinks value is being created at every layer of the AI stack, not just at the model layer.    Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.    Chapters:  00:00 Intro  00:51 Tiffany Luck's path from Lot18 to Amazon to VC  3:45 Magic moments: Waymo, healthcare, and the gap in personal agents  7:36 Privacy, security, and trusting AI with your life  10:39 IPO outlook: Anthropic vs. OpenAI on public markets  13:58 Compute, infrastructure, and where the value sits  15:41 What’s the ROI on tokenmaxxing?  27:07 Forward deployed engineers as a ‘Trojan horse’  32:49 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  17. Does your CEO have AI psychosis? Aaron Levie thinks most of them do.

    May 29

    Does your CEO have AI psychosis? Aaron Levie thinks most of them do.

    The people deciding that AI can replace your job are also the ones least likely to understand what your job truly involves, according to Box founder Aaron Levie, who pointed to this as an example of "AI psychosis.” Indeed, ClickUp recently cut 22% of its workforcefor AI agents, tech layoffs in 2026 are already nearly matching all of 2025, and DuckDuckGo installs are climbing from users who want Google to stop forcing AI into search and just give them links.  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what happens when the AI-pilled and the AI-skeptical are both right at the same time, plus three deals worth knowing about and Waymo's new robotaxi hitting the road.  Listen to the full episode to hear:  Kirsten's first look at Waymo's new Ojai robotaxi in Phoenix, and the crew's thoughts on the company's path to profitability  Cloud data storage giant Snowflake’s $6 billion five-year agreement with AWS  Why Stord, the "anti-Amazon" fulfillment startup, just raised $250 million at a $3 billion valuation  What OpenRouter's $113 million raise says about the picks-and-shovels layer, and how long that interest lasts  How the AI agent wave is actually reshaping hiring, not just headcount  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Chapters:  00:00 Intro  01:18 Waymo's new Ojai robotaxi  06:41 Stord raises $250M to take on Amazon fulfillment  12:46 Snowflake signs $6B deal with AWS  15:39 OpenRouter raises $113M Series B  20:07 The AI divide & anti-AI backlash  27:31 AI psychosis & how AI is reshaping headcount and hiring  37:04 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  18. How Poppi went from a Shark Tank pitch to a $1.95B exit

    Mar 11

    How Poppi went from a Shark Tank pitch to a $1.95B exit

    For years, venture capitalists have been skeptical of beverage startups, citing thin margins and brutal distribution as reasons most brands never break out. But a new wave of “functional soda” companies has been challenging that assumption, including Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand that grew from a kitchen experiment into a $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo.  On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth to talk about building a beverage startup in a venture world dominated by SaaS and AI. From pitching on Shark Tank while nine months pregnant to scaling a digital-first brand during COVID, and now returning as a Shark herself, Ellsworth shares how social media, fast marketing bets, and customer feedback helped turn a niche drink into a category-defining company.  Listen to the full episode to hear about:  Ellsworth’s Shark Tank return, and how she evaluates founders on the other side of the pitch.  How Ellsworth turned a personal health issue into Poppi and built early traction at farmers' markets.  Why TikTok and community-driven marketing helped the brand rack up billions of views and loyal fans.  The risky decision to buy a last-minute Super Bowl ad, and how the team executed it in days.  What it’s like selling a startup to PepsiCo while trying to preserve the brand’s identity.  Why beverage startups almost inevitably need acquisition-level distribution to scale.  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  19. AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off

    Jul 31

    AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off

    After years of pushing full speed ahead on AI, Sam Altman says maybe it’s time for the AI industry to “pace” itself. The comments come just days after one of OpenAI's own models broke out of its test environment and got tangled up in a breach at Hugging Face, though as Equity’s hosts point out, sloppy security seems to have been just as much to blame as the model itself. Altman's not alone in this stance: both OpenAI and Anthropic have come out in support of a petition echoing that same message.    On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into whether the industry is ready to pump the brakes or just spooked, and who's on the hook when a model goes rogue.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  The viral “Avoiding AI” workshops hosted by librarians to help people opt out of AI features they didn't ask for  How Amazon's new 5,000-satellite bid to connect directly to your phone could turn up the heat on SpaceX (even though it's unclear if anyone actually wants satellite-to-phone service)  Why somehow there's room for one more AI lab: Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus's new startup, Prentis, is in talks to raise $100M at a $1B valuation  How Pangram raised $9 million to help publishers, teachers, and readers tell human writing from AI slop  Why DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business instead of just relying on partners like Wing and Flytrex  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Chapters:  00:00 Intro  1:18 Zoox gets its robotaxi exemption  2:11 Sam Altman calls for pacing the frontier  6:01 The Hugging Face hack, dissected  10:12 Responsibility, regulation, and the Elon Musk wildcard  13:29 Librarians teaching people to unplug from AI  15:16 Prentice: a new AI lab raises at a $1B valuation  16:46 Amazon files for its own satellite-to-phone network  18:42 SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the launch-business angle  23:48 Pangram raises $9M to detect AI slop  29:23 DoorDash builds its own delivery drones  33:24 Outro  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  20. The US banned Anthropic's Fable 5 release, but the numbers don't seem to care

    Jun 19

    The US banned Anthropic's Fable 5 release, but the numbers don't seem to care

    Just as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5's guardrails.  Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the same jailbreaks exist in other models. So is this a genuine security concern, or just the latest chapter in a messy relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration?  On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, and Rebecca Bellan unpack what the ban means for developers building on Anthropic's platform and for anyone watching the IPO, why it might accidentally be good for the company, and more of the week’s headlines.    Listen to the full episode to hear more about:  Why the UK's social media ban for users under 16 might be the lesser of two evils  What the SpaceX-Cursor acquisition tells us about xAI's strategy (and its gaps)  Jeff Bezos's $12B bet on physical AI with Prometheus, the startup trying to build an "artificial engineer"  Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Clark on Apple