Europe on Edge

Filipe Barata

Europe on Edge is a long-form podcast about Europe’s future in AI, science, and innovation. It features deep conversations with top researchers, founders, and investors on what Europe must do to stay globally competitive.

Episodes

  1. 17h ago

    #3 — Max Buckley: AI Search, Coding Agents, Europe’s AI Competitiveness, Frontier Models, the Future of Software

    Max Buckley is the Head of Knowledge Research at Exa, an AI search company building web search and retrieval infrastructure for AI agents. Previously, he spent over a decade at Google, working across software engineering, machine learning, and AI. Thank you for listening! MAX BUCKLEY LINKS: Signal and Stories podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCPkh4LukoNxq267xVqknemQ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxbuckley/ SPONSORS: ETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/ PODCAST LINKS https://www.europeonedge.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/europeonedge/ SOCIAL https://x.com/fbar3000 https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipe-barata/ TIME STAMPS 00:00 Trailer 00:33 Meet Max Buckley 01:11 What Exa Actually Does 03:06 Agents And Web Search 04:27 Why RAG Needs Retrieval 06:54 Max Path Into IR 09:24 Learning Engineering Skills 11:41 From Google To Exa 16:08 Vector Search Book Connection 18:51 Pitching Zurich Office 22:03 US Vs Europe Talent 25:34 Why Join Exa And Today Work 30:09 Agents Break Determinism 31:50 Pros of Coding Agents 33:14 Infinite Custom Software 35:35 Verification Over Understanding 37:43 KernelBench GPU Leap 39:31 Moats Shrink Competition 40:38 Fable Guardrails Lockdown 47:41 Europe Access Risk 49:38 Open Source Or Closed 53:04 Wave of New Apps 56:48 Idea Noise And Literacy 59:36 Outsourcing Thinking Debate 01:03:40 Skills Shift Learning Rate 01:04:57 From Sacred Code To Speed 01:06:12 Knowing What You Build 01:07:14 Verification Over Mastery 01:08:05 AI Disruption Fears 01:09:40 Industries Ripe For AI 01:11:03 Sales And Human Trust 01:11:51 Student Skills For AI Era 01:14:12 AI As Private Tutor 01:16:08 Future Engineer Profile 01:19:17 Europe In The AI Race 01:21:19 Mistral And The Frontier Gap 01:23:20 Pay Talent Build Compute 01:26:44 Technologists In Government 01:30:15 Prestige Problem In Europe 01:32:52 Silver Linings And Sovereignty 01:36:01 How To Win As EU Startup 01:37:58 American Startup Mindset 01:40:29 Europe Talent Advantage 01:41:10 Work Culture Contrast 01:42:04 Startup Everywhere Mindset 01:43:05 Talent Drain and Capital Pull 01:44:29 Future of Search and RAG 01:46:30 Agentic Retrieval at Scale 01:48:03 AI Search Disrupts Publishing 01:49:56 Ads Bias and Governance 01:53:37 Layers in the AI Stack 01:56:17 Threads Memory and Cognitive Load 02:01:29 Week-Long Agents and Devin 02:05:20 Everyone Can Build Apps 02:08:05 AI Accelerates Game Development 02:10:48 One-Off Tools for Research 02:12:46 Inspector Gadget Workflow 02:13:38 Where to Find Exa

  2. Aug 18

    #2—Maximilian Niroomand: Europe’s AI Compute Race, GPU Scarcity, Inference, Open Source Models, Building Lyceum

    Maximilian Niroomand is the Co-Founder and CTO of Lyceum, a European AI infrastructure startup building the compute layer behind modern AI. Thank you for listening! SPONSORS: ETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/ PODCAST LINKS https://www.europeonedge.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/europeonedge/ SOCIAL https://x.com/fbar3000 https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipe-barata/ TIME STAMPS 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 00:49 What Lyceum Does 02:01 Inference Costs and Open Source 03:51 Why Keep Data in Europe 05:04 Sponsor Break ETH Juniors 05:52 Max’s Background and Motivation 08:27 Competition and Global Ambition 12:23 Why GPU Access Is Hard 17:12 Europe’s Compute Gap 19:22 Government Programs and Gigafactories 23:08 Startup Compute Reality Check 26:01 Lyceum’s Edge Speed and Supply 28:38 Fixing On Demand GPU Utilization 35:46 Inference Focus vs Training 38:12 Which Models Customers Use 38:45 Chinese Open Source Leads 41:27 Should Europe Build Its Own Models 41:54 Europe Needs Models 43:07 Performance Over Patriotism 44:11 Open Source Geopolitics 45:49 Scaling Inference Tech 47:43 Inference Boom vs Training 50:09 Building Infra in Europe 53:02 Europe Talent Advantage 54:59 Education Fundamentals Debate 01:00:08 Hiring and Coding Interviews 01:03:21 AI Coding Agents Reality 01:09:26 Future of AI Infrastructure 01:13:01 Compute Disparity Risks 01:14:57 Whats Next in AI 01:16:42 Follow Lyceum and Closing

  3. Aug 11

    #1—Philippe Aghion: Creative Destruction, AI Revolution, Europe vs. US & China, Schumpeter, Open Source, Jobs of the Future

    Philippe Aghion is a Nobel Prize-winning French economist and one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation, economic growth and creative destruction. Thank you for listening! SPONSORS: ETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/ PODCAST LINKS https://www.europeonedge.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/europeonedge/ SOCIAL https://x.com/fbar3000 https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipe-barata/ TIME STAMPS 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 00:36 Europe Falling Behind 01:25 Europe’s Hidden Strengths 03:13 Cultural and Policy Barriers 05:43 Research Funding Horizons 06:52 Savings and Capital Flight 07:33 Red Tape and Fragmented Markets 09:45 ETH Juniors Advertisement 10:35 Coalition of the Willing 11:46 Creative Destruction Explained 14:59 Institutions That Sustain Growth 16:14 Talent Pipeline and Brain Drain 18:34 Flexicurity the Danish Model 20:21 AI as the Next Revolution 22:05 AI Competition Policy Playbook 25:30 Jobs Transition and Skills 28:07 Open Source vs Closed AI 28:51 Safety as a Barrier to Entry 29:38 AI Funding Bubble Fears 30:18 Why It’s Not Doomsday 30:42 Europe’s AI Catch-Up Plan 32:12 Values-Driven European AI 32:43 AI Safety and Blackmail Story 35:09 How Fast Innovation Moves 36:05 Using LLMs as a Researcher 38:36 Student Advice Option Value 40:16 Optimism as a Discipline 42:37 Brain Drain and Coming Back 44:22 Painting Europe’s 2040 Future 49:40 Wake-Up Call and Closing

  4. Season 1 Trailer

    Trailer

    A first glimpse into the podcast’s theme.

    Trailer

Trailer

About

Europe on Edge is a long-form podcast about Europe’s future in AI, science, and innovation. It features deep conversations with top researchers, founders, and investors on what Europe must do to stay globally competitive.

Information

  • Creator
    Filipe Barata
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Filipe Barata
  • Show Website
    Europe on Edge