Generative Now | AI Builders on Creating the Future

Latest Episodes:

Scott Belsky: Content Creators, Creativity, and Marketing in the AI Landscape Mar 21, 2024

Show notes

What is the role of a human content creator in a world with AI generated content? It’s a critical piece of the puzzle, according to Scott Belsky, Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Design and Emerging Products at Adobe. Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano for a conversation about the evolution of marketing with generative content, the future of personalization, and overlooked opportunities in the AI landscape.

This conversation took place at the Robin Hood Opportunity x AI Summit. Robin Hood is the largest foundation fighting poverty in New York City. The group has invested nearly $3.5 billion over 35 years and Robin Hood supports all five boroughs with food pantries, high-performing schools, job-training programs, shelters and more. The group has a venture-like approach; they scale programs that are working and found new programs to fill gaps. Robin Hood has also announced $1 million challenges for tools using AI to fight poverty. You can learn more at https://www.aipovertychallenge.org/. You don't have to be a non-profit or based in NYC to apply.

Episode Chapters
(00:00) Robin Hood Opportunity x AI Summit.
(00:43) Robinhood: Fighting Poverty with AI
(01:42) Scott Belsky on AI and Creativity
(02:02) The Impact of AI on the Creative Process
(05:16) The Role of Creators
(6:28) AI Generated Content on Social Media
(9:09) Customers Inspiring Product Development
(11:09) The Hyper Personalization of Digital Experiences
(15:07) Overlooked Business Opportunities in AI
(19:48) How AIs Can Scale SMBs
(21:56) Legal Risks with Enterprise Adoption
(26:12) Custom Tuned Models Generated From IP
(27:44) The Rise of AI Agents
(30:22) Why Scott Belsky is An AI Optimist

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The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see ⁠lsvp.com/legal⁠.

Gary Hustwit: Revolutionizing Filmmaking with Generative AI Mar 14, 2024

Show notes

Since the beginning of cinema, movies have held to the same format - a linear narrative, told the same way each time. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit wants to change all that. With his new documentary Eno, he’s broken the mold on movies. Hustwit has harnessed the power of generative AI to produce a movie you can never see twice. Through careful editing and groundbreaking software development, Hustwit and his collaborators built an engine that assembles a one-of-a-kind movie for every viewing. Same footage, different sequence. You have to see it to believe it.

Episode Chapters
(00:00) Introduction to Gary Hustwit
(04:06) “Eno,” Generative Film about Brian Eno
(10:14) Making a Movie That’s Different Every Time
(13:04) Programming a Generative Film
(15:56) Poetry, Code and Software
(19:09) Role of Human Editors
(21:09) How will Streaming Platforms Adapt?
(24:44) AI Disrupting Traditional Filmmaking
(28:19) Sora from OpenAI
(32:07) Anamorph, Filmmaking and Technology Company
(36:45) What’s Next for Gary Hustwit

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Mikey Shulman: Suno and the Sound of AI Music Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

Most of the hype around AI has revolved around its text capabilities, and the powers of LLMs like ChatGPT. But Suno is focusing on the unsung hero of AI - music. Suno is building a future where anyone can make good music - all you need to do is type in a prompt, and out will come a song that’s never existed before. Mikey Shulman, CEO and Co-Founder of Suno, joins Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano to talk through the intricacies of programming for sound, and what this technology could mean for music.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Mikey Shulman and Suno

(04:03) How transcribing S&P earnings calls inspired Suno

(08:41) There’s no Common Crawl for audio - they had to make their own

(12:37) Hacking text-to-speech to make music

(16:25) What’s the product market fit for generative music?

(21:15) How will AI change the format of music?

(28:44) Suno’s highlight reel so far

(31:39) Designing with the end user in mind

(38:26) Can AI transcend the creativity ceiling?

(40:48) How does Mikey think regulation and music rights will shake out?

(46:19) Is Suno hiring?

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Gustav Söderström: Catapulting Spotify to the Front of the AI Revolution Feb 08, 2024

Show notes

Spotify’s personalized recommendations have set it apart from the pack of music streaming platforms for years. Those curated recommendations have only gotten stronger with the onset of AI, with the ability to power things like your own personal AI DJ. In this episode, Spotify’s Co-President, CPO & CTO, Gustav Söderström, joins host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to talk about building UX that can power more efficient AI, the future of AGI, and what the technology could look live over the next few iterations.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) An introduction to Gustav Söderström

(01:29) How Spotify became one of the first consumer AI companies

(05:57) A philosophical shift: UI that works for AI, not the other way around

(12:52) “Talk is cheap, so do a lot of it”

(15:00) Building for the tech we will have, not the tech we do have

(19:43) What will AI do for media creation?

(25:00) The Wild West of model training

(29:45) How anthropomorphizing AI can help you understand its potential

(37:04) What happens when cognitive labor gets automated?

(40:42) How much more intelligent could AI get?

(47:45) Is AGI on the horizon, or already here?

(53:48) Should we be worried about AGI?

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Sarah Guo and Elad Gil: The Future of AI Investing Feb 01, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, long-time entrepreneur and startup investor Elad Gil and former Greylock General Partner and Conviction founder Sarah Guo join host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to take a look at the broadening world of AI investing. The three discuss the surprise of ChatGPT3, the future of AI consumer products, and the potential UI evolution AI platforms could bring.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Sarah Guo and Elad Gil, investors extraordinaire

(03:45) 2023 was the year of AI - did they see it coming?

(11:12) The go-forward opportunity for foundational models

(16:31) What does the next app wave look like?

(19:01) Who’s winning AI: Consumer or Enterprise??

(23:35) Will SMBs leverage AI or will SMBs be the new BigCo’s as a result of AI??

(31:30) Vertically integrated models

(39:54) Chat as an interface: the future or the past?

(49:19) Hardware x AI

(55:45) Will Web3 be the way to verify authenticity?

(01:00:11) Where is regulation headed?

(01:02:13) Where to listen to No Priors

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Ariel Cohen: How Navan Leveled Up with a Pivot to AI Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

Generative AI took the world by storm with the launch of ChatGPT, and set companies worldwide scrambling to catch up to the possibilities. Navan, the only integrated business travel and expense solution, knew it had to run hard towards AI. Navan co-founder and CEO Ariel Cohen sat down with host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to discuss the mechanics of shifting a big company on the fly, and how Navan managed to pull it off.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Ariel Cohen and Navan

(06:39) How Navan makes business travel less of a headache

(10:11) Navan leverages personalization to make bookings more efficient

(12:38) Leveling up on expense tracking through innovation

(17:34) How a company with a $500 million run rate ran hard towards AI

(23:29) UI’s post-AI future

(25:29) The mechanics of pivoting a 3,000 person team in a new direction

(29:09) Will AI be a platform shift?

(33:07) Navan uses AI to make expenses a breeze

(39:09) A look into the year ahead for Navan

(39:58) Is Navan hiring?

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Steve Ruiz: The TLDR of the Collaborative Whiteboard tldraw Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

A collaborative digital whiteboard. Sounds simple, right? Steve Ruiz, founder of tldraw, found out the hard way that building this kind of tool was anything but easy. Steve joins host and Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano to talk about iterating with an audience, following a problem through to its end, and his take on the future of open source software.

Episode Chapters

[00:00] Introduction to Steve Ruiz, founder of tldraw

[07:41] Building out an audience by building out the perfect arrow graphic

[12:42] Your idea of the end result shifts the way you build the product

[14:20] How the quest to draw the perfect line kicked off Steve’s development career

[19:10] Twitter spurred on Steve’s developer chops

[25:16] Steve’s philosophy on open source

[27:41] Perfect Freehand’s perfect line led to tldraw’s perfect whiteboard

[31:04] Taking 6 months off to see the whiteboard project through

[36:14] A split in the road - go to Adobe or go all in on tldraw?

[41:26] What ChatGPT-4 Vision brought to tldraw

[46:36] Making a collaborative whiteboard into an AI-powered web developer

[54:07] Make Real’s tension - developer tool or end user product?

[59:15] What else will AI open up for tldraw?

[01:04:21] Is tldraw hiring?

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Adam Wenchel: How Arthur AI is Making LLMs Trustworthy Jan 11, 2024

Show notes

Over the last year, AI and LLMs have experienced an explosion of use. But the tech isn’t foolproof - hedging and hallucinations are just a couple of the concerns. That’s where Arthur AI comes in. They’ve built out firewalls, validation tools, and benchmarks to make sure that an LLM’s answer is one you can trust, whether you’re a military contractor or investment broker. Arthur AI Co-Founder and CEO Adam Wenchel sat down with Lightspeed Partner and Host Michael Mignano to talk about just how Arthur AI is allowing for the safe, responsible, and trustworthy adoption of AI.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Intro to Adam Wenchel, co-founder and CEO of Arthur AI

(5:31) Working on AI at DARPA 20 years ago

(8:39) From cybersecurity to Capital One

(14:20) How Arthur lends transparency to AI decision-making

(21:45) ChatGPT ripped up Arthur AI’s roadmap

(26:18) Arthur AI’s guardrails can make AI trustworthy

(31:46) Who will win the LLM wars?

(37:00) What the ChatGPT sea change looked like at Arthur AI

(44:22) How Arthur AI’s firewall clamps down on hallucinations

(47:11) Are we on the right path for regulation?

(51:22) Adam’s prediction for the year ahead? Unpredictability

(52:39) Is Arthur AI hiring?

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Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: ⁠generativenow.co⁠
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Looking Back on 2023 Dec 21, 2023

Show notes

In this last episode of 2023, Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano takes a look back at the first ten episodes of Generative Now to share a few favorite moments.

Episode Chapters
(00:00) Introduction

(00:41) Connor Zwick on sneaking into early Berkeley courses on AI

(04:08) Max Child on being first to a new platform

(07:49) Gaurav Misra on how product market fit and a surprise $500k changed their business plan

(15:19) Hilary Mason on the nuanced definitions in AI

(20:57) Victor Riparbelli on the new paradigm AI can bring into being

(23:58) Scott Belsky on his AI “aha” moment

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Klinton Bicknell: Leveraging AI to Power Language Learning Dec 14, 2023

Show notes

Duolingo is a worldwide powerhouse for consumers looking to learn a language, with a reputation for being engaging and interactive. Less known? All that AI does to power it.

In this episode, Duolingo’s Head of AI sits down with Lightspeed Partner and host Michael Mignano to chat about AI’s exponential growth, the connection between AI and the human brain, and what comes next.

Episode Chapters

(00:00) Klinton Bicknell at the Generative NYC Meet-Up

(03:04) What separates the human mind from an LLM?

(08:15) What exactly makes Duolingo an AI company?

(10:49) Why a behemoth like Duolingo can keep pace with nimble startups

(13:33) How will AI transform learning down the line?

(18:36) Caught off guard by ChatGPT

(21:19) What will AI revolutionize beyond education?

(22:48) Audience Q & A - Solving tricky learning modalities with AI

(25:53) Audience Q & A - Is AI development nearing a plateau?

(29:45) Audience Q & A - Quality vs. Quantity of data

(32:15) Audience Q & A - Harnessing AI’s learning efficiencies