No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups - Conviction

Latest Episodes:

AI Agents Talking to AI Agents: Reinventing Commerce with Decagon CEO Jesse Zhang Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

The traditional call center may soon be a thing of the past. Jessie Zhang is building AI agents designed to replace monotonous human labor and transform how consumers interact with brands. Elad Gil sits down with Jesse Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Decagon, an AI agent company at the forefront of AI customer service. Jesse talks about how Decagon secured large enterprise clients and the impact of its AI agents, his journey as a second-time founder, and Decagon’s company culture. Plus, they discuss what the future of agentic customer service may look like.

Chapters:

00:00 – Jesse Zhang Introduction

00:30 – Decagon’s Services

01:11 – Decagon’s Customers and Growth

02:41 – Productivity Gains with Decagon

03:33 – How Decagon Integrates in Customer Workflows

04:25 – Jesse’s Second Time Founder Story

05:41 – Jesse’s Hiring Philosophy

09:13 – Counter-intuitive Advice for Founders

11:19 – How Decagon Thinks About Talent

14:12 – Areas for Longer Term Planning

15:37 – Decagon’s Path to Customer Service

16:57 – Thoughts on Pushing Into the Application Layer

19:40 – What Decagon Does Uniquely

22:05 – Pricing Services in the AI Age

24:46 – How Decagon Sees Customer Service

25:53 – Defining Long-Term Success for Decagon

27:41 – Jesse’s Views on an Agentic Future

31:22 – Conclusion

Jared Kushner: BrainCo, Affinity Partners, and the Geopolitics of AI Sep 15, 2025

Show notes

From negotiating with world leaders to partnering with top entrepreneurs, businessman and investor Jared Kushner has traveled the unique path of bringing private sector knowledge to government work and back again. Jared Kushner joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to cover a wide range of topics, from his founding of investment firm Affinity Partners, to his time in government, to his new AI venture BrainCo. Jared discusses Affinity Partners’ mission and strategy, how he has leveraged his government experience in business and investing, and the geopolitics of technological advancements like AI. Plus, he makes a case for why private sector talent should do “tours of duty” in government.

Chapters:

00:00 – Jared Kushner Introduction

00:30 – Starting Affinity Partners Post-Government

01:59 – Value of Global Perspective

03:34 – Ventures with Affinity

05:14 – Evaluating Investments Via Macro Trends

09:09 – Undervalued Countries

12:32 – Origins of BrainCo

16:50 – BrainCo Use Cases

23:49 – BrainCo’s Biggest Challenge

24:47 – Determining Customer Fit

26:39 – AI and Policy

30:03 – Middle East and AI

31:59 – Jared’s Experience in Middle East Diplomacy

40:16 – Brokering Peace Post-October 7th

43:52 – Making Deals with Middle Eastern Partners

47:14 – Jared and Ivanka’s Partnership

49:18 – Benefits of Joining Public Sector from the Private Sector

52:07 – Jared’s Pitch for Serving in Government

56:25 – Jared’s Leadership Style

58:24 – Conclusion

A New Operating System for Physicians with OpenEvidence Founder Daniel Nadler Sep 05, 2025

Show notes

How does a new technology get adopted by 40% of American doctors in just 18 months? In an era where the golden age of biotechnology has also created a dark age of physician burnout, OpenEvidence found the answer by fundamentally changing how doctors access critical information. OpenEvidence founder Daniel Nadler sits down with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to discuss how his company solved the semantic search problem in medicine. He talks about the strategy of treating doctors as consumers, striking the balance of keeping patients in the loop in medical conversations, and how technology will reshape both medicine and medical education. Plus, Daniel gives his thoughts on the roots of motivation, as well as his philosophy for recruitment.

Chapters:

00:00 – Daniel Nadler Introduction

00:08 – OpenEvidence’s Success

01:54 – How OpenEvidence Works

06:35 – Dealing with Ambiguity

11:37 – Treating Knowledge Workers as Consumers

15:53 – Balancing Keeping Patients in the Loop

19:28 – How Technology May Shape the Future of Medicine

22:12 – How Technology Will Change Medical Education

30:40 – Examining Consumer Adoption of Preventative Health Measures

36:02 – Lessons for Other Fields

37:27 – Rationalism vs. Will

41:13 – Daniel’s Thoughts on Motivation

42:44 – Daniel’s Recruiting Philosophy

44:48 – Conclusion

Reshaping America’s Economy for the Superintelligence Century with Jacob Helberg Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

AI doomers say that the technology will be the ultimate job-killer. But Jacob Helberg wants people to see AI as a tech that will boost, not replace, human workers and give them superpowers. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jacob Helberg joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to talk about AI’s role in reshoring manufacturing in America, supply chain security, and transforming the US energy grid. He also discusses the CapEx revolution, why he sees opportunity for tech and energy partnerships in the Middle East, and the path to more nuclear energy for the US. Plus, the three explore what the “superintelligence century” could look like.

Chapters:

00:00 – Jacob Helberg Introduction

00:50 – Jacob’s Agenda for Capitol Hill

01:53 – Reshoring the American Supply Chain

04:38 – Areas of CapEx Growth

06:56 – Importance of Supply Chain Security

08:52 – Reshoring Rare Earth Minerals

11:12 – How AI Can Help America Reindustrialize

15:37 – AI and Productivity Gains

17:38 – The Superintelligence Century

22:56 – Creating an Open Source AI Ecosystem

24:41 – The Middle East and AI

26:24 – Growing Energy Resources in the US

28:28 – The Path to More Nuclear Energy in the US

35:50 – Essential Domains for Strategy and Security

38:20 – The Tech Industry and the Administration

40:29 – Conclusion

How Agentic AI is Transforming The Startup Landscape with Andrew Ng Aug 21, 2025

Show notes

Andrew Ng has always been at the bleeding edge of fast-evolving AI technologies, founding companies and projects like Google Brain, AI Fund, and DeepLearning.AI. So he knows better than anyone that founders who operate the same way in 2025 as they did in 2022 are doing it wrong. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Andrew Ng, the godfather of the AI revolution, to discuss the rise of agentic AI, and how the technology has changed everything from what makes a successful founder to the value of small teams. They talk about where future capability growth may come from, the potential for models to bootstrap themselves, and why Andrew doesn’t like the term “vibe coding.” Also, Andrew makes the case for why everybody in an organization—not just the engineers—should learn to code.

Chapters:

00:00 – Andrew Ng Introduction

00:32 – The Next Frontier for Capability Growth

01:29 – Andrew’s Definition of Agentic AI

02:44 – Obstacles to Building True Agents

06:09 – The Bleeding Edge of Agentic AI

08:12 – Will Models Bootstrap Themselves?

09:05 – Vibe Coding vs. AI Assisted Coding

09:56 – Is Vibe Coding Changing the Nature of Startups?

11:35 – Speeding Up Project Management

12:55 – The Evolution of the Successful Founder Profile

19:23 – Finding Great Product People

21:14 – Building for One User Profile vs. Many

22:47 – Requisites for Leaders and Teams in the AI Age

28:21 – The Value of Keeping Teams Small

32:13 – The Next Industry Transformations

34:04 – Future of Automation in Investing Firms and Incubators

37:39 – Technical People as First Time Founders

41:08– Broad Impact of AI Over the Next 5 Years

41:49 – Conclusion

Chips, Neoclouds, and the Quest for AI Dominance with SemiAnalysis Founder and CEO Dylan Patel Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

What would it take to challenge Nvidia? SemiAnalysis Founder and CEO Dylan Patel joins Sarah Guo to answer this and other topical questions around the current state of AI infrastructure. Together, they explore why Dylan loves Android products, predictions around OpenAI’s open source model, and what the landscape of neoclouds looks like. They also discuss Dylan’s thoughts on bottlenecks for expanding AI infrastructure and exporting American AI technologies. Plus, we find out what question Dylan would ask Mark Zuckerberg.

Chapters:

00:00 – Dylan Patel Introduction

00:31 – Dylan’s Love for Android Products

02:10 – Predictions About OpenAI’s Open Source Model

06:50 – Implications of an American Open Source Model for the Application Ecosystem

10:48 – Evolution of Neoclouds

17:26 – What It Would Take to Challenge Nvidia

27:43 – What Would an Nvidia Challenger Look Like?

28:18 – Understanding Operational and Power Constraints for Data Centers

34:48 – Dylan’s View on the American Stack

43:01 – What Dylan Would Ask Mark Zuckerberg

44:22 – Poker and AI Entrepreneurship

46:51 – Conclusion

The Shifting Value of Content in the AI Age with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

Cloudflare has spent nearly fifteen years making the Internet faster, more reliable, and more secure. So now that AI systems are changing the way we interact with the Internet, Cloudflare wants to help level the playing field for content creators. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare to discuss the evolution of the internet from search to AI, including Cloudflare’s role in facilitating that shift. Matthew talks about how AI assistants are changing the shape of the Internet, the problems Google created by making traffic the arbiter of content value, and how he sees Cloudflare’s part in facilitating the new content marketplace for the mutual benefit of creators and AI companies. Plus, a look towards how agentic infrastructure may unfold in the near future.

Chapters:

00:00 – Matthew Prince Introduction

00:37 – Cloudflare’s Role in Securing the Internet

02:08 – The Road to Cloudflare’s Dominance

03:20 – The Internet’s Shift from Search to AI

06:34 – Role of Agents and Content on the New Web

09:44 – Reshaping the Content Market Online

13:05 – De-emphasizing Traffic as a Proxy for Value

18:04 – Will We Run Out of Quality Human-Generated Content?

20:01 – Scaling the Value of Content in the AI Age

22:32 – Cloudflare’s Approach to Inference

24:55 – How Cloudflare Responds to Market Demand

26:04 – Open vs. Closed Models

27:21 – Path to the New Marketplace for Content

30:58 – Advice for Content Creators

32:47 – Exploring the Timeline for Running Models Locally

40:07 – The Future of Agentic Infrastructure

44:52 – Conclusion

America’s Plan to Dominate the Full AI Stack with Sriram Krishnan Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

Sriram Krishnan was never interested in policy. But after seeing a gap in AI knowledge at senior levels of government, he decided to lend his expertise to the tech-friendly Trump administration. Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI Sriram Krishnan joins Elad Gil and Sarah Guo to talk about America’s AI Action Plan, a recent executive order that outlines how America can win the AI race and maintain its AI supremacy. Sriram discusses why winning the AI race is important and what that looks like, as well as the core goals of the Action Plan that he helped to author. Together, they explore how AI is the latest iteration of American cultural exportation and soft power, the bottlenecks in upgrading America’s energy infrastructure, and the importance of America owning the “full stack” from GPUs and models to agents and software.

Chapters:

00:00 – Sriram Krishnan Introduction

01:00 – Sriram’s Role in Government

03:43 – Impetus for the America AI Action Plan

06:14 – What Winning the AI Race Looks Like

10:36 – Algorithms and Cultural Bias

12:26 – Main Tenets of the America AI Action Plan

19:13 – Infrastructure and Energy Needs for AI

22:56 – Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and AI

24:52 – Ensuring American Dominance in Robotics

26:30 – Translating Policy to Industry and the Economy

29:30 – Should the US Be a Technocracy?

32:33 – Understanding the Argument Against Open Source Models

36:07 – Conclusion

The Power of Quality Human Data with SurgeAI Founder and CEO Edwin Chen Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

In the generative AI revolution, quality data is a valuable commodity. But not all data is created equally. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with SurgeAI founder and CEO Edwin Chen to discuss the meaning and importance of quality human data. Edwin talks about why he bootstrapped Surge instead of raising venture funds, the importance of scalable oversight in producing quality data, and the work Surge is doing to standardize human evals. Plus, we get Edwin’s take on what Meta’s investment into Scale AI means for Surge, as well as whether or not he thinks an underdog can catch up with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other dominant industry players.

Chapters:

00:00 – Edwin Chen Introduction

00:41 – Overview of SurgeAI

02:28 – Why SurgeAI Bootstrapped Instead of Raising Funds

07:59 – Explaining SurgeAI’s Product

09:39 – Differentiating SurgeAI from Competitors

11:27 – Measuring the Quality of SurgeAI’s Output

12:25 – Role of Scalable Oversight at SurgeAI

14:02 – Challenges of Building Rich RL Environments

16:39 – Predicting Future Needs for Training AI Models

17:29 – Role of Humans in Data Generation

21:27 – Importance of Human Evaluation for Quality Data

22:51 – SurgeAI’s Work Toward Standardization of Human Evals

23:37 – What the Meta/ScaleAI Deal Means for SurgeAI

24:35 – Edwin’s Underdog Pick to Catch Up to Big AI Companies

24:50 – The Future Frontier Model Landscape

26:25 – Future Directions for SurgeAI

29:29 – What Does High Quality Data Mean?

32:26 – Conclusion

Asimov: Building An Omniscient RL Oracle with ReflectionAI’s Misha Laskin Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

Superintelligence, at least in an academic sense, has already been achieved. But Misha Laskin thinks that the next step towards artificial superintelligence, or ASI, should look both more user and problem-focused. ReflectionAI co-founder and CEO Misha Laskin joins Sarah Guo to introduce Asimov, their new code comprehension agent built on reinforcement learning (RL). Misha talks about creating tools and designing AI agents based on customer needs, and how that influences eval development and the scope of the agent’s memory. The two also discuss the challenges in solving scaling for RL, the future of ASI, and the implications for Google’s “non-acquisition” of Windsurf.

Chapters:

00:00 – Misha Laskin Introduction

00:44 – Superintelligence vs. Super Intelligent Autonomous Systems

03:26 – Misha’s Journey from Physics to AI

07:48 – Asimov Product Release

11:52 – What Differentiates Asimov from Other Agents

16:15 – Asimov’s Eval Philosophy

21:52 – The Types of Queries Where Asimov Shines

24:35 – Designing a Team-Wide Memory for Asimov

28:38 – Leveraging Pre-Trained Models

32:47 – The Challenges of Solving Scaling in RL

37:21 – Training Agents in Copycat Software Environments