No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups - Conviction

Latest Episodes:

Inside Deep Research with Isa Fulford: Building the Future of AI Agents Apr 24, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of No Priors, Sarah sits down with Isa Fulford, one of the masterminds behind deep research. They unpack how the initiative began, the role of human expert data, and what it takes to build agents with real-world capability and even taste. Isa shares the differences between deep research and OpenAI’s o3 model, the challenges around latency, and how she sees agent capabilities evolving. Plus, OpenAI has announced that deep research is free for all US users starting today.

Show Notes:

0:00 Deep research’s inception & evolution

6:12 Data creation

7:20 Reinforcement fine-tuning

9:05 Why human expert data matters

11:23 Failure modes of agents

13:55 The roadmap ahead for Deep Research

18:32 How do agents develop taste?

19:29 Experience and path to building a broadly capable agent

22:03 Deep research vs. o3

25:55 Latency

27:56 Predictions for agent capabilities

Predicting the Earth with Josh Goldman: How KoBold Uses AI to Find Critical Minerals Apr 17, 2025

Show notes

This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad are joined by Josh Goldman, cofounder and president of KoBold Metals. KoBold is using AI to transform how we discover critical minerals like lithium and cobalt, making the exploration process faster, more precise, and more scalable than traditional methods. In this episode, Josh explains how KoBold is rethinking the fundamentals of mineral exploration by combining unique datasets, scientific modeling, and predictive algorithms. They dive into the company’s driving philosophy and technical approach, how they validate underground hypotheses, and why regulatory knowledge and a localized approach are crucial. Josh also discusses what success looks like in exploration today and the scarcity of world-class deposits.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:29 KoBold Metals

3:14 Using unique datasets

6:20 Traditional methods of lithium exploration

8:38 Regulatory vs. rarity constraints

13:40 Technical approach

16:25 Validating hypotheses

23:56 Redefining success in mineral exploration

25:44 Scarcity of good projects and deposits

32:44 Philosophy behind prediction

36:46 KoBold’s origin story

From Job Displacement to AI Trainers, Brendan Foody on Work in the AI Age Apr 10, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with Brendan Foody, CEO and cofounder of Mercor, to discuss the company’s rapid growth and their vision for the future of the labor market. They dive into how AI is reshaping the workforce in real, tangible ways and what skills are worth investing in today. Brendan shares insights on evaluating talent in an AI-driven world, including how models might identify outlier or 10x candidates and even assess “taste.” The conversation also touches on the evolving role of human data, the future of hiring in fast-scaling startups, and whether AI will act as an individual contributor or a data-centric manager.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:16 Building Mercor

3:00 Identifying outlier talent with AI

9:07 How AI is reshaping the workforce: job displacement & evolution

11:18 What skills should we invest in now?

12:18 Verifiability

13:36 Evaluating models

16:07 What should kids learn today?

17:05 Evaluating taste in talent assessments

18:45 Future of data collection

26:07 Humans’ role in the AI economy

28:53 AI as a contributor vs. a manager

33:03 Mercor’s goals

34:50 Evolution of labor markets

36:00 Hiring advice

Public Markets, Image Gen, and Specialized Models, with Sarah and Elad Apr 03, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad examine the current state of AI. They break down the recent dip in public markets, how tariffs could impact the tech industry, and where opportunities remain in large language models. They highlight the opportunities in more specialized models, new approaches to model development, and how the market is beginning to standardize with integrations like the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The episode ends with a look at early consumer AI applications and what types of expertise will matter most in the coming years.

Show Notes:

0:00 Improvements in image gen

4:42 Public markets

8:08 Effects of tariffs on tech

9:42 Today’s large model market

11:34 Opportunities in specialized models

16:30 Research advances in model approaches

21:10 What expertise will matter?

24:30 Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol

26:30 Consumer applications

Conversations Are the Source of Truth in Healthcare with Abridge CEO Shiv Rao Mar 27, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of No Priors, Elad and Sarah chat with Shiv Rao, MD, founder and CEO of Abridge. They dive into how Abridge is reshaping healthcare by creating AI tools that enhance clinical documentation and improve doctor-patient interactions. Shiv shares his thoughts on building trust with established healthcare systems, giving agency and time back to clinicians, and what makes the healthcare AI opportunity different today. They also discuss Abridge’s approach to developing and launching AI products, along with Shiv’s journey in founding Abridge.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:35 Abridge’s Story and Vision

5:30 Strategy for Customer Choice

7:41 Healthcare AI Opportunities

11:24 Navigating Incumbent Partnerships

14:26 Doctor-Centric AI Solutions

19:54 Abridge’s Future Plans

22:13 AI’s Impact on Healthcare

28:43 Shipping and Iterating Products

32:50 Shiv’s Journey to Abridge

The Robotics Revolution, with Physical Intelligence’s Cofounder Chelsea Finn Mar 20, 2025

Show notes

This week on No Priors, Elad speaks with Chelsea Finn, cofounder of Physical Intelligence and currently Associate Professor at Stanford, leading the Intelligence through Learning and Interaction Lab. They dive into how robots learn, the challenges of training AI models for the physical world, and the importance of diverse data in reaching generalizable intelligence. Chelsea explains the evolving landscape of open-source vs. closed-source robotics and where AI models are likely to have the biggest impact first. They also compare the development of robotics to self-driving cars, explore the future of humanoid and non-humanoid robots, and discuss what’s still missing for AI to function effectively in the real world. If you’re curious about the next phase of AI beyond the digital space, this episode is a must-listen.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:31 Chelsea’s background in robotics

3:10 Physical Intelligence

5:13 Defining their approach and model architecture

7:39 Reaching generalizability and diversifying robot data

9:46 Open source vs. closed source

12:32 Where will PI’s models integrate first?

14:34 Humanoid as a form factor

16:28 Embodied intelligence

17:36 Key turning points in robotics progress

20:05 Hierarchical interactive robot and decision-making

22:21 Choosing data inputs

26:25 Self driving vs robotics market

28:37 Advice to robotics founders

29:24 Observational data and data generation

31:57 Future robotic forms

Copilot, Agent Mode, and the New World of Dev Tools with GitHub’s CEO Thomas Dohmke Mar 13, 2025

Show notes

This week on No Priors, Sarah and Elad talk with GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke about the rise of AI-powered software development and the success of Copilot. They discuss how Copilot is reshaping the developer workflow, GitHub’s new Agent Mode, and competition in the developer tooling market. They also explore how AI-driven coding impacts software pricing, the future of open source vs. proprietary APIs, and what Copilot’s success means for Microsoft. Plus, Thomas shares insights from his journey growing up in East Berlin and navigating rapidly changing worlds.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:37 GitHub Copilot’s capabilities

4:12 Will agents replace developers?

6:04 Copilot’s development cycle

8:34 Winning the developer market

10:40 Agent mode

13:25 Where GitHub is headed

16:45 Building for the new challenges of AI

21:50 Dev tools market formation

29:56 Copilot’s broader impact

32:17 How AI changes software pricing

39:16 Open source vs. proprietary APIs

48:01 Growing up in East Berlin

National Security Strategy and AI Evals on the Eve of Superintelligence with Dan Hendrycks Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

This week on No Priors, Sarah is joined by Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center of AI Safety. Dan serves as an advisor to xAI and Scale AI. He is a longtime AI researcher, publisher of interesting AI evals such as "Humanity's Last Exam," and co-author of a new paper on National Security "Superintelligence Strategy" along with Scale founder-CEO Alex Wang and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. They explore AI safety, geopolitical implications, the potential weaponization of AI, along with policy recommendations.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:36 Dan’s path to focusing on AI Safety

1:25 Safety efforts in large labs

3:12 Distinguishing alignment and safety

4:48 AI’s impact on national security

9:59 How might AI be weaponized?

14:43 Immigration policies for AI talent

17:50 Mutually assured AI malfunction

22:54 Policy suggestions for current administration

25:34 Compute security

30:37 Current state of evals

Building the Platform for Scientific Breakthrough, with Noubar Afeyan of Moderna and Flagship Pioneering Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

This week on No Priors, Sarah sits down with Noubar Afeyan, Co-founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, the biotech firm behind groundbreaking companies like Moderna. They explore how Flagship creates the conditions for scientific breakthroughs, tackles regulatory uncertainty, and pushes the boundaries of discovery. Noubar shares insights on AI’s role in healthcare, the challenges of bringing new therapies to market, and lessons learned from past pandemics. He also discusses Flagship’s platform approach to biotech innovation and introduces the idea of polyintelligence.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:48 Founding Flagship

5:51 Fostering environments for emergence

11:17 Expanding into new frontiers

14:26 Developing technology amid regulatory uncertainty and risk

19:12 How Flagship has evolved

22:47 AI applications in healthcare

27:30 Bottlenecks in bringing new therapies to market

32:20 Lessons for the next pandemic

34:11 Building a platform

38:10 Polyintelligence

Virtual Cell Models, Tahoe-100 and Data for AI-in-Bio with Vevo Therapeutics and the Arc Institute Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s episode of No Priors, Sarah Guo is joined by leading members of the teams at Vevo Therapeutics and the Arc Institute – Nima Alidoust, CEO/Co-Founder at Vevo Therapeutics; Johnny Yu, CSO/Co-Founder at Vevo Therapeutics; Patrick Hsu, CEO/Co-Founder at Arc Institute; Dave Burke, CTO at Arc Institute; and Hani Goodarzi, Core Investigator at Arc Institute. Predicting protein structure (AlphaFold 3, Chai-1, Evo 2) was a big AI/biology breakthrough. The next big leap is modeling entire human cells—how they behave in disease, or how they respond to new therapeutics. The same way LLMs needed enormous text corpora to become truly powerful, Virtual Cell Models need massive, high-quality cellular datasets to train on. In this episode, the teams discuss the groundbreaking release of the Tahoe-100M single cell dataset, Arc Atlas, and how these advancements could transform drug discovery.

Download the Tahoe Dataset

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

1:40 Significance of Tahoe-100M dataset

4:22 Where we are with virtual cell models and protein language models

10:26 Significance of perturbational data

17:39 Challenges and innovations in data collection

24:42 Open sourcing and community collaboration

33:51 Predictive ability and importance of virtual cell models

35:27 Drug discovery and virtual cell models

44:27 Platform vs. single hypothesis companies

46:05 Rise of Chinese biotechs