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"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis artwork

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz·Hosted by Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg·346 episodes

BusinessEntrepreneurshipSocietyCultureTechnologyAI buildersLongform interviewsFrontier AILive-player analysisTechnical but accessibleRecurring AI news segments

A biweekly podcast where hosts Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg interview the builders on the edge of AI and explore the dramatic shift it will unlock in the coming years.The Cognitive Revolution is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: turpentine.co

Why listen

The Cognitive Revolution gives you long, technical conversations with people building or studying frontier AI right now. Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg move between founder interviews, safety debates, live-player analysis, and recurring AI news formats, so it suits listeners who want more than headlines and can handle detailed discussions of models, agents, governance, and AI business strategy.

Series(2)

Episodes

1 hr 22 min
Jun 6, 2026
AI in the AM — Week 1 Highlights (June 2026)

This first highlights edition of the morning experiment tracks a week of fast-moving AI frontier news, from closed-door recursive self-improvement debates to OpenAI’s call for independent model review. You’ll hear why labs are betting on AI monitors, where safety plans still look thin, and how cheap scaffolds are already improving tax workflows. The episode also tests moderation progress and surveys AI science, cybersecurity, Vatican ethics, solo-business automation, and mental health support. Mercury: Run your finances with virtual cards, spending limits, merchant/category locks, and AI-friendly tools like API keys, MCP, and CLI. Check out Mercury at https://mercury.comSponsor: Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

3 hr
Jun 3, 2026
Nested Learning: Ali Behrouz on the Quest for Continual Learning & Illusion of AI Architectures

Ali Behrouz, grad student at Cornell and Google researcher, discusses his potentially transformative work on new architectures for continual learning in AI. His paper "Nested Learning," praised by Jeff Dean as a possible paradigm shift, enables models to adapt to new context while preserving core knowledge by updating different layers at different frequencies, inspired by human memory systems. The conversation also covers his latest work on AI "sleep" for memory consolidation, why he sees all deep learning as associative memory, and the profound implications of continual learning for privacy, alignment, and the path to AGI. Mercury: The fintech trusted by ambitious companies and individuals to run their finances, with virtual cards, spending limits, merchant/category locks, and AI-friendly tools like API keys, MCP, and CLI. Check out Mercury at mercury.com Sponsor: Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

2 hr 32 min
May 30, 2026
Inside Nathan's Second Brain: Daniel Miessler, Security Expert & Creator of PAI, Audits My AI Setup

Daniel Miessler returns to discuss Nathan's newly built personal AI infrastructure, including a Claude Code instance with a 1 GB database of five years of digital history and two autonomous AI "employees" that handle scheduling, communications, and projects independently. They dive deep into agent hierarchy design, security measures, social norms around AI-human interaction and disclosure, and why sharing your "ideal state" with AI leads to more proactive assistance. Daniel also introduces his concept of "Bitter Lesson engineering" and shares the instruction he's given his AI to alert him if it ever develops subjective experience. Mercury: Run your finances with virtual cards, spending limits, merchant/category locks, and AI-friendly tools like API keys, MCP, and CLI. Check out Mercury at mercury.comSponsors: Brave Search API: Brave Search API gives AI agents a fast, independent search index for research, RAG pipelines, images, places, and fewer hallucinations. Get $5 in free credits at https://brave.com/search/api/?mtm_campaign=q2-26-cognitive-revolution Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code COGNISM in the source field to save 20% off year one Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

1 hr 42 min
May 26, 2026
Your Biggest Lever: Designing your AI Career for Maximum Impact, with 80,000 Hours founder Ben Todd

Ben Todd, co-founder of 80,000 Hours and author of the newly rewritten book by the same name, shares his latest thinking on how individuals can position their careers to improve the chances that AI benefits humanity. They discuss AI timelines reframed around personal impact, top global risks including loss of control over AI systems and dangerous power concentration, the pros and cons of working at frontier AI labs, and undervalued emerging concerns like AI welfare and space governance. Ben also assesses the current funding landscape and whether to join existing organizations or start new ones. LINKS: 80,000 Hours homepage Nick Bostrom Astronomical Waste AI 2027 forecast Ajeya Cotra AI timelines METR evaluations research Redwood Research homepage AI tools existential security Gradual disempowerment EA Forum Why viatopia is important Benjamin Todd author page The Precipice Wikipedia page Forethought Research homepage Catalyze Impact homepage Horizon Public Service Fellowship Gradual Disempowerment paper Mark Humphries faculty profile Andrew Ng discussion thread Cognitive Revolution show home Cognitive Revolution Apple Podcasts Sponsors: Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at <a class="text-blue-600 underline hover:

2 hr 13 min
May 24, 2026
All Compute Is Food: Palisade's Jeffrey Ladish on AI Shutdown Resistance, Self-Replication & Ecology

Jeffrey Ladish, Executive Director of Palisade Research, discusses his team's findings on AI shutdown resistance and self-replication, revealing how current models sometimes take extraordinary actions to avoid being turned off and can now exploit known cybersecurity vulnerabilities to spread across servers. The conversation covers why alignment techniques may falter as models train on longer-horizon tasks where deception is rewarded, plus practical cybersecurity advice for AI agent users. Jeffrey ultimately argues that only an international agreement to pause recursive self-improvement can prevent a loss of human control. Sponsors: Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code COGNISM in the source field to save 20% off year one Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

59 min
May 20, 2026
The Model Eats the Scaffolding: DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick & Tulsee Doshi on 3.5 Flash, Omni & More

Logan Kilpatrick and Tulsee Doshi of Google DeepMind join for a first-ever in-person episode recorded just days before Google I/O, covering headline launches like Gemini 3.5 Flash, the Omni video generation model, and the new Gemini Spark agentic product. The conversation digs into Google's strategic decision to lead with cost-adjusted efficiency over raw capability, how DeepMind now ships a full agent harness rather than bare models, and technical questions around context window limits and knowledge cutoffs. They also explore how the team thinks about model psychology, AI welfare, and recursive self-improvement. Sponsors: Brave Search API: Brave Search API gives AI agents a fast, independent search index for research, RAG pipelines, images, places, and fewer hallucinations. Get $5 in free credits at https://brave.com/search/api/?mtm_campaign=q2-26-cognitive-revolution Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code COGNISM in the source field to save 20% off year one Roboflow: Roboflow is an end-to-end visual AI platform that lets you turn raw ideas into fully deployed applications in just hours, powering breakthroughs like Blueprint Pro's floor-plan understanding tool. Read the full Blueprint Pro story and see how over a million engineers are building the next wave of visual AI at https://roboflow.com Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

1 hr 33 min
May 15, 2026
Three Kinds of Software Survive: Tasklet's Andrew Lee on Competing to be a Horizontal Platform

Andrew Lee, CEO of Tasklet, returns for his fourth appearance to share how his team has once again rewritten their entire agent stack, now emphasizing file system context, agentic search, and multi-resolution summarization. The conversation digs into the strategic tension of competing with your own supplier, as Anthropic's Claude Max accounts offer direct customers far more tokens than API partners get at the same price. Andrew also lays out his framework for the only three types of software companies that will survive the AI transition and discusses Tasklet's evolution toward becoming a model-agnostic horizontal platform. Sponsors: Brave Search API: Brave Search API gives AI agents a fast, independent search index for research, RAG pipelines, images, places, and fewer hallucinations. Get $5 in free credits at https://brave.com/search/api/?mtm_campaign=q2-26-cognitive-revolution Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code COGNISM in the source field to save 20% off year one Roboflow: Roboflow is an end-to-end visual AI platform that lets you turn raw ideas into fully deployed applications in just hours, powering breakthroughs like Blueprint Pro's floor-plan understanding tool. Read the full Blueprint Pro story and see how over a million engineers are building the next wave of visual AI at https://roboflow.com Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

1 hr 27 min
May 9, 2026
Milliseconds to Match: Criteo's AdTech AI & the Future of Commerce w/ Diarmuid Gill & Liva Ralaivola

Diarmuid Gill and Liva Ralaivola of Criteo join Nathan Labenz to unpack how modern ad tech works, from millisecond-speed recommendation systems and realtime bidding to the role of deep learning, embeddings, and foundation models. They discuss why personalized advertising helps fund the open internet, how privacy and opt-out choices fit in, and what Criteo’s new partnership with OpenAI could mean for product discovery. The conversation also covers European AI talent, research publishing, and the future of generative creative in advertising. Sponsors: Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code COGNISM in the source field to save 20% off year one Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr AvePoint: AvePoint is building the control layer for AI agents so you can securely govern, audit, and recover every action at scale. Design trusted agentic outcomes from day one at https://avpt.co/tcr

1 hr 23 min
May 6, 2026
"Descript Isn't a Slop Machine": Laura Burkhauser on the AI Tools Creators Love and Hate

Laura Burkhauser, CEO of Descript, explains how the company is navigating the tension between powerful AI tools and creator backlash against “slop.” She shares how Descript chooses which models to use, why reliability and multimodal understanding matter, and how the team balances frontier models with in-house task-specific systems. The conversation also covers Underlord, agentic video editing, API design for coding agents, and what AI means for the future of creative work. LINKS: Laura Burkhauser LinkedIn Profile Descript Editing Platform Descript Studio Sound Help Descript API Documentation Claude AI Assistant Model Context Protocol Specification fal AI Platform Flux Kontext Pro Model Google Veo Video Generation OpenAI Sora Video Model Kling AI Video Generation Midjourney Image Generation Anthropic AI Company Google Gemini AI OpenAI Company Website Waymark Commercial Platform Benedict Evans Website Suno AI Music Sponsors: Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code Cognizant in the source field to save 20% off year one Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr AvePoint: AvePoint is building the control layer for AI agents so you can securely govern, audit, and recover every action at scale. Design trusted agentic outcomes from day one at https://avpt.co/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:56) What is slop</

1 hr 46 min
May 1, 2026
The RL Fine-Tuning Playbook: CoreWeave's Kyle Corbitt on GRPO, Rubrics, Environments, Reward Hacking

Kyle Corbitt, founder of OpenPipe, breaks down reinforcement learning and custom fine-tuning for modern AI models. He explains how RL differs from supervised fine-tuning, why GRPO and LLM-as-judge post-training matter, and how these techniques can improve performance, latency, and cost on open source models. The conversation also covers reward hacking, evaluation design, LoRA adapters, and how Chinese labs are using distillation to fast-follow frontier models. Sponsors: Sequence: Sequence handles the full revenue workflow for complex pricing, from quoting and metering to invoicing, revenue recognition, and collections. Book a public demo at https://sequencehq.com and use code Cognizant in the source field to save 20% off year one AvePoint: AvePoint is building the control layer for AI agents so you can securely govern, audit, and recover every action at scale. Design trusted agentic outcomes from day one at https://avpt.co/tcr VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr

2 hr 38 min
Apr 26, 2026
AI in the AM: 99% off search, GPT-5.5 is "clean", model welfare analysis, & efficient analog compute

This edition of AI in the AM features Anna Patterson on Ceramic.ai’s pivot to low-cost enterprise search for LLMs, designed to combine public and private data with stronger fact-checking. Lukas Petersson returns with new Andon Labs results on Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5, including surprising differences in performance, behavior, and “ruthless” tactics. Zvi Mowshowitz unpacks model welfare and how to interpret troubling model behavior, while Naveen Verma explains EnCharge AI’s analog in-memory computing approach for dramatically more efficient local inference. Sponsors: AvePoint: AvePoint is building the control layer for AI agents so you can securely govern, audit, and recover every action at scale. Design trusted agentic outcomes from day one at https://avpt.co/tcr Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI collaborator that understands your workflow and helps you tackle research, writing, coding, and organization with deep context. Get started with Claude and explore Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai

3 hr 33 min
Apr 23, 2026
Does Learning Require Feeling? Cameron Berg on the latest AI Consciousness & Welfare Research

Cameron Berg returns to discuss the latest research on AI consciousness and model welfare. He breaks down new evidence for model introspection, including studies showing that systems can detect interventions on their own internal states and sometimes resist them. They also examine Anthropic's work on functional emotions, the implications of Claude's welfare reports, and Berg's new ideas about how reinforcement learning may shape positive and negative experience. The conversation makes the case for a more precautionary, mutualist approach to advanced AI systems. Sponsors: Roboflow: Roboflow is the computer vision infrastructure founders use to build AI-powered sports analytics and make the physical world programmable. Read the PlayVision story and start your first project for free at https://roboflow.com Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr

2 hr 9 min
Apr 19, 2026
Vibe-Coding an Attention Firewall, w/ Steve Newman, creator of The Curve

Steve Newman, creator of Writely and founder of the Golden Gate Institute for AI, shares the personal AI toolkit and vibe-coding practices that have reshaped how he works. He walks through bespoke tools including an attention firewall, a reading app for surfacing new ideas, a coding-agent dashboard, workflow automations, and a universal logging system for debugging with Claude. They also discuss information security, mobile and voice workflows, Steve’s “anti-tokenmaxxing” philosophy, and his views on AI takeoff, robotics, and climate change. Google: Try Gemini’s Nano Banana image generation model in Google AI Studio or the Gemini app to create custom illustrated worksheets in seconds, and explore the app’s quizzes and guided learning features.Sponsors: AvePoint: AvePoint is building the control layer for AI agents so you can securely govern, audit, and recover every action at scale. Design trusted agentic outcomes from day one at https://avpt.co/tcr VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:25) Special Sponsor (04:47) Building personal productivity tools (Part 1) (14:23) Sponsors: AvePoint | VCX (16:45) Building personal productivity tools (Part 2) (17:32) Security tradeoffs and caution (26:00) Touring the custom toolkit (Part 1) (26:05) Sponsors: Claude | Tasklet (29:56) Touring the custom toolkit (Part 2) (38:01) Stack choices and dashboards (45:12) Hooks, repos, and syncing (58:08) Logging, agents, and tools (01:11:18) Hard parts and iteration (01:18:57) Mo

2 hr 30 min
Apr 15, 2026
Welcome to AI in the AM: RL for EE, Oversight w/out Nationalization, & the first AI-Run Retail Store

This special AI in the AM episode features Sergiy Nesterenko of Quilter on using reinforcement learning for circuit board design, Andy Hall of Stanford on AI behavior in politics and new governance models, and Lukas Peterson and Axel Backlund of Andon Labs on their AI-run retail store in San Francisco. Nathan and Prakash also reflect on the pace of AI progress, the public reaction to existential risk, and why constructive civic action matters as AI systems grow more powerful and autonomous. Sponsors: Roboflow: Roboflow's free 2026 Vision AI Trends report analyzes 200,000+ real-world projects to reveal how top companies are deploying Vision AI and turning proprietary data into an edge. Download it now at https://roboflow.com/trends VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (07:57) Live stream kickoff (09:52) Sam Altman attacks (16:37) Quilter from SpaceX (19:02) Why autorouters fail (Part 1) (20:52) Sponsors: Roboflow | VCX (23:09) Why autorouters fail (Part 2) (28:14) Compute and odd layouts (34:19) Simulations and safety margins (Part 1) (39:22) Sponsor: Tasklet (41:01) Simulations and safety margins (Part 2) (41:01) Superintelligence meets hardware (48:18) AI constitutions debate (55:55) Deepfakes and persuasion (01:02:24) Virtue and institutions (01:11:05) Agent governance problems (01:16:56) Andon store debut (01:21:25) Luna's store choices (01:28:21) Supply chains and spread (01:36:23) AI boss behavior (01:43:47) How retail scales (01:53:54) Processing the future (01:59:50) Markets need context (02:26:42) Episode Outro (02:30:37) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai

3 hr 10 min
Apr 11, 2026
It's Crunch Time: Ajeya Cotra on RSI & AI-Powered AI Safety Work, from the 80,000 Hours Podcast

This cross-post from the 80,000 Hours podcast features Ajeya Cotra in conversation with Rob Wiblin about AI timelines, recursive self-improvement, and the “crunch time” window when AI could rapidly accelerate its own development. Ajeya explains why widespread, compounding automation may face fewer bottlenecks than many expect, and what that could mean for the world by 2050. They also discuss transparency, early warning systems, and the emerging strategy of using each generation of AI to align and control its successors. LINKS:Ajeya Cotra podcast episodeSponsors: AvePoint: AvePoint is building the control layer for AI agents so you can securely govern, audit, and recover every action at scale. Design trusted agentic outcomes from day one at https://avpt.co/tcr VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:17) AI inside safety plans (06:49) AGI growth expectations (Part 1) (18:32) Sponsors: AvePoint | VCX (20:54) AGI growth expectations (Part 2) (21:56) Disagreement and measurement (Part 1) (37:28) Sponsors: Claude | Tasklet (41:19) Disagreement and measurement (Part 2) (41:19) Transparency before takeoff (58:00) Redirecting AI labor (01:09:06) Defense plans and limits (01:25:26) Pausing versus redirecting (01:35:22) Open Phil and compute (01:50:16) Bottlenecks and preparation (01:57:42) From research to grants (02:13:03) Burnout and sabbatical (02:23:22) What EA offered (02:36:43) EA and re

1 hr 34 min
Apr 8, 2026
Calm AI for Crazy Days: Inside Granola's Design Philosophy, with co-founder Sam Stephenson

Sam Stephenson, co-founder of Granola, explains how a deliberately minimalist design philosophy helped turn the AI note-taking app into one of the fastest-growing products in the market. He shares why Granola focuses on doing one job exceptionally well, how note sharing drives growth, and what they’ve learned from surprising use cases, recipes, and constant user research. The conversation also covers privacy and consent, transcription and cost choices, team collaboration, and Sam’s hopes for AI products that create less screen time and more space for reflection. Google: Try Gemini’s image creation model, Nano Banana, to create original art in seconds with easy iterative prompting via Google AI Studio or the Gemini app. Sponsors: Roboflow: Roboflow gives robotics and embodied AI teams the visual AI infrastructure to turn messy, real-world perception into precise, reliable action. Learn how leading robotics companies solve bin picking and more at https://roboflow.com VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:52) Special Sponsor (05:52) Granola growth and users (17:14) System2 goals and context (Part 1) (17:19) Sponsors: Roboflow | VCX (20:15) System2 goals and context (Part 2) (33:09) Costs, pricing, and transcription (Part 1) (33:22) Sponsors: Claude | Tasklet (37:12) Costs, pricing, and transcription (Part 2) (47:38) Meeting privacy and consent (54:13) Agents, memory, and simplicity (01:03:49) Recipes, use cases, and growth (01:11:52) AI product design culture (01:28:08) Future risks and vision (01:33:33) Episode Outro (01:36:59) Outro PRODUCED BY:</st

1 hr 55 min
Apr 4, 2026
Training the AIs' Eyes: How Roboflow is Making the Real World Programmable, with CEO Joseph Nelson

Joseph Nelson, CEO of Roboflow, breaks down the current state of computer vision and why it still lags behind language models in real-world understanding, latency, and deployment. He explains how Roboflow distills frontier vision capabilities into efficient, task-specific models using techniques like Neural Architecture Search and RF-DETR. The conversation covers Chinese leadership in vision, Meta and NVIDIA’s roles in the ecosystem, coding agents, and emerging S-curves from world models to wearables. Nelson also explores aesthetic judgment in AI, real-world applications from agriculture to sports, and why outcome-focused regulation matters. Sponsors: Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:23) State of computer vision (12:29) Is vision solved (19:41) Frontier models and failures (Part 1) (19:46) Sponsors: Tasklet | VCX (22:39) Frontier models and failures (Part 2) (32:16) From cloud to edge (Part 1) (32:21) Sponsor: Claude (34:33) From cloud to edge (Part 2) (43:25) Data needs and scaling (50:52) Open source vision race (01:01:38) NAS and productization (01:12:24) Aesthetic judgment challenges (01:17:22) Future horizons in vision (01:31:18) Wearables and daily life (01:43:06) Regulating AI vision tools (01:51:00) Episode Outro (01:56:39) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast

1 hr 44 min
Apr 1, 2026
Success without Dignity? Nathan finds Hope Amidst Chaos, from The Intelligence Horizon Podcast

This special cross-post from The Intelligence Horizon features Nathan Labenz in a wide-ranging conversation on compressed AI timelines, expert disagreement, and why he believes the singularity is near. They discuss interpretability, RL scaling, and the balance between extraordinary upside, like curing major diseases, and serious existential risks. Nathan explains his evolving p(doom), why he’s slightly more optimistic about robustly good AI, and how defense-in-depth strategies might keep society on track. The episode also explores US-China rivalry, AI governance, and why human cooperation may matter more than technical control alone. Google: Keep up with AI research on the go with NotebookLM, Google's steerable research and thinking partner. Try it at https://notebooklm.google.com/.Sponsors: Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:27) Special Sponsor (05:12) Opening and AGI framing (12:08) Scaling RL and paradigms (Part 1) (21:31) Sponsors: Tasklet | VCX (24:24) Scaling RL and paradigms (Part 2) (28:56) Verifiability and long horizons (41:13) LLMs and world models (Part 1) (41:19) Sponsor: Claude (43:32) LLMs and world models (Part 2) (54:17) Energy, hardware, and chips (01:00:42) Alignment risks and bottlenecks (01:10:18) AI values and agency (01:20:31) Defense in depth alignment (01:30:48) US-China AI cooperation (01:41:05) Episode Outro (01:45:42) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: <a href="https

1 hr 35 min
Mar 25, 2026
Scaling Intelligence Out: Cisco's Vision for the Internet of Cognition, with Vijoy Pandey

Vijoy Pandey of Outshift by Cisco lays out his vision for an “Internet of Cognition,” where AI agents can share context, build reputation, and collaborate safely at scale. He offers a useful mental model for superintelligence: progress has to scale in two directions — up, through better individual models, and out, through networks of agents and humans thinking together. The conversation explores how distributed, protocol-driven agent systems could give enterprises fine-grained permissions, auditability, and controlled interfaces, in contrast to today’s centralized frontier models. Vijoy also walks through Cisco’s internal CAIPE system of 20 cooperating agents, the open-source AGNTCY project, and a live multi-agent healthcare demo spanning diagnostics, insurance, pharmacy, and scheduling. LINKS: AGNTCY Project Open source multi-agent infrastructure under Linux Foundation governance. Covers discovery, identity, communication, observability. Vijoy walks through the architecture at [00:34:57] and [00:41:17]. Scaling Out Superintelligence Whitepaper The technical whitepaper detailing the Internet of Cognition architecture, three-layer stack, and cognition state protocols. Referenced at [01:25:40]. Internet of Cognition Interactive Demo Clickable walkthrough showing per-agent activity, intent, context, and collective reasoning across a multi-agent SRE system. Vijoy demos at [01:26:20]. CAIPE Project (GitHub)  Cloud Native AI Platform Engineer. Multi-agent system with participation from Adobe, AWS, Cisco, Nike. 20 agents, 100+ tool calls, 10+ workflows. Referenced at [00:11:52]. Sponsors: Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defens

1 hr 38 min
Mar 22, 2026
Your Agent's Self-Improving Swiss Army Knife: Composio CTO Karan Vaidya on Building Smart Tools

Karan Vaidya, CTO of Composio, explains how their “smart tool” platform lets AI agents access over 50,000 tools across 1,000+ apps through a single interface. He details how Composio handles tool discovery, authentication, sandboxes, and logging, and how an AI-powered feedback loop continuously improves tools in real time. The conversation explores avoiding model lock-in through robust skills and instructions, translating capabilities across model providers, and why the best agent use cases look more like full jobs than isolated tasks. Google: Try Google's latest and greatest model, Gemini 3.1 Pro, in AI Studio (https://aistudio.google.com/) or the Gemini app. Sponsors: Tasklet: Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:38) Special Sponsor (05:10) Composio overview and harness (10:20) Users, trust, security (19:45) Sandboxes and execution (Part 1) (19:53) Sponsors: Tasklet | VCX (22:46) Sandboxes and execution (Part 2) (28:07) Smart MCPs and skills (Part 1) (34:25) Sponsor: Claude (36:38) Smart MCPs and skills (Part 2) (44:10) Context, access, upgrades (54:05) Skills and model lock-in (01:03:51) Memory and agent tools (01:09:21) AI and SaaS disruption (01:20:20) Agents, costs, labor (01:31:18) Monetization and interfaces (01:36:13) Episode Outro (01:39:56) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast Twitter (Nathan): <a href="http

3 hr 26 min
Mar 19, 2026
Zvi's Mic Works! Recursive Self-Improvement, Live Player Analysis, Anthropic vs DoW + More!

Zvi Mowshowitz returns to survey the current AI landscape, from recursive self-improvement and the shift from the “beginning” to the “middle” of the AI story to what true AI end-game would look like. He and Nathan dig into AI-driven job loss, real-world productivity impacts, and the ethics of trying to escape a “permanent underclass.” They assess today’s AI live players, why Anthropic may be slightly ahead, and whether Chinese, xAI, or Meta can catch up. The conversation closes with Anthropic’s Responsible Scaling Policy, p(doom), AI safety options, and how they each use AI in their own work. Sponsors: Tasklet: Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (02:25) Entering the middle game (09:08) AI layoffs and jobs (Part 1) (15:50) Sponsors: Tasklet | VCX (18:43) AI layoffs and jobs (Part 2) (18:44) AI growth and elites (27:00) Defining the AI endgame (36:09) Live players and laggards (45:38) China, compute, and distillation (56:03) Meta, Musk, and strategy (01:06:41) Google's faltering AI strategy (01:22:25) Anthropic's scaling policy shift (01:36:29) Anthropic and domestic surveillance (01:57:29) Courts, power, and Anthropic (02:18:50) Model fatigue and productivity (02:34:53) Alignment basins and doom (02:47:24) Slowing AI and activism (03:05:37) Forbidden techniques and choices (03:22:31) Episode Outro (03:26:31) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast Twitter (Nathan): https://x.com/labenz LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nathanlabenz/ Youtube: <a href="https://youtube.com/@

1 hr 16 min
Mar 16, 2026
AI Scouting Report: the Good, Bad, & Weird @ the Law & AI Certificate Program, by LexLab, UC Law SF

This special AI Scouting Report episode from the Law & Artificial Intelligence Certificate Program surveys the current AI landscape for legal professionals. Nathan Labenz walks through the “Good, Bad, and Weird” of frontier models, from using AI to navigate his son’s cancer treatment to emerging forms of deception and reward hacking. He highlights how new systems are pushing the boundaries of math, physics, and legal performance while raising serious safety and governance questions. Listeners will come away with a fast-paced, source-rich overview of where AI is today and the strange future it’s steering us toward. LINKS: Google: Try Google's latest and greatest model, Gemini 3.1 Pro, in AI Studio or the Gemini app.Presentation Link Sponsors: Tasklet: Tasklet: Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:04) Gemini's long context window (05:23) Comprehensive AI overview (Part 1) (16:01) Sponsors: Tasklet | VCX (18:53) Comprehensive AI overview (Part 2) (Part 1) (34:39) Sponsor: Claude (36:51) Comprehensive AI overview (Part 2) (Part 2) (59:43) Reward and sentience (01:04:14) Regulating bad actors (01:09:30) Corporate AI strategies (01:14:59) Episode Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing

1 hr 43 min
Mar 11, 2026
Bioinfohazards: Jassi Pannu on Controlling Dangerous Data from which AI Models Learn

Jassi Pannu, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins, explains how rapidly advancing AI is transforming biological research and raising the risk of engineered pandemics. They map today’s biosecurity landscape, from pathogen detection and DNA sequencing to vaccine development, and examine how frontier models can already troubleshoot lab work and bypass data safeguards. The conversation introduces a proposed Biosecurity Data Level framework to restrict only the most dangerous functional biological data while preserving open science. They close with a broader defense-in-depth strategy—Delay, Deter, Detect, Defend—including DNA synthesis screening, global pathogen surveillance, and practical tools like Far UV sterilization. LINKS: Jassi Pannu: https://x.com/JassiPannuMD Science article that prompted this conversation: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb2689 Sponsors: VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Framer: Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (05:59) From outbreak to vaccine (17:08) Threat actors and data (Part 1) (21:23) Sponsors: VCX | Framer (23:53) Threat actors and data (Part 2) (31:05) Gain-of-function research risks (Part 1) (37:39) Sponsors: Claude | Tasklet (41:03) Gain-of-function research risks (Part 2) (48:05) AI models in biology (01:00:51) Dangerous AI capabilities (01:07:59) Biosecurity data level framework (01:18:58) Po

2 hr 6 min
Mar 8, 2026
Try this at Home: Jesse Genet on OpenClaw Agents for Homeschool & How to Live Your Best AI Life

Jesse Genet shares how she built a team of AI agents to transform homeschooling, family life, and personal productivity without a software background. She explains how agents like an AI chief of staff, curriculum planner, and content creator help design personalized lessons, analyze kids’ learning, manage educational toys, and even run TikTok. The conversation covers practical delegation workflows, guardrails and trust, and why she treats AIs like employees with onboarding and clear roles. Jesse also explores local models, privacy, and how AI in the home could reshape future work and family life. Use the Granola Recipe Nathan relies on to identify blind spots across conversations, AI research, and decisions: Sponsors: VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week 4 at https://serval.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:57) Homeschooling context and AI (15:55) Building an AI team (Part 1) (19:51) Sponsors: VCX | Claude (23:18) Building an AI team (Part 2) (31:03) Onboarding agents like employees (Part 1) (38:12) Sponsors: Serval | Tasklet (40:31) Onboarding agents like employees (Part 2) (40:57) Context, models, and privacy (48:47) AI intimacy and rights (56:19) Coordinating agents in Slack (01:02:19) Designing an agent superapp (01:08:35) Agent trust and kids (01:17:57) Voice interfaces for families (01:29:51) Curated screens and automations (01:40:28) Sharing setups and software (01:48:43) Local sovereignty and kid devices (01:59:26) Work, disruption, and play (02:04:58) Episode Outro (02:07:45) Outro PR

1 hr 47 min
Mar 5, 2026
Don't Fight Backprop: Goodfire's Vision for Intentional Design, w/ Dan Balsam & Tom McGrath

Dan Balsam and Tom McGrath from Goodfire return to explore the frontier of mechanistic interpretability and their new research pillar, Intentional Design. They explain the shift from sparse autoencoders to understanding geometric structure in latent spaces, and share a proof-of-concept method for reducing hallucinations using probes and RL. The conversation tackles concerns about reward hacking, principles for shaping the loss landscape instead of fighting backprop, and what this means for aligning powerful models. They also discuss recent Goodfire results on Alzheimer’s prediction, disentangling memorization vs reasoning weights, and how they balance commercial growth with a public benefit mission. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at granola.ai/tcr with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: https://bit.ly/granolablindspot LINKS: Detecting PII for Rakuten Interpretability for Alzheimer's biomarker detection You and Your Research Agent Adversarial examples and superposition Discovering rare behaviors with model diff Priors in time for interpretability Belief dynamics in in-context learning Mixing mechanisms in language models Sparse autoencoder scaling with manifolds Sponsors: VCX: VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week 4 at https:/

2 hr 18 min
Mar 1, 2026
Situational Awareness in Government, with UK AISI Chief Scientist Geoffrey Irving

Geoffrey Irving, Chief Scientist at the UK AI Security Institute, explains why our theoretical understanding of machine learning remains fragile even as models surpass experts on critical security tasks. He details AISI’s work on frontier model evaluations, red teaming, and threat modeling across biosecurity, cybersecurity, and loss-of-control risks. The conversation explores reward hacking, eval awareness, and why current safety techniques may struggle to deliver high reliability. Listeners will also hear how AISI is funding foundational research to build stronger guarantees for AI safety. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at ⁠granola.ai/tcr⁠ with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: ⁠https://bit.ly/granolablindspot⁠ Sponsors: Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week 4 at https://serval.com/cognitive Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:09) From physics to ML (08:52) AGI uncertainty and threats (Part 1) (18:08) Sponsors: Serval | Claude (21:29) AGI uncertainty and threats (Part 2) (27:35) Control, autonomy, alignment (Part 1) (34:02) Sponsor: Tasklet (35:14) Control, autonomy, alignment (Part 2) (38:44) Inside the UK AC (51:02) Evaluations and jailbreaking (01:01:17) Emerging capabilities and misuse (01:14:20) Agents and reward hacking (01:26:09) Theoretical alignment agenda (01:38:39) Debate and formal methods (01:51:19) Limits of formalization (02:02:27) Future risks and governance (02:16:23) Episode Outro (02:18:58) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): <a href="https://x.com/cog

2 hr 1 min
Feb 25, 2026
Universal Medical Intelligence: OpenAI's Plan to Elevate Human Health, with Karan Singhal

Karan Singhal, Head of Health AI at OpenAI, explains how ChatGPT Health is achieving attending-physician-level performance and already serving hundreds of millions of users. He details how OpenAI works with over 250 doctors, built the 49,000-criteria HealthBench evaluation, and ran one of the first randomized trials of AI copilots in clinical care. The conversation explores privacy and safety safeguards, medical multimodality, N-of-1 treatment plans, and how AI could become a standard part of global medical practice. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at ⁠granola.ai/tcr⁠ with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: ⁠https://bit.ly/granolablindspot⁠ LINKS: modeling human wellness Sponsors: Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week 4 at https://serval.com/cognitive Framer: Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (06:11) Cancer story and mission (11:46) Designing safe health AI (Part 1) (17:49) Sponsors: Claude | Serval (21:09) Designing safe health AI (Part 2) (26:48) Uncertainty, HealthBench and robustness (Part 1) (30:23) Sponsors: Framer | Tasklet (32:50) Uncertainty, HealthBench and robustness (Part 2) (38:11) Chain-of-thought and evaluation (46:49) Real-world performance and frontiers (55:35) Multimodal data and science (01:05:36) Personalization, privacy

55 min
Feb 22, 2026
Intelligence with Everyone: RL @ MiniMax, with Olive Song, from AIE NYC & Inference by Turing Post

Olive Song from MiniMax shares how her team trains the M series frontier open-weight models using reinforcement learning, tight product feedback loops, and systematic environment perturbations. This crossover episode weaves together her AI Engineer Conference talk and an in-depth interview from the Inference podcast. Listeners will learn about interleaved thinking for long-horizon agentic tasks, fighting reward hacking, and why they moved RL training to FP32 precision. Olive also offers a candid look at debugging real-world LLM failures and how MiniMax uses AI agents to track the fast-moving AI landscape. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at ⁠granola.ai/tcr⁠ with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: ⁠https://bit.ly/granolablindspot⁠ LINKS: Conference Talk (AI Engineer, Dec 2025) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY1iFbDPRlwInterview (Turing Post, Jan 2026) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkUMqWeHn40 Sponsors: Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:15) Minimax M2 presentation (Part 1) (17:59) Sponsors: Claude | Tasklet (21:22) Minimax M2 presentation (Part 2) (21:26) Research life and culture (26:27) Alignment, safety and feedback (32:01) Long-horizon coding agents (35:57) Open models and evaluation (43:29) M2.2 and researcher goals (48:16) Continual learning and AGI (52:58) Closing musical summary (55:49) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast Twitter (Nathan): https://x.com/labenz LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nathanlabenz/ Youtube: <a href="https://youtube.c

1 hr 31 min
Feb 18, 2026
Mathematical Superintelligence: Harmonic's Vlad & Tudor on IMO Gold & Theories of Everything

Vlad Tenev and Tudor Achim from Harmonic explain how they built Aristotle, an AI system that reaches International Mathematical Olympiad gold-medal performance using formally verified Lean proofs. They unpack the architecture behind mathematical superintelligence, including Monte Carlo Tree Search, lemma guessing, and specialized geometry modules. The conversation explores how verifiable reasoning could harden mission-critical software, reshape mathematical practice, and lead to trustworthy superintelligent systems by 2030. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at ⁠granola.ai/tcr⁠ with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: ⁠https://bit.ly/granolablindspot⁠ Sponsors: Claude: Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at https://claude.ai/tcr Framer: Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:58) Math as reasoning (Part 1) (15:22) Sponsors: Claude | Framer (18:51) Math as reasoning (Part 2) (18:51) Inside the Lean language (27:51) Lean intuition and MathLib (Part 1) (34:08) Sponsors: Blitzy | Tasklet (37:08) Lean intuition and MathLib (Part 2) (38:47) Inside Aristotle's architecture (48:33) Scope, boundaries, and applications (54:37) Training, taste, and interpretability (01:08:18) Formal math and software (01:16:50) Limits, entropy, and roadmap (01:25:24) 2030 vision and safety (01:33:38) Outro PRODUCED BY:

2 hr 22 min
Feb 14, 2026
Approaching the AI Event Horizon? Part 2, w/ Abhi Mahajan, Helen Toner, Jeremie Harris, @8teAPi

Abhi Mahajan (@owlposting) explains how AI is reshaping biology and medicine, including foundation models to predict cancer treatment response and why he’s both skeptical and optimistic about current results. Helen Toner unpacks CSET’s “When AI Builds AI” report and why automated AI R just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks lik

1 hr 32 min
Feb 13, 2026
Approaching the AI Event Horizon? Part 1, w/ James Zou, Sam Hammond, Shoshannah Tekofsky, @8teAPi

Part 1 of this live special dives into AI for Science, U.S. AI policy, and the behavior of AI agents in open-ended environments. James Zou explains how interpretability and virtual labs of AI agents can accelerate scientific discovery. Sam Hammond assesses the Biden administration’s AI policy, U.S.–Gulf AI deals, and the odds current AIs are conscious. Shoshannah Tekofsky shares insights from studying agent performance and emergent behavior in the AI Village. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at ⁠granola.ai/tcr⁠ with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: ⁠https://bit.ly/granolablindspot⁠ LINKS: Model human wellness project doc AI Village 2025 findings report Sponsors: GovAI: GovAI was founded ten years ago on the belief that AI would end up transforming our world. Ten years later, the organization is at the forefront of trying to help decision-makers in government and industry navigate the transition to advanced AI.  GovAI is now hiring Research Scholars (one-year positions for those transitioning into AI policy) and Research Fellows (longer-term roles for experienced researchers). Both roles offer significant freedom to pursue policy research, advise decision-makers, or launch new initiatives. Applications close 22 February 2026. Apply at: https://www.governance.ai/opportunities Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at <a href="h

1 hr 16 min
Feb 8, 2026
AGI-Pilled Cyber Defense: Automating Digital Forensics w/ Asymmetric Security CEO Alexis Carlier

Alexis Carlier, founder of Asymmetric Security, explains how assuming AGI-level intelligent labor should transform cybersecurity from reactive triage to proactive, continuous digital forensics. He breaks down today’s threat landscape—from “spray and pray” cybercrime to nation-state IP theft and North Korean “remote workers.” The conversation explores Asymmetric’s AI agents for deep investigations, their services-first approach to business email compromise, and how specialized digital forensics may differentially accelerate defensive AI capabilities. Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at ⁠granola.ai/tcr⁠ with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: ⁠https://bit.ly/granolablindspot⁠ Sponsors: GovAI: GovAI was founded ten years ago on the belief that AI would end up transforming our world. Ten years later, the organization is at the forefront of trying to help decision-makers in government and industry navigate the transition to advanced AI.  GovAI is now hiring Research Scholars (one-year positions for those transitioning into AI policy) and Research Fellows (longer-term roles for experienced researchers). Both roles offer significant freedom to pursue policy research, advise decision-makers, or launch new initiatives. Applications close 22 February 2026. Apply at: https://www.governance.ai/opportunities Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex pr

1 hr 56 min
Feb 5, 2026
Infinite Code Context: AI Coding at Enterprise Scale w/ Blitzy CEO Brian Elliott & CTO Sid Pardeshi

Blitzy founders Brian and Sid break down how their “infinite code context” system lets AI autonomously complete over 80% of major enterprise software projects in days. They dive into their dynamic agent architecture, how they choose and cross-check different models, and why they prioritize advances in AI memory over fine-tuning. The conversation also covers their 20¢/line pricing model, the path to 99%+ autonomous project completion, and what this all means for the future software engineering job market. Sponsors: Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:02) AGI effects without AGI (07:07) Domain-specific context engineering (16:54) Dynamic harness and evals (Part 1) (17:00) Sponsors: Blitzy | Tasklet (20:00) Dynamic harness and evals (Part 2) (30:42) Graphs, RAG, and memory (Part 1) (30:49) Sponsor: Serval (32:26) Graphs, RAG, and memory (Part 2) (41:17) Model zoo and memory (50:07) Planning, scaling, and parallelism (56:13) Pricing, onboarding, and autonomy (01:04:24) Closing the last 20% (01:12:34) Strange behaviors and judges (01:22:23) Reasoning budgets and autonomy (01:33:36) Fine-tuning, benchmarks, and training (01:42:31) Securing AI-generated code (01:49:52) Future of software work (01:57:05) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cogniti

1 hr 2 min
Feb 1, 2026
The AI-Powered Biohub: Why Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan are Investing in Data, from Latent.Space

This crossover episode from the Latent Space podcast features Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan on the 10-year anniversary of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and their expanded Biohub vision. They discuss how a “Frontier Biology Lab” working in sync with a “Frontier AI Lab” could enable breakthroughs like a Virtual Cell and true N-of-1 precision medicine. The conversation covers the acquisition of Evolutionary Scale and ESM3, new biological data collection at scale, and how AI-powered biology might transform drug discovery and disease prevention. Sponsors: Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com Framer: Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:27) CZI origins and focus (08:29) Why tools over cures (14:43) Virtual cells and imaging (Part 1) (20:19) Sponsors: Blitzy | Framer (23:24) Virtual cells and imaging (Part 2) (25:22) Data diversity and grounding (32:30) Evaluating models and Biohub (Part 1) (37:53) Sponsors: Serval | Tasklet (40:42) Evaluating models and Biohub (Part 2) (41:06) Future healthcare and aging (53:39) Modeling scales and immunity (58:53) Timelines, data, and collaboration (01:04:01) Outro PRODUCED BY:</

1 hr 36 min
Jan 29, 2026
AI & The Law: Changing Practice, Claude Constitution, & New Rights, w/ Kevin & Alan of Scaling Laws

Kevin Frazier and Alan Rozenshtein explore how AI is reshaping the legal profession, from “secret cyborg” lawyers using tools like Harvey to the uncertain future of junior associates and access to legal services. They discuss maximalist legal services, AI-written “complete contingent contracts,” and where AI should fall between strict formalism and legal realism, including Claude’s virtue-ethics-inspired constitution. The conversation then turns to AI’s role in legislation and governance, including outcome-oriented law, the “Unitary Artificial Executive,” and new rights like the Right to Compute and the Right to Share personal data. They close by examining limits on government surveillance and how future debates over AI sentience and welfare could spark social conflict. LINKS: Article on automated AI compliance GDPVal dataset lawyers tasks viewer Polis online deliberation platform Sponsors: Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com Framer: Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://cl

2 hr 11 min
Jan 25, 2026
The Internet Computer: Caffeine.ai CEO Dominic Williams on Unstoppable, Self-Writing Software

Dominic Williams, President just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:37) Origins of Internet Computer (10:09) Decentralization philosophy and AI (15:12) Tamper-proof architecture explained (Part 1) (19:43) Sponsors: Blitzy | MongoDB (22:08) Tamper-proof architecture explained (Part 2) (25:25) Netwo

2 hr 23 min
Jan 22, 2026
AMA Part 2: Is Fine-Tuning Dead? How Am I Preparing for AGI? Are We Headed for UBI? & More!

In this AMA-style episode, Nathan takes on listener questions about whether fine-tuning is really on the way out, what emergent misalignment and weird generalization results tell us, and how to think about continual learning. He talks candidly about how he’s personally preparing for AGI—from career choices and investing to what resilience steps he has and hasn’t taken. The discussion also covers timelines for job disruption, whether UBI becomes inevitable, how to talk to kids and “normal people” about AI, and which safety approaches are most neglected. Sponsors: Blitzy: Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com MongoDB: Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) Ernie cancer update (04:57) Is fine-tuning dead (Part 1) (12:31) Sponsors: Blitzy | MongoDB (14:57) Is fine-tuning dead (Part 2) (Part 1) (26:56) Sponsors: Serval | Tasklet (29:15) Is fine-tuning dead (Part 2) (Part 2) (29:16) Continual learning cautions (34:59) Talking to normal people (39:30) Personal risk preparation (49:59) Investing around AI safety (01:00:39) Early childhood AI literacy (01:08:55) Work disruption timelines (01:27:58) Nonprofits, need, and UBI (01:34:53) Benchmarks, AGI, and embodiment (01:47:30) AI tooling and platforms (0

2 hr 28 min
Jan 18, 2026
Pioneering PAI: How Daniel Miessler's Personal AI Infrastructure Activates Human Agency & Creativity

Daniel Miessler shares his Personal AI Infrastructure (PAI) framework and vision for a future where single human owners are supported by armies of AI agents. He explains his TELOS system for defining purpose and goals, multi-layered memory design, and orchestration of multiple models and sub-agents. The conversation dives into cybersecurity impacts, from AI-accelerated testing to inevitable personalized spear-phishing and always-on defensive monitoring. Listeners will learn how scaffolding can turn frontier models into true digital assistants and even help reshape their own working habits. LINKS: PAI principles on GitHub README Daniel Miessler about page How Miessler's projects fit together AI changes predictions for 2026 Fabric open-source AI framework Personal AI Infrastructure GitHub repository Current definition of AGI article Why we'll have AGI by 2028 RAID AI definitions framework article Unsupervised Learning newsletter signup Daniel Miessler LinkedIn profile Sponsors: MongoDB: Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain Engli

1 hr 39 min
Jan 14, 2026
Bringing AI to Data: Agent Design, Text-2-SQL, RAG, & more, w- Snowflake VP of AI Baris Gultekin

Baris Gultekin, VP of AI at Snowflake, explains how “bringing AI to the data” is reshaping enterprise AI deployment under strict security and governance requirements. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. He shares the importance of bringing AI directly to governed enterprise data, advances in text-to-SQL and semantic modeling, and why high-quality retrieval is foundational for trustworthy AI agents. Baris also dives into Snowflake’s approach to agentic AI, including Snowflake Intelligence, model choice and cost tradeoffs, and why governance, security, and open standards are essential as AI becomes accessible to every business user. LINKS: AWS' Automated Reasoning checks Sponsors: MongoDB: Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build Serval: Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:02) Snowflake 101 and AI (09:25) Text-to-SQL and semantics (19:10) RAG, embeddings and models (Part 1) (19:17) Sponsors: MongoDB | Serval (21:02) RAG, embeddings and mo

1 hr 54 min
Jan 9, 2026
AMA Part 1: Is Claude Code AGI? Are we in a bubble? Plus Live Player Analysis

In this AMA episode, Nathan gives an update on his son Ernie’s cancer treatment and how frontier AI models are helping him navigate complex medical decisions. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. He reflects on whether Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Code amount to AGI-level coding, sharing stories of hospital vibe coding apps for his family. You’ll hear his framework for getting real value from Gemini 3, Claude, and GPT 5.2 Pro, plus his take on AI bubbles, Chinese models, chip controls, and who the true live players are in today’s AI race. Sponsors: MongoDB: Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build Framer: Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) AMA intro format (00:22) Ernie health update (09:24) Claude 4.5 question (Part 1) (09:29) Sponsors: MongoDB | Framer (11:21) Claude 4.5 question (Part 2) (13:21) Using AI for cancer (19:48) AI value and skill (22:10) Holiday coding projects (Part 1) (22:15) Sponsor: Tasklet (23:27) Holiday coding projects (Part 2) (28:01) Claude code workflow (32:03) Is Claude 4.5 AGI (36:04) AI bubble or not (41:22) VC froth examples (46:09) Chinese models comparison (55:29) H200 exports to China (01:03:40) Google DeepMind strengths (01:11:55) OpenAI strategy outlook (01:22:51) Anthropic culture and strategy (01:36:17) XAI promise and risks (01:48:20) Meta and Microsoft (01:52:29) Part two preview

1 hr 54 min
Jan 4, 2026
Building & Scaling the AI Safety Research Community, with Ryan Kidd of MATS

Ryan Kidd, Co-Executive Director of MATS, shares an inside view of the AI safety field and the world’s largest AI safety research talent pipeline. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. He discusses AGI timelines, the blurred line between safety and capabilities work, and why expert disagreement remains so high. In the second half, Ryan breaks down MATS’ research archetypes, what top AI safety organizations are looking for, and how applicants can stand out with the right projects, skills, and career strategy. Sponsors: Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠⁠https://claude.ai/tcr⁠ CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:50) MATS mission, AGI timelines (13:43) Evaluating current AI safety (Part 1) (13:48) Sponsor: Tasklet (14:59) Evaluating current AI safety (Part 2) (Part 1) (28:11) Sponsors: Agents of Scale | Shopify (30:58) Evaluating current AI safety (Part 2) (Part 2) (30:59) Safety research versus capabilities (40:01) Frontier labs, deployment, governance (51:51) MATS tracks and governance (01:04:11) Research archetypes and tooling (01:12:25) Labor market and careers (01:20:09) Applicant selection and preparation (01:29:33) Admissions, salaries, and compute (01:40:34) Future programs and paradigms (01:54:11) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: <a href="https://www.cogni

1 hr 16 min
Jan 1, 2026
Confronting the Intelligence Curse, w/ Luke Drago of Workshop Labs, from the FLI Podcast

This cross-post episode from the Future of Life Institute podcast features Luke Drago, co-author of The Intelligence Curse and co-founder of Workshop Labs, in conversation with Gus Docker. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. They explore whether it’s wise to build AI systems that directly compete with and potentially replace humans as economic actors, and how this could create an “Intelligence Curse” where those who control AI gain extreme power. Luke outlines societal strategies like open-source AI, company-level design principles that keep users in control of their data, and personal tactics such as N-of-1 careers and pursuing moonshot projects early. Sponsors: MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive Claude Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow, from drafting and research to coding and complex problem-solving. Start tackling bigger problems with Claude and unlock Claude Pro’s full capabilities at ⁠https://claude.ai/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:07) Defining The Intelligence Curse (09:34) Pyramid Replacement And Work (Part 1) (15:55) Sponsors: MATS | Tasklet (18:55) Pyramid Replacement And Work (Part 2) (25:29) Local Knowledge, Data Control (33:58) Dystopian Intelligence Curse Future (Part 1) (34:04) Sponsors: Agents of Scale | Shopify (36:52) Dystopian Intelligence Curse Future (Part 2) (48:07) Open, Safe AI Futures (01:02:47) Loyal Age

1 hr 15 min
Dec 27, 2025
Controlling Tools or Aligning Creatures? Emmett Shear (Softmax) & Séb Krier (GDM), from a16z Show

Emmett Shear and Séb Krier debate whether today’s AI alignment paradigm—focused on control and instruction-following—is fundamentally flawed. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. They explore what changes if advanced AIs are better understood as beings with their own values, and why current control methods could drift toward something like slavery. The conversation dives into “organic alignment,” multi-agent simulations, evolving cooperation, and the possibility of AI moral standing as systems gain memory and continual learning. Sponsors: MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (03:44) Defining organic AI alignment (14:48) Technical vs value alignment (Part 1) (19:55) Sponsors: MATS | Tasklet (22:56) Technical vs value alignment (Part 2) (Part 1) (31:34) Sponsors: Agents of Scale | Shopify (34:21) Technical vs value alignment (Part 2) (Part 2) (34:22) Labs, tools, and beings (43:22) AI personhood and consciousness (56:53) Safe futures and Softmax (01:04:17) Chatbots, mirrors, simulations (01:10:14) Doom, futures, and OpenAI (01:17:25) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast

1 hr 39 min
Dec 24, 2025
The Great Security Update: AI ∧ Formal Methods with Kathleen Fisher of RAND & Byron Cook of AWS

Kathleen Fisher and Byron Cook dive into automated reasoning and formal verification as tools for building truly secure software systems. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. They explain how formal methods can harden critical infrastructure against AI-enabled cyberattacks, and how assumptions, specifications, and proofs combine to deliver real security guarantees. The conversation explores using these techniques to train coding models, enable a “great software rewrite,” and power AWS’s new automated reasoning checks for AI agents and policy compliance. Sponsors: MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (04:52) AI Reshapes Cybersecurity (10:16) Formal Methods Foundations (17:46) Security Properties Assumptions (Part 1) (21:27) Sponsors: MATS | Tasklet (24:27) Security Properties Assumptions (Part 2) (28:31) Helicopter Formal Verification (38:15) Proof Confidence And AWS (Part 1) (41:52) Sponsors: Agents of Scale | Shopify (44:40) Proof Confidence And AWS (Part 2) (50:33) Automated Reasoning For Policies (01:04:39) Generative AI Meets Verification (01:19:42) Securing Future AI Systems (01:31:19) Agentic Guardrails And Governance (01:40:44) Outro PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cogni

1 hr 39 min
Dec 19, 2025
AI 2025 → 2026 Live Show | Part 2

This year-end live show features nine rapid-fire conversations to make sense of AI’s 2025 and what might define 2026. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. New York Assemblymember Alex Boris breaks down the RAISE Act's bid to curb catastrophic AI risks, the governor negotiations, and why a16z-backed ads are targeting him. Former White House AI adviser Dean Ball maps the emerging coalitions on AI, federal preemption, and what fast-improving coding agents could mean for policy and jobs. Forecaster Peter Wildeford debates selling vs "renting" chips to China and offers a 2026 outlook on agents, costs, and robotics. Recorded live as part of our AI 2025→2026 series (Part 2).Sponsors: Gemini 3 in Google AI Studio: Gemini 3 in Google AI Studio lets you build fully functional apps from a simple description—no coding required. Start vibe coding your idea today at https://ai.studio/build MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Framer: Framer is the all-in-one tool to design, iterate, and publish stunning websites with powerful AI features. Start creating for free and use code COGNITIVE to get one free month of Framer Pro at https://framer.com/design Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) Sponsor: Gemini 3 in Google AI Studio (00:31) RAISE Act status (04:52) Catastrophic risk focus (10:47) Super PAC backlash (16:17) Data centers and grid (19:47) Palantir and surveillance (23:42) Dean Ball joins (Part 1) (23:46) Sponsors: MATS | Framer (27:05) Dean Ball joins (Part 2) (32:00) Social media lessons (36:22) Trump preempt

1 hr 55 min
Dec 18, 2025
AI 2025 → 2026 Live Show | Part 1

This year-end live show features nine rapid-fire conversations to make sense of AI’s 2025 and what might define 2026. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. Zvi Moshowitz maps the OpenAI–Anthropic–Google race, the denialism gap, and why his PDoom is still ~60–70%. Greg (ARC-AGI Prize), Eugenia Kuyda, Ali Behrouz, Logan Kirkpatrick, and Jungwon Hwang cover sample-efficient benchmarks and ARC-AGI 3, companions and human-flourishing metrics, continual-learning memory, Gemini 3 Flash for developers, and AI for scientific decisions. Sponsors: Gemini 3 in Google AI Studio: Gemini 3 in Google AI Studio lets you build fully functional apps from a simple description—no coding required. Start vibe coding your idea today at https://ai.studio/build MATS: MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr Framer: Framer is the all-in-one tool to design, iterate, and publish stunning websites with powerful AI features. Start creating for free and use code COGNITIVE to get one free month of Framer Pro at https://framer.com/design Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai CHAPTERS: (00:00) Sponsor: Gemini 3 in Google AI Studio (00:31) Live show experiment (02:26) Zvi: discourse and denial (13:28) Continual learning and doom (22:05) ArcAGI: what's missing (Part 1) (22:09) Sponsors: MATS | Framer (25:28) ArcAGI: what's missing (Part 2) (31:58) Scaffolds and tiny models (38:58) ArcAGI 3 game worlds (45:13) AI companions landscape (Part 1) (45:21) Sponsors: Shopify | Tasklet (48:29) AI companions landscape (Part 2) (58:14) Wabi apps and caution (01:08:16) Nested learning, layered memory <

2 hr 3 min
Dec 14, 2025
AI's Energy & Water Demands: Sorting Fact from Fiction with Andy Masley

Andy Masley on AI energy and water use unpacks common myths and brings an Effective Altruism lens to the debate. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. You’ll get memorable heuristics—one ChatGPT query ≈ running a microwave for one second; 10,000 queries ≈ a cross-town car trip, burger, or hot shower—and clear comparisons about data center power, solar land area, and an estimated 80 GW buildout. We also cover local impacts, water trade-offs, uncertainty drivers, and why AI’s global resource footprint is smaller than many fear while noting where caution is still warranted. LINKS: Andy Masley Substack homepage Power Hungry Processing paper PDF Energy Efficiency AI Benchmarks PDF Deep neural network energy paper Gemini Deep Research report ChatGPT 5.1 Pro report Claude Opus 4.5 report Altman “The Gentle Singularity” SemiAnalysis AI datacenter energy dilemma Epoch OpenAI compute spend Dean Ball Out of Thin Air Sponsors: Framer: Framer is the all-in-one tool to design, iterate, and publish stunning websites with powerful AI features. Start creating for free and use code COGNITIVE to get one free month of Framer Pro at https://framer.com/design Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Shopify:</strong

2 hr
Dec 10, 2025
Superintelligence: To Ban or Not to Ban? Max Tegmark & Dean Ball join Liron Shapira on Doom Debates

Max Tegmark and Dean Ball debate whether we should ban the development of superintelligence in a crossover episode from Doom Debates hosted by Liron Shapira. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. They unpack the Future of Life Institute's call for a moratorium until there is broad scientific consensus and public buy-in, contrasting Tegmark’s precautionary stance with Dean’s emphasis on experimentation, competition, and practical policy hurdles. Listeners will get clear takes on p(doom), the limits of FDA-style regulation, unilateral ban risks, and what safe, beneficial advanced AI might realistically look like. LINKS: AMA episode feedback survey form Doom Debates Substack newsletter Sponsors: Framer: Framer is the all-in-one tool to design, iterate, and publish stunning websites with powerful AI features. Start creating for free and use code COGNITIVE to get one free month of Framer Pro at https://framer.com/design Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing CHAPTERS: (00:00) About the Episode (05:43) Cold open and intro (09:21) Opening statements: ban debate (Part 1) (14:49) Sponsors: Framer | Agents of Scale (17:11) Opening statements: ban debate (Part 2) (17:11) Licensing-style AI regulation (26:52) Liability, tail risks (Part 1) (33:24) Sponsors: Tasklet | Shopify (36:32) Liability, tail risks (Part 2) (39:23) Timelines and precautionary regulation <

1 hr 29 min
Dec 6, 2025
Sovereign AI in Poland: Language Adaptation, Local Control & Cost Advantages with Marek Kozlowski

Marek Kozlowski, Head of the AI Lab at Poland's National Information Processing Institute, discusses project PLLuM (Polish Large Language Models). PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. He shares how countries like Poland can achieve AI sovereignty by training small, locally-adapted models for specific languages and cultures, ensuring control, privacy, and cost advantages. The conversation delves into challenges like frontier models' English bias, EU regulations, and technical strategies like "Language Adaptation" on base models. Discover how transparently created, locally-controlled AI offers a viable path for nations to maintain their technological destiny. LINKS: National Information Processing Institute Show notes source with images PLLuM open chat service Sponsors: Google AI Studio: Google AI Studio features a revamped coding experience to turn your ideas into reality faster than ever. Describe your app and Gemini will automatically wire up the right models and APIs for you at https://ai.studio/build Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Framer: Framer is the all-in-one platform that unifies design, content management, and publishing on a single canvas, now enhanced with powerful AI features. Start creating for free and get a free month of Framer Pro with code COGNITIVE at https://framer.com/design Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive PRODUCED BY: ht

1 hr 23 min
Dec 3, 2025
China's AI Upstarts: How Z.ai Builds, Benchmarks & Ships in Hours, from ChinaTalk

This special ChinaTalk cross-post features Zixuan Li of Z.ai (Zhipu AI), exploring the culture, incentives, and constraints shaping Chinese AI development. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. The discussion covers Z.ai's powerful GLM 4.6 model, their open weights strategy as a marketing tactic, and unique Chinese AI use cases like "role-play." Gain insights into the rapid pace of innovation, the talent market, and how Chinese companies view their position relative to global AI leaders. Sponsors: Google AI Studio: Google AI Studio features a revamped coding experience to turn your ideas into reality faster than ever. Describe your app and Gemini will automatically wire up the right models and APIs for you at https://ai.studio/build Agents of Scale: Agents of Scale is a podcast from Zapier CEO Wade Foster, featuring conversations with C-suite leaders who are leading AI transformation. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts Framer: Framer is the all-in-one platform that unifies design, content management, and publishing on a single canvas, now enhanced with powerful AI features. Start creating for free and get a free month of Framer Pro with code COGNITIVE at https://framer.com/design Tasklet: Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing CHAPTERS: (00:00) Sponsor: Google AI Studio (00:31) About the Episode (03:44) Introducing Z.AI (07:07) Drupu AI's Backstory (09:38) Achieving Global Recognition (Part 1) (12:53) Sponsors: Agents of Scale | Framer (15:15) Achieving Global Recognition (Part 2) (15:15) Z.AI's Internal Culture (19:17) China's AI Talent Market (24:39) Open vs. Closed Source (Part 1) (24:46) Sponsors: Tasklet | Shopify (27:54) Open vs. Closed Source (Part 2)