Lucky enough to make really cool shit with great people. One time I helped make the most popular cooking show in the world.
Montreal
Joined October 2009
- Tweets5.2K
- Following302
- Followers20.7K
- Likes4.6K
Dave retweeted
Sundar Pichai's explanation for Demis Hassabis stepping back from running DeepMind and Jeff Dean leaving Google:
"You're seeing natural evolutions as people spend their time doing things for a while... I feel proud to have worked together with Jeff for a long time. Obviously, he was seminal in his contributions here, and we're excited to see what he does with Discovery Loop.
I would say you're going through a moment in the industry where frontier model development is an all-consuming thing. We've had broad AI research, AGI research, and so on, but frontier model development is all-consuming. It's moving, picking up pace, and it's a very scaled operation, all the way from data and compute to the algorithmic work you do, to managing the teams and your model agents. I think it's become an important job in its entirety.
Demis has obviously been thinking about this moment for a long time. He's particularly interested in both how you go through this frontier moment safely and how you apply it to solve other problems. The work he did with AlphaFold and what we are doing now with Isomorphic are examples of how you can apply AGI to solve other problems... I think he wants to spend more of his time on those things"
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Even Google can’t get enough compute. I sit down with Google and Alphabet CEO @sundarpichai shortly after the wider release of Gemini 4 Argon to discuss its early reception, where he still wants the model to improve, and what it takes to keep Google at the frontier of AI.
Pichai explains the recent leadership shakeup at Google DeepMind and why building frontier models has become an “all-consuming” job. We also get into Google’s answer to the personal agent race, how he predicts Gemini will do more work on your behalf, and whether agents will finally bring Search, Gmail, and Gemini together.
I ask him about Google turning free cash flow negative, the risks in the AI infrastructure buildout, and how he plans for demand years before knowing what the models will be capable of. He explains the signals giving him confidence to keep spending and how he uses AI agents to follow model development and compute usage inside Google.
Timestamps:
00:00 Gemini Argon launch reception
01:49 Model access and safety
06:20 The AI model race
08:35 Agentic breakthroughs and 2027
11:34 Recursive self-improvement
15:41 DeepMind leadership changes
19:52 Google's AI compute investments
25:20 Is AI spending sustainable?
33:18 How Sundar uses AI agents
35:35 Gemini's personal agent plans
38:37 How AI agents change the web
43:52 Google's space data centers
47:38 Waymo's expansion strategy
50:26 Wing's drone delivery plans
51:36 AI safety and regulation
55:58 Google's quantum computing bet
YouTube: youtu.be/fJBSNEFdm8c
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0cJ…
Substack: sources.news/p/sundar-pichai…
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
This episode's presenting sponsor is @hyperagentapp. Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: @Atlassian, @meetgranola, and @mercury.
Dave retweeted
I asked CEO Sundar Pichai why he recently took Google free cash flow negative for the first time to ramp up AI capex. His answer: "It's not just hope."
"To do something like this, you need to be confident on multiple levels. We are fortunate to have early signals from such a diversified opportunity set, all the way from consumer to enterprise. And so we are seeing those robust demand signals.
We have the demand signal for Google itself, which is a cutting-edge enterprise in how we are using AI and adopting it. And you're seeing the capability frontier; then you're able to independently, outside of the demand signal, in some objective way actually assess the capability frontier and see how it's progressing.
So you're getting a firsthand sense of it. You're also getting a sense of the breakthroughs from research, which give you a sense of, 'Okay, will Gemini 5.0 be much better than Argon is?' And the answer is yes. So you're getting all those signals across that layer of the stack.
We also have durable long-term contracts with committed revenue, which we are signing. So it's not just hope. You're planning a book of business as well. So you take all that into account, and you lean in in a responsible, disciplined way, which is what you're doing."
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Even Google can’t get enough compute. I sit down with Google and Alphabet CEO @sundarpichai shortly after the wider release of Gemini 4 Argon to discuss its early reception, where he still wants the model to improve, and what it takes to keep Google at the frontier of AI.
Pichai explains the recent leadership shakeup at Google DeepMind and why building frontier models has become an “all-consuming” job. We also get into Google’s answer to the personal agent race, how he predicts Gemini will do more work on your behalf, and whether agents will finally bring Search, Gmail, and Gemini together.
I ask him about Google turning free cash flow negative, the risks in the AI infrastructure buildout, and how he plans for demand years before knowing what the models will be capable of. He explains the signals giving him confidence to keep spending and how he uses AI agents to follow model development and compute usage inside Google.
Timestamps:
00:00 Gemini Argon launch reception
01:49 Model access and safety
06:20 The AI model race
08:35 Agentic breakthroughs and 2027
11:34 Recursive self-improvement
15:41 DeepMind leadership changes
19:52 Google's AI compute investments
25:20 Is AI spending sustainable?
33:18 How Sundar uses AI agents
35:35 Gemini's personal agent plans
38:37 How AI agents change the web
43:52 Google's space data centers
47:38 Waymo's expansion strategy
50:26 Wing's drone delivery plans
51:36 AI safety and regulation
55:58 Google's quantum computing bet
YouTube: youtu.be/fJBSNEFdm8c
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0cJ…
Substack: sources.news/p/sundar-pichai…
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
This episode's presenting sponsor is @hyperagentapp. Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: @Atlassian, @meetgranola, and @mercury.
Dave retweeted
read bad blood before watching You Can See Everything @mlchild
Dave retweeted
We saw EVERYTHING and think @aGuyOnMyPhone has the most insightful take...the movie is designed to make you believe Holmes!
Dave retweeted
We're going to showcase the AI 100, the most important private AI technology companies, at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit on Nov 12.
We're excited to produce this list in partnership with @BessemerVP.
bvp.com/collections/the-ai-1…
Dave retweeted
Marc Benioff on the AI boom, SaaSpocalypse, and future of Slack
Salesforce CEO @Benioff and I discuss his recent framemogging at Dreamforce, the state of the SaaSpocalypse, and how Slack is more important than ever in the age of AI.
We also talk about the resurgence of San Francisco, his role in the recent acquisition of Hugging Face, the wealth being created by the IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, and what he thinks the industry can learn from the social media era.
Timestamps:
00:00 Dreamforce Memes and the AI Hype Cycle
04:36 San Francisco’s AI Comeback
07:24 Why AI Leaders Should Give Back
11:50 AI Safety, Regulation and CEO Responsibility
15:57 Betting on AI Agents and Anthropic
21:10 Is the SaaS Apocalypse Overblown?
28:56 Slack as the Operating System for AI Agents 33:39 How Do You Price AI?
36:56 Headless Salesforce and Unlocking Business Data
40:51 How AI Is Changing TIME and the Media
44:15 The Future of AI Interfaces
Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: @meetgranola, @Atlassian, and @mercury.
Dave retweeted
HUGE: Introducing Newcomer’s VC Sentiment Report: Unfiltered Insights from Silicon Valley’s Top Venture Capitalists newcomer.co/p/introducing-ne…
Dave retweeted
Our summits aren’t about sitting in an audience all day.
They’re about connecting with other top AI founders, investors, and leaders.
Apply now: reg.newcomer.events/earn1/st…
Meet the leaders guiding our curated discussion groups, one of the most popular parts of the day: 🧵👇
Dave retweeted
I’m joining Sound Ventures to invest in the tech industry I’ve been covering for the last decade.
Ten years ago, I set out to have a front-row seat to the biggest stories in tech. I’ve sometimes played a part in them through my reporting. Along the way, I’ve gotten to know many of the most influential founders shaping the future. Now I want to back them.
I’ll continue to run Sources independently of my work at Sound. The newsletter is continuing, and I’m investing more in the podcast, which has an amazing roster of guests lined up.
I got into covering Silicon Valley because I’m insatiably curious about what technology makes possible. It’s time to follow my curiosity again. sources.news/p/joining-sound…
Dave retweeted
I guess we're allowed to talk about it now... Astra has absolutely blown my mind. I did get early access to test it out and it's definitely felt like the biggest leap we've seen in a long time!
I asked it to make me a humanoid wolf in Blender, it used computer use, took control of Blender, and made the wolf in 8-minutes.
I asked it to create a clone of Mega Bonk. It made one of the most visually appealing versions of the game I've gotten so far and, using Ultra mode, it did it in 12-minutes.
I asked it to make a website that would impress me and it built a world simulator where I could terraform the earth, change the weather, plant more trees, etc. and it would show how the changes would likely effect the population. It built that in 17-minutes.
I don't know if the speed is because less people were using it than other models but I've been genuinely impressed by what it's created.
I've done a few other tests... Will share more on my news video that's coming out tomorrow.
Dave retweeted
shoutout @CNBC for featuring the first episode of the Sources podcast this morning #unsustainablesilliness
Dave retweeted
It's been an exciting day today! Thanks so much to everyone who's followed along for the journey. What an amazing ride it's been so far.
Thanks to the @smoothmedia_ team for helping me turn this into an actual business. Thanks to @davidheuff and the Hooked team for helping me uplevel my videos. Thanks to @crazeinthedark for helping my thumbnails get good. Thanks to Roya for keeping me sane through it all and taking so much off my plate. It's been a team effort to get here and I'm so appreciative of everyone who's helped along the way!
Excited to add some new hardware to my background!
Dave retweeted
If I stay on this pace, I should hit a million subscribers by roughly the end of next week!
Dave retweeted
🤖💵
Announcing the Machine Earning AI Summit on Sept 29 in SF
Featuring @jackiereses @awxjack @MaxRhodesOK & Omer Ismail. More speakers to be announced
Dave retweeted
We've been hosting a great run of insider media interviews on the Newcomer podcast
@TaylorLorenz
@karaswisher
@semaforben
Katie Drummond @WIRED
@WeberWest
And media critic @aronpingdsouza
Here's the latest youtube.com/watch?v=dAxpLmpf…
Dave retweeted
Long: Anthropic, ElevenLabs, SSI
Short: OpenAI, Perplexity, Harvey
Per anonymous snapshot survey at CVAI London this week of founders, investors, media, and other insiders
Dave retweeted
Great @EricNewcomer interview w WIRED’s Katie Drummond youtu.be/O0Upc2Dmzmo?si=hmrl…
Dave retweeted
Gearing up for Cerebral Valley Voice in just a few weeks on May 6. If you're an AI founder building in voice, we want you there. cerebralvalleyvoice.com/
We had a blast last week hosting Cerebral Valley After Dark, an evening event around HumanX. Thanks to @IBM @airwallex and @IREN_Ltd for sponsoring and making it possible
