Ben Lorica and Paco Nathan on Geopolitics, Frontier Models, and Social Media Evolution.
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This is our monthly conversation on topics in AI and Technology with Paco Nathan, the founder of Derwen, a boutique consultancy focused on Data and AI. This episode explores the intersection of geopolitics, technology, and practical AI applications, beginning with the semiconductor industry’s critical role in global AI competition. We discuss the evolving landscape of AI model development, highlighting the shift from scaling to optimization, and showcase innovative AI use cases such as noise cancellation and fraud prevention. The discussion also covers social media platform evolution, including decentralized approaches like Bluesky, and emphasizes the importance of risk management in AI deployment, from regulatory compliance to hardware availability.
Interview highlights – key sections from the video version:
- State of semiconductor export restrictions
- Commercial vs. Open AI Models: Analyzing Market Trends and Development Plateaus
- Semiconductor Manufacturing + Intel
- The Intersection of Physics, Chemistry, and AI Development
- Quick Hits: Bluesky and Crypto
- Quick Hits: AI Apps (Sound Isolation)
- Recommendations
Relevant Links:
U.S.-led export controls on China’s chip industry: America’s Semiconductor Defense Strategy
Scaling Laws and foundation models:
- OpenAI co-founder Sutskever predicts a new AI “age of discovery” as LLM scaling hits a wall
- Qwen2.5: A Party of Foundation Models!
- OLMo 2: The best fully open language model to date
- Why Your Company Must Invest in Post-Training
Manufacturing
- Decoupling, De-risking, and the Great U.S.-China Disconnect
- Reshoring Calculations: What’s Conveniently Overlooked
- Intel’s turnaround falters
The recent Physics and Chemistry Nobel Prizes, AI, and the convergence of knowledge fields
Recommendations:
- [Ben] The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius
- [Ben] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- [Ben] How to Prepare Your Company for AI Incidents by Andrew Burt
- [Paco] Hearable devices with sound bubbles (video)
- [Paco] Fathom: AI Notetaker
- [Paco] The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook
Related content:
- A video version of this conversation is available on our YouTube channel.
- Previous monthly roundups with Ben Lorica and Paco Nathan
- Deepti Srivastava → Beyond ETL: How Snow Leopard Connects AI, Agents, and Live Data
- Vasant Dhar → Building the Future of Finance: Inside AI Valuation Bots
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