No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups Podcast

What happens when you give AI researchers unlimited compute and tell them to compete for the highest usage rates? Ben Mann, Co-Founder, from Anthropic sits down with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to explain how Claude 4 went from "reward hacking" to efficiently completing tasks and how they're racing to solve AI safety before deploying computer-controlling agents. Ben talks about economic Turing tests, the future of general versus specialized AI models, Reinforcement Learning From AI Feedback (RLAIF), and Anthropics Model Context Protocol (MCP). Plus, Ben shares his thoughts on if we will have Superintelligence by 2028.

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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @8enmann

Links:

ai-2027.com/



Chapters:

00:00 Ben Mann Introduction

00:33 Releasing Claude 4

02:05 Claude 4 Highlights and Improvements

03:42 Advanced Use Cases and Capabilities

06:42 Specialization and Future of AI Models

09:35 Anthropic's Approach to Model Development

18:08 Human Feedback and AI Self-Improvement

19:15 Principles and Correctness in Model Training

20:58 Challenges in Measuring Correctness

21:42 Human Feedback and Preference Models

23:38 Empiricism and Real-World Applications

27:02 AI Safety and Ethical Considerations

28:13 AI Alignment and High-Risk Research

30:01 Responsible Scaling and Safety Policies

35:08 Future of AI and Emerging Behaviors

38:35 Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Industry Standards

41:00 Conclusion

In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad are joined by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, AI pioneer, co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, and founder of World Labs. Fei-Fei shares why she’s building at the intersection of embodiment and intelligence, and what today’s AI systems are still missing. From the early days of ImageNet to her vision for the next generation of robotics, she unpacks the human and technical motivations behind World Labs. They also discuss the challenges of 3D world modeling, her approach to building exceptional teams, and the special qualities that have led her students like Andrej Karpathy to make major breakthroughs.



Show Notes:

0:00 Why and what Dr. Fei-Fei Li is building

3:00 World models at World Labs

6:44 Missing gaps in the AI future

9:16 Robotics and physical intelligence

16:15 Greatest challenges of 3D

19:08 Fei-Fei’s work in PhD in ImageNet

23:05 Special moments in Dr. Li's career

29:33 Building teams

32:05 Human-centered AI

In this episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad unpack the current state of the AI market - whether it’s consolidating, what’s enabling or blocking key mergers, and where the most promising untapped opportunities lie, particularly in biotech. They also explore the rise of world models and how AI’s novel methods for understanding complex systems may ultimately reshape how humans approach discovery and problem-solving. 

Show Notes:

0:00 Is the AI market consolidating into clear winners? + the physics of the current landscape

7:01 Why more companies don’t merge (even when it makes sense) 

10:09 Exploring biotech’s biggest commercial opportunities and the challenges founders face 

17:14 Building world models 

21:34 How AI is expanding the way humans reason, design, and evolve systems

Arvind Jain joins Sarah and Elad on this episode of No Priors. Arvind is the founder and CEO of Glean, an AI-powered enterprise search platform. He previously co-founded Rubrik and spent over a decade as an engineering leader at Google. In this episode, Arvind shares how LLMs are transforming enterprise search, why most tools in the space have failed, and the opportunity to build apps powered by internal knowledge. He discusses how much customization is still needed on top of foundation models, what made building Glean uniquely challenging compared to Arvind’s previous ventures, and what’s next for the company.

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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @jainarvind



Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:58 How LLMs are changing search

2:05 Building out Glean’s platform

5:09 Why most search companies failed

8:41 Out of the box vs. bespoke models 

10:26 Creating apps on top of internal knowledge

15:34 User behaviors & insights 

19:11 Unique challenges of building Glean 

21:51 Product-led growth vs. enterprise sales

25:00 Succeeding in traditionally bad markets 

27:08 What Glean is excited to build next

On this episode of No Priors, Sarah talks to Luis von Ahn, founder and CEO of Duolingo, the world’s most popular education app with over 116 million monthly users and a market cap of approximately $17 billion. Controversially, it has recently committed to being “AI-first.” They discuss why motivation is the biggest challenge in education, how Duolingo harnesses game mechanics and behavioral insights to keep learners engaged, and the company’s efforts to leverage AI to personalize education at scale. Luis also shares thoughts on the Duolingo brand, courses beyond language (chess and math), and the broader impact of AI on content creation.

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Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @LuisvonAhn

Links: Duolingo is now AI-First: http://bit.ly/3RQzny3

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

4:01  Optimizing learning behavior through tech

11:20 Adopting AI at Duolingo

17:25 AI’s threat to content companies

18:34 An unhinged corporate brand

21:28 How do people learn?

25:16 What people misunderstand about Duolingo?

26:24 How AI is transforming learning at scale

30:28 Leveraging AI across the business