Where Are The AI Startups? — With Rick Heitzmann

Rick Heitzmann is the founder and managing director of FirstMark Capital. Heitzmann joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether AI startups can compete against the ChatGPTs of the world, or whether the big AI bots have ingested all the opportunity. Tune in to hear Heitzmann break down the economics of AI investing today and whether the application layer is investable. We'll also break down the big funding deals in AI today, looking at the potential for the frenzy to pay off. Tune in for a sensible discussion of the potential future of AI innovation. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Why the AI industry needs to get to AGI to make the investments pay off 2) The diverging tracks between AI model improvement and investing in scaling 3) Why the LLM craze may delay the path to AGI 4) So what is all this compute for? 5) OpenAI's $1 trillion infrastructure investment 6) The increasing prevalence of debt in AI funding 7) Could an AI collapse hit the global economy? 8) OpenAI and AMD's wacky deal 9) Oracle's margins 10) OpenAI's Sora 'surprise' 11) Will John Ternus be Apple's next CEO? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Mike Krieger is the chief product officer at Anthropic and co-founder of Instagram. Krieger joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss Anthropic's Sonnet 4.5 launch and how the company's been able to speed up AI model development. Tune in to hear how Anthropic is using internal tools to move fast, where the next generations of model improvements will look like, and whether model orchestration will be the core differentiator between labs. We also cover how AI development compares to social media, whether AI content will ever take off, and enterprise AI's path ahead. --- Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

M.G. Siegler of Spyglass is back for our monthly tech news discussion. Today we discuss OpenAI and AMD's megadeal, whether the AI investment cycle is a disaster waiting to happen, and how NVIDIA might feel about the arrangement. We also discuss Sam Altman and Jony Ive's struggles in developing their own AI device and how all tech companies seem to be building the same AI enabled ambient computing. Finally, we pour one out for the Vision Pro. Tune in for a deep discussion of tech's biggest news with one of the industry's leading analysts. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Max Zeff, Sr. AI reporter at Techcrunch, joins for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI introduces Sora 2 2) Will these AI video feeds catch on? 3) Is Sora 2 an important technological advance above all? 4) Why Meta is nervous about OpenAI's momentum in social 5) OpenAI employees have mixed feelings about Sora 6) Why AI video feeds may be the end of the creator economy. 7) Why they may not be 8) Meta will use AI chats to train its ad models 9) Meta's AI research moves more toward product development 10) Anthropic launches its Sonnet 4.5 model 11) Apple prioritizes smart glasses 12) Max tries out the Friend pendant --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Three Faces Of Generative AI: https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-three-faces-of-generative-ai Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Scott Guthrie is the executive vice president of Cloud and AI at Microsoft. Guthrie joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the tech industry's massive AI infrastructure buildout and whether it is overdoing it with the hundreds of billions of investment. Guthrie discusses the way Microsoft thinks about its OpenAI investment, whether it's worth investing in scaling pre-training, and Silicon Valley's growing debt problem Tune in for the second half where we discuss the longevity of the GPU, custom silicon, and competing with NVIDIA. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Nvidia invests $100 billion in OpenAI 2) Will the money ever get there? 3) Do AI companies have to make money eventually? 4) What has to happen for OpenAI to return NVIDIA's investment? 5) Is another financial crisis coming? 6) OpenAI's new Pulse feature 7) Is Pulse a precursor to ChatGPT ads? 8) Meta's new Vibes feed of AI slop 9) TikTok deal is on the table 10) Ranjan says TIkTok deal isn't happening 11) A promise to be less gloom and doom next week :) --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Three Faces Of Generative AI: https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-three-faces-of-generative-ai Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Yinon Costica is the co-founder and VP of product at Wiz, which sold to Google for $32 billion in cash. Costica joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the extent of the cybersecurity threats that generative AI is creating, from vulnerabilities in AI software to the risks involved in “vibe coding.” Tune in to hear how attackers are using AI, why defenders face new asymmetries, and what guardrails organizations need now. We also cover Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, the DeepSeek controversy, post-quantum cryptography, and the future risks of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. Hit play for a sharp, accessible look at the cutting edge of AI and cybersecurity.---Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016bQuestions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected] 00:00 Opening and guest intro01:05 AI as a new software stack04:25 Core AI tools with RCE flaws06:18 Cloud infrastructure risks09:20 How secure is AI-written code13:54 Agents and security reviewers17:38 How attackers use AI today22:09 Asymmetry: attackers vs. defenders32:36 What Wiz actually does40:11 DeepSeek case and media spin

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI tells us how people use ChatGPT 2) Practical guidance is the top use of ChatGPT 3) Is generative AI actually a threat to search given the use cases? 4) OpenAI has a very broad definition of 'doing' or agent work 5) The hidden impact of AI 'decision support' in the economy 6) People trust AI bots massively - is that bad? 7) ChatGPT's massive growth 8) Anthropic shares Claude's economic uses 9) Automation is surpassing augmentation for AI in work 10) Will Meta's AI glasses hit? 11) Can Jimmy Kimmel build an audience off-ABC? 12) Will the next Jimmy Kimmel be a youtube/rpodcaster? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Three Faces Of Generative AI: https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-three-faces-of-generative-ai Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Aaron Levie is the CEO of Box. Levie joins Big Technology to discuss the reports that a vast majority of businesses are not getting a return on their AI investments. Levie shares his takeaways from the reports, gives a rebuttal, and discusses the reality on the ground. Stay tuned for the second half where we separate hype from reality in the AI agent conversation. Tune in for a wide-ranging, post-Boxworks deep dive on where AI is heading in the coming years. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]