From Pharma to AGI Hype, and Developing AI in Finance: Martin Shkreli’s Journey

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Lukas Biewald talks with Martin Shkreli — the infamous "pharma bro" turned founder — about his path from hedge fund manager and pharma CEO to convicted felon and now software entrepreneur. Shkreli shares his side of the drug pricing controversy, reflects on his prison experience, and explains how he rebuilt his life and business after being "canceled."They dive deep into AI and drug discovery, where Shkreli delivers a strong critique of mainstream approaches. He also talks about his latest venture in finance software, building Godel Terminal “a Vim for traders", and why he thinks the AI hype cycle is just beginning. It's a wide-ranging and candid conversation with one of the most controversial figures in tech and biotech.Follow Martin Shkreli on TwitterGodel Terminal: https://godelterminal.com/Follow Weights & Biases on Twitterhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb  Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald talks with Sualeh Asif, the CPO and co-founder of Cursor, one of the fastest-growing and most loved AI-powered coding platforms. Sualeh shares the story behind Cursor’s creation, the technical and design decisions that set it apart, and how AI models are changing the way we build software. They dive deep into infrastructure challenges, the importance of speed and user experience, and how emerging trends in agents and reasoning models are reshaping the developer workflow.Sualeh also discusses scaling AI inference to support hundreds of millions of requests per day, building trust through product quality, and his vision for how programming will evolve in the next few years.⏳Timestamps:00:00 How Cursor got started and why it took off04:50 Switching from Vim to VS Code and the rise of CoPilot08:10 Why Cursor won among competitors: product philosophy and execution10:30 How user data and feedback loops drive Cursor’s improvements12:20 Iterating on AI agents: what made Cursor hold back and wait13:30 Competitive coding background: advantage or challenge?16:30 Making coding fun again: latency, flow, and model choices19:10 Building Cursor’s infrastructure: from GPUs to indexing billions of files26:00 How Cursor prioritizes compute allocation for indexing30:00 Running massive ML infrastructure: surprises and scaling lessons34:50 Why Cursor chose DeepSeek models early36:00 Where AI agents are heading next40:07 Debugging and evaluating complex AI agents42:00 How coding workflows will change over the next 2–3 years46:20 Dream future projects: AI for reading codebases and papers🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: https://wandb.me/spotifyYouTube: https://wandb.me/youtubeFollow Weights & Biases:https://x.com/weights_biaseshttps://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald talks with Christopher Ahlberg, CEO of Recorded Future, a pioneering cybersecurity company leveraging AI to provide intelligence insights. Christopher shares his fascinating journey from founding data visualization startup Spotfire to building Recorded Future into an industry leader, eventually leading to its acquisition by Mastercard.They dive into gripping stories of cyber espionage, including how Recorded Future intercepted a hacker selling access to the U.S. Electoral Assistance Commission. Christopher also explains why the criminal underworld has shifted to platforms like Telegram, how AI is transforming both cyber threats and defenses, and the real-world implications of becoming an "undesirable enemy" of the Russian state.This episode offers unique insights into cybersecurity, AI-driven intelligence, entrepreneurship lessons from a two-time founder, and what happens when geopolitical tensions intersect with cutting-edge technology. A must-listen for anyone interested in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, or the complex dynamics shaping global security.🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: https://wandb.me/spotifyYouTube: https://wandb.me/youtubeFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb  

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald speaks with Captain Jon Haase, United States Navy about real-world applications of AI and autonomy in defense. From underwater mine detection with autonomous vehicles to the ethics of lethal AI systems, this conversation dives into how the U.S. military is integrating AI into mission-critical operations — and why humans will always be at the center of warfighting.They explore the challenges of underwater autonomy, multi-agent collaboration, cybersecurity, and the growing role of large language models like Gemini and Claude in the defense space. Essential listening for anyone curious about military AI, defense tech, and the future of autonomous systems.✅ *Subscribe to Weights & Biases* → https://bit.ly/45BCkYz🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with João Moura, CEO & Founder of CrewAI, one of the leading platforms enabling AI agents for enterprise applications. Joe shares insights into how AI agents are being successfully deployed in over 40% of Fortune 500 companies, what tools these agents rely on, and how software companies are adapting to an agentic world.They also discuss:What defines a true AI agent versus simple automationHow AI agents are transforming business processes in industries like finance, insurance, and softwareThe evolving business models for APIs as AI agents become the dominant software usersWhat the next breakthroughs in agentic AI might look like in 2025 and beyondIf you're curious about the cutting edge of AI automation, enterprise AI adoption, and the real impact of multi-agent systems, this episode is packed with essential insights.

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with Mike Knoop, Co-founder and CEO of Ndea, a cutting-edge AI research lab. Mike shares his journey from building Zapier into a major automation platform to diving into the frontiers of AI research. They discuss DeepSeek’s R1, OpenAI’s O-series models, and the ARC Prize, a competition aimed at advancing AI’s reasoning capabilities. Mike explains how program synthesis and deep learning must merge to create true AGI, and why he believes AI reliability is the biggest hurdle for automation adoption.This conversation covers AGI timelines, research breakthroughs, and the future of intelligent systems, making it essential listening for AI enthusiasts, researchers, and entrepreneurs.Mentioned Show Notes:https://ndea.comhttps://arcprize.org/blog/r1-zero-r1-results-analysishttps://arcprize.org/blog/oai-o3-pub-breakthrough🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with Mike Knoop"@mikeknoopFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with David Cahn, partner at Sequoia Capital, for a compelling discussion on the dynamic world of AI investments. They dive into recent developments, including DeepSeek and Stargate, exploring their implications for the AI industry. Drawing from his articles, "AI's $200 Billion Question" and "AI's $600 Billion Question," David unpacks the financial challenges and opportunities surrounding AI infrastructure spending and the staggering revenue required to sustain these investments. Together, they examine the competitive strategies of cloud providers, the transformative impact of AI on business models, and predictions for the next wave of AI-driven growth. This episode offers an in-depth look at the crossroads of AI innovation and financial strategy.Mentioned Articles:AI’s $200B QuestionAI’s $600B Question🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with David Cahn:@DavidCahn6Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb  Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Akshay Agrawal, Co-Founder of Marimo, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss the future of collaborative AI development. They dive into how Marimo is enabling developers and researchers to collaborate seamlessly on AI projects, the challenges of scaling AI tools, and the importance of fostering open ecosystems for innovation. Akshay shares insights into building a platform that empowers teams to iterate faster and solve complex AI challenges together.Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb  Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Joseph E. Gonzalez, EECS Professor at UC Berkeley and Co-Founder at RunLLM, joins host Lukas Biewald to explore innovative approaches to evaluating LLMs.They discuss the concept of vibes-based evaluation, which examines not just accuracy but also the style and tone of model responses, and how Chatbot Arena has become a community-driven benchmark for open-source and commercial LLMs. Joseph shares insights on democratizing model evaluation, refining AI-human interactions, and leveraging human preferences to improve model performance. This episode provides a deep dive into the evolving landscape of LLM evaluation and its impact on AI development.🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb  Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Julian Green, Co-founder & CEO of Brightband, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss how AI is transforming weather forecasting and climate solutions.They explore Brightband's innovative approach to using AI for extreme weather prediction, the shift from physics-based models to AI-driven forecasting, and the potential for democratizing weather data. Julian shares insights into building trust in AI for critical decisions, navigating the challenges of deep tech entrepreneurship, and the broader implications of AI in mitigating climate risks. This episode delves into the intersection of AI and Earth systems, highlighting its transformative impact on weather and climate decision-making.🎙 Get our podcasts on these platforms:Apple Podcasts: http://wandb.me/apple-podcastsSpotify: http://wandb.me/spotifyGoogle: http://wandb.me/gd_googleYouTube: http://wandb.me/youtubeConnect with Julian Green:@juliangreensfFollow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb  Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3