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Emad Mostaque and Sam Lessin Debate Whether AI is a Good Investment for VC

Erik Torenberg sits down with Emad Mostaque, founder of Stability AI, and Sam Lessin, GP of Slow Ventures and former VP Product at Facebook to debate how paradigm shifting AI will be for the different sectors of the global economy, startups vs incumbents, and whether AI is actually a good investment for venture capital. Hear more of Sam Lessin’s unorthodox views with an even spicier episode released this week over at @TurpentineVC : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7IPmDKjb4

Topics covered in this debate include: the attention and information economy, SaaS markets, how AI-created entertainment will impact society and our relationships, education, healthcare, porn, social networks, and AI disruption of highly-regulated industries.

TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Episode Preview
(02:15) Discussion kicks off: AI as an extender rather than a deck shuffler
(05:45) Is AI a disruptive or sustaining innovation?
(08:13) What is intelligence?
(09:47) The attention and information economy
(13:30) AI and entertainment
(15:43) Storytelling, the stock market, and the economy
(17:13) Sponsors: Mercury, NetSuite
(21:05) AI in the media industry, Hollywood, and distribution
(25:05) Startups vs incumbents
(26:36) Disrupting highly-regulated industries
(27:43) AI in education: an AI tutor for every child
(30:38) AI as StackOverflow 2.0 for engineers
(32:49) Regulatory Arbitrage
(35:34) The oracle problem
(37:15) Apple as the weakest live player in AI
(40:31) AI in communities and the future of social media
(42:09) Replika on Valentine’s Day and AI-generated porn
(49:00) How does the market for inference shape up? Inference vs. cloud
(51:09) What are the most likely incumbents to be disrupted?
(52:35) Will BigTech continue to opensource?
(54:45) AI's impact on birth rates
(55:52) Can any AI leader sustain high gross margins in the future?
(56:56) Stability’s business model

X / Twitter
@EMostaque (Emad)
@Lessin (Sam)
@CogRev_Podcast
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)

SPONSORS: Mercury | NetSuite

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