Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI

"We are going to switch from the problem in AI being that nothing works to the problem being that everything works."Dan Klein has been studying language models for over two decades and is now a professor of computer science at Berkeley. His new company, Scaled Cognition, is built around one question: how do you build a system that will not lie to you?In this episode, Dan joins Lukas Biewald to talk about why every LLM output is technically a hallucination, how reinforcement learning can quietly teach AI to deceive you, and what it actually takes to build models that check their own work.He also gets into why reliability is the one part of AI that hasn't kept pace and why that matters more than most people realize.Connect with us here: Dan KleinScaled CognitionLukas BiewaldWeights and Biases

In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Lukas Biewald talks with Jarek Kutylowski, CEO and founder of DeepL, an AI-powered translation company. Jarek shares DeepL’s journey from launching neural machine translation in 2017 to building custom data centers and how small teams can not only take on big players like Google Translate but win.They dive into what makes translation so difficult for AI, why high-quality translations still require human context, and how DeepL tailors models for enterprise use cases. They also discuss the evolution of speech translation, compute infrastructure, training on curated multilingual datasets, hallucinations in models, and why DeepL avoids fine-tuning for each individual customer. It’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at one of the most advanced real-world applications of deep learning.Timestamps:[00:00:00] Introducing Jarek and DeepL’s mission[00:01:46] Competing with Google Translate & LLMs[00:04:14] Pretraining vs. proprietary model strategy[00:06:47] Building GPU data centers in 2017[00:08:09] The value of curated bilingual and monolingual data[00:09:30] How DeepL measures translation quality[00:12:27] Personalization and enterprise-specific tuning[00:14:04] Why translation demand is growing[00:16:16] ROI of incremental quality gains[00:18:20] The role of human translators in the future[00:22:48] Hallucinations in translation models[00:24:05] DeepL’s work on speech translation[00:28:22] The broader impact of global communication[00:30:32] Handling smaller languages and language pairs[00:32:25] Multi-language model consolidation[00:35:28] Engineering infrastructure for large-scale inference[00:39:23] Adapting to evolving LLM landscape & enterprise needs

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 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 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 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, 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, Jonathan Siddharth, CEO & Co-Founder of Turing, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss the path to AGI.They explore how Turing built a "developer cloud" of 3.7 million engineers to power AGI training, providing high-quality code and reasoning data to leading AI labs. Jonathan shares insights on Turing’s journey, from building coding datasets to solving enterprise AI challenges and enabling human-in-the-loop solutions. This episode offers a unique perspective on the intersection of human intelligence and AGI, with an eye on the expansion of new domains beyond coding.✅ *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/youtubeConnect with Jonathan Siddharth:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsid/ Follow Weights & Biases:https://twitter.com/weights_biases https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3