Zero Shot

After 15 years of building Wingify, Paras Chopra spent some time deliberating about his next stint.For years, he had chased the 0 to 1 journey of building something from the ground up and watching it grow. He wanted that again. But he knew it had to be different.There would be no product. Forget that, he decided the next project would barely have any commercial inclination. Instead, he chased his curiosity as a child passionate about science.That’s how Lossfunk, a “cosy home” for “independent researchers” was born.Paras describes Lossfunk as the place where everyone — from undergrads to PHDs to just inquisitive people— ask foundational questions on AI away from the pressures that burden academia and labs attached to big tech companies.In this episode of Zero Shot, Paras gets into the journey of Lossfunk and talks about its motivations and principles.Now, a lot of the questions Lossfunk is asking might not result in a flashy new product that changes consumer behaviour. They might just become a research paper. Or two. For Paras, that's completeley alright because building a “research attitude” may fully be the point.____This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN.____Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken.Write to us at Zeroshot@the-ken.com. We are all ears!____Additional ResourcesLossfunkhttps://lossfunk.comInverted Passionhttps://invertedpassion.comEsoteric programming languageshttps://spectrum.ieee.org/esoteric-programming-languages-daniel-temkinManifesto for doing good science in AIhttps://letters.lossfunk.com/p/manifesto-for-doing-good-scienceParticle Feverhttps://particlefever.com/

Another day and another Anthropic announcement has spurred conversation. This time, it is Claude for Legal services. On May 12, Anthropic unveiled 20+ new "MCP connectors that link Claude to the software the legal industry runs on". Think Westlaw, LexisNexis, DocuSign. Alongside this, it announced 12 "new plugins tailored to specific legal work". With every new Anthropic announcement, we typically ask two questions on Zero Shot. Are actual workflows impacted? And what does this do to companies building in similar spaces?In our latest episode, we sat down with Shashank Bijapur, the co-founder and CEO of SpotDraft, to find out more. SpotDraft works on contracts, a crucial component of a lawyer's workflow that Anthropic wants to augment.But Shashank is not worried. He calls Claude the UPI layer. What you build on top of it is "heavily defensible," he adds. But what exactly is SpotDraft building that enables it to work with Claude as opposed to being pressured by its entry into the legal tech stack? Tune in!____Additional material: An AI System Built by Litigators, for Litigatorshttps://law-disrupted.fm/ai-system-built-by-litigators/Claude for the legal industryhttps://claude.com/blog/claude-for-the-legal-industryMike OSShttps://mikeoss.com/____This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN.____Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken.Write to us at Zeroshot@the-ken.com. We are all ears!

It’s the end of 2025, so we don’t have a full episode of Zero Shot for you today.This podcast launched in September, and we’ve produced 14 episodes for you so far. We’ve covered a wide range of topics, and our conversations—between Praveen, Rohin, and Brady—only work because you’re willing to sit with the complexities we wade into. We know artificial intelligence will move fast in 2026, so we’ll keep asking the questions that matter in this AI hype cycle. We’re glad you’re coming along with us.So, thank you, and we’ll be back next week.As always, if you’d like to get in touch with any or all of our hosts, please drop us a note at zeroshot@the-ken.com. We respond to all messages.The cover art of Zero Shot is generated by AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken.