Ed Elson

So these foundational models, I think most people who are interested in tech kind of know what they are, but just at a very basic level, the foundational models are the models that all of these AI startups are building off of.

or all of these companies, if you're building AI or you're building AI products, you need the foundational model, which companies like OpenAI and Anthropic and Cohere, your company, are building.

What am I missing?

So there are 10-ish companies building foundational models, right?

which is basically the backbone of AI, or at least it's one of, I don't know, the vertebrae of AI.

Maybe we could call the chips the backbone.

But what is so striking is there are thousands of AI companies

And we're seeing many of them and so many of these companies building AI.

And yet there are only 10 companies that are building these foundational models.

Why is that?

In the same way that there's not that many companies building rockets either, right?

So how did you end up being one of the people who built one of these rockets?

Take us back to the beginning.

How did you get into this?

You mentioned Geoffrey Hinton there, who you studied under, who, for those who don't know, is considered to be the godfather of AI.

Why is he the godfather of AI?

What did you learn from him?

And I mean, I think people generally recognize him and his name, maybe if you're into tech, but perhaps they don't if you're not super plugged into what's happening in AI.

So what was his role in the story of AI and what did you learn from him?

So when we look through the history books written about AI, I mean, AI is having its moment right now.