Founder Eric Steinberger on Magic’s Counterintuitive Approach to Pursuing AGI

There’s a new archetype in Silicon Valley, the AI researcher turned founder. Instead of tinkering in a garage they write papers that earn them the right to collaborate with cutting-edge labs until they break out and start their own.

Hosted by: Sonya Huang, Sequoia Capital

00:00 - Introduction
01:39 - Vienna-born wunderkind
04:56 - Working with Noam Brown
08:00 - “I can do two things. I cannot do three.”
10:37 - AGI to-do list
13:27 - Advice for young researchers
20:35 - Reading every paper voraciously
23:06 - The army of Noams
26:46 - The leaps still needed in research
29:59 - What is Magic?
36:12 - Competing against the 800-pound gorillas
38:21 - Ideal team size for researchers
40:10 - AI that feels like a colleague
44:30 - Lightning round
47:50 - Bonus round: 200M token context announcement

[FreakyStyleytobby]

Great interview and discussion from both of you, thanks!

[shinseinaakuma]

Congratulations to Sonya, for sharing this interview and congratulations to Eric for this magnificent work... and How do I show a work that I cannot be willing to do in a problematic country like Brazil, where the legal system is so corrupt that I cannot have the freedom to produce to the point of exhibiting without ending up being robbed almost immediately, I have a project practically ready, and my MVP just needs to be in a geography where I can find security and investment to be able to scale..😅

[mirobucko]

He seems to have a good mental framework for thinking about things, especially given his age.

[CarnageDriven]

He is smart, the company not very impressed with, they are either disingenuous in looking for people or they are using really terrible HR people. Either way it spells disaster for the company the VCs may get some money out, but this guy's reputation won't recover, but he will have made tons of money by then, so I hope he will be aright and continue working and building his ideas.

[JOHNSMITH-verq]

Idk dude is obviously smart but seems a bit too aware of it

[tankieslayer]

2yrs and no product demo. Sequoia is not gonna get their investment back. How to turn your mediocre paper into a scamming career 101.