The Pomp Podcast

Inside Google's Billion Dollar Bet To Win The AI Race | Logan Kilpatrick

September 15, 2026·54 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Logan Kilpatrick is a member of the technical staff at Google DeepMind. In this conversation, we break down whether Google is actually behind in the AI race, the strategy behind Gemini 4's massive pre-training run, and how DeepMind decides between chasing general intelligence versus building specialized products. We also discuss China's open-source AI labs and why measuring real progress toward AGI might be harder than building the models themselves.=====================Arch Public is an agentic trading platform that automates investment strategies across Stocks, Commodities, ETFs and Crypto. Whether you’re rotating into AI & Gold, allocating to the S&P 500, or accumulating Bitcoin, Arch Public executes your plan 24/7 without ever taking custody of your assets or funds. Sign up today at https://www.archpublic.com, and start your FREE automated trading strategy! =====================TOKEN2049 returns to Singapore on October 7–8 at Marina Bay Sands. The world's largest crypto event. 25,000 attendees, 300 speakers, 1,000 side events and the whole industry in one place for two days, into the F1 weekend. Get 10% off your ticket with code POMP10 at https://token2049.com/singapore=====================Simple Mining makes Bitcoin mining simple and accessible for everyone. We offer a premium white glove hosting service, helping you maximize the profitability of Bitcoin mining. For more information on Simple Mining or to get started mining Bitcoin, visit https://www.simplemining.io/pomp=====================0:00 - Intro0:51 - Is Google behind in the AI race?2:47 - Frontier commitment & the Gemini 4 pre-training run8:31 - Build vs. buy: Google's AI acquisition strategy13:13 - Chinese AI labs, competitors & filtering the hype19:03 - The ambition problem & where Google chooses to compete21:39 - General intelligence vs. specialized AI products35:01 - Inside DeepMind: Genome research & the innovation flywheel41:52 - Kaggle & the race to actually measure AI progress48:25 - The AI data economy: why data is the new bottleneck

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