AI Layoffs, Compute Costs & Agents | Naveen Rao & Alex Finn on This Week in AI Episode 16

The future of AI isn&#39;t about whether the model is smart enough. It&#39;s about whether we can afford to run it. We dug into the AI cost panic, the energy wall that&#39;s coming for compute, and why &quot;developers are disappearing&quot; gets the economics exactly backwards.This week&#39;s roundtable: Naveen Rao (CEO of Unconventional AI, building brain-inspired analog chips, formerly sold companies to Intel and Databricks) and Alex Finn (founder of Henry Intelligent Machines and Creator Buddy).Thank you to our exclusive sponsor: PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: http://paypalopen.com/Timestamps:0:00 Cold open1:21 Welcome to Episode 162:44 Is the AI cost panic real, or just &quot;token maxing&quot;?5:08 It&#39;s not the intelligence, it&#39;s how people use AI9:40 Surgeons vs. shotguns: prompt discipline &amp; matching models to tasks13:10 Naveen&#39;s path from Intel and Databricks to Unconventional15:08 Why developers aren&#39;t disappearing18:37 How energy overtook CapEx in the cost of compute21:34 The energy wall &amp; getting to 3 orders of magnitude more efficient25:52 AI&#39;s PR problem &amp; the data center backlash27:55 China&#39;s hunger vs. America&#39;s AI boogeyman30:38 Data center taxes, equity stakes &amp; the politics of AI upside37:54 The Anthropic IPO &amp; how these founders actually invest🔗 Guests:Naveen Rao, Unconventional AI: https://unconv.ai | https://x.com/AlexFinnAlex Finn, Henry Intelligent Machines: https://meethenry.ai | https://x.com/NaveenGRao🔗 Host:Alex Wilhelm, This Week in Startups: https://x.com/alex🔗 Referenced in this episode:Unconventional AI (analog chips for AI): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2wxZUQ3RDlJa1JuQzkyclhuUXZIQ0xtb0wyUXxBQ3Jtc0trQmpTdWpUMVg2Q3d3YTV6MlQ4OEhkSEM2RGdjRVF0V01LSUtucS1JZy1aNGh4VlR4Qm0yVDh0YzU2MElqeXFWVTBSN2xJckVKcWF3bEc3cFBBRERQaFRET2FPM2plRENscjRDeGkzMzhrSW10Q1JVSQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Funco