AI and I

By Dan Shipper

Learn how the smartest people in the world are using AI to think, create, and relate. Each week I interview founders, filmmakers, writers, investors, and others about how they use AI tools like ChatGP... more

· Technology

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FAQs about AI and I:

How many episodes does AI and I have?

The podcast currently has 49 episodes available.

AI and I episodes:

February 12, 2025How Nat Eliason Made $200,000 in a Week Teaching AI - Ep. 48
Nat Eliason’s career arc is borderline absurd—but it works.

In the last five years, he ran an SEO agency, got into crypto, made $600,000 from a course on the note-taking toolRoam Research, flipped real estate in Austin for a 6x return, and published abook with Random House. He’s now writing a book of science fiction and running a viralcourse about building apps with AI.

I’ve known Nat for a long time, and I think he knows where the puck is headed better than anyone. He’ll see a new tool or trend, master it, build a business around it, and move on. Nat’s pulled it off with crypto, Roam, real estate—and now AI. His app-building course has over 800 students and racked up $200,000 in pre-sales in one week.

Nat was one of the first guests I had on the podcast and I was delighted to have him on again. We spent an hour talking about how coding with AI is creating new behaviors in programming, Nat’s best practices for using the coding tool Cursor, and his take on the future of writing with AI.

This episode is a must-watch for writers, creators, and anyone interested in the future of product building.

If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!

Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here:https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.

To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every:https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X:https://twitter.com/danshipper

Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:01:45
The origins of Nat’s viral course on building apps with AI: 00:10:15
How coding with AI has evolved over the last two years: 00:17:16
Nat creates an app using Composer, Cursor’s AI assistant: 00:20:52
Tactical tips for coding with Cursor: 00:24:36
How coding with AI is creating new behaviors in programming: 00:27:36
What excites Nat the most about the future of AI: 00:31:11
A demo of Hubbard, the AI editor Nat built for his science fiction writing: 00:37:28
When does it make sense to build custom software: 00:43:22
Nat’s take on the future of writing with AI: 00:47:48
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Nat Eliason: @nateliason
Nat’s viral course about building apps with AI:Build Your Own Apps with AI
The book Nat published about crypto:Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance
Dan’s piece about how AI empowers creators:AI and the Age of the Individual
...more
1h
February 05, 2025Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch on What Comes After Coding - Ep. 47
Guillermo Rauch is one of the most prolific coders of this generation.
But he doesn’t think of himself as a coder anymore.
Coding, he says, is a specific skill that AI is becoming great at. Instead, he thinks the future of coding is more holistic, full-stack engineers who can ideate, design, and execute all together.
Guillermo is the founder and CEO of Vercel, the creator of NextJS, and SocketIO. We spent an hour talking about the future of software development in an AI world—and the meta-skills that are essential for the coders of today to master—in order to use tomorrow’s tools to their fullest extent.
Here are a few takeaways:
One of the most important keys to his success is taste—and developing taste is all about paying better attention to everything you experience day to day.

He’s great at recognizing bleeding-edge technologies with extremely practical applications but that have bad user experiences. If you can learn to recognize those and build with them, you might build the next NextJs or SocketIO.

He’s already seeing enterprises use Vercel’s AI coding copilot v0 to replace all of their programming—they just send v0 demos back and forth to iterate on new prototypes.

Why prototype cultures are becoming common in AI—and the benefits of written cultures like Amazon vs. prototype cultures like Apple for different kinds of companies.

For developers building frameworks, always put the product first; a framework in isolation without a “customer zero” is never going to be a good tool.

The theory of “recursive founder mode”—if you want to build a scalable business, you have to scale yourself by creating an atmosphere that nurtures talent and ambition.

AI tools are shifting software toward consumption-based billing models, making us capital allocators who decide how much compute the AI consumes.

The future of AI is agents with the taste, knowledge, and tools to perform specialized tasks.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe

Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:01:33

How to spot trends early: 00:03:18

Why you should be your own customer: 00:07:34

How to create an ecosystem of talent and ambition: 00:14:55

Why Guillermo doesn't identify as a coder: 00:17:29

AI is gearing us toward an allocation economy: 00:20:50

How Vercel’s copilot compares with other coding agents: 00:28:34

Guillermo’s advice on having better taste: 00:40:35

The future of AI agents is specialized: 00:42:46

How AI startups can compete with big tech: 00:47:50
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Guillermo Rauch: @rauchg

Vercel: https://vercel.com/

Our episode with Nabeel Hyatt: "🎧 The Venture Capitalist Who Finds the Best AI Products—Before They Win"

Dan’s essay about the allocation economy: "The Knowledge Economy Is Over. Welcome to the Allocation Economy."
...more
57min
January 29, 2025 How to Prepare for AGI According to Reid Hoffman - Ep. 46
AGI is coming. Reid Hoffman just wrote the book on how to prepare.
According to Reid, every major tech breakthrough (the written word, the printing press, the telephone) triggered mass fear. But, contrary to our worries, new technology tends to enhance human agency—even more so, if you know how to use it well.
Reid is the cofounder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI; a partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners; an early backer and board member of OpenAI; and an award-winning podcaster

We spent an hour talking about how to develop a compass for navigating AGI. Here are a few takeaways:
Our sense of human agency is not just about external control but an internal stance—how we approach uncertainty & new tech is crucial
In new technology waves, NO blueprint or plan will have the right answers. Instead, adapting to new technology requires broad access, an experimental mindset, and flexibility
In an AGI world most jobs will transform, not disappear—and how you can prepare with hands-on trial and error
How certain social norms and ethics should change as AGI changes the landscape—like individual access to personal data
Why now may be finally be the era where quantified self tools become valuable
…and more, including everything in his new book Superagency, out this week.
It was a pleasure to have him on the show for a second time. This is a must-watch for anyone who wants to help build a more human future with AI.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!

Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.

To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:01:29
Patterns in how we’ve historically adopted technology: 00:02:50
Why humans have typically been fearful of new technologies: 00:07:02
How Reid developed his own sense of agency: 00:13:25
The way Reid thinks about making investment decisions: 00:20:08
AI as a “techno-humanist” compass: 00:29:40
How to prepare yourself for the way AI will change knowledge work: 00:35:30
Why equitable access to AI is important: 00:41:39
Reid’s take on why private commons will be beneficial for society: 00:45:15
How AI is making Silicon Valley’s conception of the “quantified self” a reality: 00:47:23
The shift from symbolic to sub-symbolic AI mirrors how we understand intelligence: 00:52:14
Reid’s new book, Superagency: 01:03:29

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Reid Hoffman: @reidhoffman
Superagency, Reid’s newest book:
...more
1h 10min
January 22, 2025 The Venture Capitalist Who Finds the Best AI Products—Before They Win - Ep. 45 with Nabeel Hyatt
Nabeel Hyatt is looking for the “Japanese toilets” of AI—products that delight users in unexpected ways.
As a partner at Spark Capital, that investment philosophy has paid off. Despite making only 1-2 investments a year, he’s picked some of the biggest winners in AI so far: Descript, Cruise, and Granola.
We spent an hour unpacking:
How much “leash” top products give to AI agents—and why that matters
How he spots remarkable AI products
Why “sensitivity” is one of the most important traits of top founders
The huge opportunities for AI products to help users explore new “possibility spaces”
How Nabeel is actually using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and AI code editor Windsurf in his life
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:01:32
Why Nabeel doesn’t invest in more than two companies per year: 00:01:50
Why the words you use to describe your business matter: 00:06:49
What a product with soul looks like: 00:13:45
Patterns in the remarkable founders Nabeel has invested in: 00:16:48
How Nabeel evaluates popular coding agents: 00:24:12
AI has broadened the horizons of what Nabeel can do: 00:32:29
How funding models are changing as AI makes it cheaper to build software: 00:36:28
Nabeel’s framework for when to trust an LLM: 00:45:43
Guide AI to provide context (and not just quick answers): 00:55:39
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Nabeel Hyatt: @nabeel, https://nabeelhyatt.com/
Spark Capital: https://www.sparkcapital.com/
The piece Chris Pedregal wrote for Every: How to Build a Truly Useful AI Product
Chris Pedregal on AI & I: 🎧 The Secret to Building Sticky AI Products
The AI tools Nabeel talks about: Windsurf, Wordware

...more
1h 2min
January 15, 2025An Inside Look at Building an Email Client in 3 Months - Ep. 44 with Kieran Klaassen, Brandon Gell
Building an email client used to take many years and millions of dollars.
But Every’s Kieran Klaassen built Cora—a totally new way to manage your inbox with AI—in just 3 months. He even shipped the original MVP of the product in a single day—something that just wasn’t possible before the current state of generative AI.
Now, there are almost 10,000 people on the waitlist for Cora, and we’re onboarding new users every single day.
Every’s head of Studio Brandon Gell and I worked closely with Kieran as he built Cora, and to kick off my podcast, AI and I, in 2025, I invited both of them on the show to talk about it. We go behind the scenes, getting into:
How Kieran built the product with Cursor, o1, and o1 Pro

What we’re learning as we onboard new users every day

The future of Cora and of Every as a multi-modal media company
This is a must watch for anyone curious about our approach to building with AI at Every.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe

Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:01:56

How the maker of Cora describes the product: 00:02:33

Our first mistake while building Cora: 00:06:31

The story of how Kieran shipped the first MVP overnight: 00:09:37

Why Dan believes software is becoming content: 00:13:44

Products with a point of view will win: 00:16:40

How Kieran approaches building a new product: 00:19:16

Best practices while using Cursor: 00:31:55

Hacking together a copy editor in Cursor live on the show: 00:41:05

The future of Cora, and the hardest challenge we face today: 00:53:58
...more
1h 16min
December 18, 2024How AI Will Change Science Forever - Ep. 43 with Alice Albrecht
AI is going to change science forever.
Small scale studies will give way to large scale open data gathering efforts. We’ll shift from seeking broad general theories to making contextual predictions in individual cases. The traditional research paper will change fundamentally.
That’s why I had Alice Albrecht on the show. Few people straddle the worlds of science and AI like she does: She holds a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from Yale and is a machine learning researcher with almost a decade of experience. Her startup re:collect built an app to augment human intelligence with AI and was acqui-hired by SmartNews earlier this year. She now heads up AI product there.
We get into the contours of this new paradigm in science:
- Whether research papers are still the best format to “release” science in
- The increasing importance of data in scientific discovery
- Why AI is making N-of-1 studies imperative—when they’re normally seen as unscientific
- The case for big tech to open-source their data for scientific research
- The power of unbundling data and interpretations, in science and media
This is a must-watch for anyone interested in how AI is changing the future of scientific research.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps:
Introduction: (00:00:59)

Everything Alice learned about growing an AI startup: (00:04:50)

Alice’s thesis about how AI can augment human intelligence: (00:09:08)

Whether chat is the best way for humans to interface with AI: (00:12:47)

Ideas to build an AI model that predicts OCD symptoms: (00:23:55)

Why Alice thinks LLMs aren’t the right models to do predictive work: (00:37:12)

How AI is broadening the horizons of science: (00:38:39)

The new format in which science will be released: (00:40:14)

Why AI makes N-of-1 studies more relevant: (00:45:39)

The power of separating data from interpretations: (00:50:42)
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Alice Albrecht: @AliceAlbrecht

The company that recently acquired Alice’s startup: SmartNews

The piece Alice wrote for Every about how AI can augment human intelligence: The Case for Cyborgs
Every’s product incubations that we discuss in the context of how AI is changing media: Extendable Articles, TLDR
...more
1h 1min
December 12, 2024The Secret to Building Sticky AI Products - Ep. 42 with Chris Pedregal
Chris Pedregal knows how to build AI products that people love.
Chris is the cofounder and CEO of Granola, an AI notepad for meetings. We use it all the time at Every—Granola listens in on a meeting and, when it ends, generates notes and a shareable transcript for anyone who missed it.
Granola is one of my favorite consumer AI products because it’s equal parts delightful and useful. So my question for Chris was:
How do you do it? How do you make an excellent product in AI?
We spent an hour talking about:
How Chris uses intuition while making product decisions

The importance of building products with “soul”

How to develop your product thinking muscles

When Chris trusts his gut over listening to user feedback

How fewer users gives startups a leg up over big tech

Why Chris is bullish on founders building specialized AI tools for professionals
This is a must-watch for anyone interested in building valuable, sticky AI products that users will love.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe

Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Timestamps for Spotify:
Introduction (00:00:48)

How Chris made early product decisions at Granola (00:09:14)

Chris’s philosophy around product development (00:13:36)

When to follow your intuition v. listen to your users (00:19:24)

How to build a product with “soul” (00:20:40)

Chris’s advice on becoming a better product thinker (00:25:12)

The role travel plays in shaping Chris’s intuition (00:31:17)

Why having fewer users is an advantage for AI startups (00:45:52)

Why Chris is bullish on startups building specialized AI tools (00:52:09)

Where Chris sees Granola in the next year (00:56:52)

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Chris Pedregal: @cjpedregal
Granola: http://Granola.ai, @meetgranola
The piece Chris wrote for Every about building useful AI products: https://every.to/thesis/how-to-build-a-truly-useful-ai-product
...more
1h 1min
December 04, 2024Do 60-Minute Coding Tasks in 60 Seconds—With AI - Ep. 41 with Steve Krouse
Here’s the most compelling benchmark of AI progress:
A task that took 60 minutes a year ago now takes 60 seconds.
In January 2024, Geoffrey Litt and I spent an hour coaxing ChatGPT and Replit to build an app live on my podcast.12 months later, Steve Krouse and I built the same app with one prompt in less than a minute.
Steve is the cofounder and CEO of Val Town, a cloud-based platform for developers to write, share, and deploy code directly in the browser. We used Townie, Val Town’s AI assistant, to build an app to keep track of time on the podcast, take notes, and generate questions for the guest.
Townie generated the app even before Steve could finish describing it on the show. As we demo Townie, we get into:
Why Steve believes programming can rewire the way you think

The rise of the non-technical AI developer and what that means for the future of coding

How Townie works under the hood, including the details of the system prompt

How Steve is evolving ValTown’s strategy as AI progress continues to unfold

The power of small, dense engineering teams
This is a must-watch for founders building AI-powered developer tools, and anyone interested in the future of programming.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe

Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps:
Introduction (00:00:55)

How programming changes the way you think (00:03:24)

Building an app in less than 60 seconds (00:11:22)

How Val Town’s AI assistant works (00:17:19)

Steve’s contrarian take on the non-technical AI programmer (00:23:05)

The nuances of building software that isn’t deterministic (00:33:38)

How to design systems that can capitalize on the next leap in AI (00:39:05)

What gives Val Town a competitive edge in a crowded market (00:40:47)

The power of small, dense engineering teams (00:47:34)

How Steve is positioning Val Town in a strategic niche (00:52:26)

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Steve Krouse: https://stevekrouse.com/, @stevekrouse

Val Town: https://www.val.town/

Townie, the AI assistant integrated into Val Town: https://www.val.town/townie/signup?next=%2Ftownie

Pieces on Val Town’s blog about how the team built Townie: How we built Townie—an app that generates fullstack apps, Building a code-writing robot and keeping it happy
The book by Seymour Papert about how programming changes the way you think: Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas
...more
1h 2min
November 27, 2024How We Incubate and Launch New Products With AI - Ep. 40 with Danny Aziz, Brandon Gell
Over the last few months at Every, we’ve:
Launched two AI products

Acquired tens of thousands of users

Released a new incubation in private alpha
The weird thing is: We’re a media company with < 10 full-time employees, and we’re mostly bootstrapped.

That’s not how things are supposed to work in startups.

When we started our product incubation arm six months ago, many people told us it wouldn’t work: divided focus, not enough money, and the biggest one—it would be too hard to find talented people to run the products we build.

Yesterday, we proved out one of the biggest risks to our strategy: We launched a brand-new version of our AI product Spiral (https://spiral.computer) with Danny Aziz as GM—who left a $200K salary to join us.

The question is: Why? Why did he join us, and why is the model working when it “shouldn’t” be?

That’s why I invited Danny and Brandon Gell, Every’s head of Studio, on the show. We get into the details of Every’s business model, what makes our flywheel turn, where each of us sees ourselves one year from now, and what happens when you mix media, software, and AI under one roof.

This is a must-watch for anyone who wants to build a business on their own terms, and have a lot of fun while doing it.

If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!

Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe

Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper
Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:01:08

All about Spiral, the tool we recently launched: 00:02:15

Why Danny left a $200,000 salary to work at a bootstrapped media company: 00:04:06

How we do a lot of things well at Every: 00:10:33

What makes Every’s flywheel turn: 00:14:44

The kind of people who fit right in at Every: 00:17:11

How Every is differentiated from a standard VC-backed startup: 00:23:25

How Danny found his way into the world of startups: 00:36:11

The tech industry’s affinity for potential over experience: 00:46:43

Where each of us sees ourselves in the next one year: 00:52:38
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Danny Aziz: @DannyAziz97

Brandon Gell: @bran_don_gell

Try Spiral here: https://spiral.computer/

More about Every’s product incubation arm: https://every.to/p/introducing-every-studio
...more
1h 1min
November 20, 2024His GPT Wrapper Has Half a Million Users—And Keeps Growing - Ep. 39 with Vicente Silveira
Everyone told Vicente Silveira that his startup—a GPT wrapper—would fail.
Instead, one year later, it’s thriving—with about 500,000 registered users, nearly 3,000 paying subscribers, and over 2 million conversations in the GPT store.
Vicente is the cofounder and CEO of AI PDF, a tool that can help you summarize, chat with, and organize your PDF files. When OpenAI allowed users to upload PDFs to ChatGPT, the consensus was that his startup, and all the other GPT wrappers out there, were toast.
Some of his competitors even shut shop, but Vicente believed they could still create value for users as a specialized tool. The AI PDF team kept building.
A year later, AI PDF is one of the most popular AI-powered PDF readers in the world—and they did it all with a five-person team, and a friends and family round.
I sat down with Vicente to understand, in granular detail, the success of AI PDF. We get into:
Why staying small and specialized is a bigger advantage than you think

The power of building with your early adopters

Why lean startups are better positioned than frontier AI companies to create radical solutions

When a growing startup should think about raising venture capital

The emerging role of ‘AI managers’ who will be responsible for overseeing AI agents
We even demo an agent integrated into AI PDF, prompting it to analyze recent articles from my column Chain of Thought and write a bulleted list of the core thesis statements.
This is a must-watch for small teams building profitable companies at the bleeding edge of AI.
If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!
Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.
To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe

Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Timestamps:
Introduction: (00:00:35)
AI PDF’s story begins with an email to OpenAI’s Greg Brockman: (00:02:58)
Why users choose AI PDF over ChatGPT: (00:05:41)
How to compete—and thrive—as a GPT wrapper: (00:06:58)
Why building with early adopters is key: (00:20:49)
Being small and specialized is your biggest advantage: (00:27:53)
When should AI startups raise capital: (00:31:47)
The emerging role of humans who will manage AI agents: (00:34:53)
Why AI is different from other tech revolutions: (00:45:25)

A live demo of an agent integrated into AI PDF: (00:54:01)
...more
1h 4min

FAQs about AI and I:

How many episodes does AI and I have?

The podcast currently has 49 episodes available.