The a16z Show

In this one-on-one conversation, Marc and Ben tackle the university system – what has certainly been a hot topic that’s been dominating the news over the past few months. As Marc states at the top of the episode, universities matter tremendously to our world, but they’re currently in a state of crisis.

Together, Ben and Marc take a “structural” look at higher education, delving deep into the twelve functions of the modern university.  They also unpack the numerous challenges that universities face today – student debt and the replication crisis, among them. 

They also discuss topics including DEI, student athlete admissions, accreditation, inflation, and much more. 

As colleges face an existential threat that could have long lasting repercussions, how can we find ways to improve these institutions, while being open to new entrepreneurial opportunities in education?

Check out the Ben and Marc show: https://link.chtbl.com/benandmarc

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Flock is a public safety technology platform that operates in over 4,000 cities across the United States, and solves about 2,200 crimes daily. That’s 10 percent of reported crimes nationwide.

Taken from a16z’s recent LP Summit, a16z General Partner David Ulevitch  joins forces with Flock Safety’s founder, Garrett Langley and Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Together, they cover the delicate balance between using technology to combat crime and respecting individual privacy, and explore the use of drones and facial recognition, building trust within communities, and the essence of objective policing.

Resources: 

Find Garret on Twitter: https://twitter.com/glangley

Find Sheriff McMahill on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Sheriff_LVMPD

Find David on Twitter:https://twitter.com/davidu

Learn more about Flock Safety: https://www.flocksafety.com

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Nature’s blueprint – DNA – is an incredibly efficient machine. You cannot see it with the naked eye, yet it can last for hundreds, maybe even millions of years. Plus, the storage capacity of a single gram of DNA is over 200 million gigabytes! As the cost of DNA sequencing (reading) and synthesis (writing) comes down, scientists are looking to our very own biology for applications reaching as far as data storage. Learn more about this fascinating world with a16z General Partner Vijay Pande, as he says, this next wave of biological computing will “be the mother of many new exponentials to come.”

Resources: 

Save As: DNA Part 1: https://exo.substack.com/p/saving-our-story-in-dna-part-1

Save As: DNA Part 1: https://exo.substack.com/p/save-as-dna-part-2

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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As we close off 2023, we wanted to revisit some of our favorite episodes from the last year. From AI hardware, to healthcare regulation, to disrupting the world’s largest asset class, to the electrification of nearly everything… there’s  something in here for all listeners.

Resources: 

AI Hardware, Explained:

https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/ai-hardware-explained

Chasing Silicon: The Race for GPUs: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/chasing-silicon-the-race-for-gpus

The True Cost of Compute: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/the-cost-of-compute

AI Revolution: Disruption, Alignment, and Opportunity: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/ai-revolution-disruption-alignment-and-opportunity

The Robot Lawyer Resistance; https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/the-robot-lawyer-resistance

The Quest for AGI: Q*, Self-Play, and Synthetic Data: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quest-for-agi-q-self-play-and-synthetic-data

The Road to Autonomous Vehicles: Are We There Yet?: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/the-road-to-autonomous-vehicles-are-we-there-yet-PstZz2G_

The Electrification of Everything: From Sky to Sea: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/the-electrification-of-everything-from-sky-to-sea

When Two Giants Intersect: Healthcare Meets Fintech: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/when-two-giants-intersect-healthcare-meets-fintech

Salary Transparency: Clarity or Chaos?: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/salary-transparency-clarity-or-chaos

Disrupting the World’s Largest Asset Class with Adam Neumann: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/disrupting-the-worlds-largest-asset-class

The Data Highway Above with Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/new-the-data-highway-above-with-privateers-steve-wozniak-alex-fielding-and-dr-moriba-jah

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Welcome to “The Ben & Marc Show”, featuring a16z’s co-founders Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen.  In this week’s episode, Marc and Ben are joined by special guest Tony Robbins to discuss the future of longevity.  

Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, #1 NY Times bestselling author, philanthropist, and the nation’s #1 life & business strategist.  For over four and a half decades, Tony has empowered more than 50 million people from 100 countries around the world through his audio programs, educational videos, and live seminars. He’s also the author of six international bestsellers, including “Money: Master the Game” (2014), “Unshakable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook” (2017) and “Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life and Those You Love” (2022).

Joined by a16z’s own Dr. Vijay Pande, PhD – General Partner since 2014, and founder and leader of a16z Bio + Health – the group discusses new breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, AI, biohacking, gene editing, mindset and confirms why this might be the best time to be alive. Enjoy!

Watch the full video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/V8h11baC_ok

Resources:

Marc on X: https://twitter.com/pmarca

Marc’s Substack: https://pmarca.substack.com/

Ben on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz

Dr. Vijay Pande on X: https://twitter.com/vijaypande

Learn more about Tony Robbins: https://tonyrobbins.com

Tony’s Time to Rise Summit (Jan 25-27, 2024): https://timetorisesummit.com/join-now  

Pre-order Tony’s upcoming book “The Holy Grail of Investing” (Feb 2024): http://theholygrailofinvesting.com

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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A new age of maritime exploration, the rise of the developer as a buyer in financial services, and more applications for computer vision and video intelligence. We asked over 40 partners across a16z to preview one big idea they believe will drive innovation in 2024.

Here in our 3-part series, you’ll hear directly from partners across all our verticals, as we dive even more deeply into these ideas. What’s the why now? Who is already building in these spaces? What opportunities and challenges are on the horizon? And how can you get involved?

Topics Covered:

00:00 - Big Ideas in Tech 2024

01:39 -  Big Idea: The Rise of the Developer as a Buyer in Financial Services

07:03 - Examples of financial service infrastructure products

08:40 - Building products and cost/selling structures

09:56 - How financial institutions will adopt new technology

13:07 - Regulatory shifts and updates

14:09 - The impact on customers

16:30 - Big Idea: A New Age of Maritime 

18:15 - The challenges of maritime exploration 

19:56 - Why is 2024 the year of iInnovation in maritime exploration?

23:32 - Space and aerospace exploration’s impact on maritime 

26:51 - Geopolitical supply chain and climate applications

29:40 - Autonomous fleets

31:49 - Key challenges in modernizing maritime 

34:11 - Opportunities for builders in the space

36:23 - Big Idea: New Applications for Computer Vision and Video Intelligence

38:06 - The current use of video and it’s data

38:53 - The unlocks in hardware and software driving change

41:40 - Emerging applications and use cases

43:20 - Video and privacy

44:49 - Why is 2024 the year of change and innovation?

Resources:

Find Angela on Twitter :https://twitter.com/astrange

Find Grant on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grant__gregory

Find Kimberly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimberlywtan

View all 40+ big ideas: https://a16z.com/bigideas2024

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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General Partner Anjney Midha explores the cutting-edge world of text-to-video AI with AI researchers Andreas Blattmann and Robin Rombach. 

Released in November, Stable Video Diffusion is their latest open-source generative video model, overcoming challenges in size and dynamic representation.

In this episode Robin and Andreas share why translating text to video is complex, the key role of datasets, current applications, and the future of video editing.

Topics Covered: 

00:00 - Text to Video: The Next Leap in AI Generation

02:41 - The Stable Diffusion backstory

04:25 - Diffusion vs autoregressive models

06:09 - The benefits of single step sampling

09:15 - Why generative video?

11:19 - Understanding physics through AI video

12:20 - The challenge of creating generative video

15:36 - Data set selection and training

17:50 - Structural consistency and 3D objects

19:50 - Incorporating LoRAs

21:24 - How should creators think about these tools?

23:46 - Open challenges in video generation 

25:42 - Infrastructure challenges and future research 

Resources: 

Find Robin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robrombach

Find Andreas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andi_blatt

Find Anjney on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anjneymidha

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Voice-First Apps, AI Moats, Never-Ending Games, and Anime. We asked over 40 partners across a16z to preview one big idea they believe will drive innovation in 2024.

Here in our 3-part series, you’ll hear directly from partners across all our verticals, as we dive even more deeply into these ideas. What’s the why now? Who is already building in these spaces? What opportunities and challenges are on the horizon? And how can you get involved?

Timecodes:

00:00 - Big Ideas in Tech 2024

01:39 - Big Idea: Voice-First Apps Will Become Integral to Our Lives

04:14 - The limiting factors of voice technology

05:27 - What would a voice-first app look like? 

06:52 - Voice tech for companionship and productivity 

08:05 - The primary modality voice applications

10:08 - How builders and founders can integrate voice technology

13:31 - Big Idea: The Consumer AI Battleground Moves from Model to UX

15:49 - How user experience can contribute toward building a moat

17:57 - The commoditization of models

19:55 - How should builders differentiate between model and experience?

22:58 - Breakout examples for 2024

25:10 - Open source vs closed source

26:44 - The impact of applications splitting from the infrastructure layer

28:14 - Big Idea: AI-First Games That Never End

29:59 -Generative AI in gaming and AI native games

31:12 - Introducing generative agents as game companions 

33:57 - Does the gaming community want hyper personalization?

38:00 - New entrants vs the incumbents

41:57 - How business models and cost structures are evolving

46:21 - Advice for game builders in 2024

48:03 - Big Idea: Anime Games Go Mainstream

49:28 - What defines anime?

52:05 - Anime’s monetization strategy and how it differs from other genres

54:04 - Why are we seeing a rise in anime?

55:56 - What is required to be successful in anime

58:20 - AI, XR and inventing the next wave of anime

Resources:

View all 40+ big ideas: https://a16z.com/bigideas2024

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Arthur Mensch is the co-founder of Mistral and the co-author of Deepmind’s pivotal 2022 "Chinchilla" paper.

In September 2023, Mistral released Mistral-7B, an advanced open-source language model that has rapidly become the top choice for developers. Just this week, they introduced a new mixture of experts model – Mixtral — that’s already generating significant buzz among AI developers.

As the battleground around large language models heats up, join us for a conversation with Arthur as he sits down with a16z General Partner Anjney Midha. Together, they delve into the misconceptions and opportunities around open source; the current performance reality of open and closed models; and the compute, data, and algorithmic innovations required to efficiently scale LLMs.

Resources:

Find Arthur on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arthurmensch

Find Anjney on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anjneymidha

Learn more about Mistral: https://mistral.ai

Learn why we invested in Mistral: https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-mistral/

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Smart energy grids. Voice-first companion apps. Programmable medicines. AI tools for kids.
We asked over 40 partners across a16z to preview one big idea

they believe will drive innovation in 2024.

Here in our 3-part series, you’ll hear directly from partners across all our verticals, as we dive even more deeply into these ideas. What’s the why now? Who is already building in these spaces? What opportunities and challenges are on the horizon? And how can you get involved?

View all 40+ big ideas: https://a16z.com/bigideas2024

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Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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