The a16z Show

Theo Jaffee is joined by Joshua Achiam, Chief Futurist at OpenAI, for a conversation on AI cybersecurity, frontier model capabilities, and why he believes society may have already crossed the threshold into an AGI-era without fully recognizing it.

They discuss AI's rapidly advancing cyber capabilities, state-sponsored hacking, model jailbreaks, recursive self-improvement, and what happens when AI systems begin discovering vulnerabilities faster than humans can patch them. Joshua also explains why most people have quietly adapted to capabilities that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago, and why the biggest changes from AI may arrive gradually rather than all at once.

Resources:

Follow Joshua Achiam on X: https://x.com/jachiam0

Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee

Follow MTS on X: https://x.com/mtslive

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sophia Dew and Sofia Puccini are joined by Ruby Thelot, designer, artist, cyberethnographer, professor at NYU, and founder of 13101401, for a wide-ranging conversation about internet culture, AI, digital communities, and how technology is reshaping the way we relate to one another.

Drawing on years of research into online behavior, Ruby explains how digital cultures form, why algorithms shape more than just what we see, and what AI is changing about creativity, communication, and identity. They discuss cyberethnography, online subcultures, "machinic taste," AI companions, social norms, internet language, and why Americans often say they dislike AI—even as they increasingly rely on it in everyday life.

Resources:

Follow Ruby X: https://x.com/being_on_line

Substack: https://beingonline.substack.com/

Follow Sophia on X: https://x.com/sophiadew

Follow Sofia on X: https://x.com/schisofrenia

Follow MTS on X: https://x.com/mtslive

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Robert Hackett discuss one of the most consequential policy debates facing the crypto industry: the push for comprehensive U.S. market structure legislation and what regulatory clarity could mean for innovation, financial markets, and America's technological leadership.

They explore the CLARITY Act, stablecoins, securities law, consumer protection, and why both builders and financial institutions are calling for clear rules of the road. Along the way, they discuss the lessons of the early internet, FTX, open financial networks, and why they believe thoughtful regulation can strengthen innovation rather than slow it down.

Resources:

Follow Marc Andreessen on X: https://x.com/pmarca

Follow Chris Dixon on X: https://x.com/cdixon

Follow Robert Hackett on X: https://x.com/rhackett

Follow a16z Crypto on X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto

Why Bitcoin matters: https://a16z.com/why-bitcoin-matters/

What builders need to know about the CLARITY Act: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/clarity-act-what-why-matters

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sarah Wang and Kimberly Tan are joined by Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas, co-founders of Decagon, to discuss the evolution of enterprise AI agents, why the company increasingly relies on open-source models, and how it is helping some of the world’s largest companies deploy AI in production.

Decagon has become one of the fastest-growing AI companies by building agents that automate customer support, sales, and operational workflows. Jesse, Decagon’s CEO, and Ashwin, its president, explain how the company is building enterprise AI at scale.

They unpack why Decagon moved most of its inference to open-source models, how latency, evaluation, and fine-tuning shape production AI systems, and why enterprise AI requires far more than simply plugging into frontier models. The conversation also explores forward-deployed engineering, enterprise sales, AI’s impact on jobs, and why application companies will continue to thrive alongside the foundation model labs.

Resources:

Follow Jesse Zhang on X: https://x.com/thejessezhang

Follow Ashwin Sreenivas on X: https://x.com/AshwinSreenivas

Follow Sarah Wang on X: https://x.com/sarahdingwang

Follow Kimberly Tan on X: https://x.com/kimberlywtan

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alex Rampell and Olivia Moore speak with Lassie cofounders Steijn Pelle and Frédéric Renken about bringing AI to one of the most overlooked parts of the economy: small businesses.

Inspired by time spent working inside dental practices, Pelle and Renken set out to automate the administrative work that keeps healthcare providers away from patients. They discuss how AI agents are changing billing, insurance claims, patient payments, and other operational workflows, allowing practices to spend less time on paperwork and more time delivering care.

The conversation explores AI agents, software that performs work rather than simply storing information, onboarding AI into real-world businesses, and why healthcare administration offers one of the biggest opportunities for automation. Along the way, they discuss product design, go-to-market strategy, and what it takes to build AI systems that operate reliably in complex business environments.

Resources:

Follow Steijn Pelle on X: https://x.com/steijnpelle

Follow Frédéric Renken on X: https://x.com/fredericrenken

Follow Alex Rampell on X: https://x.com/arampell

Follow Olivia Moore on X: https://x.com/omooretweets

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Justine Moore, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, joins New Economies to explore the rapid evolution of generative media and why AI-native content is reaching an inflection point. They discuss the rise of AI micro-dramas, how creators are building entirely new forms of entertainment, and why the biggest opportunities may lie not in replacing Hollywood—but in expanding who gets to create.

They also cover the future of creator tools, AI agents for individuals, generative video, AI "slop," the economics of AI-native studios, and where founders should be building next as consumer AI enters a new phase.

Resources:

Follow Justine Moore on X: https://x.com/venturetwins

Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.neweconomies.co/p/justine -moore-andreessen-horowitz

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Last week, World Labs announced its acquisition of SceniX, bringing together two teams working on one of AI's biggest unsolved problems: how to give machines a true understanding of the physical world.

Martin Casado sits down with Fei-Fei Li, co-founder and CEO of World Labs, creator of ImageNet, and pioneer of spatial intelligence, alongside Yunzhu Li, co-founder of SceniX and assistant professor at Columbia University. They discuss why World Labs acquired SceniX, how simulation can unlock the next generation of robotics, and why training robots may require a fundamentally different approach than training language models.

The conversation explores real-to-sim-to-real pipelines, world models, robotics foundation models, evaluation, synthetic data, and why the future of AI depends not just on understanding language—but on understanding and interacting with the physical world.

Resources:

Follow Fei-Fei Li on X: https://x.com/drfeifei

Follow Yunzhu Li on X: https://x.com/YunzhuLiYZ

Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Steven Sinofsky joins Theo Jaffee and Sofia Puccini for a conversation on AI regulation, open-source models, and what history can teach us about technological revolutions. Drawing on decades of experience leading products at Microsoft, Sinofsky argues that governments are rushing to regulate AI before they fully understand the technology, risking innovation in the process.

They discuss the "precautionary principle," why open source has historically accelerated innovation, the role of regulation in emerging technologies, the AI competition between the U.S. and China, and why existing laws may already address many of the risks people attribute to AI.

Resources:

Follow Steven Sinofsky on X: https://x.com/stevesi

Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee

Follow Sofia Puccini on X: https://x.com/schisofrenia

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ben Horowitz joins Theo Jaffee and Sofia Puccini to discuss one of the biggest debates in AI today: the future of open-source models. They examine the growing push to restrict open models, why Ben believes open source is critical for security, innovation, and competition, and what happens if a handful of frontier labs come to dominate the AI ecosystem.

They also discuss distillation, AI monopolies, China's role in open-source AI, robotics, manufacturing, the economics of frontier models, and why Ben believes the AI market is still in its earliest stages. The conversation closes with a look at AI-generated art, creativity, and whether new tools will spark the next cultural renaissance.

Resources:

Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz

Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee

Follow Sofia Puccini on X: https://x.com/schisofrenia

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sriram Krishnan joins Theo Jaffee and Sofia Puccini just after concluding his tenure as Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI to discuss one of the biggest weeks yet for open-source AI. They unpack the rapid release of models including Kimi K3 and Qwen, why open models are putting pressure on frontier labs, and what it means for pricing, competition, and the future of AI infrastructure.

They also discuss AI policy, distillation, cybersecurity, the role of open-weight models, whether the U.S. should respond to China's growing AI capabilities, and how governments and frontier labs should navigate the next phase of AI development.

Resources:

Follow Sriram Krishnan on X: https://x.com/sriramk

Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee

Follow Sofia Puccini on X: https://x.com/schisofrenia

Stay Updated:

Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube

Find a16z on X

Find a16z on LinkedIn

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify

Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts

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

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.