Benedict Evans on Why AI Feels Like the Internet in 1997 Benedict...

Uploaded: 2026-06-08T16:19:55.000Z
Duration: PT3632.181S
Channel: a16z

58:28

Box CEO Aaron Levie on the AI Adoption Gap Aaron Levie joins Steven Sinofsky, Martin Casado, and Erik Torenberg to discuss how AI agents will revolutionize work, the growing pains of building software for the agent economy, what Wall Street gets wrong about AI, and more. 00:00 Intro 00:51 Building software for agents vs. humans 02:10 Can non-technical workers actually use AI agents? 14:31 CFO/CIO pushback: the real fear of agents doing integration 18:39 Treating agents like employees and why it breaks down 27:35 Diffusion gap: startups vs. enterprises 42:53 What Wall Street gets wrong Aaron Levie Steven Sinofsky martin_casado Erik Torenberg

a16z

276,989 views • 4 months ago

1:06:36

Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg went live on MTS to talk the hyperstition of AI Doomers, suicidal empathy, the AI Induced Psychosis Summit, push polls, UFOs and more. 00:00 - Intro 00:42 - The Anthropic Blackmail Incident & AI Doomer Literature 02:49 - Suicidal Empathy & the SPLC Indictment 16:33 - AI, Jobs & the Rise of the AI Vampire 25:39 - The Future of Tech Jobs: From Coder to Builder 30:55 - AI Psychosis, AI Cope & Why the Models Are Actually Great Now 38:48 - Why AI Sentiment Polls Are Misleading 45:28 - UFOs: What We Know and What the Government Has Hidden 52:25 - Advice for Young People & the Generational Divide Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 Erik Torenberg

MTS

46,292 views • 3 months ago

50:44

Software is eating labor & moats still matter: AI can do cheaply what has never been worth a person's time. Whole verticals have opened up, and unlike in previous product cycles, AI can actually complete work end-to-end. a16z GPs David Haber, Alex Rampell, and Erik Torenberg sat down for a conversation on how AI changed software and what fundamentals still hold true. They cover why moats still matter, the "greenfield strategies" that AI makes possible, the difference between differentiation & defensibility, why context is king, and more. 0:00 Intro 1:12 Why moats still matter 8:48 Why you won't vibecode Microsoft 10:09 The Goldilocks zone of pricing 11:21 Greenfield strategies 16:22 Steel man: Brand and velocity as moats 17:44 "Context is king" 19:58 Feature vs. product vs. company 27:05 Platform risk: Will they compete or tax you? 35:26 Will AI consolidate to winner-take-most? 39:16 Why Dropbox survived 44:06 Why AI is different: It's consensus 48:18 Jobs won't disappear – $1 tasks will explode David Haber Alex Rampell Erik Torenberg

a16z

61,997 views • 9 months ago

1:05:44

"AI doesn't take your job. AI makes you the CEO." Balaji Srinivasan joins a16z’s Erik Torenberg for a conversation on the future of the AI economy, decentralization, and how work changes in an AI-native world, including: - How distillation and open source could decentralize AI power - Why AI lowers the cost of creation but raises the cost of verification - The shift from global internet to “trusted tribes” and private AI - Why humans are the sensor and AI is the actuator 00:00 Intro 02:06 Why you want AI inside the trusted tribe, not outside it 05:35 The Problem with AI slop 09:25 Where AI works 17:08 "AI can't read your mind, but it can read your body." 30:10 "AI doesn't take your job. AI makes you the CEO." 46:01 The SaaSpocalypse: Real or overblown? 49:19 What happens if AI companies get bigger than governments? Balaji Erik Torenberg

a16z

163,295 views • 5 months ago

54:18

Mike Cannon-Brookes thinks the market is massively underestimating how AI will reshape software. In this conversation with the Atlassian co-founder and CEO, Mike joins a16z's Alex Rampell and Erik Torenberg to cover: - The history of software as “turning filing cabinets into databases” from 1960 to 2022 - The three buckets of SaaS, and why investors keep pricing them like they are the same thing - Why usage and outcome-based pricing is harder than it looks because customers hate bills they cannot control - The real bottleneck for AI at work: trust, UX, and getting humans to actually adopt new workflows 00:00 Introduction 03:16 Risk level has gone up 06:44 Three types of SaaS companies 11:07 Vibecoding is preposterous 14:23 Businesses are a set of processes 31:25 AI credits as casino chips 35:24 How Atlassian is adapting 43:26 Why customer trust is hard Mike Cannon-Brookes 👨🏼‍💻🧢🇦🇺 Alex Rampell Erik Torenberg

a16z

154,337 views • 6 months ago

1:11:56

Amjad Masad and Marc Andreessen on AI agents, AGI, Creativity, and Reasoning Agents are getting better, fast. Replit Agent v1 could do only 2 minutes of coherent work. v2 could do 20 minutes. Today’s v3? 200 minutes. As agents get more and more reliable, we can make huge progress in coding without ever achieving “true” AGI. In this episode, Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg sit down with Replit ⠕ co-founder and CEO Amjad Masad to discuss the upward trajectory of agents, how RL unlocked reasoning for modern models, why verification loops changed everything, and whether LLMs are hitting diminishing returns. 00:00 Intro 03:00 The vision behind Replit 07:00 Building apps with AI agents 09:30 When the agent becomes the programmer 13:45 Reinforcement learning and problem solving 17:30 The verification loop and multi-agent systems 26:00 Why coding is advancing faster than other Fields 33:45 AGI debate 41:15 Functional AGI and automating labor 53:10 Creativity, reasoning, and finding truth in AI 57:30 The origins of Replit 01:03:00 Hacking his university and getting caught Amjad Masad Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 Erik Torenberg

a16z

741,578 views • 10 months ago

1:17:29

David Sacks on Polytheistic AI, Better Crypto Regulation, Beating China, and Fixing SF David Sacks is the White House AI and Crypto Czar. He joined a16z’s Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Erik Torenberg for a conversation covering the importance of beating China in the AI race, the need for a federal standard for crypto regulation, how AI doomerism is replacing climate doomerism, how to solve the energy bottleneck in AI development, the path to fixing San Francisco, and more. 00:00 The state of AI and crypto policy 16:20 Orwellian AI and the real risks of AI 32:26 AI capabilities and pullback from AGI hype 39:18 Open-source AI, decentralization, and software freedom 46:28 Winning the AI race through innovation and exports 53:38 The energy bottleneck and America’s infrastructure challenge 59:48 AI doomerism and political narratives 01:13:30 San Francisco’s future David Sacks Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 benahorowitz.eth Erik Torenberg

a16z

2,229,761 views • 10 months ago

29:44

“Coding will eat all knowledge work” Peter Yang joins a16z’s Anish Acharya to discuss the post-AI future of work, why AI will create more solopreneurs, why human ambition means there will always be new jobs, and more. 00:00 Intro 01:56 Using OpenClaw for voice, memory & daily life 06:14 Will agents kill apps & SaaS? 11:57 Coding agents: Claude Code vs. Codex 17:00 Future of work: small teams, agents & company culture 24:00 How agents change consumer products & the economy Peter Yang Anish Acharya

a16z

96,476 views • 5 months ago

1:01:06

My latest conversation with the always incredible Benedict Evans: OpenAI’s moat problem, the rise of ephemeral and improvised sofware, OpenClaw & agents. 00:00 Intro 01:06 OpenAI's Focus Shift 03:12 ChatGPT usage: a "mile wide, inch deep" 09:03 Why better models do not solve the real problem 13:58 Why AI product teams are strategy takers, not strategy setters 15:38 Do agents help create defensibility? 20:06 OpenClaw and the "Desktop Linux" moment for AI 25:52 Why "everyone will build their own software" is completely wrong 28:09 Improvised software vs. institutionalized software 29:23 Why there will be more software, not less 36:15 Are we heading toward value destruction before value creation? 38:03 Circular revenue, leverage, and AI bubble dynamics 38:53 Big Tech's Trillion-Dollar CapEx Crisis & Financial Gravity 45:23 Why AI job exposure charts can be misleading 52:15 How Fortune 500 Execs are actually deploying AI today 56:45 The White Space: What this means for founders and investors

Matt Turck

36,594 views • 5 months ago

50:46

Cursor is at the cutting edge of merging design and software development. Earlier this year Ryo Lu, Head of Design at Cursor, joined a16z's Jennifer Li and Erik Torenberg for a conversation on what AI means for software, creativity, and design. They cover: - How software development has fragmented and why AI could unify it again - What people misunderstand about taste - How constraints drive design - Why design isn't about aesthetics - Everything apps vs purposeful apps 00:00 Intro 01:45 Design becomes approachable to everyone 02:36 From years to minutes: Product feedback loops collapse 17:18 The lost art of being a complete builder 21:42 Design is not about aesthetics 28:57 User-centric vs system-centric philosophy 34:00 AI as a universal interface 38:42 Simplicity as a constraint 46:33 ryOS: Building a personal operating system Ryo Lu Jennifer Li Erik Torenberg

a16z

111,755 views • 8 months ago

33:09

AI Winners, Token Economics, and Venture Strategy w/ David Clark and David George VenCap CIO David Clark joins a16z GP David George to discuss the AI supercycle and how it's changing the technology industry, including what bigger exits mean for venture capital, why we're not in a bubble, why we're still early in enterprise AI adoption, and more. 00:00 Intro 00:38 The scale shift: Anthropic & OpenAI adding more revenue than hyperscalers 04:20 Skeuomorphic vs native AI applications in the enterprise 06:24 How the best AI companies run themselves differently 08:14 Top 1% exits 10x'd in 24 months 11:17 The half-life problem: Why 40% of AI leaders drop off every year 13:11 Token economics, cost pressure, and who captures value 17:00 Loss ratios, risk, and how to think about early stage 22:51 Are we in an AI bubble? 29:50 The future of venture capital in an AI world David Clark David George

a16z

42,120 views • 3 months ago

26:05

Amjad Masad on Going Direct & Founder Storytelling Replit CEO Amjad Masad joins a16z's Erik Torenberg on how he went from crippling stage fright to one of the most famous CEOs on X, which platforms actually matter and why, and what founders get wrong about building in public. 00:50 Memeing a dream into reality 03:02 Conquering stage fright 04:00 Make your mistakes early 05:23 Building in public 06:41 The authenticity edge: Elon, Zuck, Trump 08:42 Become uncancellable 10:47 Advice for Anthropic and OpenAI 15:09 The day AI deleted prod 17:39 Who should go direct? 19:37 X vs Instagram vs YouTube 22:52 Go direct role models Amjad Masad Erik Torenberg

a16z

331,944 views • 1 month ago

53:02

We sat down with Reid Hoffman to talk about the future trajectory of copilots and agents, whether true AGI requires consciousness, and what friendship and purpose will ultimately mean in a world where machines can do everything. 00:00 Introduction 01:15 Investing in AI & Silicon Valley blind spots 05:45 Will AI replace doctors? 09:40 Limits of LLMs and reasoning 15:00 Bits vs atoms: the robotics challenge 18:00 AI savants & context awareness 20:10 Software eating labor & the “lazy and rich” heuristic 24:25 Scaling laws and the future of AI 31:15 Consciousness and agency in AI 35:45 Philosophy, idealism & simulation theory 38:15 LinkedIn’s durability & network effects 47:00 Friendship & human connection in the AI era Reid Hoffman Alex Rampell Erik Torenberg

a16z

83,856 views • 10 months ago

1:12:54

State of Enterprise AI 2026: Aaron Levie on Tokenmaxxing, The Rise of Headless, and AI-Proofing Your Job 00:00 Intro 01:18 Silicon Valley engineering vs. everyone else 05:35 Are enterprise CIOs actually bullish on AI? 08:51 Tokenmaxxing & why your AI bill is about to explode 11:34 The myth of falling token costs and AI spend escaping IT budgets 17:37 The $5B startup hiding in AI compute 18:14 The mosaic of models inside every enterprise 21:28 Why coding works and the rest of knowledge work doesn't 25:53 The Bob and Sally problem: access control breaks agents 30:31 Will enterprise AI really take 10 years to roll out 32:24 The capability overhang: why faster models slow diffusion 34:23 Data is the bottleneck (it always was) 39:02 The rise of internal forward-deployed engineers 41:23 Why the AI doomers are wrong about jobs 43:43 Headless software is inevitable 46:14 What replaces per-seat pricing 47:37 How Box itself is going headless 49:42 How the org chart actually evolves 1:00:33 Future-proofing yourself as an enterprise employee 1:06:40 Are we all just going to work for OpenAI and Anthropic? 1:07:11 Where startups can still win as the labs move up

Matt Turck

49,647 views • 3 months ago

1:08:31

Hollywood is going through a major cultural and creative reset, and Marc Andreessen thinks it’s long overdue. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc joins Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle to dissect the past decade of filmmaking, from the rise of “the message” in every movie to the return of genuine comedy and art. They cover the post-woke shift in Hollywood, the financial collapse of the streaming era, and why AI could spark a renaissance for a new generation of independent filmmakers. 00:00 Movies as modern myths 03:53 Why movies still matter 07:03 Taylor Swift, Scorsese & cultural artifacts 11:00 Streaming & the state of Hollywood post-COVID 27:41 Eddington: the first post-2020 real art film 48:49 AI in filmmaking & the future of creativity 52:26 Naked Gun revival and the return of humor 56:26 Fantastic Four and pro-family cinema 58:17 Could Atlas Shrugged be made today? Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 Katherine Boyle Erik Torenberg

a16z

736,153 views • 10 months ago

41:29

We're entering a new era of software where a single person, working with AI agents, can build products that previously required entire teams. In this episode of the Lightcone Podcast, they break down the rise of AI coding agents, "tokenmaxxing", and the emerging workflows behind tools like Claude Code and OpenClaw. They discuss why AI systems today feel less like productivity tools and more like collaborators, why the future of AI should be personal and user-controlled, and how founders are starting to build software in completely new ways. 00:00 — Will you control your AI? 00:47 — Coding again after 13 years 01:56 — Rebuilding a startup with Claude Code 05:50 — Software that thinks like a journalist 07:09 — The rise of “tokenmaxxing” 10:07 — The accidental creation of GStack 14:21 — The workflow behind 400x output 20:59 — Thin Harness, Fat Skills 24:35 — AI agents are like Ferraris 27:12 — The future of personal AI 38:37 — Buying back time with tokens

Y Combinator

67,145 views • 3 months ago

50:25

Wabi Is Building Personalized Software for Everyone In a recent report from OpenAI, almost 80% of ChatGPT usage was for practical guidance, seeking information, and writing. AI usage shouldn’t be limited to search and writing. At wabi, Eugenia Kuyda is building a new kind of AI interface so that anyone can create and share personalized AI-generated software. Eugenia joined a16z’s Anish Acharya, Justine Moore, and Erik Torenberg to explain why we’re still in the MS-DOS era of AI, how mini apps could change the way we interact with AI, how she started building AI products in 2012 and never stopped, and what she saw in her conversations with the early OpenAI team. 00:00 Introduction 00:54 AI companions & personal software 14:17 Mini apps as community catalysts 19:07 Wabi as a framework for memory, context, and expression 23:11 Prompt sharing as an emergent user behavior 28:11 100x’ing the world’s meaningful software 30:21 The creator economy on Wabi 39:25 Visiting the OpenAI office 43:31 Predicting consumer behavior Eugenia Kuyda Anish Acharya Justine Moore Erik Torenberg

a16z

79,405 views • 10 months ago

1:26:12

My conversation with Jesse Zhang Decagon is building a customer service agent with AI, with plans for much more than that. It’s one of the more successful early AI applications, with tons of lessons for the rest of the market. I love how Jesse developed which problem to solve first, a set of lessons applicable to all entrepreneurs Enjoy Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 2:00 Competing in the AI Era 11:35 Finding Product-Market Fit 14:25 Anatomy of a Great Customer Interview 17:37 Everyone’s Wrong Until You Talk to Customers 19:25 AI Agents Replacing Human Labor 21:55 Why Customer Service 23:30 Coding vs. Customer Service 35:44 The Future of Voice and the Human UI 38:54 Why Voice-to-Voice Is So Hard 43:18 Learning from Customer Data 44:36 How CEOs Should Think About AI 47:06 The ROI of Coding and Productivity Tools 48:20 Every Brand Will Talk to You Through AI 56:00 Recruiting, Capital, and Demand 1:00:42 Investor Frenzy 1:22:17 The Long-Term Vision for Decagon 1:25:05 Kindest Thing

Patrick OShaughnessy

49,418 views • 11 months ago

39:17

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on the State of AI In this closing keynote from a16z’s Runtime conference, General Partner Erik Torenberg speaks with our firm’s cofounders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, about whether AI can learn leadership success and theory of mind, how new entrants can beat huge incumbents, and how supply constraints evolve over time. 00:00 Intro 03:32 Remix, originality, and the nature of human creativity 06:20 Ben on hip-hop, innovation, and creative genius 16:40 Embodied intelligence & the mind-body question 23:02 Are we in an AI bubble? 31:00 Coaching founders in a unique AI era 34:14 Talent & chips 37:10 The U.S.-China AI race and the robotics future Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 benahorowitz.eth Erik Torenberg

a16z

202,592 views • 10 months ago

40:53

The space economy has a ground infrastructure problem. You can build a satellite and launch it faster than you can connect with it from Earth. Bridgit Mendler is building Northwood to fix that — deploying ground infrastructure in 3 months instead of 3 years. She joins a16'z Erik Torenberg to talk about vertical integration, the $50M Space Force contract, and why space is like the early internet: 00:00 Introduction 6:10 The ground segment bottleneck 10:06 Pandemic antenna origins 13:18 Three months, not three years 18:19 Starlink is not a threat 23:48 The space economy market map 29:45 The Space Force contract 36:03 Culture and values Bridgit Mendler Erik Torenberg Northwood

a16z

501,456 views • 5 months ago

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