Expanding AI chip capabilities beyond Nvidia with Modular CEO Chris Lattner | E1808
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
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Today’s show:
Modular CEO Chris Lattner joins Jason to discuss the process of building LLMs (8:14), what caused Nvidia to be entrenched in machine learning today (35:37), the AI wrapper debate (41:44), and much more!
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Modular CEO Chris Lattner joins Jason
(2:24) Where hardware and optimization stand today
(8:14) What goes into deploying and distributing an AI model into a product
(10:32) Roots - Head to https://investwithroots.com/TWIST to sign up and start investing today!
(12:02) Why companies make their own machine-learning software
(14:32) Nvidia’s outlook on what Modular is building
(18:46) Chris’s time at Apple
(20:05) Strategies for reducing complexity
(22:53) Awareness of underlying complexities in the technology stack
(25:14) Supergut - Get 30% off with code TWIST at https://supergut.com
(26:46) What it will look like in five to ten years; Increase consumption by creating new categories
(31:29) The open-source community; RISC-V and Arm
(34:15) LinkedIn Marketing - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at https://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups
(35:37) How Nvidia secured its position
(38:21) The AlexNet moment
(41:44) The AI wrapper debate
(44:32) OpenAI moving from non-profit to profit and open to closed-system
(46:32) The lack of programmers and the ability to do more with less
(52:09) Modular Mojo and other developments
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Check out Modular: https://www.modular.com/
FOLLOW Chris: https://twitter.com/clattner_llvm
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you go back in time, I built a technology called LVM, which is this fairly obscure compiler technology |
| 0:06.0 | that then is probably on your phone today and on many of your laptops and in your consoles and |
| 0:10.5 | things like this, that technology helped unify a generation of compute around CPUs in particular. |
| 0:16.7 | And so the LVM was great for hardware people because they could integrate with LVM and then they |
| 0:21.5 | got all the C++ and all the Swift and all the other languages and Rust and Julian and things |
| 0:26.3 | like that's for free, but machine learning doesn't have that. And so what modular is building |
| 0:31.4 | is it's building that thing that once you plug into it, you have a full AI stack. |
| 0:37.0 | For a hardware maker, that's a very powerful thing. |
| 0:39.7 | This week in startups is brought to you by Roots. Invest in the only real estate investment |
| 0:45.7 | trust that creates wealth for you and its residents at investwithroots.com slash twist. |
| 0:53.7 | Super gut is the only nutrition brand clinically proven to improve digestion, |
| 0:59.4 | balanced blood sugar, sustain energy and manage weight. Save 25% on the delicious shakes, |
| 1:06.1 | bars and prebiotic mix at super gut.com with code twist and LinkedIn marketing. |
| 1:13.7 | To redeem a free $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to LinkedIn.com |
| 1:20.4 | slash this week in startups right everybody welcome back to this week in startups really excited |
| 1:26.1 | for today's guest because he's worked at some of the biggest technology companies in the world |
| 1:32.3 | and working on AI. His name is Chris Latner. His company is modular. He's worked at Apple. |
| 1:39.2 | He's worked at Tesla. He's worked at Google and now he's got his own startup as I just said modular. |
| 1:44.8 | So as we all know, Nvidia is dominant right now in the AI space. $16 billion in revenue in Q3. |
| 1:52.6 | That's 2X year over year. They're wildly profitable stocks doubled since 2023. |
| 1:59.0 | But as we've said on this pod and all in, and there's going to be competitors coming right of course. |
| 2:04.8 | And some startups are going at Nvidia on the hardware front. We had Light Matter on recently |
... |
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