Magic.dev CEO Eric Steinberger on making developers bionic | E1744
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is presented by:
Crowdbotics. Great ideas can change the world, and Crowdbotics is the fastest way to turn those ideas into code. Get a free scoping session for your next big app idea at http://crowdbotics.com/twist.
The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub helps all founders build a better startup, at a lower cost, from day one. Startups get up to $150K in Azure credits, access to free OpenAI credits, free dev tools like GitHub, technical advisory, access to mentors and experts, and so much more. There is no funding requirement, and it only takes minutes to join. Sign up today at http://aka.ms/thisweekinstartups.
Release. Large enterprises pose unique challenges for SaaS startups. Unlock customers with unique needs for private and single-tenant hosting without the toil of DIY with Release Delivery. Get your first month free at https://release.com/twist.
*
Today’s show:
Jason is joined by Magic.dev CEO and Co-Founder Eric Steinberger to discuss how his startup makes developers more efficient with AI by auto-generating code. The first portion of the interview features Eric demoing his software. Then, Jason and Eric dive into the impact that these rapid AI advancements will have on society (31:28), how their tools have the potential to significantly minimize coding time and what that means for entrepreneurship (13:55), and much more!
*
Time stamps:
(00:00) Eric Steinberger joins Jason
(1:44) Eric and Jason explain what Magi.dev is
(3:43) Eric Demos Magic.dev
(9:13) What makes this AI model unique
(11:02) Crowdbotics - Get a free scoping session for your next big app idea at http://crowdbotics.com/twist
(12:11) Magic.dev's motivation behind building their own language model
(13:55) The efficiency gains achieved with Magic.dev
(17:32) Exploring reinforcement learning and grounding the AI model
(19:45) Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub - Apply in 5 minutes for six figures in discounts at http://aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(21:19) The two parallel paths unfolding
(23:57) How close we are to developing more capable AI systems
(31:28) The impact of Moore's Law on technology and society
(37:34) Release - Get your first month free at https://release.com/twist
(39:03) Alternative perspectives on the pace of AI advancement
(43:14) The origins of Eric's positive outlook on AI
(47:49) Thought's on AI regulation and choke points
*
Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo & Apply for Funding
Great recent interviews: Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland, PrayingForExits, Jenny Lefcourt
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
*
Follow Jason:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jason
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
*
Follow TWiST:
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
*
Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | But people should just take no, I mean, the fact that, you know, people who are building this stuff, Jeffrey Hinton, the guy who's just a godfather of the eye, of course, but he just, he drove this, um, that he's warning of it. And everyone, I mean, you know, I'm just a tiny fish in the pond, the people who've been working on this for decades are worried. |
| 0:17.0 | Uh, this is different from when people are worried about, you know, crypto, like, or when people are worried about whatever else is the thing they're currently worried about, right? |
| 0:25.0 | But the people who have been working on us for ages who have dedicated their careers to it, including myself, are, um, saying that this is very much a path with a juncture. |
| 0:38.0 | This week in startups is brought to you by crowd bodix. Great ideas can change the world. And crowd bodix is the fastest way to turn those ideas into code. |
| 0:48.0 | Get a free scoping session for your next big app idea at crowd bodix.com slash twist. |
| 0:55.0 | The Microsoft for startups founders hub helps all founders build a better startup at a lower cost from day one. |
| 1:02.0 | Startups get up to 150,000 dollars in Azure credits, access to free open AI credits, free dev tools like GitHub, technical advisory, access to mentors and experts, and so much more. |
| 1:16.0 | There is no funding requirement and it only takes minutes to join. Sign up today at aka.ms slash this week in startups and release large enterprises pose unique challenges for SaaS startups. |
| 1:32.0 | Unlock customers with unique needs for private and single tenant hosting without the toil of DIY with release delivery. |
| 1:41.0 | Get your first month free at release.com slash twist. |
| 1:46.0 | Hey everybody, welcome back to the program today. We have another great guest. We're doing this like AI series where we're interviewing anybody and everybody who's making interesting stuff builders in fact of the most interesting AI startups today. |
| 2:02.0 | We have Eric Steinberger. He runs a company called magic and plain English. |
| 2:09.0 | Magic is building a colleague inside of a computer. Basically it's powered by AI and it's going to auto generate code based on a developer's inputs. Welcome to the program. |
| 2:20.0 | Hey, thanks Jason. Thanks for having me. All right. How many people work at this company? We're 10 now. 10 people were your best. |
| 2:28.0 | Half of us in SF, half of us in Vienna, Austria. Okay. Great. In your NSF. I will. I'm just moving. I'm going to my visa. Have my visa. |
| 2:37.0 | Congratulations. And one week. Well, congratulations. Are you going to be in San Francisco? We're going to be in the Bay area. Yeah, applying to be NSF. Wow. |
| 2:46.0 | Would you have an office there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Small office. You know, small team. But we're about to encounter you. |
| 2:52.0 | Not sure yet. We're probably going to get a co-working space just to be quick. Yeah. |
| 2:57.0 | And then eventually the reason I ask is a lot of AI people are saying they're going to be in the city of San Francisco where a lot of startups and obviously the big tech companies are no longer going to San Francisco. |
| 3:08.0 | Explain the decision to be in San Francisco as opposed to saying being down in Palo Alto Mountain View, Cupertino, San Jose, San Mateo, wherever. |
| 3:19.0 | I mean, I have a few friends who are just really good at my engineers NSF. And I'm not very familiar with the area. So I think NSF is the place that I've spent some time in the Berkeley. |
| 3:31.0 | But I think NSF is better for what we're doing. Great. Awesome. It does seem like a bunch of AI developers are choosing to be in San Francisco, which is great for the city since there's like 15 Salesforce towers of open space. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jason Calacanis, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jason Calacanis and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

