Exponential View by Azeem Azhar

I was live with Jared Kaplan , co-founder of Anthropic , to explore the latest advancements in AI, the challenges of safety and alignment and the evolving role of AI in our economy and society. A snapshot of what we discuss: AI model scaling & Claude 3.7 Sonnet * Introduction of thinking time to optimize computational resources * Rapid iteration cycles – models now improving faster than hardware *...

I was live with Kevin Kelly earlier today. Thanks to all of you who joined us – and if you didn’t have a chance to join us live, you can watch the recording right here. We discuss: * Population decline, its causes and implications. * How AI agents might eventually become integral economic entities, not only producing but also consuming, creating a new type of economy. * Why we both see technology...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co I got together with Jeffrey Ding to reframe the “US vs China” AI narrative. We speak about AI diffusion, the US ‘containment’ policies and what the US strategy should be. Thanks all for joining us live – we’ll do one of these every Friday morning-time ET.

For centuries, Europe has been both the crucible of civilization and the stage for some of history’s most devastating conflicts. Today, it stands at another inflection point. A resurgent Russia, an uncertain NATO and the growing specter of cyber and kinetic warfare demand a fundamental shift in how Europe thinks about its own security. In this essay, I explore what Europe must do—not just to prepa...

Hi all, Time is scarce, but ideas matter. That’s why we’re experimenting with generative AI to bring Exponential View to you in audio—so you can engage with my writing while on the move. In today’s edition, you’ll hear my latest reflections from Silicon Valley. Once again, the Bay Area is pulling ahead of the world—this time, powered by AI. The essay is available for reading here . This is an earl...

I had a great chat today with Paul Krugman to kick off the  Substack Market Forecast Summit . This was our first public conversation but not the last. There was a great amount to discuss at the intersection of economics, technology and geopolitics. We framed it under a broad umbrella – the world in 2025. Almost 5000 readers tuned in as we explored what this year would bring – we covered tariffs an...

This evening, I attended a dinner hosted by Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson, alongside Yann LeCun, Gill Pratt, CEO of Toyota Research Institute, and Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype and Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Instead of recording my takeaway from the last day of the Forum, I passed the mic around the dinner table and asked Erik, Jaan, Yann and Gill to share their key takeaways fro...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co Hi all, I’ve just wrapped up my second full day at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Three themes stand out: AI , Trump and Europe . Watch my video for full commentary – abbreviated notes are available below. AI It’s impossible to take more than a few steps here without hearing about AI’s extraordinary trajectory...

Hi all, Here’s a quick live dispatch from Davos. If you prefer video over notes, go to 02:26 where my briefing begins. The energy here is different this year, so I’ll share my daily takes from the Forum to help you understand what it’s like and what we’re learning here. Three big themes emerged from my Day 1 at the Forum: * Yesterday’s inauguration is the elephant in the room. There’s a palpable s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co When I look back on our recent history—from around 2014 to today—I see an era that future historians will call an inflection point. Much as the 1920s and 1930s fundamentally differed from the world of the late 1800s, we’re going through a similarly significant transition now. We have game-changing technologies and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co As we wrap up the year, I’m speaking with some of my peers to understand what they expect of AI in 2025. My conversations with SemiAnalysis’ Dylan Patel , Ethan Mollick and Nathan Benaich are out. They cover all you need to know across AI hardware, software, consumer uptake and economics to set your expectations f...

As we wrap up the year, I’m speaking with some of my peers to understand what they expect of AI in 2025. So far, I published my conversations with SemiAnalysis’ Dylan Patel and Ethan Mollick . The latest conversation with Air Street Capital and Air Street Press ’ Nathan Benaich offered both a look-back at the remarkable year we’ve had and a forward view on 2025. From runaway consumer adoption to e...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co I’m hosting a series of discussions about how AI might surprise us in 2025. Last week, I spoke with one of the top semiconductors analysts I follow, Dylan Patel . And this week I got together with Ethan Mollick , Professor at Wharton School and one of the deepest divers in the realms of generative AI use. We discu...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co I spoke yesterday with Dylan Patel , founder of SemiAnalysis , one of my go-to experts on semiconductors and data center infrastructure. Several key themes emerged about where AI might be headed in 2025.

This week, I sat down with Michael Liebreich to discuss the intersection of exponential technologies, energy systems and the climate crisis on his podcast Cleaning Up . I’ve known Michael nearly twenty years. I met him just after he had founded a market research firm called New Energy Finance. He was amongst the first analysing the emerging clean energy sector and I was lucky enough to join as an...

After changing my view of self-driving cars by using my head and thinking through the data, I can confirm that my heart (and guts) agree with that rational conclusion. I’ve been in the Bay Area for a few days, so I have been finding reasons to jump into Waymo cars. You order the car from the slick Waymo app, which provides simple instructions for finding and getting into the vehicle. You can watch...

Will AI kill us all? As readers of Exponential View will know, I doubt it. In fact, I profoundly doubt it and largely believe the AI doom narrative is quite unhelpful. See, for example, my essay dissecting p(doom) to understand the assertions behind existentialist arguments: However, I’m also really interested in checking my assumptions, challenging my thinking — and helping you make up your own m...

The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. This episode dives deep into the essence of ubiquitous computing, a concept pioneered by Mark Weiser, the visionary Chief Technologist at Xerox PARC. Weiser’s ideas paved the way for the devices that have become extensions of ourselves: smartphon...

This is a must-listen for anyone who’s even remotely interested in implementing AI in their work and organisation. Share widely. Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and AI’s impact on work and education. I think of him as the Jacques Cousteau of deep dives into the world of AI ch...

Aidan Gomez is the co-founder and CEO of Cohere, a leading AI company focused on enterprise applications. Not only is he a major figure in the current generative AI landscape, but he was also one of its instigators. At only 20, as an intern at Google, Aidan co-authored the 2017 “ Attention is all you need ” paper, which introduced transformer technology to the world — yes, the “T” in GPT, the AI a...

Chris Anderson is the curator of TED. He led the transformation of the once-modest conference into an intellectual beacon for tens of millions of people worldwide. I met up with Chris in London last week to understand what’s top of mind for him in 2024. Highlighting the challenges posed by polarisation and the erosion of social cohesion , Chris calls for a renewed focus on trust-building and coope...

Earlier this week, I spoke with Yoshua Bengio. In 2018, he, Geoff Hinton and Yann LeCun were awarded the Turing Award for advancing the field of AI, in particular for their groundbreaking conceptual and engineering research in deep learning. This earnt them the moniker the Three Musketeers of Deep Learning . I think Bengio might be Aramis: intellectual, somewhat pensive, with aspirations beyond co...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co One of the biggest concerns surrounding the rollout of large language models is their complicated relationship with the truth, exemplified through their tendency to hallucinate. To gain a deep understanding of this technological, philosophical and business challenge, I spoke to one of the most cited AI researchers...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co Four years ago — some of you may remember — I spoke with the renowned cardiologist and researcher . On that occasion, he shared that “AI could restore the care in healthcare ”. Fast forward to 2024, Eric and I come together to compare our notes — on the pandemic, the AI wave, and the major technological developmen...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.exponentialview.co This week, I spoke with Sasha Luccioni, an AI researcher and climate lead at Hugging Face, whose recent paper Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment? offers the first systematic comparison of the ongoing inference costs of various categories of machine learning systems. I wanted to speak with her about the energy...