The Scene
I’m just back from a week with the family in Yellowstone (without so much as a Starlink), and I’ve spent the last couple days looking back — at the last 22 months of Semafor.
First, I’m so grateful you’ve come along for the ride. Please keep sending tips, and advice on how to make this better.
And second, I thought I’d use today to crystallize some of the insights I’ve picked up along the way from figures including legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, AI critic Max Tegmark and Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, among others.
Some of them are incredibly prescient while others are fascinating snapshots in time of an industry that’s already changed over that short time span.
The View From Vinod Khosla
The legendary Silicon Valley founder and investor talked about his first investment in OpenAI and what makes CEO Sam Altman who he is. Eight months later, Altman would be booted from the company’s board (before retaking control) in a head-spinning coup.
Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems and pioneered the open-source software movement, provided a perspective that would prove vital during the crisis.
The View From Marissa Mayer
I chatted with Marissa Mayer while she was promoting her new photo sharing app, Shine, but my favorite part of the interview was when she geeked out about symbolic systems (her major at Stanford) and her view of current AI technology.
The View From Tony Stubblebine
Tony Stubblebine, who took over Medium as it was struggling in July 2022, is one of the most open tech CEOs around. In a wide-ranging interview, he talked about the challenges of AI-generated spam and the so-called death of the internet.
The View From Max Tegmark
One of the top critics of AI, Max Tegmark said he feared small AI models, and how if it becomes powerful enough to shrink itself down while retaining its abilities, it would present a dangerous prospect he likened to nuclear bombs the size of a suitcase.
The View From Aravind Srinivas
Before Perplexity was one of the most prominent AI startups, its co-founder and CEO, Aravind Srinivas, laid out his vision for the company that eschewed ads. Today, Perplexity embraces ads.
The View From Ro Khanna
Silicon Valley’s man in Washington, Ro Khanna, a Democrat, talked about Elon Musk, long before the X owner publicly endorsed Donald Trump for President.
The View From Linda Moore
One of the tech industry’s top advocates in D.C., Linda Moore was in San Francisco and talked about the California’s AI bill.
The View From Scott Wiener
When I spoke with Sen. Scott Wiener, he seemed to think his AI bill was going to sail by without opposition. It turned out the opposite was true. I hope Wiener will talk about what he learned from the process in a future interview.
The View From Bret Taylor
I asked Bret Taylor about stepping into a director role at OpenAI in the wake of the controversy, and whether it would be a distraction at his new startup. Taylor joked that his reputation might be like Harvey Keitel’s character in Pulp Fiction, who’s hired to clean up messes.
