Data annotation

AI Evals for Cross-Functional Teams — Nachiket Paranjape & Swaroop Chitlur Haridas, DoorDash

AI Evals for Cross-Functional Teams — Nachiket Paranjape & Swaroop Chitlur Haridas, DoorDash

DoorDash's GenAI platform team transformed evaluation from an engineering-centric task into a cross-functional workflow. By adopting an API-first strategy, they empowered non-engineers like Strategy & Operations to "vibe code" their own annotation UIs using coding agents and self-serve calibrate LLM judge prompts. This approach dramatically reduced annotation costs, accelerated iteration, and fostered broader organizational ownership of AI quality.

Why Physical AI Is the Next Platform Shift

Why Physical AI Is the Next Platform Shift

Encord Co-CEO Eric Landau reflects on his transition from a lucrative quant career to founding an AI startup, driven by a deep belief in AI's paradigm-shifting potential. He discusses Encord's slow, compounding path to product-market fit, the pivotal role of Physical AI, and the importance of embracing the emotional rollercoaster of startup life.

The data black hole at the center of AI

The data black hole at the center of AI

AI progress is fundamentally driven by vast amounts of data and compute, rather than improvements in sample efficiency, creating a stark contrast with human learning. This essay explores the "black hole of data" powering AIs, quantifies the massive sample-efficiency gap between humans and machines, counters common objections, and discusses the implications for white-collar automation and future AI research.

Robots Don't Need More Compute. They Need This.

Robots Don't Need More Compute. They Need This.

Encord co-founders Eric and Ulrich discuss their $60M Series C, the company's origins before the AI hype, and their focus on building the essential data infrastructure for physical AI and robotics—the next frontier after LLMs.