Oct 01, 2026

Better AI Starts With Better Verification

Halluminate, a Y Combinator S25 company, builds RL environments and benchmarks that teach AI models to do non-coding knowledge work, starting with financial services. In this fireside with YC Partner Jon Xu, co-founders Jerry Wu and Wyatt Marshall trace their pivot from evals to training environments, explain why verification quality matters more than task volume, and outline a roadmap toward multi-agent simulated companies. They also address reward hacking, alignment as an industry-wide responsibility, and what they look for in new hires.

Sep 16, 2026

If we want them to do Knowledge Work, design them as Knowledge Agents — Benjamin Clavié, Mixedbread

Benjamin Clavié argues that the industry has mistakenly generalized from the "easy case" of coding agents to the much harder domain of general knowledge work. He highlights that code offers durable, explicit cues and narrow tasks, while knowledge work involves implicit meaning, contextual understanding, and agents needing to reconstruct intent. Clavié traces human solutions through "tool loops" and "organization loops," demonstrating how optimized tools and hierarchical agentic structures (like searcher agents generating memos) are essential to overcome performance ceilings and significantly bridge the "oracle gap" between AI and human knowledge workers.

Sep 12, 2026

Navier-Stokes and AI generated work: If You Can't Explain It, Did You Really Do It?

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss the profound impact of AI on knowledge work, examining the Navier-Stokes controversy as a case study for IP protection and the need for human validation of AI-generated output. They explore the Chinese concept of "involution" and its implications for global productivity and Western knowledge workers, contrast US and Chinese approaches to AI risk, and reflect on 9/11's role in accelerating the big data revolution.

Sep 08, 2026

How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)

Roman Ugarte, a key figure behind Grok Bot, shares insights into its rapid development, emphasizing the strategic choice to build it as a separate, cloud-first product with bots having their own dedicated 'computers.' The discussion highlights a "colleague-pilled" product philosophy focused on full delegation and constant reinvention, enabling the creation of autonomous AI teammates for both work and personal life.

Aug 30, 2026

AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (OpenAI’s product lead)

Tara Seshan, who leads product for Codex and ChatGPT Work at OpenAI, explores how AI is shifting knowledge work from rowing to steering, why ambition and human judgment are becoming key differentiators, how to build for models two to three months ahead, and how writing as thinking still matters. The conversation also covers OpenAI's founder-led culture, the design of Work mode, and practical uses like Sites and visualize.

Jul 28, 2026

OpenAI’s Plan to Make ChatGPT the Everything App — Akshay Nathan, OpenAI

Akshay Nathan, head of Core Product Engineering at OpenAI, discusses the journey and rationale behind ChatGPT Work. He explains how Codex's unexpected adoption by non-developers led to a unified agent harness, blurring the lines between developer and knowledge worker tools. The conversation delves into model capabilities, the role of artifacts and interactive 'Sites' in replacing traditional documents, and how AI fosters a new era of 'T-shaped' generalists. Nathan emphasizes the shift in productivity bottlenecks to 'ideas and taste' and the importance of 'quality at-bats' over mere 'motion' in an AI-powered development landscape.