Chris Barber

Startups, AGI prep, emotions, walkability.

Interviewed: @tylercowen, @jeremyphoward, +more.

I read DMs.

Highlights:

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

I co-wrote this RL environment FAQ with @datagenproc from @EpochAIResearch:

[Epoch AI @EpochAIResearch]

Frontier labs are investing massively in RL environments, yet most of what happens in this space stays behind closed doors.

@chrisbarber and @js_denain interviewed 18 people from RL environment startups, neolabs, and frontier labs. Here's what they found:

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@ryiacy @businessbarista thank you!

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@CuckedbyVC yes 50M-100M range

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

I interviewed a post-exit founder friend about how he spends $ to maximize happiness & how he found his vendors

- Finding a cpa, t&e attorney, financial advisor etc
- Finding a chef and cleaner
- How he finds fund managers to invest into

It seems like the highest return on happiness thing he does for life is hosting dinners and events

He hosts one or two dinners per week at his place (4-6 people) and hosts one party every few weeks (30-40 people)

Full interview:

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

https://t.co/aM4lfOtEp3

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@onurc @krachtopoulos 😂

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@lefttailguy @devanshpandey @yudhister @G413N @_neelr_ indeed. do you have any strong views on bash vs gui based computer use?

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

if you haven’t seen the company standard intelligence i’d recommend checking it out (@devanshpandey @yudhister @G413N @_neelr_)

if i was a frontier lab researcher looking for an exciting startup to join i’d look at si

for more info see their blog post about their computer use foundation model, i think this is a good proof-of-work of their specialness

yes, bash style computer use is powerful, but if it’s bottlenecked by things that aren’t accessible to bash computer use, then having coverage for the long tail of software is very valuable

the team shows evidence of outlier ability

will be watching this one

questions i’d have:
- when can their model reach human level for computer use?
- what does reliability look like and does that scale well with compute?
- how do they see bash computer use vs gui computer use evolving?

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@krachtopoulos lol exactly

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

https://t.co/aM4lfOtEp3

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@BeenThereCap regret minimization for investing, basically. it also feels like a way to help reveal your gut instincts about an investment

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@__keN17__ @Midnight_Captl have you used cowork and codex apps on your personal? how do they compare today?

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@Midnight_Captl yeah the leading indicator here could be to try out msft copilot vs cowork on the same set of tasks once a month and then just track when copilot gets good (or maybe it is already)

[Midnight Capital @Midnight_Captl]

I spoke about this with @chrisbarber on his show (see clip).

It was clear to me the hyper’s ( like $GOOG) were going to begin to dilute, which is exactly what they’re now doing.

Slight update to my thinking tho from when the pod was recorded - I think they’re going to grow income from ops FASTER than what I previously thought

So this dilution may just be a temporary stop gap to cover this year’s shortfall in net income to pay for the CapEx.

There’s more fuel in the tank than the headlines from this will convey. A lot more. Google is doing the right there here. Now the pressure’s on the other Hyper’s to decide what they want to do (I think they’ll have to follow suit)

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@davidmanheim i take it you don't use the 'for you' tab? i think if you sub to a list it just kinda magically increases the weight of those accounts in your for you

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

I curated some AI supply chain account recs by asking a few people for recommendations. I asked @bubbleboi @TMTLongShort @insane_analyst @OmerCheeema @mzuhair123 @Midnight_Captl @tmychow @dlbydq @tejassaboo @ggpcap @SKundojjala @lithos_graphein.

Full list here: https://t.co/kshSVFw8AA

Most recommended:

1. @jukan05 (10 recs)
2. @vikramskr (6)
3. @dnystedt (5)
4. @fabknowledge (4)
5. @SKundojjala (3)
6. @zephyr_z9 (3)

I've put the per person recs below:

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@davidmanheim interesting - seems like they work ok in the regular x?

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

@mzuhair123 @bubbleboi @TMTLongShort @insane_analyst @OmerCheeema @Midnight_Captl @tmychow @dlbydq @tejassaboo @ggpcap @SKundojjala @lithos_graphein thank you and thanks for your recs!

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

Full list of AI supply chain account recs: https://t.co/ttd4OOZEAm

[Chris Barber @chrisbarber]

.@dlbydq's AI supply chain account recs:

- @teortaxesTex
- @jukan05
- @frontier_foid