John Borthwick

@betaworks

[clem 🤗 @ClementDelangue]

- 2016-2024: 🇺🇸leads in open-source AI
- 2024-2027: 🇺🇸 leads in general AI & massively benefits

- 2024-2026: 🇨🇳 leads in open-source AI
- 2026-2030: ??

It's not open-source AI leadership OR general AI leadership, it's open-source AI leadership BEFORE general AI leadership!

Open-source AI is the foundation of all AI. It does not only creates more innovation, competition, jobs, and prosperity now, it's also the best (only?) way for a national tech ecosystem to accelerate and ultimately reach the frontier of AI in general.

Because open-source AI reduces siloes, shares learning and innovation, intensify emulation which all lead to an acceleration of the local ecosystem progress that no others can match if they're less open and collaborative.

Same seems to be true for companies btw, OpenAI/Google started with open science and open-source AI which led to their (and Anthropic who spun off from OAI) domination. Meta could have done the same but decided to change course for some reason.

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

this

[Eric Zaworski @ericzawo]

We have entered the era of tasteslop @khole_emily

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

Radically different companies will be born in this era of abundant intelligence.‍ Apply to betaworks H2 2026 camp if you are building:

- Novel forms of organization that assume AI at the core
- Products that are responsive to highly likely second-order effects of an AI-native economy
- Steering and certifying human + agentic systems — compounding effects in trusted outcomes
- New marketplaces for non-human consumers
- AI that breaks out of the computer and is given the ability to interact with the physical world

! details 👇👇

[Betaworks @betaworks]

The next Camp application is now open, and the theme is The New Agentic Economy

Abundant intelligence will result in radical changes to both companies and our economy - we want to see how you are building for this future!

Read more about the theme here:
https://t.co/kFP2fFNuNO

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

These briefs are really good — been testing for a while. Terse. Concise and to the point.

[Chris Pedregal @cjpedregal]

Very excited for this launch! I highly recommend connecting your Gmail to Granola for better briefs.

Some stats:
- We pre-generate them overnight so they are ready in the morning
- We generate a personalized brief for every person (even in the same meeting)
- It takes the agent 3.6 mins on avg to research and write a single brief
- It costs us ~6 cents per brief (64k input tokens on avg)
- We use 3 different models (one for research, web search, and writing)

The briefs definitely get stuff wrong still, but keep getting better. Please send feedback!

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

Meet betaworks Agent Systems Spring 2026 Camp Cohort
https://t.co/fG4ASSXpsu

[Ridd 🤿 @ridd_design]

I'm a big believer that everyone should be designing in production

@Dessn_ai 's approach is 💯

[Jordan Crook @jordanrcrook]

we had a name for this long before tokenmaxxxing - we called it Nim's Law.

@eminimnim and @GabriellaHach we are so excited for this announcement! @Dessn_ai is the future.

as always, flawless coverage from @IndianIdle

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

Love my Stream ring - the perfect companion to AirPods from @sandbar

HT @minafahmi and @jordanrcrook

[Dan Shipper 📧 @danshipper]

in a world where code is cheap to produce

software is the new media

come see me talk with @Borthwick and co @betaworks tomorrow about this!
https://t.co/Mfo9dlJkfC

[clem 🤗 @ClementDelangue]

I’m hearing there’s renewed lobbying in DC and in state legislatures to ban or severely restrict open-source.

Like a few years ago, we’ll need everyone to help show policymakers why open-source matters: for startups, for competition, for economic growth, and for jobs.

If you build with open-source, now is the time to speak up!

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

@sumeet724 @pedro_computer the past is in the future

[Dan Shipper 📧 @danshipper]

so sick

philosophy is back y'all

[TITLES @titlesxyz]

Most AI tools give everyone access to the same generic models. The result? Everything looks the same.

We have a different vision for AI creation.

Introducing TITLES, a new creative studio built around AI models trained and owned by artists.

In Studio, you can create with distinct visual perspectives developed by artists, across image and video — all in one place.

This is the future we're building toward: not one model for everyone, but a growing network of unique styles you can build with — where artists get credited and paid as the work spreads.

Enter Your Creative Studio: https://t.co/NmY5aBL4q8

[Dave Morin 🦞 @davemorin]

We are. And we will. 🦞

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

@kayacancode @adisingh Come by betaworks can introduce you to Botwick, a customer I believe

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

@ivanhzhao Want ... 🖤

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

And taste is often talked about as a thing, its not. It's quality that resonates in every part of a product. It's defensible because when done right, it becomes the brand and = trust.

ie: Granola. Each pixel, each action is something the team have thought about a lot. And it's why people care about changes to things like the colors .. 🫛 etc

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

@michaelxbloch Some others on my list:

- Compounding context + real time data (think part of your proprietary data)
- Taste
- Verification. Hypothesis generation is cheap Idea creation is zero. In a world of a trillion clankers what is hard? verification, identity
- Distribution, brand, trust -- how will agents and you find things

[Michael Bloch @michaelxbloch]

https://t.co/Sbr574u8fu

[John Borthwick @Borthwick]

@michaelxbloch re; verification https://t.co/IiIIyR56z4

[Jeff Morris Jr. @jmj]

Our newest investment:

@mathematics_inc led by @jessemhan (OpenAI) & @jdlichtman (Stanford Mathematics)

Math Inc is building the verification infrastructure for an AI-native economy.

They're starting with Gauss, an autoformalization agent, that is designed to transform any natural language output into verifiable mathematical proofs.

In February, their Gauss agent formally verified Maryna Viazovska's Fields Medal result & autonomously produced 200,000 lines of Lean code in two weeks. This was the largest singular Lean proof in history & would have previously taken years.

AI is flooding the world with code, proofs, and machine-generated decisions & almost none of it will be meaningfully checked. Agents deploy faster than humans can audit.

Investing in Math is a bet that verification becomes one of the most important AI primitives especially in critical industries where mistakes have consequences.

My friend @ani_pai wrote a great piece on why they're investing in @mathematics_inc too: