TML Inkling, California Forever? TSMC Capex, Tokenomics, Roblox
On this July 16th episode, John Coogan and guest host Tyler Cosgrove discuss the launch of Thinking Machine's Inkling AI model and the ongoing debate around open-source model distillation. They also analyze California Forever's loss of a major shipyard project to Texas and delve into the current venture capital landscape with Ev Randall, exploring AI's impact on investing and app-layer defensibility. Eric Lyman from RAMP introduces a new tool for managing enterprise AI token spend, Jordan Black from Senra Systems details his company's efforts to automate wire harness manufacturing, and David Bizooki from Roblox outlines AI-powered game creation and the future of gaming.
- For most application-layer AI startups, the existential "lab risk" from large foundation models is significantly overblown. Founders worry too much about frontier labs steamrolling their niche. Read →
- California Forever, the planned city in Solano County, lost a $3.2 billion defense shipyard project from startup Seronic to Brownsville, Texas. Read →
- AI token spend is no longer a negligible cost for businesses; for some Ramp customers, it now rivals 10% of their entire payroll expenditure. Read →
- Thinking Machine Lab's new 'Inkling' model, billed as an open-weights competitor to OpenAI and Anthropic, landed right in the middle of a heated debate about AI model originality. Read →