Emmett Shear at Startup School Silicon Valley 2014 View the annotated transcript, and add annotations of your own, on Genius: http://tech.genius.com/Emmett-shear-emmett-shear-at-startup-school-sv-2014-annotated
Emmett Shear, founder of Twitch and former OpenAI interim CEO, challenges the fundamental assumptions driving AGI development. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg and Séb Krier, Shear argues that the entire "control and steering" paradigm for AI alignment is fatally flawed. Instead, he proposes "organic alignment" - teaching AI systems to genuinely care about humans the way we naturally do. The discussion explores why treating AGI as a tool rather than a potential being could be catastrophic, how current chatbots act as "narcissistic mirrors," and why the only sustainable path forward is creating AI that can say no to harmful requests. Shear shares his technical approach through multi-agent simulations at his new company Softmax, and offers a surprisingly hopeful vision of humans and AI as collaborative teammates - if we can get the alignment right. Timecodes: 00:00 - “If it's a machine, it's a tool. And if it's a being, it's a slave” 01:01 - Alignment Takes an Argument: The Hidden Assumptions in "Aligned AI" 02:26 - Alignment as Process, Not Destination 04:23 - Morality as Ongoing Learning, Not Fixed Rules 08:09 - Most AI Alignment Is Actually Steering (Or Slavery) 09:01 - The Dangerous Assumption: "We're Making Beings, But They Don't Count" 14:37 - Goal Inference and Theory of Mind 23:01 - The Foundation of Care 24:41 - Why Most AI Labs Focus on Steering and Control 27:35 - The Only Good Outcome: A Being That Actually Cares About Us 32:42 - The Substrate Question: Does Silicon vs. Carbon Matter? 51:24 - The Only Sustainable Form of Alignment 54:55 - AI Chatbots and Social Dynamics 59:50 - AI Futures: Tools, Beings, and Society 1:01:54 - Visions for a Good AI Future Resources: Follow Emmett on X: https://x.com/eshear Follow Séb on X: https://x.com/sebkrier Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details, please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Lecture Transcript: http://tech.genius.com/Emmett-shear-lecture-16-how-to-run-a-user-interview-annotated Building product, and talking to users. In the early stages of your startup, those are the two things you should focus on. In this lecture, Emmett Shear, Founder and CEO of Justin.tv and Twitch, covers the latter. What can you learn by talking to users that you can’t learn by looking at data? What questions should you ask? How can user interviews define or redefine your product goals? See the slides and readings at http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec16 Discuss this lecture: http://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64045 Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:28 - First startup 01:07 - Second startup 04:44 - Talking to users 05:50 - Lecture focused note taking app 06:58 - Who would you talk to? 12:03 - User Interview 16:25 - Not interested in features 19:14 - One feature on top of Google Docs 22:44 - Validate the idea 24:08 - Hack something together 25:43 - Justin.tv Broadcaster Feedback 28:20 - Competitor Broadcaster Feedback 29:34 - Non-Broadcasters 29:45 - Non-Broadcaster Feedback 32:16 - Where were the issues? 34:49 - Audience question 35:03 - The most common mistake 36:27 - How hard was it to get buy in from the rest of your company? 36:41 - How hard is it to get buy in from the rest of your company? 37:44 - Skype interviews for recording 38:50 - User interviews - Don't speak your language 39:50 - Channels used and do you compensate 40:59 - User Feedback 42:13 - Focus on a specific segment 43:35 - Game publishers 45:13 - How do you give good user feedback