#244 Yoav Shoham on Jamba Models, Maestro and The Future of Enterprise AI
Release Date: 03/27/2025
#268 Kiren Sekar: The Future of Physical Operations Is AI-Powered (Here's Why)
Eye On A.I.
AGNTCY - Unlock agents at scale with an open Internet of Agents. Visit and add your support. How AI Is Transforming the Physical World | Samsara’s Vision for the Future of Operations In this episode of Eye on AI, Craig Smith sits down with Kiren Sekar, Chief Product Officer at Samsara, to explore how AI, edge computing, and IoT are revolutionizing the world of physical operations - from fleets and factories to farms and field teams. Samsara has quietly become the digital backbone for thousands of frontline businesses, collecting trillions of data points across...
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#267 Nabil Bukhari: Exploring the Future of AI-Powered Enterprise Networking with Extreme Networks
Eye On A.I.
What does the future of enterprise networking really look like? In this episode, Extreme Networks’ Chief Product & Technology Officer Nabil Bukhari joins Craig to explore how AI, autonomous agents, and platform thinking are transforming the core infrastructure of modern businesses. From managing mission-critical networks to building agentic systems that collaborate, troubleshoot, and scale autonomously - this is a deep dive into how connectivity is being redefined from the ground up. Whether you’re a tech leader, CIO, product builder, or simply curious about how...
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#266 Andy Kurtzig: How Pearl Uses AI + Human Experts In Professional Services
Eye On A.I.
AGNTCY - Unlock agents at scale with an open Internet of Agents. Visit and add your support. What if AI could actually be trusted in healthcare, law, or even car repair? In this episode, Andy Kurtzig, founder and CEO of Pearl (formerly JustAnswer), reveals how his platform is solving the biggest problems in AI: hallucinations, liability, and monetization. Pearl blends large language models with real human experts across 700+ categories—so users get AI speed and human-verified accuracy. Whether you're a doctor, mechanic, or just someone with a question, Pearl offers fast, affordable, and...
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#265 Jeff Lu: How Akool Uses Gen AI to Make Live AI Avatars & Voices
Eye On A.I.
What if you could translate any video into any language—instantly—and make it look like the speaker was really speaking it? In this episode of Eye on AI, host Craig Smith sits down with Jeff Liu, founder and CEO of Akool, to explore how AI avatars and real-time video translation are eliminating global language barriers. With a background at Apple, Google, and Stanford, Jeff is leading Akool to the frontier of generative AI: cloning faces, voices, and emotions in live video streams. We dive into the technical architecture behind Akool’s real-time avatars, the role of large...
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#264 Amr Awadallah: Vectara’s Mission To Make AI Hallucination-Free & Enterprise Ready
Eye On A.I.
AGNTCY - Unlock agents at scale with an open Internet of Agents. Visit and add your support. What’s stopping large language models from being truly enterprise-ready? In this episode, Vectara CEO and co-founder Amr Awadallah breaks down how his team is solving one of AI’s biggest problems: hallucinations. From his early work at Yahoo and Cloudera to building Vectara, Amr shares his mission to make AI accurate, secure, and explainable. He dives deep into why RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) is essential, how Vectara detects hallucinations in real-time, and...
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#263 Jarek Kutylowski: How DeepL Is Using AI to Break Language Barriers
Eye On A.I.
What if language was no longer a barrier to global business? In this episode, DeepL CEO Jarek Kutylowski joins Craig Smith to unpack how AI-powered translation is reshaping the way companies communicate across borders. From real-time speech tools to enterprise-grade language workflows, Jarek shares DeepL’s journey, the tech behind their LLMs, and why accuracy, nuance, and localization matter more than ever. If you're building for a global audience, this conversation is a must-listen. About Jarek: Dr. Jaroslaw “Jarek” Kutylowski is the founder and CEO of DeepL,...
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#262 Deepak Chopra: How to Use AI to Expand Human Consciousness
Eye On A.I.
AGNTCY - Unlock agents at scale with an open Internet of Agents. Visit and add your support. Can AI expand human consciousness? Or is it just a simulation of wisdom? In this mind-bending episode of Eye on AI, host Craig Smith sits down with world-renowned spiritual teacher and author Deepak Chopra to explore the future of Artificial Intelligence, consciousness, health, and spiritual awakening. Deepak unpacks the ideas behind his latest book, Digital Dharma, and shares how his team built a small language model—DeepakChopra.ai—designed to serve as a digital health and spiritual...
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#261 Jonathan Frankle: How Databricks is Disrupting AI Model Training
Eye On A.I.
This episode is sponsored by Oracle. OCI is the next-generation cloud designed for every workload – where you can run any application, including any AI projects, faster and more securely for less. On average, OCI costs 50% less for compute, 70% less for storage, and 80% less for networking. Join Modal, Skydance Animation, and today’s innovative AI tech companies who upgraded to OCI…and saved. Try OCI for free at What if you could fine-tune an AI model without any labeled data—and still outperform traditional training methods? In this episode of Eye on AI, we sit...
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#260 Ash Anwar: How Molecular You Uses AI for Early Disease Detection
Eye On A.I.
AGNTCY - Unlock agents at scale with an open Internet of Agents. Visit and add your support. What if your blood could reveal the future of your health - years before symptoms ever appear? In this episode of Eye on AI, Craig Smith sits down with Ash Anwar, co-founder of Molecular You, to explore how AI and advanced biomarker analysis are transforming how we detect and prevent disease. From a real-life case where stage 1 pancreatic cancer was caught early, to the science behind tracking 250+ dynamic biomarkers, Ash breaks down how Molecular You is shifting healthcare from reactive...
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#259 Anjney Midha: a16z’s Strategy to Turn AI Startups into Unicorns
Eye On A.I.
AGNTCY - Unlock agents at scale with an open Internet of Agents. Visit and add your support. What does it really take to turn cutting-edge AI research into a successful foundation model company? In this episode of Eye on AI, we sit down with Anjney Midha, General Partner at a16z, to unpack how he helps scientists and researchers transform their breakthroughs into scalable, real-world AI businesses. From his early backing of Anthropic to launching Mistral and Black Forest Labs, Anjney shares a behind-the-scenes look at how AI infrastructure companies are born. We...
info_outlineThis episode is sponsored by the DFINITY Foundation.
DFINITY Foundation's mission is to develop and contribute technology that enables the Internet Computer (ICP) blockchain and its ecosystem, aiming to shift cloud computing into a fully decentralized state.
Find out more at https://internetcomputer.org/
In this episode of Eye on AI, Yoav Shoham, co-founder of AI21 Labs, shares his insights on the evolution of AI, touching on key advancements such as Jamba and Maestro. From the early days of his career to the latest developments in AI systems, Yoav offers a comprehensive look into the future of artificial intelligence.
Yoav opens up about his journey in AI, beginning with his academic roots in game theory and logic, followed by his entrepreneurial ventures that led to the creation of AI21 Labs. He explains the founding of AI21 Labs and the company's mission to combine traditional AI approaches with modern deep learning methods, leading to innovations like Jamba—a highly efficient hybrid AI model that’s disrupting the traditional transformer architecture.
He also introduces Maestro, AI21’s orchestrator that works with multiple large language models (LLMs) and AI tools to create more reliable, predictable, and efficient systems for enterprises. Yoav discusses how Maestro is tackling real-world challenges in enterprise AI, moving beyond flashy demos to practical, scalable solutions.
Throughout the conversation, Yoav emphasizes the limitations of current large language models (LLMs), even those with reasoning capabilities, and explains how AI systems, rather than just pure language models, are becoming the future of AI. He also delves into the philosophical side of AI, discussing whether models truly "understand" and what that means for the future of artificial intelligence.
Whether you’re deeply invested in AI research or curious about its applications in business, this episode is filled with valuable insights into the current and future landscape of artificial intelligence.
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(00:00) Introduction: The Future of AI Systems
(02:33) Yoav’s Journey: From Academia to AI21 Labs
(05:57) The Evolution of AI: Symbolic AI and Deep Learning
(07:38) Jurassic One: AI21 Labs’ First Language Model
(10:39) Jamba: Revolutionizing AI Model Architecture
(16:11) Benchmarking AI Models: Challenges and Criticisms
(22:18) Reinforcement Learning in AI Models
(24:33) The Future of AI: Is Jamba the End of Larger Models?
(27:31) Applications of Jamba: Real-World Use Cases in Enterprise
(29:56) The Transition to Mass AI Deployment in Enterprises
(33:47) Maestro: The Orchestrator of AI Tools and Language Models
(36:03) GPT-4.5 and Reasoning Models: Are They the Future of AI?
(38:09) Yoav’s Pet Project: The Philosophical Side of AI Understanding
(41:27) The Philosophy of AI Understanding
(45:32) Explanations and Competence in AI
(48:59) Where to Access Jamba and Maestro