Welcome to AI in the AM: RL for EE, Oversight w/out Nationalization, & the first AI-Run Retail Store
This special AI in the AM episode features Sergiy Nesterenko of Quilter on using reinforcement learning for circuit board design, Andy Hall of Stanford on AI behavior in politics and new governance models, and Lukas Peterson and Axel Backlund of Andon Labs on their AI-run retail store in San Francisco. Nathan and Prakash also reflect on the pace of AI progress, the public reaction to existential risk, and why constructive civic action matters as AI systems grow more powerful and autonomous.
Sponsors:
Roboflow:
Roboflow's free 2026 Vision AI Trends report analyzes 200,000+ real-world projects to reveal how top companies are deploying Vision AI and turning proprietary data into an edge. Download it now at https://roboflow.com/trends
VCX:
VCX, by Fundrise, is the public ticker for private tech, giving everyday investors access to high-growth private companies in AI, space, defense tech, and more. Learn how to invest at https://getvcx.com
Tasklet:
Build your own Cognitive Revolution monitoring agent in one click.
Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai
CHAPTERS:
(00:00) About the Episode
(07:57) Live stream kickoff
(09:52) Sam Altman attacks
(16:37) Quilter from SpaceX
(19:02) Why autorouters fail (Part 1)
(20:52) Sponsors: Roboflow | VCX
(23:09) Why autorouters fail (Part 2)
(28:14) Compute and odd layouts
(34:19) Simulations and safety margins (Part 1)
(39:22) Sponsor: Tasklet
(41:01) Simulations and safety margins (Part 2)
(41:01) Superintelligence meets hardware
(48:18) AI constitutions debate
(55:55) Deepfakes and persuasion
(01:02:24) Virtue and institutions
(01:11:05) Agent governance problems
(01:16:56) Andon store debut
(01:21:25) Luna's store choices
(01:28:21) Supply chains and spread
(01:36:23) AI boss behavior
(01:43:47) How retail scales
(01:53:54) Processing the future
(01:59:50) Markets need context
(02:26:42) Episode Outro
(02:30:37) Outro
PRODUCED BY:
https://aipodcast.ing
SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai
Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast
Twitter (Nathan): https://x.com/labenz
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nathanlabenz/
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@CognitiveRevolutionPodcast
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution-ai-builders-researchers-and/id1669813431
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yHyok3M3BjqzR0VB5MSyk
Investing in AI for Hard Tech, with Eric Vishria of Benchmark and Sergiy Nesterenko of Quilter
Dive into the world of AI investments with Eric Vishria of Benchmark and Sergiy Nesterenko of Quilter. Explore the future of AI in hardware design, the strategies for venture capital investment in the AI era, and the impact on society. Discover why Benchmark has yet to invest in foundation model companies and the significance of solving enduring problems in this dynamic field. Join us for an eye-opening discussion on the intersection of AI technology and business innovation.
🔥 Apply to join over 400 founders and Execs in the Turpentine Network: https://hmplogxqz0y.typeform.com/to/JCkphVqj
SPONSORS:
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds; offers one consistent price, and nobody does data better than Oracle. If you want to do more and spend less, take a free test drive of OCI at https://oracle.com/cognitive
The Brave search API can be used to assemble a data set to train your AI models and help with retrieval augmentation at the time of inference. All while remaining affordable with developer first pricing, integrating the Brave search API into your workflow translates to more ethical data sourcing and more human representative data sets. Try the Brave search API for free for up to 2000 queries per month at https://bit.ly/BraveTCR
Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.
Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off https://www.omneky.com/
Recommended Podcast - The Riff with Byrne Hobart
Byrne Hobart, the writer of The Diff, is revered in Silicon Valley. You can get an hour with him each week. See for yourself how his thinking can upgrade yours.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6rANlV54GCARLgMOtpkzKt
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-riff-with-byrne-hobart-and-erik-torenberg/id1716646486
CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:10:12) The Idea Maze
(00:12:28) Disruptive Approach
(00:15:47) Sparse reward problem
(00:18:26) Sponsors: Oracle | Brave
(00:20:34) Reliability of the reward signal
(00:28:12) Model size and compute
(00:30:14) Simulation methods
(00:35:48) Superhuman circuit board design
(00:38:53) Sponsors: Squad | Omneky
(00:40:38) What does the future of circuit board design look like?
(00:43:11) How do I make money in AI?
(00:46:18) What is cutting edge?
(00:48:34) Researchers vs. engineers
(00:50:51) Call for startups
AI in electronics: Quilter’s journey in PCB design
In this episode of Gradient Dissent, Sergiy Nesterenko, CEO of Quilter, joins host Lukas Biewald to discuss the groundbreaking use of reinforcement learning in PCB design.
Learn how Quilter automates the complex, manual process of creating PCBs, making it faster and more efficient. Nesterenko shares insights on the challenges and successes of integrating AI with real-world applications and discusses the future of electronic design.
✅ *Subscribe to Weights & Biases* → https://bit.ly/45BCkYz
Connect with Sergiy Nesterenko:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiynesterenko/
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb
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Automating Circuit Board Design Using Reinforcement Learning w Sergiy Nesterenko, Founder of Quilter on Autopilot
In this episode from the Autopilot podcast, Sergiy Nesterenko, founder of Quilter (backed by Benchmark), discusses designing PCB circuitboards end-to-end using reinforcement learning. "Autopilot" host Will Summerlin and Nesterenko cover how current PCB boards are designed and how Quilter’s tech stack enables faster board design, what better circuit boards enable in the future, their GTM and where they are seeing most market pull right now, and much more.
Subscribe to Autopilot:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6YQZkKHN7EP2yWedAvSxBC?si=18377c69a2804333&nd=1&dlsi=18fee5e95b284d02
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autopilot-with-will-summerlin/id1738163836
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AutopilotwithWillSummerlin
Check out Nathan's new chatbot on www.cognitiverevolution.ai
SPONSORS:
The Brave search API can be used to assemble a data set to train your AI models and help with retrieval augmentation at the time of inference. All while remaining affordable with developer first pricing, integrating the Brave search API into your workflow translates to more ethical data sourcing and more human representative data sets. Try the Brave search API for free for up to 2000 queries per month at https://bit.ly/BraveTCR
Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off https://www.omneky.com/
Plumb is a no-code AI app builder designed for product teams who care about quality and speed. What is taking you weeks to hand-code today can be done confidently in hours. Check out https://bit.ly/PlumbTCR for early access.
Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.
LINKS:
Quilter: https://www.quilter.ai/
Autopilot Ventures: https://www.apv.vc/
X/SOCIAL:
@labenz (Nathan)
@WSummerlinAI (Will)
@sergiynest (Sergiy)
@quilterai (Quilter)
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Intro & Sergiy’s Background
(04:31) What Sergiy learned from SpaceX
(05:53) Founding thesis of Quilter and Quilter’s journey
(06:57) Where would one find circuit boards?
(08:11) What is the process of designing a circuit board?
(09:39) Design process today with Quilter
(14:34) Sponsor: Omneky
(16:01) Quilter’s thesis and designing more complex circuits
(18:25) How much are humans currently paid for board design
(19:41) Labor dynamics in board design
(20:30) Do most companies have board designers in-house?
(21:14) Incentive structure
(22:44) What does a high-performance circuit board look like vs low-performance?
(26:37) Quilter’s technology stack
(29:15) Sponsor: Plumb | Squad
(31:15) How Quilter can grow with scale?
(33:50) Where is circuit manufacturing happening
(37:17) What other parts of knowledge work can be solved with reinforcement learning
(41:03) GTM and who Quilter is selling to
(42:48) Pricing
(44:04) Where Quilter is seeing the most market pull right now
(45:21) What makes Quilter an exciting company to work at or invest
(47:14) The effects of closed research in private companies for the industry
(49:25) Open source vs closed source
(51:14) What Sergiy would advise to himself in his early founder
(53:59) What drew Sergiy to working with Benchmark
(56:19) Wrap