Who wants more AI? The White House | 3 Wow And 1 Promise

Summary

This episode of “3 Wows and 1 Promise” is uniquely recorded from inside a Tesla using Full Self-Driving, transforming commute time into productive studio time.

Highlights

”That’s bananas that the media didn’t cover the meaning”

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“And I don’t want to take any sides, any political sides, but seriously, that’s bananas that the media didn’t cover the meaning of what she was saying. They covered how rare she would appear at the White House, which is just snobbish and misses the point.” — Turing Post, 0:46

”If we humans cannot align our differences, how are we supposed to teach models?”

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“No matter what you think about the person, if they use their power to push the right thing forward, you can appreciate and support it. If we humans cannot align our differences for greater good, how are we supposed to teach models to do that?” — Turing Post, 3:35

”22 of the top 50 mobile AI apps were built in China”

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“China is literally everywhere. 22 of the top 50 mobile AI apps were built in China and now they’re used globally. Is it a competition? Is it dominance? Is it foolish wrong strategies of open source versus closed source?” — Turing Post, 4:34

”The age of the third space on wheels”

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“The commute now is not a dead time. It’s a found time… We’re entering the age of the third space on wheels. When cars are not only moving us, they’re hosting us. They will be our offices, our studios, our reading rooms, our theaters, our nap pods.” — Turing Post, 9:06

”Grand AI Challenges - Education and Robotics”

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“AI can grade math, but it fails at understanding why a student gets a problem wrong. And this challenge is about diagnosing misconceptions, opening the door to truly personalized education.” — Turing Post, 10:12 The host covers three major AI developments: First, the White House AI summit where Melania Trump addressed top tech CEOs about AI as a national priority focusing on infrastructure, security, and talent development. OpenAI responded the same day with a plan to certify 10 million Americans in AI skills by 2030.

The second wow examines a16z’s Top 100 Gen AI Apps report, revealing that while ChatGPT leads the AI assistant race, the gap is narrowing with Gemini at number two and Grok exploding on mobile. Notably, 22 of the top 50 mobile AI apps were built in China, signaling a significant global competition. The report also highlights the rise of “vibe coding” platforms like Lovable and Replit that are successfully monetizing their user bases.

The episode concludes with “The Promise” segment covering two grand AI challenges: the Kaggle MAP Challenge focused on diagnosing student math misconceptions for personalized education, and Stanford’s BEHAVIOR Challenge led by Fei-Fei Li aimed at building robot brains capable of handling complex real-world tasks. The host emphasizes that the world’s best minds are now targeting foundational problems in education and robotics.

Key Points

• White House AI Summit (0:25) - Major tech CEOs from Google, IBM, Microsoft, and OpenAI gathered at the White House to hear Melania Trump speak on AI priorities
• Media Coverage Criticism (0:46) - The host criticizes media for focusing on Melania Trump’s rare appearance rather than the substance of her AI message
• AI and Children Focus (1:08) - Melania Trump emphasized AI literacy, education, and supporting talent development for the next generation
• National AI Priorities (1:52) - Three priorities identified: infrastructure, national security, and talent
• Presidential AI Challenge (2:24) - Melania Trump introduced the Presidential AI Challenge and directly addressed tech CEOs
• OpenAI’s Same-Day Response (2:36) - OpenAI released a new plan echoing the White House call to action just hours after the summit
• OpenAI Jobs Platform (2:50) - Fidji Simo announced an OpenAI jobs platform that some speculate could challenge LinkedIn
• 10 Million AI Certifications (3:11) - OpenAI committed to issuing AI certifications to 10 million Americans by 2030, partnering with Walmart
• a16z Top 100 Report (3:55) - Andreessen Horowitz released their data-driven report on top Gen AI apps
• ChatGPT Still Leads (4:20) - ChatGPT remains on top but the gap is narrowing, with Gemini solid at number two and Grok exploding on mobile
• China Dominates Mobile AI (4:34) - 22 of the top 50 mobile AI apps were built in China and are now used globally
• Brain-Computer Interfaces (5:07) - Reference to China’s strategic embrace of brain-computer interface technology
• Vibe Coding Trend (5:20) - Platforms like Lovable and Replit are proving the “vibe coding” trend is sticking and successfully monetizing
• All-Star AI Companies (6:16) - 14 companies appeared in all five iterations of a16z’s web top 50 rankings
• Tesla as Mobile Studio (7:11) - The host demonstrates using Tesla Full Self-Driving to turn commute time into video production time
• Third Space on Wheels (9:14) - Cars are becoming offices, studios, reading rooms, and theaters - not just transportation
• Kaggle MAP Challenge (10:15) - New AI challenge focused on diagnosing student misconceptions in math for personalized education
• BEHAVIOR Challenge (10:28) - Stanford’s challenge led by Fei-Fei Li aimed at building robot brains for complex real-world tasks

Mentions

Companies

• Google (0:31) - CEOs present at White House AI summit
• IBM (0:33) - CEOs present at White House AI summit
• Microsoft (0:33) - CEOs present at White House AI summit
• OpenAI (0:36) - Sam Altman in the front row; later announced economic opportunity initiative
• Walmart (3:16) - Partnering with OpenAI on AI certification program
• LinkedIn (3:02) - Some speculate OpenAI jobs platform could disrupt LinkedIn
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) (3:55) - Released Top 100 Gen AI Apps report
• Lovable (5:32) - Vibe coding platform where you build apps with natural language
• Replit (5:36) - Vibe coding platform that successfully monetizes users
• Tesla (0:05) - Host uses Tesla Full Self-Driving as mobile video studio
• Kaggle (10:15) - Hosting the MAP Challenge on student misconceptions
• Stanford (10:28) - Leading the BEHAVIOR Challenge for robotics

Products & Technologies

• ChatGPT (4:20) - Still leading AI assistants but gap is narrowing
• Gemini (4:27) - Solid at number two in AI assistant rankings
• Grok (4:29) - X’s AI assistant exploding on mobile
• Tesla Full Self-Driving (8:16) - Enables host to record videos while being driven
• Midjourney (6:22) - Listed among a16z’s all-star companies
• Perplexity (6:25) - Listed among a16z’s all-star companies
• Character AI (6:24) - Listed among a16z’s all-star companies
• ElevenLabs (6:21) - Listed among a16z’s all-star companies
• Hugging Face (6:28) - Listed among a16z’s all-star companies
• Brain-Computer Interfaces (5:14) - China strategically embracing this field

People

• Melania Trump (0:41) - First Lady speaking at White House AI summit about AI priorities
• Sam Altman (0:36) - OpenAI CEO in front row at White House summit
• Fidji Simo (2:50) - OpenAI executive who announced economic opportunity initiative
• Amjad Masad (5:39) - Replit founder, interviewed by Turing Post
• Fei-Fei Li (10:32) - Leading Stanford’s BEHAVIOR Challenge for robotics AI
• George Carlin (8:59) - Comedian whose audio played unexpectedly in the car

Surprising Quotes

“That’s bananas that the media didn’t cover the meaning of what she was saying. They covered how rare she would appear at the White House, which is just snobbish and misses the point.” — 0:46

“If we humans cannot align our differences for greater good, how are we supposed to teach models to do that?” — 3:35

“22 of the top 50 mobile AI apps were built in China and now they’re used globally.” — 4:42

“We’re entering the age of the third space on wheels. When cars are not only moving us, they’re hosting us. They will be our offices, our studios, our reading rooms, our theaters, our nap pods.” — 9:14

“The commute now is not a dead time. It’s a found time.” — 9:06

Transcript

0:00 Welcome to three wow in one promise. I’m turning my Tesla into a mobile video recording studio and I have about 19 minutes to pick up my child from a child center. So let’s see how that will go. Today’s free wows are very different. Let’s start the first one from the White House.

0:25 Last week a very high level AI summit was convened at the White House. In the room were the biggest CEOs of Google, IBM, Microsoft, Sam Altman from OpenAI was in the first row and they were all listening to the first lady, Melania Trump. And I don’t want to take any sides, any political sides, but seriously, that’s bananas that the media didn’t cover the meaning of what she was saying. They covered how rare she would appear at the White House, which is just snobbish and misses the point.

1:00 Everyone quoted what she said in the beginning that robots are here. But again that was not the most important part. The important part what mattered was this: AI is truly one of the most important topics we face especially considering our children and how they are going to learn in this environment. Who they going to become? And Melania Trump is a person who has a lot of power now. And I can just appreciate the fact that she focuses her power, her attention on AI and specifically on children, on AI literacy, on education and on how to support talent.

1:40 My dad asked me how I liked her speech. But the thing is, it’s not really about liking it or disliking it. It’s not about liking Melania Trump or disliking Melania Trump. It’s about the fact that she was correct. She mentioned a few national priorities. Infrastructure, national security, and talent. Why these three and not anything else? I don’t really know. That’s a good question.

2:02 She also made the case that AI is boosting US GDP growth and it will underpin every business sector and could become the greatest engine of progress in US history. But she warned that it has to be managed responsibly, likening its development to raising children - which was cute - powering she said but guided. She also introduced the presidential AI challenge and here’s a funny fact about it. She challenged the CEOs of all these companies who were presented in front of her.

2:36 And you know just a few hours later, literally the same day, OpenAI released a new plan that directly echoed her call to action. She said, “By supporting the presidential AI challenge, you are investing in our youth, America’s next era builders.” Fidji Simo from OpenAI announced the initiative that expands economic opportunity through AI with two parts. Both are equally interesting.

3:00 An OpenAI jobs platform - and everyone immediately said that they’re going to destroy LinkedIn. Who knows? And this platform aims to connect skilled workers with companies. And another part is the commitment to issue AI certifications to 10 million Americans by 2030 in partnership with, for some reason, Walmart. And everything about this is a wow.

3:22 The biggest wow for me is this. No matter what you think about the person, if they use their power to push the right thing forward, you can appreciate and support it. If we humans cannot align our differences for greater good, how are we supposed to teach models to do that?

3:43 Wow number two, and the car is still driving itself. So if the White House is laying out the vision, the question is who is actually winning the ground? And for that, we need the data. Andreessen Horowitz fund, better known as a16z, just dropped their top 100 Gen AI apps report. And this isn’t hype or speculation. They used a lot of data to put this report together. This is cold, hard user numbers.

4:09 I don’t know if they tweaked it a little considering the companies that they invest in. I hope not. Their reputation is amazing and it speaks for itself. Here’s what stood out from this report. The assistants: ChatGPT is still on top, but the gap is narrowing. Gemini is solid at number two and X’s Grok, who basically just appeared in the landscape, has been exploding on mobile.

4:34 Second interesting thing is the global front. China is literally everywhere. 22 of the top 50 mobile AI apps were built in China and now they’re used globally. Is it a competition? Is it dominance? Is it foolish wrong strategies of open source versus closed source? Or is it just the sheer amount of population that China has? In any case, something to pay close attention to from the strategic point of view of the government.

5:07 And if you remember the last time we discussed how China strategically plans out the fully embracing brain computer interfaces field, and that’s huge. The third point that stands out in the a16z report is the vibe coders. Remember we talked about this trend that there are vibe coders now, there’s maybe vibe editing. The trend itself is sticking and the platforms like Lovable where you build apps with natural language, or Replit - we had a wonderful interview with Amjad Masad from Replit.

5:42 These platforms, they not only retain users, they found the way to monetize them. And this is a big moment for the whole business infrastructure of AI. So the wow here is the reality check. The AI race is a very close race of a few American companies and a lot of Chinese models. They dominate the mobile app field.

6:08 They also in this report said that in their five iterations of the web top 50, 14 companies have appeared every time and they call them all-stars. Just for you to know who it is, here is a picture: ChatGPT, ElevenLabs, Midjourney, Poe - which I’m surprised - Character AI, Gamma, Perplexity, Wheelbot - first time I’m hearing about it - Civitai, Hugging Face, Fooroom, Cutout Pro, Leonardo AI, and V.

6:35 That’s so weird. I don’t agree with this. How is there no Claude? How is there no Cursor? I actually disagree with this list of all-stars. Their point is that the scoreboard doesn’t care about hype. They said that it’s all about downloads and there is no surprise that China is flooding the scoreboard because of the sheer amount of the people who can download and are downloading China’s models and mobile applications.

7:11 Okay, now to the third wow. Car is driving me nicely. And this third wow is actually about that. My car is now my new studio for this show, Three Wows and One Promise. And I thought, what else can be a wow if not the fact that I can turn my car into a video recording studio? I live in rural Connecticut. There is basically zero connectivity in many, many places.

7:39 So I’m left to the radio or to podcasts or to audio books, which is fine, but I have a lot of things to do for the newsletter. So I figured out that I’m done with just sitting in the office or I’m done wasting my time listening to the radio. I actually can use the time that I spend in the car, and it’s a lot of time, to record my shows.

8:05 And I got a mounting cup that connects to the ceiling. I have my phone here with some thoughts for me to remember. My computer is over there just in case, but it’s not obstructing my view. With Tesla self-driving, you have to pay attention to the road, but you also can talk to a person or camera next to you. That means for me basically zero wasted time.

8:26 I’m driving to pick up my youngest child, and usually that would be like 20 minutes of doing nothing. And here in this perfect air-conditioned car with good light, with good sound, I can fully focus on what I want to say in this show. This is truly the future. And before, Tesla was like an iPhone, like a device. Now Tesla becomes a controlled, connected private space.

8:57 Sometimes for some reason the music or the radio turns on and it’s George Carlin right there joining us. Thank you George. So the commute now is not a dead time. It’s a found time. I’m very excited about that. That’s a very big shift. We’re entering the age of the third space on wheels.

9:17 When cars are not only moving us, they’re hosting us. They will be our offices, our studios, our reading rooms, our theaters, our nap pods. Probably they already are nap pods, but while driving, you alone in the car - this is such a focused time. It’s beautiful time that you can spend really truly focusing on the road, but also on your thoughts. Now, my Tesla, not just a device, but it’s a tripod on wheels.

9:47 And here is the promise. If wow number one was about national vision, wow number two about market reality, wow number three about personal impact and how AI is changing our life practically. This week, two new grand challenges were issued to the global AI community and it’s a promise because they aimed at problems that remain unsolved and that’s a big promising thing with these challenges to tackle these problems and solve them.

10:12 First challenge is the Kaggle MAP challenge. AI can grade math, but it fails at understanding why a student gets a problem wrong. And this challenge is about diagnosing misconceptions, opening the door to truly personalized education. The second challenge is the BEHAVIOR challenge led by Fei-Fei Li. Right now, robots are still clumsy and they can handle short tasks, but not long complex real world jobs.

10:41 And this challenge is about building the AI brains that make robots genuinely useful in our daily lives. The promise is simple. The world’s best minds are now aiming at foundational problems. Education, robotics, human progress, and the solutions aren’t here yet, but the race to get there has officially begun.

11:01 Who needs more AI? The White House does. Thank you for joining me for today’s three wows and one promise. It’s been wonderful and let me know what you think. I feel very good about this studio. That’s something really, really new. I feel like nobody has done it before and I feel comfortable enough to do this self-driving for that amount of time talking, looking at the camera and being driven by the car.

11:26 Don’t forget to subscribe. Send this video to whoever you want to show how it is to use self-driving cars as a studio on wheels and let me know what you think.