S8 Ep922: Gary Rivlin introduces his book AI Valley, highlighting the pivotal 2017 "transformer" paper by Google researchers that allowed computers to understand language contextually. This breakthrough became the foundation for OpenAI's ChatGPT, as the transformer

Gary Rivlin introduces his book AI Valley, highlighting the pivotal 2017 "transformer" paper by Google researchers that allowed computers to understand language contextually. This breakthrough became the foundation for OpenAI'sChatGPT, as the transformer architecture solved previous struggles with natural language processing. Rivlin details Sam Altman's rise through Y Combinator, an influential "startup machine" that provided seed money and intensive training for successful companies like Airbnb. Initially founded in 2015 as an idealistic nonprofit with Elon Musk, OpenAIaimed to develop safe AI for humanity. However, Altman eventually steered the company toward a "capped-profit" model to secure the billions of dollars required for talent and computing power. (1/8)1848 SAN DIEGO