AI:AM: A Level We Shouldn't Pass? Notes from The Curve + Tokens vs. Salaries & Is SaaS Cooked?
Nathan Labenz reports back from The Curve conference, sharing off-the-record insights from frontier lab leaders on shortened timelines and whether humanity is approaching an intelligence threshold it should not cross. The episode also features discussions with Positron CTO Thomas Sohmers on overcoming the memory wall while token spend eclipses human salaries, and swyx on how coding agents are disrupting enterprise software. In addition, Atlas Ignota's Evan Miyazono examines unowned risks from accidental agent swarms hitting critical infrastructure, while Mercor's Edward Hu explores the future of training data. Together, these conversations highlight how escalating compute demands and autonomous agent workflows are challenging long-held assumptions about hardware, software economics, and safety limits.
For full show notes, links, and references, read the episode page:https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/ai-am-a-level-we-shouldn-t-pass-notes-from-the-curve-tokens-vs-salaries-is-saas-cooked/
CHAPTERS:
(00:00) Weekly highlights preview
(01:57) Notes from The Curve (Part 1)
(14:22) Sponsors: Parallel | Claude
(17:17) Notes from The Curve (Part 2)
(17:17) Timelines and compute caps (Part 1)
(28:40) Sponsors: OutSystems | Tasklet
(31:36) Timelines and compute caps (Part 2)
(31:37) The memory wall
(40:50) AI in chip design
(48:17) Software after agents
(54:33) Kill my SaaS
(01:03:32) Who owns AI risks
(01:10:58) Workplace training data
(01:17:36) Beyond verifiable tasks
(01:20:56) Episode Outro
(01:25:58) Outro
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