Nikhil KamathIs AI a Bubble? I Asked the People Building It | WTF is AI?
Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- October 23, 2026
- Duration
- 2h 28m
- Channel
- Nikhil Kamath
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Access the full data and references used in this episode below. Please open this alongside the episode while watching. https://canva.link/jzw1hvv14z38mew Footage Credits & Sources
1. Elon Musk Footage Source: The Economist (YouTube) Link: https://youtu.be/1X-rr1DKSbY?si=wLJd3G82bo389CsH
1. Sam Altman Interview Source: Fortune Magazine (YouTube) Link: https://youtu.be/2my-NU6LuCM?si=MDhrcvqcu_vlod53&t=336
1. Donald Trump Footage Source: New York Post (YouTube) Link: https://youtu.be/RsT2NYu8Y_Y?si=fuOhm3kKY-nWEw63&t=15
1. Australian Government Website hack Clip Source: Firstpost (YouTube) Link: https://youtu.be/gmf8sdQGwm4?si=9UT_LCgkldxXH4YV Is AI a bubble, or are we underestimating how much it can change? That’s the question I kept coming back to in San Francisco. Young companies are attracting extraordinary valuations, while I’m still trying to see how the promised productivity gains are reaching the wider economy. I put that scepticism to Akshay Kothari of Notion, Vijay Krishnan of Turing, and Ricursive Intelligence’s Azalia Mirhoseini and Anna Goldie. We discuss where the money is coming from, how much of it is moving between AI companies, and what businesses and individuals will actually pay for. They make the case for capabilities that are already useful, smaller teams doing more, and benefits that take time to spread. We also get into chips, human work, AI risks and what India should build. The technology can be powerful and the prices can still be wrong. I wanted to understand how to tell the difference. Timestamp: 00:00 Introduction 02:46 Meet Akshay Kothari and Azalia Mirhoseini 05:21 AlphaChip: AI That Designs Computer Chips 12:11 Cheaper Models, More Compute and Custom Chips 17:28 What Notion Does and How AI Changes Work 20:12 Vijay Krishnan and the People Teaching AI 29:18 Understanding the AI Industry From Scratch 32:43 Why Inference Companies Get High Valuations 37:09 The Gap Between AI Capability and Adoption 41:48 Is the AI Investment Boom a Bubble? 46:04 What Happens When AI Can Improve Itself? 53:00 The Changing Work of Training AI 56:35 Why Silicon Valley and China Lead the Race 1:00:38 Where Would You Build an AI Business? 1:07:23 AI Agents and the Productivity Debate 1:17:40 Are We Losing Our Own Thinking Skills? 1:24:23 Meet Anna Goldie 1:30:21 The $100 Million Business Question 1:34:48 What Google Got Right—and What It Missed 1:37:18 AI Chips and NVIDIA’s Advantage 1:39:59 AI Shares, Secondaries and the Wealth Boom 1:42:54 Can Countries and Companies Own Their AI? 1:45:07 Open Models, Scaling Laws and Local AI 1:52:07 AI Risks, Security and Human Control 2:01:05 What Should India Build in AI? 2:07:10 Are AI Safety Warnings Sincere? 2:09:04 How Would You Spend Your Last Month? 2:14:41 What Comes After the Smartphone? 2:17:48 The Future of Social Media and Entertainment 2:21:45 Will AI Replace the Apps We Use? 2:25:51 Final Ideas: Product Design and Better Learning Akshay Kothari-Co founder and COO, Notion Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akothari/ Vijay Krishnan-Founder and CTO, Turing-https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay0/ Anna Goldie-Co founder and CEO, Ricursive Intelligence Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adgoldie/ Azalia Mirhoseini Co founder and CTO, Ricursive Intelligence Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azalia-mirhoseini-a5308522/ Nikhil Kamath-Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline
SPEAKERS
Azalia Mirhoseini
guestAI researcher and entrepreneur known for ML/RL-driven chip design automation (e.g., AlphaChip), with prior Google Brain and Anthropic experience.
Akshay Kothari
guestNotion executive and former founder of Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn), with prior leadership at LinkedIn including running LinkedIn India.
Vijay Krishnan
guestAI data/evaluations entrepreneur (IIT Bombay background) focused on expert-led training data and model evals for frontier AI systems.
Nikhil Kamath
hostIndian entrepreneur and investor who hosts the podcast and moderates the panel discussion.
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Nikhil Kamath, featuring Azalia Mirhoseini and Akshay Kothari, Is AI a Bubble? I Asked the People Building It | WTF is AI? explores aI’s boom: compute scarcity, agent adoption gap, and self-improving systems The panel debates whether AI’s investment boom is a bubble, concluding that capability is compounding fast but real-world diffusion is lagging, creating a mismatch between spend and visible productivity.
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