"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Dominic Williams, President & Chief Scientist of the DFINITY Foundation and CEO of Caffeine AI, explains the Internet Computer and his vision of a “sovereign cloud where AI builds the web.” He breaks down core innovations like the Network Nervous System, Motoko, and orthogonal persistence, and how AI coding could remove adoption barriers. The conversation explores unstoppable applications, real-world case studies like OpenChat, and the tension between control, security, and decentralization in AI governance.

LINKS:

Anthropic article on smart contracts

Caffeine AI official website

Internet Computer network dashboard

Liquid Reign book website

Sponsors:

Blitzy:
Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com

MongoDB:
Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build

Serval:
Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive

Tasklet:
Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) About the Episode

(03:37) Origins of Internet Computer

(10:09) Decentralization philosophy and AI

(15:12) Tamper-proof architecture explained (Part 1)

(19:43) Sponsors: Blitzy | MongoDB

(22:08) Tamper-proof architecture explained (Part 2)

(25:25) Network design and scaling (Part 1)

(33:30) Sponsors: Serval | Tasklet

(35:50) Network design and scaling (Part 2)

(36:56) Replication costs and cloud

(50:35) Network Nervous System governance

(59:33) Caffeine, Motoko and persistence

(01:20:19) Self-writing cloud disruption

(01:32:30) Resilience and security guarantees

(01:41:23) Use cases and limitations

(01:49:56) AI misalignment and ensembles

(02:00:47) Kill switches and governance

(02:09:12) Future of self-writing software

(02:11:40) Outro

PRODUCED BY:

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In this AMA-style episode, Nathan takes on listener questions about whether fine-tuning is really on the way out, what emergent misalignment and weird generalization results tell us, and how to think about continual learning. He talks candidly about how he’s personally preparing for AGI—from career choices and investing to what resilience steps he has and hasn’t taken. The discussion also covers timelines for job disruption, whether UBI becomes inevitable, how to talk to kids and “normal people” about AI, and which safety approaches are most neglected.

Sponsors:

Blitzy:

Blitzy is the autonomous code generation platform that ingests millions of lines of code to accelerate enterprise software development by up to 5x with premium, spec-driven output. Schedule a strategy session with their AI solutions consultants at https://blitzy.com

MongoDB:

Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build

Serval:

Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive

Tasklet:

Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Ernie cancer update

(04:57) Is fine-tuning dead (Part 1)

(12:31) Sponsors: Blitzy | MongoDB

(14:57) Is fine-tuning dead (Part 2) (Part 1)

(26:56) Sponsors: Serval | Tasklet

(29:15) Is fine-tuning dead (Part 2) (Part 2)

(29:16) Continual learning cautions

(34:59) Talking to normal people

(39:30) Personal risk preparation

(49:59) Investing around AI safety

(01:00:39) Early childhood AI literacy

(01:08:55) Work disruption timelines

(01:27:58) Nonprofits, need, and UBI

(01:34:53) Benchmarks, AGI, and embodiment

(01:47:30) AI tooling and platforms

(01:57:01) Discourse norms and shaming

(02:05:50) Location and safety funding

(02:15:17) Turpentine deal and independence

(02:24:19) Outro

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

Daniel Miessler shares his Personal AI Infrastructure (PAI) framework and vision for a future where single human owners are supported by armies of AI agents. He explains his TELOS system for defining purpose and goals, multi-layered memory design, and orchestration of multiple models and sub-agents. The conversation dives into cybersecurity impacts, from AI-accelerated testing to inevitable personalized spear-phishing and always-on defensive monitoring. Listeners will learn how scaffolding can turn frontier models into true digital assistants and even help reshape their own working habits.

LINKS:

PAI principles on GitHub README

Daniel Miessler about page

How Miessler's projects fit together

AI changes predictions for 2026

Fabric open-source AI framework

Personal AI Infrastructure GitHub repository

Current definition of AGI article

Why we'll have AGI by 2028

RAID AI definitions framework article

Unsupervised Learning newsletter signup

Daniel Miessler LinkedIn profile

Sponsors:

MongoDB:
Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build

Serval:
Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive

MATS:
MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr

Tasklet:
Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

Baris Gultekin, VP of AI at Snowflake, explains how “bringing AI to the data” is reshaping enterprise AI deployment under strict security and governance requirements. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. He shares the importance of bringing AI directly to governed enterprise data, advances in text-to-SQL and semantic modeling, and why high-quality retrieval is foundational for trustworthy AI agents. Baris also dives into Snowflake’s approach to agentic AI, including Snowflake Intelligence, model choice and cost tradeoffs, and why governance, security, and open standards are essential as AI becomes accessible to every business user.

LINKS:

AWS' Automated Reasoning checks

Sponsors:

MongoDB:

Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build

Serval:

Serval uses AI-powered automations to cut IT help desk tickets by more than 50%, freeing your team from repetitive tasks like password resets and onboarding. Book your free pilot and guarantee 50% help desk automation by week four at https://serval.com/cognitive

MATS:

MATS is a fully funded 12-week research program pairing rising talent with top mentors in AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. Apply for the next cohort at https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr

Tasklet:

Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) About the Episode

(03:02) Snowflake 101 and AI

(09:25) Text-to-SQL and semantics

(19:10) RAG, embeddings and models (Part 1)

(19:17) Sponsors: MongoDB | Serval

(21:02) RAG, embeddings and models (Part 2)

(32:23) Bringing models to data (Part 1)

(32:29) Sponsors: MATS | Tasklet

(35:29) Bringing models to data (Part 2)

(51:14) Designing enterprise AI agents

(58:35) Trust, governance and guardrails

(01:07:14) Agents and future work

(01:15:33) Platforms, competition and value

(01:26:04) Enterprise models and outlook

(01:40:00) Outro

PRODUCED BY:

https://aipodcast.ing

In this AMA episode, Nathan gives an update on his son Ernie’s cancer treatment and how frontier AI models are helping him navigate complex medical decisions. PSA for AI builders: Interested in alignment, governance, or AI safety? Learn more about the MATS Summer 2026 Fellowship and submit your name to be notified when applications open: https://matsprogram.org/s26-tcr. He reflects on whether Claude Opus 4.5 and Claude Code amount to AGI-level coding, sharing stories of hospital vibe coding apps for his family. You’ll hear his framework for getting real value from Gemini 3, Claude, and GPT 5.2 Pro, plus his take on AI bubbles, Chinese models, chip controls, and who the true live players are in today’s AI race.

Sponsors:

MongoDB:
Tired of database limitations and architectures that break when you scale? MongoDB is the database built for developers, by developers—ACID compliant, enterprise-ready, and fluent in AI—so you can start building faster at https://mongodb.com/build

Framer:
Framer is an enterprise-grade website builder that lets business teams design, launch, and optimize their.com with AI-powered wireframing, real-time collaboration, and built-in analytics. Start building for free and get 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan at https://framer.com/cognitive

Tasklet:
Tasklet is an AI agent that automates your work 24/7; just describe what you want in plain English and it gets the job done. Try it for free and use code COGREV for 50% off your first month at https://tasklet.ai

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) AMA intro format

(00:22) Ernie health update

(09:24) Claude 4.5 question (Part 1)

(09:29) Sponsors: MongoDB | Framer

(11:21) Claude 4.5 question (Part 2)

(13:21) Using AI for cancer

(19:48) AI value and skill

(22:10) Holiday coding projects (Part 1)

(22:15) Sponsor: Tasklet

(23:27) Holiday coding projects (Part 2)

(28:01) Claude code workflow

(32:03) Is Claude 4.5 AGI

(36:04) AI bubble or not

(41:22) VC froth examples

(46:09) Chinese models comparison

(55:29) H200 exports to China

(01:03:40) Google DeepMind strengths

(01:11:55) OpenAI strategy outlook

(01:22:51) Anthropic culture and strategy

(01:36:17) XAI promise and risks

(01:48:20) Meta and Microsoft

(01:52:29) Part two preview

(01:53:39) 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