X, the moonshot factory 61d ago

Computer chips are the silent, beating heart of the modern world—but our ability to make them can’t keep up with humanity’s demand for compute. This episode of The Moonshot Podcast looks back on two never-before-shared moonshots aimed at revolutionizing how we design and build the computer chips of tomorrow. Astro Teller first sits down with Project Positron’s Tammo Spalink, whose team created a fast, specialized computer chip that could act as a “brain for robots.” Positron’s chip optimizes for inference, or real-time decision making, rather than lower-latency training models. He then chats with Raj Apte from Project Bodger, a moonshot to reimagine the process of chip design. Astro and Raj discuss how the end of Moore’s Law is profoundly impacting computer chips’ performance capabilities and the techniques his team are using to automate how chips are designed and built. – Hosted by Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots, The Moonshot Podcast goes behind the scenes with creators and inventors trying to find radical solutions and breakthrough technologies to the world’s biggest problems. These are the untold stories of innovation from 16 years of Alphabet’s moonshot factory. The Moonshot Podcast is a Pique Action production for X, The Moonshot Factory, produced in association with Blanchard House. If you want to take your own moonshots, we've developed a certificate course with MasterClass on how to take bold ideas and translate them into real world impact. Check it out here: https://www.masterclass.com/certificates/breakthrough-innovation-strategy-from-bold-idea-to-business-impact 0:00 - Intro 01:19 - Meet Tammo Spalink: Project Positron 01:30 - X’s secret moonshot for chips 10 years ago 03:13 - Tammo’s early days at The Moonshot Factory 04:05 -Project Positron: Building brains for robots 08:48 - Why "Positron"? (The Sci-Fi Inspiration) 12:25 - The early risks the team took 13:59 - Why Positron move to Google 16:21 -The Next Decade of Computing 18:06 -Raj Apte returns to the pod to talk about Project Bodger 18:37 - The end of Moore's Law: now what? 22:15 - From curiosity to a moonshot in chip design 22:59 - The cost of designing and building chips 24:21 - Project Bodger: AI designing chips 26:27 - Inverse design 27:31 - The limitations of Manhattan geometry 28:57 - AI’s “unfair advantage” in chip design 31:26 - When to take giant design leaps vs. small steps forward 32:22 - How faster chips can supercharge humanity 34:27 - The future of Project Bodger 35:02 - Final thoughts