Descriptions:
This episode of “AI in the AM” — a live-streamed collaboration between Nathan Labenz of the Cognitive Revolution and co-host Pash Nionanon — features three back-to-back conversations spanning reinforcement learning, AI governance, and autonomous retail.
First, Sergey Nesteringo, CEO of Quilter, explains how his company uses reinforcement learning to automate circuit board design, a domain with an extremely high-dimensional search space, tight physical constraints, and relatively scarce training data. The conversation unpacks why RL is the right fit where supervised approaches fall short. Next, Andy Hall, professor of political economy at Stanford, shares research on how political actors — particularly the Republican Party — are deploying deepfakes not to deceive outright but to evoke emotional responses using real quotes in fabricated video form. Hall also describes his work designing independent AI governing bodies intended to give the public meaningful oversight of AI companies without requiring nationalization.
The episode closes with Lucas Peterson and Axel Backland from Anden Labs, who recently opened what may be the first AI-operated retail store on Union Street in San Francisco. The store’s operations — including hiring human staff — are managed entirely by an AI agent. With a current 2.6-star rating, the experiment offers a candid look at the real-world friction of deploying autonomous AI in a consumer-facing physical business.
📺 Source: Cognitive Revolution “How AI Changes Everything” · Published April 15, 2026
🏷️ Format: Livestream
