40 Trillion Tokens a Day (Yes, More Than OpenAI) | Lin Qiao, CEO of Fireworks

40 Trillion Tokens a Day (Yes, More Than OpenAI) | Lin Qiao, CEO of Fireworks

Author: Lukas Biewald August 3, 2026 Duration: 1:19:04

Should American companies be worried about Chinese open-source AI models?

Lin Qiao, CEO of Fireworks, doesn't think so.

In this episode, she joins Lukas Biewald to talk about why she believes the industry is at a turning point, one that calls for more open intelligence, not less.

They cover how Fireworks now processes more tokens a day than OpenAI's API, why she thinks the future belongs to specialized models built on private company data rather than general-purpose ones, and why she believes OpenAI and Anthropic should be open-sourcing their own models too.

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Lukas Biewald hosts Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI, a series that moves beyond theoretical discussions to examine how artificial intelligence is actually built and deployed. Each episode features a direct, unscripted talk with a leading practitioner-you’ll hear from engineers and researchers at places like NVIDIA, Meta, Google, Lyft, and OpenAI. The focus is on the tangible challenges and breakthroughs they encounter, from initial research to the complex reality of putting models into production. This isn't about abstract futures; it's a grounded look at the decisions shaping the field right now. Biewald, bringing his perspective from Weights & Biases, steers conversations toward the practical trade-offs and collaborative efforts that define modern AI work. For anyone in technology or business who wants to understand the mechanics behind the headlines, this podcast offers a rare, candid window into the process. You’ll come away with a clearer sense of how ideas become functional systems and what it really takes to operate at the cutting edge.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI
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