Humans&: Bridging IQ and EQ in Machine Learning with Eric Zelikman

Humans&: Bridging IQ and EQ in Machine Learning with Eric Zelikman

Author: Conviction October 9, 2025 Duration: 36:58
The AI industry is obsessed with making models smarter. But what if they’re building the wrong kind of intelligence? In launching his new venture, humans&, Eric Zelikman sees an opportunity to shift the focus from pure IQ to building models with EQ. Sarah Guo is joined by Eric Zelikman, formerly of Stanford and xAI, who shares his journey from AI researcher to founder. Eric talks about the challenges of building human-centric AI, integrating long-term memory in models, and the importance of creating AI systems that work collaboratively with humans to unlock their full potential. Plus, Eric shares his views on abunance and what he’s looking for in talent for humans&. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ericzelikman Chapters: 00:00 – Eric Zelikman Introduction 00:29 – Eric’s Early Interest in AI 01:29 – Challenges in AI and Automation 02:25 – Research Contributions 06:14 – Q-STaR and Scaling Up AI 08:14 – Current State of AI Models 15:23 – Human-Centric AI and Future Directions 22:08 – Eric’s New Venture: humans& 35:33 – Recruitment Goals for humans& 36:57 – Conclusion

Elad Gil and Sarah Guo guide conversations in No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups that cut straight to the core of what's happening now. This isn't about abstract futures; it's grounded in dialogues with the very people building and shaping the field-leading AI engineers, pioneering researchers, and the founders turning theory into reality. Each episode tackles the pressing, often daunting questions that define this technological inflection point. You'll hear them explore the practical pathways and hurdles toward AGI, debate which industries are genuinely poised for transformation, and examine how the state-of-the-art in research translates into real-world products and societal shifts. The discussions naturally span the impact on commerce, culture, and the very structure of how we live and work. Produced by Conviction, this podcast serves as an essential, clear-eyed resource for anyone looking to move beyond the hype and understand the forces driving the AI revolution. Sarah Guo, a startup investor, and Elad Gil bring their direct experience to these conversations, ensuring every interview provides substantive insight you can use.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
Podcast Episodes
Erik Bernhardsson on Creating Tools That Make AI Feel Effortless [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:36
Today on No Priors, Elad chats with Erik Bernhardsson, founder and CEO of Modal Labs, a platform simplifying ML workflows by providing a serverless infrastructure designed to streamline deployment, scaling, and developme…
The Best of 2024 with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:07
2024 has been a year of transformative technological progress, marked by conversations that have reshaped our understanding of AI's evolution and what lies ahead. Throughout the year, Sarah and Elad have had the privileg…
Revolutionizing Customer Success with Agency’s Elias Torres [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:18
Today on No Priors, Sarah sits down with Elias Torres, CEO and founder of Agency, an AI agent for customer success teams. Elias shares his journey from growing up in Nicaragua to founding several companies, leading engin…
How Diamond Cooling Could Power the Future of AI, with Akash Systems [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:21
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah sits down with Felix Ejeckam and Ty Mitchell, founders of Akash Systems, a company pioneering diamond-based cooling technology for semiconductors used in space applications and large-s…
Model Plateaus and Enterprise AI Adoption with Cohere's Aidan Gomez [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:15
In this episode of No Priors, Sarah is joined by Aidan Gomez, cofounder and CEO of Cohere. Aidan reflects on his journey to co-authoring the groundbreaking 2017 paper, “Attention is All You Need,” during his internship,…
AI and the Future of Math, with DeepMind’s AlphaProof Team [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:21
In this week’s episode of No Priors, Sarah and Elad sit down with the Google DeepMind team behind AlphaProof, Laurent Sartran, Rishi Mehta, and Thomas Hubert. AlphaProof is a new reinforcement learning-based system for f…