Google I/O Afterparty: The Future of Human-AI Collaboration, From Veo to Mariner
Fresh off impressive releases at Google’s I/O event, three Google Labs leaders explain how they’re reimagining creative tools and productivity workflows. Thomas Iljic details how video generation is merging filmmaking with gaming through generative AI cameras and world-building interfaces in Whisk and Veo. Jaclyn Konzelmann demonstrates how Project Mariner evolved from a disruptive browser takeover to an intelligent background assistant that remembers context across multiple tasks. Simon Tokumine reveals NotebookLM’s expansion beyond viral audio overviews into a comprehensive platform for transforming information into personalized formats. The conversation explores the shift from prompting to showing and telling, the economics of AI-powered e-commerce, and why being “too early” has become Google Labs’ biggest challenge and advantage.
Hosted by Sonya Huang, Sequoia Capital
00:00 Introduction
02:12 Google's AI models and public perception
04:18 Google's history in image and video generation
06:45 Where Whisk and Flow fit
10:30 How close are we to having the ideal tool for the craft?
13:05 Where do the movie and game worlds start to merge?
16:25 Introduction to Project Mariner
17:15 How Mariner works
22:34 Mariner user behaviors
27:07 Temporary tattoos and URL memory
27:53 Project Mariner's future
29:26 Agent capabilities and use cases
31:09 E-commerce and agent interaction
35:03 Notebook LM evolution
48:26 Predictions and future of AI
Mentioned in this episode:
Whisk: Image and video generation app for consumers
Flow: AI-powered filmmaking with new Veo 3 model
Project Mariner: research prototype exploring the future of human-agent interaction, starting with browsers
NotebookLM: tool for understanding and engaging with complex information including Audio Overviews and now a mobile app
Shop with AI Mode: Shopping app with a virtual try-on tool based on your own photos
Stitch: New prompt-based interface to design UI for mobile and web applications.
ControlNet paper: Outlined an architecture for adding conditional language to direct the outputs of image generation with diffusion models
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53:51
From Data Centers to Dyson Spheres: P-1 AI's Path to Hardware Engineering AGI
Former Airbus CTO Paul Eremenko shares his vision for bringing AI to physical engineering, starting with Archie—an AI agent that works alongside human engineers. P-1 AI is tackling the challenge of generating synthetic training data to teach AI systems about complex physical systems, from data center cooling to aircraft design and beyond. Eremenko explains how Archie breaks down engineering tasks into primitive operations and uses a federated approach combining multiple AI models. The goal is to progress from entry-level engineering capabilities to eventually achieving engineering AGI that can design things humans cannot.
Hosted by Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital
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38:25
Gong’s Amit Bendov: From Meeting Recordings to Revenue AI
CEO Amit Bendov shares how Gong evolved from a meeting transcription tool to an AI-powered revenue platform that's increasing sales capacity by up to 60%. He explains why task-specific AI agents are the key to enterprise adoption, and why human accountability will remain crucial even as AI takes over routine sales tasks. Amit also reveals how Gong survived recent market headwinds by expanding their product suite while maintaining their customer-first approach.
Hosted by Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital
Mentioned in this episode:
“New paradigm of AI architectures”: Yann LeCun’s talk at Davos where he talks about the world beyond transformers and LLMs in the next 3-5 years.
The Beginning of Infinity: Book by David Deutsch that Amit says is “mind-changing.”
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42:05
LIVE: Google's Jeff Dean on the Coming Transformations in AI
At AI Ascent 2025, Jeff Dean makes bold predictions. Discover how the pioneer behind Google's TPUs and foundational AI research sees the technology evolving, from specialized hardware to more organic systems, and future engineering capabilities.
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30:59
LIVE: Ambient Agents and the New Agent Inbox ft. Harrison Chase of LangChain
Recorded live at Sequoia’s AI Ascent 2025: LangChain CEO Harrison Chase introduces the concept of ambient agents, AI systems that operate continuously in the background responding to events rather than direct human prompts. Learn how these agents differ from traditional chatbots, why human oversight remains essential and how this approach could dramatically scale our ability to leverage AI.
Join us as we train our neural nets on the theme of the century: AI. Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and more Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to ask critical questions and develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies—and their implications for technology, business and society.
The content of this podcast does not constitute investment advice, an offer to provide investment advisory services, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund.
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