Lex Fridman Podcast

#493 – Jeff Kaplan: World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Blizzard, and Future of Gaming

Jeff Kaplan is a legendary Blizzard game designer of World of Warcraft and Overwatch, now preparing to launch a new game, The Legend of California, from his new studio Kintsugiyama – available to wishlist on Steam today, with alpha later in March. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep493-sc [https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep493-sc] See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey [https://lexfridman.com/survey] AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama [https://lexfridman.com/ama] Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring [https://lexfridman.com/hiring] Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact [https://lexfridman.com/contact] EPISODE LINKS: The Legend of California (Steam Page): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2550530/The_Legend_of_California [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2550530/The_Legend_of_California] Jeff’s Game Studio: https://www.kintsugiyama.com/ [https://www.kintsugiyama.com/] SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep493-sc] Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases. Go to https://blitzy.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/blitzy-ep493-sc] BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep493-sc] Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep493-sc] CodeRabbit: AI-powered code reviews. Go to https://coderabbit.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/coderabbit-ep493-sc] Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://perplexity.ai/ [https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep493-sc] OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (02:24) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (10:47) – Early games: Pac-Man, Zork, Doom, Quake (25:12) – Writing career – 170 rejection letters (40:45) – EverQuest obsession (53:43) – Getting hired at Blizzard (1:09:11) – Lowest point in Jeff’s life (1:15:16) – One of Us (1:19:33) – Early Blizzard culture (1:39:15) – Building World of Warcraft (1:56:59) – How WoW changed video games (2:14:21) – Single-player vs Multi-player (2:35:15) – How Blizzard made great video games (3:01:04) – Online toxicity (3:08:38) – Why Titan failed (3:25:48) – Overwatch in six weeks (3:52:46) – Best Overwatch heroes (4:01:16) – The challenge of matchmaking (4:04:40) – Rust (4:15:01) – Why Jeff left Blizzard (4:37:14) – Diablo IV (4:38:42) – Getting back to making video games (4:47:38) – The Legend of California (5:01:23) – Greatest video game of all time (5:09:30) – AI and future of video games PODCAST LINKS: – Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast [https://lexfridman.com/podcast] – Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr [https://apple.co/2lwqZIr] – Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 [https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8] – RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ [https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/] – Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4] – Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips [https://www.youtube.com/lexclips]

#492 – Rick Beato: Greatest Guitarists of All Time, History & Future of Music

Rick Beato is a music educator, interviewer, producer, songwriter, and a true multi-instrument musician, playing guitar, bass, cello & piano. His incredible YouTube channel celebrates great musicians & musical ideas, and helps millions of people fall in love with great music all over again. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep492-sc [https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep492-sc] See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/rick-beato-transcript [https://lexfridman.com/rick-beato-transcript] CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey [https://lexfridman.com/survey] AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama [https://lexfridman.com/ama] Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring [https://lexfridman.com/hiring] Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact [https://lexfridman.com/contact] EPISODE LINKS: Rick’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/RickBeato [https://youtube.com/RickBeato] Rick’s X: https://x.com/rickbeato [https://x.com/rickbeato] Rick’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/rickbeato1 [https://instagram.com/rickbeato1] Rick’s Website: https://rickbeato.com [https://rickbeato.com] Rick’s Ear Training: https://beatoeartraining.com [https://beatoeartraining.com] The Beato Book: https://beatobook.com [https://beatobook.com] SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: UPLIFT Desk: Standing desks and office ergonomics. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/uplift_desk-ep492-sc] BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep492-sc] LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/lmnt-ep492-sc] Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep492-sc] Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep492-sc] Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://perplexity.ai/ [https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep492-sc] OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (00:28) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (09:17) – Guitar solos (13:16) – Gypsy jazz and Django Reinhardt (14:48) – Bebop jazz (19:00) – Perfect pitch vs relative pitch (23:37) – Learning to play guitar (47:08) – Miles Davis (52:34) – Bass guitar (53:41) – Greatest guitar solos of all time (1:22:56) – 27 Club (1:27:37) – Elton John (1:30:51) – Metallica (1:35:21) – Tom Waits (1:41:12) – Greatest rock stars (1:44:35) – Beethoven (1:51:10) – Bach (1:54:01) – AI in music (2:07:52) – Sabrina Carpenter (2:11:23) – YouTube copyright strikes (2:16:59) – Spotify (2:27:51) – Guitars (2:32:13) – Advice PODCAST LINKS: – Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast [https://lexfridman.com/podcast] – Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr [https://apple.co/2lwqZIr] – Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 [https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8] – RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ [https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/] – Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4] – Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips [https://www.youtube.com/lexclips]

#491 – OpenClaw: The Viral AI Agent that Broke the Internet – Peter Steinberger

Peter Steinberger is the creator of OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent framework that’s the fastest-growing project in GitHub history. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep491-sc [https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep491-sc] See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/peter-steinberger-transcript [https://lexfridman.com/peter-steinberger-transcript] CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey [https://lexfridman.com/survey] AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama [https://lexfridman.com/ama] Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring [https://lexfridman.com/hiring] Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact [https://lexfridman.com/contact] EPISODE LINKS: Peter’s X: https://x.com/steipete [https://x.com/steipete] Peter’s GitHub: https://github.com/steipete [https://github.com/steipete] Peter’s Website: https://steipete.com [https://steipete.com] Peter’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steipete [https://www.linkedin.com/in/steipete] OpenClaw Website: https://openclaw.ai [https://openclaw.ai] OpenClaw GitHub: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw [https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw] OpenClaw Discord: https://discord.gg/openclaw [https://discord.gg/openclaw] SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://perplexity.ai/ [https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep491-sc] Quo: Phone system (calls, texts, contacts) for businesses. Go to https://quo.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/quo-ep491-sc] CodeRabbit: AI-powered code reviews. Go to https://coderabbit.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/coderabbit-ep491-sc] Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep491-sc] Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases. Go to https://blitzy.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/blitzy-ep491-sc] Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep491-sc] LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/lmnt-ep491-sc] OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (03:51) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (15:29) – OpenClaw origin story (18:48) – Mind-blowing moment (28:15) – Why OpenClaw went viral (32:12) – Self-modifying AI agent (36:57) – Name-change drama (54:07) – Moltbook saga (1:02:26) – OpenClaw security concerns (1:11:07) – How to code with AI agents (1:42:02) – Programming setup (1:48:45) – GPT Codex 5.3 vs Claude Opus 4.6 (1:57:52) – Best AI agent for programming (2:19:52) – Life story and career advice (2:23:49) – Money and happiness (2:27:41) – Acquisition offers from OpenAI and Meta (2:44:51) – How OpenClaw works (2:56:09) – AI slop (3:02:13) – AI agents will replace 80% of apps (3:10:50) – Will AI replace programmers? (3:22:50) – Future of OpenClaw community

#490 – State of AI in 2026: LLMs, Coding, Scaling Laws, China, Agents, GPUs, AGI

Nathan Lambert and Sebastian Raschka are machine learning researchers, engineers, and educators. Nathan is the post-training lead at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and the author of The RLHF Book. Sebastian Raschka is the author of Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch) and Build a Reasoning Model (From Scratch). Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep490-sc [https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep490-sc] See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/ai-sota-2026-transcript [https://lexfridman.com/ai-sota-2026-transcript] CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey [https://lexfridman.com/survey] AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama [https://lexfridman.com/ama] Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring [https://lexfridman.com/hiring] Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact [https://lexfridman.com/contact] SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Box: Intelligent content management platform. Go to https://box.com/ai [https://lexfridman.com/s/box-ep490-sc] Quo: Phone system (calls, texts, contacts) for businesses. Go to https://quo.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/quo-ep490-sc] UPLIFT Desk: Standing desks and office ergonomics. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/uplift_desk-ep490-sc] Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep490-sc] Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep490-sc] CodeRabbit: AI-powered code reviews. Go to https://coderabbit.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/coderabbit-ep490-sc] LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/lmnt-ep490-sc] Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://perplexity.ai/ [https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep490-sc] OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (01:39) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (16:29) – China vs US: Who wins the AI race? (25:11) – ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Grok: Who is winning? (36:11) – Best AI for coding (43:02) – Open Source vs Closed Source LLMs (54:41) – Transformers: Evolution of LLMs since 2019 (1:02:38) – AI Scaling Laws: Are they dead or still holding? (1:18:45) – How AI is trained: Pre-training, Mid-training, and Post-training (1:51:51) – Post-training explained: Exciting new research directions in LLMs (2:12:43) – Advice for beginners on how to get into AI development & research (2:35:36) – Work culture in AI (72+ hour weeks) (2:39:22) – Silicon Valley bubble (2:43:19) – Text diffusion models and other new research directions (2:49:01) – Tool use (2:53:17) – Continual learning (2:58:39) – Long context (3:04:54) – Robotics (3:14:04) – Timeline to AGI (3:21:20) – Will AI replace programmers? (3:39:51) – Is the dream of AGI dying? (3:46:40) – How AI will make money? (3:51:02) – Big acquisitions in 2026 (3:55:34) – Future of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI, Meta (4:08:08) – Manhattan Project for AI (4:14:42) – Future of NVIDIA, GPUs, and AI compute clusters (4:22:48) – Future of human civilization

#489 – Paul Rosolie: Uncontacted Tribes in the Amazon Jungle

Paul Rosolie is a naturalist, explorer, author of a new book titled Junglekeeper, and is someone who has dedicated his life to protecting the Amazon rainforest. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep489-sc [https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep489-sc] See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/paul-rosolie-3-transcript [https://lexfridman.com/paul-rosolie-3-transcript] CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey [https://lexfridman.com/survey] AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama [https://lexfridman.com/ama] Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring [https://lexfridman.com/hiring] Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact [https://lexfridman.com/contact] EPISODE LINKS: Junglekeeper (new book): https://amzn.to/4q7vpAp [https://amzn.to/4q7vpAp] Paul’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/paulrosolie [https://instagram.com/paulrosolie] Junglekeepers Website: https://junglekeepers.org [https://junglekeepers.org] Paul’s Website: https://paulrosolie.com [https://paulrosolie.com] Mother of God (book): https://amzn.to/3ww2ob1 [https://amzn.to/3ww2ob1] SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://perplexity.ai/ [https://lexfridman.com/s/perplexity-ep489-sc] BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep489-sc] LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/lmnt-ep489-sc] Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep489-sc] Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex [https://lexfridman.com/s/fin-ep489-sc] Miro: Online collaborative whiteboard platform. Go to https://miro.com/ [https://lexfridman.com/s/miro-ep489-sc] MasterClass: Online classes from world-class experts. Go to https://masterclass.com/lexpod [https://lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep489-sc] OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (02:34) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (12:00) – Uncontacted tribes in the Amazon Jungle (19:46) – Intense new encounter (42:52) – Never-before-seen footage of tribe warriors (56:08) – The mysteries of the jungle (1:10:43) – Tribe’s diet: Monkeys, turtles, and turtle eggs (1:20:19) – Jane Goodall (1:26:31) – Advice for young people (1:35:45) – Cartel, Narco-traffickers & assassination attempts (1:57:45) – Climbing the giant tree (2:08:43) – Giant anaconda (2:26:01) – Rescuing a spider monkey (2:32:05) – Dangerous animal encounters (2:42:13) – Writing, journaling, and great writer inspirations PODCAST LINKS: – Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast [https://lexfridman.com/podcast] – Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr [https://apple.co/2lwqZIr] – Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 [https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8] – RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ [https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/] – Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4] – Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips [https://www.youtube.com/lexclips]