Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn

997: How This Text-to-Video-Game AI Startup Hit 20M Users

Dr. Andrey Kurenkov returns to the show to talk about Astrocade's astronomical growth from pre-alpha to over 20 million engaged users, what it actually takes to build a vibe-coding platform that scales, and how the broader AI landscape has shifted since his last appearance. Andrey shares behind-the-scenes lessons from building B2C user-generated content products, why the real moat is community rather than tech, and his current thinking on humanoid robotics, AGI, and the AI risks people actually overlook. Additional materials: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.superdatascience.com/997 [https://www.superdatascience.com/997]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information. In this episode you will learn: * * (02:11) The Astrocade elevator pitch and how it grew to 20M users * * (16:19) Why there's no secret sauce behind the platform * * (24:56) UGC as the real moat, not the AI * * (46:57) Why household humanoid robots are now 2–3 years away * * (58:33) What AGI actually means, and why Andrey is an ASI skeptic

996: TrueFoundry’s Nikunj Bajaj on How to Get $100M Returns on AI Agent Deployments

TrueFoundry co-founder and CEO Nikunj Bajaj speaks to Jon Krohn about how enterprises like Nvidia and Siemens are realizing returns of over $100 million from single agent deployments, the AI gateway architecture that makes it possible to connect, observe, and govern agents at scale, and why the familiar advice to “start small” is the wrong way to roll out AI agents inside a large organization. Additional materials: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.superdatascience.com/996 [https://www.superdatascience.com/996] Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information.⁠⁠⁠ In this episode you will learn: * * (01:21) What TrueFoundry does and why agents in production need a control plane * * (06:32) Breaking down the AI gateway: the model, MCP, and agent gateways * * (16:47) Taming tool sprawl with scoped, read-only MCP access * * (19:10) Why the agent gateway is the hard part and the kill switch most teams lack * * (22:24) The five-workflow framework behind $100M agent deployments

995: End-to-End Foundation Models for the Energy Industry, with Jazmia Henry

Jazmia Henry joins Jon Krohn to break down what it actually takes to build end-to-end foundation models for the energy industry. From wrangling decades of handwritten oil-and-gas documents into usable training data, to bespoke tokenizers, reinforcement learning, and inference at scale, Jazmia walks through every stage of the stack. Along the way she explains why reinforcement learning models are "bursty," what reward hacking is and how her Grounded Continuous Evaluation framework fixes it, and revisits the 2023 NeurIPS paper that argued, to widespread skepticism at the time, that scaling bad data degrades model performance. Additional materials: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.superdatascience.com/995⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.superdatascience.com/995] Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information. In this episode you will learn: * (10:06) The User Agnosticism Tenet * (20:02) The Zillow Offers parable * (23:25) Why workflows should come before agents * (29:57) Why data engineering is the bedrock of AI * (52:41) Why velocity is the only durable moat

994: AI’s Putting Recent Grads Out of Work; Here’s How to Get Hired Anyway!

Unemployment for recent computer-science graduates now rivals rates for fine-arts and anthropology majors, and undergraduate CS enrollment fell 11% in 2025. In this Five-Minute Friday, Jon Krohn walks through the data on both sides of the debate, from Stanford research showing a 13% employment drop for young workers in AI-exposed jobs, to Federal Reserve studies finding no statistically detectable link between AI adoption and reduced hiring. Jon shares his own view on where the truth lies and offers five concrete pieces of advice for graduates and senior professionals alike on how to get hired in 2026. Additional materials:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.superdatascience.com/993⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.superdatascience.com/993]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information.

993: How to Build AI-First Organizations, with Jacob Miller and Jeremy Mumford

For years, AI content has come in the form of “use this library, use this tool” tutorials that age out within months. Jacob Miller and Jeremy Mumford, co-authors of the brand new Wiley book Architected Intelligence, wanted to write something different, a guide to the higher-level principles of building AI products and AI-first organizations that will still be relevant in five or ten years. In this episode, the two Pattern engineers walk Jon Krohn through the core ideas of their book: why you should design products and processes so they can be executed by a human, an AI agent, or any hybrid combination; why most companies are still treating hallucinations as a model problem when they’re actually a data curation problem; why the natural progression of AI development goes skills, workflows, agents, not straight to agents; and why velocity, not models or data, is the only durable competitive advantage left. Additional materials: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.superdatascience.com/993⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.superdatascience.com/993] Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information. In this episode you will learn: * (10:06) The User Agnosticism Tenet * (20:02) The Zillow Offers parable * (23:25) Why workflows should come before agents * (29:57) Why data engineering is the bedrock of AI * (52:41) Why velocity is the only durable moat