Why AI Models Aren’t the Product Any More | TWiAI Ep 18

SpaceX bought Cursor for $60 billion. Satya Nadella says companies need to stop relying on third party AI models and build their own “token capital.” The focus is shifting from LLMs to the application layer sitting on top of them. Here to unpack what that means are guest experts Ali Ansari (Micro1) and Ryan Daniels (Crosby). Plus we get a sneak peek at their new contract redlining benchmark, a crucial eval for how well LLMs don’t just answer questions about the law, but demonstrate actual legal reasoning. Timestamps: 0:00 SpaceX acquires Cursor 7:36 Distillation vs. building your own model 19:43 Nadella's "Frontier Without an Ecosystem" 30:21 AI in the courtroom 32:15 Ando: the intriguing new workplace tool 1:05:38 Inside Micro1 and Crosby's new benchmark 1:07:14 Guests: Ali Ansari: https://x.com/aliansarinik Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/ Ryan Daniels: https://x.com/ryanjdaniels Crosby: https://crosby.ai/ Relevant Links: Bloomberg: “SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B”: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl... Quinn Thompson “brilliant corporate finance” post: https://x.com/qthomp/status/206685967... Business Insider: “Inside Cursor’s Wild Rise”: https://www.businessinsider.com/curso... Satya Nadella: “A frontier without an ecosystem is not stable”: https://x.com/satyanadella/article/20... Joshua Browder’s Do Not Pay: https://donotpay.com/ Harvard Magazine: “AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks”: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/ai/ai... Joshua Kushner “Long Humans” post: https://x.com/JoshuaKushner/status/20... Ando: https://ando.so/ Nim Ravid on X: https://x.com/Nim_Ravid1 Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠  / alexwilhelm   Follow Jason: X:   / jason   LinkedIn:   / jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis Follow TWiST: Twitter:   / twistartups   YouTube:    / thisweekin   Instagram:   / thisweekinstartups   TikTok:   / thisweekinstartups   Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com