The Future of AI Lives On Your Phone, Not the Cloud | Div Garg and Amit Goel | Build AI Ep. 20

Div Garg has spent nearly a decade building AI systems - at Google, Apple, Nvidia, Uber, and Collaborative Robotics, where he was the first founding engineer. He pursued a PhD at Stanford and created the university's first course on Transformers (CS 25), which has over 1M YouTube views. In early 2024, he co-founded MultiOn, one of the first AI agent products to go viral on the web, with a launch video that reached 1M+ views. He has since founded AGI Inc., a research lab focused on a clear thesis: the future of AI computation lives on your device, not in the cloud. In this episode, Amit Goel sits down with Div for a wide-ranging conversation on the current state of AI, why on-device intelligence is the next frontier, and how to build a category-defining company in an emerging market. What we cover: → Why the past 8 months have been an exponential leap in AI capability → The maturity curve: from 2023's early experimentation to today's production systems → Why most AI work will shift toward execution, with humans serving as verifiers → The economics behind why companies now spend more on compute than headcount → How AGI Inc. partnered with Qualcomm, Visa, and Lenovo at the earliest stages → The on-device thesis: privacy, cost, accessibility, and trust → Building 4B and 1B parameter models that run efficiently on phones → How AGI Inc. grew its waitlist to 500,000 users without paid acquisition → Andrew Ng, Stanford CS 25, and teaching the first Transformers course in the world → Where the next generation of AI founders should focus (hint: hard sciences) A masterclass for founders, engineers, and operators building at the frontier of AI. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Trailer 03:18 — Welcome & Div's background 03:36 — Google, Apple, Nvidia, Uber, Collaborative Robotics 04:17 — Stanford PhD: RL, Minecraft, robotic arms 04:37 — Building the viral browser agent (1M views) 05:40 — Why a PhD? Why start a company after? 07:31 — 2023 vs 2025: from experimentation to production 09:00 — Why cloud AI improved exponentially in 8 months 09:28 — The maturity curve & RL feedback breakthroughs 10:37 — Multi-agent systems: coming next year 10:47 — Why frontier labs launched deployment arms 11:31 — Execution vs. verification: humans as managers 12:15 — Spinning AGI Inc. out of MultiOn 12:34 — The on-device AI thesis 13:54 — The career decision behind founding AGI Inc. 14:33 — Compressed learning: 10 years in 1 15:41 — Advice for young engineering founders 15:58 — Onboarding Qualcomm, Visa, Lenovo early 16:49 — Why enterprises adopted on-device before investors did 17:42 — The 500K waitlist & rethinking voice assistants 18:31 — A phone interface with no apps installed 18:52 — Voice-first AI & the WhatsApp #1 ProductHunt launch 19:29 — B2B2C, OEM partnerships, embedded AI 20:46 — How to access: join.agi.app 21:39 — Why compute is becoming a major operating cost 22:53 — On-device as the accessibility unlock 23:18 — Custom kernels, C++, 1B–4B models on phones 24:12 — Teaching CS 25 Transformers United at Stanford 24:59 — Andrew Ng's support 25:31 — What's gaining traction vs. what's overlooked in AI 26:23 — Privacy: the missing variable in today's AI race 27:30 — Funding: $10M raised, new round closed 28:23 — Where young AI founders should focus next 28:56 — Why human intelligence is the real bottleneck 29:36 — Off the clock: hiking, tennis, founder community 30:14 — Close — 👤 ABOUT THE GUEST Div Garg — Founder, AGI Inc. | Co-Founder, MultiOn | Stanford CS 25 Faculty LinkedIn:   / div99   🎙️ ABOUT BUILD AI Build AI is the podcast from gAI Ventures, where we sit down with founders, investors, and operators building the future of AI. Hosted by Amit Goel. 🏢 ABOUT gAI VENTURES gAI Ventures is a technical venture builder launching vertical AI companies in Financial Services, Enterprise Productivity, and Commerce. We co-build with domain experts, ship the first engineering and AI platform, and drive distribution and growth. Vertical First. AI Second. 🌐 https://gai.ventures 👥 Team: https://gai.ventures/team 🚀 Portfolio: https://gai.ventures/portfolio 📞 Schedule a call: https://calendly.com/gaisocials/30min LinkedIn:   / gaiventures   X / Twitter: https://x.com/gai_ventures_