Can AI Infrastructure Work Like Magic? Erik Bernhardsson, CEO, Modal

Before he founded Modal, Erik Bernhardsson created Spotify's music recommendation system. Today he's bringing a consumer app approach to radically simplifying developer experience for data and AI projects on the Modal platform. In this episode, we dive into the broader AI compute landscape, discussing the roles of hyperscalers, GPU clouds, inference platforms, and the emergence of alternative AI cloud providers. Erik gives us a product tour of the Modal platform, provides insights into the AI industry's shift from training to inference as the primary use case, and speculates on the future of AI-native consumer applications. Learn about Modal's commitment to fast feedback loops, their cloud maximalist approach, their dedication to building a product that developers truly love, as well as founder lessons Erik learned along the way. Erik's blog: https://erikbern.com "It's hard to write code for humans": https://erikbern.com/2024/09/27/its-h... Modal Website - https://modal.com Twitter - https://x.com/modal_labs Erik Bernhardsson LinkedIn -   / erikbern   Twitter - https://x.com/bernhardsson FIRSTMARK Website - https://firstmark.com Twitter -   / firstmarkcap   Matt Turck (Managing Director) LinkedIn -   / turck   Twitter -   / mattturck   LISTEN ON: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7yLATDS... Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 00:00 - Intro 01:35 - What is Modal? 02:18 - Current state of AI compute space 09:54 - Erik's path to starting Modal 13:57 - Core elements of the Modal platform 28:52 - Is serverless the right level of abstraction for AI compute? 33:35 - Balancing costs: GPU vendor fees vs. customer pricing 37:56 - Designing products for humans 42:43 - Modal's early go-to-market motion 45:32 - Managing early engineering team 48:26 - The only correct way to add a new function to the company 50:07 - Building company in NYC 52:05 - Modal's roadmap 54:04 - Erik's predictions on AI