Ideas Worth Exploring: 2025-04-10
- Charles Ray
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
Ideas: Tiernan Ray - Google's latest chip is all about reducing one huge hidden cost in AI
Google unveiled its latest version of Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), called Ironwood TPU, during its Google Cloud Next 25 event. The new chip is focused on inference, which involves making predictions for live requests from users, rather than training, the development of neural networks by AI specialists and data scientists. This shift reflects the rising cost of inference compared to the research domain of training.
Google has been developing TPUs for over a decade, but Ironwood is positioned primarily as an inference chip, marking a departure from previous generations which were considered both training and inference chips. The reliance on Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and Nvidia for AI computing could potentially change with this shift, as Google might save money using more TPUs versus the cost of using chips from these vendors for inference.
Ironwood boasts twice the "performance per watt" of Trillium, with 192GB of DRAM memory and a memory bandwidth transmitted that is 4.5 times as much. These enhancements support greater movement of data in and out of the chip and between systems, which is crucial for scaling AI infrastructure.
Ideas: Hayden Field - Inside Isomorphic Labs, the secretive AI life sciences startup spun off from Google DeepMind
Isomorphic Labs was spun out of Google DeepMind, after the tech giant achieved one of the biggest biological breakthroughs in the last 50 years.
Demis Hassabis is at the helm of both Isomorphic and DeepMind, the Google division at the forefront of the search company’s efforts to compete in the tech industry’s AI race.
On Wednesday, Isomorphic and Google DeepMind made AlphaFold3 available to the scientific community, for non-commercial use. With a fresh $600 million, Isomorphic is setting out to achieve its ultimate goal: to “solve all disease” through AI-powered drug discovery.
Ideas: Andrew Chen - Every marketing channel sucks right now
Andrew Chen shares their ideas on the current state of growth marketing for early stage startups, pointing out that many traditional marketing channels such as SEO, influencer marketing, PR/comms, email marketing, viral loops, ads, referral/affiliate programs, and big social media launches are either expensive, ineffective, or not repeatable.
Andrew Chen suggests a shift from focusing on "Big Channels" to "Little Channels," which are smaller marketing strategies that can be effective for startups due to less competition, higher response rates, and novelty factor.
Andrew Chen emphasizes the importance of product quality and innovation in marketing, particularly in light of new technological advance developments like AI, XR, and web3, suggesting that marketers should think creatively about how they can leverage these technologies to create something new and different.
Ideas: Zvi - Llama Does Not Look Good 4 Anything
In summary, the release of Llama Scout (17B active parameters, 16 experts, 109B total) and Llama Maverick (17B active parameters, 128 experts, 400B total) by Meta on Saturday has been met with widespread disappointment.
The models are perceived as underperforming to the point where it is speculated that they may have been intentionally gamed or misconfigured to produce such results. This reaction is in stark contrast to the positive reception of Gemini 2.5 Pro, and some believe Meta's pronouncements about model capabilities cannot be trusted.
The Llama models are giant mixture of experts (MoE) models, similar to DeepSeek's v3 and r1, but they require specialized hardware and are restricted by a controversial license that favors overseas companies and governments, particularly the PRC, while handicapping American companies.
Independent benchmark tests show that Llama Scout and Maverick do not perform as well as their competition, raising concerns about their quality and Meta's commitment to following industry norms.
Ideas: Chris Dixon - Stablecoins: Payments without intermediaries
Chris Dixon discusses ideas around the challenges and inefficiencies of the current global financial system, which is characterized by high fees, slow transactions, and a complex network of intermediaries.
Chris Dixon argues that stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to stable assets like the US dollar, offer a solution to these problems by providing a more open, programmable, and neutral financial infrastructure. Stablecoins could dramatically reduce costs for businesses and individuals, particularly in international transactions, and potentially double the net income of low-margin businesses. Chris Dixon also touches on the potential for stablecoins to enable new categories of software, such as programmatic payments and micropayments for digital content.
Chris Dixon suggests that regulation is key to unlocking the full potential of stablecoins, and that thoughtful legislation could pave the way for broader adoption and integration into the global financial system.
Website: Zvi - Mind Map Wizard
Mind maps are visual diagrams that help you structure and connect information. They start from a central topic and branch out into related concepts, making it easy to organize your thoughts and research.
Mind Map Wizard is a AI mind mapping tool that lets you create mind maps about any topic in seconds and get an overview about really everything. Mind Map Wizard is completely free. You can easily export your mind maps in various formats (JPG, PDF, SVG and MD)
GitHub Repo: opkssh (OpenPubkey SSH)
opkssh is a tool which enables ssh to be used with OpenID Connect allowing SSH access management via identities like alice@example.com instead of long-lived SSH keys.
It does not replace ssh, but rather generates ssh public keys that contain PK Tokens and configures sshd to verify the PK Token in the ssh public key. These PK Tokens contain standard OpenID Connect ID Tokens.
This protocol builds on the OpenPubkey which adds user public keys to OpenID Connect without breaking compatibility with existing OpenID Provider.
Currently opkssh is compatible with Google, Microsoft/Azure and Gitlab OpenID Providers (OP). If you have a gmail, microsoft or a gitlab account you can ssh with that account.
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