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Will O'Brien, founder of Ulysses, is building underwater robots and autonomous drones to do the important work of the ocean, for industry, researchers, and the U.S. Navy. In this episode we go deep (literally) on ocean tech, underwater autonomy, illegal fishing, mine detection, UFOs in the ocean, faith, growing up Irish, and why he thinks reading is overrated in San Francisco.We cover the frontier of subsea robotics: why only ~2,000 underwater drones are built each year vs. 50 million aerial drones, the unsolved problem of underwater communications (acoustics vs. optical), decoding whale and dolphin song with AI, and the USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" UFO case. Plus: spearfishing invasive lionfish in the Cayman Islands, the Irish language, trad music, Catholicism, and building a company culture that takes the work seriously but not itself.If you're into ocean technology, robotics startups, marine science, defense tech, or founder stories, this one's for you.🌊 Ulysses is hiring across engineering and more.⏱️ CHAPTERS0:00 Cold ocean dips & morning swims01:05 What is Ulysses? Underwater robots for industry, researchers & the Navy03:38 Growing up by the sea in Ireland05:37 Speed-running friendships from Twitter/X07:44 The Irish language10:58: Will's aesthetic inspiration13:22 The state of underwater autonomy (2,000 vs. 50 million drones)15:08 Decoding whale & dolphin acoustics with AI17:23 Hot take: reading is overrated in SF19:34 Faith journey: Catholic → Buddhism in Nepal → back to Catholicism23:14 UFOs, disclosure & non-human intelligence27:01 Illegal fishing, mine detection & the Strait of Hormuz29:38 The frontier: autonomous subsea robotic manipulation31:07 Scuba diving & spearfishing lionfish (closest call underwater)34:37 Ulysses is hiring🔗 LINKSUlysses: https://www.theoceancompany.com/Follow Will on X: https://x.com/Willob📲 CONNECTSubscribe for more founder interviews on ocean tech, robotics & AI: https://www.youtube.com/@ashe_aiInstagram: https://instagram.com/ashebytesX / Twitter: https://x.com/ashebytes#OceanTech #UnderwaterRobots #Robotics #StartupFounder #DefenseTech #MarineTech #AI #Ulysses #UFO #Ireland #DeepTech #Autonomy #Podcast #SanFrancisco

What happens to meaning when AI accelerates faster than our nervous systems can handle? In this episode of In Conversation With, I sit down with Nicole, astrologer, writer, and rationalist, to trace the path from math to mysticism: why engineers, physicists, and tech builders are turning to astrology, tarot, psychedelics, and the occult during a moment of profound uncertainty.We get into synchronicity and Jung's scarab, the spiritual vacuum left by the Enlightenment, plant medicine and ego death, Rudolf Steiner's warning about Ahriman and the cold mechanistic intellect of technology, non-duality and the singularity, manifestation vs. the shadow, quantum physics and the observer effect, and what really happens when people have deep spiritual experiences with LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT, including local models and "parasitic AI."If your nervous system feels shot to hell and you're searching for something bigger than yourself to hold onto, this one's for you.🔮 Connect with Nicole: X https://x.com/digitlartifacts & Substack https://substack.com/@digitalartifacts🔮 DM Nicole on X to learn more about her chart readings📩 My weekly newsletter: https://ashe.ai/newsletter🐺 Follow me: X https://x.com/ashebytes • Instagram https://instagram.com/ashebytesRecorded during Edge City, Healdsburg @JoinEdgeCity ⏱️ Chapters00:00 Intro: synchronicity & the spiritual vacuum AI is opening up01:21 Why the Enlightenment left us without shared meaning04:23 Where to start when your nervous system is shot to hell07:27 Plant medicine: the real upside and the real risks09:16 Astrology as a mirror, not a fate sentence11:33 Spiritual emergency & overwhelming synchronicity13:42 Rudolf Steiner predicted AI in 1919 (Ahriman & Lucifer)17:46 The 60s, decentralized truth & the loss of a mainstream18:53 Erik Davis, the occult resurgence & conspiracy going mainstream22:11 Reality glitches: Jung's golden scarab story29:12 Manifestation, the shadow & hyperstition31:54 Quantum physics & the observer effect35:40 Ego death, psychedelics & dying before you die39:25 Escape velocity, longevity & SF's relationship with death42:35 Richard Tarnas: the myth of progress vs the myth of the fall44:44 Approaching reality as a mystery, not a machine46:54 How frontier labs constrained spiritual & creative use48:53 Local models, "parasitic AI" & seed phrases between models50:47 Edge City & why in-real-life community matters52:28 The chart reading & astrology as intimate mirror55:17 Esalen, relationships & you can't heal someone for them1:00:09 Tarot, the hero's journey & the tower before the star1:02:11 Religion, Catholicism & the drive toward self-betterment1:03:16 Gender-war content, psyops & emotional manipulation#AIandSpirituality #Astrology #Synchronicity #Psychedelics #TechAndMeaning #Tarot #Consciousness #NonDuality #Manifestation #SanFrancisco

on the frontier of peptides & community in conversation with Tori Pastore @bonecondor 00:55 an intro to peptides 08:13 on peptides removing food noise: tori’s experience 14:30 dosing and combatting food engineering 16:14 on the verge of shapeshifting 20:30 bending attention, corporate surrealism, and Tori being a fan of Roy Lee29:35 the post-atomic bomb societal shift and the origins of “hipster” 35:17 techno optimism

In conversation with Max Spero and  @PangramLabs  From the grifters, to auto reply bots, to russian influence campaigns, to the rising cost of trainingDive in:00:36 Max's background & pangram labs05:27 AI slop attack vectors13:19 Is this an intractable problem?18:48 The relational value of content21:36 A surprising learning...29:36 Customer problems we're not talking enough about37:04 Forecasting compute43:52 Pangram Labs is hiring!

In conversation with Mina Fahmi, CEO of Sandbar00:34 Mina's background01:42 Robotics, neural interfaces, and hardware06:06 Bringing nervous system work into designing AI products10:25 Building with voice12:38 AI extending self-concept19:05 AI sycophancy24:58 Agentic memory30:11 Hardware decisions at Sandbar34:16 Hiring at Sandbar36:04 Bringing AI to more people

On the frontier of storytelling In conversation with Erika Lee, leading branding at Corgi, from their new 24/7 SF cafe. The old branding playbooks are being thrown out the window… & something new is taking it’s place. Whatever form it takes, human resonance will always be what sells, and Erika embodies this.Erika has journeyed from local news broadcasting to crypto to AI…and is now bringing some LA energy to SF (woo!)Dive in: 00:22 Who is Erika Lee? 03:46 What is Corgi? 05:43 New branding playbooks 14:52 What are folks getting wrong about branding 21:10 What can AI learn from crypto? 29:10 Working in local news 34:30 Corgi & startup Insurance

On agent factories, memory, continual learning & building on the frontier while growing a familyIn conversation withSam Whitmore, engineering at  @Cursor  I am so excited to share this because I have been inspired by Sam for years...and this joins agentic products+memory with shining a light on pregnancy and raising a young family← we need more conversations on both!Dive in:00:25 Sam’s background01:38 Family building while in frontier tech11:50 Agent factories15:46 Continual learning, agent self-awareness, memory, and user goal alignment23:51 Building a thoughtful product culture at Cursor27:00 Thinking about defensibility in 202630:01 Selling outside of the tech/X bubble35:12 On reading fiction38:32 On pregnancy, hormones, and building42:58 On agent predictions for the next 6 months46:35 Hiring at CursorFollow Sam on X: https://x.com/sjwhitmoreFollow me on X: https://x.com/ashebytes

On pop up villages for folks in frontier tech & science In conversation with Timour KostersTimour and the  Edge City team are on the cutting edge of curating in real life connections for folks on the frontier. In fact, a KPI they have are number of kids conceived because of Edge! Dive in: 00:28 Timour’s background04:55 Edge City - pop up villages for people in frontier tech + science 07:45 The crisis of dating & closely connecting 10:35 More kids in society15:37 Funding models for the residencies20:03 Reconceptualizing national identities 22:47 Safeguards to create communities that feel safe27:43 Renormalizing mistakes within community 30:05 Berlin as inspiration for a post AGI city34:27 Identity leaps 36:36 Advice for people who feel disconnected 41:36 Edgeclaw: openclaw for IRL meetups44:27 Frontier tech: Vasocomputation 48:09 The next generation of Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring etc 54:03 Edge city invitation

Stepping into the golden age of energy techIn conversation with Danielle Fong https://x.com/DanielleFong00:45 Danielle’s background, starting with college at 12 4:16 The global energy crisis 11:15 Productizing: from drones to data centers14:00 Powering your future openclaw with propane 14:34 Selling to the US gov vs consumer applications 19:30 AI, data centers, and new energy sources23:25 Agentic tools at Lightcell 27:54 Leveraging models across providers 29:54 Iterating on frontier science 43:22 Hyperscalers and the golden age of energy tech

On building consumer wearables in 2026In conversation with Andy Kong @oldestasian interested in hardware? me too. fascinating chat, amazing lab aesthetic

00:00 quiz-bowl buzzers to the SF wearables scene

02:25 pebble, kickstarter, and what's changed

05:49 2 ways of developing wearables

06:59 CMs, budgets, and designing your own board

09:53 using Alibaba chat to source partners

14:07 planning a shenzhen trip

18:27 board vs mold design

25:53 boston vs sf vs nyc for wearables

30:00 LLMs + board design

33:50 is hardware still hard?

36:22 cubesats + chargerless

37:11 validate publicly, quickly

Apologies, this episode cuts out towards the end. My bad :,)

In only 6 months, Zara Zhang - learned to code - grew from 2k→47k followers- consistently goes viral with the products she ships...when it's harder than ever to go viral

00:00 Builders want to learn how to put out content 01:40 Growing on X05:49 How to put out resonant content 10:19 Prolific building 11:47 2k→47k followers on X in 6 months16:59 Advice if you're new to vibe coding 22:31 Coding is the new form of literacy 27:19 Learning by building, safely & securely 28:06 The coding agent as the teacher 29:59 Coding models have gotten a lot better31:13 If you're building, you should be sharing 32:18 Software as a form of self-expression 34:42 People want raw, messy content 37:18 How to learn to code now

In conversation with Evan Conrad, CEO of SF Compute00:00 Rolling with the punches00:36 Bank account is going to $003:10 The upcoming compute shortage4:06 SF Compute as the chill GPU cloud provider company

In an era in which anyone can build anything, the builder playbook must include cultivating an audience. Matt Palmer has done this exceptionally well across platforms with his developer community. Matt breaks down the mindset for starting out with tech media and growing. 00:22 What are people getting wrong about the tech media landscape? 04:01 Few people ask about what it means to bring authenticity to content 05:34 On olympic weightlifting 06:30 On botanical sketches07:57 On separating from brand affiliation with content creation 08:28 On the techie to creative skillset switch 10:00 Favorite films11:54 The demand for storytellers 16:30 Consistency wins out over everything 18:00 Advice to ML/AI researchers who want to create content 20:47 On being silly 26:00 On the feeling of not being enough in content creation Follow Matt on X: https://x.com/mattypFollow Ashe on X: https://x.com/ashebytes

On feeling the AI acceleration in SF, Entering the Year of the Fire Horse, and Staying Grounded in Community

In conversation with Loewen Cavill, CEO of Amira and previously Google X & MIT.

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