In this episode of AI Basics, Jason sits down with Yoav Shoham — Stanford professor emeritus and co-founder of AI21 Labs, creators of Jurassic-2, Wordtune, and the new orchestration system Maestro.
They unpack:
This one is for founders building with AI — if you're navigating hallucinations, chasing automation, or exploring multi-agent workflows, this episode is a must.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Yoav Shoham joins Jason to discuss AI Basics.
(1:05) What AI21 Labs is building — from Jurassic-2 to Maestro
(5:49) The overuse and confusion of the seductive term “agent”
(8:22) Small models vs large models: what's best for enterprise?
(10:53) The verticalization of AI: legal, accounting, and beyond
(12:17) The challenge of agent-to-agent communication and shared semantics
(17:08) What’s overhyped vs underhyped in AI — Yoav’s advice for founders
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More AI Basics Episodes
Founders, operators, and builders — catch up on our full Startup Basics series (Legal, Finance, Growth & AI):
👉 thisweekinstartups.com/basics
Links from episde:
Learn About Google’s A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Protocol
The next evolution in agent interoperability and coordination:
Follow Yoav:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoavshoham/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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