The State of AI & Education

What if the rise of Apple also built modern China? a16z’s Erik Torenberg is joined by board partner and former Microsoft Windows chief Steven Sinofsky to unpack how Apple’s pursuit of design excellence and supply chain scale catalyzed China’s manufacturing superpower status - and why that partnership is now under intense scrutiny. Inspired by the book Apple in China (but not a book review), the episode dives deep into: - The early days of Apple’s shift to Chinese manufacturing - What experts got wrong in 1999 about trade, globalization, and China’s trajectory - How Tim Cook’s operational playbook reshaped the global tech industry - Behind-the-scenes stories from Microsoft’s own hardware battles and Surface launch - Why Apple’s entanglement with China may now be a strategic liability - What COVID revealed about fragile global dependencies — and where innovation goes next - How national policy, intellectual property, and AI intersect in the new industrial era The episode opens with a few reactions to WWDC: Apple’s new UI, the iPad’s evolving role, and why Apple’s AI story still feels unfinished - before zooming out into one of the most consequential tech and geopolitical stories of our time.

In this recent episode of The Ben & Marc Show, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz sit down with Adam Neumann—founder of WeWork and now Flow—to unpack one of the most unlikely comeback stories in tech. What began as a personal reckoning after a very public fall has become a bold new vision for how we live and belong. Flow isn’t just a real estate company—it’s an operating system for community, built on first-principles software, design, and soul. Joined by a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg, the group goes deep on: - Why Adam’s childhood shaped his obsession with community - Adam’s fall from WeWork—and how he found a new path to redemption - How Flow is re-architecting real estate from scratch - Why loneliness is the greatest design challenge of our time With reflections on dyslexia, the American dream, and the thin line between failure and greatness, this is a candid and wide-ranging conversation about redemption, vision, and building something that matters in this world. We hope you enjoy this deeply human conversation about the future of living.

Things in consumer AI are moving fast. In this episode, Justine and Olivia, investing partners (and identical twins!) at a16z, break down what’s real, what’s overhyped, and what’s next across the consumer AI space. We cover: Veo 3: how Google's video model unlocked a new genre of content OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode: upgrades, realism, and... um, human-like hesitation Apple's big AI announcements (and the Siri letdown) 11Labs V3: expressive voice tags, real-time interruptions, and narrative tools for creators New data from a16z: AI consumer startups are ramping revenue faster than ever—and we show you how Justine walks through how she used GPT, Ideogram, and Krea to launch a fully AI-assisted brand prototype (store photos and all) Plus, we wrap with a tutorial + demo on making your own AI brand - from ideation to visuals to voice. It’s exhausting (in the best way) to be a creative in the age of AI.

In this episode Jack Altman, CEO of Lattice and host of Uncapped, interviews Marc Andreessen on how venture capital is evolving - from small seed funds to billion-dollar barbell strategies - and why today’s most important tech companies don’t just build tools, they replace entire industries. They cover: - The end of “picks and shovels” investing - Why missing a great company matters more than backing a bad one - The power law math behind fund size and asymmetric returns - AI as the next computing platform — and a test for Western civilization - Preference falsification, media power, and what founders can’t say out loud This is a conversation about ambition at scale, the structure of modern venture, and the deep forces reshaping startups, innovation, and power.

What if crypto isn’t just a speculative asset class—but the next foundational layer of the internet? In this episode, Chris Dixon, founding partner of a16z crypto and one of the earliest, most forward-thinking investors in the space, joins TBPN for a wide-ranging conversation on the real, long-term promise of crypto—and why we're still early. He unpacks: -Why stablecoins are already functioning as internet-native money -How blockchains can serve as global, programmable financial infrastructure -Why programmability, not just low fees, is the real unlock -The evolving regulatory landscape and new bipartisan momentum -The rise of AI agents, decentralized platforms, and real-world crypto use cases This episode is about long-term thinking, technical optimism, and building open infrastructure for the future of the internet.