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cover of episode Omar Shams: AI Founder and Google AI Agent Lead — #89

Omar Shams: AI Founder and Google AI Agent Lead — #89

2025/7/3
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Manifold
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Omar Shams: 我对物理学的热爱始于高中时读到的双生子悖论，这让我觉得魔法是真实存在的，因此我必须学习魔法。在研究生阶段，我研究了全息投影，利用非交换几何体重建时空。后来，我对生物物理学，特别是基因组学方面产生了兴趣，并意识到机器学习技术在处理这些数据方面的强大之处。我在本科时也做过一些格点量子色动力学的工作，但真正开始接触这个领域是在我的第一份工作，我为一个名为Hi-Fi的小公司构建了一个音乐推荐引擎。 Steve Hsu: 即使只懂一点代数，也能重新推导出洛伦兹变换和狭义相对论。当你意识到一些非常简单的经验输入，比如光速对任何人来说都一样，无论这个人的移动速度如何，这种简单的观察加上一些逻辑和方程，就会导致双生子悖论。物理学家的大脑被设计成模拟现实世界，如果你能利用这一点，你就能做非常强大的事情。物理的深度在于哲学思考和物理思考，即如果迈克尔逊和莫雷做了这个实验，发现无论他们在哪个框架中，他们总是测量到相同的光速值，这突然产生了令人难以置信的含义，你可以通过非常简单的数学来实现。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Omar Shams discusses his transition from theoretical physics to AI, recounting his fascination with the twin paradox in high school and his subsequent exploration of various fields within physics. He highlights the visual nature of his physics experience and contrasts this with the mathematical approach of some mathematicians. The conversation concludes by bridging the gap between physical intuition and its application in modern AI research.
  • Omar Shams's background in theoretical physics.
  • His initial fascination with physics stemmed from encountering the twin paradox.
  • The visual and intuitive nature of his approach to physics problems.
  • The comparison between the intuitive approach of physicists and the mathematical approach of mathematicians.
  • The connection between physical intuition and AI research

Shownotes Transcript

Shams was trained in theoretical physics before becoming an AI engineer at DeepMind and founding the company Mutable, which was acquired by Google. He is now lead engineer for Google's software agent group.

Steve and Omar discuss:

  • (00:00) - Introduction

  • (01:18) - Journey from Physics to AI

  • (10:51) - Elon Tried to Buy DeepMind

  • (16:52) - Building Mutable and Auto Wiki as Context for LLMs

  • (33:39) - The Value of AI Talent and Meta's AI Hiring Spree

  • (42:58) - AI and The Workforce

  • (58:02) - The Intersection of Physics and AI

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure. –

Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.