Bet on research, not on vibes | Together AI’s Dan Fu

This week, Dev Interrupted takes a field trip all the way down to the GPU. Leading the way is Together AI’s VP of Kernels Dan Fu, a co-author of FlashAttention who also runs a research lab as an assistant professor at UC San Diego. He joins Andrew to talk about how ideas now move from the lab into production models within months, and what it means to build a cloud for AI. Dan argues that AI is an accelerant for individual engineers, and that the more domain expertise they bring, the faster it lets them go. They close the conversation on how DRIs and managers keep track of ownership and AI spend when your star players get even faster  Save your seat: Deliver outcomes when human attention can't keep up Follow the show: Subscribe to our Substack  Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Follow the hosts: Follow Andrew Follow Ben Follow Dan Follow today's guest: OpenWALDO: The open source AI project Greg launched, built on open weights, artifacts, licenses, data and origins OpenWALDO Slack: Join the community Greg invites listeners into OpenWALDO on GitHub: The project’s code and tooling CIQ: Greg’s company, where he is founder and CEO Rocky Linux: The enterprise Linux distribution whose community Greg set up Why Open Source Matters for AI: Tim O’Reilly’s piece on open weights, protocols and the architecture of participation Connect with Greg: LinkedIn OFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly. OFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.