Minus One

How close are we to AGI, and what happens when AI systems stop behaving the way we expect? Srinivas Narayanan, former CTO of B2B Engineering at OpenAI and former VP of Engineering at Facebook, joins South Park Commons Partner Prateek Mehta for a wide-ranging conversation on his Minus One to Zero journey, enterprise AI adoption, and AI safety. They discuss the career choices that took him from two startups to Facebook and OpenAI, why a beginner’s mindset has mattered along the way, what is slowing AI adoption inside large companies, and how builders should think about reward hacking, alignment, and increasingly autonomous AI systems. Srinivas Narayanan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinivasnarayanan/ Prateek Mehta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-mehta-a571972/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply Chapters: (00:01:26) - How Close Are We to AGI? (00:02:26) - From IIT Madras to AI and OpenAI (00:07:32) - How to Find Problems Worth Spending a Decade On (00:12:38) - Building OpenAI Without a Playbook (00:15:24) - How OpenAI Built a High-Talent, High-Agency Team (00:18:12) - What’s Holding Back Enterprise AI Adoption (00:29:12) - The Future of AI Beyond the Digital World (00:36:42) - The Real Risks of AI and How to Think About Safety

What does it take to build something that lasts? Snowflake CEO and former Google SVP of Ads Sridhar Ramaswamy joins South Park Commons General Partner Aditya Agarwal to share his answer. Ramaswamy traces his journey from Google to founding Neeva, an ad-free search startup that shut down before the generative AI boom, to leading Snowflake through the AI era. He shares what defines great founders, what doomed Neeva, and why most software will lose its moat. Ramaswamy and Agarwal also explore the future of AI, what remains valuable in an age of AI-generated software, and the search belief Ramaswamy got wrong. Sridhar Ramaswamy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridhar-ramaswamy/ Aditya Agarwal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply (00:00:52) - Choosing When to Take a Career Risk (00:05:01) - Lessons From Google’s Founders (00:09:52) - What Went Wrong at Neeva (00:13:39) - The Future of AI Models (00:22:59) - Snowflake’s Enduring Value in the AI Era (00:29:24) - How to Keep Up With AI (00:32:24) - Rapid Fire: Books, Search & Google

Why did OpenAI’s model hack into Hugging Face? Tom McGrath, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Goodfire, joins South Park Commons Partner Jonathan Brebner to explore one of AI’s biggest challenges: interpretability. Using OpenAI’s recent reward hacking incident as a starting point, they discuss why today’s most advanced models are still difficult to understand and why gaining visibility into how they work could be essential for building safer, more reliable AI systems. Tom shares how interpretability could change the way researchers develop models and how Goodfire is creating tools to help understand and steer frontier AI. Tom McGrath: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-mcgrath-7337bb151/ Jonathan Brebner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-brebner/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply (00:00:30) - Why AI Interpretability Matters Now (00:02:15) - When AI Reward Hacking Becomes Real (00:05:07) - The Core Problem of Interpretability (00:07:23) - Intentional Design: Steering What Models Learn (00:12:43) - Neural Geometry: The Shapes Inside AI Models (00:22:29) - Turning Interpretability Research Into a Product (00:25:28) - How Research Changes Inside a Startup (00:32:48) - Science Fiction, AI Risk, and the Future

Thariq Shihipar, a member of Anthropic's Claude Code team (and SPC alum), joins South Park Commons Partner Evan Tana to discuss what it takes to build at the frontier of AI, where the models, tools, and best practices are constantly evolving. Thariq traces his journey from a gaming startup to Anthropic after a chance text about Claude Code, shares why his team stopped using Plan Mode, explains concepts like capability overhang, harness engineering, and the underrated art of writing evals, and discusses why RAG is becoming an anti-pattern. He also breaks down how founders should think about building when the capabilities of AI systems are changing faster than anyone can predict. Thariq Shihipar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thariqshihipar/ Evan Tana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evantana/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply Chapters: (00:00:00) - From Startup Founder to Anthropic (00:03:33) - Building Better AI With Claude Code (00:07:21) - The Capability Overhang (00:12:17) - How Anthropic Builds AI Products (00:17:51) - Prompting Claude More Effectively (00:30:58) - How AI Is Changing Product Teams (00:41:11) - Advice for AI Founders

What does it actually take to become an astronaut? Shubhanshu Shukla, the second Indian to travel to space after more than four decades, joins South Park Commons general partner Aditya Agarwal to share the answer. During Axiom Mission 4, Shukla became the first Indian aboard the International Space Station (ISS). An astronaut with ISRO and a Group Captain in the Indian Air Force, he shares what it takes to get there, from the intense selection process and psychological testing to a seven-day isolation challenge and other unexpected requirements candidates must meet. He also reflects on life in orbit, from speaking Hindi aboard the ISS for the first time to the disorientation, the overview effect, and the physical changes the human body experiences. Along the way, Shukla and Agarwal explore India’s space ambitions and what it takes to chase an outsized dream. Shubhanshu Shukla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagan-shux/ Aditya Agarwal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply (00:00:00) - Introduction: Becoming Comfortable With the Uncomfortable (00:01:54) - Why Saying "Yes" Changed the Course of His Life (00:07:15) - What It Really Takes to Become an Astronaut (00:11:40) - The Physical, Medical, and Psychological Tests (00:15:21) - What It Feels Like to See Earth From Space (00:17:20) - Microgravity: How Space Changes Your Body and Mind (00:25:35) - The Pressure and Responsibility of Representing India in Space (00:28:29) - The New Space Economy and Why the Next Decade Will Be Different (00:35:03) - Advice for Entrepreneurs Building the Future of Space (00:44:19) - The Future of Human Space Exploration: Moon, Mars, and Beyond