624: How Waymo Actually Works, Jensen's Big Bet, Canada's Lost Decade, Secret Soviet Space Cannon, Claude's Domesticated Claw, Chinese Wifi, and My Review of Project Hail Mary

2026-03-25 · Source: Liberty’s Highlights · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, Cloud Computing & IT Infrastructure · Depth: Intermediate, long

Summary

The article explores the concept of "humanizing" figures, arguing that it makes achievements more impressive and evil more frightening by removing the comfortable distance of deification. It highlights Michael Jordan's human effort over divine talent and notes that figures like Hitler and Stalin are scarier when viewed as ordinary people capable of extreme acts. The piece also touches on practical, easily ignored problems like car tire pressure and dusty fridge coils. Additionally, it features an interview with Waymo's Dmitri Dolgov on their self-driving car architecture, emphasizing a "foundation model → teachers → students" approach and the qualitative jump from driver-assist to full autonomy. Jensen Huang discusses Nvidia's CUDA bet, its strategic importance, and a proposal for utilizing the power grid's idle capacity for data centers. Economic data reveals Canada's significant decline in GDP per capita and happiness from 2014-2024, partly due to brain drain. Other topics include the Soviet Salyut 3 space station's secret 23mm autocannon, the FCC's ban on foreign consumer routers, and Anthropic's development of agentic AI features for Claude Cowork and Claude Code, allowing models to operate computers directly.

Key takeaway

For CTOs and VPs of Engineering evaluating AI and infrastructure strategies, consider the long-term platform bets like Nvidia's CUDA, which prioritized an installed base over short-term profits. Your teams should also explore demand-response mechanisms for data center power, leveraging existing grid capacity rather than solely building new. Recognize that full autonomy in AI is a distinct challenge from driver-assist, requiring a dedicated approach rather than incremental upgrades.

Key insights

Humanizing figures makes greatness more impressive and evil more terrifying by emphasizing human agency and replicable inputs.

Principles

• Deification makes greatness feel inevitable and less impressive.
• Full autonomy is a qualitative jump, not an incremental step from driver-assist.
• An installed base is the single most important part of a computing architecture.

Method

Waymo's architecture uses a large off-board foundation model, specialized into three off-board teachers (Waymo Driver, simulator, critic), which are then distilled into smaller, faster inference models for in-car operation.

In practice

• Check car tire pressure and clean fridge coils to save energy.
• Utilize demand-response for data centers to tap idle grid capacity.
• Explore agentic AI models for direct computer operation.

Topics

• Waymo Autonomous Driving
• NVIDIA CUDA Ecosystem
• Agentic AI Models
• Data Center Power Management
• Canadian Economic Trends

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, AI Engineer, Investor, Tech Journalist

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Liberty’s Highlights.