Conversation about Apertus with Antoine Bosselut, Martin Jaggi and Imanol Schalg (EPFL and ETH Zurich)
In this episode, Marcel talks with Antoine Bosselut, Martin Jaggi and Imanol Schlag, the lead researchers behind Apertus, the newly released large language model. They discuss what it means to be truly open and compliant, and why Apertus is designed as much as a recipe for building transparent models as it is a model itself. The conversation explores the trade-offs between compliance and performance, the pioneering use of the Goldfish loss to curb memorization, and the importance of supporting low-resource languages like Romansh and Swiss German. They also talk about the Swiss AI Charter as a framework for aligning models with shared values, the role of students and researchers in building at scale, and how access to the Alps supercomputer made this possible.
From the messy reality of benchmarks to the opportunities for education, from the geopolitical stakes of sovereign AI to the future of multimodality and reasoning, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build an open, trustworthy foundation model at scale.
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1:34:45
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1:34:45
Conversation with Andreas Goeldi, b2venture
In this episode, Marcel talks with Andreas Goeldi, partner at b2venture and longtime entrepreneur, about the current state and future trajectory of artificial intelligence. They explore the boom-and-bust cycles of technology, the overheated AI market, and the realities behind the hype. From overlapping S-curves of innovation to the rise of solopreneurs, from the challenges for universities and entry-level jobs to the geopolitical stakes of AI regulation, this conversation offers a perspective from someone who has built, scaled, and now backs companies at the forefront of AI.
Find out more:
https://www.b2venture.vc/team/andreas-goeldi
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1:08:38
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1:08:38
Conversation with Adrian Cabrera de Luis, MailMaestro
Marcel chats with Adrian Cabrera de Luis, CEO of MailMaestro, about his path from EPFL and Harvard to BCG, MIT, and launching two startups—one acquired, the other now a leader in AI tools for Microsoft. Adrian shares how “seed-strapping” keeps his company profitable, why small AI-driven teams can outpace big players, and lessons from navigating consulting, entrepreneurship, and rapid tech change.
Find out more: https://www.maestrolabs.com/
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1:07:05
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1:07:05
Conversation with Babak Falsafi, EPFL
In this episode, Marcel Salathé talks with Babak Falsafi, professor at EPFL and founder of EcoCloud, about the growing energy demands of AI and cloud computing. They dive into the real-world impact of data centers, the technological and geopolitical dynamics of AI infrastructure, and what it means for sustainability. From GPU power trends to cooling challenges, and from energy-efficient algorithms to national strategies, this conversation unpacks the complex trade-offs at the intersection of AI and energy.
Find out more :
https://parsa.epfl.ch/~falsafi/#portfolio-area
https://www.sdea.ch/
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56:52
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56:52
Conversation with Stef van Grieken, Cradle
In this episode of Inside AI, Marcel sits down with Stef van Grieken, co-founder and CEO of Cradle, the company rewriting the rules of biology through generative AI.
From a small Dutch village to building Google’s TPU and now the frontier of synthetic biology, Stef shares the journey that led him to ask a transformative question: What if we could design proteins the way we generate images or text? Cradle’s software is already helping design next-generation drugs, materials, and sustainable alternatives to oil- and animal-based products — even enabling interns with no biology background to outperform billion-dollar pharma solutions.
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