From Control Theory to AGI: Why CMU's Zico Kolter Is Fully 'AGI-Pilled’

In this inaugural episode of AI Pathfinders, Vijay Reddy, partner at Mayfield, sits down with Zico Kolter, Head of Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University and OpenAI board member. Zico shares his journey from teaching autonomous cars to power slide to pioneering AI safety research. Drawing on his experience across academia, startups, and enterprise AI, Zico offers a rare insider perspective on enterprise AI adoption challenges, the balance between open and closed-source models, and why he's changed his mind about AGI—now believing it might arrive much sooner than expected. Whether you're interested in the technical challenges of AI robustness, practical deployment concerns, or philosophical questions about artificial general intelligence, this conversation delivers valuable insights from someone working at the cutting edge of AI innovation.