will o’brien

The future of #ArtificialIntelligence is not pre-determined. As a technology developed by human beings, its future depends on the choices we make. We therefore have the responsibility to guide, change and, when necessary, reject its applications. A reliable system that serves the human person is of greater value than one that is exceptionally powerful but whose consequences cannot be adequately foreseen or controlled.

The 2026 American Dynamism 50 is here: our annual list of 50 companies, from within the a16z portfolio and beyond, building for America's future. This year's theme is Production is Deterrence. "America's ability to prevent conflict depends on what it can build, how fast it can deliver, and how long it can keep going." A new generation of defense companies is moving from prototypes to full-scale production, and the industrial base has to keep pace. This year's list is organized around three pillars: 1. Systems: the drones, ships, missiles, aircraft, and spacecraft that deter conflict. 2. Factories: the plants, tools, and software that build them. 3. Inputs: the materials and power they're made of and run on. Get all three right, and the impact reaches well beyond defense, to skilled jobs, revitalized communities, and the supply chains behind energy, housing, and everyday goods. Meet all 50: a16z.news/p/ad-50-2026-produ…

UlyssesTV - Episode 1: Jack fixed the robot. The Ulysses team is on the water testing every day. More time on the water means faster learning and a better product for our customers. Engineers like Jack make those days go swimmingly well.

This Friday, I’ll be giving a talk on the historical case for the resurrection of Christ. Several years ago, I began looking into the historical evidence as an atheist to prove that Christianity was nothing but a therapeutic superstition. What I found completely changed my life. Over the course of a year, I spent nearly every waking moment reading whatever I could find on the subject. My entire life was suddenly reorganized around answering this one question: did Jesus Christ actually rise from the dead? There was a time when I thought this question was too ridiculous to even consider. But looking back, it was by far the most important question I've ever asked. If you're interested in learning more, check out the link to the event page below. All are welcome to join regardless of religious background or lack thereof.

UlyssesTV - Episode 1: Jack fixed the robot. The Ulysses team is on the water testing every day. More time on the water means faster learning and a better product for our customers. Engineers like Jack make those days go swimmingly well.

Wore my Navajo earrings & cowgirl boots to see @OsGuinness give an excellent lecture on faith’s role in freedom. Thank you for another lovely evening Hamilton Society, @Willob @pratheology @fedpoasts

1/ Today we’re unveiling Bombadil, @electricplantco's foundation model that reads the electrical signals of living plants and turns them into a continuous view of their physiology. Trained on 7M+ hours of plant electrical signal across 125+ species. That makes Bombadil the most species-diverse model of directly recorded electrical biosignals in existence. The animal equivalent would be one model that reads the brainwaves of blue whales, horseshoe crabs and fruit flies.

Packy McCormick's picks for the most compelling companies to join: "ambitious missions, exceptional talent density, steep learning curves, and the potential to create enormous value." Software / AI - Ramp - Thatch - Replit - General Intuition - Arena Physica - Blackbird - [untitled] - Poetic Hardware / infrastructure - Base Power - Anduril - Hadrian - Astro Mechanica - Somos Internet - Meter - Earth AI - Radiant - Varda Space - Fuse - Westmag - Antares - Terraform Industries - Standard Nuclear - Standard Bots - Valar Atomics - Ulysses - Aalo Atomics - Senra Systems - Impulse Labs - Vight - General Matter - Monumental Labs - Daylight Computer - Airbound - Autoridad Panandina Services - Primer - Wander cosign.co/lists/packym/top-c…

Endurance is on a historic run. During our mission to the Axial Seamount, we successfully drilled the world’s first subsea geothermal well and generated net-positive power a mile beneath the Pacific. This mission was the first end-to-end test of subsea geothermal, and our fifth deep-sea deployment in just over a year. For three weeks, we worked around the clock over an active underwater volcano, running the drill and generator and handling every deployment and recovery. Along the way, we: - Landed our drill within feet of target, drilled two holes, and cased and completed the second as a geothermal well, flowing at 260°C. - Landed Adélie, our 3-ton test plant, and ran it in real time from Seattle over subsea fiber. - Drilled with filtered seawater, not drilling mud, and monitored the site on every dive. - Recovered, serviced, and redeployed Adélie in about 16 hours. - And on Sept. 27, connected to a 281°C natural vent, spun the turbine up to 26,000 rpm and ran the plant net positive for 8.7 seconds, peaking at 16.5 kW. Net power is the threshold every new energy source has to cross. For Endurance, it proves subsea geothermal is real, and gives us the confidence to keep sprinting towards commercial scale. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn: a battery protection trip ended the run, a pump cable failed on restart, and the new well was too restrictive to run the plant. Those lessons go straight into Gentoo, our next test plant, this winter and Leopard, our 2 MW commercial generator. We’re incredibly proud of what we accomplished together. It took creativity, precision, an uncompromising focus on safety from everyone on board, and it’s only the beginning of what we’re capable of. We couldn’t have done it without Stabbert Maritime and the crew of the Ocean Guardian, the ROPOS team, the University of Washington, WASSOC, and the National Science Foundation.

Every year, Rory Gallagher came home to Cork to play Macroom, Ireland’s first open-air rock festival. In 1978, he made it legendary. He rolled up in a car, grabbed his battle-scarred ‘61 Strat, ran straight up the steps with no soundcheck, and tore into “Shin Kicker.” Pure rock and roll.