Why we’re at the beginning of the AI hardware boom | Caitlin Kalinowski (ex–OpenAI, Meta, Apple)
Why we’re at the beginning of the AI hardware boom | Caitlin Kalinowski (ex–OpenAI, Meta, Apple)
Caitlin Kalinowski was most recently at OpenAI helping build their robotics and hardware teams from scratch. Prior to that, she was head of AR glasses and VR hardware at Meta, where she led the teams building every generation of the Quest, Rift, and Orion, and was Meta’s first consumer electronics hire. Before this, she was technical lead on MacBook Air and Mac Pro at Apple, and helped engineer the original unibody MacBook Pro. She’s designed and engineered some of the hardest and most beloved consumer hardware products in history and is now focused on the next frontier: robotics.
Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:
VR—what happened?
The coming memory price shock and why she’s telling startups to pre-buy now
How the technologies built for VR became the foundation of modern warfare
Why humanoid robots are still just prototypes, and what’s actually gating mass deployment
Lessons from Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman
Why she left OpenAI
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Where to find Caitlin Kalinowski:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ckalinowski
• Website: https://www.caitlinkalinowski.com
Referenced:
• MacBook: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac
• Brett Degner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-degner-a723594
• Apple Vision Pro: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro
• Orion glasses: https://www.meta.com/emerging-tech/orion
• Marc Andreessen: The real AI boom hasn’t even started yet: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/marc-andreessen-the-real-ai-boom
• Palmer Luckey on X: https://x.com/PalmerLuckey
• Anduril: https://www.anduril.com
• OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai
• Moltbook: https://www.moltbook.com
• Nat Friedman on X: https://x.com/natfriedman
• Shelly Goldberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelly-goldberg-9b3b621
• Kate Bergeron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katebergeron
• Matic: https://maticrobots.com
• Mehul Nariyawala on X: https://x.com/mehul
• Tesla: https://www.tesla.com
• Starlink: https://starlink.com
• The Godmother of AI on jobs, robots, and why world models are next | Dr. Fei-Fei Li: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-godmother-of-ai
• Why experts writing AI evals is creating the fastest-growing companies in history | Brendan Foody (CEO of Mercor): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/experts-writing-ai-evals-brendan-foody
• The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google’s secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/surge-ai-edwin-chen
• Inside the expert network training every frontier AI model | Garrett Lord (Handshake CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-handshake-garrett-lord
• Yelena Rachitsky on X: https://x.com/yelenart
• Leila Takayama on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leilatakayama
• Pixar: https://www.pixar.com
• Disney: https://www.disney.com
• Caitlin’s post on leaving OpenAI: https://x.com/kalinowski007/status/2030320074121478618
• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama
• Jony Ive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jony_Ive
• Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zuck
• Making Meta | Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-meta-andrew-boz-bosworth-cto
• Quest 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_2
• Euphoria on HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/shows/euphoria/4ffd33c9-e0d6-4cd6-bd13-34c266c79be0
• Vollebak: https://vollebak.com
• Tim Urban’s post on X: https://x.com/waitbutwhy/status/1367871165319049221
• Old Testament: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament
Recommended books:
• Shadow & Claw (The Book of the New Sun, 1): https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book/dp/1250781256
• Mrs. Dalloway: https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Dalloway-VIRGINIA-WOOLF/dp/8175994215
• The Histories: https://www.amazon.com/Histories-Herodotus/dp/0140449086
• The Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.amazon.com/Epic-Gilgamesh/dp/014044100X
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
My biggest takeaways from this conversation:
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