Ion Stoica on Agentic Systems and AI Reliability | Ray on the Road

Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

In this fireside chat, Ion Stoica—Professor at UC Berkeley and co-founder of Anyscale and Databricks—joins Aaron Schildkrout, former Head of Growth at Uber and founding investor at Addition, to discuss the evolving landscape of AI infrastructure and its implications for the future of software development.

Ion and Aaron dive into the challenges of scaling AI systems, emphasizing the need for high-quality proprietary data, reliable evaluation methods – especially for agentic systems – and human oversight to ensure trustworthiness. They explore how AI is reshaping software engineering, with agents playing a growing role in code generation and the emergence of new programming paradigms that require clear instruction and robust evaluation. The conversation also addresses global AI policy, underscoring the importance of collaboration, shared infrastructure, open-source models, and long-term investment to maintain leadership in AI innovation.

Whether you're an AI builder, strategist, or policymaker, this fireside chat offers a clear-eyed look at what it really takes to make AI work—today and in the future.

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