Why AI company CTOs need to read research papers, not just code

Someone who's reading papers, who's actually aware of, like, something that DeepSeek released yesterday and how it completely changes the way you do efficient small language models.

39:10 / 39:45

Someone who's reading papers, who's actually aware of, like, something that DeepSeek released yesterday and how it completely changes the way you do efficient small language models. I think someone who can really understand how to apply the cutting edge or somewhat close to, let's say, the bare metal, so to speak, I think that's the kind of CTO profile that I think you need in a applied AI company today.

Really, really interesting. Thank you so much for sharing that. And, yeah, I think you're 100% right. The actual coding aspects of, like, a CTO's role is it's it's just changed so much. It's much more about having that bleeding edge technology

About this clip

Akash Bajwa explains why CTOs at AI companies need a fundamentally different skill set than traditional tech CTOs. He argues that staying on top of cutting-edge research like DeepSeek's latest releases is more valuable than pure coding ability when building applied AI products.

Why this clip

Provides specific, actionable guidance on what to look for when hiring technical leadership for AI companies in today's rapidly evolving landscape.

39:10 - 39:4535stactical advice

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