May 3, 2024 · 1h 15m · allin
Sheryl Sandberg, plus open-source AI gene editing explained
Sheryl Sandberg · 22m spoken Jason Calacanis · 18m spoken David Friedberg · 15m spoken Chamath Palihapitiya · 8m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the All-In Podcast, guest Sheryl Sandberg reveals the creator behind the iconic @FakeChamath account, discusses her documentary *Screams Before Silence* on October 7 sexual violence, and addresses campus unrest, followed by a Science Corner deep dive into open-source AI gene editing.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 64.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 2.0 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 0.8 The hosts pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 20:25 Refuting Denialist Claims
Sheryl passionately rejects the premise of denialist articles asking where the victims are, forcefully pointing out that the victims of the sexual violence are dead.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 35:30 Challenging Photo OmissionJason challenges Sheryl's editorial decision to omit graphic photos from the documentary, arguing that unassailable photographic proof is required to combat modern conspiracy theories.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 17:30 History of War Crime FrameworksSheryl educates the hosts on the legal evolution over the past 30 years regarding sexual violence as a recognized tool of war and war crime following conflicts in DRC and Bosnia.
The host holds their own ▶ 1:30 Sheryl's Financial Track RecordJason demonstrates deep business acumen by detailing exact historical revenue growth figures and combined market cap scale across Google and Meta during Sheryl's tenure.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome Sheryl Sandberg & Podcast Framing | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jason opens the podcast framing by demonstrating detailed knowledge of Sheryl Sandberg's business career, citing exact historical revenue numbers and market caps for Google and Meta. | |
| Remembering Dave Goldberg & The Reveal of Fake Chamath | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Sheryl and the hosts reminisce about Dave Goldberg, with Sheryl revealing for the first time that Dave was the creator behind the famous Fake Chamath Twitter account. | |
| Podcast Ground Rules & Setting Up the Conversation | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Chamath and Friedberg ask about the psychological roots of denialism, and Sheryl educates the hosts on the 30-year history framing rape as an international war crime. | |
| Responding to Deniers & Eyewitness Testimonies | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | Friedberg brings up an article from Greyzone questioning the evidence of sexual assault, prompting a passionate refutation from Sheryl regarding why living victims are rare and how eyewitness testimony functions legally. | |
| Moral Clarity, Empathy, and Campus Unrest | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | The panel explores the dynamics of campus protests, while Jason challenges Sheryl on her editorial decision to exclude explicit photographs of sexual violence from the film. | |
| Moral Principles, Media Fog, and Closing Remarks with Sheryl | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Jason steel-mans the pro-Palestinian perspective of student protesters, while Sheryl expresses gratitude for the hosts' passionate condemnation of sexual violence. | |
| Post-Interview Reflection & Transition to Science Corner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | In a post-interview monologue segment among the hosts, Chamath and Friedberg reflect on historical atrocities and the absolute necessity of establishing objective facts in public discourse. | |
| Introduction to Open-Source AI Gene Editing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Friedberg leads Science Corner with a host monologue explaining the first-principles biology behind CRISPR-Cas systems and guide RNA. | |
| ProFluent Bio's AI-Generated OpenCRISPR-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Friedberg presents ProFluent Bio's open-source release of OpenCRISPR-1, generated using an AI protein language model. | |
| Comparing Patent Blockers to HTML and Open Source | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | The hosts discuss how patent thickets hinder scientific progress, drawing parallels between open-source gene editing and open web standards like HTML. | |
| How Protein Language Models Work | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Friedberg concludes the segment by detailing how ProFluent trained its language model on 26 trillion base pairs to generate entirely novel Cas proteins. |
Statements from this episode (18)
Calacanis: Google revenue grew from $20M to $22B during Sandberg's tenure
“When she joined Google in 2001, it had twenty million in revenue. They were private. And when she left in 2008, they had twenty two billion dollars in revenue.”
Calacanis: Meta's revenue grew from $270M to $117B during Sandberg's tenure
“When she joined Facebook in 2008, it was at two hundred and seventy million dollars in revenue. When she left, it was at a hundred and seventeen billion.”
Sandberg reveals late husband Dave Goldberg was creator of @FakeChamath account
“Dave was fake Chamath. Now, he didn't write all the tweets himself. I know all of you helped him, but he wrote a bunch of them”
Sandberg: Advocacy leaders privately cite staff pushback for staying silent
“A bunch of them have said to me privately, I know you're right. Of course, sexual violence isn't okay. And of course this happened, but I can't speak out because all my employees are going to get upset. I can't speak out because the young people, and that make…”
Sandberg cites UN report confirming October 7 sexual violence in Israel
“The UN special representative on sexual violence Pramila Patton traveled to Israel, and here is what she wrote. She said, Eyewitnessed in Israel were scenes of unspeakable violence perpetrated with shocking brutality. Catalog of the most extreme and inhumane f…”
Sandberg: Amit Soussana is the only released hostage testifying to sexual assault
“There is exactly one person who is an escaped, a released hostage. Her name is Amit Sasana. She gave a video interview. You all saw it. We have the only video interview in this documentary, and she tells her story very clearly.”
Sandberg: Dozens of October 7 victims suffered sexual assault
“There were 1200 people killed. And at least dozens of them were sexually brutalized, assaulted.”
Sandberg: October 7 sexual violence was systematic and pre-planned
“The sexual violence was multiple locations, systematic, meets the definition of a war crime, a crime against humanity, and was part of the plan.”
Sandberg: Forensic rape kits were not performed on October 7 victims
“There were not rape kits done.”
Sandberg: Universities permitting protests are failing to enforce their rules
“The schools that are letting this happen are not enforcing their own rules.”
Chamath: Elite universities consist mostly of privileged, over-coached students
“You see them at Columbia, Harvard. There are these specific Berkeley, UCLA that are bastions of privileged kids for the most part. These are extremely elite institutions that typically Allow in kids that have been coached their entire lives to get into those s…”
Calacanis: ProFluent Bio open-sourced an AI-powered gene editor
“There's a startup that just open sourced an AI gene editor. Yes, you heard that right. Open source gene editor powered by AI. It's called ProFluent Bio.”
Friedberg: Discoveries in nature should not be patentable
“I don't think you should be able to patent stuff that you discover in nature.”
Friedberg: Most foundational CRISPR patents are held by Broad Institute
“The main original foundational patents, which are now mostly held after a lot of litigation by the Broad Institute, which is, you know, there's this kind of joint patent arrangement with the Broad and MIT and Harvard.”
Friedberg: OpenCRISPR-1 is 400 mutations away from natural proteins
“This particular protein that they identified is 400 mutations away from anything that they've seen in nature.”
Friedberg: ProFluent Bio's OpenCRISPR-1 tested much better than Cas9
“They identified one that they then sequenced, they created it, they put it in a lab, they tested it, and it turned out to be much better than Cas nine.”
Friedberg: Gene editing applications should be patentable, but core tools should not
“I think all the applications of gene editing should be patentable and protectable, but the core tools are so powerful and important that I think it's very difficult and hard to see how we are accelerating humanity's progress by keeping these things at bay.”