Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Srivastava: AI Defensibility Comes from Workflow Integration, Not Models Alone

Tuhin Srivastava · Baseten CEO Tuhin Srivastava on Custom Models, and Building the Inference Cloud · May 1, 2026 · at 2:42

Baseten CEO Tuhin Srivastava explains to Sarah Guo and Elad Gil why AI application layer startups can survive competition from frontier foundation model labs.

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“To the extent that that is encoded in a model, I think a lot of their business will be at risk, but to the extent that it is encoded in workflows that is where they will be able to develop mode.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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