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title: We Taught AI to Play Games—Now It’s a $3.6 Million Company
description: >-
  This episode is a little different from our usual fare: It’s a conversation
  with our head of AI training Alex Duffy about Good Start Labs, a company he
  incubated inside Every. Today, Good Start Labs is spinning out of Every as a
  separate company with $3.6 million in funding from General Catalyst, Inovia,
  Every, and a group of angel investors from top-tier AI labs like DeepMind. We
  get into how Alex learned some of his biggest lessons about the real world
  from games, starting with RuneScape, which taught him how markets work and how
  not to get scammed. He explains why the static benchmarks we use to evaluate
  LLMs today are breaking down, and how games like Diplomacy offer a richer,
  more dynamic way to test and train large language models. Finally, Alex shares
  where he sees the most promise in AI—software, life sciences, and
  education—and why he believes games can make the models we use smarter, while
  helping people understand and use AI more effectively. If you found this
  episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share. Want even
  more? Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT
  here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually
  only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free. To hear more
  from Dan Shipper: • Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe • Follow
  him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:01:48
  - Introduction 00:04:14 - Why evals and benchmarks are broken 00:07:13 - The
  sneakiest LLMs in the market 00:13:00 - A competition that turns prompting
  into a sport 00:15:49 - Building a business around using games to make AI
  better 00:22:39 - Can language models learn how to be funny 00:25:31 - Why
  games are a great way to evaluate and train new models 00:26:58 - What child
  psychology tells us about games and AI 00:30:10 - Using games to unlock
  continual learning in AI 00:36:42 - Why Alex cares deeply about games 00:44:37
  - Where Alex sees the most promise in AI 00:50:54 - Rethinking how young
  people start their careers in the age of AI Links to resources mentioned in
  the episode: • Alex Duffy: https://x.com/alxai Good Start Labs:
  https://goodstartlabs.com/, https://x.com/goodstartlabs • The book Alex is
  reading about the importance of games: Playing with Reality: How Games Shape
  Our World - https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Reality-Kelly-Clancy/dp/0241545501
  • The book Dan recommends by the psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott: Playing and
  Reality
  -https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Reality-Routledge-Classics-86-dp-0415345464/dp/0415345464
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  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/video/we-taught-ai-to-play-games-now-it-s-a-3-6-million-c-148c764e2dcd
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  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/video/we-taught-ai-to-play-games-now-it-s-a-3-6-million-c-148c764e2dcd.md
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# We Taught AI to Play Games—Now It’s a $3.6 Million Company

This episode is a little different from our usual fare: It’s a conversation with our head of AI training Alex Duffy about Good Start Labs, a company he incubated inside Every. Today, Good Start Labs is spinning out of Every as a separate company with $3.6 million in funding from General Catalyst, Inovia, Every, and a group of angel investors from top-tier AI labs like DeepMind. We get into how Alex learned some of his biggest lessons about the real world from games, starting with RuneScape, which taught him how markets work and how not to get scammed. He explains why the static benchmarks we use to evaluate LLMs today are breaking down, and how games like Diplomacy offer a richer, more dynamic way to test and train large language models. Finally, Alex shares where he sees the most promise in AI—software, life sciences, and education—and why he believes games can make the models we use smarter, while helping people understand and use AI more effectively. If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share. Want even more? Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free. To hear more from Dan Shipper: • Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe • Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:01:48 - Introduction 00:04:14 - Why evals and benchmarks are broken 00:07:13 - The sneakiest LLMs in the market 00:13:00 - A competition that turns prompting into a sport 00:15:49 - Building a business around using games to make AI better 00:22:39 - Can language models learn how to be funny 00:25:31 - Why games are a great way to evaluate and train new models 00:26:58 - What child psychology tells us about games and AI 00:30:10 - Using games to unlock continual learning in AI 00:36:42 - Why Alex cares deeply about games 00:44:37 - Where Alex sees the most promise in AI 00:50:54 - Rethinking how young people start their careers in the age of AI Links to resources mentioned in the episode: • Alex Duffy: https://x.com/alxai Good Start Labs: https://goodstartlabs.com/, https://x.com/goodstartlabs • The book Alex is reading about the importance of games: Playing with Reality: How Games Shape Our World - https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Reality-Kelly-Clancy/dp/0241545501 • The book Dan recommends by the psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott: Playing and Reality -https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Reality-Routledge-Classics-86-dp-0415345464/dp/0415345464

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/video/we-taught-ai-to-play-games-now-it-s-a-3-6-million-c-148c764e2dcd · Channel: [Every](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc.md)

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