David Pantera

I build products, play games, train AI models, and invest in startups. Not necessarily in that order.

Some things about me:

  • Grew up in Half Moon Bay, CA.

  • Graduated from Stanford. Worked at NASA, Google, and Intel during college.

  • Early career at Google, building fun consumer products on top of early image and video generation models, at Android and Pixel.

  • Went back to Stanford to get my MBA, but dropped out halfway through.

  • Spent some time at World Labs, Fei-Fei Li's research lab, building world models from scratch.

  • Now I work on building world models and interactive media experiences at Google DeepMind.

Angel Investing:

I invest in startups that are building AI-powered applications, AI models, and/or AI infrastructure. I've invested in ~15 startups and work with most of them as a product advisor. I invest out of the a16z scout fund.

Writing:

I publish my thoughts on technology, AI, world models, gaming, economics, and more on X and LinkedIn.

Some things I believe:

  • AI needs more than language to understand the world.

    • Language gave machines a way to describe the world, but description is not the same as understanding it.

    • Acting within a world requires a deeper level of understanding: a model of space, objects, physics, and consequences.

    • World models will give AI the spatial intelligence it needs to evolve from talking about the world to operating within it.

  • The future of media is interactive.

    • People will increasingly explore stories and worlds instead of only passively watch them.

    • Games are the clearest preview of where entertainment and social experiences are going.

  • Model capability only matters when it becomes a useful product.

    • A model is only valuable when it helps people do something meaningful that they could not do before.

    • The best products turn model capabilities into an experience people can easily understand, trust, and want to use repeatedly.

  • Human taste becomes more valuable as creation gets cheaper.

    • When anyone can generate content, judgment and originality become the bottlenecks.

  • Agency compounds.

    • Acting creates opportunities, relationships, and information that planning alone cannot produce.

    • Each thing you ship makes the next thing easier to build. Keep shipping.

  • Be kind to others.

    • In turn, inspire them to be kind to others.

    • We have a responsibility to give back to the communities that shaped us.

Fun facts:

  • My favorite video games are Minecraft, The Witcher 3, NBA2k, Star Wars Battlefront, and New World: Aeternum.

  • I used to own and operate a large multiplayer Minecraft server with my brother.

  • I am an Eagle Scout.

  • During my undergrad at Stanford, I was the class president for all four years. When I returned for my MBA, I was the student body president, until I dropped out.

  • My girlfriend is a professional ballerina.

  • I used to stream on Twitch and post on YouTube regularly.