Why we’re at the beginning of the AI hardware boom | Caitlin Kalinowski (ex–OpenAI, Meta, Apple)
5/17/20261 hr 39 min
Caitlin Kalinowski was most recently at OpenAI helping build their robotics and hardware teams from scratch. Prior to that, she was head of AR glasses and VR hardware at Meta, where she led the teams building every generation of the Quest, Rift, and Orion, and was Meta’s first consumer electronics hire. Before this, she was technical lead on MacBook Air and Mac Pro at Apple, and helped engineer the original unibody MacBook Pro. She’s designed and engineered some of the hardest and most beloved consumer hardware products in history and is now focused on the next frontier: robotics.
In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:
1. VR—what happened?
2. The coming memory price shock and why she’s telling startups to pre-buy now
3. How the technologies built for VR became the foundation of modern warfare
4. Why humanoid robots are still just prototypes, and what’s actually gating mass deployment
5. Lessons from Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman
6. Why she left OpenAI
—
Brought to you by:
WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lenny
Vanta—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI: https://vanta.com/lenny
—
Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-were-at-the-beginning-of-the
—
Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0
—
Where to find Caitlin Kalinowski:
• X: https://x.com/kalinowski007
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ckalinowski
• Website: https://www.caitlinkalinowski.com
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Caitlin Kalinowski
(02:32) Why VR didn’t take off despite incredible hardware
(04:55) The future of AR glasses and physical AI
(08:45) Why robotics and hardware are suddenly hot
(13:33) Why humanoid robots aren’t ready yet
(16:13) Supply chain bottlenecks threatening robotics
(17:31) Why magnets and actuators are critical dependencies
(20:51) The geopolitical implications of hardware supply chains
(24:48) AI safety concerns with physical robots
(26:50) Apple’s approach to hardware excellence
(30:10) Building a hardware program from scratch at Meta
(31:39) The Quest 2 cost reduction story
(33:07) Critical principles for hardware development
(39:58) The MacBook Air manila envelope moment
(41:01) The butterfly keyboard situation
(41:43) Lessons from Apple on customer feedback
(44:46) The memory price crisis coming for hardware
(49:31) How many components go into a robot
(52:53) When to use off-the-shelf vs. custom components
(55:02) How AI is changing hardware engineering
(1:00:27) Why humanoids aren’t the answer for most use cases
(1:03:05) When robots will build other robots
(1:06:23) What makes a robot feel human and connected
(1:09:15) Robots in the home
(1:12:00) What the next five years look like
(1:15:38) Why she left OpenAI
(1:18:09) How to hire exceptional hardware teams
(1:23:42) Lessons from Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman
(1:27:27) Failure corner
(1:32:33) Lightning round
—
References: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-were-at-the-beginning-of-the
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsCaitlin Kalinowski· Guest0:00
There's a dawning realization, especially in the labs, the acceleration is going so vertical that what you can do behind a keyboard with AI is gonna saturate. When that happens, the next frontier is the physical world, robotics, manufacturing, industrialization.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:14
You're living in the future and designing it.
Caitlin Kalinowski· Guest0:16
There's probably more change in war than there is in consumer electronics in the next two years. We need to invest a lot more in drones than in aircraft carriers.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:25
Just imagine 100,000 drones coming out of China just at us.
Caitlin Kalinowski· Guest0:29
I do feel that we need to re-industrialize the country significantly to be safe in a military sense. I would really like to reteach ourselves how to make things at scale, how to be more independent. People that are your allies now may not be in the future.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:42
You worked with some of the most legendary successful builders, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman.
Caitlin Kalinowski· Guest0:48
Sam is really good at saying, "Why not more? Why not 100x or 10,000x? You're thinking too small." For Steve, the bar he held for the company, for technical talent, and for excellence was not wavering.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host1:01
What does it take to create a robot that feels human and connected?
Caitlin Kalinowski· Guest1:04
If you walk into a room and a robot's just like... Like, it's creepy. You want these devices to be non-threatening, appear soft, reactive to you. Pixar, Disney are probably the world's best at doing this type of design work.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host1:18
There's a meteor called memory prices that are coming for consumer hardware and robotics and physical AI.
Caitlin Kalinowski· Guest1:23
We're in trouble as an industry.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host1:25
[gentle music] Today my guest is Caitlin Kalinowski.