From training to inference: The new role of web data in LLMs
Data has always been key to LLM success, but it's becoming key to inference-time performance as well.

Data has always been key to LLM success, but it's becoming key to inference-time performance as well.
Two interviews for the price of one, direct from HumanX 2025! Ryan sits down with Raj Patel, AI transformation lead at Holistic AI, and then chats with Audioshake cofounder and CEO Jessica Powell.
Deepak Singh, VP of Developer Agents and Experiences at AWS, helps Ryan break down the hype around agentic AI in software development. They cover the definition and real-world functionality of AI agents, how developers can integrate them into existing workflows, and the importance of establishing guardrails to ensure trust and security in agentic AI.
In this episode of Leaders of Code, host Ben Popper, Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar, and GitLab Field CTO Lee Faus explore how GenAI is reshaping software development practices.
Ryan speaks with Edo Liberty, Founder and CEO of Pinecone, about building vector databases, the power of embeddings, the evolution of RAG, and fine-tuning AI models.
Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar sat down with Ryan at HumanX 2025 to talk about how Stack is integrating AI into its public platform, the enormous importance of a high-quality knowledge base in your AI journey, how AI tools are empowering junior developers to build better software, and much more.
Tillman Elser, AI/ML lead at Sentry, joins Ryan for a conversation about improving error monitoring with AI and ML. They talk through the challenges of analyzing stack traces, the innovative use of embeddings to improve error grouping, the trial-and-error process of developing algorithms, and where Sentry’s AI capabilities are headed next.
In the first episode of our new podcast series, Leaders of Code, we sat down with Don Woodlock, Head of Global Healthcare Solutions at InterSystems, and Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar to discuss data strategy's critical role in AI development.
Some high-level takeaways, with more to come.
Lisbeth Kaufman, Head of Climate Tech at AWS, sits down with Ryan to talk about her work helping climate tech startups get off the ground and the role startups can play in addressing the climate change crisis. She highlights a few projects to get excited about, including ones focused on fusion energy and sustainable agriculture.
In our very first episode, Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar talks to Don Woodlock, Head of Global Healthcare Solutions at InterSystems, about the challenges in their AI journey and the critical role of a robust data strategy in any successful AI initiative.
Ryan welcomes Zach Lloyd, founder and CEO of Warp, to the show to talk about reimagining the terminal. They also discuss why Warp was built in Rust (“it’s definitely harder”), how AI is transforming developer tools, and what Zach (formerly a principal engineer at Google) learned building Docs and Sheets.
Jeremy “Jezz” Kellway, VP of Engineering for Analytics and Data & AI at EDB (Enterprise Database), joins Ryan for a conversation about Postgres and AI. They unpack how Postgres is becoming the standard database for AI applications, the importance of managing unstructured data, and the implications of data sovereignty and governance in AI.
Olga Beregovaya, VP of AI at Smartling, joins Ryan and Ben to explore the evolution and specialization of language models in AI.
How Diffblue leverages machine learning techniques to write effective unit tests.
Ken Stott, Field CTO of API platform Hasura, tells Ryan about the data doom loop: the concept that organizations are spending lots of money on data systems without seeing improvements in data quality or efficiency.
APIs have steadily become the backbone of AI systems, connecting data and tools seamlessly. Discover how they can drive scalable and secure training for AI models and intelligence automation.
Sagar Batchu, CEO and cofounder of API tooling company Speakeasy, talks with Ryan about the evolving API landscape, AI integration, the role of human technologists in an increasingly automated environment, and what people building APIs right now should keep in mind.
Ben and Ryan talk with Geoffrey (Jef) Huck, a software developer turned public speaking coach, about the importance of soft skills in the tech industry—in particular, speaking and communication skills. Their conversation touches on how Huck’s experiences with anxiety shaped his efforts to become a better communicator, practical techniques for dispelling anxiety and connecting with the audience, and the MVP approach to public speaking.
Ryan talks with Sterling Chin, a senior developer advocate at Postman, about the intersection of APIs and AI. They cover the emergence of AI APIs, the importance of quality APIs for AI integrations, and the evolving role of GraphQL in this new landscape. Sterling explains how some organizations are shifting toward an API-first development approach and talks about the future of data access in the agentic era, where APIs will play a crucial role in AI interactions.
In this episode, Ben and Ryan sit down with Inbal Shani, Chief Product Officer and Head of R&D at Twilio. They talk about how Twilio is incorporating AI into its offerings, the enormous importance of data quality in achieving high-quality responses from AI, the challenges of integrating cutting-edge AI technology into legacy systems, and how companies are turning to AI to improve developer productivity and customer engagement.
Happy New Year! In this episode, Ryan talks with Jetify founder and CEO Daniel Loreto, a former engineering lead at Google and Twitter, about what AI applications have in common with Google Search. They also discuss the challenges inherent in developing AI systems, why a data-driven approach to AI development is important, the implications of non-determinism, and the future of test automation.
It’s easy to generate code, but not so easy to generate good code.
Mark Doble, CEO of Alexi, an AI-powered litigation platform, joins Ben to talk about GenAI’s transformative effect on the legal world. Their conversation touches on the importance of ensuring accurate results and eliminating hallucinations when AI tools are used for legal work, how lawyers (like the rest of us) can adapt to GenAI, and what Alexi’s tech stack looks like.