Orchestrating Smarter AI Systems with AI21 Labs’ Yoav Shoham | AI Basics with Google Cloud

This Week in Startups

In this episode of AI Basics, Jason sits down with Yoav Shoham — Stanford professor emeritus and co-founder of AI21 Labs, creators of Jurassic-2, Wordtune, and the new orchestration system Maestro.

They unpack:

• Why enterprise AI struggles with reliability
• What orchestration really means (and why LLMs alone aren't enough)
• The pitfalls of “agent-washing”
• Small vs large models, agent-to-agent protocols, and where real opportunities lie

This one is for founders building with AI — if you're navigating hallucinations, chasing automation, or exploring multi-agent workflows, this episode is a must.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Yoav Shoham joins Jason to discuss AI Basics.

(1:05) What AI21 Labs is building — from Jurassic-2 to Maestro

(5:49) The overuse and confusion of the seductive term “agent”

(8:22) Small models vs large models: what's best for enterprise?

(10:53) The verticalization of AI: legal, accounting, and beyond

(12:17) The challenge of agent-to-agent communication and shared semantics

(17:08) What’s overhyped vs underhyped in AI — Yoav’s advice for founders

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Uncover more valuable insights from AI leaders in Google Cloud's 'Future of AI: Perspectives for Startups' report.

https://goo.gle/futureofai

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Explore Further

Google Cloud’s Report: The Future of AI

Get insights from 23 leading experts on how startups can leverage AI for real business impact.

👉 Read the full report

More AI Basics Episodes

Founders, operators, and builders — catch up on our full Startup Basics series (Legal, Finance, Growth & AI):

👉 thisweekinstartups.com/basics

Links from episde:

• Google Cloud — Build smarter with AI tools built for startups
• AI21 Labs — Makers of Wordtune, Jurassic-2, and Maestro
• Maestro — Orchestrate AI agents and tools across workflows
• Jamba — AI21’s hybrid language model with breakthrough efficiency

Learn About Google’s A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Protocol

The next evolution in agent interoperability and coordination:

• Official A2A Announcement
• Hands-on A2A Tutorial (Medium)

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Follow Yoav:

X: https://x.com/yshoham

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoavshoham/

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Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

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