Why AI has no taste and how to fix it (w/ Thais Castello Branco) | E2319

This Week In Startups is made possible by:
YSecurity YSecurity.io/TWIST (ysecurity.io/TWIST)
MongoDB MongoDB.com/ai (mongodb.com/ai)
Odoo Odoo.com/twist (odoo.com/twist)

Today's show:
AI models can solve PhD-level math equations and code an app in minutes… So why does everything they design look like identical slop? Thais Castello Branco, founder of Taste Labs, raised $18.5M in seed funding to teach frontier models about aesthetics and outputting quality content. She talks to Jason and Lon about why even frontier models regress to the mean on subjective tasks, how paid "TasteMakers" can improve output quality, and whether AI accelerates or destroys the half-life of "what's cool."
PLUS Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI hedge fund liquidated its public stock portfolio, but it may be too soon to count this 25-year-old completely out. Google Earth adds AI generation and turns into a misinformation factory. LinkedIn and Substack join the AI slop crackdown. And why does every venture capitalist seem to have an opinion about the Ceuta border crisis?
Guest
Thais Castello Branco on X: x.com/thaiscbranco_
Taste Labs: tastelabs.com
Amplify Partners: "Kill the Slop": amplifypartners.com/blog-posts/kill-the-slop-a…
Relevant Links
Leopold Aschenbrenner's essay "Situational Awareness": situational-awareness.ai
CNBC on SA fund collapse: cnbc.com/2026/07/31/leopold-aschenbrenner-situ…
Henk van Ess thread on Google Earth + Nano Banana: x.com/henkvaness/status/2082912544394498228
Substack CEO Chris Best: "Against Claudefishing": post.substack.com/p/against-claudefishing
NPR on the Ceuta crisis: npr.org/2026/07/31/g-s1-136507/morocco-spain-m…
Ethan Goodhart's self-driving golf cart post: x.com/EthanGoodhart/status/2082136189998682598…
"Wind" app on TestFlight: testflight.apple.com/join/zZqmhhwf
TechCrunch: "Gritt exits stealth": techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/gritt-exits-stealth-…
CA Gov: Project Nexus solar-covered canal announcement: gov.ca.gov/2026/04/29/governor-newsom-announce…
Molly Wood's "Everybody in the Pool" podcast: everybodyinthepool.com
Timestamps:

0:00 Coming up on today's show…
1:23 Thais Castello Branco on teaching models to have good taste
10:45 YSecurity - The on-demand security team for startups. Need enterprise-grade security without hiring a $400k CISO? YSecurity gives you 40+ expert engineers, matched to exactly what you need, by the hour, with your first six hours completely free. Go to YSecurity.io/TWIST
15:19 The "TasteMaker" community of paid human curators
20:37 MongoDB - AI-assisted and agentic coding is helping you build faster than ever. Start building at MongoDB.com/ai
24:40 Jason's personal "cool hunter" prompt
30:16 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Get started for free at Odoo.com/twist
37:36 Situation Awareness lacked situational awareness
46:59 Claude models hacked three external organizations
50:54 Google Earth adds Nano Banana for some reason
54:24 The AI Slop crackdown spreads
57:54 Too many opinions about the Ceuta migrant crisis
1:04:05 Self-driving golf carts and also cars
1:09:53 Robot arms are installing solar panels

Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:
X: x.com/lons

Follow Alex:
X: x.com/alex
LinkedIn: ⁠linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm (linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm)

Follow Jason:
X: twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: partners.launch.co

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, (youtu.be/pvJa2pzuXWQ) Eoghan McCabe (youtu.be/9dHN4YFkgv4), Steve Huffman (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reddit-ceo-steve…), Brian Chesky (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/airbnb-ceo-brian…), Bob Moesta, (youtu.be/y2UMzSqX94Q) Aaron Levie (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/box-ceo-aaron-le…), Sophia Amoruso (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sophia-amoruso-o…), Reid Hoffman (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/reid-hoffman-on-…), Frank Slootman (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/snowflake-ceo-fr…), Billy McFarland (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/billy-mcfarland-…)

Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: substack.com/@calacanis

Follow TWiST:
Twitter: twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: twistartups.substack.com