Why AI has no taste and how to fix it (w/ Thais Castello Branco) | E2319
July 31, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readWhy AI has no taste and how to fix it (w/ Thais Castello Branco) | E2319
The episode opens with a sharp observation that frames the entire conversation: "You have models that can solve cyber hack and solve PhD level math problems and they can't like write a good tweet or make a good design." The guest, Thais Castello Branco, founder of Taste Labs, argues that the problem is baked into how large language models are trained. They optimize for the most likely answer, which works perfectly for objective domains like math or code, but actively works against quality in subjective domains like design, writing, or branding. "The average is that thing that you're gonna kind of not even take a second glance at that you've seen a lot," she says. The result is that two users prompting for completely different use cases often get outputs that look the same. The system lacks both variety and the ability to fit the prompt to the user's actual intent.
Why models default to mediocrity
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:06) **Why AI lacks taste** - The core problem: models that solve PhD math can't write a good tweet or design.
- 2 (00:35) **The lost curator class** - Cultural critics and curators have been hollowed out, and nothing has replaced them yet.
- 3 (05:02) **Introducing Thais and Taste Labs** - A two-pronged system for generating better quality AI outputs using human tastemakers.
- 4 (08:52) **Developing taste is rare and hard** - Taste requires deep exposure and obsession in a specific domain.
- 5 (12:44) **The paradox of commodifying taste** - If AI learns taste, does it lose the rarity that made it special?
- 6 (18:42) **The half-life of cool** - Social media accelerated the cycle of discovery and commodification, and AI could too.
- 7 (22:52) **The host's personal curation stack** - How he uses AI as a "cool hunter" with curated sources.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
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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: https://x.com/thaiscbranco_
Taste Labs: https://tastelabs.com/
Amplify Partners: "Kill the Slop": https://www.amplifypartners.com/blog-posts/kill-the-slop-announcing-our-investment-in-taste
Relevant Links
Leopold Aschenbrenner's essay "Situational Awareness": https://situational-awareness.ai/
CNBC on SA fund collapse: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/leopold-aschenbrenner-situational-awareness-fund-fire-sale.html
Henk van Ess thread on Google Earth + Nano Banana: https://x.com/henkvaness/status/2082912544394498228
Substack CEO Chris Best: "Against Claudefishing": https://post.substack.com/p/against-claudefishing
NPR on the Ceuta crisis: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/31/g-s1-136507/morocco-spain-migration
Ethan Goodhart's self-driving golf cart post: https://x.com/EthanGoodhart/status/2082136189998682598?s=20
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