Berkeley Talks: Leaping robots, AI companies and a NASA mission: Stories of Berkeley student innovation

UC Berkeley Professor Pieter Abbeel shared stories of former students who became AI entrepreneurs and a NASA astronaut during a lecture on April 17, 2026. Among them was Aravind Srinivas, who founded Perplexity, an AI company focused on source-grounded responses, after initially being denied entry to Abbeel’s lab. Srinivas’s persistence and research led to a Ph.D. and a role at OpenAI before launching his own venture.

Woody Hoburg, another former student, earned a Ph.D. at Berkeley before joining NASA’s 2017 astronaut class and piloting the SpaceX Crew-6 mission in 2023, spending 186 days in space. Abbeel emphasized the generosity and collaborative spirit of his students, noting their kindness not only to mentors but also to peers and new talent. His lecture was part of Berkeley’s 'Brilliance of Berkeley' speaker series.

Abbeel also discussed the rapid evolution of AI, citing ChatGPT’s emergence in late 2022 as a turning point for public engagement with the technology. He highlighted its ability to perform tasks like writing poetry, solving math problems, and explaining solutions, which has driven significant investment in AI companies. Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI in 2023 marked a pivotal moment in the sector’s growth.

The lecture underscored the broader impact of AI advancements, with companies like Anthropic and XAI achieving valuations in the hundreds of billions. Abbeel noted that tools like Claude Code enable software engineers to work up to 10 times faster, fueling productivity and corporate investment. He attributed the surge in AI valuations to its expanding use cases and the belief in its future value among investors.