Zach Hudson
Person
Zach Hudson is a technology professional who was a guest on the podcast 'This Week in Startups'. He appeared on episode E2327 to discuss how neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search.
What Zach Hudson has said on podcasts
14 statements
LLMs tend toward average, probable outputs rather than personally appropriate results.
“LLMs are not good at this. They regress to the mean and they find the most probable thing.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 0:00
Neurosymbolic models can improve trust when users need insight into model reasoning.
“That's where neurosymbolic models can really shine.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 0:11
Ontology currently outperforms some major search companies by 2.5 times.
“The performance of it is already 2.5x greater than some of the largest search companies in the world.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 0:19
Ontology updates its model with new information in real time.
“It's literally updating in real time.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 0:27
Ontology’s training cost is one-thousandth that of an average US frontier-model training run.
“It's 1/1,000th the cost of an average Frontier training run in the US this week.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 0:29
Ontology can search across multiple product categories and objects simultaneously.
“Ontology can do multi category, multi object searches.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 4:09
Ontology exposes the reasons behind search results instead of operating as a typical black box.
“I can look down into the model, it's not a black box like a typical LLM and see why these results came back.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 4:19
Ontology can personalize its search index based on an individual user’s preferences.
“it can start to update itself to where the search index reflects the things that you really enjoy in a very different way.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 8:17
Ontology is on track to process hundreds of millions of searches within the next year.
“We're on track for hundreds of millions of searches over the next year”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 8:55
Learning one ecommerce category improves Ontology’s understanding of subsequent categories.
“as it learns about one category, it makes the next category smarter.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 11:06
Neurosymbolic models are suited to applications requiring low hallucination and inspectable reasoning.
“when you need to remove hallucination and you need trust, you need to be able to see inside the model. That's where neurosymbolic models can really shine.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 12:28
Neurosymbolic models are more efficient than alternatives for certain ecommerce tasks.
“And neurosymbolic models are quite a lot more efficient at certain tasks. Like the E Commerce.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 13:09
Ecommerce AI products need built-in user-generated content for training and recommendations.
“If you don't build content into your product, if you don't build user generated content into your product, you have nothing to train on or give these recommendations.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 22:59
LLMs layered over ecommerce data frequently return hallucinated, irrelevant products.
“We put LLMs on top of e commerce data and it would hallucinate, hallucinate all the time and come back with products that were completely irrelevant.”
Open the episode · Neurosymbolic AI outperforms chatbots and product search | E2327Listen at 25:28
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
8 episodes featuring Zach Hudson
This Week in Startups
Unrestricted AI tests the limits of safety and enterprise adoption
The episode examines who should control safeguards for powerful AI as businesses, regulators, and model developers struggle to define responsible use.
Oct 3, 2026 · 53 min
This Week in Startups
Twitch and Airbnb turned rejection into a startup advantage
The episode tests whether founders can still afford the long experimentation and persistence that helped Web 2.0 companies find their markets.
Sep 30, 2026 · 1h 18m
Pardon My Take
Quarterbacks fall as Chiefs, Raiders and Browns reshape Week 2
The episode treats a chaotic NFL weekend as an early test of quarterback health, coaching judgment and which surprising teams are real.
Sep 21, 2026 · 3h 23m
DOUBLE COVERAGE PODCAST
Gaethje explains the instincts behind his Topuria upset
The conversation connects one of Gaethje’s biggest victories to long-term coaching, defensive judgment, MMA scoring, and the uncertain end of his career.
Sep 18, 2026 · 29 min
Fearless with Jason Whitlock
Attorneys challenge public accusations in Nolan Wells case
The episode examines how public allegations against three teenagers are colliding with an unresolved investigation and a threatened defamation suit.
Sep 2, 2026 · 47 min
Fearless with Jason Whitlock
April Chapman challenges the Nolan Wells racial narrative
The episode tests competing explanations for the Nolan Wells controversy, from boating evidence and local relationships to political and financial incentives.
Aug 28, 2026 · 40 min
This Week in Startups
Neurosymbolic AI transforms search while orbital gas stations solve space refueling
This episode highlights how hybrid AI architectures and orbital refueling infrastructure are simultaneously solving critical bottlenecks in e-commerce and the commercial space economy.
Aug 19, 2026 · 54 min
Pablo Torre Finds Out
North Carolina’s football rebuild collides with Lombardi’s leave
The dispute tests whether Bill Belichick can rebuild North Carolina amid leadership turmoil, reputational baggage, and college football’s unstable NIL economy.
Aug 11, 2026 · 37 min