KOKAS NOTES

About KOKAS NOTES

Where AI meets physics, math, and money. thehardparts.substack.com (https://thehardparts.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Kshitij Kokas

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Feb 2025

Latest episode

13 Jan 2026

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Jan 2026

   When the Grid Decides Your Model’s IQ

   In this episode, we break down a groundbreaking technical report from Ellis-Mohr et al. titled “Energy-Aware Routing to Large Reasoning Models.” As Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) move from simple chat to complex “Chain of Thought” processing, the industry has hit a physical wall: the power grid. We explore why the era of the “Free Token” is over and how thermodynamics is now the primary bottleneck for AI intelligence. KEY TAKEAWAYS 🚀 Beyond Latency: We are moving from optimizing for “Time-to-First-Token” to a new metric: JpCA (Joules-per-Correct-Answer). 📉 The Efficiency Frontier: The first mathematical framework to identify the point where adding more “thinking time” to an AI provides diminishing returns in accuracy. 🔌 Grid-Responsive AI: How AI clusters are now forced to monitor real-time electricity pricing (LMP) and rack temperatures to decide how “smart” a model should be at any given moment. 🧠 Variable Intelligence: For the first time, an AI’s IQ is non-deterministic. Your model might be brilliant at 2:00 AM but “downgraded” to a basic guess at 2:00 PM to prevent grid brownouts. TECHNICAL DEEP DIVE 1. What is JpCA? * Traditional LLMs use energy linearly. Reasoning models (like o1 or Claude) use “test-time compute,” generating thousands of hidden tokens. * The Problem: Internal tokens are expensive and don’t always help. * The Solution: JpCA calculates the “Confidence-to-Joule” curve. If adding 500 Joules only adds 0.5% accuracy, the system caps the compute. 2. Physical Bottlenecks * Grid Power (MW): Data centers in hubs like Virginia and Ireland are hitting substation limits. High grid stress now forces “Reasoning Short-Circuiting.” * Thermal Density (kW/rack): High-density racks (120kW+) generate more heat than cooling systems can reject. Instead of slowing the chip, we now prune the AI’s “thoughts” to reduce heat. 3. The DRR (Dynamic Reasoning Router) * The new gatekeeper of the AI stack. * It performs Contextual Routing: Sending simple questions to tiny models to save energy. * It performs Forced Short-Circuiting: Stopping an AI from “thinking” mid-trace if electricity prices spike. BUSINESS & PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS For Engineers: * Determinism is Dead: Your workflows will behave differently based on the time of day and energy costs. * New Headers: Expect to see x-joules-consumed and x-reasoning-confidence in your API responses. If throttled, you may need to retry tasks during off-peak hours. For Business Leaders: * Surge Pricing for AI: The $20/month flat rate is ending. Expect “Uber-style” pricing where deep reasoning costs 5x more during peak grid load. * The Hyperscaler Moat: Big players (AWS/Azure/GCP) who own the power contracts have a massive advantage over startups renting GPUs. THE HARD TRUTH Intelligence is no longer a software property; it is a thermodynamic byproduct. The “Hard Part” isn’t building a model that can solve complex problems—it’s building a system that knows when it’s too expensive to be smart. ARTIFACT MENTIONED * Title: Energy-Aware Routing to Large Reasoning Models (https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00823) * Authors: Ellis-Mohr, Hartman, and Varshney Get full access to The Hard Parts at thehardparts.substack.com/subscribe (https://thehardparts.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   6 May 2025

   Something for Kids

   It is our continued endeavor to keep our philosophy of experimentation—across both content and tech—at the centre of everything we do and the larger journey we’re on at Aimoeba.Keeping that in mind, around two weeks ago we dove into kids content under a separate brand — OOPA Kids. While our ambitions for it are big, it’s the next step we're focused on.📺 You can subscribe to the channels here:+ English (https://www.youtube.com/@oopakids)+ Hindi (https://www.youtube.com/@oopakidshindi) Get full access to Kokas Notes at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   28 Apr 2025

   Sky-Lee VS The World

   When an anime boy falls in love with a human girl, their reckless romance defies reality — until tragedy rips them apart. Now, armed with fire and fury, Sky-Lee wages a brutal war against a world that stole everything he had. "Sky-Lee VS The World" was created as part of Gen:48 (2025) Challenge hosted by RunwayML that celebrates the future of storytelling through AI. Get full access to Kokas Notes at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

4. 

   25 Apr 2025

   Kalyan Jewellers | A Drop of Eternity ✨

   Set against a pristine canvas of water and light, this spec ad for Kalyan Jewellers captures a moment where jewellery becomes more than adornment — it becomes poetry.From the delicate ripple of water to the diamond’s eternal glint, every frame speaks of quiet confidence, grace, and divine femininity.💎 Concept Inspired By: https://lnkd.in/dfJGPKEe (https://lnkd.in/dfJGPKEe) Get full access to Kokas Notes at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

5. 

   21 Apr 2025

   Bad Boy Naruto

   What happens when an anime icon falls for a girl in the real world—and the world doesn’t like it? At aimoeba (https://aimoeba.com/), we’re keen on an idea for a potential feature film — a star-crossed love story between two worlds: a boy from the anime realm and a girl from the human world. Think Romeo & Juliet, but with glitchy boundaries between fantasy and reality. To start shaping this universe, we created a proof-of-concept music video — a cinematic experiment to test tone, aesthetic, and character dynamics. While Naruto isn’t our IP, we used it as a placeholder to explore the emotional core of this concept. If you’re someone who’d like to collaborate or partner with us on this feature idea, we’d love to connect. Get full access to Kokas Notes at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

6. 

   18 Mar 2025

   The PiliBily Experiment

   I’ve always been fond of experiments. And though Aimoeba started off as one big creative experiment, it’s playing out to be an interesting journey in which it’s actually become a lab where I’m getting the opportunity to max out the utilization of my left and right brain. But through all that we keep doing at Aimoeba, my favorites have been our forays into doing original IP. + Why Original IP The business reason: One of the perils of being a native of the entertainment business is that you fully understand the outsized returns of successfully building an original IP that starts tracking. The process reason: The more work we do with a certain character, the more control we have and the more complex motions we can create with that character in a variety of situations. The educational reason: AI filmmaking is bound to lead to a place where specialists across different domains start emerging—for example, animation, realism, music videos, etc. It allows us to test the limits of the current technology, learn the art of crafting different prompts to control camera and character movements, among other things. For a team that was editing on Canva around a year ago, our biggest win has probably been education, and it also needs to remain a priority as long as we want to pursue AI filmmaking. + The Other Reality For any of these IPs to become meaningful enough for us to invest time in building them today, they need to track big on YouTube right from the get-go. Otherwise, the opportunity cost of time stops adding up for us at this point. + Despite That We’ve experimented with and developed three original IPs—and as of today, I don’t really care about how valuable they are—but we did it, and each one of them had a solid (sometimes a bit superficial) thesis. Monchees (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOcwItkRq5Ppo_GiIZ4IMVTPSfFNIuj7X) Cartoon monkeys with cheetah spots. The core thesis was to launch a character family with memes that, as and when they go viral, we would expand into other types of content with them. We made about 40 memes before stopping work on it. Haru & Sora (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOcwItkRq5Prfpt0ZJw_HaD_EbsjItg8Z) Lovebirds who’ve known each other since school and now they’re older, living together with their dog. The idea was to create an assortment of cute scenes from their daily lives and a bunch of three-part mini-series, each focusing on a specific chapter of their lives. This was our experiment with anime-based storytelling with complete lip-sync focus. We made about eight cute scenes and two episodes of a mini-series titled Side By Side before stopping work on it. PiliBily (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOcwItkRq5Posi3QSJmzyMA_wSYeFC5Bk) A cat superhero. What’s not to like about it? This was our latest experiment—one in which we actually had a lot of fun and built insanely cool custom workflows that increased the speed of output generation. We made about eight one-minute short and fun stories before stopping work on it last week. Now, while we’ve stopped work on these IPs, we’re actively working on a really exciting new short film. I don’t know what the future holds for Aimoeba, but in all versions of it, new IPs are being thought of, developed, and released regularly. Kokas Notes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Kokas Notes at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

7. 

   17 Mar 2025

   We Made A Promotional Film For A Casino

   It was an incredible experience collaborating with Cadillac Diamond Casino (https://cadillacdiamond.com/) in Goa to produce this video — along with an original custom song — for their BIG welcome screen at the casino! Kokas Notes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Kokas Notes at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

8. 

   22 Feb 2025

   Why Every Screenwriter Needs to Become an AI Filmmaker – Stop Waiting for Your Turn

   In this episode of our deep-dive podcast into the entertainment business, we tackle a radical yet urgent question: Why should every screenwriter become an AI filmmaker? For decades, screenwriters have been trapped in a system that forces them to wait—wait for approval, wait for funding, wait for someone else to decide if their story is worth telling. But with the rise of AI filmmaking, that waiting game is over. Writers now have the power to turn their scripts into full-fledged films without industry gatekeepers holding them back. Key Topics Covered: The Broken Traditional Path for Screenwriters: The old model demands patience and persistence, often leaving talented writers stuck ghostwriting, rewriting, or waiting years for an opportunity that may never come. But does paying your dues actually guarantee success? Or does it simply serve an outdated hierarchy? Why the ‘Paying Your Dues’ Mindset is a Myth: Especially in Bollywood, screenwriters spend years working under established writers, contributing brilliant ideas that they rarely get credit for. The system isn’t about rewarding talent—it’s about sustaining itself. But what happens when writers take matters into their own hands? AI Filmmaking: The Ultimate Shortcut to Creative Freedom: Traditionally, screenwriters lose control of their vision once their script enters the hands of producers and studios. AI filmmaking eliminates this compromise. No more revisions forced by executives, no more watering down unique ideas—just pure storytelling, exactly as the writer imagined. The Business Shift: From Script Sellers to IP Owners: AI filmmaking allows screenwriters to create films, not just sell scripts. This means keeping ownership of their intellectual property (IP), monetizing their projects across platforms, and even attracting studios to acquire their films as ‘remakes’ rather than buying raw script rights. The Legal Grey Area & Future Business Models: Copyright laws are still evolving, but those who embrace AI filmmaking early will have a first-mover advantage. How can writers position themselves for future industry shifts? Will AI-driven films eventually command box office success? And what alternative revenue models—OTT licensing, NFTs, AI-powered distribution—are emerging as viable options? Final Thoughts: The traditional path has conditioned screenwriters to wait. But AI filmmaking flips the dynamic—allowing them to create, showcase, and own their work. This isn’t just about money; it’s about artistic control, autonomy, and no longer needing permission to tell great stories. If you’re a screenwriter, the question isn’t whether AI filmmaking will take over—it’s whether you’ll be ahead of the curve or left behind. If you’re a producer, recognizing the power shift now can position you to collaborate with independent creators who are already leading the charge. Join the Conversation: If you found this episode insightful, subscribe and share! Let’s push for a new era where screenwriters are no longer just script sellers, but filmmakers in their own right. KOKAS NOTES is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to KOKAS NOTES at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

9. 

   14 Feb 2025

   How Do Bollywood Writers Get Paid? The Harsh Reality of Screenplay Deals

   In this premiere episode of our deep-dive podcast into the entertainment business, we pull back the curtain on a crucial but often ignored question: How do Bollywood screenwriters get paid? While screenwriters are the foundation of every great film, the reality of their compensation is far from ideal. Unlike Hollywood, where writers can earn residuals and royalties, Bollywood operates on a flat-fee structure. Once a script is sold, writers receive a one-time payment, regardless of how successful the film becomes. This lack of profit-sharing has long made financial stability a challenge for Bollywood writers. Key Topics Covered: - The Standard Bollywood Screenplay Contract: Understanding full buyout agreements versus rare spec script sales, with insights into typical payment structures based on experience levels. - The Absence of Residuals and Royalties: Why Bollywood screenwriters don’t earn from reruns or streaming, and how this contrasts with Hollywood’s model. Can the success of lyricists in securing royalties pave the way for screenwriters? - The Rise of Streaming and Its Challenges for Writers: While streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime offer higher upfront fees, they also demand much larger volumes of writing. The bureaucratic creative process, heavy executive interference, and long turnaround times often leave writers disillusioned. Some even prefer working in films over OTT projects, despite the apparent financial gains. - The Road Ahead for Writers: The importance of industry-wide standards, transparency in box office earnings, and pushing for residuals. Writers need to advocate for better contracts and leverage industry guilds like the Screenwriters Association of India (SWA) to secure fairer deals. Final Thoughts: Bollywood thrives on strong storytelling, yet the writers behind these narratives remain undervalued. The industry must recognize that investing in its writing talent is not an expense, but an investment in better cinema. If you’re a screenwriter, knowing your worth and negotiating better contracts is essential. If you’re a producer, understanding the long-term value of compensating writers fairly can lead to more sustainable and successful projects. Join the Conversation: If you found this episode insightful, subscribe and share! Let’s push for better conditions for Bollywood writers. Get full access to KOKAS NOTES at kokas.substack.com/subscribe (https://kokas.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Podcast Authority Score: 7 / 100

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