116: Today in AI: OpenAI’s "Head of Preparedness", Meta Buys Manus, AI Missing From News Cycle

Starts on 12th January 2026: https://aiwithkyle.com/ai-workshop-kit

Get AI-Ready with Kyle’s 5-Day Challenge: https://aiwithkyle.com/join

Subscribe and turn on notifications to catch the next live stream: https://www.youtube.com/@iamkylebalmer?sub_confirmation=1

This video is from the ‘AI with Kyle News and Updates Live Stream’

First aired: 30 December 2025

Summary: OpenAI just posted a job listing that's equal parts fascinating and slightly terrifying—they're hiring a "Head of Preparedness" for $550K a year, and the wording is... interesting. Sam Altman's description talks about jumping into the deep end immediately, dealing with models that are getting so good at cybersecurity they're finding critical vulnerabilities, and preparing for AI systems that can self-improve. It's basically the real-world version of that "kill switch engineer" meme from earlier this year, except this time they're actually serious about needing someone to figure out how to let the good guys use cutting-edge AI capabilities whilst keeping the bad guys from doing the same. The urgency in the language is what gets me—why now, why didn't they have this role before, and what exactly is happening inside OpenAI that's prompted this?

Meanwhile, Meta's just acquired Manus for somewhere between $1-5 billion, which is a bit of a surprise. Manus was one of the first consumer-facing agentic AI tools that could actually go off and do proper research tasks, but honestly, it's been losing ground to Claude and ChatGPT who've both added similar capabilities. The acquisition makes sense for Meta—they're probably going to strip it for parts and integrate the tech into their ad business rather than keep it as a standalone product.

And in a nice reality check, I looked at Axios's news cycle chart for 2025 and AI barely registers—just one mention of the "AI bubble." Whilst we're all deep in this world talking about model releases and capabilities, the rest of the world is still focused on everything else. Good reminder that we're in our own little bubble here.

Watch full edited live stream: https://youtu.be/l2_WPkwifd0

—— More Useful Resources ——

My other daily live show - 30-day building a business in public challenge: https://www.youtube.com/live/Z0Z_1Eg3HUk (day one)

Ultimate AI Learning Resource List: https://www.aiwithkyle.com/resources/ai-learning-guide

Free AI Entrepreneurship Playbooks: https://aiwithkyle.com/catalog

Free Quiz: What AI business should you start? https://aiwithkyle.com/tools

Free AI Training Business Planner: https://aiwithkyle.com/tools/workshop-builder

Free AI Industry Translator Tool: https://aiwithkyle.com/tools/industry-ai-translator

Free 10-Week ‘Vibe Coding’ AI Summer Camp: https://aiwithkyle.com/courses/10-week-ai-summer-camp

—— Time Stamps ——

0:00 OpenAI's $550K "Kill Switch" Job Opening

4:47 Meta Acquires Manus AI for Billions

9:13 Manus Deal Valuation: $4-6 Billion Breakdown

10:52 Q&A: Building AI Products

11:26 Why AI Isn't Making Mainstream Headlines

14:06 Making $200K Teaching AI Workshops

15:27 Show Wrap-Up

—— Contact ——

Best is in YouTube comments.

For business enquiries only: https://www.passionfroot.me/iamkylebalmer