Tue. 08/12 – Elon To Sue Apple To Get At Sam?
Elon says he might take legal action against Apple, but it’s probably his beef with Sam Altman rearing its head once again. A long piece looking at how Jenson won in China, though also, HAS he won WITH China… yet? And is the race to the bottom in AI pricing happening already? Links: Musk says xAI to take legal action against Apple over App Store rankings (Reuters) Tech giants Apple and Google lose landmark court case as federal judge rules they engaged in anti-competitive conduct (ABC) China Urges Firms to Avoid Nvidia H20 Chips After Trump Resumes Sales (Bloomberg) With Billions at Risk, Nvidia CEO Buys His Way Out of the Trade Battle (WSJ) Anthropic offers Claude chatbot to US lawmakers for $1 (FT) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12 Aug 17min
Mon. 08/11 – Nvidia To Pay The Government To Sell In China
Nvidia and AMD are paying the US government 15% of revenue to sell AI chips to China. Remember how with GPT-5, they took away the old models? Well, the old models are back. Some critical analysis of the whole GPT-5 moment. And you know what is finally never coming back? AOL dialup internet. Links: Nvidia and AMD to pay 15% of China chip sale revenues to US government (FT) Trump Bid for Cut of Chip Revenue Risks ‘Dangerous World’ (Bloomberg) Intel CEO Singled Out by Trump to Visit White House on Monday (WSJ) OpenAI Faces Backlash for Retiring Older Models With GPT-5 Launch (PCMag) GPT-5: Overdue, overhyped and underwhelming. And that’s not the worst of it. (Gary Marcus) A BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR AI? (David Sacks) AOL discontinues its dial-up internet, and we're just surprised they even offered it in 2025 (PCGamer) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
11 Aug 19min
(BNS) Could AI Spending Blow Up The Economy? With Paul Kedrosky
I spoke with the great Paul Kedrosky to discuss the significant impact of AI capital expenditure (CapEx) on the economy, exploring how it contributes to GDP growth and the implications of this spending. Qw delve into the rapid growth of AI-related investments, the short lifespan of data centers, and the potential risks associated with this economic phenomenon. 00:00 The Impact of AI Capital Expenditure on the Economy 09:34 The Dynamics of Data Center Investments 19:39 Debt Financing and Its Implications 30:09 Potential Risks and Future Outlook for AI Investments Articles mentioned on this episode: Paul Kedrosky: Honey AI Capex Ate The Economy Chris Mims in the WSJ Noah Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 Aug 40min
Fri. 08/08 – GPT-5 Fallout
Tracking the fallout and implications from GPT-5’s rollout yesterday. Why is Google’s AI chatbot filled with self-loathing and recrimination? Are President Trump’s comments just the latest worry for the CEO of Intel? Are those AI coding companies actually making any money? And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: GPT-5: Key characteristics, pricing and model card (Simon Willison) GPT-5 Hands-On: Welcome to the Stone Age (Latent Space) Google says it's working on a fix for Gemini's self-loathing 'I am a failure' comments (Business Insider) Intel’s Chief Holds Firm After Trump Demands His Resignation (NYTimes) High costs and thin margins threatening AI coding startups (TechCrunch) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’ (WSJ) SEO Is Dead. Say Hello to GEO. (NYMag) Is Perrier as pure as it claims? The bottled water scandal gripping France (BBC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
8 Aug 20min
Thu. 07/08 – GPT-5 Released
All the news around the big unveiling of GPT-5. President Trump calls on the CEO of Intel to “resign immediately.” Also, the threat of 100% tariffs on chips and semiconductors. But Apple gets a pass because they’re committing to building more in the US. Links: GPT-5 is being released to all ChatGPT users (The Verge) OpenAI Unveils GPT-5, Its Latest and Most Powerful Model, After Two-Year Wait (WSJ) OpenAI’s GPT-5 is here (TechCrunch) Trump Urges ‘Conflicted’ Intel CEO Tan to Resign Immediately (Bloomberg) Trump Eyes 100% Chips Tariff, Exempting Firms That Invest in US (Bloomberg) Apple Announces $100 Billion US Investment Ahead of Trump Event (Bloomberg) Could AI Datacenter Spending Blow Up The Economy? With Paul Kedrosky (YouTube) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
7 Aug 21min
Wed. 08/06 – OpenAI’s Open-Weight Models
Disney is making big streaming moves with the new ESPN app and a revamp to Hulu. Then, it’s all basically AI announces. OpenAI’s new open-weight models. Grok’s new spiciness is already generating nudity. A new AI model to identify malicious software autonomously. And Nvidia wants you to know: no back-doors! Links: ESPN flagship streaming service to launch Aug. 21 (CNBC) Hulu App to Be Phased Out as Disney Is ‘Fully Integrating’ Service Into Disney+ (Variety) OpenAI Just Released Its First Open-Weight Models Since GPT-2 (Wired) Anthropic's powerful Opus 4.1 model is here - how to access it (and why you'll want to) (ZDNet) Qwen-Image is a powerful, open source new AI image generator with support for embedded text in English & Chinese (VentureBeat) Grok’s ‘spicy’ video setting instantly made me Taylor Swift nude deepfakes (The Verge) Microsoft’s new AI reverse-engineers malware autonomously, marking a shift in cybersecurity (GeekWire) Nvidia defiant over backdoors and kill switches in GPUs as U.S. mulls tracking requirements — calls them 'permanent flaws' that are 'a gift to hackers' (Tom's Hardware) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
6 Aug 20min
Tue 08/05 – Spygate At TSMC?
TSMC has fired employees for allegedly attempting to pilfer information on their 2nm tech. Figma could have raised more money in its IPO but chose not to. Creating entire video game worlds with just a text prompt. And exactly how big Patreon has grown in the creator economy. 00:32 TSMC Spygate 02:50 Cloudflare V. Perplexity 04:52 Figma Followup 07:35 Music AI 09:53 New Google Models 14:58 Patreon Numbers Links: TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhone 18 chip process (9to5Mac) Cloudflare says Perplexity’s AI bots are ‘stealth crawling’ blocked sites (The Verge) Figma’s Pursuit of Long-Term Backers Kept IPO Price in Check (Bloomberg) Voice Startup ElevenLabs Launches AI Music Service (WSJ) Google’s new AI model creates video game worlds in real time (The Verge) Google’s Kaggle to host AI chess tournament to evaluate leading AI models’ reasoning skills (Silicon Angle) Exclusive: Patreon crosses $10 billion creator payment milestone (Axios) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 Aug 20min
Mon. 08/04 – The AI Researcher Who Turned Down $1.5 Billion From Zuck
Robotaxies are coming to Europe. Apple wants Answers. Literally. The AI researcher who turned down a billion and a half dollars. How the vibe seems to have definitively shifted in Silicon Valley. And will rollable laptop screens become mainstream? 00:33 Robotaxis In Europe 02:12 Apple Wants Answers 03:57 Lina Khan 05:54 Billion Dollar Turn-Down 07:54 AI Trading Bots 10:25 The Silicon Valley Boom Is Back 14:23 A Rollable Laptop Links: Lyft Partners With Baidu on Robotaxis in European Expansion (Bloomberg) Apple’s New ‘Answers’ Team Eyes ChatGPT-Like Product in AI Push (Bloomberg) Lina Khan points to Figma IPO as vindication of M&A scrutiny (TechCrunch) Thanks for Your $1 Billion Job Offer, Mark Zuckerberg. I’m Gonna Pass. (WSJ) ‘Dumb’ AI Bots Collude to Rig Markets, Wharton Research Finds (Bloomberg) Silicon Valley Is in Its ‘Hard Tech’ Era (NYTimes) Lenovo’s rollable laptop is the coolest computer I’ve used all year (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
4 Aug 20min
