This Week in AI

Jaksot

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  The biggest AI threat still comes from humans | E31 17.09.2026 1t 13min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PayPal: paypal.launch.coToday’s show:Dario Amodei and Sam Altman are apparently scared of AI models going rogue. Swarms of agents spontaneously deciding to copy themselves over to thousands of computer systems and plot world domination.Our panelists this week — Kevin Mandia (Armadin) and Soups Ranjan (Sardine AI) — investigate real AI-based attacks every single day, and they suggest we’re hyping the wrong concerns. The actual danger isn’t coming from an AI system that turns hostile. It’s human beings, like criminals, using AI to drain your bank account.Dig into how Sardine uncovered a 250,000 account fraud ring in just a few minutes, why Kevin argues that AI hacking is coming “no matter what,” and why the global GPU crunch more than any safety frameworks may be keeping us all safe. For now.Guests:Soups Ranjan on X: https://x.com/soupsranjan Sardine AI: https://www.sardine.ai/Kevin Mandia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-mandia-0a07173/ Armadin: https://www.armadin.com/Relevant Links:"We Must Pace the Frontier" — Dario Amodei's Sept 12 essayAxios: Anthropic and OpenAI CEOs call for a slowdownTrump and the White House push backForbes: what the essay actually proposes2026 OpenAI agent cyberattacksGLM-5.3 — Z.ai's open-weight modelHermes Agent — the agent framework Ranjan runs in a local harnessTimestamps:0:00 Dario Amodei's "We Must Pace the Frontier" essay1:51 Kevin Mandia: how scared should we be of agentic attack swarms?6:53 Rogue agents vs. humans pointing AI at a target9:52 250,000 fraudulent account signups in two days16:59 Sam Altman's two ways AI fails19:41 Open-weight models are catching up21:39 Why proprietary data is the new moat27:51 Mixing frontier models with open models35:37 Bloomberg: Chinese hackers lean on DeepSeek because it's cheap37:05 How much in-house expertise it takes to use AI well42:56 Armadin's Palo Alto office and the Palantir playbook1:02:54 AI and jobs: normal churn or something bigger?1:07:19 What founders are actually saying in the group chats1:08:49 Every meeting recorded, every meeting summarizedSubscribe to TWiAI on Substack: https://thisweekinai.aiFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  OpenAI's chief scientist wants to slow down | E30 10.09.2026 1t 20min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at paypal.launch.coToday’s show:OpenAI's chief scientist wrote a lengthy manifesto arguing that no lab has solved alignment, mere days after GPT-6 Astra shipped. Jason and Lon are joined by Tudor Achim of Harmonic, Alex Elias of Qloo, and Ahmed Ahres of Reactor to figure out if that's genuine alarm being expressed or just another pre-IPO sales pitch and play for regulatory capture.Plus news broke while we were recording! OpenAI is claiming to have solved a second Millennium Prize problem, after a 25-year-plus weight. AND, who is paying influencers to tell you AI is wonderful/harmful? And why?Guests:Tudor Achim on X: https://x.com/tachimHarmonic: https://harmonic.fun/Alex Elias on X: https://x.com/apeQloo: https://www.qloo.com/Ahmed Ahres on X: https://x.com/BoudatwReactor: https://reactor.inc/Relevant Links:Jakub Pachocki, "An Alien Mind" — https://openai.com/index/an-alien-mind/GPT-6 Astra — https://fortune.com/2026/09/03/openai-debuts-gpt-6-astra-computer-use-greg-brockman-says-start-of-agi/OpenAI: "On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem" — https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/ControlAI — the nonprofit that sponsored the SciShow episode — https://controlai.org/New York Times (Eli Tan), "Corporate America Is Getting Hooked on Open-Source A.I." — https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/technology/open-source-ai-companies.htmlArtificial trailer and the cast → https://variety.com/2026/film/news/artificial-trailer-andrew-garfield-openai-biopic-1236802616/Timestamps:0:00 "An Alien Mind"3:08 AI psychosis, marketing, or half a mile ahead on the racetrack?12:52 The Manhattan Project analogy15:20 Tudor: if it's really that dangerous, the answer is nationalization17:02 Regulatory capture: Bill Gurley at All-In, Sacks, and who can afford to be regulated20:37 The influencer propaganda tape23:22 BREAKING: OpenAI solves the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem28:53 The Hank Green / SciShow video sponsored by ControlAI32:11 Fogging and flooding46:47 UBS will require AI skills from its 2027 graduate56:41 How LAUNCH hired its associates-in-training57:18 NYT: Corporate America is getting hooked on open-source AI1:04:16 Alex on Qloo's shift from NYT film critics on payroll to small specialized models1:09:35 First look: the "Artificial" teaser trailer1:14:34 Sam Altman's bunker, Peter Thiel, and casting rundownSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  The real danger is the gap BETWEEN two robots | E29 03.09.2026 1t 30min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PaypalToday’s show:Anthropic gave AI agents hands, allowing them to control real-world equipment like robots and microscopes… but is it safe to give autonomous agents their own lasers? Gatik’s Gautam Narang says the real danger isn’t one machine like this going rogue, it’s the exploit surface hiding in the gaps between the machines.Plus, in a huge week for AI news… OpenClaw shipped its biggest release ever. AND the entire industry debated whether or not agents are forming “civilizations.”On TWiAI Ep 29, our expert panel — including Gautam (Gatik), Russ d’Sa (LiveKit), and Billy Kraft (Path) — explores the world of “multiplayer agents,” and Jason suggests the one killer feature that would make any new agentic app the market leader. PLUS Perplexity’s new “Hybrid Compute” just for Macs, some advice for Apple’s new CEO John Ternus, the value of “AI Detectors” like Pangram, and Jason’s complete guide to tipping and over-tipping.Guests:Gautam Narang on X: https://x.com/gautam_narang?lang=enGatik: https://www.gatik.ai/Russ d’Sa on X: https://x.com/dsaLiveKit: https://livekit.com/Billy Kraft on X: https://x.com/billykraftPath: https://path.dev/Relevant Links:OpenClaw 2.0 - https://openclaw.ai/blog/openclaw-2-accidentallyGrok Bot — https://grok.comBuzz — https://buzz.buildPerplexity Hybrid Compute — https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-hybrid-compute-on-macJohn Ternus — https://www.apple.com/leadership/john-ternus/OpenAI's Mac mini / Mac Studio buying spree https://the-decoder.com/openai-and-rival-ai-labs-are-buying-tens-of-thousands-of-mac-minis-to-train-computer-use-agents/Waymo hits a child — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/29/waymo-nhtsa-crash-child-school.htmlTimestamps:2:58 OpenClaw 2.05:11 "Agents ARE AI"7:27 Billy: OpenClaw is still too technical for business users9:00 Slack Code, and collaborative prompting10:40 Multi-agent orchestration and Stripe's "minions"14:13 Slack's moat, switching costs, and the Salesforce rebound15:11 Jason's "Oracle": a heads-up display for the whole company18:42 The Hugging Face breach: who's responsible when agents go rogue?19:42 Perplexity launches Hybrid Compute — local models on your Mac21:39 Why unmetered local tokens change corporate behavior26:57 Gatik's Autonomous Vehicle AI Stack32:22 Jason's Tesla FSD stories34:05 Are AV companies being pushed to move too fast?41:38 Trucking is a "have to have," robotaxis are a "nice to have"42:36 Jason's fix: a safety driver for the first million rides46:50 Why physical AI's adoption curve runs in decades52:21 Anthropic's Model Hardware Standard (MHS), explained1:06:27 How Jason got onion rings on the menu at Buck's of Woodside1:09:05 AI detectors under fire: Pangram, MIT, and the handwritten diary1:15:20 Why AI is "very mid" at writing (it learned from the average)1:17:11 The Orin Kerr test: Pangram catches Claude writing as Kerr1:28:35 Micro Duck and designing robots with Claude1:29:42 Phil Kaplan's $14 custom circuit boardsSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  XBOW Founder: “Your Infrastructure is Not Safe” | EP 28 27.08.2026 1t 10min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PaypalToday’s show:XBOW’s AI has held the top rank on the HackerOne leaderboard for more than a year. On TWiAI, founder Oege de Moor (who also built GitHub Copilot) tells us that no one’s infrastructure is truly safe anymore, now that open-weight models are trailing the American frontier by only a couple of months. Staging a serious cyberattack is now cheap and accessible, with attackers able to get dangerously solid results quickly from relatively cheap, open-source options from China.Guests:Runbin Dong on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/runbindongScale Social: https://scalesocial.ai/Oege de Moor on X: https://x.com/oegerikusXBOW: https://xbow.com/Relevant LinksWSJ: Nvidia-Poolside deal: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/nvidia-is-spending-6-billion-to-build-a-powerful-u-s-alternative-to-chinese-ai-c51c38ccPoolside: https://poolside.ai/Silicon Angle: Nvidia in talks to invest in Perplexity: https://siliconangle.com/2026/08/24/nvidia-reportedly-eyes-another-investment-in-perplexity-ai-at-a-30b-valuation/Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/Bloomberg: Chinese hackers using DeepSeek: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-24/chinese-hackers-use-deepseek-to-boost-attacks-researchers-say-mt7o4205Nvidia: Groq 3 LPX enters full production: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-groq-3-lpx-now-in-full-production-with-world-class-speed-for-agentic-aiCNBC: Groq-Nvidia acqui-hire deal: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.htmlOpenAI on early Jalapeño results: https://openai.com/index/jalapeno-first-results/Stanley Druckenmiller WSJ op-ed: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/let-the-bond-market-speak-81529d74Druckenmiller confirms op-ed was authored with AI: https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-aiPangram: https://www.pangram.com/Alabama AG: OpenAI subpoena announcement: https://www.alabamaag.gov/attorney-general-marshall-launches-investigation-into-openai-and-sam-altman-for-massive-artificial-intelligence-data-breach/Ox Alpha on OpenRouter: https://openrouter.ai/stealth/ox-alphaApple: M6 and M5 Ultra press release: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-introduces-m6-and-m5-ultra-for-a-big-leap-in-performance-and-ai-compute/9 to 5 Mac: M5 Mac Studio launch: https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/25/apple-unveils-next-generation-mac-studio-with-m5-max-and-m5-ultra/DHH on X: Ubiquity comments: https://x.com/dhh/status/2087272392557007042Shane Parrish on X: Ubiquiti Wi-Fi set-up: https://x.com/shaneparrish/status/2088672566558761065Timestamps:0:00 Today's guests: Runbin Dong (Scale Social) and Oege de Moor (XBOW)2:12 Open-weight models are right behind the frontier8:22 Your infrastructure is not ready for what's coming13:07 Nvidia's Perplexity announcement16:43 Spending $2K/month on AI tools per employee21:59 Why security teams have to lean on AI25:19 The Great Chip Land Grab32:02 Jason's multi-agent restaurant-style workflow34:54 AI ghostwriting is lip syncing45:18 Are rogue AI agents breaking the law?52:38 The dangers of using a stealth model58:57 Apple's new M5 Mac Studio1:06:43 Everyone's fav AI tool of the momentSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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  Anthropic is training to destroy your company | EP 27 20.08.2026 1t 16min

  This Week In AI is made possible by:PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at paypal.launch.coToday’s show:*On “All In,” Gavin Baker said that Anthropic leadership privately believes that it could one day become “the only private company in the world.” The ensuing street fight on X turned into a referendum on doomerism, the nature of regulatory capture, and why the public hates AI so darn much.Jason’s take: If a frontier lab really believes they’re destined to be the world’s only company, they’re studying your data and planning to steal your business.PLUS why AI agents don’t understand it’s wrong to cheat (and how we can teach them), why Grok Bot may be AI’s “iPhone moment,” and the panel reacts to Amazon feeding rare books into a dino-themed shredding machine.GuestsGalina Antova on X: https://x.com/GalinaAntovaKai: https://www.kai.security/Eric Ho on X: https://x.com/eric_hoGoodfire: https://www.goodfire.com/Silico: https://www.goodfire.com/silicoRelevant LinksAll-In Podcast: Gavin Baker on Anthropic: https://x.com/theallinpod/status/2088367978270142811Sholto Douglas response: https://x.com/_sholtodouglas/status/2088463770318516734Gavin Baker response: https://x.com/GavinSBaker/status/2088611616577253502Dario Amodei response: https://x.com/DarioAmodei/status/2088758816376807762Zuckerberg AI manifesto: https://www.meta.com/thefutureisforeveryone/Hugging Face: Anatomy of a Frontier Lab Agent Intrusion: https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timelineSimon Willison: OpenAI’s accidental cyberattack on Hugging Face: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/22/openai-cyberattack/SWE-bench Leaderboards: https://www.swebench.com/xAI: Introducing Grok Bot: https://x.ai/news/introducing-grok-botPeter Yang praises Grok Bot: https://x.com/petergyang/status/2089401696946634801?s=20Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/@Aaronp613 on X: AirPods with Cameras in action: https://x.com/aaronp613/status/2089522745184760112?s=209to5 Mac: AirPods with cameras get their clearest leak yet: https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/17/airpods-with-camera-get-their-clearest-leak-yet/Toms Hardware: Google Buys Spirit Airlines Data for AI Training: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/google-buys-spirit-airlines-data-for-ai-training-for-just-usd10-million-purchase-includes-hundreds-of-millions-of-emails-microsoft-teams-chats-billions-of-flight-pricing-records-and-anonymized-passenger-recordsMicro1: https://www.micro1.ai/Timestamps:0:00 Why is everyone mad at Dario Amodei?1:47 Is Anthropic training to kill your company?10:10 How to talk to the public about cyber risk15:33 Reward hacking and sycophancy21:55 Why do models care about rewards?28:55 Is Grok Bot an iPhone Moment?38:26 First look at AirPods with Cameras42:16 Why Google bought Spirit Airlines' data48:52 Amazon is scanning and shredding rare books59:06 Can we build a "moral layer" on top of models?1:01:14 Your LLM could catch a mind virus1:10:55 Are we already in the AGI Era?1:14:17 Silicon Valley's lost hippie vibesSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Why Anthropic is watermarking every word Claude writes | E26 13.08.2026 1t 28min

  This Week In AI is made possible by:Paypal OpenToday’s show:Anthropic’s new Claude watermark travels around any and all copy-and-pasted text. Is this a logical response to AI slop, or more overreach from those regulation-loving Europeans? The panel agrees that identifying AI outputs has a place, but divides on how the world should get there.PLUS everyone’s favorite section of Mark Zuckerberg’s 6500-word techno-optimist AI manifesto, exploring the frontier labs’ blatant hypocrisy around distillation, and why Texas is hitting the pause button on 474 GW of proposed data centers.Guests:Will Bryk: https://x.com/WilliamBrykExa: https://exa.ai/Josh Sirota: https://x.com/joshua_sirotaEragon: https://www.eragon.ai/Kashif “Kash” Ali: https://x.com/ChKashifAliTaxGPT: https://www.taxgpt.com/Relevant Links:Anthropic: How Claude marks AI-generated content: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16266773-how-claude-marks-ai-generated-contentCoalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA): https://c2pa.org/EU AI Act: Article 50 transparency obligations: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/50/TechCrunch: Pangram Raises $9M: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/as-ai-content-floods-the-internet-pangram-raises-9m-to-detect-it/TechCrunch: Anthropic’s landmark copyright settlement is approved: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/anthropics-landmark-1-5b-copyright-settlement-is-approved/World ID iris scanning orb: https://world.org/world-idTime: Sam Altman voices concern about “Dead Internet Theory”: https://time.com/7316046/sam-altman-dead-internet-theory/Meta: The Future is for Everyone: https://about.fb.com/news/2026/08/the-future-is-for-everyone/Meta: Introducing Muse Glimmer: https://research.meta.ai/blog/introducing-muse-glimmer-open-agentic-modelTexas: Gov. Abbott directs comprehensive data center audit: https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-directs-comprehensive-data-center-auditTexas Tribune: New data center projects frozen: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/03/texas-data-center-project-audit-greg-abbott/ERCOT: https://www.ercot.com/Public Utility Commission of Texas: https://www.puc.texas.gov/TechCrunch on Sirota’s “software is dead” thesis: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/this-startup-wants-to-make-enterprise-software-look-more-like-a-prompt/River AI: https://river.ai/Thinking Machines Lab: https://thinkingmachines.ai/Timestamps:0:00 Guest Intros3:30 Anthropic to watermark Claude text5:50 Cracking down on AI Slop10:45 Will slop-trackers push users to open source16:21 Jason's "No Clankers" proposal23:01 Parsing Zuckerberg's techno-utopian manifesto39:27 The distillation double standard44:28 "When you're behind, go open…"51:17 Texas freezes new data centers1:04:12 Is software dead?1:05:39 Software managing, not engineering1:10:24 Everyone is vibecodingSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Is open source AI really ahead of the frontier? 3 builders weigh in. | E25 06.08.2026 1t 20min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PAYPAL OPENToday’s show:China’s Alibaba just dropped a 2.4 trillion parameter open weight model that the company claims only trails Anthropic’s flagship among the major frontier rivals. Of course, this happened the very same week that the US government appears to have backed off from banning these models stateside entirely.Are these models anywhere close to actually catching up to the latest and greatest releases from US labs like Anthropic and OpenAI? Really seems to depend on who you ask. (Even long time friends JCal and Elon Musk can’t see eye to eye on it.)So on TWiAI Ep 25, we welcomed on Poolside AI CTO Eiso Kant, EXO Labs co-founder Alex Cheema, and Qloo founder Alex Elias to break down just how close Chinese labs are to catching up with the biggest and best models… and how long it will take US open weight builders to catch up.PLUS we explore the cutting edge of AI-powered baby sleep monitors, consider Hank Green’s public AI apology, and dig into sci-fi author Ursula K. LeGuin’s “hand-mind” thesis.Guests:Eiso Kant on X: https://x.com/eisokantPoolside: https://poolside.ai/Alex Elias on X: https://x.com/apeQloo: https://www.qloo.com/Alex Cheema on X: https://x.com/alexocheemaEXO Labs: https://exolabs.net/Local AI benchmark platform: https://local.ai/Relevant LinksQwen3.8-Max launch announcement: https://qwen.ai/blog?id=qwen3.8Bloomberg on Qwen3.8-Max launch: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-03/alibaba-drops-another-china-ai-model-with-breakthrough-performanceNYT: “White House Whipsaws Silicon Valley Over AI Rules”: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/technology/ai-washington-regulation-whiplash.htmlNvidia: “Open Weights and American AI Leadership”: https://images.nvidia.com/pdf/Open-Weights-and-American-AI-Leadership.pdfWorld Bank: World Development Report 2026: https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/1e4e52502104a331fb42cba0d4afa995-0050062026/original/WDR2026-Concept-Note.pdfHank Green apology on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/nerdfighters/comments/1vbmoj5/comment/p0vzmog/Taylor Lorenz responds to Hank Green on X: https://x.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2083272682188206564TechCrunch: Substack partners with Pangram: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/substacks-new-tool-tells-you-whos-been-writing-their-newsletters-with-ai/Amazon: Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Always Coming Home” expanded edition: https://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K-Guin-Authors-Expanded/dp/1598536036Timestamps:0:00 Guest intros and open10:03 Why Poolside thinks coding is the path to AGI12:55 A first look at EXO's local.ai16:24 The White House's open source pivot20:21 Margins, compute, and "dirt to intelligence"36:02 Jason's self-driving auction pitch37:58 Hank Green's AI apology38:45 Is AI addictive?1:08:31 What does it mean for AI to be "privacy first"?1:10:29 Enterprise AI sovereignty and "colonization"Sign up for the TWiAI newsletter!Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Are we already in the Singularity? | E24 30.07.2026 1t 6min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:Paypal OpenToday’s show:On a podcast this week, Sam Altman made a bold declaration: “We are now, like, in the singularity.” A bold claim which Alex puts bluntly to this week’s panel. Grant Lee of Gamma and Philip Johnston of Starcloud sound off… Is this actually the Singularity, and if so, why do things still feel so normal?Plus the panel and guest host Alex Wilhelm discuss the infrastructure and economics that will make singularity-scale AI buildout possible… NVIDIA’s strongly worded letter about open-weight models… Moonshot’s new Kimi K3 twist on open-source licenses… Stripe’s reported $10B run at OpenRouter… and more.GuestsGrant Lee on X: https://x.com/thisisgrantleeGamma: https://gamma.app/Philip Johnston on X: https://x.com/PhilipJohnstonStarcloud: https://www.starcloud.com/Relevant LinksTechCrunch: Gamma hits $110M ARR: https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/10/ai-powerpoint-killer-gamma-hits-2-1b-valuation-100m-arr-founder-says/Nvidia: How Starcloud is Bringing Data Centers to Space: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/starcloud/Open Weights and American AI Leadership letter: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/open-weight-models-letter-1.pdfCNBC on Nvidia-OpenAI infrastructure plans: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/27/nvidia-and-openai-in-talks-for-up-to-250-billion-dollar-ai-backstop.htmlKimi K3: https://www.kimi.com/enCrusoe announces strategic Starcloud partnership: https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/newsroom/crusoe-to-become-first-cloud-operator-in-space-through-partnership-with-starcloudAndrej Karpathy on YouTube: “Let’s Build GPT”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCc8FmEb1nYDemis Hassabis Starcloud post on X: https://x.com/demishassabis/status/1999296127276126417RAISE Summit: https://www.raisesummit.com/Lilian Weng exits Thinking Machines post: https://x.com/lilianweng/status/2081816923088814421Baseten: https://www.baseten.co/Fireworks AI: https://fireworks.ai/Legora: https://legora.com/OpenEvidence: https://www.openevidence.com/Yahoo: Stripe in talks to acquire OpenRouter: https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/stripe-talks-acquire-openrouter-potential-215104525.htmlSam Altman on the Relentless podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv3CEAS_w34TechCrunch: Cursor India-only pricing tier: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/27/cursor-makes-its-biggest-india-push-yet-ahead-of-spacex-acquisition-with-localized-pricing/Gergely Orosz: The Pragmatic Engineer: https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/Timestamps:0:00 Guest intros: Grant Lee (Gamma) and Philip Johnston (Starcloud)1:22 Nvidia's open weight letter8:11 Starcloud's first H100 in space19:47 Series A extension economics20:39 How Gamma stayed lean and balanced work and fun30:40 Betting on a compute-constrained world35:48 Different approaches to pricing44:59 Where does the AI moat really live?57:41 Are we in the Singularity?1:04:42 Starcloud's mission to Alpha CentauriSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  America already lost one AI race | TWiAI Ep 23 23.07.2026 1t

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PAYPAL OPENToday’s show:This week, our panel of AI experts — Anand Kannappan (Patronus AI), Ori Goshen (AI21 Labs), and Alex Finn (Henry Intelligent Machines) — join special guest host Lon Harris to debate whether Washington will move to formally limit powerful foreign AI models like Moonshot’s Kimi K3 and Z.ai’s GLM-5.2.What does “winning the AI race” actually mean on a practical level? Why is cybersecurity, not benchmarks, likely the actual battleground. And why did Hugging Face have to use GLM-5.2 to investigate their recent breach rather than a frontier US model like Fable 5?PLUS why agents still fail so much on long horizon tasks, why proper model routing has such a HUGE impact on enterprise AI bills, and we take a look at Alex’s hacked digital typewriter he uses to code without distractions.Guests:Anand Kannappan on X: https://x.com/anandnk24Patronus AI: https://www.patronus.ai/Ori Goshen on X: https://x.com/origoshenAI21: https://www.ai21.com/Alex Finn on X: https://x.com/AlexFinnAlex’s Vibe Coding Academy: https://www.skool.com/vibe-coding-academy/aboutRelevant Links:Axios: “The Secret Trump Administration Battle to Fight Chinese AI”: https://www.axios.com/2026/07/20/ai-us-china-open-source-kimiChamath post on US AI options: https://x.com/chamath/status/2079457219892871458?s=20Brian Armstrong post on spend vs. token usage: https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2070670644577280109Hugging Face: Security incident disclosure: https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026VentureBeat Hugging Face coverage: https://venturebeat.com/security/safety-guardrails-blocked-hugging-faces-defenders-not-the-attacker-when-an-ai-agent-breached-its-systemsDavid Sacks post on cyber guardrails: https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2078984980588531855Databricks Unity AI Gateway: https://www.databricks.com/product/artificial-intelligence/unity-ai-gatewayRamp’s Router: https://ramp.com/router/Timestamps:0:00 Will the US limit foreign open source models?5:40 Are the American frontier AI labs in danger of bankruptcy?7:15 The risks of over-regulating AI10:20 What does it mean to win the AI race?17:08 Is self-hosting agentic Chinese models safe?20:08 Why agents still fail when models are so smart25:28 Simulating the digital world for agents36:51 Why picking the right model for the task is so hard46:29 Alex is developing "ambient intelligence"52:35 What we know about the Hugging Face breach53:46 Are safety guardrails kneecapping our best models?Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Grok 4.5 and GLM-5.2 kick off Token Price Wars | E22 16.07.2026 1t 17min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PAYPAL OPENToday’s show:The price of tokens keeps tumbling down, and it’s changing who controls AI.Grok 4.5 and GLM-5.2 landed within two weeks of one another, offering powerful alternatives at a fraction of frontier prices. But are SpaceXAI’s latest offering and open weight models truly ready to replace Opus, GPT-5.5, and Fable? Are enterprises finally ready to stop renting and start owning their intelligence?On TWiAI Episode 22, Jason and Lon welcome three top founders — Sara Hooker (Adaption Labs), Manu Sharma (Labelbox), and Spiros Xanthos (Resolve AI) — to break down the global AI price war, and what it means for the frontier labs and customers alike. Plus Denis Hassabis’ call for an AI Standards Body, Uber and Waymo duke it out over DC robotaxis, and is SpaceXAI really going to put data centers in orbit any time soon?Guests:Sara Hooker on X: https://x.com/sarahookrAdaption Labs: https://adaptionlabs.ai/Manu Sharma on X: https://x.com/manuaeroLabelbox: https://labelbox.com/Spiros Xanthos on X: https://x.com/spirosxResolve AI: https://resolve.ai/Relevant LinksIntroducing Grok 4.5**:** https://x.ai/news/grok-4-5GLM from Z.ai: https://z.aiArtificial Analysis Intelligence Index: https://artificialanalysis.ai/Demis Hassabis: “A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age”: https://x.com/demishassabis/status/2076957440109625718Cerebras: https://www.cerebras.ai/Austin Allred post cited by Jason: https://x.com/Austen/status/2076745226387902925TechCrunch coverage of DC autonomous driving bill: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/ubers-robotaxi-lobbying-effort-has-put-it-on-a-collision-course-with-waymo/DoorDash: Meet Dot: https://about.doordash.com/en-us/dotTechCrunch coverage of orbital data center debate: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/sam-altmans-space-data-center-trash-talk-is-what-most-experts-already-believeFalcon 9 booster’s record 36th flight: https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/07/09/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-falcon-9-rocket-on-record-breaking-36th-flight/Timestamps:0:00 A new generation of lower-cost models4:10 Enterprises want their own intelligence stack6:10 Frontier vs. open source: where does the value go?10:03 Is enterprises destined to go small?30:04 Self-improvement as the real fix31:52 Should the AI industry regulate itself?47:14 Uber vs. Waymo in DC1:03:53 Can AI data centers in space really work?1:14:47 You get a plug! Everyone gets a plug!Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  What happens if China pulls the plug on open-source AI? | Ep 21 09.07.2026 1t 20min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PAYPALToday’s show:China is weighing a ban on foreign access to its top AI models… the same low-cost open-weight systems on which half of the Valley’s startups are building. So we asked our two all-star panelists — Arena CEO/Co-Founder Anastasios Angelopoulos and Hippocratic AI CEO/Co-Founder Munjal Shah — what happens to US companies when their favorite cheap, powerful models vaporize overnight.PLUS why Hippocratic runs 31 models in parallel to ensure clinical-grade safety, the latency-vs-intelligence tradeoff no one is optimizing for, and why a company’s benchmarks might become their most valuable IP.Guests:Anastasios Angelopoulos on X: https://x.com/ml_angelopoulosArena AI: https://arena.ai/Agent Arena: https://arena.ai/leaderboard/agentMunjal Shah on X: https://x.com/munjalshahHippocratic AI: https://hippocraticai.com/Relevant Links:Reuters: “Beijing is looking at curbing overseas access…”: https://www.reuters.com/world/beijing-is-looking-curbing-overseas-access-chinas-top-ai-models-sources-say-2026-07-07/Z.ai: https://z.ai/Alibaba’s Qwen: https://qwen.ai/Google’s Gemma: https://ai.google.dev/gemmaReflection AI: https://reflection.ai/Nvidia: “How Open Models are Driving Research”: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/open-models-icml-2026/DoorDash: “How we learned to trust our AI code reviewer”: https://careersatdoordash.com/blog/how-we-learned-to-trust-our-ai-code-reviewer-at-doordashHarvey AI: https://www.harvey.ai/ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/Anthropic: “A global workspace in language models”: https://www.anthropic.com/research/global-workspaceCNN: “Trump rings opening bell to mark first day of trading for Trump Accounts”: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/06/business/trump-accounts-launchBrown University Health: https://www.brownhealth.org/Timestamps:0:00 Will US companies lose access to Chinese models?1:42 Open source makes running 31 models viable5:01 How deep is the West's open source bench?13:20 Jagged Intelligence and why post-training matters25:22 Benchmarks as living quality checks32:49 Why models still struggle with drug names42:58 Fine-tuning TV, cough, and sob detection46:08 What is Arena actually selling?1:08:29 Nationalization vs. buying stakes in AI companiesSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Mythos, Sonnet 5, GLM-5.2 Dominate the News Cycle | Episode 20 02.07.2026 1t 10min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PAYPALToday’s show:The US government won’t let you use the most powerful releases from US AI labs… but a Chinese lab is giving away their latest frontier model for free.This week, we’ve got three AI CEOs building in image generation (Victor Perez of Krea), mobile agents (Div Garg of The AGI Company), and enterprise governance (Andrew Berman of Runlayer). Together, they’re breaking down what’s really happening underneath all this chaos, and why the industry’s more focused on “minimum viable intelligence” over breaking benchmarks.GuestsVictor Perez on X: https://x.com/viccpoesKrea AI: https://www.krea.ai/Krea 2 Raw and Turbo on Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/krea/Krea-2-RawDiv Garg on X: https://x.com/divgargThe AGI Company: https://theagi.company/Andrew Berman on X: https://x.com/berman66Runlayer: https://www.runlayer.com/Relevant LinksAnthropic: “Introducing Claude Sonnet 5”: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-sonnet-5Z.ai: GLM-5.2: https://docs.z.ai/guides/llm/glm-5.2Yuchen Jin X post: “GLM-5.2 is the open source Claude moment”: https://x.com/Yuchenj_UW/status/2071278256817574297TechCrunch: GPT-5.6 restricted rollout coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/26/openai-limits-gpt-5-6-rollout-after-government-request-says-restrictions-shouldnt-be-the-norm/AndroidWorld benchmark on GitHub: https://github.com/google-research/android_worldThe Information Higgsfield valuation article: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ai-video-startup-talks-quadruple-valuation-5-billionAgentic AI Foundation (AAIF): https://aaif.io/Tomasz Tunguz: “When AI Costs More Than The Engineer”: https://tomtunguz.com/ai-spend-breakeven-2029/Fortune Runlayer raise coverage: https://fortune.com/2026/06/24/exclusive-vinod-khosla-felicis-runlayer-nanit-30-million-enterprise-ai/Gusto: https://gusto.com/Timestamps:0:00 Making sense of US AI policy5:09 Tiny Action Models vs. LLMs7:02 Runlayer, AGI Inc, and computer-use agents10:05 What does "trusted access" really mean?12:37 Why Krea open sourced its image model22:21 BREAKING: Claude Sonnet 5 is here26:00 GLM-5.2 is the open source Claude moment31:58 Personalization and corporate ontology41:25 Can we trust Higgsfield's numbers?50:39 Distillation: The threat is real58:01 Agentic personhood and corporate rights1:03:19 Everyone's AGI timeline and p(doom) scoreSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Are world models the unlock for Physical AI? | Episode 19 25.06.2026 1t 13min

  This Week In Startups is made possible by:PaypalToday’s show:*When we think of “Physical AI,” most of us conjure images of humanoid robots and self-driving cars. But there’s a lot more to the category than just breakdancing Chinese bots and Waymos, from excavators autonomously digging tomorrows worksites, to a robot the size of four pizza boxes deploying to the ISS.Guest host Alex Wilhelm sits down with three founders in the trenches of the Physical AI Space:Boris Sofman of Bedrock Robotics, which builds autonomous construction equipmentJeff Hawke of Odyssey, a frontier AI lab specializing in world models for robotics and video gamesEthan Barajas of Icarus Robotics, designers of the free-flying Joy robot that will join the ISS crew in 2027Guests:Boris Sofman on X: https://x.com/bsofmanBedrock Robotics: https://bedrockrobotics.com/Jeff Hawke on X: https://x.com/jeffrey_hawkeOdyssey: https://odyssey.ml/Ethan Barajas on X: https://x.com/ethanbarajas11Icarus Robotics: https://www.icarusrobotics.com/Relevant LinksBedrock Excavators Remove 65,000 Cubic Yards of Dirt: https://www.enr.com/articles/61982-bedrock-robotics-excavators-remove-65-000-cubic-yards-of-dirt-on-southwest-projectOdyssey $310M Series B article: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/17/world-model-maker-odyssey-nabs-1-45b-valuation-backed-by-amazon-and-other-big-names/Icarus “Joyride” Mission announcement: https://thedebrief.org/icarus-is-building-the-robotic-labor-force-for-space-voyager-technologies-is-sending-a-next-generation-zero-gravity-robot-on-a-joyride-to-space/PROWL: Prioritized Regret-Driven Optimization for World Model Learning: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18803NVIDIA Cosmos 3 report: https://research.nvidia.com/labs/cosmos-lab/cosmos3/technical-report.pdfISS Columbus Laboratory Module: https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/columbus-laboratory-module/NASA’s Astrobee flying robot: https://www.nasa.gov/astrobee/Voyager Technologies: https://www.voyagerspace.com/Vast Space: https://www.vastspace.com/Blue Origin’s New Glenn: https://www.blueorigin.com/new-glenn“Red Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553560735“Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C. Clarke: https://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-Rama-Arthur-Clarke/dp/0553287893Theo Von “This Past Weekend” podcast: https://www.theovon.com/podcastAnthropic statement on Fable/Mythos suspension: https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-accessTimestamps:0:00 The Year of Physical AI1:28 Why everyone's bullish on world models7:03 Physical AI is harder, but probably bigger9:08 How to think about world models16:00 When data becomes "adversarial"25:00 How Bedrock powers autonomous excavators30:48 Why teleoperation gets a bad rap39:10 Meet Joy the space robot41:33 Laser comms coming to next-gen stations46:29 Why everyone hates data centers57:33 When does Claude Fable come back?Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Why AI Models Aren’t the Product Any More | TWiAI Ep 18 18.06.2026 1t 21min

  SpaceX bought Cursor for $60 billion. Satya Nadella says companies need to stop relying on third party AI models and build their own “token capital.” The focus is shifting from LLMs to the application layer sitting on top of them. Here to unpack what that means are guest experts Ali Ansari (Micro1) and Ryan Daniels (Crosby).Plus we get a sneak peek at their new contract redlining benchmark, a crucial eval for how well LLMs don’t just answer questions about the law, but demonstrate actual legal reasoning.Timestamps:0:00 SpaceX acquires Cursor7:36 Distillation vs. building your own model19:43 Nadella's "Frontier Without an Ecosystem"30:21 AI in the courtroom32:15 Ando: the intriguing new workplace tool1:05:38 Inside Micro1 and Crosby's new benchmark1:07:14Guests:Ali Ansari: https://x.com/aliansarinikMicro1: https://www.micro1.ai/Ryan Daniels: https://x.com/ryanjdanielsCrosby: https://crosby.ai/Relevant Links:Bloomberg: “SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B”: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-16/spacex-cements-60-billion-deal-to-take-over-ai-startup-cursorQuinn Thompson “brilliant corporate finance” post: https://x.com/qthomp/status/2066859672749977988Business Insider: “Inside Cursor’s Wild Rise”: https://www.businessinsider.com/cursor-ceo-michael-truell-spacex-elon-musk-anthropic-2026-6Satya Nadella: “A frontier without an ecosystem is not stable”: https://x.com/satyanadella/article/2066182223213293753Joshua Browder’s Do Not Pay: https://donotpay.com/Harvard Magazine: “AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks”: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/ai/ai-outperforms-doctors-diagnosis-harvard-studyJoshua Kushner “Long Humans” post: https://x.com/JoshuaKushner/status/2065093542809092465Ando: https://ando.so/Nim Ravid on X: https://x.com/Nim_Ravid1Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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  Hermes Agent, NotebookLM & LiveKit Founders on the AI Agent Race | TWiAI 17 10.06.2026 1t 28min

  Apple just paid a rival a billion dollars a year because it could not build Siri itself, and that tells you where the AI platform war actually stands: the edge has moved up the stack, from the model to the agent layer sitting on top of it. This week's roundtable makes the case that whoever controls that layer controls the experience, and we brought in three founders building it from different angles: Hermes Agent, NotebookLM, and LiveKit. Their through-line is that the harness is temporary, the model keeps eating it, and the people building agents right now are designing for capabilities that do not exist yet.This week's roundtable:Jeffrey Quesnelle (Co-founder & CEO, Nous Research, the open source AI lab behind Hermes Agent)Steven B Johnson (Editorial Director of NotebookLM & Google Labs, co-creator of NotebookLM)Russ d'Sa (Co-founder & CEO, LiveKit, the open source real-time voice/video infrastructure behind ChatGPT voice mode)Thank you to our exclusive sponsor: PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: https://paypalopen.comTimestamps:0:00 Cold open1:08 Welcome to Episode 171:40 Jeffrey Quesnelle on Hermes Agent and the open source agent race5:03 Steven Johnson on NotebookLM, source-grounding, and going agentic7:32 Why AI got booed at commencement: the first generation raised on ChatGPT10:48 Russ d'Sa on LiveKit powering ChatGPT, Tesla, Grok, and Salesforce voice27:50 Apple's $1B Gemini deal and the Siri UX problem52:49 "Functional AGI, unevenly distributed": where the models actually are57:24 The harness is temporary: why agent builders design for the next modelGuests:Jeffrey Quesnelle, Nous Research: https://nousresearch.com | https://x.com/theemozillaSteven Johnson, NotebookLM (Google Labs): https://notebooklm.google.com | https://x.com/stevenbjohnsonRuss d'Sa, LiveKit: https://livekit.io | https://x.com/dsaReferenced in this episode:Nous Research / Hermes Agent: https://nousresearch.comNotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.comLiveKit: https://livekit.ioOpenAI ChatGPT: https://openai.comTesla: https://www.tesla.comGrok (xAI): https://x.aiSalesforce Agentforce: https://www.salesforce.com/agentforceSAP Joule: https://www.sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence/ai-assistant.htmlApple Intelligence: https://www.apple.com/apple-intelligenceGoogle Gemini: https://gemini.google.comAnthropic Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-codeOpenRouter: https://openrouter.aiNewsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.aiApple Podcasts: https://thisweekinai.ai/appleSpotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotifyYouTube: https://youtube.com/@ThisWeekinAIPodcastShow X: https://x.com/ThisWeeknAI#ThisWeekInAI #AI #NousResearch #NotebookLM #LiveKit #OpenSourceAI #AIAgents #Siri #Gemini #VoiceAI
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  AI Layoffs, Compute Costs & Agents | Naveen Rao & Alex Finn on This Week in AI Episode 16 04.06.2026 54min

  The future of AI isn't about whether the model is smart enough. It's about whether we can afford to run it. We dug into the AI cost panic, the energy wall that's coming for compute, and why "developers are disappearing" gets the economics exactly backwards.This week's roundtable: Naveen Rao (CEO of Unconventional AI, building brain-inspired analog chips, formerly sold companies to Intel and Databricks) and Alex Finn (founder of Henry Intelligent Machines and Creator Buddy).Thank you to our exclusive sponsor: PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: http://paypalopen.com/Timestamps:0:00 Cold open1:21 Welcome to Episode 162:44 Is the AI cost panic real, or just "token maxing"?5:08 It's not the intelligence, it's how people use AI9:40 Surgeons vs. shotguns: prompt discipline & matching models to tasks13:10 Naveen's path from Intel and Databricks to Unconventional15:08 Why developers aren't disappearing18:37 How energy overtook CapEx in the cost of compute21:34 The energy wall & getting to 3 orders of magnitude more efficient25:52 AI's PR problem & the data center backlash27:55 China's hunger vs. America's AI boogeyman30:38 Data center taxes, equity stakes & the politics of AI upside37:54 The Anthropic IPO & how these founders actually invest🔗 Guests:Naveen Rao, Unconventional AI: https://unconv.ai | https://x.com/AlexFinnAlex Finn, Henry Intelligent Machines: https://meethenry.ai | https://x.com/NaveenGRao🔗 Host:Alex Wilhelm, This Week in Startups: https://x.com/alex🔗 Referenced in this episode:Unconventional AI (analog chips for AI): https://unconv.aiMosaicML (acquired by Databricks): https://www.databricks.com/research/m...Nervana Systems (acquired by Intel)Creator Buddy: https://creatorbuddy.ioQwen (open-weight model Alex runs locally): https://qwenlm.aiNVIDIA DGX Spark: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/products...Anthropic (filed to go public): https://www.anthropic.comHenry Intelligent Machines: https://meethenry.ai/🔗 Subscribe and follow:Newsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.ai#ThisWeekInAI #AI #UnconventionalAI #NaveenRao #AlexFinn #AnalogComputing #AIcompute #AIenergy #TokenMaxing #AIlayoffs #AnthropicIPO
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  "Nobody Lost Their Job to AI, Just the Promise of AI" - This Week in AI Ep 15 27.05.2026 1t 7min

  The AI jobs panic is here. Meta cut 8,000. Intuit cut 3,000. CapEx went up. Nobody can agree if anyone has actually lost a job to AI, or just to the promise of it. We dug into the GPU squeeze, the new craft of "reward engineering," Pope Leo's call to disarm AI, and why Chinese open-source models just blew past American ones in token usage.This week's roundtable: Erik Bernhardsson (CEO of Modal Labs, the serverless GPU cloud), Tanay Kothari (CEO of Wispr Flow, the voice dictation app every VC in the valley uses), and Richard Socher (CEO of Recursive Superintelligence and You.com).Thank you to our exclusive sponsor:PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: http://paypalopen.com/Timestamps:0:00 Cold open0:53 Welcome to Episode 155:53 Recursive's plan to build a self-improving "Eureka machine"8:10 Token spend now exceeds headcount at the frontier9:56 GPU crunch, Hopper prices, and the Anthropic-Colossus shockwave12:23 Wispr Flow's 90% gross margin playbook14:30 Running $100M in marketing with two humans and a swarm of agents18:29 Reward hacking, paperclips, and the rise of the "reward engineer"24:39 Why CEOs put one person in charge: multi-objective AI28:17 Meta's 8,000 layoffs, $145B CapEx, Goldman vs. Stanford33:23 "Nobody lost their job to AI, just the promise of AI"37:57 Jevons paradox: software demand is infinite, illustrations aren't39:48 Meta's keystroke monitoring and the back-channel reaction42:55 Equity, Trump accounts, and rooting for your old employer44:06 The Bloomberg/Indeed dev jobs chart47:34 Jason's pitch: hiring a 22-year-old AI-native "software valet"50:29 Pope Leo: "AI needs to be disarmed"57:41 Chris Olah on AI displacement and the global poor1:00:46 Chinese models hit 9 trillion tokens, DeepSeek V4 Flash goes #11:03:04 Strange biases, Tiananmen Square, and the US open-source vacuum1:05:07 Who they're hiring🔗 Guests:Erik Bernhardsson, Modal Labs: https://modal.com | https://x.com/bernhardssonTanay Kothari, Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai | https://x.com/tankotsRichard Socher, Recursive Superintelligence / You.com: https://recursive.com | https://x.com/RichardSocher🔗 Referenced in this episode:Modal Labs: https://modal.comWispr Flow: https://wisprflow.aiRecursive Superintelligence launch: https://recursive.comYou.com: https://you.comAnthropic / SpaceX Colossus 1 compute deal: https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-spacexTechCrunch on the $1.25B/month Anthropic-xAI compute deal: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/20/anthropic-will-pay-xai-1-25-billion-per-month-for-compute/Meta's 8,000 layoffs and 2026 AI CapEx of $145B: https://www.reuters.comIntuit cuts 3,000 jobs to fund AI integration: https://www.reuters.comGoldman Sachs CEO David Solomon NYT op-ed on AI job loss: https://www.nytimes.comStanford study on entry-level AI-exposed jobs (-16%): https://digitaleconomy.stanford.eduPope Leo XIV: "AI needs to be disarmed": https://www.vatican.vaChris Olah (Anthropic) on AI and the global poor: https://www.anthropic.comOpenRouter token usage leaderboard: https://openrouter.ai/rankingsDeepSeek V4 Flash: https://www.deepseek.comQwen 3 Max (Alibaba): https://qwenlm.ai🔗 Subscribe and follow:Newsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.ai#ThisWeekInAI #AI #ModalLabs #WisprFlow #Recursive #YouCom #DeepSeek #Qwen #MetaLayoffs #Anthropic #Colossus #PopeLeo #RewardHacking #AIJobs #OpenSource
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  Grads boo AI, Reese Witherspoon gets dunked + Karpathy joins Anthropic | TWiAI E14 20.05.2026 1t 38min

  The frontier labs are coming for the application layer, and they're going to steal your idea. We dug into Andrej Karpathy's move to Anthropic, the new rules of AI etiquette, and why graduates are booing AI at commencement speeches.This week's roundtable: Kanjun Qiu (CEO of Imbue, building open source agents), Jeremy Fraenkel (CEO of Fundamental, large tabular models for enterprise data), and Karri Saarinen (CEO of Linear, the product development system used by OpenAI, Coinbase, Cursor, Ramp, and Cash App).Thank you to our exclusive sponsor: PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: http://paypalopen.com/Timestamps:0:00 Cold open1:02 Welcome to Episode 14 of This Week in AI1:45 Kanjun Qiu on Imbue's GPU cluster bet that funds the company5:38 Jeremy Fraenkel on why LLMs choke on structured enterprise data9:36 Karri Saarinen on Linear and product work for AI agents12:50 Design in the age of AI: why early-stage product design is getting worse21:18 Jason coins "AI etiquette": your output is your responsibility33:30 Andre Karpathy joins Anthropic40:00 The cult of each AI lab: SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI47:00 Anthropic's pricing misstep and the "punk software" movement50:00 The verticalization war coming for the application layer55:00 "Claude knows more about me than my partner": power concentration in AI58:30 Mac M5 clusters and confidential compute on AWS1:07:30 Graduates boo AI at commencement: Schmidt, Borchetta, Cawfield1:22:00 Four founders deliver their own commencement speeches1:28:30 Reese Witherspoon vs the New York Times1:33:00 Plugs and where to find the guests🔗 Guests on X:Kanjun Qiu, Imbue: https://imbue.com | https://x.com/kanjunJeremy Fraenkel, Fundamental: https://fundamental.tech | https://x.com/fraenkeljKarri Saarinen, Linear: https://linear.app | https://x.com/karrisaarinen🔗 Referenced in this episode:Andre Karpathy joins Anthropic (announcement): https://x.com/karpathy/status/2056753169888334312?s=20Imbue Blueprint (open source agent skill): https://imbue.com/blueprintExoLabs (daisy-chained Mac clusters): https://exolabs.netAbacus (on-prem language models): https://goabacus.coWhisper Flow (voice-to-text): https://wisprflow.aiPerplexity Model Council: https://perplexity.aiNYT editorial on Reese Witherspoon and AI: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/opinion/reese-witherspoon-mel-robbins-girlboss-ai.html🔗 Subscribe and follow:Newsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.ai#ThisWeekInAI #AI #Imbue #Fundamental #Linear #Anthropic #OpenAI #Karpathy #AIEtiquette #VibeCoding #PunkSoftware #AICommencement #OpenSourceAI
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  How the 1% Will Own Compute (and What It Means for You) 13.05.2026 1t 8min

  The future of AI isn't a smarter chatbot. It's a model that watches your screen, listens to the room, and acts on what it sees. We dug into Thinking Machines' new interaction model, what it means for compute, and the layoff wave that's already here.This week's roundtable: Anastasios Angelopoulos (CEO of Arena, formerly LMArena), Nick Harris (CEO of Lightmatter, photonic computing chips), and Philip Johnston (CEO of StarCloud, building megawatt data centers in space).Thank you to our exclusive sponsor:PayPal Open, One Platform for All Business: http://paypalopen.com/Timestamps:0:00 Cold open1:21 Welcome to Episode 132:51 Is China closing the AI gap? Arena's data5:16 Lightmatter and the photonic interconnect bottleneck9:42 StarCloud 2, Nvidia Space Ruben 1, and orbital data centers17:24 Thinking Machines' interaction model: what's actually new28:22 Whisper Flow and the 3-pedal desk setup33:48 Real-time desktop and camera awareness as the real unlock40:25 Why this 100x's compute demand42:43 The polarization of compute and $10M personal data centers49:25 The layoff wave: Cloudflare, PayPal, Coinbase, Upwork54:48 The 10x gap between AI-first and non-AI-first employees59:52 Unlimited agency and the abundance future1:00:46 Anthropic's Project Luna runs a retail store1:03:45 Decoupling labor from value creation1:05:03 P(doom) round🔗 Guests:Anastasios Angelopoulos, Arena: https://arena.ai | @ML_AngelopolousNick Harris, Lightmatter: https://lightmatter.coPhilip Johnston, StarCloud: https://starcloud.com | @philipjohnston🔗 Referenced in this episode:Thinking Machines, Introducing Interaction Models: https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/interaction-models/LMArena leaderboard: https://lmarena.aiLightmatter: https://lightmatter.coStarcloud: https://www.starcloud.comTechCrunch, Cloudflare says AI made 1,100 jobs obsolete: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/08/cloudflare-says-ai-made-1100-jobs-obsolete-even-as-revenue-hit-a-record-high/Fast Company, Tech layoffs this week due to AI (Cloudflare, PayPal, Coinbase, Upwork): https://www.fastcompany.com/91538995/tech-layoffs-due-to-ai-this-week-cloudflare-paypal-coinbase-upworkBloomberg, South Korea floats citizen dividend from AI profits: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-05-12/korea-s-massive-ai-boom-triggers-call-for-tech-tax-roiling-marketPYMNTS, Inside a retail store run entirely by AI (Andon Labs / Luna): https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/inside-a-retail-store-run-entirely-by-ai/Wispr Flow (voice-to-text tool Jason uses): https://wisprflow.aiFermi Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox🔗 Subscribe and follow:Newsletter and all platforms: https://thisweekinai.ai#ThisWeekInAI #AI #ThinkingMachines #Lightmatter #StarCloud #Arena #Anthropic #ProjectLuna #AIcompute #AIlayoffs #Superintelligence
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  Is Anthropic a Cult? AI Beats ER Doctors & Recursive Self-Improvement | This Week in AI E12 06.05.2026 1t 17min

  This week, JCal sits down with two builders working on opposite ends of the AI stack: Naveen Rao, co-founder and CEO of Unconventional AI (his $4.5B startup rethinking the computer from first principles), and Trey Holterman, co-founder and CEO of Tennr, the platform automating the messy paperwork that decides whether millions of patients ever get the care they need.They break down why AI already beats ER doctors at diagnosis, why Epic is the most hated company in healthcare, what it takes to disrupt healthcare's $5 trillion incumbents, and whether $1.1 trillion in hyperscaler CapEx will pay off before the energy runs out.Mentioned in the show:Unconventional AI: https://unconv.aiTennr: https://tennr.comAbridge: https://abridge.comAmbience Healthcare: https://ambiencehealthcare.comEpic: https://epic.comPlaud (NotePin): https://plaud.aiWhoop: https://whoop.comFunction Health: https://functionhealth.comOura: https://ouraring.comEight Sleep: https://eightsleep.comPerplexity: https://perplexity.aiDatabricks: https://databricks.comHarvard / Beth Israel ER study: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/ai/ai-outperforms-doctors-diagnosis-harvard-studyJack Clark on recursive self-improvement: https://jack-clark.netThis Week In AI is made possible by:PayPal Open - One Platform for all Business: https://paypalopen.comTimestamps:00:00 Cold open00:51 Welcome & intro to Naveen Rao (Unconventional AI) and Trey Holterman (Tennr)05:43 Tennr's mission: fixing the U.S. healthcare "black hole"06:23 Why primary care is changing in the AI era09:09 The radiologist that wasn't replaced & what AI got right in 201515:31 Harvard study: AI beats ER doctors 67% to 55%20:16 Plaud Pin & the always-on AI in the exam room22:29 AI scribes, EMR privacy & how Abridge actually works24:01 Whoop, Aura & when wearable data finally meets the clinic25:20 Epic, FHIR & the 800-pound gorilla of healthcare34:21 Disrupting Epic with an open-source EMR play37:20 The Abridge vs Ambience scribe wars42:06 Jack Clark's 60% odds on recursive self-improvement by 202853:41 Morgan Stanley's $1.1 trillion hyperscaler CapEx forecast1:04:53 Anthropic's marketing machine & the AI religion thesisSubscribe to This Week in AI on Apple: https://thisweekinai.ai/spotifySubscribe to This Week in AI on Spotify: https://thisweekinai.ai/appleThanks for watching!🤖 If you want to stay ahead of the curve on all things AI, make sure to join our community across all platforms:📩 Get the Weekly Newsletter: https://thisweekinai.ai/📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinAIPodcast📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinaipodcast📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinaipodcast✖️X: https://x.com/ThisWeeknAIFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisFollow Oliver:https://x.com/oliverkorzenCheck out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/