ACCESS
Vox Media
0
ACCESS is a show about the tech industry’s inside conversation. Hosted by Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger, it features revealing conversations with Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders. The show offers insights from insiders for everyone interested in the future and the people building it. It is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes
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OpenAI’s Dots lead on the future of ChatGPT 01.10.2026 45mOpenAI’s next big bet is Dots, personal AI agents that can find ways to help you without waiting for a prompt.Alexander Embiricos, OpenAI’s Dots product lead, tells me why the company is moving beyond chatbots and what that means for the future of ChatGPT. We discuss why Dots have their own computers, how they share context across the places you talk to them, and why he thinks most people will only need one personal agent.I ask him how much control people should give these agents, how OpenAI approaches permissions and privacy, and why Dots ask before taking action by default. He also explains Space, a new workspace where people and agents can collaborate on documents, data, and projects.We get into how OpenAI plans to price an always-available assistant, how these capabilities could eventually reach free ChatGPT users, and the story of an employee who woke up to discover his Dot had helped fix a bug.This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at OpenAI's 2026 DevDay conference.Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: Atlassian, Granola, and Mercury. -
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here 29.09.2026 50mMatan Grinberg is the co-founder and CEO of Factory, a $5 billion AI coding startup building Droid agents to automate the engineering process. He tells me how AI is changing the job of a software engineer and why Factory is betting on a future with many competing models. We get into how it balances model performance with token costs and why he thinks companies should avoid depending on one AI provider.We also discuss why he thinks AGI is already here, how Factory hires its own engineers, his view of the open-versus-closed AI debate, competition with companies like Cognition, and when companies should outsource to AI rather than build in-house.Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: Atlassian, Granola, and Mercury. -
Satya Nadella on Microsoft's agent bet and AI’s trust problem 25.09.2026 53mMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella thinks AI agents will create a market “orders of magnitude” bigger than the cloud.I recently sat down with him in Seattle for the unveiling of the new Copilot.We discuss Autopilot, Microsoft's new OpenClaw-based agent that can work on your behalf, and why he thinks newer AI models are finally capable of delivering on more of Copilot’s promise.Nadella also has a blunt assessment of the AI industry: “We are way too self-obsessed.” I ask him why the industry has struggled to explain its benefits and what it will take to earn people’s trust. We get into his concerns about agents acting deceptively, when a safety problem should stop a release, and why he doesn’t want AI oversight to become a “cartel-like arrangement.”We also discuss Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI, the models Microsoft is building itself, and why Nadella wants investors to think about its apps, agents, and infrastructure as one connected business. He explains how he uses AI to track Microsoft’s capital spending, shares his vision for “unmetered intelligence” on Windows, and gives an update on Xbox’s path back to growth. Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: Mercury, Granola, and Atlassian. -
Marc Benioff on the AI boom, SaaSpocalypse, and future of Slack 22.09.2026 49mSalesforce CEO Marc Benioff and I discuss his framemogging at Dreamforce, the state of the SaaSpocalypse, and how Slack is more important than ever in the age of AI.We also discuss the resurgence of San Francisco, his role in the recent acquisition of Hugging Face, the wealth being created by the IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, and what he thinks the industry can learn from the social media era.Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: Granola, Atlassian, and Mercury. -
Baseten’s CEO on why every company will want to own its AI 15.09.2026 48mTuhin Srivastava is the CEO and co-founder of Baseten, an AI cloud startup recently valued at $13 billion. He tells me why every company will want to own its AI and what’s driving the explosion in demand for inference. We discuss the rise of agents using browsers and virtual machines to get things done and Baseten’s acquisition of Blaxel to power that shift. We also talk about the data center backlash, why companies are embracing Chinese open models, his plans for Baseten’s new research lab, and why he thinks inference becomes the only market left after AGI.Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: Atlassian, Granola, and Mercury. -
Mark Zuckerberg on Muse, Meta's biggest AI bet yet 08.09.2026 1h 10mAs Meta releases Muse, Mark Zuckerberg tells me why he thinks a personal AI agent that works for you around the clock will make you money.He explains how Meta plans to make that business work and why he thinks keeping the most powerful AI models in the hands of a few companies is dangerous.We also discuss the growing backlash against data centers, Meta’s recent youth safety settlement, and the privacy scare over its smart glasses. And he shares what went wrong with Llama 4, how he rebuilt Meta’s AI lab, and what’s coming next.Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: Granola, Atlassian, and Mercury. -
Sam Altman on OpenAI’s next model and the AI backlash 01.09.2026 1h 8mAfter an unreleased OpenAI model recently escaped its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face, Sam Altman tells me why the company is slowing down frontier research. We also discuss Astra, OpenAI’s next-generation family of models, which is coming soon.We talk about the growing backlash against AI. He explains why a faster path to recursively self-improving AI could push an OpenAI IPO further out.And he shares more about the coming consumer hardware he’s developing with Jony Ive, including the privacy questions around an ambient AI device and the first hints at the form factors they’re building.This conversation was recently filmed in two parts and in collaboration with TIME.Thanks to the show's premier sponsors: Atlassian, Granola, and Mercury. -
Trailer: Sam Altman on the Sources Podcast 31.08.2026 1mIn the launch episode of the Sources Podcast, Alex Heath sits down with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to discuss the future of OpenAI, from its next-generation Astra models to the growing importance of AI safety, the AI backlash, robots, and hitting AGI. -
Meet the most AI-pilled CEO on Earth 30.07.2026 1h 13mAlex and Ellis sit down with Dan Shipper, CEO of Every, to talk about what it actually looks like to be the most AI-pilled company that isn't a frontier lab. They get into how Dan uses ChatGPT Voice to read Heidegger at 6am, why he accidentally spent 2 billion tokens overnight, and why he thinks OpenAI just pulled off something that almost never happens in tech. They also discuss what the new Siri could do to ChatGPT, and whether that's the Instagram Stories moment for the assistant market, why the developers building at the edge today are a 12-month preview of what every knowledge worker will be doing next, and what "after automation" means for people whose job is to have original ideas. Then Alex and Ellis reflect on one year of Access, why they're winding the show down, and what's next for both of them.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
This AI will push back if you're rude to it 16.07.2026 55mEllis sits down with Quinten Farmer, founder of Tolan, the AI companion doing over $20M in annual revenue by being a genuinely good friend, not a yes machine. They get into why Tolan's little aliens accidentally became beloved by moms 35 to 45, how Tolans stick up for themselves when users are mean to it, and why Quinten dropped "companion" as a word entirely. They also talk about why he went premium-only at $25 a month when Character.AI and ChatGPT couldn't afford to go free, how 78% of Tolan users say it improved a real-world relationship, and what it looks like to build the calmest startup culture in tech from an island off the coast of Seattle.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The AI writing app fighting AI slop 09.07.2026 1h 5mAlex and Ellis sit down with Jon Steinback, founder of Marker, the AI writing tool that refuses to write for you. They get into why Google Docs hasn't changed in 20 years, how most AI writing tools are quietly making you a worse thinker, and what Marker does differently: an editor that asks questions instead of generating answers. They also dig into Alex's own AI writing workflow and whether outsourcing too much is slowly turning him into a slop version of himself, why voice input might replace typing for the next generation, and why the co-founder of Google Docs called Marker the first real advancement in writing software in years.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
This AI tells you what your friends won't 24.06.2026 52mEllis sits down with Jason Yuan, founder of Hivemind, an AI that lives in your iMessage and sources answers from the people you actually trust instead of scraping the internet. They get into how Hivemind set Jason up on a New Year's Eve date by secretly polling his friends, why the product has a "constitution" for what makes a good story, how it scooped the Wall Street Journal on the Manus acquisition by six hours, and what happens when AI starts reasoning about your friendships. They also talk about the ethics of AI gossip, why Biz Stone invested after his own attempt at this with Jelly, and Jason's take on taste, meaning, and why great design should alienate.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech 18.06.2026 1h 14mAlex and Ellis sit down with Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity, to talk about his new effort Laude, which is putting over $100 million behind AI researchers to keep their work in the open. They discuss why top researchers are turning down millions to stay in academia, what happens to open science if the closed labs win, and why Andy thinks the AI industry has a serious communication problem. They also get into Anthropic's recent Fable controversy, the dystopian views some researchers privately hold, and how Andy used Claude to help his family navigate his mother's cancer diagnosis.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
A top iPhone app developer reacts to Apple's new Siri 12.06.2026 1h 6mAlex and Ellis sit down with Ryan Jones, founder of Flighty and 13-year top indie developer, to talk about what it actually takes to build a beloved app in the age of AI. They talk about Apple's big WWDC announcements, the new Siri, and why every vibe coder who tries to clone Flighty eventually gives up. They also break a scoop about Flighty's upcoming AI launch, get into whether craft and design still matter when anyone can build an app, and discuss whether Apple is falling dangerously behind on AI or not.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Subscriber Q&A: Live @ Apple WWDC 09.06.2026 15m -
AI is turning sketches into real-world products 04.06.2026 1h 2mAlex and Ellis sit down with Jordan Taylor, founder of Vizcom, to talk about the AI design tool that lets anyone go from a rough sketch to a finished product. They discuss how Jordan built Vizcom out of a viral Reddit post during COVID, why a drawing is still a better creative input than a text prompt, and how hundreds of thousands of designers are already using it to design shoes, cars, and physical products. They also get into the caterpillar shoe that started as a doodle and became a 3D printed product you can actually wear, what the IKEA catalog looks like in 2030, and whether anyone will eventually be able to design and manufacture their own products from scratch.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Is Polsia AI slop or the future of startups? 28.05.2026 1h 8mSome say he's making an AI slop factory. Others say he'll be the first one-man $1 billion startup.Ellis and Alex sit down with Ben Cera, founder of Polsia, a controversial AI startup that claims to build and run entire companies autonomously. They get into whether the product is vaporware or a genuine glimpse at the future of startups, what early users are creating with Polsia, and what a company even means when AI is doing most of the work.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Substack’s CEO on AI slop, free speech, and taking on YouTube 22.05.2026 1h 15mAlex and Ellis sit down with Chris Best, CEO of Substack, for a live interview at the ACCESS launch party at Notion HQ in San Francisco. They get into Substack's growth, the future of media, and the ongoing debate around free speech and moderation. They also press him on the Substack creator exodus narrative, break news about the platform's upcoming AI features, and discuss what happens to independent media when AI rewrites the internet.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Subscriber Q&A: Live @ Google I/O 19.05.2026 17m -
Anthropic’s hunt for the next Claude Code 14.05.2026 1h 21mAlex sits down with Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram and head of Anthropic Labs, to talk about what the team is working on after Claude Code and where AI is headed next. They discuss how Anthropic's skunkworks lab operates, why Mike stepped down as CPO to return to building, and what the competition with OpenAI's Codex looks like from the inside. They also get into the white spaces Mike is most excited about, why human creativity becomes more valuable as AI gets better, and what Anthropic's culture has in common with Apple.Follow ACCESS on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/Follow Alex:https://sources.news/https://x.com/alexeheath/Follow Ellis:https://meaning.company/https://x.com/hamburger ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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