Episodes

Who is Elizabeth Holmes beyond the headlines? Billy Evans reflects on falling in love while indictment, trial and prison reshaped their lives.

Is AI becoming a tool, a moral framework or a new religion? The besties debate Anthropic’s view that Claude might be conscious, model welfare and alignment risks, plus OpenAI’s math breakthroughs and backlash. They also break down France’s riots, socialism, debt and bond-market pressure, then assess Grok Bot, OpenAI Dots, practical gains from AI and whether IP still matters.

Can an AI safety framework work without new legislation? The besties unpack the White House accord pushing frontier model companies toward internal controls, external audits and board oversight. They debate superintelligence as an arms race, open-source AI, cyber defense, data centers and power, plus whether doomer narratives obscure strong growth, low unemployment and rising household income.

Can Spotify’s playbook help move healthcare from reactive treatment to prevention? Daniel Ek joins Jason and Friedberg to unpack Spotify’s climb to over 700 million active users, the licensing bets behind subscription music and his shift to Neko. They discuss longitudinal data, AI, wearables, clinician-led diagnostics and funding preventive care in the U.S.

Should AI companies face ordinary corporate liability? The besties debate responsible shipping versus global regulation, whether open-weight models will commoditize routine AI while frontier systems tackle harder problems, and how consumer agents could save time and money while disrupting app stores, subscriptions and opaque workflows. Plus, Trump and Obama on global AI control.

Was Anthropic’s viral resignation a whistleblower moment or a coordinated push to shape AI regulation? The besties examine the evidence, media amplification, and potential IPO disclosure and liability risks. They debate how AI doom narratives could centralize federal power and threaten open source, then dig into data leakage, on-prem AI, human leverage, and Nike’s brand troubles.

Has OpenAI entered the AGI era with GPT-6 Astra? The besties debate faster frontier progress, falling costs and late-stage AI valuations, plus why the Hugging Face hack looks like a cybersecurity failure, not a sentient breakout. They unpack AI-powered defense, regulatory backlash, Mamdani’s K-8 school ban, adaptive tutoring, data center growth and the US-Venezuela oil deal.

Friedberg interviews Eric Weinstein, exploring heterodox thinking in science. The discussion shifts to China's AI optimism, the Robot Olympics, and the capabilities of Grock Bot. Earnings from NVIDIA and Salesforce are analyzed, focusing on Salesforce's strategy and Benioff's leadership. The conversation covers the future of SaaS, AI integration, and the impact of AI agents on jobs. NVIDIA's open source acquisitions and the convergence of business models are discussed, followed by bond strategy and government spending challenges. The episode also touches on state bankruptcies, media's influence, and the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Instagram's parental controls, Moderna's cancer vaccine breakthrough, and pharmaceutical pricing are also covered.