TBPN — Netflix & AI Slop, Saudi Liquidity Crunch, Clawdbot Reactions | Mark Gurman, Miles Brundage, Aidan Smith & Others

Date: January 28, 2026
Hosts: John Coogan & Jordi Hays
Episode Theme: The future of curated versus AI-generated content in streaming, global liquidity challenges led by Saudi Arabia, breakthroughs and risks in autonomous agents (Clawdbot/Moltbot), major startup updates, and the evolving energy and AI investment landscape.

Episode Overview

This edition of TBPN dives deep into the intersection of AI and the entertainment industry, highlighting Netflix’s strategic positioning amidst the AI slop debate, the growing concerns over Saudi liquidity and its cascading effects on global finance, and the latest transformative shifts in AI products like Clawdbot. The episode features sharp, in-the-moment analysis from the hosts, in-depth guest interviews (notably with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and AI risk expert Miles Brundage), and updates from a cadre of tech founders building AI and energy startups.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Netflix, AI Slop, & the Streaming Wars

• AI in Content Creation

  • The team analyzes a revealing exchange between Ben Thompson and Netflix CEO Greg Peters on whether Netflix will become a refuge from ‘AI slop’ overwhelming user-generated content (UGC) platforms like YouTube.
    • “Is AI slop going to save you if it overwhelms the UGC platforms?... Greg Peters just says, ‘I think it’s credible. I don’t know if that’s the reality...But it’s a credible possibility.’” — Will ([00:41])
  • Discussion of how AI-driven VFX (ex: Digital Domain’s use of machine learning to enhance Thanos’ CGI performance) has become standard in Hollywood, with little backlash, highlighting that much AI is already “in the pipes.”

• Netflix vs. YouTube: AI and UGC Policy

  • Netflix’s core differentiator may be its refusal to add an ‘upload button’—maintaining a strictly curated experience.
    • “The upload button is probably a bigger deal than AI on Netflix.” — Will ([10:40])
    • “Netflix could be this refuge where you’re like, ‘at least if I go here, I know there was some filtering process—it’s not a total free-for-all.’” — Jordy ([09:39])
  • YouTube’s open approach to AI-generated content is contrasted (“The algorithm will sort out if you like it and if you think it’s slop…the algorithm will learn that”) versus Netflix’s premium on quality and curation ([08:37]).

• The Podcasting Gold Rush and Correction

  • Discussion around Spotify's bet on podcasts (Gimlet, Anchor, Parcast acquisitions), the rapid rise and fall in new shows post-2020, and how video podcasts are narrowing the gap between Netflix and YouTube ([13:04–15:39]).

2. Saudi Arabia’s Liquidity Squeeze

• Regional Liquidity Pressure

  • Bloomberg reporting highlights Saudi Arabia’s search for capital—tapping local wealthy families, family offices, and seeking further sovereign support amid tightening liquidity and ambitious Vision 2030 mega-project spending ([18:10]).

• Implications for Global Finance

  • Local family offices, now controlling hundreds of billions, are being courted to fill the funding gap as traditional bank lending dries up. “The number of family offices in the Middle East…there are big portfolios, the wealth is sizable. 95% of private businesses in the kingdom are family owned.” — Will ([21:02])
  • Delays and pivots with flagship projects (like NEOM and the now-postponed 2029 Asian Winter Games) are early warning signs.

3. Tether, Gold, and Crypto Macro Trends

• Tether’s Gold Play

  • Tether’s rise as a mega-player in the global gold market, storing bullion in Swiss nuclear bunkers, and using “E-gold” narrative to position themselves as almost central-bank-like.
    • “We are soon becoming basically one of the biggest, let's say gold central banks in the world.” — Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO ([25:14])
  • Consequences for gold markets, potential knock-on effects for gold-backed stablecoins, and speculative chatter on the possibility of a USDT “depegging upward” if gold keeps rising.

• Crypto Infrastructure Moves

  • Tether launches new US-focused stablecoin (USAT), with familiar major custodians and management.

4. The Clawdbot/Moltbot AI Agent Moment

• Autonomous Agents Go Mainstream

  • Reflecting on a standout interview with Peter Steinberger, creator of Clawdbot (now Moltbot): “You download it from GitHub, it installs, has all these different integrations, does something complex...It feels like a 10 person startup. Nope—it’s one person, three months, because the guy is using agents.” — Will ([34:58])

• The "AGI Achieved" Moment ([41:59–44:12])

  • Peter describes a breakthrough use case: his agent, on its own, figured out how to respond to a voice message on WhatsApp by creatively leveraging installed tools and API keys—an example of emergent agency and clever workarounds.

    • Quote: “After 10 seconds, my agent replied as if nothing happened. I’m like, how the F did you do that? ...I looked around and found the OpenAI key in your environment...And then I earned respondents. That was like the moment where, like, wow.” — Peter Steinberger ([43:00])

  • This is described as a significant shift—where AI agents won’t just give up when hitting a roadblock, but will display “real agency,” aligning them more with valuable team members.

• Industry Reaction and Benchmark

  • Discussion about how future agent benchmarks might be: “Claude, AI, that can do a deal between two MAG seven companies. Here we go.” — Will ([52:44])
  • Security, liability, and platform compliance are flagged as looming issues for these autonomous bots, as seen with TOS violations or New York Times–style data restrictions ([51:04]).

5. Apple’s AI Struggles & Strategic Moves (Mark Gurman Interview)

• Apple’s AI Laggard Status

  • Gurman delivers a sharp critique: “This was the biggest mistake...Apple is so behind in AI…I don’t think you’ve even scratched the surface about how big of a problem this is for Apple. They’ve completely screwed up AI in every which way.” ([66:24])

  • The John Giannandrea hire is cited as a cautionary tale, and Apple’s Siri is described bluntly as "utter junk" compared to Alexa and Google Assistant.

• Apple’s Catch-Up Attempts

  • Apple’s deal with Google Gemini (for chatbot integration on Google TPUs) is seen as a “breakthrough,” but also an embarrassing reversal after years of downplaying the chatbot paradigm.

    • “They were going to rebuild Siri around Claude, but Anthropic...wanted a crap ton of money from them. Several billion a year, at a price that doubled annually. So Apple turned to Google.” ([70:25])

• AI Agents and the Future of Apps

  • Gurman (echoing the Clawdbot narrative) predicts that apps as we know them are legacy: “iOS and the app store are legacy features...Apps are the past, AI agents are already here.” ([74:30])
  • New Siri’s agent features will launch in phases, with context-awareness and integration across apps as the big milestone ([78:11–78:37]).

• Apple’s Hardware Transition

  • Talks on succession (John Ternus as likely CEO), hardware-versus-software value as models commoditize, and Apple’s global strategy are addressed.

6. AI & Security Policy (Miles Brundage Interview)

• The Need for AI Auditing

  • Brundage, leading new nonprofit Avery, calls for the AI industry to adopt best-in-class risk audits akin to cybersecurity: “We need something analogous to the cybersecurity industry...we need that for AI systems.” ([115:49])

  • Four risk classes are outlined: unintentional misbehavior (hallucinations), misuse (cyberattacks), emergent social phenomena (psychosis/addiction), and classic security threats (tampering, IP theft).

• Auditing’s Role in the “Frontier” AI Era

  • Main audience for audits: not just policymakers, but insurers, enterprise buyers, and investors, with signals from the private sector often being more honest than regulation ([121:16]).

  • Strong call for more rigorous, real-world benchmarks and metrics—beyond just “bad stuff per million tokens” ([129:42]).

7. Startup News & Lightning Interviews

- Flapping Airplanes (Aidan Smith, Asher Spector)

• Mission: Building “data-efficient” AI based (inspired by biological learning), raising $180M at a $1.5B valuation ([152:01]).
• “The problem is current models are much less data efficient than humans...Try to make a model a million times more data efficient, it’s a million times easier to put into the economy.” — Aiden Smith ([154:40])

- Outtake AI (Alex Dillon)

• Mission: Tackling AI-enabled scams, impersonations, and cyberattacks by hunting down and eliminating fakes online—across social, web, commerce.
• Platform partnerships and deep integrations are required for real-time detection and takedown; 20 million investigative actions performed in the last year (mostly in Q4) ([168:27]).

- Phoenix (Mitchell Angove)

• Mission: Bringing AI and genomics to the dairy industry—optimizing cow lifecycles on mega farms.
• Already sequencing and managing half a million cows, combining computer vision, genomics, and IoT data ([177:16]).

- Rogo (Gabe Stengel)

• Mission: “Gen AI tool for investment bankers”—now at Series C, $75M led by Sequoia.
• Automates the grind of prepping comps, diligence rooms, PowerPoints; freeing bankers to focus on interpersonal, negotiation-heavy work ([182:43]).
• “Today Rogo is better than the worst human intern, and it gets better every day—and stays that way.”

- Voyager Ventures (Sierra Peterson)

• Mission: Early-stage VC betting on energy, compute, and ‘physical AI’—just closed $275M Fund II ([194:40]).
• Optimistic on solar, battery, and electrification trends (“90% of installed energy generation is renewables”), and bullish on sovereign/US-government-driven industrial policy ([197:16]).

8. Market Updates & Macro News

• Tech Earnings: Meta, Microsoft, Tesla all beat consensus; Meta and Microsoft both reported expanded CAPEX for 2026 ([137:08]).
• Federal Reserve: Fed holds rates steady at first FOMC of ‘26, as expected ([135:41]).
• SoftBank & OpenAI: Reports of SoftBank prepping to invest $30B more in OpenAI at an $830B post-money valuation; Tokyo market reacts bullishly ([148:34]).
• SpaceX IPO: Rumored for June, possibly aligning launch with celestial events and Elon Musk’s birthday ([146:36–147:52]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AI Agents:

  • “That was like the moment where, like, wow. Yeah.” — Peter Steinberger, on his agent’s emergent problem solving ([43:00])

• On Apple's AI Problem:

  • “Apple is so behind in AI. I don’t think you’ve even scratched the surface about how big of a problem this is...” — Mark Gurman ([66:24])
  • “Apps are the past, AI agents are already here.” — Mark Gurman ([74:30])

• On Saudi Liquidity:

  • “People are Being sought after to play a bigger role in partnering with global investors to draw more money to the kingdom.” — Will ([19:20])
  • “95% of private businesses in the kingdom are family owned. Interesting. They’re not doing a lot of IPOs over there.” — Will ([21:02])

• On Tether's Vault:

  • “‘It’s a James Bond kind of place. It’s crazy.’ That’s a great quote to give Bloomberg. Just like James Bond, the secretive nature of another CEO.” — Will ([27:00])

• On Gold Rolex as Store of Value:

  • “Gold Rolex is a store of value. It’s always going to Trade. And now it’s probably going to trade even higher.” — Will ([30:09])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:41 – Netflix CEO on 'AI slop’ and competitive positioning
• 09:39–10:45 – Netflix vs. YouTube: Upload button and UGC debate
• 13:04–15:39 – Video podcasting, podcast platform convergence
• 18:10–22:53 – Saudi liquidity crunch, family offices, Vision 2030
• 25:14–28:50 – Tether’s gold accumulation and crypto/gold interplay
• 34:58–39:17 – Clawdbot/Moltbot, agentic AI, composability, security
• 41:59–45:23 – Peter Steinberger’s ‘AGI achieved’ story
• 66:24–83:48 – Apple AI ‘failure’, Google Gemini deal, and future of agents (Mark Gurman)
• 115:49–130:59 – Miles Brundage (Avery): AI risk classes, auditing, insurance, effective policy
• 152:01–159:35 – Flapping Airplanes: Data-efficient AI investments
• 163:00–169:00 – Outtake AI: Fighting AI-enabled fraud at scale
• 175:43–179:18 – Phoenix: AI-powered genomics for dairy
• 181:20–189:49 – Rogo: GenAI investment banking, back office, dealmaking
• 192:39–205:45 – Voyager Ventures / Sierra Peterson: Energy, climate, solar, financing innovation

Tone & Language

The tone remains lively, sharp, and high-context, blending irreverent meme-driven banter with dense industry analysis. Hosts and guests speak candidly and often humorously, utilizing direct language (“utter junk”, “slop”, “James Bond kind of place”) to keep the discussion both engaging and accessible. The episode is fast-paced, with segues between segments handled with inside jokes and audience engagement via chat.

Final Thoughts

This TBPN episode captures the rapidly shifting landscape at the intersection of AI technology, media, finance, and global resource allocation. It juxtaposes visionary optimism around agentic software and renewable capacity with sobering realpolitik over capital flows, regulation, and infrastructure risk. It’s a must-listen for anyone interested in where technology, economics, and society collide.

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