Podcast
This Week in AI
Hosted by Jason Calacanis · EN
An experts-only AI podcast: Think the 'All In' podcast for AI. Jason + 3 CEO-level experts breaking down the news & trends.
28episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Why Anthropic is watermarking every word Claude writes | E26
Yesterday01:28:03Summary readyThis 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
SummaryIs open source AI really ahead of the frontier? 3 builders weigh in. | E25
1w ago01:20:00Summary readyThis 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
SummaryAre we already in the Singularity? | E24
2w ago01:06:54Summary readyThis 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
SummaryAmerica already lost one AI race | TWiAI Ep 23
3w ago01:00:39Summary readyThis 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
SummaryGrok 4.5 and GLM-5.2 kick off Token Price Wars | E22
4w ago01:17:20Summary readyThis 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
SummaryWhat happens if China pulls the plug on open-source AI? | Ep 21
Jul 901:20:48Summary readyThis 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
SummaryMythos, Sonnet 5, GLM-5.2 Dominate the News Cycle | Episode 20
Jul 201:10:30Summary readyThis 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
SummaryAre world models the unlock for Physical AI? | Episode 19
Jun 2501:13:00Summary readyThis 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
SummaryWhy AI Models Aren’t the Product Any More | TWiAI Ep 18
Jun 1801:21:16Summary readySpaceX 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
Jun 1001:28:52Summary readyApple 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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