Can Anthropic Win Its Lawsuit?; War Memes; AI Comes for VCs Jobs

Summary

Uncanny Valley | WIRED

Episode: "Can Anthropic Win Its Lawsuit?; War Memes; AI Comes for VCs Jobs"

Date: March 12, 2026
Hosts: Zoe Schiffer (Director of Business and Industry), Brian Barrett (Executive Editor), Leah Feiger (Senior Politics Editor)

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Episode Overview

This week, the Uncanny Valley hosts tackle three of Silicon Valley’s buzziest issues:

• Anthropic’s high-stakes lawsuit against the Department of Defense after being labeled a supply chain risk,
• The Trump administration’s controversial use of memes as war propaganda amid the ongoing war in Iran,
• How AI is beginning to disrupt not only rank-and-file jobs but also the elite world of venture capital.

The hosts weave together fresh reporting, sharp analysis, and playful banter to provide a WIRED-flavored insider’s look at technology, culture, and politics.

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1. Anthropic vs. Department of Defense: The Lawsuit and Its Ramifications

Segment Start: [02:54]

Key Points & Analysis

• Background: Anthropic filed two lawsuits against the DoD after being designated a “supply chain risk,” a label severely damaging to its business prospects.
• Claims: Anthropic alleges constitutional violations (infringement of free speech) and acts of unfair discrimination and retaliation. The company is also seeking a restraining order to keep working with military partners.
• Impact:
  • Commercial partners are stalling or backing out of lucrative contracts, with $80M in deals now hanging on the ability to cancel unilaterally. ([06:45], Leah Feiger)
  • The label’s reputational damage “doesn’t just get expunged,” even if the lawsuit succeeds. ([08:55], Leah Feiger)
  • The consumer market is rallying to Anthropic, but enterprise contracts make up the bulk of their business; celebrity endorsements (e.g., Katy Perry) won’t offset these losses. ([07:20], Zoe Schiffer)
• Industry Response:
  • Employees from OpenAI, Google (including DeepMind’s Jeff Dean), and Microsoft filed briefs supporting Anthropic, signaling industry-wide concern over government overreach. ([07:39], Brian Barrett)
  • “If it can happen to them, it can definitely happen to us.” ([07:39], Brian Barrett)
• Prognosis: The hosts are skeptical Anthropic can win, due to the lack of legal pathways to challenge such designations and the DoD’s clear confidence.
  • “Very, very small.” — Brian Barrett on chances DoD backs down ([08:28])
• Switching Costs: The technical burden for clients to shift from Anthropic to competitors like OpenAI is minimal (“30 minutes”), worsening Anthropic’s position. ([09:53], Zoe Schiffer)

Notable Quotes

• “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech.” — Anthropic’s legal filing ([03:38], paraphrased by Zoe Schiffer)
• “You might as well go with the people who aren’t pissing off the President right now.” — Leah Feiger ([05:16])
• “That label is so serious to me... It really feels like the people that get the XXXX on their airplane tickets.” — Leah Feiger ([08:55])

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2. The Trump Administration’s War Memes: Propaganda, Outrage, and Gamification

Segment Start: [10:09]

Key Points & Analysis

• Background: The Trump administration’s official social accounts are posting memes—using content from action films, video games (Dragon Ball Z, Top Gun, Yu-Gi-Oh)—amid the active Iran war.
• Critique:
  • Hosts see the memes as “nihilistic” and gamified propaganda, not aimed at support for the war but producing outrage and “owning the libs."
  • “Can you imagine Winston Churchill posting memes?” — Brian Barrett ([11:47])
  • The approach is distinguished from traditional recruiting or morale-raising propaganda by its embrace of virality and anger.
• Societal Impact:
  • The tactic distracts from real casualties and the lack of end in sight; “This isn’t glorifying it, it’s gamifying it.” — Leah Feiger ([15:52])
  • Uses unauthorized content intentionally for viral outrage. ([13:34], Brian Barrett)
  • Propagates a disturbing emotional detachment: “We’re going to have this winky, ironic detachment from war where none of this actually means anything.” — Brian Barrett ([15:19])
• Memorable Segment:
  • Hosts parrot the meme-speak (“Strength and honor,” [11:00]) and reflect on the absurdity and horror of current political communications.

Notable Quotes

• “This is horrific. This is really, really horrific.” — Leah Feiger ([11:52])
• “This isn’t glorifying it, it’s gamifying it.” — Leah Feiger ([15:52])
• “If you get upset, it’s because you’re triggered—which just feels debasing.” — Brian Barrett ([15:19])

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3. Event Strategies: January 6 Organizers Cash in on Government Contracts

Segment Start: [16:35]

Key Points & Analysis

• Background: Reporting on a little-known events company (Event Strategies), whose associates helped organize the January 6 rally, now receiving $26M+ in federal contracts since Trump’s second term began.
• Growth Pattern:
  • Pre-Trump: $50k in government contracts over a decade.
  • Post-Trump’s return: Contracts balloon to millions, with a potential $100M multi-year GSA contract.
• Nature of Work: Many contracts involve “America 250,” the anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence, now seen as increasingly politicized.
• Concerns:
  • Lack of open, competitive bidding is circumventing established rules to avoid favoritism (“CICA"/competition clause). ([21:47], Leah Feiger)
  • Banners with Trump’s image—dubbed “Grindelwald vibes”—unsettle D.C. and invite criticism.
• Broader Implications: This could mark only the beginning of such self-dealing in Trump’s second administration.

Notable Quotes

• “This to me is like one of the first big examples we’ve seen of associates in Trump world benefiting from the grift.” — Leah Feiger ([17:07])
• “I wish I could be more eloquent than that, but it’s odd. It’s very odd stuff.” — Leah Feiger ([19:55])
• “Grindelwald vibes”—inside joke about Harry Potter villain representing dark undertones of the current celebration. ([20:25])

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4. AI Comes for Venture Capital Jobs

Segment Start: [22:24]

Key Points & Analysis

• Trend: AI agents, such as those used by the platform Add In (Autonomous Deal Investing Network), are now capable of examining startup pitch decks and producing detailed diligence reports in hours, a process that takes humans days or weeks.
• Irony Not Lost: VCs, some of the most vocal AI boosters, now face disruption of their own privileged roles.
  • “Machines can take every job, but not us. The ladder stops just below VC.” — Brian Barrett ([24:06])
• Traction: Add In works via scouts paid for good leads; may bypass traditional VCs rather than serving them.
• Questions of Hype: The evidence that AI is actually killing jobs remains thin for most industries, though engineering teams may see steep reductions. ([25:27], Zoe Schiffer)
• VC Exceptionalism:
  • Marc Andreessen’s podcast remarks:
    • “You’re in the fluke business... I don’t want to be definitive, but it’s possible that that is quite literally timeless... when the AIs are doing everything else, that may be one of the last remaining fields [humans] are still doing.” ([26:15], paraphrased by Brian Barrett)
  • Hosts note the irony of VCs touting AI's ability to disrupt creative roles while insisting venture capital requires irreplaceable human “taste.”
    • “He sounds exactly like us when we’re explaining why AI could never replace a human editor!” — Zoe Schiffer ([27:15])

Notable Quotes

• “There’s a taste aspect, the human relationship aspect, the psychology... it is possible that that is quite literally timeless.” — Marc Andreessen ([26:15])
• “I am still waiting for AI to take the jobs. Like, has it yet?” — Leah Feiger ([25:06])

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5. Wired/Tired: Pop Culture & Tech Trends

Segment Start: [31:09]

Format Note: Each host shares what’s “wired” (exciting) and “tired” (overdone or passé) in tech and culture.

Brian Barrett

• Tired: Flying cars (“basically helicopters, but more.”) ([31:16])
• Wired: Hybrid vehicles – a plea for more sustainable transport amidst global instability ([32:28])

Leah Feiger

• Wired: Warmer weather at last in New York ([32:33])
• Tired: Record-breaking March heat—climate anxiety over unseasonable warmth ([33:22])

Zoe Schiffer

• Tired: “Quizzes” trying to discern AI-written vs human-written work ([33:49])
• Wired: Claire Dederer’s take from “Monsters”—the impact of knowing the artist/author’s identity and the inevitable “stain” it leaves on art ([34:55])

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Memorable Moments & Banter

• “Katy Perry signing up for Claude Pro... is not gonna save Anthropic. I’m sorry.” — Zoe Schiffer ([07:20])
• “If there was a big red button that would just demolish the Internet, I would smash that button with my forehead.” — Brian Barrett ([35:40])
• Running joke about “Grindelwald vibes” and Brian’s lack of Harry Potter knowledge ([20:24]–[20:45])

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Key Timestamps

• [02:54] Anthropic lawsuit intro & context
• [06:45] The enterprise business fallout for Anthropic
• [08:55] The “supply chain risk” stigma
• [10:09] War in Iran: Trump administration’s meme propaganda
• [15:52] Leah coins “gamifying” the war
• [16:35] Event Strategies and January 6 contract revelations
• [22:24] AI platforms like Add In and the threat to venture capital jobs
• [26:15] Marc Andreessen on why AI “can’t” do VC
• [31:09] Wired/Tired segment

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Takeaway

This episode of Uncanny Valley delivers a whip-smart, wide-ranging critique of the entanglement between tech, politics, and culture in 2026. From Anthropic’s legal battle and its reverberations through Silicon Valley, to the new frontiers (and absurdities) of American propaganda, to the irony-laced downfall of the tech elite’s gatekeepers, the hosts decode the headlines with equal measures of seriousness and sly humor.
If you want to understand not just what’s happening in tech, but what it feels like from the inside right now, this episode is an essential listen.

Transcript

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[Brian Barrett]

hey it's Brian, Zoe, Leah and I have really enjoyed being your new host these past few weeks and we want to hear from you. If you like the show and have a minute. Please leave us a review in the podcast or app of your choice. It really helps us reach more people. And for any questions and comments, you can always reach us@ uncannyvalleyired.com thank you for listening onto the show.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Welcome to Wired's Uncanny Valley. Zoe I'm Zoe Schiffer, Director of Business and Industry.

[Brian Barrett]

I'm Brian Barrett, Executive Editor.

[Leah Feiger]

And I'm Leah Feiger, Senior Politics Editor.

[Zoe Schiffer]

This week we're diving into Anthropic's lawsuit against the Department of Defense after the company was labeled as a supply chain risk. We're also discussing why on earth the Trump administration is sharing action film memes about the war in Iran and how a little known events company formed by some of the organizers of the January 6th rally is making bank in Trump's second term in office. Also, we'll talk about whether venture capitalists should be worried about AI taking their jobs. Okay, we have a ton to get into, so let's just dive right in. The saga between Anthropic and the Department of Defense is far from over. I actually think we're going to be hearing about this for many, many months to come. On Monday, Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the DoD pushing back against the agency's decision to label the company as a supplier chain risk, which is pretty detrimental to Anthropic's business. Anthropic is basically arguing that the government is infringing upon its free speech rights, saying, quote, the Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. Now that's the lawsuit that Anthropic filed in San Francisco, but there's another accompanying lawsuit that it filed in D.C. which accuses the DoD of unfairly discriminating and retaliating against Anthropic. In the meantime, the company is also seeking a temporary restraining order to continue working with its military partners.

[Brian Barrett]

This continues to be just a fascinating face off and I think really unprecedented. Right. What's interesting about the lawsuit to me too is I think it was our first look at Anthropic, sort of acknowledging, yeah, this is actually going to potentially cost us hundreds of millions, maybe billion dollars because you're making it. So nobody wants to work with this. It's been sort of a look at just how actual the impact has been in the week or two since it started.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Yeah, I mean, the government actually doesn't need to win the lawsuit, I don't think, for this to really impact Anthropic's business because the company is claiming that Already a bunch of its contracts that were, like, about to close, very, very lucrative contracts are falling apart as potential partners are saying, we're, wow, we have other options and it's frankly way too risky to work with you.

[Leah Feiger]

No, they've made them a lightning rod. And I don't know that even in a year from now, I'm. I'm not sure that they're going to be able to, like, get the stink of this off them. No matter how the lawsuit resolves, no matter if these contracts end up coming their way back just because Claude happens to be better. X, Y and Z, it doesn't matter if there are two competitive bids. Anthropic is one of them. You might as well go with the people who aren't pissing off the President right now.

[Brian Barrett]

And on the other end of it, you know, you've got consumers sort of rallying around Anthropic and saying, like, this is the good one. And so their usage in terms of, you know, they're selling a lot of monthly subscriptions to, you know, your average Joe, but I don't see a world in which those make up the gap.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Yeah, I mean, enterprise sales are the majority, the vast majority of Anthropic's business. And I want to say one other thing, Brian, and sorry to cut you off, but it's driving me insane because we've been talking a lot about branding and perception as this fight has gone on and how the Anthropic has come out looking really good. But I have to bring your attention to that blog post that Dario Amadei, the CEO, published that was basically like, where things stand with the Department of War. And he did say Department of War. He used that language all throughout. It was the most. I mean, I don't think the average person looked at that and thought, he's groveling. But I looked at it and was like, oh, no, this is like, he can't even use the proper name for the agency because he is so desperate to get back in their good graces. And I actually think he. He's doing a lot more of that than people think right now.

[Leah Feiger]

I mean, the Anthropic Chief Commercial Officer Paul Smith specifically said that commercial partners are concerned in backing out or hesitant to make deals. This quote stayed with me. He said a financial services customer paused negotiations over a $15 million deal because of the supply chain label. And two leading financial services companies have refused to close deals valued together at $80 million unless they gain the right to unilaterally cancel their contracts for any Reason I think that it's lovely that consumers might be rallying around them, but I'm not sure that any sort of subscription push is gonna make up for this.

[Zoe Schiffer]

No, I mean, Katy Perry signing up for Claude Pro or whatever that tier is called is not gonna save on topics. I'm sorry.

[Leah Feiger]

That just like that was an unbelievable moment on social media. I love, I love when celebrities get involved. I love when it's Katy Perry that gets involved. There's just so many different parts of that. It scratched every single itch for me.

[Brian Barrett]

Yeah. Of all the things to take a stand over in this moment, it is a fun, like, you know what, Anthropic, I will say in terms of taking a stand too, we've seen a lot of other companies in Silicon Valley kind of come to Anthropic's defense here. I think maybe less out of a sense of Buddy Buddiedom than a sense of, oh, if it can happen to them, it can definitely happen to us. So we had more than 30 employees from OpenAI and Google, including Google. DeepMind's chief scientist Jeff Dean filed a brief on Monday in support of Anthropic. Microsoft followed up, filed their own brief in support of Anthropic. I don't know that that's going to actually do anything in the long run, but it does signal at least that, you know, this is a fight that more than just Anthropic is willing to have.

[Leah Feiger]

What are the chances here that they get the Trump administration to back down? That they get DOD to back down?

[Brian Barrett]

I think very, very small. I think just because the way that this is structured and the, when you go to a designating the company as a supply chain risk, the mechanisms that do that, there's not a clear, at least as far as I'm aware, way to legally challenge that. Emil Michael, who has been at the center of this for the Pentagon, has said we don't see a way in which this shakes out where Anthropic has a case, which of course he's going to say that, but I do think DOD seems very confident.

[Leah Feiger]

That label is so serious to me. It really feels like the people that get the XXXX on their airplane tickets and like even if it ended up being some sort of clerical error, you can't get those taken off for a long time. You're a supply chain risk. Like that doesn't, that doesn't just like get expunged if you're able to prove otherwise.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Yeah, that's the stuff that I think is kind of beyond the outcome of the lawsuit, like, it's already damaging Anthropic's relationship with potential partners, like we said. And I think because the product is so close, like, even if you're talking about coding models where Anthropic seems to have the lead, like, the best Codex model is actually quite close to Claude code at this point. And so I do think partners have a very real alternative to turn to if they don't want to take on the risk of working with Anthropic in this moment.

[Brian Barrett]

And a bunch of government agencies have already made the switch or are making the switch, and in some ways just showing that it's possible to do. They're providing case studies that it's maybe not that bad.

[Zoe Schiffer]

No, no, it's not that bad. And they don't have, like, there's not a huge lock in effect to switch everything over to OpenAI. I'm sure some, like, there's been custom tooling that's built, but for the most part, if you as a business want to switch from anthropic to OpenAI 30 minutes, it's not a huge technical task.

[Brian Barrett]

All right, well, we're going to keep an eye on what happens with the lawsuits and any future anthropic DoD developments. But the DoD has more on its mind than AI companies, obviously. The war on Iran continues to unfold with increasing uncertainty of how long it will last. It seems as though even the Trump administration is surprised that it has gone even this long, which. How is that possible? Trump administration being criticized for more than a thousand casualties inflicted so far in this conflict, many of them civilians. Seven US Service members as of this recording. Markets are falling, oil prices spiking. Through it all, the administration has been posting. They've been posting like there's no tomorrow, which I say that almost literally.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Welcome home, sir.

[Brian Barrett]

Strength and honor.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Strength and honor.

[Brian Barrett]

What will you do without freedom? Maverick Sandbau, the official White House X account, has been posting memes incorporating clips from action movies, TV shows, video games. You've got Dragon Ball Z. You've got Top Gun, you've got Yu Gi. Oh, there's just a lot going on here. Here's a little example of the kind of stuff that's hitting their feed. Maximum effort, permission.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Here it comes

[Brian Barrett]

now. End this flawless victory. That's just one example. They're all kind of like that and they are being rightly criticized, I think what to say other than that. Quite a statement on where we are at societally. Can you imagine Winston Churchill posting memes?

[Leah Feiger]

Brian, you're being so casual.

[Zoe Schiffer]

About it.

[Leah Feiger]

This is horrific. This is really, really horrific.

[Brian Barrett]

I wouldn't say casual. I would say I am. What is it? Inured. Just sort of broken down.

[Leah Feiger]

Used to it broke. I did like the. Would Winston Churchill be posting these memes? Is really the question of the day for me. I mean, the Trump administration between different federal X accounts, the White House accounts have been like pushing really unhinged stuff for a very long time now since Trump returned to office. The amount of things, you know, during DHS and ICE's like, takeover of Minneapolis and Chicago, their response to that was very much. Mimi was very much trying to like, hit the zeitgeist and in very creepy ways.

[Framer Representative]

Right.

[Leah Feiger]

It was all of these like the Jetstar holiday and like. But about immigrants. It was horrible about immigrants. This is like a new one for me though. Even. Even I am inundated with this content on a daily basis and I've been shocked.

[Zoe Schiffer]

I have a question, though, because war propaganda is not new. I for sure this isn't like the dumbest take ever, but what is a podcast for if not sharing your dumb takes? I loved the book In Memoriam, Gay historical romance from 2023. It was one of my top books. And one my takeaway from that book was, wow. Young men during World War I were inundated with information about how glorious and amazing the war was. And then they went out to fight and they were in trench warfare, which is literally hell. And they were just like completely emotionally, physically, spiritually brutalized by that experience. They had no idea what they were getting into. And like, that's obviously a very extreme example, but I'm just saying, a government saying, look how amazing this is. What is the difference here? I know there is one, but I want you to articulate what it is.

[Brian Barrett]

No, I hear. I hear that. I think that's a really smart point, that it's sort of the evolution of propaganda. I would say if I'm going to draw a distinction in real time, which is always dangerous. I think there's a difference between recruiting efforts, which maybe those were where this feels more directionally toward just like to get reposts and likes for their own sake. It feels a little bit nihilistic in that sense. And if anything, it's to create. You know, they use a lot of clips without permission and that's intentional too, to generate outrage from the libs so you can own them by saying it just feels like it is caught in the cycle. Less about saying come join the war effort and support this and more about, look how mad we can make people.

[Leah Feiger]

And I think that's exactly it. This isn't just like a World War II woman. It's time for you to get to the factories. This is your patriotic duty. While the men are off fighting. This is not like League of Their Own, like split screen. Everyone's doing their part, and that's not even what they're asking for. They're asking for that outrage. They're asking for that anger that perhaps distracts from the fact that seven service members have died thus far, distracts from the fact that this doesn't appear to have an end in sight, that Trump actually changes his mind with every other press conference, as does Pete Hegseth. To me, this is a very. It's a very strong man approach to. I mean, I'll give you that, Zoe. Absolutely. Like, this is wartime propaganda. And so perhaps then the conversation is like, to what end?

[Zoe Schiffer]

Right. Yeah, I think that that's the difference that makes sense to me as you guys are talking. If the purpose of World War I propaganda was support for the war effort, they're saying the purpose of this propaganda is also. I mean, they're not calling it that, but is also support for the military effort. But if it's, in fact, outrage, that's a very different aim.

[Brian Barrett]

I think it's a combination of that. I think it's the outrage, and then I might be contradicting myself here, too, but I think there's a sort of do it for the lulz kind of attitude about it, where nothing means anything. Right. So we're going to rile up the libs by using their stuff, and at the same time, we're going to kind of have this winky, ironic detachment from war where none of this actually means anything. And if you get upset, it's because you're triggered, which just feels debasing. It's not really. Obviously, there are problems with glorifying how great war is. This seems to be more just like.

[Leah Feiger]

This isn't glorifying it, it's gamifying it.

[Brian Barrett]

Yeah. It's like, yeah, yeah. Yep. 100% trust.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Brian Barrett to find a copyright angle on the war in Iran.

[Brian Barrett]

I'm obsessed.

[Leah Feiger]

I mean, Ben Stiller was angry about Tropic Thunder being used, but that is the important difference. To me, there is something. Whereas for better, for worse, the idea of if you go off to fight for this very just cause, this is what you're fighting for. You're fighting for freedom, you're fighting for patriotism, and this is saying people aren't real we're using cartoons here. These deaths are not real. And more than that, they're kind of

[Brian Barrett]

funny, but not that funny.

[Leah Feiger]

But not funny. Really, really not funny.

[Zoe Schiffer]

You guys, this is very nice.

[Leah Feiger]

So as the Trump administration is posting their way through the Iran war, I want to talk about a different Wired scoop that we have that's been looking at Trump World and looking at a number of government contracts that I am obsessed with. Zoe and I did this story along with David Gilbert and Matt G. On Wired.com published this week. And it's about how an events company whose associates helped organize the January 6, 2021 rally has been majorly benefiting from government contracts. The company called Event Strategies, is based in Virginia and has signed contracts worth over $26 million with the US government. That's without taking into account a more long term contract with the General Services Administration that could be worth up to $100 million over the next 15 years. If you're wondering why on earth should I care about this events company and the fact that they're making money, this to me is like one of the first big examples we've seen of associates in Trump world benefiting from the grift. And this company, it's 26 year old company, it received about $50,000 in government contracts over the past decade before getting all of this money once Trump re entered office. And now they're making millions from contracting bids that have received very little competition. According to our report, a lot of these contracts are related to America 250, which is an 18 month long commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

[Brian Barrett]

I want to say two things. One is you say that this is one of the first apparent grifty relationships in the second Trump administration. I think we should qualify that by saying outside of Trump's own family, a lot of deals with the boys that you could sort of raise an eyebrow at. The second thing is what struck me about this is that it feels so clearly a reward for putting on the January 6th rally that led to the January 6th riot. That was one of the darkest days in democracy in recent memory. And the idea that this company is now getting tens of millions, potentially more than $100 million of contracts as a we'll take care of you, good job is, I guess it's not surprising. Again, so little of this is surprising, but it is still remarkable to go over the timeline.

[Zoe Schiffer]

They get a few government contracts and the Biden administration comes in zero government contracts. And now Trump too is happening and millions, if not more than 100 million. I mean, that's a really big rise for this firm.

[Leah Feiger]

And some of these contracts, I mean, to get into the specifics, some of these contracts, for example, in September, DoD paid Event Strategies almost $200,000 for what was listed as a backyard cookout and performance, again, a lot of them related to America 250 started as a bipartisan effort. We're going to be celebrating this country that doesn't feel very. I mean, like, sure, it's inherently political, but it was bipartisan. And then to have Event Strategies come in and be entirely in charge, basically, of doing the event planning behind this. The tenor of these celebrations have already gotten a lot of consternation from Democrats. We're like, where is this money going? There was some great reporting on that, and now we're able to say, this is where it's going. These are the people involved. These are the contracts. You know, over the last few months, like, these large banners throughout D.C. have been hanging from federal buildings all over. We weren't able to say with 100% certainty that this is exactly tied to Event Strategies, but those banners that feature Trump's face and give off, like, very serious Grindelwald vibes are part of this, like, supposed America 250 celebration as well. We're in for a couple of months of some very weird stuff, honestly. Like, I wish I could be more eloquent than that, but it's odd. It's very odd stuff. There's freedom trucks.

[Brian Barrett]

Did you just say Grindelwald Vibes?

[Leah Feiger]

I did say Grindelwald Vibes.

[Brian Barrett]

Grindelwald vibes. Okay. And that is Harry Potter character, Gellert Grindelwald.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Yes. Wow. Brian, have you not read Harry Potter?

[Brian Barrett]

No, I've read Harry Potter. I didn't. I didn't. I'm just saying I'm not able to pull Gellert as the first name of Grindelwald. And I also. I do forget who Grindelwald was in the Harry Potter lore, and I'm not ashamed of it.

[Zoe Schiffer]

You haven't read it enough. You haven't read it enough. Yes.

[Leah Feiger]

For Anyone that's in D.C. right now, that's like seeing Trump's visage next to Make America Safe Again on doj. Like the DOJ building, the Federal Building. It's unnerving. It's almost comical to talk about, but it's very unnerving. Our reporter, McKenna Kelly has been walking around D.C. just looking at this. These banners are hanging all over, and it's changed the tenor of the city. It's quite, it's quite a choice.

[Brian Barrett]

Then you have at the Department of Education, you've got Charlie Kirk banner hanging there. Charlie Kirk, I think, I believe I'm right in saying believe strongly that there should not be a Department of Education. So, yeah, it is a mess. And again, I think speaks to what we can expect from further celebrations this summer. I think we're looking at a UFC fight on the White House lawn, things of that nature. So, no, it's going to be interesting and I'm sure this company will be at the center of a whole lot of it.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Absolutely.

[Leah Feiger]

And again, just to be so clear, getting contracts the way that getting federal contracts work is there has to be a competitive system. There is Cica Chicha, which is known as the competition clause. Basically, there is supposed to be that to avoid favoritism. So the fact that all of these contracts were given without serious competition is also a cause for concern and something that we're going to be paying really close attention to going forward with other Trump world and Trump associates. This might be the beginning of an apparent grifty nature, whatever we're looking at, but I have no doubt it's not going to be the last for Trump, too.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Okay, before we go to break, I am going to wrench the conversation back to my favorite topic, which is artificial intelligence. So, you guys, there has been a lot of talk and some evidence of AI disrupting jobs in certain industries. But few groups have been more bullish on betting on this technology than venture capitalists. But it turns out that VCs could potentially be replaced by AI themselves in the not too distant future. So we published a story this week by Ariel Pardes about a platform called Add in, the Autonomous Deal Investing Network, which was launched in 2025. And it basically uses AI agents to do the work of analysts that would typically be involved in venture deal making. If you put in a startup's pitch deck, out comes a very detailed analysis of its business model, its founding team, a list of diligence questions, and compliance risks. This is stuff that can take analysts days, if not weeks, and Aden can do in an hour or two. And then when the agents like a startup, they actually suggest how much Aden's fund should allocate toward the deal. Of course, then humans come in and kind of do their due diligence. But I think it's a very interesting look at where things could be headed. And obviously there's irony in the fact that agents could disrupt VCs themselves.

[Brian Barrett]

The irony is my favorite part because I feel like venture capitalists have largely positioned themselves as immune to the effects of AI because they're very special and surely a machine.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Art, not science.

[Brian Barrett]

Yeah, it's art, not science. Machines can take every job, but not us. Like, the ladder stops, like just below VC for them in a way that is entertaining and fun. But I do. Zoe, I wonder, like, how many people are actually using this now? Especially because venture capital themselves are so skeptical of it, it seems like, who's the audience? Is it finding real traction out there?

[Zoe Schiffer]

Yeah, so the way that add in works is they have scouts that go out and look for potential deals and then those scouts can make money on said deals. So I think this would be something where VCs wouldn't necessarily be like adopting the network, but like, people would be going around them and they wouldn't be as necessary, as useful. I think there was another great irony which Ariel pulled out in her piece, which is that also, if you can start a company with just yourself and a bunch of AI agents, you're vibe coding your way to success. Like, do you even need all of that venture capital money to begin with?

[Leah Feiger]

Huh? I'm.

[Zoe Schiffer]

I don't know. I.

[Leah Feiger]

There's so much, to me, there's so much fear about AI taking jobs. I feel like every other article that is like. And these people are nervous, and these people are nervous. Brian's right. Like, the part that is funny is these are the folks that have just gone all in on AI, but there's also. I'm still waiting, I'm still waiting for AI to take the jobs. Like, has it yet?

[Zoe Schiffer]

Will it yet? Yeah, I think that there's recent research. I was talking to Will Knight, one of our fantastic AI reporters, about this yesterday, and he was saying, look, like the evidence just, just isn't there yet. For many, many industries, like, the hype has, as it often does, gone way out ahead of the actual data here. Like, we don't know that AI is taking jobs. But I will say, being in San Francisco, I am hearing a lot of people say engineering teams in particular are very bloated right now. Agents can actually do a lot of the work and you definitely need humans on top managing those agents. But like, you could cut a lot of teams by 80%, 50%, 60%. And so I think that we are going to see more AI related job loss, first in engineering and then in other sectors.

[Brian Barrett]

Marc Andreessen, famous venture capitalist, co founder of Andreessen Horus, said this very thing in a recent podcast. Listen to how special he thinks his own profession is. Every great venture capitalist in the last 70 years has missed most of the great companies of his generation. You know, if it was a science, you could eventually have somebody who just like dials in and gets eight out of 10. But in, in, in, in. In the real world, it's not like that. You know, it's just, it's. You're, you're in the fluke business. And so there's, there's this, there's a, there's an intangibility to it. There's a taste aspect, the human relationship aspect, the psychology. And so like, it, it, it is possible. I don't want to be definitive, but, like, it's possible that that is quite literally timeless. And when, you know, when the AIs are doing everything else, like that may be one of the last remaining fields that, that people are still doing. I'll say these are the same people who think that AI can replace writers and artists. But it's VC that has that intangibility and that artistic process that really matters. It's rich. It's a rich text.

[Zoe Schiffer]

He sounds exactly like us. When we're explaining why AI could never replace a human editor. We're like, there's a taste aspect. AI could never.

[Brian Barrett]

We're right. We're right, though.

[Zoe Schiffer]

I know, I know.

[Leah Feiger]

Did I ever tell you guys about when I saw Marc Andreessen at a play?

[Zoe Schiffer]

Oh, yes, it was.

[Leah Feiger]

I mean, it's pertinent here because the play was called McNeil and it starred Robert Downey Jr. And it was about this novelist, this award winning novelist who used AI to write his books. And the play gets into all of this, right? It gets into AI reality, it gets into difficult family conversations, plagiarism, health. But all of this very much wrapped in with the question of who can AI replace? What can AI replace? Will humans understand that? So the fact that Marc Andreessen is sitting in front of me and Stephen at this play as he is going on to make all of these statements, and this was his takeaway, right? Like, we went in and had just such different experiences and takeaways. I'm going to think about that for a very, very long time. We consumed the same culture for a solid three hours.

[Brian Barrett]

Meanwhile, I think venture capitalists probably do have more to worry about from a looming recession than from Aidan anytime soon.

[Leah Feiger]

Yes.

[Brian Barrett]

Coming up after the break, we're going to share our Wired tired picks for the week. So stay with us.

[Framer Representative]

As a listener of Uncanny Valley, we know you want to stay on top of today's biggest stories in tech. And if you're curious about how tech and innovation are changing the healthcare landscape, check out Mayo Clinic's chart topping podcast, Tomorrow's Cure. Back for a brand new season, host and award winning journalist Kathy Werzer dives into the breakthroughs, challenges and human stories shaping the future of medicine, from advances in AI and cancer research to the rise of chronic disease and autoimmune disorders. Not sure where to start? We Recommend the season four premiere where dermatologist Dr. Saranya Wiles and biomedical engineer Dr. Adam Feinberg explore how 3D bioprinting is revolutionizing medical research and accelerating breakthroughs in healthcare. Whether you're a healthcare professional, patient or simply curious about what's ahead, tomorrow's Cure invites you to imagine what healthcare could look like and shows you the future is already here. Find Tomorrow's Cure on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now. This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out odoo-o o.com that's O-O-O.com.

[Zoe Schiffer]

how do we maintain a strong defense in a world that's rapidly changing? Join us on Strength in Numbers, a podcast from UVA's National Security Data and Policy Institute. I'm your host, Jennifer Strong. In each episode, we'll take a look at the materials powering today's most advanced technology, how it's being used on the battlefield, and ask how the United States can stay competitive against potential adversaries.

[Brian Barrett]

Voters should be concerned about all this. We want America to be strong, but we've got to be strong and smart.

[Zoe Schiffer]

That's all coming up this season of Strength in Numbers. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. It's time for our Wired Tired segment. Whatever is new and cool. School is wired. Duh. Whatever is passe. Whatever we're over is tired. Okay, are we ready?

[Leah Feiger]

Yes, very ready.

[Brian Barrett]

I'm ready.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Brian, you go first.

[Brian Barrett]

Tired is Grindelwald. No. Tired?

[Zoe Schiffer]

No.

[Brian Barrett]

Whoever he is. No. My my tired is flying cars. Yeah. Eight regions across the United States are going to be taking part in a three year pilot program that is going to actually let these electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft these Sort of flying car type of vehicles take to the skies. I think they're dumb. I think they're going to be basically helicopters, but more. I don't know. I don't really see the point of it other than to give very wealthy people a slightly shorter way to get places and to messy up our skies. So I'm tired of them already before they even take to the sky. And then wired. I'm going to say hybrid vehicles. Wow. The US has spent so long going away from electric and hybrid because oil prices were low, because the administration loves oil. But I think the current situation in Iran and spiking oil prices is a good reminder that we cannot keep clinging to this as a way to power our cars. I wish there were more hybrid vehicles on the market in the us There aren't. So this is a wired and also a plea to get people to make them again.

[Leah Feiger]

Okay, that's a good one. I'm interested in that.

[Zoe Schiffer]

Can I go, please?

[Leah Feiger]

My wired is the fact that I'm not wearing this, like massive puffer coat right now. Anytime I leave the house in New York, it is finally becoming less horrific. Outside, it was a really, really rough, like two months, you guys. It was so cold. It was snowy. And then there was a ton of rain and then it was super cold again. Meanwhile, all of our apartments are so hot because it's like all this intense building heating. You're just opening windows. It feels ridiculous. I felt ill for like the last two months. My tired, though, is vaguely depressing, which is on Monday. It was the hottest day in record in March so far in New York, which is really concerning climate change at all. I'm so excited to throw away my puffy coats and boots into the back of the closet for a couple more months, but it feels hard to celebrate this early.

[Zoe Schiffer]

I'll be honest. That's real. Okay. I don't know if this. I feel like I keep expanding the definition of wired and tired and Leah keeps saying, what are you talking about? But I'm gonna try. Okay. Tired is the discourse regarding quizzes that are supposed to tell you if you prefer AI writing to human writing.

[Leah Feiger]

I feel like this is good.

[Zoe Schiffer]

This entire conversation misunderstands how people actually consume content and consume art most of all, which is that we are influenced by knowing about who wrote something and that you having a visceral and negative reaction to reading something that you later realize was created by AI is like actually a legitimate part of that experience. And that just seeing something in a vacuum is just like it's not how humans consume things. I think Wired is the take by Claire Deterer, who wrote Monsters, which I thought was a very smart assessment of this very issue. And she argued this was kind of a can you separate the art from the artist? Argument. And she talks about it like a stain that even if you want to separate art from artists, it is like a stain that sticks with it. And while you can still watch those movies, read those books by someone you think is a reprehensible human, like it ends up influencing you for good or bad, I think that's valid.

[Leah Feiger]

That's our show for today. We're going to link to all the stories we spoke about today in the show notes. If you have any comments, you can find the episode [e-mail] to discuss. Uncanny Valley is produced by Kaleidoscope Content. Adriana Tapia produced this episode. It was mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. It was fact checked by Daniel Roman Pran Bandy is our New York studio engineer, Mark Laita is our San Francisco studio engineer Kimberly Chua is our digital Production Senior manager Kate Osborne is our executive producer and Katie Drummond is Wired's Global Editorial Director.

[Brian Barrett]

If there was a big red button that would just demolish the Internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is the Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world.

[Zoe Schiffer]

This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews.

[Brian Barrett]

It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the Internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts

[Zoe Schiffer]

from. PRX.