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DAMIONBroadcom CEO Pay Soars to $205.3 Million After AI-Fueled Rally. WHO DO YOU BLAME?The workers: “The median of the annual total compensation of all our employees is $378,281. Therefore, the Ratio calculated in accordance with Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K is 543 to 1.”Board chair Henry Samueli: completely non-independent.Owns $27B of Broadcom stockDirector Since: 2016. Chairman of the Board since 2018. served as Chief Technical Officer (2016-2018)co-founded Broadcom Corporation in 1991 and held several executive leadership positions at Broadcom Corporation until its acquisition by Broadcom Inc.Compensation Committee chair Harry L. You337,162,605 against votes at 2025 AGMThe other 8 directors combined: 252,626,537Annoyingly preoccupied:Current RolesChairman: Rain Enhancement Technologies Holdco, Inc.Executive Chairman: Berto Acquisition Corp. (2025 – Present)Interim CEO: dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc. (2025 – Present)CFO: dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc. (2022 – Present)Chairman: dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc.Past Roles (Operating Companies)Vice Chairman: GTY Technology (2019 – 2022)Director: IonQ, Inc. (2021 – 2025)Director: Coupang, Inc. (2021 – 2023)Director: Genius Sports Limited (2021 – 2022)Director: Rush Street Interactive, Inc. (2019 – 2022)Director: Korn/Ferry International (2005 – 2016)Past Roles (SPACs)Co-CEO: dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc. (2022 – 2023)Director: Coliseum Acquisition Corp. (2023 – 2024)Director: dMY Technology Group, Inc. VI (2021 – 2023)Director: dMY Technology Group, Inc. II (2020 – 2021)Director: dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV (2020 – 2021)CEO Hock E. TanMcDonald's CEO awkwardly samples his company's new burger in viral videoThe disgusting food at McDonald'sHyper-Salinity: Contains up to 75% of daily sodium in one meal, causing immediate "salt bloat" and dehydration.Low Moisture: High salt and thin patties "mummify" the meat, preventing natural decay and creating a "plastic" texture.Dough Conditioners: Buns use enzymes and monoglycerides to stay unnaturally soft and shelf-stable for weeks.Insulin Spikes: Added sugars (dextrose/HFCS) in the buns trigger rapid blood sugar crashes and lethargy.Industrial Additives: Use of sodium citrate (for plastic-like cheese melt) and antifoaming agents (in frying oils).Flash-Freezing: Destroys meat cell structures, resulting in a gray, rubbery texture rather than a juicy sear.The McDonald's attack on societyThe "Bliss Point": Engineered ratios of salt/sugar/fat that override the brain's "full" signal, feeling predatory rather than nourishing.The Uncanny Valley: Extreme consistency makes the food feel "fake" or "soulless" compared to artisanal, imperfect meals.Industrial Stigma: Global face of factory farming, mass land use, and high methane emissions.Disposable Culture: The lack of dining ritual (eating fast in a car/bag) leads to a psychological "guilt" or "grossness" post-consumption.Commodity Perception: Ultra-low pricing subconsciously signals "low quality" or "trash" ingredients to the brain.The controversial stain of CEO Chris Kempczinski"Failed Parents" Texts (2021): Leaked texts to Chicago's Mayor blaming the parents of Jaslyn Adams (7) and Adam Toledo (13) for their shooting deaths, stating they "failed those kids."The "Numbers Don't Matter" Remark: Reportedly told Black executives "numbers don't matter" when confronted with the decline of Black leadership from 42 to 7 executives.$10B Byron Allen Settlement (2025): Settled a massive racial stereotyping lawsuit regarding the company's refusal to contract with Black-owned media.VP "Purge" Allegations: Lawsuits from high-ranking female executives alleging a "war against the African American community" via demotions and ad-spend cuts.Peaster Retaliation Case: Allegations that Kempczinski "shunned" his Head of Security for challenging his "racist" texts during a company town hall.The "Franchisee Gap": Confirmed a $400,000 annual cash-flow deficit between Black-owned and White-owned franchises.Enforcement Loophole: Revealed that "Global Brand Standards" are largely unenforceable suggestions for the 95% of restaurants owned by franchisees.DEI Backsliding: Criticized for quietly removing DEI goals from executive bonus structures shortly after the audit concluded."Tough Love" Comments (2026): Blasted for "corporate gaslighting" after telling workers "nobody cares about your career as much as you do.""Broke Customer" Blame: Attributed declining sales to "low-income/broke" consumers while simultaneously defending aggressive menu price hikes.Predatory Pricing Tactics: Leaked internal documents showed teams targeting "budget-constrained" families with high-margin "add-on" items.Extreme Pay Inequality: Scrutiny over an $18–$20M compensation package, creating a 1,200:1 pay ratio compared to median workers.Franchisee Revolts: Intense friction over $70M in new tech fees and the 2025 cut of $100M in subsidies for worker tuition and Happy Meals.Cultural Legacy: Ongoing criticism for failing to dismantle the "boys' club" atmosphere inherited from predecessor Steve Easterbrook.Lead Independent Director Miles D. WhiteDirector since 2009.What was really behind Jack Dorsey laying off nearly half of Block's staff? CEO cited AI advances in cutting 4,000 workers, but a weak crypto market and declining stock price may also be at play. WHO DO YOU BLAME?Co-founder and CEO and Chair Jack Dorsey: 46% influence/41% voting powerIt is also the Board's duty to oversee senior management in the competent and ethical operation of the Company … ensure that the Company is committed to business excellence, ethical and honest conduct, and the highest levels of integrity.”Gender Diversity: The benchmark we reference for gender diversity is 50% representation for women.Board is 30% with 5% influenceLeadership is 27%Co-founder and director James McKelvey: 35% influence/10% voting powerThe Classified board structureThe Class B shares worth 10 votes (co-founders control 99.6% of these shares, Dorsey with 80%)Would have lost management vote on 2025 Equity Incentive Plan769,264,245:171,645,010… 171,343,335:171,645,010Jay-ZGEO Group leadership transitionOn February 6, 2026, J. David Donahue, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, provided notice to The GEO Group, Inc. (“GEO” or the “Company”) of his retirement effective February 28, 2026 (the “Separation Date”).(i) $104,167 per month commencing on March 1, 2026 and continuing through February 28, 2028 in accordance with the terms of the Consultant Agreement(ii) health insurance premiums for himself and any covered dependents for up to twenty-four (24) months(iii) the outstanding unvested stock options and restricted stock previously granted to Mr. Donahue will continue to vestOn February 9, 2026, George C. Zoley, GEO's founder and Executive Chairman, was appointed Chief Executive Officer effective March 1, 2026$1.2M/200%/300%Days after Trump's 2024 reelection—which private prison companies funded to the tune of over $1 million—Zoley hailed the “unprecedented opportunity” of the incoming administration's mass deportation campaign.“The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our company's [and] country's history, and the opportunity that it will bring,” he beamed.George C. Zoley founded GEO in 1984; was appointed Executive Chairman on July 1, 2021; served as CEO from the time the Company went public in 1994 through June 2021; served as Chairman since May 2002; served as Vice Chair from January 1997 to May 2002. Prior to 1994, he served as President and Director from the Company's incorporation in 1988Feb 2026: completed a US$92.45 million share buybackWHO DO YOU BLAME?The GEO Group Emperor: George C. Zoley 84% influence!founded GEO in 1984; Chair (2002-2021); Executive Chair (2021-present); CEO (1994-2021); Vice Chair (1997-2002). Prior to 1994, Director (1988-)3% stock ownerThe Trump bromance:Days after Trump's 2024 reelection—which private prison companies funded to the tune of over $1 million—Zoley hailed the “unprecedented opportunity” of the incoming administration's mass deportation campaign: “The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our company's [and] country's history, and the opportunity that it will bring,” he beamed.Pam Bondi: The current Attorney General was a former lobbyist for The GEO GroupA GEO Group subsidiary, GEO Acquisition II Inc., donated $1 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC. Additionally, the company contributed $500,000 to the 2025 inaugural committee—double what it gave for the 2017 inaugurationThe economic opportunism of private prisons with ICE contracts2/13/26: Private prison company GEO Group on Thursday reported a company record of $254 million in profit last year—a roughly 700% increase over 2024—driven by asset sales and contracts with the Trump administration to build several new US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities across the US.The top 4 sleepy institutional investors (34%)Blackrock 13.8% Vanguard 9.5% Wolf Hill Capital Management 5.5% FMR 5.0%The CEO clown car after June 2021 meant to keep Zoley powerfulJose Gordo (1/1/21-12/31/23); was also directorBrian Evans (1/1/24-12/31/24); was not directorJ. David Donahue CEO (1/1/25-2/28/26); was not directorThe intentionally incompetent Compensation Committee in charge of succession planning2025 proxy: Jack Brewer (Chairman), Thomas C. Bartzokis, Scott Kernan, Terry MayotteBrewer is former NFL playerBartzokis is cardiologistKernan is Agency Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and RehabilitationMayotte has stepped down2024 proxy: Terry Mayotte (Chairman), Thomas C. Bartzokis, Scott Kernan, Andrew Shapiro2023 proxy: Terry Mayotte (Chairman), Anne N. Foreman, Andrew Shapiro2022 proxy: Richard H. Glanton (Chairman), Anne N. Foreman, Terry Mayotte2021 proxy: Richard H. Glanton (Chairman), Jose Gordo, Duane Helkowski, Guido Van HauwermeirenGEO Group's weird lack of transparency: maybe the only public website or investors website i've ever seen that does not list management or board membershttps://www.geogroup.com/about-us/management_team/Page not found :(Sam Altman Is Realizing He Made a Gigantic Mistake"Opportunistic and sloppy."OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is continuing his apology tour, conceding OpenAI "shouldn't have rushed" its Department of Defense deal.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went into full damage control mode over the weekend. A day before the United States attacked Iran, the embattled CEO announced that the company had signed a new agreement with the Pentagon over how its AI models could be used — and the blowback is clearly impacting the company's bottom line, because Altman is sounding deeply defensive.Many users saw the military terms move as an attempt to swoop in and yank a multibillion-dollar government contract from the clutches of its rival, Anthropic. Last week, Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei refused to give in to the Department of Defense's demands, drawing a line in the sand and insisting that its AI models may not be used for autonomous killing machines or mass surveillance of Americans, a decision lauded by many users of its chatbot Claude.WHO DO YOU BLAME?Sam AltmanWAR WITH IRANA “business”-”man” (baby) running the country used to transaction approach to everything, including trading young girls with Epstein, leads the US into war with Iran for speculative and imaginary reasons - WHO DO YOU BLAME??Founder fetish (President/CEO!)Sycophantic boards (Congress!)Investors (Voters!)China! (China!)
Breno Altman entrevista Erika Hilton | Programa 20 MINUTOS
OpenAI-topman Sam Altman nam het Pentagon-contract over van Anthropic nadat die AI-ontwikkelaar niet wilde leveren want dat ministerie wilde, waarna Altman toegaf dat die actie overhaast was en hij ook niet louter zou luisteren naar het Pentagon. In een gesprek met OpenAI-medewerkers heeft hij echter nogmaals zijn eigen woorden verdraaid. Joe van Burik vertelt erover in deze Tech Update. Verder in deze Tech Update: Apple heeft nog meer nieuwe spullen onthultd na de iPhone 17E en nieuwe iPad Air nu ook onder meer een vernieuwde MacBook Air, en zal naar verluidt nog volgen met de MacBook Neo vandaag See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The fight between Anthropic and the Pentagon goes deeper than a simple contract dispute. In some ways, it's the culmination of a tech rivalry that's been simmering since the early days of OpenAI.Anthropic wasn't some scrappy outsider that stumbled into national security. It'd already had top secret clearance, working with the CIA for years, and had seemingly made peace with the idea that its models would be used inside the American intelligence apparatus. So let's dispense with the notion that this is a company discovering government power for the first time. The rupture didn't happen because the Pentagon suddenly knocked on the door. The door had been open.The disagreement came down to terms. Anthropic wanted to draw lines beyond the law. No mass surveillance of civilians. No autonomous weapons without a human in the loop. Not “we'll follow U.S. statute.” They wanted something stricter, something moral, something aligned with Dario Amodei's effective altruist worldview. The Pentagon's response was blunt: we obey US law, but we don't sign up to a private company's expanded terms of service.That's where the temperature rose.Politics Politics Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Because this isn't just any company. Dario left OpenAI over exactly this kind of philosophical divide. He believed OpenAI was becoming too commercial, too focused on product, not focused enough on safety and existential risk. So he built Anthropic as the safety lab. The kinder, gentler, crunchier alternative. But ironically, Anthropic was already cashing government checks while telling itself it was the adult in the room.From the Pentagon's perspective, the risk was operational. If you're going to integrate a model into defense infrastructure, you can't have the supplier yank the API mid-mission because the CEO decides the vibes are off. There were even reports that during negotiations, Pentagon officials asked whether Anthropic would allow its technology to respond to incoming ballistic missiles if civilian casualties were possible. The alleged answer, “you can always call,” wasn't reassuring to people whose job is to eliminate hesitation.And hovering over all of this is Sam Altman.Because while Anthropic was sparring with the Department of Defense, OpenAI was in conversation. The rivalry here isn't new. The effective altruist faction at OpenAI once helped push Altman out of his own company before he managed to return days later. Anthropic ran a Super Bowl ad that took thinly veiled shots at OpenAI's commercialization. So when Anthropic stumbled, OpenAI stepped in and secured its own defense agreement.Then came the nuclear option talk: labeling Anthropic a “supply chain risk.” In Pentagon language, this is the category you reserve for companies like Huawei, for hostile foreign hardware, for entities you believe can't be trusted inside American systems. Most people inside and outside the tech landscape agree that goes too far. Anthropic may be principled. It may be stubborn. It may even be naive. But it isn't malicious.Meanwhile, something fascinating happened in the market. Claude, Anthropic's consumer product, exploded in downloads. It became a kind of digital resistance symbol, a signal that you weren't with the war machine. The company that once insisted it didn't care about consumer dominance suddenly found itself riding a consumer wave, experience mass traffic it hadn't planned to account for.What this entire episode reveals is that AI isn't a lab experiment anymore. It's infrastructure. It's missile defense. It's geopolitical leverage. And when you build something that powerful, you don't get to exist outside power structures. You either align with them, fight them, or try to morally outmaneuver them. Anthropic tried the third path. The Pentagon reminded them that in wartime procurement, ambiguity isn't a feature.Cooler heads may yet prevail. Right now, the Pentagon's got bigger problems than a Silicon Valley slap fight. But this was the moment when AI stopped being a culture war talking point and became a live wire in national security. And once you plug into that grid, there's no going back.Chapters00:00:00 - Intro00:02:25 - Texas Primary Final Predictions00:15:20 - The Pentagon vs. Anthropic, Explained00:40:30 - Update00:40:52 - Iran00:45:41 - Clintons00:49:08 - Kalshi00:52:19 - Interview with Kenneth Lowande01:18:03 - Wrap-up This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/subscribe
Jack Altman sits down with Martin Casado, General Partner at a16z, to unpack the shifting dynamics of venture capital and why media matters more than ever. They cover a16z's evolution from generalists to specialized platforms, the rise of AI infrastructure, and why today's fiercest battles are often for talent, not market share. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 0:27 Importance of Media for VC 3:50 Evolution of a16z 7:00 Specialization 10:32 Value of Distribution 13:16 Staying Power in Infrastructure 19:49 The Conflicts Dynamic 26:32 State of Play in AI 30:48 The Future of Coding 34:58 Significance of Open Source 39:48 Marc Andreessen's Leadership 44:02 The Only Sin in VC 48:37 Scaling a Lot of Board Seats Resources: Listen to more from Uncapped: https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod Find Jack on X: https://x.com/jaltma Find Uncapped on X: https://x.com/uncapped_pod Find Martin on X: https://x.com/martin_casado Stay Updated: Let us know what you think: https://ratethispodcast.com/a16z Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/ Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Check out everything a16z is doing with artificial intelligence here, including articles, projects, and more podcasts. Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
3/3 Hormuz ufficialmente chiuso. Petrolio in rally. Corre l'oro, argento e Bitcoin giù. Sale dollaro e rendimenti Treasury. Asia sotto pressione, Kospi in calo del 6%. Corre il settore difesa, rupia indiana ai minimi da un mese su timori import energia. Wall Street, futures in ross. Trump: “whatever it takes in Iran comprese truppe sul terreno. L'ondata più forte deve ancora arrivare”, colpita ambasciata Usa a Riad. Mercati, che fare? Le strategie delle case d'affari su petrolio, gas, equity e asset class. La tecnologia ha spinto la chiusura di ieri: Nvidia +3% torna tra le “Top Pick” di Morgan Stanley, Apple annuncia nuovo Iphone 15e. Blackstone, esodo record da fondo private credit. Altman, lacrime da coccodrillo su contratto Pentagono e intanto Anthropic scala le classifiche con Claude. Europa, focus su prezzo gas TTF. Le chance i un taglio Bce nel 2026 evaporano. Macron e Merz insieme per il nucleare. Italia, focus su deficit eccessivo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sam Altman's OpenAI was reportedly aware of potential danger from the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter, yet the company's privacy thresholds prohibited employees from alerting law enforcement of the disturbing content. Instead, nine people were killed. In the aftermath of the update, federal AI and innovations minister, Evan Solomon called out the powerhouse behind ChatGPT, saying their failure to act was a failure in and of itself. Solomon is set to meet with Altman this week to discuss the incident further. Host Caryn Ceolin speaks with Ebrahim Bagheri, a professor at the University of Toronto who founded and directed the NSERC CREATE initiative on responsible AI. They discuss what AI companies do when they find troublesome behaviours, the need to respect privacy, and what the government might be able to do to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently announced a formal partnership to integrate the company's artificial intelligence into the Department of Defense's classified systems. This strategic move occurs as the Trump administration actively removes Anthropic's technology from federal use following a dispute over service terms. The new agreement includes specific safety protocols, such as maintaining human oversight for lethal force and banning domestic surveillance. Altman positioned this deal as a way to standardize military AI regulations and reduce legal friction between tech firms and the government. Ultimately, the shift establishes OpenAI as a primary technological partner for national security operations while marginalizing its competitors.
In today's episode we interview author, academic and political commentator Dennis Altman about his new book - Righting My World: Essays from the Past Half-Century. Join us for a discussion that spans 60 years of queer activism, from discussing the differences in public health policy responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Australia and the United States to the state of queerness as an inherently revolutionary act in 2026. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: Front cover of Dennis Altman's book, Righting My World: Essays from the past half-century, featuring a black and white photo of a younger Dennis lounging against a fence]
Spurs Chat: Discussing all Things Tottenham Hotspur: Hosted by Chris Cowlin: The Daily Tottenham/Spurs Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome back, screamers. On today's show: more of the early-Alts with Altman's take on the private eye (and we mean the private eye: Marlowe) The Long Goodbye. It's a shaggy, laconic tale of friendship, deception, and a man out of time and place. We also wonder what it would be like to be drug lords...but, you know, altruistic drug lords. Support Why Does the Wilhelm Scream Keep in touch and read more at whydoesthewilhelmscream.com on instagram and threads @whydoesthewilhelmpod Find out more about upcoming Fort Worth Film Club screenings and events at fortworthfilmclub.com and @fortworthfilm Support the next generation of film lovers at reelhousefoundation.org and on facebook reelhousefoundation Artwork by @_mosla_
In 1984, when Robin Altman was just 22 years old, her brother Steven was found hanging by his neck in an apparent suicide. 12 years later, tragedy struck this family again when Robin's mother Mary Ann took her own life by self-strangulation. But Robin had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right. There was one question she could not get out of her head: what if these deaths weren't suicides at all? What if her brother Steven and her mother Mary Ann were murdered? Robin embarks on a journey to find the truth.If you have any information about the death of Mary Ann Hayes, please contact Northfield PD at 847-446-2131. If you have any information about the death of Steven Altman, please contact Chicago Police at 312-744-2422. You can also contact us at tips@audiochuck.com.If you or someone you know is in crisis or feeling suicidal, please reach out for help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK, where trained counselors are available 24/7 to provide support. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-deaths-of-steven-altman-and-mary-ann-hayes/Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/fanclub/ to view the current membership options and policies.Don't miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
AGENDA: 03:55 Anthropic Security Product Wipes Billions Off Public Markets 11:17 Do Agents Turn SaaS Incumbents into Valueless Databases 22:07 Anthropic Secondary Sale Makes Hundreds Decamillionaires 23:20 Citrini Research Piece: Everything You Need To Know 26:04 Will DoorDash Be Replaced by Agents 34:22 Will "Ghost GDP" Soften Consumer Spending Power 42:46 Why No Public Company Has Created a Good Agent Product 47:19 Is Tech Private Equity and Thoma Bravo F***** in this Market 51:05 OpenAI Massively Increases Spending Plans: Analysis 56:24 Figma Fights Back: Earnings Through the Roof 01:02:12 Momentum Versus Value: Four Public Stocks to Buy 01:09:30 Jack Altman Joins Benchmark Capital
durée : 00:03:34 - Un monde connecté - par : Olivier Tesquet - Ce matin, Olivier Tesquet fait la critique d'une parole récente de Sam Altman, le patron d'OpenAI : "Les gens parlent de la quantité d'énergie nécessaire pour entraîner une IA, mais il faut aussi beaucoup d'énergie pour former un être humain."
Thriving Adoptees - Inspiration For Adoptive Parents & Adoptees
The Altman family was formed by a unique set of circumstances that no-one could have predicted. This episode is a little different to honour that. A profound dive into deep topics. Claire and Stan along with their daughter Stefanie share their learnings on unconditional love, growth and changing life for the better. Find out more about them and the book they've written together at: www:TwiceBlessed.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefaniemercadoaltman/ https://www.instagram.com/stefandrepeat/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-altman-145b5512/ Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
Anthropic's Hidden Claude 1, Market-Shaking AI Tools, and MIT's One-Step 3D-Printed Electric Motor Host Jim Love covers three major stories: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's comments on AI governance and safety, including that "Claude 1" was built before ChatGPT but not released because it didn't meet Anthropic's alignment and safety bar; how Anthropic's recent launches—Claude for knowledge-work "cowork" workflows, deeper office/document integrations, Claude Code Security for vulnerability scanning, and tooling to automate parts of COBOL modernization—coincided with sharp market reactions including declines in CrowdStrike and Zscaler (around 10–11%) and a major IBM drop (more than 13%) amid fears AI could disrupt SaaS, cybersecurity, and legacy modernization revenue; and MIT researchers' report of a 3D printing process that produces a fully functional linear electric motor in a single step (aside from magnetization), with reported material cost around 50 cents in a lab setting, raising the prospect of on-demand manufacturing and compressed supply chains. The episode also includes sponsorship messages about Meter's integrated wired, wireless, and cellular networking stack. Hashtag Trending would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale. You can find them at Meter.com/htt 00:00 Headlines and Sponsor 00:45 Amodei vs Altman 01:29 Claude 1 Not Shipped 03:19 Anthropic Shakes Markets 04:57 AI Hits Cybersecurity 05:28 COBOL Modernization Shock 08:10 MIT Prints Electric Motor 09:39 Manufacturing Disruption 10:26 Wrap Up and Thanks
Jim Love hosts Hashtag Trending, and highlights updates to TechNewsDay.ca/.com including a new "Best of YouTube" section for curated tech channels. Anthropic alleges three Chinese AI labs—DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax—ran industrial-scale distillation campaigns to extract capabilities from Claude models using proxy services and "Hydra cluster" networks with tens of thousands of fraudulent accounts, prompting Anthropic to strengthen identity controls and detection with cloud partners. Amazon shares fall for nine straight sessions after investors react to plans for roughly $200B in 2026 capex largely for AI infrastructure, raising questions about ROI and future free cash flow. A cited analysis by YouTuber Nate B Jones argues Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro signals a strategy shift toward deeper reasoning (not just coding/agentic tools), noting a 77.1% ARC-AGI-2 score and DeepMind's scientific problem focus, contrasting OpenAI's product/distribution, Anthropic's agentic coordination, and Google's "pure intelligence" approach. The episode also references Citri Research's 2028 scenario planning report outlining a plausible fast-arriving AGI chain reaction—falling inference costs, rapid adoption, labor displacement pressure, and geopolitical competition for compute and talent—and promotes the Saturday show Project Synapse on long-term AI trajectories. Finally, Love discusses Sam Altman's comments at the India AI Impact Summit dismissing viral claims about ChatGPT water and energy use without providing specific counter-numbers, noting growing public backlash as data center water and electricity demands rise; the full interview is linked in show notes. Hashtag Trending would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale. You can find them at Meter.com/htt LINKS Nate B Jones on Google Gemimi 3.1 https://youtu.be/8jKAT8GNDE0?si=Rz5k1gP0sS9H7XAp Sam Altman's speach https://www.youtube.com/live/qH7thwrCluM?si=IO_76NsGJ1zgt8J7 AI Scenario https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic 00:00 Headlines and intro 00:54 Site updates and YouTube picks 01:57 Anthropic warns of distillation 04:58 Amazon AI spending jitters 06:13 Google bets on reasoning 10:31 2028 AGI crisis scenario 11:55 Altman backlash and resources 14:17 Wrap up and sponsor thanks
In this episode, the crew dives into reports that Palo Alto Networks allegedly avoided directly attributing a threat campaign to China over fears of retaliation—sparking a broader debate about corporate and government threat attribution, geopolitics, and whether attribution still matters in today's cyber landscape.They also explore the escalating AI arms race, including Meta's aggressive (and expensive) talent poaching, the growing rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic, and what it all means for the future of the industry.Rounding out the episode, the team discusses the unintended consequences of the AI boom—like global hardware shortages stretching beyond GPUs to hard drives—and examines emerging prompt injection attack techniques, highlighting real-world examples and the growing security risks surrounding AI-powered tools.Join us LIVE on Mondays, 4:30pm EST.A weekly Podcast with BHIS and Friends. We discuss notable Infosec, and infosec-adjacent news stories gathered by our community news team.https://www.youtube.com/@BlackHillsInformationSecurityChat with us on Discord! - https://discord.gg/bhis
AI Chat: ChatGPT & AI News, Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Machine Learning
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle
Merz sympathisiert mit einem Social Media Ban für Kinder. Google holt sich mit Gemini 3.1 die Benchmark-Krone zurück. OpenAI raist $100 Mrd. bei bis zu $850 Mrd. Bewertung – Nvidia allein soll $30 Mrd. geben. Das virale Video der Woche: Sam Altman und Dario Amodei verweigern sich beim India AI Summit den Handschlag. Perplexity gibt sein Werbemodell auf und schwenkt auf Enterprise. Klarna verliert 27% nach schwachen Zahlen – die Kreditausfallvorsorge steigt schneller als der Umsatz. Die CFTC versucht, Prediction Markets der Bundesstaaten-Regulierung zu entziehen. Milliardärs-Steuersätze sind ein Problem für die US-Wirtschaft. Unterstütze unseren Podcast und entdecke die Angebote unserer Werbepartner auf doppelgaenger.io/werbung. Vielen Dank! Philipp Glöckler und Philipp Klöckner sprechen heute über: (00:00:00) Social Media Ban für Kinder (00:19:45) Apple Event am 4. März: Brille und AirPods mit Kameras (00:25:21) Google Gemini 3.1 und OpenAI $100 Mrd. Runde (00:35:40) India AI Summit: Altman und Amodei verweigern Handschlag (00:51:25) Perplexity gibt Werbemodell auf (00:54:47) Accenture: Keine Beförderung ohne KI (01:59:40) World Labs $1 Mrd. und XAI Saudi-Investment (01:06:27) New York stoppt Robotaxis (01:10:42) CFTC vs. Bundesstaaten: Prediction Markets (01:19:40) X-Algorithmus verschiebt Meinungen nach rechts (01:22:37) Klarna und Figma Earnings (01:32:50) Freedom.gov: US-VPN für Europäer (01:39:20) Zuckerberg vor Gericht: Engagement war nie unser Ziel (01:48:14) Angermeyer | Palantir: DHS-Milliardendeal (01:58:05) WSJ: Milliardäre zahlen zu wenig Steuern Shownotes Garrison Lovely Dario Amodei Podcast - x.com Merz riskiert Streit mit Trump über Social-Media-Verbot für Minderjährige - bloomberg.com Apple intensiviert Arbeit an Brille, Anhänger und Kamera-AirPods. - bloomberg.com Apple kündigt überraschend "Special Apple Experience" an. - heise.de Google ist wieder führend in KI: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview. - x.com OpenAI-Chef: Dringende Regulierung für KI erforderlich - heise.de OpenAI-Finanzierung erreicht über $100 Milliarden in aktueller Runde - bloomberg.com Nvidia OpenAI - ft.com Sam Altman and Dario Amodei refusing to hold hands - linkedin.com OpenAI Has Poached Instagram's Celebrity Whisperer - vanityfair.com Perplexity - ft.com Accenture - ft.com AI Pioneer Fei-Fei Li's Startup World Labs Raises $1 Billion - bloomberg.com Saudi-Arabiens Humain investiert 3 Milliarden in Elon Musks XAI. - bloomberg.com Aktivistischer Investor Palliser Capital schrieb an japanischen Toilettenhersteller Toto. - x.com New Yorks Robotaxi-Plan gestoppt - bloomberg.com Wir sehen uns vor Gericht - axios.com Elizabeth Warren kritisiert Trumps CFTC - x.com Gouverneur Cox - x.com Meta startet $65 Millionen Wahlkampagne - nytimes.com X's Algorithm Pushes Users to Lean More Conservative - gizmodo.com Klarna - ft.com Klarna-CEO: Belegschaft wird bis 2030 um 1.000 reduziert. - fastcompany.com US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere - reuters.com Mark Zuckerberg said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss ‘wellbeing of teens and kids' - cnbc.com Philipp Kloeckner auf X: "Metas Zuckerberg ist voller
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
En el Radar Empresarial de hoy ponemos el foco en la posible entrada de Nvidia en el capital de OpenAI. Según informaciones publicadas por CNBC y Financial Times, el fabricante de semiconductores estaría valorando una inversión de hasta 30.000 millones de dólares en la compañía dirigida por Sam Altman. Esta operación se integraría en la actual ronda de financiación que impulsa la creadora de ChatGPT y que podría situar su valoración por encima de los 800.000 millones de dólares, consolidándola como una de las empresas tecnológicas más valiosas del mundo. Gran parte de los fondos captados se destinarían previsiblemente a la adquisición de chips de Nvidia, pieza clave para el desarrollo y entrenamiento de modelos de inteligencia artificial. Sin embargo, el anuncio ha reavivado el debate sobre cómo encaja esta inversión con el acuerdo de infraestructura que ambas compañías firmaron en septiembre pasado. CNBC sostiene, citando fuentes cercanas a la operación, que la inversión sería independiente de aquel pacto y que incluso podría ampliarse en futuras rondas siempre que respete el marco previamente acordado. La versión del Financial Times es distinta: el diario británico apunta a que esta nueva operación podría reemplazar el acuerdo cerrado el año anterior. En aquel entendimiento histórico, ambas tecnológicas contemplaban movilizar hasta 100.000 millones de dólares y desplegar al menos 10 gigavatios de capacidad de computación para los centros de datos de OpenAI. En los últimos meses, el consejero delegado de Nvidia, Jensen Huang, habría tomado distancia. En noviembre, la empresa advirtió en sus resultados trimestrales que no existía garantía de alcanzar un acuerdo definitivo. Pese a las especulaciones, la ronda de financiación sigue adelante y podría estructurarse en dos fases. En la primera participarían gigantes como Microsoft, Amazon y SoftBank, mientras que en una segunda etapa se sumarían otros inversores. Todo ello ha intensificado el debate sobre la valoración real de OpenAI, una cuestión que Altman ha defendido públicamente. La relación entre Nvidia y OpenAI, en cualquier caso, se remonta a 2010, cuando el fabricante suministró uno de sus primeros sistemas DGX para entrenar grandes redes neuronales.
ChatGPT: OpenAI, Sam Altman, AI, Joe Rogan, Artificial Intelligence, Practical AI
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle
ChatGPT: News on Open AI, MidJourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Open Source LLMs, Machine Learning
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, we explore OpenAI's massive $100 billion funding round and soaring valuation, alongside the increasing competition and awkward rivalry with Anthropic. We also discuss OpenAI's aggressive expansion and user analytics in India, highlighting their strategic investments and monetization efforts.Chapters00:00 Introduction to OpenAI's Funding01:48 OpenAI's $100 Billion Funding08:19 Altman vs. Amodeo Rivalry11:52 OpenAI's India Expansion13:21 India User Analytics17:05 Future Strategy and IPO LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer and David Faber discussed market reaction to Walmart's Q4 beat and what new CEO John Furner said on the earnings call about consumer spending. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to hold hands during a group photo shoot with tech leaders at an AI summit in India. Both men spoke exclusively to CNBC: Altman on the U.S.-China AI arms race, Amodei on AI's effect on jobs. Also in focus: OpenAI's march toward a new $100 billion funding round, more pain for software stocks, Etsy jumps on the sale of second-hand fashion app Depop to eBay, Blue Owl slides on a report about redemptions, a flashback to what Jim said about Figma on the date of its stellar public debut in July 2025. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
News and Updates: Research shows AI boosts creativity only for employees with strong metacognition—the ability to plan and refine thinking—allowing them to strategically expand knowledge and capacity. Discord will implement global age verification in March, defaulting all users to "teen-appropriate" settings unless they prove adulthood via ID, facial estimation, or behavioral metadata. Ring's "Search Party" feature uses AI neighborhood camera scans to find lost dogs, sparking privacy fears that the infrastructure could eventually be used for human surveillance. Goldman Sachs is embedding Anthropic engineers to build autonomous AI agents for high-volume back-office roles, specifically targeting complex trade accounting and regulatory compliance tasks. OpenAI's Sam Altman lashed out at Anthropic's "dishonest" Super Bowl ads, which mocked ChatGPT's upcoming ad tier by depicting intrusive, context-twisting product placements in conversations.
En el Radar Empresarial de hoy ponemos el foco en los compromisos económicos de gran envergadura que ha dejado la cumbre global de inteligencia artificial celebrada en la India. El encuentro, encabezado por el primer ministro Narendra Modi, reunió a destacados dirigentes internacionales como Emmanuel Macron y Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. La cita tuvo como propósito principal examinar los desafíos y oportunidades que plantea el desarrollo de la inteligencia artificial en el país asiático, así como su impacto en la economía global. Además de los líderes políticos, participaron figuras clave del sector tecnológico, que aprovecharon el foro para anunciar ambiciosos planes de inversión. Entre los anuncios más relevantes destacó el de Thomas Kurian, máximo responsable de Google Cloud, quien confirmó una inversión de 15.000 millones de dólares durante los próximos cinco años. El proyecto contempla la creación de un gran centro integral de inteligencia artificial en Visakhapatnam. Por su parte, Sundar Pichai, consejero delegado de Alphabet Inc., comunicó la puesta en marcha de dos nuevas rutas de fibra óptica para reforzar la conectividad regional, y subrayó la relevancia estratégica que la IA tiene ya en la vida cotidiana y en la competitividad empresarial. Otra de las grandes protagonistas fue Microsoft. Su presidente, Brad Smith, avanzó un compromiso inversor de 50.000 millones de dólares hasta el final de la década con el fin de ampliar el acceso tecnológico en el sur global. Aunque se esperaba la intervención de Bill Gates, finalmente canceló su participación para que la atención se centrara en los objetivos esenciales del foro. Estas cifras se suman a los 17.000 millones ya destinados el año anterior, consolidando a India como un mercado prioritario. También OpenAI anunció avances significativos. La empresa creadora de ChatGPT se asoció con Tata Consultancy Services para levantar dos centros de datos dentro del proyecto Stargate, con una capacidad inicial de 100 megavatios ampliable hasta un gigavatio. Su director ejecutivo, Sam Altman, incidió en el papel transformador de la IA. La cumbre dejó además una imagen llamativa: Altman y Dario Amodei, máximo responsable de Anthropic, evitaron estrecharse la mano en la despedida oficial.
Fresh off his surprise hit M*A*S*H, Robert Altman headed out to the snowy Northwest with stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie to make this quirky anti-western whose reputation grew along with Altman's career. Our young panel was divided on this one, from the 1971 depiction of sex workers to the to the hyper-realist flourishes that have informed yet remain at odds with American filmmaking in 2026. So does McCabe & Mrs. Miller stand the test of time as a classic of its era? Tune in and find out how this Vietnam-era reimagining of the American frontier plays for a new generation. Hosts: Mark Netter, David Tausik Panelists: Guy Lewis, Sonia Howell An ElectraCast Production Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCabe_%26_Mrs._Miller IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067411/ The Criterion Collection: https://www.criterion.com/films/28712-mccabe-mrs-miller Ebert Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-mccabe-and-mrs-miller-1971 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Unity's massive AI announcement ahead of GDC, they're building no-code tools that let anyone prompt full games into existence. Five minutes before we went live, Epic Games announced they acquired Meshcapade, one of the best AI motion capture tools. We also cover Tesla's first production CyberCab, Chinese humanoid robots that went from barely moving to choreographed nunchuck routines in 12 months, a new AI documentary featuring Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, and Apple's rumoured AI wearables.00:50 - Unity announces AI game generation at GDC14:18 - Epic acquires Meshcapade21:48 - Tesla CyberCab confirmed under $30K35:23 - Chinese robots doing nunchucks in formation38:53 - AI documentary with Altman, Hassabis, Amodei46:18 - Apple's rumored glasses, camera AirPods & AI pendantPowered by Dell Pro PrecisionLearn Unreal Engine in 14 Days - $300 OFF https://www.youtube.com/redirect?https://join.baddecisions.studio/c/podcast?discounts=PODCASTIf this podcast is helping you, please take 2 minutes to rate our podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, It will help the Podcast reach and help more people!Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/12jUe4lIJgxE4yst7rrfmW?si=ab98994cf57541cfApple Podcasts (Scroll down to review)- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bad-decisions-podcast/id1677462934Join our discord server where we connect and share assets: https://discord.gg/zwycgqezfDBad Decisions Audio Podcast
Nathaniel Altman is a Brooklyn-based writer who has authored more than twenty books on diet, alternative healing, metaphysics and relationship. His books include Eating for Life: A Book About Vegetarianism, and Healing Springs: The Ultimate Guide to Taking the Waters , among many others. His latest book, The Genealogy of Plant Foods is the topic for todays discussion. Nathaniel has appeared on more than 150 podcasts, radio and television programs in the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America, and his articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Good Housekeeping, Natural Health, Well Being, Free Spirit, Vegetarian Times and USA Today.
It's movie night in New York City! Join us for some roving recording as we pound the cobblestones of Manhattan and take in two films in vastly different formats: Robert Altman's Short Cuts in glorious 35mm and Sam Raimi's Send Help in sensuous 4DX.Along the way we discuss Raymond Carver's short stories, Altman's influence on hyperlink cinema, Cast Away as an archetype of 21st century filmmaking, and why Raimi is the king of disgusting CG animals.Want to join the study group? Follow TTWS on social media, tell your friends to listen, and leave a rating & review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help the show. And join the Discord too!You can also support TTWS directly at https://ko-fi.com/tothewhiteseaFor all things TTWS visit tothewhitesea.me
In Episode 296 of The Rainmaking Podcast, Scott Love interviews Joshua Altman, founder of Beltway Media, on how professional services firms can repurpose content to drive business development and brand visibility. Instead of treating webinars, interviews, white papers, or conference panels as “one-and-done” events, Joshua explains how a single piece of thought leadership can be transformed into blog posts, LinkedIn articles, short-form video clips, podcasts, email newsletters, and even white papers. By using a structured content calendar strategy, professionals can multiply their marketing output without constantly creating from scratch. Joshua outlines a practical framework for modern content marketing built around four engagement pillars: what clients read, see, hear, and experience. He emphasizes planning ahead, avoiding platform dependency, and leveraging existing material to build consistent visibility across channels like LinkedIn, YouTube, email marketing, and professional blogs. For lawyers, consultants, and financial advisors looking to grow their brand and generate inbound business, this episode delivers tactical guidance on scalable content marketing, personal branding, and strategic media repurposing. Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/jghfwLIYgNU ----------------------------------------
Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, and a lot of loose 90s fabric star in 1994's Disclosure—an erotic thriller directed by Barry Levinson and based on a novel by Michael Crichton. Big Mouth's Nick Kroll and Emily Altman join Paul and Jason to talk all about the virtual reality CD-ROMs, the big sex scene, all the Dennis Miller-isms, and so much more. (Ep. #223 Originally Released 09/26/2019) • Get up to 20% off tix to see Jason in ALL OUT on Broadway with code ALLOUTPOD at AllOutBroadway.com• Go to hdtgm.com for tour dates, merch, FAQs, and more• Have a Last Looks correction or omission? Call 619-PAULASK to leave us a voicemail!• Submit your Last Looks theme song to us here• Join the HDTGM conversation on Discord: discord.gg/hdtgm• Buy merch at howdidthisgetmade.dashery.com/• Order Paul's book about his childhood: Joyful Recollections of Trauma• Shop our new hat collection at podswag.com• Paul's Discord: discord.gg/paulscheer• Paul's YouTube page: youtube.com/paulscheer• Follow Paul on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/paulscheer• Subscribe to Enter The Dark Web w/ Paul & Rob Huebel: youtube.com/@enterthedarkweb• Listen to Unspooled with Paul & Amy Nicholson: unspooledpodcast.com• Listen to The Deep Dive with June & Jessica St. Clair: thedeepdiveacademy.com/podcast• Instagram: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & @junediane• Twitter: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & msjunediane • Jason is not on social media• Episode transcripts available at how-did-this-get-made.simplecast.com/episodesGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using the link: siriusxm.com/hdtgm Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
This week we talk about OpenAI, nudify apps, and CSAM.We also discuss Elon Musk, SpaceX, and humanistic technology.Recommended Book: Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith ButlerTranscriptxAI is an American corporation that was founded in mid-2023 by Elon Musk, ostensibly in response to several things happening in the world and in the technology industry in particular.According to Musk, a “politically correct” artificial intelligence, especially a truly powerful, even generally intelligent one, which would be human or super-human-scale capable, would be dangerous, leading to systems like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He intended, in contrast, to create what he called a “maximally truth-seeking” AI that would be better at everything, including math and reasoning, than existing, competing models from the likes of OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.The development of xAI was also seemingly a response to the direction of OpenAI in particular, as OpenAI was originally founded in 2015 as a non-profit by many of the people who now run OpenAI and competing models by competing companies, and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk were the co-chairs of the non-profit.Back then, Musk and Altman both said that their AI priorities revolved around the many safety issues associated with artificial general intelligence, including potentially existential ones. They wanted the development of AI to take a humanistic trajectory, and were keen to ensure that these systems aren't hoarded by just a few elites and don't make the continued development and existence of human civilization impossible.Many of those highfalutin ambitions seemed to either be backburnered or removed from OpenAI's guiding tenets wholesale when the company experienced surprising success from its first publicly deployed ChatGPT model back in late-2022.That was the moment that most people first experienced large-language model-based AI tools, and it completely upended the tech industry in relatively short order. OpenAI had already started the process of shifting from a vanilla non-profit into a capped for-profit company in 2019, which limited profits to 100-times any investments it received, partly in order to attract more talent that would otherwise be unlikely to leave their comparably cushy jobs at the likes of Google and Facebook for the compensation a non-profit would be able to offer.OpenAI began partnering with Microsoft that same year, 2019, and that seemed to set them up for the staggering growth they experienced post-ChatGPT release.Part of Musk's stated rationale for investing so heavily in xAI is that he provided tens of millions of dollars in seed funding to the still non-profit OpenAI between 2015 and 2018. He filed a lawsuits against the company after its transition, and when it started to become successful, post-ChatGPT, especially between 2024 and 2026, and has demanded more than $100 billion in compensation for that early investment. He also attempted to take over OpenAI in early 2025, launching a hostile bid with other investors to nab OpenAI for just under $100 billion. xAI, in other words, is meant to counter OpenAI and what it's become.All of which could be seen as a genuine desire to keep OpenAI functioning as a non-profit arbiter of AGI development, serving as a lab and thinktank that would develop the guardrails necessary to keep these increasingly powerful and ubiquitous tools under control and working for the benefit of humanity, rather than against it.What's happened since, within Musk's own companies, would seem to call that assertion into question, though. And that's what I'd like to talk about today: xAI, its chatbot Grok, and a tidal wave of abusive content it has created that's led to lawsuits and bans from government entities around the world.—In November of 2023, an LLM-based chatbot called Grok, which is comparable in many ways to OpenAI's LLM-based chabot, ChatGPT, was launched by Musk's company xAI.Similar to ChatGPT, Grok is accessible by apps on Apple and Android devices, and can also be accessed on the web. Part of what makes its distinct, though, is that it's also built into X, the social network formerly called Twitter which Musk purchased in late-2022. On X, Grok operates similar to a normal account, but one that other users can interact with, asking Grok about the legitimacy of things posted on the service, asking it normal chat-botty questions, and asking it to produce AI-generated media.Grok's specific stances and biases have varied quite a lot since it was released, and in many cases it has defaulted to the data- and fact-based leanings of other chatbots: it will generally tell you what the Mayo clinic and other authorities say about vaccines and diseases, for instance, and will generally reference well-regarded news entities like the Associated Press when asked about international military conflicts.Musk's increasingly strong political stances, which have trended more and more far right over the past decade, have come to influence many of Grok's responses, however, at times causing it to go full Nazi, calling itself Mechahitler and saying all the horrible and offensive things you would expect a proud Nazi to say. At other times it has clearly been programmed to celebrate Elon Musk whenever possible, and in still others it has become immensely conspiratorial or anti-liberal or anti-other group of people.The conflicting personality types of this bot seems to be the result of Musk wanting to have a maximally truth-seeking AI, but then not liking the data- and fact-based truths that were provided, as they often conflicted with his own opinions and biases. He would then tell the programmers to force Grok to not care about antisemitism or skin color or whatever else, and it would overcorrect in the opposite direction, leading to several news cycles worth of scandal.This changes week by week and sometimes day by day, but Grok often calls out Musk as being authoritarian, a conspiracy theorist, and even a pedophile, and that has placed the Grok chatbot in an usual space amongst other, similar chatbots—sometimes serving as a useful check on misinformation and disinformation on the X social network, but sometimes becoming the most prominent producer of the same.Musk has also pushed for xAI to produce countervailing sources of truth from which Grok can find seeming data, the most prominent of which is Grokipedia, which Musk intended to be a less-woke version of Wikipedia, and which, perhaps expectedly, means that it's a far-right rip off of Wikipedia that copies most articles verbatim, but then changes anything Musk doesn't like, including anything that might support liberal political arguments, or anything that supports vaccines or trans people. In contrast, pseudoscience and scientific racism get a lot of positive coverage, as does the white genocide conspiracy theory, all of which are backed by either highly biased or completely made up sources—in both cases sources that Wikipedia editors would not accept.Given all that, what's happened over the past few months maybe isn't that surprising.In late 2025 and early 2026, it was announced that Grok had some new image-related features, including the ability for users to request that it modify images. Among other issues, this new tool allowed users to instruct Grok to place people, which for this audience especially meant women and children, in bikinis and in sexually explicit positions and scenarios.Grok isn't the first LLM-based app to provide this sort of functionality: so called “nudify” apps have existed for ages, even before AI tools made that functionality simpler and cheaper to apply, and there have been a wave of new entrants in this field since the dawn of the ChatGPT era a few years ago.Grok is easily the biggest and most public example of this type of app, however, and despite the torrent of criticism and concern that rolled in following this feature's deployment, Musk immediately came out in favor of said features, saying that his chatbot is edgier and better than others because it doesn't have all the woke, pearl-clutching safeguards of other chatbots.After several governments weighed in on the matter, however, Grok started responding to requests to do these sorts of image edits with a message saying: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”Which means users could still access these tools, but they would have to pay $8 per month and become a premium user in order to do so. That said, the AP was able to confirm that as of mid-January, free X users could still accomplish the same by using an Edit Image button that appears on all images posted to the site, instead of asking Grok directly.When asked about this issue by the press, xAI has auto-responded with the message “Legacy Media Lies.” The company has previously said it will remove illegal content and permanently suspend users who post and ask for such content, but these efforts have apparently not been fast or complete, and more governments have said they plan to take action on the matter, themselves, since this tool became widespread.Again, this sort of nonconsensual image manipulation has been a problem for a long, long time, made easier by the availability of digital tools like Photoshop, but not uncommon even before the personal computer and digital graphics revolution. These tools have made the production of such images a lot simpler and faster, though, and that's put said tools in more hands, including those of teenagers, who have in worryingly large numbers taken to creating photorealistic naked and sexually explicit images of their mostly female classmates.Allowing all X users, or even just the subset that pays for the service to do the same at the click of a button or by asking a Chatbot to do it for them has increased the number manyfold, and allowed even more people to created explicit images of neighbors, celebrities, and yes, even children. An early estimate indicates that over the course of just nine days, Grok created and posted 4.4 million images, at least 41% of which, about 1.8 million, were sexualized images of women. Another estimated using a broader analysis says that 65% of those images, or just over 3 million, contained sexualized images of men, women, and children.CSAM is an acronym that means ‘child sexual abuse material,' sometimes just called child porn, and the specific definition varies depending on where you are, but almost every legal jurisdiction frowns, or worse, on its production and distribution.Multiple governments have announced that they'll be taking legal action against the company since January of 2026, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Britain, France, India, Brazil, and the central governance of the European Union.The French investigation into xAI and Grok led to a raid on the company's local office as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations that the company is knowingly spreading child sexual abuse materials and other illegal deepfake content. Musk has been summoned for questioning in that investigation.Some of the governments looking into xAI for these issues conditionally lifted their bans in late-January, but this issues has percolated back into the news with the release of 16 emails between Musk and the notorious sex traffic and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, with Musk seemingly angling for an invite to one of Epstein's island parties, which were often populated with underage girls who were offered as, let's say companions, for attendees.And this is all happening at a moment in which xAI, which already merged with social network X, is meant to be itself merged with another Musk-owned company, SpaceX, which is best known for its inexpensive rocket launches.Musk says the merger is intended to allow for the creation of space-based data centers that can be used to power AI systems like Grok, but many analysts are seeing this as a means of pumping more money into an expensive, unprofitable portion of his portfolio: SpaceX, which is profitable, is likely going to have an IPO this year and will probably have a valuation of more than a trillion dollars. By folding very unprofitable xAI into profitable SpaceX, these AI-related efforts could be funded well into the future, till a moment when, possibly, many of today's AI companies will have gone under, leaving just a few competitors for xAI's Grok and associated offerings.Show Noteshttps://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-technology-is-getting-darker-and-more-dangerous/https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/867874/stripe-visa-mastercard-amex-csam-grokhttps://www.ft.com/content/f5ed0160-7098-4e63-88e5-8b3f70499b02https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/29/millions-creating-deepfake-nudes-telegram-ai-digital-abusehttps://apnews.com/article/france-x-investigation-seach-elon-musk-1116be84d84201011219086ecfd4e0bchttps://apnews.com/article/grok-x-musk-ai-nudification-abuse-2021bbdb508d080d46e3ae7b8f297d36https://apnews.com/article/grok-elon-musk-deepfake-x-social-media-2bfa06805b323b1d7e5ea7bb01c9da77https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/technology/elon-musk-spacex-xai.htmlhttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ex92557johttps://techcrunch.com/2026/02/01/indonesia-conditionally-lifts-ban-on-grok/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr58dlnne5ohttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/technology/grok-x-ai-elon-musk-deepfakes.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAI_(company)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPThttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_(chatbot)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grokipediahttps://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/10/musk-and-investors-offering-97point4-billion-for-control-of-openai-wsj.html This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe
The 2012 Benghazi attack suspect is arrested and extradited to the U.S., Dozens are dead following a deadly suicide bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan, South Africa inks a trade deal with China, U.S.-Iran talks conclude in Oman, A Russian intelligence chief is shot in Moscow,The U.S. kills two in the latest strike on an alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, President Trump endorses Japan's Sanae Takaichi ahead of its snap election, Senator Mark Warner warns of election interference amid Trump's comments, Canada unveils its auto industry plan, and Sam Altman says AI could eventually replace him as OpenAI CEO. Sources: Verity.News
This sermon explores the profound message of John 11 and emphasizes the importance of preparing for the eventual loss of loved ones. By reflecting on Jesus' conversation with Martha and the resurrection of Lazarus, Rev. Dr. Altman highlights that Jesus brings life out of death, comforts us with His promises, and calls us to trust in His divine plan even amidst grief.
What happens when a legendary music venue prioritizes live music over food and drink? Join host Buzz Knight on this episode of takin' a walk as he dives deep into the heart and soul of The Bottom Line, a Greenwich Village landmark that shaped the landscape of American music. Buzz welcomes Alan Pepper and Billy Altman, co-authors of the compelling book Positively Fourth and Mercer, which chronicles the rich history of this iconic venue. Alan, the visionary owner of The Bottom Line, shares fascinating insights into the unique concept that made the venue a haven for music lovers. With a focus on creating an intimate, theater-like experience, The Bottom Line became a stage for legendary musicians, including Bruce Springsteen and Darlene Love. As the conversation unfolds, listeners will be captivated by the emotional connections formed through music and the bittersweet memories surrounding the venue's closure in 2004. Buzz Knight, known for his engaging music conversations, guides the discussion as Alan and Billy recount their journeys interviewing over 100 artists for the book. They explore the diverse range of genres showcased at The Bottom Line, offering listeners a glimpse into the vibrant tapestry of rock music history, jazz music, and even country musicthat resonated within its walls. The episode highlights the cultural impact of music and the role of FM radio in nurturing an audience for these diverse styles. Throughout the episode, listeners will discover not only the stories behind iconic songs but also the lasting legacy that The Bottom Line has left on the New York music scene. Buzz Knight's friendly style makes this music history podcast a delightful journey for anyone passionate about exploring music history. As they reflect on the past, Alan and Billy also offer a forward-looking perspective on how the spirit of The Bottom Line continues to inspire new generations of artists and music lovers. Whether you're a fan of indie music, classic rock, or simply love music storytelling, this episode of takin' a walk is sure to resonate with you. Tune in to hear inspiring artist interviews, emotional healing through music, and the stories behind the songs that have shaped our lives. Don't miss this chance to walk down memory lane with Buzz Knight, Alan Pepper, and Billy Altman as they celebrate the magic of The Bottom Line and its enduring influence on the music world. #bruce springsteen #inspiring icons #music legends #music history podcast #New York Music History Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
CarneyShow 02.03.26 Nettie's Pizza Den, Allan Pepper and Billy Altman, Dan Moren, George Mahe by
Braga, King, and Ski talk::15: The end of the Altman era, his amazing legacy, Oregon not spending NIL on basketball.14:38: Dropping a bill on ping season tix, old dudes getting late night Dutch Bros, sexy car washes.29:32: Belichick's HOF snub, ranking the halls of fame, visiting E. 1999 Eternal.36:43: Oregon's 2026 schedule, buying season tickets, parking your Ferrari at PK.59:20: Hate watching the Super Bowl, overrating Drake Maye, Seattle's easy win.1:09:12: Top 3 Oregon jersey sponsors.
Health insurers face pressure after a new Medicare proposal. How meme traders have changed investing, five years after the GameStop mania. Plus, is OpenAI's hiring slowdown a canary in the tech jobs coalmine? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
"Everything you publish should be useful." -Joshua Altman Joshua Altman is an experienced storyteller, strategist and creative force with more than two decades of experience shaping how people see, hear and connect with big ideas. Today, he leads beltway.media, a bold D.C.-based communications firm that helps brands and organizations cut through the noise. Before founding the firm, Joshua was a multimedia journalist at The Hill, diving deep into federal policy and covering high-stakes election cycles right from the front lines. Now he works with everyone from scrappy startups to federal agencies, helping them refine their message, elevate their brand and truly connect with their audience, whether that's customers, investors or the public at large. From reimagining agency websites to crafting magnetic stories, Joshua's work has one goal: to make communications clear, compelling, and impossible to ignore. Website: https://beltway.media/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaialtman Roger Devine is the marketing director for SchoolAuction.net and an experienced marketing professional with a focus on helping small businesses, technology startups, and non-profit organizations. He has extensive experience in the software, merchant-processing, and publishing industries. Some of his specialties include business development, product positioning, pricing, and software marketing. Website: https://www.schoolauction.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerdevine/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchoolAuction In this episode, we discuss expert insights on growth marketing, AI agents, nonprofit fundraising, and advanced marketing strategies with industry leaders Joshua Altman and Roger Devine. Apply to join our marketing mastermind group: https://notypicalmoments.typeform.com/to/hWLDNgjz Follow No Typical Moments at: Website: https://notypicalmoments.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-typical-moments-llc/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G7csw9j7zpjdASvpMzqUA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notypicalmoments Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTMoments
Michele Altman gave her life to Christ after childhood abuse, drug addiction, and prostitution. Now the Founder of Cornerstone of Grace for women, she tells her story. (click for more...) Website: www.Cornerstoneofgrace.orgMichele Altman shares a powerful testimony of redemption, describing a childhood marked by loss and abuse that led her into years of drug addiction, prostitution, and repeated brushes with death. Though raised with an early knowledge of God, Michelle spent years believing the lies spoken over her—until a decisive moment when she cried out to Jesus and experienced dramatic deliverance and freedom. Grounded in her restored identity in Christ, she now lives a life of daily surrender and obedience to God's will. That transformation gave birth to Cornerstone of Grace, a Wisconsin-based residential ministry she founded to provide a safe, faith-centered environment for abused, homeless, and trafficked women and their children, equipping them through counseling, discipleship, and practical support to discover who they are—and whose they are—in Christ. NEXT WEEK: Doug Cobb on finishing the Great CommissionSend your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting CompanyP.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!
OpenAI & Anthropic pulled a Grey's Anatomy and launched health bots… it's healthcare's ozempic moment.Daktronics' built the biggest jumbotron in college football & its stock rose 1,000%… because CFB is the NFL.We interviewed Elf Beauty's CEO on the pod… and our favorite part is “Zero Distance.”Plus, the biggest hour for dating apps of the year… is this Sunday at 8pm.$MSFT $DAKT $ELFBuy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYAustin, TX (2/25): SOLD OUTArlington, VA (3/11): https://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/shows/341317 New York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUTGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
SHOW 12-2-2026 THE SHOW BEGIJS WITH DOUBTS ABOUT AI -- a useful invetion that can match the excitement of the first decades of Photography. November 1955 NADAR'S BALLOON AND THE BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. In 1863, the photographer Nadar undertook a perilous ascent in a giant balloon to fund experiments for heavier-than-air flight, illustrating the adventurous spirit required of early photographers. This era began with Daguerre's 1839 introduction of the daguerreotype, a process involving highly dangerous chemicals like mercury and iodine to create unique, mirror-like images on copper plates. Pioneers risked their lives using explosive materials to capture reality with unprecedented clarity and permanence. NUMBER 1 PHOTOGRAPHING THE MOON AND SEA Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. Early photography expanded scientific understanding, allowing humanity to visualize the inaccessible. James Nasmyth produced realistic images of the moon by photographing plaster models based on telescope observations, aiming to prove its volcanic nature. Simultaneously, Louis Boutan spent a decade perfecting underwater photography, capturing divers in hard-hat helmets. These efforts demonstrated that photography could be a tool for scientific analysis and discovery, revealing details of the natural world previously hidden from the human eye. NUMBER 2 SOCIAL JUSTICE AND NATURE CONSERVATION Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. Photography became a powerful agent for social and environmental change. Jacob Riis utilized dangerous flash powder to document the squalid conditions of Manhattan tenements, exposing poverty to the public in How the Other Half Lives. While his methods raised consent issues, they illuminated grim realities. Conversely, Carleton Watkins hauled massive equipment into the wilderness to photograph Yosemite; his majestic images influenced legislation signed by Lincoln to protect the land, proving photography's political impact. NUMBER 3 X-RAYS, SURVEILLANCE, AND MOTION Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. The discovery of X-rays in 1895 sparked a "new photography" craze, though the radiation caused severe injuries to early practitioners and subjects. Photography also entered the realm of surveillance; British authorities used hidden cameras to photograph suffragettes, while doctors documented asylum patients without consent. Finally, Eadweard Muybridge's experiments captured horses in motion, settling debates about locomotion and laying the technical groundwork for the future development of motion pictures. NUMBER 4 THE AWAKENING OF CHINA'S ECONOMY Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. Returning to China in 1994, the author witnessed a transformation from the destitute, Maoist uniformity of 1985 to a budding export economy. In the earlier era, workers slept on desks and lacked basic goods, but Deng Xiaoping's realization that the state needed hard currency prompted reforms. Deng established Special Economic Zones like Shenzhen to generate foreign capital while attempting to isolate the population from foreign influence, marking the start of China's export boom. NUMBER 5 RED CAPITALISTS AND SMUGGLERS Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. Following the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, China reopened to investment in 1992, giving rise to "red capitalists"—often the children of party officials who traded political access for equity. As the central government lost control over local corruption and smuggling rings, it launched "Golden Projects" to digitize and centralize authority over customs and taxes. To avert a banking collapse in 1998, the state created asset management companies to absorb bad loans, effectively rolling over massive debt. NUMBER 6 GHOST CITIES AND THE STIMULUS TRAP Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. China's growth model shifted toward massive infrastructure spending, resulting in "ghost cities" and replica Western towns built to inflate GDP rather than house people. This "Potemkin culture" peaked during the 2008 Olympics, where facades were painted to impress foreigners. To counter the global financial crisis, Beijing flooded the economy with loans, fueling a real estate bubble that consumed more cement in three years than the US did in a century, creating unsustainable debt. NUMBER 7 STAGNATION UNDER SURVEILLANCE Colleague Anne Stevenson-Yang, Wild Ride. The severe lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic shattered consumer confidence, leaving citizens insecure and unwilling to spend, which stalled economic recovery. Local governments, cut off from credit and burdened by debt, struggle to provide basic services. Faced with economic stagnation, Xi Jinping has rejected market liberalization in favor of increased surveillance and control, prioritizing regime security over resolving the structural debt crisis or restoring the dynamism of previous decades. NUMBER 8 FAMINE AND FLIGHT TO FREEDOM Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. Jimmy Lai was born into a wealthy family that lost everything to the Communist revolution, forcing his father to flee to Hong Kong while his mother endured labor camps. Left behind, Lai survived as a child laborer during a devastating famine where he was perpetually hungry. A chance encounter with a traveler who gave him a chocolate bar inspired him to escape to Hong Kong, the "land of chocolate," stowing away on a boat at age twelve. NUMBER 9 THE FACTORY GUY Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. By 1975, Jimmy Lai had risen from a child laborer to a factory owner, purchasing a bankrupt garment facility using stock market profits. Despite being a primary school dropout who learned English from a dictionary, Lai succeeded through relentless work and charm. He capitalized on the boom in American retail sourcing, winning orders from Kmart by producing samples overnight and eventually building Comitex into a leading sweater manufacturer, embodying the Hong Kong dream. NUMBER 10 CONSCIENCE AND CONVERSION Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. The 1989 Tiananmen Squaremassacre radicalized Lai, who transitioned from textiles to media, founding Next magazine and Apple Daily to champion democracy. Realizing the brutality of the Chinese Communist Party, he used his wealth to support the student movement and expose regime corruption. As the 1997 handover approached, Lai converted to Catholicism, influenced by his wife and pro-democracy peers, seeking spiritual protection and a moral anchor against the coming political storm. NUMBER 11 PRISON AND LAWFARE Colleague Mark Clifford, The Troublemaker. Following the 2020 National Security Law, authorities raided Apple Daily, froze its assets, and arrested Lai, forcing the newspaper to close. Despite having the means to flee, Lai chose to stay and face imprisonment as a testament to his principles. Now held in solitary confinement, he is subjected to "lawfare"—sham legal proceedings designed to silence him—while he spends his time sketching religious images, remaining a symbol of resistance against Beijing's tyranny. NUMBER 12 FOUNDING OPENAI Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. In 2016, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab to develop safe artificial general intelligence (AGI). Backed by investors like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, the organization aimed to be a counterweight to Google's DeepMind, which was driven by profit. The team relied on massive computing power provided by GPUs—originally designed for video games—to train neural networks, recruiting top talent like Sutskever to lead their scientific efforts. NUMBER 13 THE ROOTS OF AMBITION Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. Sam Altman grew up in St. Louis, the son of an idealistic developer and a driven dermatologist mother who instilled ambition and resilience in her children. Altmanattended the progressive John Burroughs School, where his intellect and charisma flourished, allowing him to connect with people on any topic. Though he was a tech enthusiast, his ability to charm others defined him early on, foreshadowing his future as a master persuader in Silicon Valley. NUMBER 14 SILICON VALLEY KINGMAKER Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. At Stanford, Altman co-founded Loopt, a location-sharing app that won him a meeting with Steve Jobs and a spot in the App Store launch. While Loopt was not a commercial success, the experience taught Altman that his true talent lay in investing and spotting future trends rather than coding. He eventually succeeded Paul Graham as president of Y Combinator, becoming a powerful figure in Silicon Valley who could convince skeptics like Peter Thiel to back his visions. NUMBER 15 THE BLIP AND THE FUTURE Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. The viral success of ChatGPT shifted OpenAI's focus from safety to commercialization, despite early internal warnings about the existential risks of AGI. Tensions over safety and Altman's management style led to a "blip" where the nonprofit board fired him, only for him to be quickly reinstated due to employee loyalty. Elon Musk, having lost a power struggle for control of the organization, severed ties, leaving Altman to lead the race toward AGI. NUMBER 16