Podcasts about ByteDance

From January 13, 2025: In a live conversation on January 10, Lawfare Tarbell Fellow in Artificial Intelligence Kevin Frazier talked to Lawfare Senior Editor Alan Rozenshtein and Senior Staff Attorney at the Knight Institute Ramya Krishnan about the Supreme Court oral arguments over the legislation passed by Congress that bans TikTok unless its parent company ByteDance divests from the app, the arguments made by the different sides, and their predictions about how the Court might rule.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

13 years of podcasting has taught us nothing; companies are lying about AI layoffs while Meta destroys itself from the inside; Andreessen has zero introspection and it shows; Dune 3 looks incredible; Firefly lives again; one idiot executive staked Buffy; Adobe paid $75M for being evil; your AI passwords are garbage; Dave Bittner is here to make you feel worse about all of it.Sponsors:DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/738Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pykGjOmMs5cFOLLOW UPGOG Ep 1: How to Make Money on the Internet - March 25th, 2013The ‘AI-Washing' of Job Cuts Is Corrosive and ConfusingRace on to establish globally recognised 'AI-free' logoBillionaire Marc Andreessen says he has "zero" introspection, and that the idea itself is a modern invention.Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don't rewrite an Iran missile storyIN THE NEWSAtlassian to cut roughly 10% jobs in pivot to AIMeta is reportedly planning to cut up to 20 percent of its staff in upcoming layoffsMeta Is Building an Encrypted Chatbot After AI Agents Went Rogue and Exposed Sensitive DataMeta Says It Is Removing End-to-End Encryption From Instagram Direct MessagesMeta is testing clickable links in Instagram captions for verified subscribersEncyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI for copyright and trademark infringementSenators tell ByteDance to shut down Seedance 2.0 AI video app 'immediately'Things Are Suddenly Looking Incredibly Bad for Trump's Social Media CompanyTrump administration will reportedly get $10 billion for brokering the TikTok dealThe Billionaire Backlash Against a Philanthropic DreamJeff Bezos' Washington Post Now Setting Readers' Subscription Prices With Uber-Style AIAPPS & DOODADSAdobe agrees to pay settlement for making its subscriptions hard to cancelEverything you need to know to design with StitchWhat is DESIGN.md?Warning: Your AI-Generated Password Is a Major Security Risk. Here's What to Use InsteadMEDIA CANDYDune: Part Three | Official Teaser TrailerHow ‘Dune: Part Three' Is Changing the Entire ‘Dune' Franchise"Paradise" has been renewed for Season 3 at Hulu, Variety has learned.Paradise on HuluMars ExpressNathan Fillion Says ‘Firefly' Animated Series In Development With Co-Stars Set To Reprise Roles; Concept Art RevealedSarah Michelle Gellar Says a Single Executive Was Responsible for Killing the ‘Buffy' Reboot‘V For Vendetta' at 20: We Spoke to Its Director About the Increasingly Relevant Comic AdaptationTHE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEDave BittnerThe CyberWireHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopOnly Malware in the BuildingDisney's 100% Rotten Tomatoes Masterpiece Returns This Fall With Brand-New ReleaseShhh… It's zombie proof. Kia's all-electric rangeThe Last Quiet Thing by Terry GodierEvel Knievel Kings Island 1975 - Farthest Successful Jump at 133 feet70's Evel Knievel Toy Commercial IDEALEvel Knievel's 14 Greyhound Bus Jump Oct 25th 1975 HD enhanced. Epic WORLD RECORD.Craig Ferguson's Evel Knievel Story is Wild!!Being EvelWembley 50th Anniversary Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle Set – Limited Gold EditionEvel Knievel Stunt Cycle - Trail Bike EditionSee 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 Mistral's new 'Forage' platform for custom AI models, the Pentagon's development of AI alternatives to Anthropic, and Google's expansion of its personal intelligence features. We also cover updates on BuzzFeed's 'AI slop apps' and the controversy surrounding ByteDance's 'SeedDance' AI video app.Chapters00:00 AI News Roundup & AIBox.ai Updates02:12 Google's Personal Intelligence Expansion04:03 Pentagon Building Anthropic Alternatives06:01 Mistral Forage Launches for Enterprise AI07:40 BuzzFeed's AI Content Experiment08:40 US Senators Call for SeedDance Shutdown LinksGet the top 70+ 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

A.M. Edition for Mar. 13. The U.S. military confirms that four U.S. servicemembers were killed yesterday when a refueling plane crashed in Iraq. The deaths mark the first U.S. Air Force losses since the start of the war. Plus, TikTok parent company ByteDance secures access to top Nvidia chips in its bid to compete with the world's most popular AI apps. And WSJ's Jennifer Williams explains how U.S. employers plan to cope with the biggest annual jump in health-insurance costs in 15 years. Luke Vargas hosts. Check out what WSJ critics had to say about this year's Best Picture nominees.  Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plus: FedEx plans to expand its use of AI agents. And Adobe's CEO abruptly steps down after 18 years. Danny Lewis hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plus: FedEx plans to expand its use of AI agents. And Adobe's CEO abruptly steps down after 18 years. Danny Lewis hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plus: Oil prices hold above $100, despite U.S. plan to allow countries to purchase sanctioned Russian crude already at sea. And TikTok's parent company ByteDance ramps up AI cloud computing power outside China. Daniel Bach hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send a textByteDance  — the company behind TikTok — just released Seedance, a next-generation AI video model capable of generating shockingly realistic cinematic footage from simple text prompts. And the industry is not amused.From viral AI-generated clips featuring hyper-realistic versions of stars like Tom Cruise to growing legal threats from studios and unions like SAG-AFTRA, this isn't just another tech story — it's a potential turning point for actors, studios, visual effects teams, and the entire economics of filmmaking.Are we witnessing the democratization of cinema…or the destabilization of Hollywood itself?In this episode, we break down:• What Seedance actually does• Why studios are reacting so aggressively• The copyright and likeness issues at stake• And whether this is the future of filmmaking — or a legal war waiting to explodeThis isn't sci-fi anymore. It's happening now. Let us know your thoughts in the comments — is AI the ultimate creative tool… or Hollywood's biggest threat?Support the show

US has issued a new Russia-related general license permitting the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels as of March 12.ByteDance reportedly plans to tap NVIDIA (NVDA) Blackwell processors that are barred for export to China, with the Co. working with Aolani Cloud on plans to use some 500 Blackwell computing systems in Malaysia, according to WSJ.European equities soften, BESI NA surges on takeover rumours; US equity futures muted ahead of PCE, GDP.DXY extends above the 100 handle, GBP slips post-GDP.Fixed income choppy and energy prices and risk tone continue to dictate price action.Brent hovers around USD 100/bbl and metals dragged by a firmer dollar. Looking ahead, highlights include Canadian Jobs Report (Feb), US Core PCE Price Index (Jan), Durable Goods Orders (Jan), Personal Spending (Jan), JOLTS (Jan), University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Prelim. (Mar), Atlanta Fed GDP. Rating updates include Scope Ratings on UK & Spain, S&P on Spain, Moody's on Greece & Germany, Fitch on Spain & Italy.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, the company's foray into a low-cost laptop. The iPhone Fold's supposed design has leaked through 3D CAD rendering files. And a toolkit for hacking iPhones has leaked. 18 years later, Apple ships a $599 computer. Apple's TikTok ads for the MacBook Neo are the right kind of weird. Apple creates adorable little Finder guy to promote its adorable little Mac. The new Apple begins to emerge. Apple 'Ultra' products expansion is up next after MacBook Neo launch. iPhone Fold design leaks in purported 3D CAD rendering files. Apple's 'HomePad' gets launch timing update via leaker. Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage. Apple Music to add Transparency Tags to distinguish AI music, says report. Apple ran a test on the App Store to see if AI could improve search result rankings. Apple geoblocking downloads of ByteDance-owned apps in the US. A toolkit for hacking iPhones, possibly created for the U.S. Government, has leaked. F1: The Stream - how the launch leveraged Apple's entire ecosystem. 'Apple' Review: Reinvention Incorporated. Picks of the Week Christina's Pick: What's Your JND Game Andy's Pick: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This Jason's Pick: Cloth Pro Max Leo's Pick: Art Bits from HyperCard Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: hipebl.ai helixsleep.com/macbreak

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, the company's foray into a low-cost laptop. The iPhone Fold's supposed design has leaked through 3D CAD rendering files. And a toolkit for hacking iPhones has leaked. 18 years later, Apple ships a $599 computer. Apple's TikTok ads for the MacBook Neo are the right kind of weird. Apple creates adorable little Finder guy to promote its adorable little Mac. The new Apple begins to emerge. Apple 'Ultra' products expansion is up next after MacBook Neo launch. iPhone Fold design leaks in purported 3D CAD rendering files. Apple's 'HomePad' gets launch timing update via leaker. Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage. Apple Music to add Transparency Tags to distinguish AI music, says report. Apple ran a test on the App Store to see if AI could improve search result rankings. Apple geoblocking downloads of ByteDance-owned apps in the US. A toolkit for hacking iPhones, possibly created for the U.S. Government, has leaked. F1: The Stream - how the launch leveraged Apple's entire ecosystem. 'Apple' Review: Reinvention Incorporated. Picks of the Week Christina's Pick: What's Your JND Game Andy's Pick: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This Jason's Pick: Cloth Pro Max Leo's Pick: Art Bits from HyperCard Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: hipebl.ai helixsleep.com/macbreak

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, the company's foray into a low-cost laptop. The iPhone Fold's supposed design has leaked through 3D CAD rendering files. And a toolkit for hacking iPhones has leaked. 18 years later, Apple ships a $599 computer. Apple's TikTok ads for the MacBook Neo are the right kind of weird. Apple creates adorable little Finder guy to promote its adorable little Mac. The new Apple begins to emerge. Apple 'Ultra' products expansion is up next after MacBook Neo launch. iPhone Fold design leaks in purported 3D CAD rendering files. Apple's 'HomePad' gets launch timing update via leaker. Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage. Apple Music to add Transparency Tags to distinguish AI music, says report. Apple ran a test on the App Store to see if AI could improve search result rankings. Apple geoblocking downloads of ByteDance-owned apps in the US. A toolkit for hacking iPhones, possibly created for the U.S. Government, has leaked. F1: The Stream - how the launch leveraged Apple's entire ecosystem. 'Apple' Review: Reinvention Incorporated. Picks of the Week Christina's Pick: What's Your JND Game Andy's Pick: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This Jason's Pick: Cloth Pro Max Leo's Pick: Art Bits from HyperCard Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: hipebl.ai helixsleep.com/macbreak

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, the company's foray into a low-cost laptop. The iPhone Fold's supposed design has leaked through 3D CAD rendering files. And a toolkit for hacking iPhones has leaked. 18 years later, Apple ships a $599 computer. Apple's TikTok ads for the MacBook Neo are the right kind of weird. Apple creates adorable little Finder guy to promote its adorable little Mac. The new Apple begins to emerge. Apple 'Ultra' products expansion is up next after MacBook Neo launch. iPhone Fold design leaks in purported 3D CAD rendering files. Apple's 'HomePad' gets launch timing update via leaker. Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage. Apple Music to add Transparency Tags to distinguish AI music, says report. Apple ran a test on the App Store to see if AI could improve search result rankings. Apple geoblocking downloads of ByteDance-owned apps in the US. A toolkit for hacking iPhones, possibly created for the U.S. Government, has leaked. F1: The Stream - how the launch leveraged Apple's entire ecosystem. 'Apple' Review: Reinvention Incorporated. Picks of the Week Christina's Pick: What's Your JND Game Andy's Pick: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This Jason's Pick: Cloth Pro Max Leo's Pick: Art Bits from HyperCard Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: hipebl.ai helixsleep.com/macbreak

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, the company's foray into a low-cost laptop. The iPhone Fold's supposed design has leaked through 3D CAD rendering files. And a toolkit for hacking iPhones has leaked. 18 years later, Apple ships a $599 computer. Apple's TikTok ads for the MacBook Neo are the right kind of weird. Apple creates adorable little Finder guy to promote its adorable little Mac. The new Apple begins to emerge. Apple 'Ultra' products expansion is up next after MacBook Neo launch. iPhone Fold design leaks in purported 3D CAD rendering files. Apple's 'HomePad' gets launch timing update via leaker. Apple's 512GB Mac Studio vanishes, a quiet acknowledgment of the RAM shortage. Apple Music to add Transparency Tags to distinguish AI music, says report. Apple ran a test on the App Store to see if AI could improve search result rankings. Apple geoblocking downloads of ByteDance-owned apps in the US. A toolkit for hacking iPhones, possibly created for the U.S. Government, has leaked. F1: The Stream - how the launch leveraged Apple's entire ecosystem. 'Apple' Review: Reinvention Incorporated. Picks of the Week Christina's Pick: What's Your JND Game Andy's Pick: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This Jason's Pick: Cloth Pro Max Leo's Pick: Art Bits from HyperCard Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: hipebl.ai helixsleep.com/macbreak

Ein KI-generierter Kampf zwischen Brad Pitt und Tom Cruise geht viral - und sieht erschreckend echt aus. Seedance 2 von ByteDance setzt neue Maßstäbe bei KI-Video.

In a move that bucks the entire industry trend, TikTok has confirmed it will not implement end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for direct messages on its platform — arguing that E2EE would make users less safe. We break down what’s really going on: the child safety argument, the privacy counterargument, the geopolitical questions surrounding ByteDance, and what it all means for TikTok’s 1 billion+ users. If you use TikTok, this episode is essential listening. ** Links mentioned on the show ** TikTok won’t protect DMs with controversial privacy tech, saying it would put users at risk https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly2m5e5ke4o ** Watch this episode on YouTube ** ** Become a Shared Security Supporter ** Get exclusive access to bonus episodes, listen to new episodes before they are released, receive a monthly shout-out on the show, and get a discount code for 15% off merch at the Shared Security store. Become a supporter today by going to our YouTube channel and selecting the “Join” button: https://www.youtube.com/c/SharedSecurityPodcast ** Thank you to our sponsors! ** SLNT Visit slnt.com to check out SLNT’s amazing line of Faraday bags and other products built to protect your privacy. As a listener of this podcast you receive 10% off your order at checkout using discount code “sharedsecurity”. ** Subscribe and follow the podcast ** Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SharedSecurityPodcast Follow us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sharedsecurity.bsky.social Follow us on Mastodon: https://infosec.exchange/@sharedsecurity Join us on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SharedSecurityShow/ Visit our website: https://sharedsecurity.net Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://sharedsecurity.net/subscribe Sign-up for our email newsletter to receive updates about the podcast, contest announcements, and special offers from our sponsors: https://shared-security.beehiiv.com/subscribe Leave us a rating and review: https://ratethispodcast.com/sharedsecurity Contact us: https://sharedsecurity.net/contact The post TikTok Says No to End-to-End Encryption: Here’s Why That’s a Big Deal appeared first on Shared Security Podcast.

Mitchell Green is a legendary growth equity investor and the Founder and Managing Partner of Lead Edge Capital, a firm with over $5 billion in assets under management. Known as a relentless "money maker", Mitchell has led investments in the likes of Bytedance, Toast, Procore, Duo Security and more. AGENDA: 0:00 The SaaS Apocalypse: Why Incumbents Aren't Going to Zero 05:50 "Dead Money": Why Public Software Estimates Were Too High 08:15 Leverage is the Enemy: Lessons from the 1999 Retail Crash 11:50 The Truth About Growth Equity: Zeroes vs. 10X Returns 15:40 Mainframes to AI: Why Oracle and SAP Will Thrive 20:35 The "Stock-Based Comp" Scandal: Silicon Valley's Hidden Crime 24:35 ByteDance vs. The World: Why China Could Win the AI War 31:50 Selling is the Job: Why Buying is the Most Glamorous Part of VC 35:45 Too Many Tourists: Why 50% of VCs Shouldn't Be in the Business 44:10 The Gross Dollar Retention Rule: The Only Number That Matters in SaaS

Timestamps: 0:00 why? is a good question 0:09 Nvidia GPU monopoly 2:04 Anthropic to fight Pentagon 4:51 QUICK BITS INTRO 5:33 QUICK BITS INTRO 5:46 Apple blocks ByteDance-owned apps 6:29 Apple Music adds AI music tags 7:00 Macbook Neo benchmarks 7:40 Wikipedia AI translation issues 8:19 Roblox AI re-phrases bad chats NEWS SOURCES: https://lmg.gg/HpyUt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple Bans ByteDance's Chinese Apps! by Nick Espinosa, Chief Security Fanatic

Apple blocks ByteDance Chinese apps Google says 90 zero-days were exploited in attacks last year Iran intelligence backdoored U.S. bank, airport, software outfit networks  Get the show notes here: https://cisoseries.com/cybersecurity-news-apple-blocks-bytedance-googles-90-zero-days-iran-backdoors-u-s-organizations/ Huge thanks to our sponsor, Adaptive Security This episode is brought to you by Adaptive Security, the first security awareness platform built to stop AI-powered social engineering. Security training fails when it's generic. Adaptive's platform personalizes training and runs deepfake simulations across email, SMS, voice, and video. And with Adaptive's AI Content Creator, you can drop in a breaking threat or compliance doc and instantly turn it into interactive, multilingual training – no designers, no delays. Learn more at adaptivesecurity.com.  

Who dares to make predictions in the current landscape? We do!  Our Predictions are back. Will our track-record continue on a high or will we be fundamentally wrong? Listen in to our Predictions for 2026 Navigation: Intro What will 2026 be all about? AI, AI and … more AI The big Hardware movements Of Start-ups and VCs Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show:   Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand Schmitt Introduction Welcome to Tech Deciphered Episode 74. That would be an episode about some predictions about 2026. What will be 2026 all about? I guess this year is probably starting with a bang. We saw the acquisition of xAI by SpaceX. We saw an acquisition from Grok by NVIDIA. What’s your take about what would be the big themes in 2026? I guess it would be for sure about AI and space. Nuno Goncalves Pedro What will 2026 be all about? Yeah. I predict a year that will be a little bit more of a year of reckoning in some way. There will be a lot of things that I think we’ll start seeing through. The fact that we are in the midst of an amazing transformational era for technology, the use of AI, but at the same time, obviously, a ridiculous bubble that is going alongside it as we’ve discussed in previous episodes. I think that we’ll start seeing some early reckonings of that, companies that might start failing, floundering, maybe a couple of frauds along the way, etc. I’ll tell you what I will not make many predictions about today, which is geopolitics. Geopolitics, I will not make predictions at all. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen to the world this year in 2026? I don’t dare making any predictions on that. Back to things where I would make predictions. I think on AI, we’ll have a little bit of reckoning. We’ll talk about it a little bit more in detail during this episode. Interesting elements around the hardware and physical space. Physical space, we just dedicated a full episode to it. We won’t go into a lot of details on that, but definitely on the hardware side, we’ll talk a little bit more about it. The VC landscape is going through an incredible transformation. We’ll talk about it today as well and some of our predictions for this year. What will happen to the asset class? It seems to be transforming itself dramatically. Obviously, that has a very direct impact on startups, so we’ll talk about that as well. And then to close a little bit the chapter on this, we will address some regulatory and geopolitical, let’s call it, headwinds without making maybe too many complex predictions. We shall see. Maybe by that time of the episode, we will be making some predictions. You guys should stay and listen to us, and maybe we will actually make some predictions about the geopolitical transformations that we will see this year in the world. Then last but not the least, we’ll talk about fintech, crypto, frontier tech, and a couple of other areas before concluding the episode. A classic predictions’ episode. We normally have a pretty good track record on some of these, but right now, the world is going a bit interesting, not to say insane. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, and going back to some news, Groq technically was not acquired, but, practically, it’s as if it got acquired. I’m talking about Groq, G-R-O-Q. The AI semiconductor company focused on inference AI, and it was late December. It was a way to end the year. This year, we started again with an acquisition of xAI by its sister company, SpaceX. I guess that’s where we are starting. AI, AI and … more AI We are going to start on AI. That’s definitely the big stuff. Everything these days, I guess, is about AI or has to have some connection with AI, or it doesn’t matter. I think every company in the world has seen that. You have to have the absolute minimum on AI strategy. You better execute on this strategy and show results, I would say. For the companies that were not AI native, you truly have to have a way to transform yourself. I guess at some point, the stretch might be too much, and it’s not really reasonable. Then you maybe better stay on what you are doing, especially if you’re in tech, you better be moving faster to AI. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to highlight, and I think throughout the episode, you’ll see that there’re obviously a lot of implications that would manifest themselves into capital markets. I mean, we’ll specifically talk about VCs and startups later on. But the fact that everything needs to be AI, the fact that there’s so much innovation happening right now, in my opinion, and this is maybe the first pre-topic to AI, is we’ll see a tremendous increase in M&A activity this year across the board. I mean, we’ve seen already some big acquihires we mentioned in some of our previous episodes, but we’ll see a lot more activity on M&A this year. Normally, that’s a precursor to the opening of capital markets. I predict also that there will be a reopening of the IPO market that never really reopened last year, to be honest. M&A, a lot more, reopening of the IPO market. Normally, it happens in the second or third quarter of the year. That’s what my M&A friends tell me. First quarter of year, everyone’s figuring out stuff. Then last quarter of the year, things should be more or less closed. Maybe the third quarter is the big quarter. We shall see. But definitely, as a precursor to our conversation today, I think we’ll see a lot of M&A, and we’ll see reopening of the IPO mark. Bertrand Schmitt I guess last year was not as big as you could expect on M&A given the tariff situation announced in April and May. I mean, it became quite tough to do IPO in such market conditions. Definitely, we can hope for something dramatically different in 2026. I guess talking about public markets and IPO, I guess the big one everyone is waiting for is SpaceX. SpaceX getting even more interesting with its xAI acquisition. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Do you think that because of the acquisition, it’s more likely that it will happen this year, or because of the acquisition, it’s less likely that it will happen this year? Bertrand Schmitt That’s a good question. My guess is the acquisition of xAI is all about xAI needing more financing and cheaper financing. This acquisition is a pathway to that. SpaceX being a much bigger company, a company that is also making much more revenues. I could bet that there is higher probability that, actually, SpaceX will go public in order to finance itself. At the same time, will it have enough time to prepare itself for the IPO given this acquisition just happened? Can they do that in 6 months? I mean, if anyone can do it, I guess it’s Elon Musk. It’s a strategy to present an even more attractive company with an even more interesting story, a story of vertical integration from AI to space. I guess the story as it’s presented itself right now, it’s one about having your AI data centers in space. Because in space, you have much better solar energy production with solar panels. You have a perfect cooling situation because you are in space. Thanks to Starlink, you have the mean to communicate between the satellites and with Earth itself. I think if someone can pull up a story like AI data center in space, I guess Elon Musk can. There is, of course, a lot of questions about is it practical? Is it economical? Yes. I certainly agree. I’m not clear on the mass, and can you make it work? Again, I mean, Elon Musk single-handedly, with SpaceX, managed to transform the space market on its head. I mean, they are the biggest satellite launching company in the world. They have the most satellites in the world. I mean, I’m not sure I would bet against him, and I guess I would probably believe that he could pull up something. Time frames, different story. The 2-3 years data center in space for AI as cheap as on Earth, I have more trouble with that one. I mean, it’s a usual suspect with Elon Musk. You promise something unachievable in a few years, but, ultimately, you still manage to reach it in 5 or 10. Again, I would not bet against the strategy. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yeah. I’ve talked to a couple of space experts, people that have launched rockets, and have worked JPL, NASA, and a couple of other places, etc. For what it’s worth, their feedback is, “No way in hell, and we’re decades away.” We’ll see. I mean, to your point, Elon has pulled very dramatic stuff. Not as fast as he normally says he’s going to pull it, but within a time span that we all see it. Difficult to bet against him. In terms of actually the prediction, maybe to respond to the prediction as well, will SpaceX IPO? I’m going to make a prediction that has a very high likelihood of missing the mark, but I think Tesla’s going to buy and merge them both into it. It’s going to become a public company through Tesla. That’s my hypothesis. Bertrand Schmitt No. That’s supposed to be it. That’s how you solve that. Nuno Goncalves Pedro And Elon controls the whole universe. X, xAI, Tesla, SpaceX, all under one umbrella beautifully run. And SolarCity is well in there, of course, so wonderful. Bertrand Schmitt That’s possible. Certainly, you are not the only one thinking Tesla will acquire or merge with SpaceX. To remind everyone, Tesla is around 1.3, 1.5 trillion market cap. Depending on the day, SpaceX seems to be valued at similar range, 1.2, 1.3 trillion. It looks like it’s the most valued private company at this stage. These are companies of similar size, so that’s one piece of the puzzle. When you think about the combined company, we could be talking about a 3 trillion entity. Playing right here with the biggest companies in the marketplace today. Nuno Goncalves Pedro With a couple of tweets from Elon, it will rapidly get to 4 to 5 trillion. Bertrand Schmitt That’s so tricky. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yes. On AI and back to AI, one thing I think that we’re about to see is this will probably be the year of agentic AI. Obviously, we predict a lot of growth on that side of the fence, in particular on the enterprise B2B side. We see a lot of opportunities coming through. From our perspective, at least at Chamaeleon, we generally believe that there’s going to be a lot of movements on agentic AI. It’s also going to be probably the year of the first big fails of agentic AI that will be newsworthy. There will be some elements about that loop and how it gets closed that will happen. I think we might see some scandals already. We’re already seeing the social network of bots talking to bots. We will see other scandals going on this year even in the consumer space and in the bot to bot space, which we now can talk about or in the AI agent to AI agent space. My prediction is we will see some move forwards. There’ll be some dramatic funding rounds along the way. We’ll see a couple of really cool things out of the gates coming out that are really impressive, but we’ll also see the first big misses of the technology stack. I don’t think we’ll go fully mainstream yet this year, so it’s probably maybe something more for 2027 along the way. That would be my prediction again. I think enterprise will lead the way. We’ll definitely see a lot of stuff on consumer as well that is cool. Then we’ll all have our own personal assistance in our hands, basically, literally in our phones. Bertrand Schmitt Going back to agentic AI, we also started the year with some pretty dramatic move. I mean, the launch of Clawdbot, renamed OpenClaw. I mean, this stuff took fire in like a week or 2. It was coded by just one person who actually didn’t even code the product but used AI to build the product, 100% used AI, proposing some new ways also to leverage AI to do coding. He has a pretty unique approach. It’s not vibe coding. I would say it’s a better way to do that. Then the surprising evolution with the launch of a social network for AI agents, Moltbook. I mean, this stuff, probably there is some fake in it. But at the same time, I think it’s quite impressive because it’s the first time we see truly 100,000 plus agents communicating directly to each other. Yeah. I mean, that’s the first time we see surfacing the possibility of some sort of hive mind on the Internet. It’s pretty surprising. Right now, all of this is a hack done in a few days. By end of year, by 2 years, 3 years, we might discover that, actually, the best approach to AI might not be the AI assistant like we are doing today, but a combination of hundreds of thousands of AI working closely together. We might be witnessing the first sign of new intelligence in a way. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Things like this social network might either be Skynet, the beginning of Skynet. They might be the beginning of Her, or they might just be a fad and nothing really happens. It’s just interesting to see what these agents are doing. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Obviously, there are real and clear and present dangers of some of the integrations of AI we’re seeing in the market. Interesting enough, and I’ll ask you for your prediction a bit, Bertrand. I think we’ll probably see the first big mishap of AI being used in some infrastructural decision in the age of AI. I mean, we’ve seen AI issues in the past and software issues in the past. We talked in previous episodes about that as well. Mishaps of software that have led to people dying. But I think probably the first big mishap will happen this year as well. Very public mishap of the use of AI and serve its interactions with infrastructure or something that’s very platform related, etc, that will have big impact that everyone will notice. That’s my prediction for the year as well. We’ll have the first big oops moment, as I would call it, for AI in this new age of full on AI. Bertrand Schmitt I would say first some perspective. I think today, people are not using AI directly for life and death decision, at least not that I’m aware. We’re not going to let AI fly a plane, for instance, tomorrow so you can be, reassured. At the same time, given there is such a race to AI, there definitely might be some mistakes. We were talking about the social network for AI agents, Moltbook. Apparently, all the keys used to secure the AI were shared by mistake because it was not properly locked down. We can see that indirectly, mistakes will be made for sure. Two, it’s highly probable that some people will trust AI too much to do some stuff, and this stuff might not work and might have some grave consequence. Hopefully, there is not so much of this. Hopefully, it’s mostly AI used for the good. But you’re right. I mean, at some point, the more we use the technology, the more there would be issue. I mean, it’s highly probable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro That will lead me to another prediction, which is, and we’ll talk about more of it later, but it probably will lead to the first significant movement in terms of regulatory environment certainly in the US at some point if it happens in the US in particular, where there will be some movement that will be like, “Hey, you guys can’t do this anymore.” Because this will probably emerge from mismanaged interfaces. From systems having access to stuff that they shouldn’t have access to in the first place. Talking a little bit more about what’s happening in AI. You’ve already mentioned some of the issues that relate actually to security and cybersecurity. We keep talking about AI. We keep talking about all these infrastructure pieces and platforms that are being built. I think we’ll have a lot more incidents like the one you just mentioned where things will be shared that shouldn’t have been shared, where people will break systems and get into it, etc. Let’s see where that takes us, which is a little bit ironic because, obviously, with AI, the promise is that cybersecurity becomes more robust as well because there’re agents working on our behalf on the cybersecurity side. There’s also agents working on the other side. Bertrand Schmitt It’s a constant race. It’s the attackers, defenders. Each time you have new technology, you have a new race to who is going to attack or defend the best. Each new wave of technology, it’s an opportunity to challenge the status quo. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The attackers have been winning, and I feel they’ll continue winning in 2026. I think it’s going to still be a year of attack. We’ll see more and more breaches, more and more stuff that will happen. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t know if they will win. I mean, it’s normal that they win once in a while. For sure, some infrastructure is not updated as it should. Some stuff are not managed as it should, so there will always be breaches. I don’t know if things are dramatically going to change because, again, everyone who cares who is going to update his infrastructure with AI for defense. There is no question that you have no choice. We will see. That I don’t know. For sure, AI will be used to attack directly with AI. Maybe you’re able to do bigger, larger scale attack. Or thanks to AI, you are simply able to create new type of attacks more easily. AI can be used behind the scene as a way to prepare and organise new type of attacks, even if it’s not used directly live in the battle. Nuno Goncalves Pedro One topic that we’ll come back to later is the geopolitics of everything, but maybe more broadly. On the geopolitics of AI, it’s very clear that we have an arms race going on. Obviously, the US on the one hand, China on the other hand is the two extremes, putting tremendous amount of capital into data centers just at the base of that infrastructure. Chipset development, chipset access, a huge theme in terms of the export restrictions, etc, that are being forced by the US. I think it will continue. From a European standpoint, obviously, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, to be very honest. Let’s see what happens on that side of the fence. My view of the world is that certainly from a US and China perspective, we’re going to see a lot more movements in 2026, like big movements. The Chinese movements we always see in delay.  It takes us a couple of months, sometimes even more than that to understand exactly what’s going on. I think we’re going to see some huge moves this year in terms of the States, the United States of America, and China really pouring capital into the creation of the next big winners around AI. I think the US is obviously more visible. We see a lot of these companies. We’ve just discussed xAI and its acquisition by SpaceX or merger. I don’t know what they’re calling it exactly. Effectively, on the China side, the movements I think are already very big. As I said, it will take a while to figure out exactly what those moves are. One thing that I propose is that at some point, China will have very little dependency on chipsets from the US. I’m not sure it’s going to happen this year, but I think the writing is on the wall. Irrespective of any other geopolitical issues that is coming to the fore at this moment in time. That’s one of the key areas or in arenas of fight. Bertrand Schmitt It makes sense. If you are China, you will look at what happened. You would think that you cannot just depend on the largest of one country. It makes rational sense, the same way it makes rational sense for the US to limit exports to China because there is value to delay some peer pressure that could use these technologies for good but also for bad. If you were an ally of the US, that would be one thing. But when you are not an ally of the US, that certainly should be a different perspective. Maybe one last point concerning agents, I think there will be a lot that will revolve around coding. We can see OpenAI with Codex. We can see Cloud with code. There was, of course, [inaudible 00:18:28] that was trying to be big on agentic coding. I think agentic coding was one of the big transformation in 2025 and is going to get bigger in 2026. I think for a lot of people who do coding, there was a radical transformation in terms of what you can achieve, what you can do, how much you can trust AI to help you code. I start to think we might see this year, the replacement of not just one AI replace one coder, but one AI replace a full team because of the new ability to manage that at scale. Coding might be a common activity where you are going to think about outcomes, think about objective, think about how you organise, but not really coding by itself anymore. A big change, like you used to code, directly your hand on the stuff, but step by step, everyone is going to become a manager of agent. I think in one year, we saw enough transformation to think that in the coming year, the transformation can be even more dramatic. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The big Hardware movements Now switching gears to hardware. Obviously, a lot of movements in 2025 and over the last few years. One piece of thesis that we’ve had long-standing at Chamaeleon is that we will see the emergence of AI devices. Some of them have been tremendous failures as we discussed in the past. I predict that we’ll have a couple of really interesting full stack AI devices in the market this year. Why does that matter? Because, as many of you know, obviously, there’s compute that can happen in data centers and cloud infrastructure all over the world, but also there’s compute that can happen at the edges. The more you can move to the edges and the more you can create devices that actually allow you to have user experiences that are very distinctive at the edge, the more powerful some of these devices might become. I predict Apple will not be the first to launch anything on this. I predict probably OpenAI, after the acquisition of IO, will maybe not launch something this year, but will announce something this year. I’ll step back on that prediction. They’ll announce something this year, but maybe not launch. But we’ll start seeing some devices that have some interesting value in the market, probably devices that are AI devices, but they are very focused on very specific user flows, and so very much adequate to specific activities. I won’t make a prediction on that, but I think areas that would make sense for that to happen would be obviously around fitness, health, et cetera, et cetera, where we already have the ascendancy of products like Oura Ring and others out there. Definitely, that’s one area that might have quite a lot of developments. I think AI-first devices, devices that are very focused on compute at the edges, providing user flows that are AI-enabled to end users, we’ll see a lot more of that and a lot more activity this year. Again, I don’t think Apple will be necessarily ahead of the game. Again, maybe OpenAI will give us something to at least think about and look forward to. Bertrand Schmitt First, I’m not sure it will be that transformational because if it’s not in your phone, in your pocket, there is only so much you can do with it, and there is only so much computing power you will have. I’m doubtful it would be really impactful this year. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I feel we’ve been discussing this shift of paradigm in input and output. For me, some of these devices could lead to that shift. Because, again, a mobile phone is not a great long-term paradigm for the usage that we have because it’s really constrained by the screen. The screen is really what takes most of the battery life away. If we didn’t have that screen, what could we do? If we have the block that is as big as a mobile phone, and it didn’t have a screen, it was just compute, that’s a mini computer, a microcomputer. Bertrand Schmitt That’s a fair point, but I don’t see that transformation this year. That’s really more my point. I can see that you can have AI-enabled smart glasses, and it’s clear there is a race to AI-enabled smart glasses. My point is more to go beyond the gadget, it would take quite a while. It would need to have cameras. It would need to analyse what you see. It would need to hear what you hear. Again, it might come, but then at some point, it would be okay, what do you do with it? We have the example of the movie Her. That’s showing Her what it could be. There are definitely possibilities. It’s clear that if you take the big VR headset like the Apple Vision Pro, there is a failure from that perspective in the sense that I think it’s a great, amazing device. The big problem is that it’s doing way more that makes sense. I think there will be a clearer separation between your smart AR glasses that has to be light, that has to be always unconnected, and that’s primarily there to help you make sense of the world around you. The true VR headset that doesn’t really require much in terms of AI, and it’s just there to immerse you in a different world. For this, we know, unfortunately, in some ways, that there is not a lot of demand for it. Maybe there is little demand because you are too hidden in your own world. The technology is not working well enough yet. There are a lot of reasons. But I think Apple trying to do both at the same time, AR and VR, with the Vision Pro, was a pretty grave structural mistake. I think we would see a clearer line of separation between the two. There is bigger market opportunity for AR glasses. That, I certainly agree. There is opportunity to connect that to a computing device. As you talk about, your glasses are your screen, your phone becomes something in your pocket connected to your glasses. Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, Apple has their way of doing things. From the perspective of what you said, they normally really plan their devices. Even if it’s a big shift in terms of a new area, like they tried with the Vision Pro, and we criticised them for launching it as a device that should have been more of a dev device that they really launched as a full-on device, but that’s their playbook, classically. I think Apple needs to change how they put products out and how they experiment with those products, et cetera. I think they have enough money to be doing everything all the time and figuring it out. If they don’t want to put it out, then they need to do a lot more hell of testing internally with their silos, but they should be playing across all these arenas, VR, AR, everything. They just should put devices out that are either ready for prime time, or they should call it something else. They should call it like this is a dev device or whatever it is. Bertrand Schmitt I agree with you. My complaint is more that it was marketed as a consumer device when it was not. It was a true developer device. Two, they tried to mix the two at once, and it made no sense. No one is going to walk in their home or in the street with their Vision Pro on their head. You have to be deranged, quite frankly, to have use cases like this. I think that for me is a crazy mistake from a company like Apple that prides itself in pure UI, pure user interface, very well-designed device for one specific use case, not mixing the two use cases. We still don’t have Macs with a touchscreen, you know?  We still don’t have an iPad with a good OS that makes use of this great hardware. For some strange reason, they decided to mix everything in the Vision Pro with a device that weighs a ton on your head and is so uncomfortable. That’s why, for me, I’m like, “Guys, what is wrong? Why did you let this team run crazy?” I hope at some point, Apple will go back to the drawing board. My understanding is that that’s what they are doing. They are going to have two devices, one smart glasses, an evolution of the Vision Pro, just focus on VR. They might actually abandon the concept of the pure VR-oriented headset. Because, from a market size perspective, it might not be big enough for Apple, quite frankly. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I read on all of the above, and people at this point was like, “Why are then players like Samsung and others not doing it. LG, et cetera?” Because those players historically have not invented new categories. They’re amazing at catching up once the category is invented, and then they scale the hell out of it, and that’s what these companies have been exceptional at. I wouldn’t see a dramatic innovation, I think, in terms of devices coming from any of the big ones on that side of the fence. Not to disrespect them in any way, but I think that’s not been their playbook ever. Again, if the origination doesn’t come from a start-up or from an Apple, I don’t see those guys going after it. My bet is that we’ll see some start-up activity and, again, hopefully, some announcement from IO now within the OpenAI world. Bertrand Schmitt I would slightly disagree with you. I see where you are coming from. But take the Samsung Galaxy Note, that sudden much bigger headphone that no one was doing that was launched by Samsung, at some point, it forced Apple to launch an iPhone Max. Let’s look at the Z Fold that Samsung launched 7 years ago, copied by everyone. Now Samsung launching a trifold. Apple has still not launched their foldable phone. I think there is a mix, actually, of sometimes- Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, that’s not a proper new category. It’s still a mobile phone. It just happens to have a screen that folds in half. Bertrand Schmitt The iPhone was still a mobile phone, you could argue.  Nuno Goncalves Pedro No. I think the iPhone was…  I could actually agree with you on that point. Maybe Apple is not as innovative in that case. I think what Steve Jobs was exceptionally good at in terms of his ability as this master product manager was to be an exceptional curator of user flows and user experiences, and creating incredible experiences from devices based on that. That was his secret sauce. Could you say, “Wasn’t all of this stuff already around?” It was. You just put it all together very neatly and very nicely. But if you’re talking about significant shifts in how a category is done, the iPhone was a significant shift in how the category was done. The Fold is still an interesting device. I actually have a Fold right now in front of me. The 7 that you highly recommended to me that we both got, the Z Fold 7. I think they do amazing devices. I don’t think they normally are the most innovative players. Then, when they come to innovation, it comes from technology edges. Obviously, they have Samsung Display, there’s a bunch of other things. They had the ability to do foldable screens in-house themselves. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t disagree with you. I think there is an interesting situation where some companies have some strengths, another one has some strengths. My worry with Apple is that this was not demonstrated with the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro was a hot pot of technologies barely integrated together, with use cases absolutely not well-defined and certainly not something that makes sense for most of us. There is a question of has Apple lost it? While Samsung actually keeps doing their own stuff, that, yes, might be more minor improvements, but at least they are doing it. Because it looks like Apple is missing the train on even the minor improvements. By the way, you might not be aware, but Samsung launched its Vision Pro competitor. Interestingly enough, it might be a better product in some ways, being much lighter and much more comfortable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We should play around with that and report back to our listeners. Of Start-ups and VCs Moving to venture capital and the startup ecosystem and what’s happening there, I think it is very much a bifurcated environment, and it’s bifurcated for both VCs and for startups. If you’re a startup in the AI space, and you have the hottest team since sliced bread, and you can create FOMO at the speed of light, you can raise ridiculous rounds. Five hundred million at the $3 billion, or $4 billion, or $5 billion valuation, and you still haven’t really even started. First round, you can raise 500 million. That’s back to the whole discussion on Bubble and where are we, et cetera. Some of these companies might actually become huge, some of them might not. But definitely, we are seeing really the haves and have-nots on the startup ecosystem with incredible teams raising a lot of money very, very early on or mid-stage if they’ve already existed for a while, and then the rest not being able to raise. We see a lot of non-necessarily AI sectors, some of the areas of SaaS that don’t necessarily have AI in it, or fintech, or the consumer space that are really, really struggling. If you don’t have an AI story for your startup right now, it’s extremely difficult to raise money unless your numbers are just the best numbers ever. That’s, I think, the first part of the element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today. The second element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today in terms of fundraising is for VCs themselves, and really propelled by the large VC firms raising more and more capital in recent orbits, announcing 15 billion across funds raised. Lightspeed, I think, had made an announcement a couple of weeks ago as well. They’ve raised a bunch of money as well. The big guys are all raising a lot of money. At some point in time, the question some of you might ask is, “These VCs are redeploying more and more money if they have a couple of billion for a VC fund. How does that look like? Is that still VC?” My perspective, I’ve shared before in some of our previous episodes, is that that’s no longer venture capital. At that point in time, we’re talking about something else. Private equity hedge funds, if you want to call them, maybe funds that are really driven by growth investment or late-stage investment. If you have a couple of billion under management, you’re not going to make your returns by writing a $3 million check in a series seed and leading that round.  That has implications for everyone in the ecosystem. It has implications for smaller funds that obviously have a lot more difficulty in raising capital. It’s difficult to differentiate. Last but not least, also for startups that really continue searching for that capital that is out there. Andreessen Horowitz, for example, runs Speedrun, which is a great program for companies around consumer in particular. Initially, it was a lot for gaming. But at some point in time, Andreessen Horowitz could decide that they don’t want to invest more in you. They just put money from Speedrun, which is obviously a very small check compared to the very large checks they could write mid to late stage and that will have an effect on you as a startup. What happens at that point in time if Andreessen Horowitz is not backing you up in later stages? More than that, what happens if I can’t get these big funds interested in me? Are the small funds still valuable to me? Punchline, my view is yes. Obviously, we’re a smaller fund, so there’s parochial interest in what I’m saying. Small funds can still create a ton of value for you, also in terms of credibility, ability to accompany you in those first stages of investment, and the ability to bring other larger investors later down the road as well. There’s definitely a big movement happening in terms of the fundraising for VC funds, which we shouldn’t neglect, which is the big guys are raising a lot more capital and are therefore emptying the market to smaller funds that are having more and more difficult raising at this point in time. We had discussed that there would be a need for concentration in the industry, that micro funds would need to concentrate, and we didn’t have the space for so many micro funds as we had around. But the way it’s happening is extremely dramatic at this moment in time. I think it will continue through 2026. Bertrand Schmitt Remember a few years ago, with the rise of AI, there was more and more of the question about, “What’s the point of SaaS at this stage?” Because SaaS was around for 15 years. Basically, how do you come up with something new that was not already tested, validated by the market? How do you bring something new? We say this was reinforced to the power of 10. If your product is not clearly built from the ground up for a new use case enabled by AI, anyone could then might have built your product 5, 10 years ago, and therefore, why now has no clear answer, and it’s a big problem. I’m still surprised myself to still see some entrepreneurs where you talk to them about AI because you don’t see them in the deck, and they explain to you, “It’s not yet there,” and you’re like, “What’s wrong with you guys?” Fine. Do whatever you want. Do a small business and whatever, but don’t think you can come up pitch and raise without an AI story. The second category is people who come with an AI story, but you can feel very quickly, I guess you saw that many times, Nuno, where just a story layered on top with little credibility. It’s not better. It’s not enough to just have a story. Your business needs to be radically built differently or radically proposing some brand-new use cases that were impossible to solve 5 years ago. Nuno Goncalves Pedro To stack up on that, absolutely in agreement. If you’re just adding to the story, and it’s an afterthought, and you’re just trying to make the story somehow gel, once you go into one or two layers of due diligence, your investors will very quickly realise that you’re not really AI-first or dramatically AI-enabled or whatever. It’s just you’re sort of stacking something on top of another thesis. It needs to make sense from the product onwards. It’s not just, let’s just put it together with chewing gum, and magically, people will give you money. It was true also if we remember the good old crypto blockchain days, where everyone’s investing in crypto. A lot of stories that didn’t make much sense. In that sense, it’s not very different. I would go one step further. I think in the world of the VC winter that we’re a little bit in, where it’s more and more difficult if you’re a smaller fund to raise your fund at this moment in time, there’s a lot of sources of distinctiveness still talked about, like proprietary networks, access to deal flow, fast track record, all that stuff that really, really matters. But our bet continues at Chamaeleon continues being that you need to be AI-first as a VC fund yourself. You need to have core advantages in using not only readily-available AI tools or third-party available AI tools, data sources, technology stacks, but actually building your own stack over time, which is what we did with Mantis at Chamaeleon. Again, just to reinforce that, I think we’re at the beginning of that stage. We, Chamaeleon, are ahead of the game, but we think that the rest of the market will have to move towards that as well. Still, to be honest, very surprising to me to see that many significant large players are doing very little still around some of these spaces. They have data scientists. They’re running some tools. They’re running some analysis and all that stuff, but it’s still, again, back to the point I was making for startups, all glued up with chewing gum. It doesn’t all come together nicely, which it does need to from a platform standpoint. Bertrand Schmitt It’s quite surprising. I agree with you that some VC funds might think that they can do business as usual in that brand-new world. It’s difficult to believe. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Maybe moving a little bit toward the capital formation piece. We already discussed the M&A space really accelerating. We’ve also discussed the IPO market and some predictions on that. Secondaries, there’s obviously a lot of liquidity coming from secondaries from mid to late stage. I think it will continue throughout the rest of 2026. A lot of activity in buying, selling in secondaries as some asset managers are becoming more distressed, as some very high net worth individuals and family offices are becoming more distressed as well, at the same time, where there’s a lot of opportunities to potentially arbitrage around some investments. I believe a lot of money will be made and lost this year by decisions made this year, just to be very, very clear in terms of equity, purchases, et cetera. Exciting year ahead of us. Definitely a very, very interesting market ahead of us. Secondaries, M&A, growth, and late-stage investing, also, early-stage investing will continue just for those that were wondering. Last but not least, the public markets, the IPO market as well. Bertrand Schmitt One of the big questions for the IPO market would be, will SpaceX go public? Would it be good for the startup ecosystem? Because suddenly that they go public, it would be to raise money. If they raise money, will there be any money left for anybody else? That would be an interesting test of the market. For sure, it would be proof that market are risk on financing a new IPO like this one. Or as you said, maybe there is no IPO, and it’s a merger with Tesla. Time will tell. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Moving maybe to our topic of regulation and geopolitical headwinds, as we’re seeing … definitely not tailwinds. The Google antitrust verdict and, obviously, the remedies are expected to come forward now, and a lot of people are saying, “There are some risks of structural separation.” What do you think? Is it cool, but nothing will happen in the end dramatically? Alphabet or Google? I’m not sure, actually. It’s Google LLC. I think that’s the case. It’s The United States versus Google LLC. Bertrand Schmitt I’m not sure. Personally, I’m not a big fan. I think there needs to be a better way to manage some anticompetitive behavior. I’m not a big fan. There was this temptation to do that for Microsoft 25 years ago. Look at what happened. No one needed to buy Microsoft to leave space for others. I see the same with Google, and I guess they are happy to not be the number 1 in AI today, but to have an open AI in front of them. Even if they are doing a great job, by the way, to move forward and go faster and faster. Personally, quite impressed now with some of what they have released. Gemini 3 is doing great from my perspective. I’m not a big fan of this. I think to be clear, it’s important that bigger companies don’t behave anticompetitively, but at the same time, we need to find the right approach where it’s not about breaking these companies, and it’s also not about forbidding them to do acquisitions. Because then you end up with what NVIDIA just did with a $20 billion acquihire IP licensing type of acquisition, because they didn’t want to have the uncertainties. They didn’t want to wait 1–2 years in order to acquire the people and the technology, so they organised it in a different way. But I don’t like that. I think they should be able to acquire companies without facing so much uncertainty. To be clear, it’s not new. Uncertainty when you are Google, NVIDIA, or others, it happens. It has happened for a decade plus, 2 decades. I think there needs to be, for sure, some safety valves. At the same time, we want an efficient capital market. An efficient capital market need companies that can acquire other companies. If you don’t do that efficiently, it will be worse for the entrepreneurs, it will be worse for the investors, it will be worse for everybody. I think we have not reached a good equilibrium from my perspective. We need more efficient acquisition process. And at the same time, we need to also enforce faster anticompetitive behavior. Because what you talk about concerning Google, this is a case that was what? That is 10 years old. You see what I mean? This is way too long. If you’re a startup, you are dead by then. It’s like the story of Netscape facing Microsoft. They were dead long after the fact. I think we need a different approach. I’m not sure the best answer. I’m not sure we’ll get a better approach. There are probably too many vested interest. My hope is that it will get better with this current administration because, certainly, the past administration was very anti acquisition and efficient markets. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We’ve talked about the European Union AI Act a bunch of times, so I don’t want to spend too many cycles on that. The only effect that I would say is we are seeing in very slow motion the splitting of the Internet. I once had Tim Berners-Lee, by the way, shouting at me that we were going to break the Internet when we were applying for the .mobi top-level domain. I was part of that consortium that eventually did get the .mobi top-level domain, and I had him shouting at us. But, apparently, this is going to split the Internet, Tim. So in case you’re listening. Because it will create all these different rules. If your data is relating to consumers there, then it’s treated in a different way, and The US is… Well, obviously, we have the case of California with its own rules and laws. I don’t know. I feel we’re having a moment of siloing that goes beyond economic and geopolitical siloing. It will also apply to the digital world, and we’ll start having different landscapes around it. We’ll see how this affects global expansion of services, for example, around AI, particularly for consumer, but I don’t foresee anything dramatically positive. Recently, we had the whole deal around TikTok finally having a solution for their US problem where there’s now a US conglomerate magically that owns it. The conglomerate doesn’t magically own it, they just straight up own it for the US. But it was driven by many of these concerns around data ownership. Where’s the data? Where is it based? I think a lot of other concerns that have to do with the geopolitics of China, obviously, being the basis of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, that still is a significant owner, by the way, in TikTok in US. Then also the interest in the economics of making money out of something as powerful as TikTok, to be honest, in The US. Just to be clear, I don’t think this was all about the best interests of consumers. It was also about money. Just follow the money. Bertrand Schmitt There are for sure, some powerful interest at play. But let’s be clear. I think one is data, as you rightfully said, but the other one is algorithm. It’s not as if China is authorising any competitor on its territory. They have blocked access to most of the Internet platforms from the US, either finding new rules or just trade blocking them. So I don’t think it’s fair competition. You don’t want some of that data in China about the US or European consumer. Three, it’s about the algorithm. If suddenly, you are a foreign power, and you can as we know in China, you better follow what’s required of you from the Chinese Communist Party. You cannot take a chance with influencing other stuff like elections in other countries. It’s fair from the US perspective. One could even argue it’s fair from a Chinese perspective to want that. I think the only one in the middle who doesn’t really know what they want is Europe because on one side, they want to benefit from American platforms, on the other end, they want to have some controls. On the other end, they don’t create the environment for startups to flourish. So in that weird situation where they have to accept some control by the big US providers and either provider of underlying infrastructure or provider of consumer business facing services. Then they try to regulate them. But I think they are misunderstanding the power relationship, and I think some of this regulation would get some blowback, at least by the current administration. Just, I believe, this morning, there was some news around X being under a criminal investigation in France. This is not going to end well for the French startup and VC ecosystem. This is not going to end well for France and Europe when you depend so much from your American friends. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulation will be weaponised. Regulation constraints around exports, all of this will be weaponised geopolitically, and the bigger guys will normally win. I think that’s normally what we’ve seen. Just on TikTok just to… And you guys, if you’re listening to us, just see if you see a pattern here, but obviously, 19.9% still owned by ByteDance of the TikTok entity in the US. It was initially said that 80% of the TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors. Initially, people were saying US investors, and then they changed it to non-Chinese because MGX, I think, has 15% of it. MGX is based in the UAE, connected obviously to Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. Silver Lake is in there, I think, with 15% as well. Oracle as well with 15%. Those three are the big bucket owners together, 45%. Silver Lake having collaborated with MGX before, and I’m sure a lot of connectivity there. Then you still see a pattern in this in terms of shareholders. If you don’t, then just Google it. Dell Family Office, Vastmir Strategic Investments, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Yass, Alpha Wave Partners, obviously involved with a bunch of things like SpaceX and Klarna, Virgoli, Revolution, which is Steve Case’s, a former founder of AOL, is also in there. Meritway, which is managed by partners, I think, of Dragonair. Vinova from General Atlantic, an affiliate of General Atlantic. Also, NJJ Capital, which I believe is Xavier Nil, the French billionaire that founded Iliad. Mostly American, I think, if the math is correct. 80% non-Chinese, which was what mattered, I think, in many cases. But do see if you saw a pattern in most of those investors. I won’t say anything more than that. Maybe moving to other topics, maybe just to finalise on regulation and geopolitics. In geopolitics, we should talk about wars if we predict anything. Not that we are nasty and one want to be negative, but what the hell is going on? Will we have ending to the wars we already have ongoing or not? But before that, the struggles on the App Stores, I think, will continue both for Apple and for Google Play Store. The writing’s on the wall, the EU keeps pushing it dramatically and Apple keeps just doing stuff. I’m on the board of an App Store company. Apple just creates all these things that basically make you not really… It doesn’t work. You can’t provision then an App Store on Apple devices. On iPhones, et cetera. We’ll see how that will continue going, but I feel the writing’s on the wall. Both Apple and Google will have to open up a bit more of their platforms. I’m not sure it will have a huge impact in the medium to long term, but definitely we need to see more openness in access to apps as given by the two big platform owners, Apple and Google, out there. Bertrand Schmitt Let’s be clear. Google is way more open than Apple. We both have Android devices. You can install alternative app stores. It’s a different ballgame by very far. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Google does other nasty stuff. It’s public. You can check which board I’m a part of. You can see what that company has done towards Google over time. But to your point, yes. It is true that Google has been more open than Apple, but Google has done their own things. Just to be very clear, so I’ll just leave that caveat bracketed there for people to think about it and maybe read a little bit about it as well. Bertrand Schmitt I can say that, me, from my perspective, that path of total control that Apple has been going through on all their devices, that includes macOS, pushed me to, over the past 2, 3 years, to completely live and abandon the Apple ecosystem. I just couldn’t accept that level of control, that golden handcuff approach of the Apple ecosystem, each their own obviously, they are golden, their handcuffs, but they are still handcuffs. Personally, that pushed me way more to Linux, Android, Windows, back to Windows after all these years. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I want to pick my devices. I want to pick what I install on them, and I don’t want to be controlled like this by just one entity for all my tech devices. For me, at some point, it was just not acceptable anymore. It’s still very warm, very golden handcuffs, but for me, they were just handcuffs at this stage. Yes, what they are doing with the App Store is very typical of that mindset. I think it’s quite sad because I think it started with good intention in some ways. “We need a new computing paradigm, we need to make things smoother and safer,” but it has really become a way to control your clients. For me, it has reached a point where it’s just way too much. Nuno Goncalves Pedro There’s obviously the great power comes great responsibility that uncle Ben told Spider-Man or Peter Parker. But there’s also with great power comes shitload of money, and control. So it’s like, “Yeah. Should we open the server? Do we want to delay opening it up?” “Yeah.” Anyway, it is what it is. Maybe let’s end on the more difficult note of the episode, which is going to be around wars. What’s our prediction? Will we have an end to the Gaza situation with Israel? Will we have an end to Ukraine and, obviously, Russia? What will happen in Iran? Those are the three big, big conflicts right now. Then, obviously, if we want to add just bonus points, what’s going to happen to Greenland, and what’s going to happen to Taiwan, and what’s going to happen to Venezuela? Let’s throw the whole basket in there. We’ve never had like… Let’s talk about all these territories and all these countries. At some point in time, I’m saying this in a light manner, but it’s obviously more tragic than it should be light, and people are dying, and there’s a lot of implications of all of that that is happening right now. Do you have any predictions, Bertrand, for this year? Bertrand Schmitt No. It’s tough to predict on an individual basis. I think on a more bigger picture basis is on one side, obviously, the rise of China on one side. You have also the rise of other countries like India, while very indirectly connected to some of these conflicts are still part of the game, buying oil from Russia, for instance. At the same time, I think overall, the US is more clear about with the sheriff in town. I think it’s good because in some ways, you cannot pay for the goods, you cannot have such a massive advantage versus nearly every other country on earth and just not be clear about who is the boss in some ways. As a result, what are the rules of the game and how it should be played? The US is not alone, obviously, you have China, you have Russia, you have India, you have Europe. You have different other countries. But at some point, it’s not good when countries are not rational and are not clear. I think I prefer the current situation where things are more clear and where you have to assume responsibilities about what you are doing. It’s time to be rational again about how the world behave. Yes, the concept of power and balance of power. I think there has been that dream, maybe mostly coming from Europe, about the end of history. I think that’s simply not the case. It’s not the end of history. It’s still about the balance of power. It has always been about the balance of power. If you are dumb enough to think it was not about that anymore, I just have a bridge to nowhere to sell you. I don’t have specific prediction, but I think it’s clear there is a new sheriff in town. There is a new doctrine about the Western Hemisphere that has been in some ways resurrected on the [inaudible 00:51:35] train, and I think we’ll see more of it. I think at this point, the biggest question is for the Europeans. What do they want to do? Because right now, their position of being a dwarf militarily while being a pretty big giant economically, I don’t think it works. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I agreed on everything that you said. I do have predictions. I’ll stick a flag on the ground just with my predictions. Bertrand Schmitt Good luck. Nuno Goncalves Pedro They are mostly positive. I do think we’ll see an end or, for the most, end to the two big conflicts, the one in Gaza and the one in Ukraine. I think Ukraine will end up in readjustment of territory and splitting between Russia and the Ukraine, but the end of hostilities, I think that we will see an end to the conflict in Gaza also with a readjustment on what that will mean for the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians in general. That I’m not sure, but I feel that there will be an end to those two big conflicts. Iran, I have no clue. I will not put a stick on the ground that I have no clue. There are so many things that could go wrong there. I’ve been reading some really interesting thoughts about even some aggressive thoughts that this might be the time to really change regimes in Iran and for the US to have a bit more of an aggressive stance. I really don’t have a perspective. Obviously, there’s a lot at stake there. Then, if we talk about the other parts, Greenland, I will not opine too much on. Maybe we’re done for now. Maybe there’ll be some other concessions to the US that weren’t already there in the ’50s. Taiwan, I won’t bet either. I’m sad to say I think it might happen at some point in time, but I’m not sure when and what would drive it. Last but not the least, Venezuela is my only really negative prediction. I feel it will continue to be a significant dictatorship as it was before managed enough by other people with the difference now that it has a tax to be paid to the US in the form of oil of some sort, etcetera, and maybe gas, maybe other things as well that it didn’t have before. That’s probably my most negative prediction for the coming year on the geopolitical side. Bertrand Schmitt Without going into detail, I would mostly agree with what you shared. At least that makes sense. But as we know, it’s not always what makes sense, but what might happen. I can tell you 100% I would not have guessed this operation against Maduro. This was so well done, well executed, and shocking at the same time that it’s… I think it shows that it’s hard to guess some of this stuff because there are certainly some new ways to wage limited war, for instance. So it’s certainly interesting, and we certainly need to get used to pretty bombastic statements. But for Venezuela, I don’t think it can be worse than what it was before. I’m probably more optimistic that gradually it can get better. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to put perspective on why we’re not making predictions on some of these elements, I think this is a funny story, but I was in Madeira. Actually, first time I was in Madeira, although I’m originally from Portugal. I’ve never been to the islands. Obviously, as you guys know, or some of you might know, there’s a lot of connection between Madeira and Venezuela. There’s a lot of immigration from Madeira Islands to Venezuela. One of my Uber or Bolt drivers there in Madeira was Venezuelan. Was born in Venezuela, but Portuguese descent, et cetera. He was telling me this was still last year. Late last year. Because I told him I lived in US, et cetera, and he was like, “Oh, hopefully, Trump will get Maduro out of there.” In my mind, I was like, “Dude.” No disrespect to the gentleman, but it’s like, “Okay. Mike, your perspective on geopolitics is maybe a little bit exaggerated.” And a couple of days later, we know what happened. When geopolitical decisions are better predicted by some probably very astute Uber drivers, you’re like, “Maybe I shouldn’t make a bet. I have no clue what’s going to happen, no clue what’s going to happen in Greenland, et cetera.” Anyway, a couple of predictions on that element. Bertrand Schmitt That’s why it’s so right. You have to be careful with the prediction, but it doesn’t remove the fact that I think nations and companies that have to play a global game have to understand in some ways what is the game, what are the powers in place, what could happen potentially, but also be realistic. Not be about wish and dreams, but more about, what’s the power relationship? Who has the money? Who has the means? Who has the capacity to do this or that? Because if you start that way, at least the scope of what’s possible, what’s reasonable is more and more clear more quickly. Some stuff like happened with Maduro, I would never have predicted, but for sure, if there’s one country that can do this sort of stuff, it’s the US. I’m not sure anyone has a technology and the means in terms of support infrastructure to do something like this. It’s tough to predict what will happen a year from now for any specific country, but I think that even trying to get a better understanding about the forces in play and their capacity and understanding and accepting that at some point, it’s all about real politic and relationship of power, the more your eyes would be wide open about what’s possible versus simple, wishful thinking. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Moving maybe to our last section around fintech, crypto, and frontier tech. For me, just two very quick predictions, views of the world. I think on the frontier tech side, I won’t make a prediction. I will just tell you all to go and listen to our episodes, the one on infrastructure, which is immediately prior to this one, and the episodes that we’ve had around a couple of other topics including AI, what’s the future of your children, because I think they illustrate a lot of the points that we’re seeing and manifesting themselves over the next year and over the next 2 or 3 years as well beyond that. I feel those tomes are complete in and out of themselves, so you can just go and listen to them. Then my second comment is on crypto. I feel crypto has become of the essence, particularly under the current administration in the US, very favored. Obviously, we are now in a world where crypto is just part of the economic system, and I think we’ll see more and more of that emerging, and in some ways, crypto is becoming mainstream. Question is what blockchains will be the blockchains of the future? Obviously, there’s a bunch of bets put out there. We, ourselves, as Chamaeleon, have one investment in one of the significant bets in the space. But besides that, who’s going to win or not, we feel that we’re past the crypto winter. It’s now mainstream days, and we’ll see a lot more activity in there. Bertrand Schmitt I must say with crypto, I’m a bit confused. As you say, we are past the crypto winter. There is much less uncertainty in regul

In this episode of Car Con Carne, James VanOsdol welcomes Josh Chicoine, the creative force behind Cult Canyon, to discuss the release of the debut album, Smoke Tricks. The conversation delves into the evolution of Josh's musical projects, from the raw energy of the M's and the acoustic harmonies of Cloudbirds to the collaborative and sophisticated sound of Cult Canyon. Key Highlights: The Making of Smoke Tricks: Josh explains how the album, initially inspired by string arrangements recorded in 2019, was brought to life through a grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). Creative Collaborations: The album features contributions from talented musicians like Alison Chesley, Susan Voelz, and Dave Max Crawford, as well as backup vocals from Melissa Busch-Wolford and Lindsay Weinberg. DIY Spirit: Josh shares his experiences with the DIY approach to music, from producing and promoting records to filming music videos with a GoPro and a vintage VHS filter. The Influence of Chicago: The city of Chicago serves as a backdrop for the album, with Josh reflecting on his relationship with the city and the local music scene. Second Hand News: Josh and James discuss his involvement in the Fleetwood Mac tribute band, Second Hand News, and the transgenerational appeal of the legendary band's music. Album Information: Item Details Artist Cult Canyon Album Title Smoke Tricks Release Date March 13, 2026 Label Rattleback Records Release Show The Hideout, March 14, 2026 This episode is brought to you by Exploding House Printing. Based in Hermosa, they specialize in screen printing, embroidery, and custom merch for bands and brands. Visit explodinghouseprinting.com for a quote. Episode Transcript (Note: Auto-generated transcript; errors are possible) James VanOsdol: This right here is Car Con Carne. Car Con Carne is a Q101 podcast. I'm James VanOsdol. Car Con Carne is brought to you by Exploding House Printing. They’re based in Hermosa and they specialize in screen printing, embroidery, and custom merch for bands and brands. Check them out on explodinghouseprinting.com. Get a quote, see all the people, businesses, bands, and brands that they’ve worked with. Explodinghouseprinting.com. (Theme song plays) James VanOsdol: So, after the Golden Line EP a few years ago, Cult Canyon is set to release its debut album, Smoke Tricks, on March 13th. The album will be released on lovely vinyl via Rattleback Records and the release will be celebrated with a live show at The Hideout the following night. Josh Chicoine, whose creative resume is deep, impressive, and familiar, joins me in the car on a rainy, dreary, just kind of shitty transitional winter-into-spring night. Josh Chicoine: Muck, winter mix. James VanOsdol: Let’s talk about Cult Canyon. We’re here, the album’s almost out as we’re sitting here talking about it. Josh Chicoine: It is. James VanOsdol: A lot of us came to know you from your time with the M’s earlier this century. Have you metaphorically moved from the garage to the living room with these projects? Josh Chicoine: It feels like I have. I mean, there was definitely a lot of garage influences happening with the M's. Certainly a DIY spirit. James VanOsdol: That kind of raw immediacy. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, I think we were trying to—well, it was of the time too. So this was the early 2000s, there was a lot of that stuff rolling around. And we kind of fit into that mix and just wanted to bring our own little flavor, which is heavily melodic, a lot of singing, a lot of gang vocals, which is one of my favorite things to do. And still, I guess, pop ethos, you know? Major and minor chords, nothing crazy. But yeah, we got done with that and I started a three-piece singing group called Cloudbirds and did that for about three years with a couple of guys that were in the M’s also, Joey King and Glenn Russell. And that was definitely in the living room. That was acoustic guitars, sometimes we had electric, but mostly acoustic music and three-part harmonies and very folky. And it was a real welcome relief, I’d say, to almost 10 years of loud guitars and bashing drums and shouting vocals. James VanOsdol: You weren’t pounding kids anymore. Josh Chicoine: We were not. We were not, and we kind of got started late anyway. So by the time 2009 rolled around, I was probably in my mid-30s, early 30s, everybody was kind of getting into their 30s. So being on the road was just awful. I think I was about ready to have my first child. And so yeah, the whole kind of idea shifted. And so we just couldn’t sustain that. So being in a singing group and just three guys, a lot easier to organize practices and singing some sweet melodies and harmonies, and that was more my style. And I kind of chased that for a little while, and then I had a new band called Sabres and I tried to do the rock thing again in 2014 and self-released that record, put a lot of time into that record. And it was another big record. And I found out I was just really tired. The DIY thing is that you have to do it yourself. So that means producing the record, promoting the record, getting all the artwork together, getting five people—now more grown people—to get together for any rehearsal, any show. I thought it was going to maybe be a bit easier, but it just wasn't. It wasn't easy, so I had to put that down. James VanOsdol: DIY is hard. We’re doing DIY right now in a car on urban radio in 2026. I do it in my car with a couple of cheap—see how the world has shifted for us both. Josh Chicoine: It has. I might say for the better. James VanOsdol: One would argue or could argue that, yeah. We’re our own bosses. Josh Chicoine: I think so. Yeah, there you go. James VanOsdol: You’re the CEO of Cult Canyon. Josh Chicoine: I am the CEO of Cult Canyon. I have a lot of contributors and collaborators, which I’m very thankful for. James VanOsdol: Let’s talk about some of them. Alison Chesley is a contributor. Josh Chicoine: She is. She is actually appearing on the latest record. To go back to the Golden Line EP in 2019, so right before COVID, I released an EP called Josh Chicoine and it was called Dream Believers. And I was imagining this trajectory where the next bunch of songs would include a string quartet. And so in 2019, early 2019, I recorded three songs including with Susan Voelz, who’s a good friend also. James VanOsdol: She’s delightful. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, she’s delightful, she’s an old friend, she’s a great contributor, what a great spirit. And with her and a few other string players. And then COVID came, so I sat on this thing. And I sat on this thing for quite a while because part of the DIY situation that we’re in now is that there’s so much noise and there’s so many competing avenues for attention, including your couch doing nothing. That’s a big one. James VanOsdol: Yeah. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, so I sat on it and I didn’t know what I was going to do. And so I applied for a grant. It was really the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events here in Chicago, they have an individual artist program, DCASE. James VanOsdol: DCASE. Shout out to DCASE. Josh Chicoine: They have a grant program every year, and I applied and I said, you know, I’m coming back into making things and this is what I want to do. I want to make a rock record in the city of Chicago using Chicago musicians out of Chicago studios. And that was really the kind of impetus to be like, okay, what do I want this Cult Canyon thing to be? And so that’s when I looked back at those Golden Line songs, which are really lush string arrangements done by our good friend Dave Max Crawford of Poi Dog Pondering and the Total Pro Horns. And he does a fantastic job. I’ve been collaborating with him since the M’s, he did a lot of those string arrangements and horn arrangements and stuff, so he’s really adept and really tasteful. And so I was just like, why not bring it into everything that I’m doing and make Cult Canyon more of a catch-all and a place where, for one, I can do what I want and I can do it with others that I want to do it with, people that I love. And yeah, Alison Chesley, I met her through Susan because playing with quartets, you end up having a large stable of artists because people are busy or they want more money than you want to give them or can give them on any given night. So I was able to meet and reach out to a bunch of string players and continually find new ones in town that can fill a role for a time. And happily, Alison is on this record on a tune called Good Bad Habits. James VanOsdol: I love it. And the album sounds great. Now, we’re recording this right before it comes out, like I said. The album is Smoke Tricks. We’ve had—we, the public—have experienced some of it already. Real Sublime is a single. You shot a video for this one. Josh Chicoine: I did. James VanOsdol: Was that your house you shot it in? Josh Chicoine: That was at my house, yeah. James VanOsdol: Very tastefully appointed. Josh Chicoine: Thank you. That’s all due to my wife. James VanOsdol: You’ve got you in a convertible on the lakefront. Josh Chicoine: That’s my buddy Al’s ‘67 Oldsmobile. James VanOsdol: That’s badass. Josh Chicoine: Pretty badass. We all need a buddy like Al. Al’s the best. James VanOsdol: Convertible on the drive, clearly different time of year from when we’re recording this. Josh Chicoine: Yeah. James VanOsdol: And is that the lake you jumped into or did you shoot that— Josh Chicoine: Yeah, jumped into the lake. Another good friend of mine is a Great Lake jumper, Dan O’Conor. James VanOsdol: He’s a celebrated Great Lake jumper. Josh Chicoine: They continually celebrate Great Lake jumper. I think he did it for five years straight every day. And yeah, so I started going out there and doing that. So it wasn’t so far afield to imagine, because what are videos now? I don’t even know what they are. But for this one, it was like, all right, Al, let’s get in a car, let’s drive around. I got this GoPro, I’ll stick it to your car, drive around, and then let’s go to the lake and let’s jump in the lake. James VanOsdol: So it doesn’t necessarily tie back to the lyrics or the theme? Josh Chicoine: I don’t think so. I mean, but maybe somebody sees something that I don’t. I think that’s part of my MO, at least, is to leave enough fog to allow for some interpretation. But yeah, this is more of kind of a performance, roll around, get some good footage, put a 1989 VHS filter on it and make it look cool and get it out. James VanOsdol: And you’re a fan of film and what can be done with movies. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I love film, I love movies, I love music movies. For eight years I was the co-founder and director of the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival. And we were all over the place throughout the city. And we would show movies from all over the world, like 33 countries usually were represented each year. And that was just, for me, was fascinating to figure out how to build something like that that could last and to raise money for it, you know, practicing all these adult skills that being in a van in a band on tour you’re not really practicing too much. James VanOsdol: Do you miss doing CIMMfest? Josh Chicoine: There’s a lot of it that I do. I really miss just the people and the spirit. I mean, we had an incredible group of volunteers that would come every year and really they were the ones that were able to activate this thing. And so I loved sitting around and dreaming, I loved building marketing materials, if only because then I could have something to go and take to people that I knew and a network that I was building. And I thought it was really a cool thing for the city and it really got me in touch with a lot of old friends and made so many new friends and it kept me—this was right after the M’s, and the M’s were kind of media darlings and played a lot of shows and, you know, I knew a lot of club owners and I knew publicists and I knew all that network. So it kind of allowed me personally to stay connected to that world. And coming out of there, that’s what my kind of career goals were. I was just like, okay, I want to stay in this world, I want to stay connected to these people. So it was my friend Ilko Davidov, who’s a Bulgarian filmmaker, and it was his concept. And I was just sort of the right person that was able to come and hoodwink a bunch of people into coming on board and giving me a bunch of money and being able to try to make this thing into a sustainable institution. We never quite got there. It’s always resource-light and operations-heavy. And never quite got there, but still just some great memories and really happy and really proud of what we were able to build. James VanOsdol: Thinking about film and music and making short music films, I’ve wondered this out loud on this podcast before, but I feel like this is a golden moment. This is the time for artists to explore that side of things. I mean, it’s not like the 1980s when I grew up, when videos were bankrolled by record labels and there were millions of dollars. Like, you grabbed a GoPro, you sit it on the dash—like, this is a real opportunity for creative expression, I think. I just don’t know if enough independent artists are taking advantage of it. Josh Chicoine: I mean, if you look at—I’ll have to disagree, I feel like, you know, the barriers are down and people now, everybody’s got a pretty decent camera in their pocket at all times. Since the barriers are down and since everybody’s got a camera, you can do whatever you want, put it up there, and not going to say it’s good, most of it’s not, most of it’s schlock. But you at least have the opportunity to make something that’s decent and the technology affords it. You don't even need to be great at editing. You can cobble stuff together. You really can. I mean, I use a really cheap editing software. James VanOsdol: Can I ask? Josh Chicoine: It’s called CapCut. And the same company, I can’t remember what they’re called, the TikTok corporation, ByteDance. It’s a ByteDance product. And I got it because it was cheap and another friend of mine was using it. And he was making some cool stuff, so I was just like, all right, I’m just going to dive in and start doing stuff. And so that’s what I did. James VanOsdol: That’s DIY. Roll up your sleeves, let’s get to it. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, it’s just—I had spent CIMMfest was so much about favors and so much about waiting for favors from people that you were either getting a deep discount from or not paying at all. And I know the pain, you know? And it’s real. So if you have any kind of means by which you can get a hold of this stuff, then it’s just about putting the work in and, you know, time is mine to give or throw away. So, yeah, it’s just sort of—I keep getting better and better, I mean other people can be the judge of that, but I feel pretty good about what I’ve been able to do with hardly any resources. James VanOsdol: It’s pretty cool. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. James VanOsdol: All right, going back to this album Smoke Tricks again, available on March 13th. Bitter Birdies is how we begin. If you listen close, actually you don’t even need to listen that closely, there are dogs barking at the beginning of the song. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, Ralfy. James VanOsdol: I was going to ask. Josh Chicoine: It’s my doggie. James VanOsdol: And you were aware when you were recording the dog was part of it, right? Josh Chicoine: Yeah, well, my producer, my co-producer on this was Todd Rittmann and Todd Rittmann was in US Maple. I don’t know if you remember that band. Affiliated with Cheer-Accident, of course. James VanOsdol: Of course, always interesting. Josh Chicoine: Yes. Now he’s in Dead Rider, for everybody out there who’s watching, check out Dead Rider. Yeah, he’s fascinating, he’s got a great little studio called Shy Diamond Studio down in Logan, just north of Fullerton. And, you know, him and I kind of cobbled this thing together. And I never expected that the piano tracks were the final. So I would just make demos at my house and then I would send them to Todd and I’d be like, “Here’s what I’m thinking for this song,” and then we would try and fit it in somehow. And he was just—he’s like a maestro. He was just like, “I love it, you’re never taking away the dog’s bark. We’re keeping it in there 100%.” So I was like, “All right, let’s go.” Piano sounded fine, sounded good, it’s my piano in my living room. I loved it, and that’s my boy Ralfy. So he’s my spirit animal and I’m glad he’s on the record too. James VanOsdol: Good boy, Ralfy. Josh Chicoine: He’s a very good boy. James VanOsdol: On this song, I know you want people to interpret songs as, you know, as any artist would suggest, like you want to feel a connection, right? But you do mention “stuck here in Chicago” in that song. Were you feeling—do you feel a weird relationship with the city? Josh Chicoine: I think I love Chicago. It’s my favorite city. It’s especially my favorite city to come back to. I don’t know if you’ve ever leave for like a little while, but when you come back, it’s just like—ah. Especially when you’re driving back home and like you catch that first glimpse of the skyline. That is a moment. It’s real. So, I mean, when I got that grant from DCASE, it was like, “Oh no, now I got to write a record.” They called your bluff. Every time for me, at least, I decide to write a record, I have to figure out how to write a record again. And that—it’s like a lot of introspection and a lot of like, “Who am I now? What am I going to write about now?” And it takes a long—it took me a long time. And Bitter Birdies kind of came about based upon that piano that opens it up. I had that piece for a long time, but sort of like lyrically I wasn’t quite sure. And my wife and I are going to be married 25 years in June. James VanOsdol: Congratulations, that’s a big milestone. Josh Chicoine: Thank you. It’s been wonderful. But seven years into our relationship, there was a breakup. Post-college, I mean I was dating her since I was 19. I’ve known her for a long time. So yeah, moved to Chicago, joined a band, you know, our lives were diverging. And so we broke up. And she went—she quit her job, she was like working at a financial firm downtown. I was in a band, so you can see divergence. For sure. But yeah, she quit her job, she went on walkabout in Europe for six months. And I took myself back to that time. And that time was sort of very freeing and very fun at the beginning, and then the longing just really set in and, you know, the longer my notes and messages would go to her, the shorter and shorter that they came back to me. So it appeared like she was moving on and there was something really heart-wrenching about that for me. So yeah, that song was about that. So, you know, she was having this really great experience and seeing all new things and new people and I was here stuck in Chicago. So I was living in a loft space where Salvage One is now off of Hubbard, between Wood and Wolcott. With these crazy artist people and there were raves and I was making a bunch of music. So it was just like this Kevin Bacon Quicksilver life that I was living. And I just started to really miss her, no matter what I was just like, “What if she came back here and she lived with me in this hovel and we could do this together?” And that’s sort of the kind of emotional impulse that I felt from writing that and wanting to get out of it, you know, wanting to get out of that space. So nothing against Chicago, I love Chicago, but you know there’s definitely moments where you’re just like, “Okay, get me out of here.” James VanOsdol: Write what you know. Josh Chicoine: That’s I think what I came back to and when I was confronted with that idea and I keep a quote book and Louise Bourgeois said that, “If you’re not writing about yourself, then it doesn’t mean anything.” And I’m parsing—I’m screwing that quote up, but I really took that to heart. So I was like, “Okay, well then I am going to write about myself and my experiences because it’s all that I have really that I could feel a connection with.” Oh, it’s okay up there. I got an ambulance. Ambulance, police car, normal stuff. Stuck in Chicago. Here we are. James VanOsdol: Run Red Lights, which I don’t recommend. I mean, I recommend the song. Who’s doing the backup vocals on that? Josh Chicoine: Yeah, so that’s my friend Melissa and Lindsay. Melissa Busch-Wolford and Lindsay Weinberg. And they play with me in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band called Second Hand News. James VanOsdol: Good segue. I was going to ask about that. Because the backup vocals have a really nice texture in that song in particular. Josh Chicoine: Thanks. James VanOsdol: And that actually dovetails perfectly to the question about working and being part of Second Hand News because you play with those harmonies which are magical. Clearly you bring some of that back to Cult Canyon. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, I think it for me it’s always sort of been there. You can hear it in the M’s, you can hear it if you listen to Sabres, you can hear it there too. Certainly with Cloudbirds it was very much about the harmonies. And yeah, as I started to enter into this promo world of Cult Canyon, I was just trying to like think about things that were a common thread. And harmonies, singing—that’s how I kind of come up with ideas. I just kind of start with the voice, have something on the guitar that’s fine. I’m a mediocre guitar player but it’s really about voice and vocals. And so when I started playing in Second Hand News, you know, I had never been in a band with women before. I’ve played music with women before, but not in a band. So it was sort of like, “Oh, this whole another resource that I would love to bring into this project.” And they were so game and, you know, they brought their whole selves to it and I think it really shows in the recording. James VanOsdol: I love it. Since we’re on the topic of Fleetwood Mac, Tusk. Misunderstood classic or big awful mess? Josh Chicoine: Can it be both? Depends on which side you’re on, yeah. I was really naive about Tusk and I had it in my record collection just from a bunch of records that somebody gave me. And I think at one point the—because there’s two record sleeves in it—they both got kind of separated. So all of a sudden I had four record sleeves separated and I was like, “Wait a minute, this is a quadruple album? This is crazy.” But it wasn’t. There’s a record sleeve that hides another record sleeve that has the record in it. That’s how much money and wasteful money that they had. Because that’s coming off Rumours. Like, they could do whatever they wanted. Lindsey Buckingham could do whatever he wanted. And he really did. He really did. And some of it, you know, it could be argued that he shouldn’t have done it, but we still play a bunch of jams off of there. The title track to me is still one of the coolest songs of the 1970s. Super cool. I mean, there’s a lot on there that are really unheralded. Think About Me is another really good one that we love to play. James VanOsdol: Sara’s on that too, right? Josh Chicoine: Oh God, I’m going to get killed by my bandmates. Sara’s on there, yeah, it’s on there. Let’s say yeah, when no one’s looking it up. But yeah, we play Sara all the time and it’s like seven minutes long and the audience loves it and Melissa crushes it. And yeah, those are just really fun songs to play. And the audiences are crazy. It’s like there’s 18-year-olds there. James VanOsdol: I was going to say. Josh Chicoine: There’s 88-year-olds there. James VanOsdol: It’s one of those bands that is transgenerational. My daughter, who’s heading towards 21, Stevie Nicks is probably a top five artist for her. For her birthday a few years ago I took her to see Stevie Nicks at the United Center and it was this magical night for her. Like, we walked out of the United Center and she said, “I only cried three times.” I’m like, “What do you mean you cried?” “Well, you know, during Gold Dust Woman and... oh gosh, what else did she cry during? Dreams, Rhiannon, and Landslide.” Of course, classics. But I mean it is interesting how maybe millennials didn’t give a shit, but suddenly like Gen Z is full on board with Stevie Nicks. Josh Chicoine: I take it back to that dude who was on the skateboard chugging cranberry juice and all of a sudden Dreams became something. But it just feels like it’s cyclical. It keeps coming back, those songs are just so classic. Timeless, absolutely timeless. And the recordings of them were amazing. So it just seems like they’re just not going to go away, which is great for Second Hand News. Yeah, I mean we played the Metro a couple weeks ago. That’s amazing. James VanOsdol: That’s nuts. Josh Chicoine: Yeah. I love it. James VanOsdol: And to your point, like all ages get into it. That’s something you don’t get to experience necessarily in the M’s or Cult Canyon. Josh Chicoine: It’s different. Yeah, it’s different for sure. And I think that we—I’ve been told this by a lot of audience members after the show and they’re just like glowing coming out after scream-singing at us for two hours. And they just say like, “You bring so much joy.” And I really feel that. Like, we do. I mean the band is killer. And so the band in Second Hand News, the guitar player, bassist, drummer, Mike, Mike, and Dan, they play in Cult Canyon too. So they’re the ones who are the backing band on this Cult Canyon record. So I just was just enamored with this whole group and just because we had such good times together on stage and in front of giant crowds and harmonizing and singing and playing those classic songs. So it was just kind of a natural little pivot to bring them into my songwriting and I was really happy that they did. James VanOsdol: I love that. So Rattleback Records, easily a favorite record store of mine. Josh Chicoine: Mm-hmm. James VanOsdol: Releasing the album on vinyl. How important was it for you to have this as a record, as an LP? Josh Chicoine: It was critical for me. I think one of the things—so I released the Sabres record in 2014. And it kind of, like many, many, many, many, many records out there, it just kind of gets—it’s like, “Okay, it’s out there,” and then you tell your friends and then it just doesn’t really go anywhere. James VanOsdol: And that ambitious ordering of 500 records turns into, “Okay, we’re still sitting on 250.” Josh Chicoine: I have a lot of CDs. Let’s put it to you that way. Hit me up if you want a CD by Sabres. I’ll just give it to you. It’s got—anyway. Yeah, so I think I was determined to at least try and make a stink with this Cult Canyon record. And I really liked it. And so one of the first things I did was I talked to my friends in the AM Slingers, who are another Rattleback band and they’re friends of mine too. And I knew that Paul over at Rattleback had put out a 7-inch of theirs. And by put out, I mean he paid for it. So he facilitated the production and then, you know, created a connection between the band and the record store. Really love that idea, you know? It’s going to be DIY anyway, it’s all about building community bit by bit by bit. So I was introduced to Paul kind of—I don’t even remember when, it’s probably a year ago now, if not more. And he was really intrigued and I sent him a bunch of songs including the Golden Line EP, which he really loved. And that just gave me a lot of confidence, and so I took this Smoke Tricks record and I was like, “I’m really looking for somebody to help me out with this.” And he was game and continues to be game. James VanOsdol: I love that. Josh Chicoine: It was his dream to have a boutique record store. And that happened, and then it was his dream to have a boutique little tiny record label. So that happened. James VanOsdol: I’ve never been in that store, by the way, where it hasn’t been busy. Josh Chicoine: Oh good. James VanOsdol: No, I mean I love going there. Like, they’ve got one of the best, I think, mixes of new and used and their prices are very reasonable. Josh Chicoine: I agree. I agree. Yeah, they have a lot of cool chotchkies around, good t-shirt collection. It’s like a proper record store. James VanOsdol: And I mean if you’re one of those budget-bin divers like there’s dollar records, you’ll hurt your knees going through them, but I mean there’s occasionally gold to find in there. Josh Chicoine: I agree. It’s everywhere. James VanOsdol: But yeah, it’s a cool place, I mean right over there on Clark Street. And I love just that kind of brand extension for Rattleback. Like it makes so much sense. Josh Chicoine: I love that. I love that for Paul, I love that we were able to become a part of that and we’re putting on a showcase of Rattleback Records artists May 29th at the Burlington. James VanOsdol: Nice. Which for the record, one of the loudest rooms in Chicago. Josh Chicoine: That’s right. We’ll do what we can, but I mean it’s hard, it’s like a lot of hard flat surfaces and they didn’t do any soundproofing or nothing. So, yeah. James VanOsdol: That’s good. That’s part of its charm. Josh Chicoine: It’s part of the charm. Yeah, yeah, you know what you’re getting into when you go back there. Just bring earplugs, what’s the big deal? James VanOsdol: Just bring ear—that’s—if you bring earplugs, you’re good. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, that’s right. James VanOsdol: But if you go deaf, I mean who better to go deaf from? Josh Chicoine: Yeah, that’s a badge of honor. It’s a badge of honor. I mean it’s not a good recommendation, I would say. But if you want good earplugs, just go to Sensaphonics down there on Milwaukee Avenue. Shout out. Yesterday was National Hearing Day and I got myself fitted for a new pair of earplugs. James VanOsdol: Smart. Josh Chicoine: And it basically—it’s no joke. No, it’s no joke if you listen to a lot of live music. It basically just turns the volume down. The clarity is still there versus sticking toilet paper in your ears or those foam things. James VanOsdol: Exactly what they feel like. Or those like pool noodles shrunk down. Josh Chicoine: Yeah, that’s right. They’re good if you want to sleep. If you’re like on tour and everybody else snores in your hotel room, then those are really effective. James VanOsdol: For sure. All right, so Smoke Tricks is the album. It’s awesome. It comes out on March 13th. The Hideout is the release show on March 14th. And onward and upward. What a great record, you really did it. Josh Chicoine: Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. That was nice talking to you. Are we done? Is this the wrap? James VanOsdol: This is the wrap. Josh Chicoine: All right, love it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

-Over five days in December 2025, more than 200 simulated "grid events" tested a London data center's ability to adjust its energy use on the fly. In each simulated grid event, the data center successfully adjusted its energy use to the requested level, reducing power draw by up to 40% -Meta has signed an AI licensing deal with News Corp that will allow the Meta AI maker to use content from The Wall Street Journal and other brands in its chatbot responses and for training of its AI models. -TikTok said that implementing the technology would prevent its safety teams or law enforcement from being able to read messages if needed. The ByteDance-owned app framed it as a deliberate decision, made in an effort to keep users, especially younger ones, safe on its platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iranian strikes damage AWS data center in Dubai, Qualcomm introduces Wi-Fi 8 chip, ByteDance's Pico unveils Project Swan headset. MP3 Please SUBSCRIBE HERE for free or get DTNS Live ad-free. A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible. If you enjoy what you see you can support the showContinue reading "Apple Announces iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air – DTH"

Ce mois-ci, le Grand Débrief explore l'impact de l'intelligence artificielle sur la création vidéo, le cinéma, la musique et le marché du travail. Alors que Seedance affole Hollywood, que le “vibe coding” bouscule les développeurs, les agents autonomes font planer un nouveau risque : celui d'une IA qui agit… On évoque les avancées technologiques, les enjeux éthiques, et des opportunités pour les créateurs et l'industrie. Avec François Sorel (Tech&Co) et Bruno Guglielminetti (Mon Carnet)En partenariat avec Free Pro, le meilleur de Free pour les entreprisesL'IA va-t-elle remplacer les acteurs ? La génération de vidéo par intelligence artificielle a franchi un cap, en février, avec Seedance 2.0, l'outil de ByteDance, capable de produire des séquences ultra réalistes mettant en scène des célébrités… sans leur consentement. Les studios hollywoodiens paniquent pendant qu'en France les doubleurs et tous les professionnels du cinéma s'inquiètent de la vague de l'IA qui arrive. Lien Monde Numérique : Seedance affole Hollywood, Meta veut faire parler les morts Au-delà du scandale, nous évoquons aussi l'autre versant de la révolution de l'IA : l'ouverture d'un nouvel espace créatif, comme l'a été la révolution de l'audio, des home studios aux albums faits“dans une chambre. La vidéo IA permet à de nouveaux talents d'émerger.L'IA va-t-elle remplacer les développeurs ? Après les déclarations de Dario Amodei (Anthropic) et Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI), le débat sur le remplacement des développeurs par l'IA est plus que jamais d'actualité. Dans beaucoup d'entreprises, l'IA écrit-elle déjà le code à la place des humains. Mais méfions-nous des annonces spectaculaires alors que l'adoption réelle semble encore en retrait, selon François Sorel. Décrire une application en langage naturel et laisser l'IA la construire, la corriger, l'améliorer, c'est le “vibe coding”. J'évoque mon expérience avec Lovable et la bascule que cela préfigure : si chacun peut générer son outil sur-mesure, à quoi serviront encore les applications standards et les services SaaS ? Ecouter aussi : Les mots de la tech 2025 : “Vibe coding”Vibe coding : j'ai créé deux applications sans écrire une ligne de codeL'IA va-t-elle devenir de plus en plus autonomeFévrier a été marqué par le phénomène OpenClaw, un agent open source qui peut agir localement sur votre machine, gérer des tâches, manipuler des services et automatiser des workflows. Mais l'autonomie a un prix : erreurs irréversibles, exposition de données, et nécessité d'isoler l'outil sur une machine dédiée, dans environnement cloisonné. C'est l'occasion d'aborder la question de l'alignement des IA, et la perte de lisibilité des modèles à mesure qu'ils gagnent en complexité. Faudrait-il une autorité internationale de supervision, comme pour le nucléaire ?Ecouter aussi : OpenClaw et Moltbook : la nouvelle ère des agents autonomes (Nicolas Guyon, Comptoir IA) Les dessous inquiétants de l'alignement des IA (Frédéric Filloux, Les Echos, Deepnews)Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

In today's MadTech Daily, we cover WPP unveiling a £500m cost-cutting plan in an AI-led overhaul, ByteDance being valued at $550bn in a proposed General Atlantic stake sale, and UK news giants launching a ‘NATO for News' AI coalition.

What happens when a technology-minded New Yorker stumbles into Hollywood and ends up reshaping how the industry makes trailers, title sequences, and motion graphics for the next three decades? This week, Eric Ladd joins the show to talk about his winding path from floppy disk drives and Bank of America to running Novocom, building Pittard Sullivan into a global powerhouse, and founding Picture Mill, one of the most influential design and motion graphics companies in entertainment marketing history. Now he's doing it again with Ignite XR, creating AR and social content tools contracted by TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. Along the way, the conversation covers how Picture Mill got its name (in a single impulsive moment at a lunch meeting), the deal that fell apart and sent half of Pittard's leadership out the door to start their own companies, and how Eric pioneered digital before the industry even had a name for it. He also shares what it was like to shoot the Mandalay tiger in Hawaii, fly to Edwards Air Force Base with a first-time solo pilot to blow up a quarter-scale hotel, and pitch George Lucas on a Star Wars re-release trailer using a clip of Apocalypse Now on VHS. Key Takeaways Confidence Is a Skill Before leaving Pittard, Eric had already grown Novocom from two people to sixty. That track record gave him the credibility to walk into Aspect Ratio's Citrus lunch meeting with an $8.5M business plan he'd written in two hours — and walk out with a credit line and the name Picture Mill. The People You Work With Are the Real Portfolio When asked about favorite campaigns, Eric sidestepped the question entirely: "I have favorite people." The relationships formed in those early years, including editors, designers, producers, directors, are what he actually carries forward. Know When to Leave, and Who Should Replace You At Pittard, Eric not only knew when his time was up, he named Anne Epstein as the person who should take the job. Succession thinking and generosity with credit have been constants throughout his career. Bleeding Edge Requires a Tolerance for Uncertainty Whether it was scanning and comping an entire Spike Lee trailer in the early days of digital, pioneering AR filters on Snapchat before the platforms knew what to do with them, or landing a contract with ByteDance by simply delivering a working product without being asked, Eric's approach has always been to figure it out first and explain it later. AI Is a Tool, Not a Threat... If You Have Ideas The conversation about AI cuts to the heart of what this show is about. Eric's view: "It all comes down to ideas." AI can execute, but someone still has to direct it. The people who will struggle are those who were already functioning as tools themselves. Notable Quotes "I went over there at five o'clock and Ed and I were there till ten. We just clicked." "I said, 'You can't afford me.' He said, 'How much do you want?' Six months later my paycheck just went WHOOSH." "When we came back from lunch, we'd hired every one of those people in the waiting room." "It all comes down to ideas. AI can give you ideas, but it lacks what humans can do with them." "A lot of being successful has to do with wherewithal. If you can hang in there long enough, you can be successful doing anything." "When we're gone, those stories are gonna be gone with us." "Not anymore. They're on the record!" Connect Eric Ladd — ignitexr.com Corey Nathan — @coreysnathan on all platforms Our Sponsors Meza Wealth Management – mezawealth.com The Golden Trailer Awards – goldentrailer.com Join the Community Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review! Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!

Jamie & Jaeden discuss ByteDance's new AI video generator, SeedDance 2.0, which is causing a stir in Hollywood due to copyright concerns and the impressiveness of its output. They also explore the potential future uses of this tool for filmmakers, advertisers, and content creators, highlighting its capabilities and the ongoing debate surrounding copyright infringement in AI-generated content.Our Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustleGet the top 40+ AI Models for $20 at AI Box: ⁠⁠https://aibox.aiWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-xDSr__e-xMChapters00:00 Introduction to SeedDance 2.0 and Its Impact02:53 The Creative Potential of AI in Filmmaking05:47 Revolutionizing Video Editing with AI Tools08:56 Exploring New Business Opportunities with AI

In this episode of China Decode, Alice Han and James Kynge unpack the International Monetary Fund's blunt warning that China's export-led growth model is nearing its limits — just as the Supreme Court of the United States rolls back sweeping Trump-era emergency tariffs, reshaping the trade war at a pivotal moment. Then, China's hospitals are going viral. From Beijing to Hainan, foreign patients are seeking faster, cheaper treatment as part of Beijing's “Healthy China 2030” push to turn healthcare into a new growth engine — but could that spark domestic backlash? And finally, Seedance 2.0, the powerful new AI video model from ByteDance, is generating hyper-realistic celebrity deepfakes and rattling Hollywood. Is this the future of filmmaking — or the start of a new AI arms race? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Les suites de l'arrivée en grande fanfare de l'IA génératrice de vidéos propulsée par Bytedance ; Gemini 3.1 Pro est candidat le nouveau meilleur modèle de la semaine tout comme Claude Sonnet 4.6 ; Sam Altman compare les ressources d'entrainement des IA avec les ressources pour faire grandir un humain ; les suites de la hype d'OpenClaw, cet agent IA qui fait tout et n'importe quoi ; on aborde ensemble aussi des scandales Meta de la semaine, la liberté à l'américaine qui va s'exporter et un peu de jeux vidéo.  Me soutenir sur Patreon Me retrouver sur YouTube On discute ensemble sur Discord Interactions auditeurs Wildcat et ClaudIA. Mika et les FX effets spéciaux. Manus horribilis “Seedance 2 fait trembler Hollywood” ! Enfin, un petit frisson quoi. Le meilleur modèle du monde de la semaine est… Gemini 3.1 Pro ! On t'as pas Sonnet ! Anthropic et OpenAI jouent à PAC man. Caméo méo ! Human vs IA : fight ! Trois bidules en préparation chez OpenAI ! Et chez Apple aussi ! Cline en pince pas trop pour Open Claw. Je préfère nanobot. Stars and tripes Ring à un Search party pris. SMS : Tu es mort ? Ce n'est pas une excuse. SMS 2 : Meta lotion, l'année va être chaude. En fait, IEEPA le droit ! Le prix des consoles va-t-il baisser ? Non. Les américains vont nous apporter la liberté ! Jeux vidéo Phil good : la retraite à 58 ans ! Point final pour Bluepoint. Trou de VR : Horizon se mobilise. DLSS, DSR, 4K, le blind test ! Vibe gaming : encore plus de jeux sur steam ! Youpi …? Participants Une émission préparée par Guillaume Poggiaspalla Présenté par Guillaume Vendé

Microsoft's AI CEO just put a 12–18 month expiration date on most white-collar work. But after spending weeks with enterprise executives, Paul Roetzer sees a very different reality: most companies haven't even gotten past giving their teams AI access. In Ep. 198, Paul and Mike unpack the growing disconnect between AI capability and AI adoption, share Paul's 7-point thought experiment on the future of work, and cover a massive week of news: Dario Amodei's warning about the AI exponential, AI productivity gains finally appearing in economic data, ByteDance's SeaDance 2.0 copyright crisis, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Open Claw's creator joining OpenAI, AI hardware moves from Apple and Meta, and a provocative editorial arguing journalism schools are failing students. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:38 — AI Pulse Survey Results 00:08:48 — Microsoft AI CEO Predicts White Collar Work Automated in 12-18 Months 00:20:42 — AI Productivity Evidence 00:33:23 —Dario Amodei on Dwarkesh 00:47:55 — Dor Brothers AI Movie and the Rise of Seedance 00:55:07 — Claude Sonnet 4.6 01:00:51 — OpenClaw Creator Goes to OpenAI 01:05:00 — OpenAI Devices and AI Devices 01:14:51 — AI in Journalism Controversy 01:25:05 — Meta Patents AI for the Dead 01:26:56 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

In today's MadTech Daily, we cover Germany backing social media curbs for children, the DOJ probing Netflix's market power in its Warner deal review, and the Motion Picture Association sending a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance over Seedance 2.0.

It's an AI heavy episode, and I'm bringing out some big guns! OpenAI is making some hardware, and while that's kinda stupid, we're REALLY more concerned about the plans for adult content. Disney and Paramount are putting pressure on Bytedance to remove copyrighted characters from Seedance Gen AI tools. Google and Microsoft are trying to find influencers to promote AI, but fewer are taking the cash. And I have a chat with Michael Nordquist, VP of Product Marketing at AMD, to talk about the hardware side of consumer AI. Let's get our tech week started off RIGHT! -- Show Notes and Links: https://somegadgetguy.com/b/4ax Support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu Find out more at https://talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-c117ce for 40% off for 4 months, and support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy.

Addy and Joey break down the latest batch of open-source AI image models: FireRed's specialized editing capabilities, Recraft V4's enterprise-grade output with SVG support, and ByteDance's newest open-source offering. They also cover Foundry's acquisition of Griptape, an AI node-based platform that signals where VFX compositing is headed, and test out Google Gemini's new music generation feature Lyria 3, which creates songs from unexpected inputs like slide decks and video thumbnails.--The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the personal views of the hosts and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of their respective employers or organizations. This show is independently produced by VP Land without the use of any outside company resources, confidential information, or affiliations.

This episode is a special crossover from The Next Wave podcast, hosted by Matt Wolfe and featuring a deep-dive conversation with marketing and business expert Joe Fier. The duo breaks down the five most interesting developments in AI from the past week, with a focus on SeedDance 2.0—an advanced video model from ByteDance that's dominating headlines for its realistic visuals and flawless lip syncing. They discuss how SeedDance is changing the game compared to heavyweights like Veo and Sora, and why its approach to copyright and training data might give it a global edge.Along the way, Matt Wolfe and Joe Fier demo tools live, including GPT-5.3 Codex Spark and Google's Gemini DeepThink, showing how these models can create websites, apps, and even solve scientific problems at lightning speed. The episode also explores the ethical and business ramifications of AI's rapid evolution—from ads in ChatGPT to the potential impact on jobs and creativity—making it a must-listen for anyone eager to stay ahead in the AI landscape.Topics DiscussedSeedance 2.0's Arrival & ImpactDemos & Real-World ExamplesThe Future of AI Video in Marketing & AdvertisingAI and IP/Copyright ChallengesUltra-Fast Coding ModelsHuman Creativity vs. AIAI Advertising & MonetizationRapid AI Advancement & Staying AheadResources MentionedThe Next Wave Podcast: https://www.thenextwave.showMatt Wolfe: https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow Seedance 2.0: https://www.seedance.com/ByteDance: https://www.bytedance.com/CapCut: https://www.capcut.com/Veo: https://deepmind.google/models/veo/Runway: https://runwayml.com/ChatGPT Codex: https://chatgpt.com/codexMatt Schumer's Viral Article: https://www.mattshumer.com/blog/ai-changes-everythingSuper Bowl Claude Commercial:

Charlie was stuck on the toilet. Charlie says people without bidets are scum. People are outraged by reports of stray dogs being killed in Morocco ahead of the World Cup. WrestleMania tickets prices are outrageous. Krystle lost her phone in her house. Charlie checks Krystle's car. Man seen on video stealing a purse from an old woman with a walker. Is JLR working on his book? ByteDance released an AI video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise. Someone on Reddit claims they went into a job interview and was asked if they use ChatGPT. ChatGPT analyzes the behavior tendencies of the show members. Rover has JLR check his car after he got an alert that his alarm went off. Snapshots of JLR at the retirement party. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ByteDance released an AI video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise. Someone on Reddit claims they went into a job interview and was asked if they use ChatGPT. ChatGPT analyzes the behavior tendencies of the show members. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ByteDance released an AI video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise. Someone on Reddit claims they went into a job interview and was asked if they use ChatGPT. ChatGPT analyzes the behavior tendencies of the show members. 

Charlie was stuck on the toilet. Charlie says people without bidets are scum. People are outraged by reports of stray dogs being killed in Morocco ahead of the World Cup. WrestleMania tickets prices are outrageous. Krystle lost her phone in her house. Charlie checks Krystle's car. Man seen on video stealing a purse from an old woman with a walker. Is JLR working on his book? ByteDance released an AI video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise. Someone on Reddit claims they went into a job interview and was asked if they use ChatGPT. ChatGPT analyzes the behavior tendencies of the show members. Rover has JLR check his car after he got an alert that his alarm went off. Snapshots of JLR at the retirement party. 

ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 kicked up a Hollywood copyright-and-likeness firestorm, while SAG-AFTRA floats a “Tilly tax” aimed at fully synthetic performers. Meanwhile, big audiences still show up for tentpoles (Super Bowl, Puppy Bowl, Muppets) as streamers keep chasing bundles, rights, and consolidation chess moves.This week on The FULL Experience: Lost (101 - "Pilot: Part 1")Next week: Lost (405 - "The Constant")Subscribe, get expanded show notes, and past episodes at http://Cordkillers.comSupport Cordkillers at http://Patreon.com/CordkillersYouTube: https://youtu.be/dG_MVNHvtbA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 kicked up a Hollywood copyright-and-likeness firestorm, while SAG-AFTRA floats a “Tilly tax” aimed at fully synthetic performers. Meanwhile, big audiences still show up for tentpoles (Super Bowl, Puppy Bowl, Muppets) as streamers keep chasing bundles, rights, and consolidation chess moves.This week on The FULL Experience: Lost (101 - "Pilot: Part 1")Next week: Lost (405 - "The Constant")Subscribe, get expanded show notes, and past episodes at http://Cordkillers.comSupport Cordkillers at http://Patreon.com/CordkillersYouTube: https://youtu.be/dG_MVNHvtbA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 781: Neal and Toby chat about the growing concern of a memory chip shortage in the wake of the AI boom. Then, ByteDance's AI video generator is so good that it's caused multiple studios to send out cease and desist orders. Meanwhile, Detroit is hoping the return of the sedan will be the answer to America's affordability crisis. Also, Toby dives into the trend of “maxxing,” the term that has spread across social media and taken over the manosphere.  Learn more about FlavCity at https://go.shopflavcity.com/mbds  Sign up for our monthly trivia! https://mbdtrivianight-feb2026.splashthat.com/  Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠ Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get our AI Video Guide: https://clickhubspot.com/dth Episode 97: How close are we to a world where AI-generated videos are indistinguishable from reality? Matt Wolfe (https://x.com/mreflow) and Joe Fier (linkedin.com/in/joefier) dive deep into Seedance 2.0—ByteDance's new AI video model that could outpace giants like Sora and Veo. Joe, a marketing and business expert known for his hands-on approach and insights into AI's rapid evolution, helps to break down the five most fascinating developments in the AI space this week. They tackles game-changing AI advances: Seedance 2.0's mind-blowing video generation for ads and motion graphics, the rollout of Google's Veo 3.1 in Google Ads, the GPT-5.3 Codex Spark coding model built on specialized inference chips, Gemini's DeepThink model for scientific research, and the early rollout of ChatGPT ads. Check out The Next Wave YouTube Channel if you want to see Matt and Nathan on screen: https://lnk.to/thenextwavepd — Show Notes: (00:00) Seedance 2.0 arrives – AI video generation blurs reality, ad creation moves fast. (03:03) Google's Veo 3.1 powers video ads, advertisers can now generate clips directly from image uploads. (05:33) Comparison of Runway, Kling, Veo, and Sora—head-to-head prompt showdown. (07:00) Motion graphics and explainers—AI's take on the creative industry. (08:35) US vs. China—Copyright, IP, and training data debates. (12:10) Deepfake and video authenticity—why we now default to skepticism. (13:30) Google's edge in visual AI via YouTube's massive corpus. (14:39) The next frontier: Longer, more consistent video generation. (15:14) Where do humans fit in? Taste, storytelling, and creative direction. (18:30) GPT-5.3 Codex Spark—coding models on Cerebras inference chips, demo generating a website in 18 seconds. (24:34) AI tool comparisons—Codex vs. Cursor vs. Claude Code. (25:12) Speed as the key bottleneck breaker in creative and technical workflows. (28:02) Google's Gemini DeepThink—state-of-the-art research, advanced coding and physics capabilities. (32:52) Gemini demo attempt—3D-printable STL file and solving the three-body problem. (33:20) ChatGPT rolls out ads—impact on monetization and user trust. (40:02) Google's ad history—how “sponsored” is becoming harder to distinguish. (44:02) Democratizing AI access via ad-supported models. (45:03) Matt Schumer's viral article—why AI is moving even faster than most people realize. (51:11) Tools that build tools—AGI's path and the new role for humans. (53:12) Real-world skills and taste—where humanity still wins (for now). (54:01) Final thoughts—wake up, pay attention, and stay on the leading edge. — Mentions: Seedance 2.0: https://www.seedance.com/ ByteDance: https://www.bytedance.com/ CapCut: https://www.capcut.com/ Veo: https://deepmind.google/models/veo/ Runway: https://runwayml.com/ ChatGPT Codex: https://chatgpt.com/codex Matt Schumer's Viral Article: https://www.mattshumer.com/blog/ai-changes-everything Super Bowl Claude Commercial: https://www.anthropic.com/news/super-bowl-ad Get the guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/tnw — Check Out Matt's Stuff: • Future Tools - https://futuretools.beehiiv.com/ • Blog - https://www.mattwolfe.com/ • YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow — Check Out Nathan's Stuff: Newsletter: https://news.lore.com/ Blog - https://lore.com/ The Next Wave is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Production by Darren Clarke // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

From the BBC World Service: The Chinese tech company ByteDance says it'll curb its AI video app, Seedance, which is being used to create viral life-like clips of Hollywood stars; Disney and other entertainment giants have threatened legal action over it. Then, the UK government says it will review its regulation of AI to better protect children online. And later, Starbucks is hoping AI will help turn around the company's fortunes.

From the BBC World Service: The Chinese tech company ByteDance says it'll curb its AI video app, Seedance, which is being used to create viral life-like clips of Hollywood stars; Disney and other entertainment giants have threatened legal action over it. Then, the UK government says it will review its regulation of AI to better protect children online. And later, Starbucks is hoping AI will help turn around the company's fortunes.

The US entertainment giant accuses ByteDance of stealing its intellectual property by training its new AI tool, Seedance, on Disney characters and images of real-life actors. ByteDance says it will address Disney's concerns. Plus, Cuba cancels a prestigious cigar festival in a worsening fuel crisis caused by the US blocking oil from reaching the island. And Dave Stewart from the British eighties pop duo, The Eurythmics, talks about his new business venture. Presenter: Gideon Long Senior Producer: Craig Henderson

The US entertainment giants Disney gets tough with ByteDance over alleged copyright infringement.Disney accuses the Chinese tech firm ByteDance of stealing its intellectual property by training its new AI tool, Seedance, on Disney characters and images of real-life actors. ByteDance says it will address Disney's concerns.Cuba cancels a prestigious cigar festival in a worsening fuel crisis caused by the US blocking oil from reaching the island. We examine the chequered history in relations between Cuba and the US.And Dave Stewart, one half of British eighties pop duo, The Eurythmics, talks to the BBC about his new business venturePresenter: Gideon Long Senior Producer: Craig Henderson

Our 235th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!Recorded on 01/02/2026Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie HarrisFeel free to email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.aiRead out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/In this episode:* Major model launches include Anthropic's Opus 4.6 with a 1M-token context window and “agent teams,” OpenAI's GPT-5.3 Codex and faster Codex Spark via Cerebras, and Google's Gemini 3 Deep Think posting big jumps on ARC-AGI-2 and other STEM benchmarks amid criticism about missing safety documentation.* Generative media advances feature ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 text-to-video with high realism and broad prompting inputs, new image models Seedream 5.0 and Alibaba's Qwen Image 2.0, plus xAI's Grok Imagine API for text/image-to-video.* Open and competitive releases expand with Zhipu's GLM-5, DeepSeek's 1M-token context model, Cursor Composer 1.5, and open-weight Qwen3 Coder Next using hybrid attention aimed at efficient local/agentic coding.* Business updates include ElevenLabs raising $500M at an $11B valuation, Runway raising $315M at a $5.3B valuation, humanoid robotics firm Apptronik raising $935M at a $5.3B valuation, Waymo announcing readiness for high-volume production of its 6th-gen hardware, plus industry drama around Anthropic's Super Bowl ad and departures from xAI.Timestamps:(00:00:10) Intro / Banter(00:02:03) Sponsor Break(00:05:33) Response to listener commentsTools & Apps(00:07:27) Anthropic releases Opus 4.6 with new 'agent teams' | TechCrunch(00:11:28) OpenAI's new GPT-5.3-Codex is 25% faster and goes way beyond coding now - what's new | ZDNET(00:25:30) OpenAI launches new macOS app for agentic coding | TechCrunch(00:26:38) Google Unveils Gemini 3 Deep Think for Science & Engineering | The Tech Buzz(00:31:26) ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 Might be the Best AI Video Generator Yet - TechEBlog(00:35:14) China's ByteDance, Alibaba unveil AI image tools to rival Google's popular Nano Banana | South China Morning Post(00:36:54) DeepSeek boosts AI model with 10-fold token addition as Zhipu AI unveils GLM-5 | South China Morning Post(00:43:11) Cursor launches Composer 1.5 with upgrades for complex tasks(00:44:03) xAI launches Grok Imagine API for text and image to videoApplications & Business(00:45:47) Nvidia-backed AI voice startups ElevenLabs hits $11 billion valuation(00:52:04) AI video startup Runway raises $315M at $5.3B valuation, eyes more capable world models | TechCrunch(00:54:02) Humanoid robot startup Apptronik has now raised $935M at a $5B+ valuation | TechCrunch(00:57:10) Anthropic says 'Claude will remain ad-free,' unlike an unnamed rival | The Verge(01:00:18) Okay, now exactly half of xAI's founding team has left the company | TechCrunch(01:04:03) Waymo's next-gen robotaxi is ready for passengers — and also 'high-volume production' | The VergeProjects & Open Source(01:04:59) Qwen3-Coder-Next: Pushing Small Hybrid Models on Agentic Coding(01:08:38) OpenClaw's AI 'skill' extensions are a security nightmare | The VergeResearch & Advancements(01:10:40) Learning to Reason in 13 Parameters(01:16:01) Reinforcement World Model Learning for LLM-based Agents(01:20:00) Opus 4.6 on Vending-Bench – Not Just a Helpful AssistantPolicy & Safety(01:22:28) METR GPT-5.2(01:26:59) The Hot Mess of AI: How Does Misalignment Scale with Model Intelligence and Task Complexity?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

U.S. military reportedly used Anthropic's AI model Claude during classified Venezuela operation, Apple reports 66% of all iPhones now run iOS 26, security researchers identify more than 300 malicious Chrome extensions. MP3 Please SUBSCRIBE HERE for free or get DTNS Live ad-free. A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would beContinue reading "ByteDance Launches Duobao 2.0, Disney Goes After Seedance 2.0 – DTH"

Seedance 2.0 is the best AI video model we've ever seen. Bytedance's new AI tool generates 15 second clips of basically anything. But what happens next? And where do we go from here? Gavin got early access before it got locked down. We tested it with original animation, fake sitcoms, anime, and a McDonald's ad. The results are genuinely shocking - multi-shot editing, cinematic camera work, and real celebrity voices coming straight out of the model. People are making fake Seinfeld episodes, Avengers deleted scenes, and Rocky working at a fast food restaurant with Optimus Prime. Plus two new Chinese LLMs beating American models on benchmarks, Google Deep Think scores 84% on ARC-AGI, OpenAI's Codex Spark model, that viral AI post your mom sent you, and Kevin loses his mind building an Open Claw agent named Mr. Tibs who now requests server upgrades at 3am. HOLLYWOOD LAWYERS ARE GOING TO HAVE A VERY INTERESTING YEAR. ITS FINE. Come to our Discord: https://discord.gg/muD2TYgC8f Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AIForHumansShow AI For Humans Newsletter: https://aiforhumans.beehiiv.com/ Follow us for more on X @AIForHumansShow Join our TikTok @aiforhumansshow To book us for speaking, please visit our website: https://www.aiforhumans.show/   // Show Links // Seedance 2.0 - Bytedance's New AI Video Best Since Sora 2 https://seed.bytedance.com/en/seedance2_0 https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/bytedances-new-ai-video-model-goes-viral-china-looks-second-deepseek-moment-2026-02-12/ The Seinfeld Test: https://x.com/apples_jimmy/status/2021351821718225330?s=20 Even better The Seinfeld Fight: https://x.com/itspoidaman/status/2021409465355075655?s=20 Wolverine vs Thanos: https://x.com/AndrewCurran_/status/2021979655130296487?s=20 Avengers Endgame: https://x.com/cfryant/status/2021398605278376201?s=20 Tom Cruise vs Brad Pitt: https://x.com/RuairiRobinson/status/2021394940757209134?s=20 Ethan Hunt vs John Wick: https://x.com/chatcutapp/status/2021902856367092108?s=20 Gavin's Game of Friends Sitcom Test: https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2021418263432032635?s=20 Gavin's Rocky Balboa & Optimus Prime Test: https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2021429329012650045?s=20 Original Animation style: https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2021396803787383254?s=20 Anime test: https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2021732810554507352?s=20 Comparing AI McDonald's Ads: https://x.com/AIForHumansShow/status/1802715910488400047?s=20 GLM-5 from Z.AI https://x.com/Zai_org/status/2021638634739527773 https://z.ai/blog/glm-5 GLM-5 Gameboy Emulation https://x.com/Zai_org/status/2021754659590033565?s=20 New Minimax 2.5 Model https://x.com/MiniMax_AI/status/2021980761210134808?s=20 CODEX SPARK - Faster Codex https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-3-codex-spark/ New Google Deep Think Model CRUSHES Benchmarks https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/2021981510400709092?s=20 The 'Something Big Is Happening' Post Heard Round The World  https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/2021256989876109403?s=20 Gavin's Simultaneous Take (in Monday's newsletter too) https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2021292314291999182 AI 2027 https://ai-2027.com/ One-Shot Otter Anime From Ethan Mollick: https://x.com/emollick/status/2021412306291392535 The Best Prompt Ever Seedance https://x.com/Gossip_Goblin/status/2021468902220497061?s=20 MattVidPro's Shrek & Donkey Crash a Honda Accord https://x.com/MattVidPro/status/2021739211674566808?s=20