Podcasts about OpenAI

Zach Kass is a global AI advisor and former head of go-to-market at OpenAI, where he led the teams responsible for sales, partnerships and customer success. He was at OpenAI when the company launched ChatGPT in 2022. Motley Fool contributors Rachel Warren and Rich Lumelleau talk to Kass about his new book, The Next Renaissance: AI and the Expansion of Human Potential. Host: Rachel Warren, Rich Lumulleau Guest: Zack Kass   Producer: Bart Shannon, Mac Greer  Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, "TMF") do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement. We're committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aishwarya Naresh Reganti and Kiriti Badam have helped build and launch more than 50 enterprise AI products across companies like OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Databricks. Based on these experiences, they've developed a small set of best practices for building and scaling successful AI products. The goal of this conversation is to save you and your team a lot of pain and suffering.We discuss:1. Two key ways AI products differ from traditional software, and why that fundamentally changes how they should be built2. Common patterns and anti-patterns in companies that build strong AI products versus those that struggle3. A framework they developed from real-world experience to iteratively build AI products that create a flywheel of improvement4. Why obsessing about customer trust and reliability is an underrated driver of successful AI products5. Why evals aren't a cure-all, and the most common misconceptions people have about them6. The skills that matter most for builders in the AI era—Brought to you by:Merge—The fastest way to ship 220+ integrations: https://merge.dev/lennyStrella—The AI-powered customer research platform: https://strella.io/lennyBrex—The banking solution for startups: https://www.brex.com/product/business-account?ref_code=bmk_dp_brand1H25_ln_new_fs—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-openai-and-google-engineers-learned—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/183007822/referenced—Get 15% off Aishwarya and Kiriti's Maven course, Building Agentic AI Applications with a Problem-First Approach, using this link: https://bit.ly/3V5XJFp—Where to find Aishwarya Naresh Reganti:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/areganti• GitHub: https://github.com/aishwaryanr/awesome-generative-ai-guide• X: https://x.com/aish_reganti—Where to find Kiriti Badam:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sai-kiriti-badam• X: https://x.com/kiritibadam—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Aishwarya and Kiriti(05:03) Challenges in AI product development(07:36) Key differences between AI and traditional software(13:19) Building AI products: start small and scale(15:23) The importance of human control in AI systems(22:38) Avoiding prompt injection and jailbreaking(25:18) Patterns for successful AI product development(33:20) The debate on evals and production monitoring(41:27) Codex team's approach to evals and customer feedback(45:41) Continuous calibration, continuous development (CC/CD) framework(58:07) Emerging patterns and calibration(01:01:24) Overhyped and under-hyped AI concepts(01:05:17) The future of AI(01:08:41) Skills and best practices for building AI products(01:14:04) Lightning round and final thoughts—Referenced:• LevelUp Labs: https://levelup-labs.ai/• Why your AI product needs a different development lifecycle: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-your-ai-product-needs-a-different• Booking.com: https://www.booking.com• Research paper on agents in production (by Matei Zaharia's lab): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.04123• Matei Zaharia's research on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I1EvjZsAAAAJ&hl=en• The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-coming-ai-security-crisis• Gajen Kandiah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gajenkandiah• Rackspace: https://www.rackspace.com• The AI-native startup: 5 products, 7-figure revenue, 100% AI-written code | Dan Shipper (co-founder/CEO of Every): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-every-dan-shipper• Semantic Diffusion: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/SemanticDiffusion.html• LMArena: https://lmarena.ai• Artificial Analysis: https://artificialanalysis.ai/leaderboards/providers• Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-humans-are-ais-biggest-bottleneck• Airline held liable for its chatbot giving passenger bad advice—what this means for travellers: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know• Demis Hassabis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/demishassabis• We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/we-replaced-our-sales-team-with-20-ai-agents• Socrates's quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_unexamined_life_is_not_worth_living• Noah Smith's newsletter: https://www.noahpinion.blog• Silicon Valley on HBO Max: https://www.hbomax.com/shows/silicon-valley/b4583939-e39f-4b5c-822d-5b6cc186172d• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/• Wisprflow: https://wisprflow.ai• Raycast: https://www.raycast.com• Steve Jobs's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/463176-you-can-t-connect-the-dots-looking-forward-you-can-only—Recommended books:•  When Breath Becomes Air: https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X• The Three-Body Problem: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032• A Fire Upon the Deep: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Upon-Deep-Zones-Thought/dp/0812515285—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

Check out host Bidemi Ologunde's new show: The Work Ethic Podcast, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde unpacks OpenAI's newly released ChatGPT Health and what it signals about the future of consumer-facing healthcare AI. What exactly is "ChatGPT Health," and why is OpenAI moving from general chat to a dedicated health experience? When an AI gives the wrong answer in a high-stakes setting—medical advice, airline refunds, legal citations—who owns the liability: the user, the company deploying the chatbot, or the model-maker? How are regulators in the U.S., Europe, and beyond approaching AI in healthcare—and what counts as "wellness" versus "medical" software? Bidemi also explores the realities of AI error, hallucinations, and bias, and asks what these tools could mean for underserved and minority populations worldwide— including Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and communities in low-resource health systems.Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.comSupport for The Bid Picture Podcast comes from Intuit QuickBooks. If you're running a business, a side hustle, or just trying to stay on top of your money, QuickBooks helps you track income and expenses, send invoices, and see where things stand—without living in spreadsheets. It's tech that's meant to give you time back, so you can spend more of your attention on your life, not your tabs. If you're asked how you heard about QuickBooks, please mention The Bid Picture Podcast. Learn more at quickbooks.intuit.com.Support for The Bid Picture Podcast comes from VIZZ. If age-related blurry near vision—also called presbyopia—has you holding your phone farther away or avoiding the small print, ask your eye doctor about VIZZ, a once-daily prescription eye drop for adults that treats blurry near vision. Do not use VIZZ if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. The most common side effects are eye irritation, temporary dim or dark vision, headache, and eye redness. Be careful driving at night or doing activities that require clear vision until your vision returns to normal. If you're asked how you heard about VIZZ, please mention The Bid Picture Podcast. Learn more at vizz.com.Support for The Bid Picture Podcast comes from Rula. If you're trying to build a healthier relationship with tech—setting boundaries, breaking burnout patterns, or feeling more present—therapy can help, and Rula makes it easier to find licensed mental health providers and meet by video on a schedule that fits your life. If you're asked how you heard about Rula, please mention The Bid Picture Podcast. Learn more at rula.com.Support the show

 THE SAM ALTMAN MELODRAMA Colleague Gary Rivlin. The shock firing of Sam Altman by the OpenAI board over trust issues, Microsoft's intervention, and the rapid rehiring that solidified the race for dominance. NUMBER 161955

Welcome back to the digital wasteland, fellow survivors. We kick things off in the FOLLOW UP by marking a year since the LA Fires—hello, PTSD—alongside a 4th Strokiversary and three years of sobriety, all while wondering why America is currently obsessed with shooting its own civilians in the face.In the IN THE NEWS segment, Wired is finally teaching us how to protest safely in the age of surveillance, and the EFF is cheering on the hackers fighting ICE's Nazi-adjacent tracking tactics. Meanwhile, Meta is harvesting your AI chats for targeted ads, Disney is paying $10 million for spying on kids, and Grok has spent the holidays generating nonconsensual child abuse material—a problem Elon Musk won't have to legally reckon with until the Take It Down Act hits in May. Instagram's Adam Mosseri has basically surrendered to the AI "slop", suggesting we fingerprint "real" media because the fake stuff has already won the war.As we continue the descent, OpenAI is launching a ChatGPT Health portal despite their "loser energy" and compute limits, while Character.AI and Google are quietly settling lawsuits for bots that encouraged teen suicide. Polymarket gamblers are learning that "decentralized" juries will fist you over the definition of an "invasion" just as fast as a bank. Uber showed off a new Lucid-based robotaxi, but we're pumping the brakes on the safety hype given that autonomous vehicles are five times more likely to crash at dusk. To wrap up the news, Tim Cook took home $74 million last year, which is a lot of "systematic philanthropy" he could be doing right now instead of just writing checks to his own ego.In MEDIA CANDY, we're suffering through the Stranger Things wrap-up and a John McTiernan holiday marathon, though the real highlight is MTV Rewind's tribute to music videos. We've got Traitors, The Pitt, and even a John Candy doc on the list, while APPS & DOODADS brings us the DJI Osmo 8, Victrola's turntable-vibrating speakers. At least California's DROP tool lets you purge your data from 500 brokers at once.Finally, we go to THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE to hear Dave Bittner rant about holiday tech support, health insurance gouging, and Dave Filoni taking the Star Wars reins. We close out with a look at ILM's 50th, the deepfake porn cesspool formerly known as Twitter, and a birthday toast to the Starman himself, David Bowie.Sponsors:CleanMyMac - Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use code OLDGEEKS for 20% off at clnmy.com/OLDGEEKSPrivate 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/728Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/x-2GTUC6rcUIN THE NEWSHow to Protest Safely in the Age of SurveillanceHow Hackers Are Fighting Back Against ICEMeta's New Privacy Policy Opens Up AI Chats for Targeted AdsDisney to Pay $10 Million After Feds Say It Broke Kids' Privacy Rules on YouTubePeople Spent the Holidays Asking Grok to Generate Sexual Images of ChildrenHere's When Elon Musk Will Finally Have to Reckon With His Nonconsensual Porn GeneratorInstagram chief: AI is so ubiquitous 'it will be more practical to fingerprint real media than fake media'ChatGPT is launching a new dedicated Health portalCharacter.AI and Google settle with families in teen suicide and self-harm lawsuitsGambling platform Polymarket not paying bets on US invasion of VenezuelaUber reveals the design of its robotaxi at CES 2026Maybe We Should Pump the Brakes on the Idea That Robotaxis Are SaferHere's how much Tim Cook and other Apple execs made last yearMEDIA CANDYThe PittDownton Abbey: The Grand FinaleJurassic World RebirthThe Darjeeling LimitedOh Brother, Where Art Thou?Honey Don'tJohn Candy: I Like MeMTV Rewind is a developer's tribute to 24/7 music video channelsAPPS & DOODADSDJI Osmo Mobile 8Netflix GamesThis speaker by Victrola sits underneath turntables and streams audio via BluetoothDelete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP)THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEDave BittnerThe CyberWireHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopOnly Malware in the BuildingIndustrial Light & Magic: 50 Years of InnovationDave Filoni to run Star WarsWho's who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In August, a troubled man named Stein-Erik Soelberg killed his mother and took his own life. In the months leading up to the tragedy, Soelberg had been engaging in delusion-filled conversations with ChatGPT. Now, his mother's estate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, and Soelberg's son Erik wants the tech giant to take responsibility for a product that he believes deepened his father's decline. WSJ's Julie Jargon tells Ryan Knutson about the challenges facing OpenAI when it comes to mental health.  Further Listening: - A Troubled Man and His Chatbot - OpenAI's ‘Code Red' Problem Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#679: Will you still have a job in five years? Zack Kass, former OpenAI executive and 16-year AI veteran, joins us to tackle the question that keeps knowledge workers up at night. Most people worry about the economics — who can pay the bills if AI takes their job? Kass flips the question: What happens when work no longer defines who you are? He argues we're heading for an identity crisis bigger than any economic disruption. In this conversation, Kass explains why everyone wants everyone else's job automated (faster legal services, cheaper healthcare) but nobody wants their own work to disappear. He shares why some jobs will vanish while others explode in demand, and which professions might actually benefit from AI disruption. You'll discover why the real threat isn't job loss — it's that we've become addicted to our devices and forgotten how to live without constant work. Kass reveals how financial illiteracy keeps people trapped in debt cycles that AI could help break. He explains why housing, healthcare, and education costs stay high while everything else gets cheaper, and what might finally change that dynamic. The conversation explores what happens when AI makes basic needs affordable for everyone. Kass predicts some people will pursue passion projects, others will double down on work, and many will struggle to answer a simple question: What do you actually want to do with your day? We discuss practical realities like how a 53-year-old attorney might reinvent herself, why accountants face bigger challenges than lawyers, and which human skills will become more valuable as machines get smarter. Kass shares his theory about competing on kindness rather than intelligence when AI can outthink us all. This isn't another doom-and-gloom AI prediction. Kass makes a compelling case that automation could free us to rediscover community, creativity, and purpose … if we can get past our addiction to both work and screens long enough to imagine what that life looks like. Timestamps: Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising run times. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. 
(0:00) Introduction (2:00) Zack's AI background at OpenAI (3:15) Will knowledge workers have jobs (4:52) Job automation is complex (7:53) Longshoremen strike over automation (9:06) Everyone wants others' jobs automated (10:14) Identity crisis bigger than economics (13:36) Lawyers might enjoy job loss (21:42) Societal thresholds stop automation (28:52) Bespoke services always find demand (41:34) AI won't replace human therapists (47:11) Dehumanization threatens physical connections (54:55) Financial illiteracy costs billions (1:03:21) Predatory lending traps explained (1:11:51) Housing healthcare education stay expensive (1:26:31) Screen time hides free time Resource: AffordAnything.com/financialgoals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TRANSFORMERS AND OPENAI Colleague Gary Rivlin. The development of the "transformer" paper at Google, the rise of large language models like GPT, and OpenAI's pivot from non-profit to a Microsoft-backed entity. NUMBER 131950

The AI war ain't what you think it is family.

Today's episode breaks down OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT Health and what it reveals about how people are already using AI to navigate symptoms, medical information, insurance, and gaps in access across a strained healthcare system. The episode examines the usage data behind the launch, the new health-specific features and privacy architecture, early reactions from clinicians and industry insiders, and why health may become one of AI's strongest long-term data moats. In the headlines: record-setting AI fundraising rounds, LM Arena's rapid commercialization, and Google overtaking Apple as the world's second-most valuable company.Brought to you by:KPMG – Discover how AI is transforming possibility into reality. Tune into the new KPMG 'You Can with AI' podcast and unlock insights that will inform smarter decisions inside your enterprise. Listen now and start shaping your future with every episode. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.kpmg.us/AIpodcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Zencoder - From vibe coding to AI-first engineering - ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://zencoder.ai/zenflow⁠⁠⁠⁠Optimizely Opal - The agent orchestration platform build for marketers - https://www.optimizely.com/theaidailybriefRobots & Pencils - Cloud-native AI solutions that power results ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://robotsandpencils.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Agent Readiness Audit from Superintelligent - Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://besuper.ai/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to request your company's agent readiness score.The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@aidailybrief.ai

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. This week, we do our 2026 predictions in an abbreviated holiday-time episode. Here's what we cover: 1) Claude Code's ability to run autonomously and complete tasks 2) Claude's ability to use tools 3) Is this a big deal? 4) Can Claude Code style tools be used for more knowledge work? 5) Gmail adds AI 6) Another explanation for Meta's Manus purchase 7) OpenAI gets into healthcare (officially) 8) Future of the doctor-patient interaction 9) Are rigged prediction markets a good thing? 10) Do we still want to do busywork in the age of AI? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here's 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI robots are taking over CES 2025 and we're not sure how to feel about it. Boston Dynamics Atlas is doing things with its body that no robot should be able to do.  NVIDIA's new autonomous vehicle platform Alpa Mayo is coming for Tesla FSD. And you can now buy a $100 AI-powered drone that will hunt down whatever you point it at. Cool cool cool. Plus, Google finally put Gemini in Gmail (we tested it so you don't have to), OpenAI is building a mysterious Johnny Ive audio device, and Claude Code with Opus 4.5 has coders losing their minds over something called Ralph Wiggum. Yes, that Ralph Wiggum. We've also got ChatGPT Health, LG's towel-folding robot Clo, Unitree's intimidating 6-foot humanoid, and a look at what the future of AI agents might actually look like. Spoiler: it involves a lot of orchestration. THE ROBOTS ARE FLEXIBLE AND WE DON'T LIKE IT. Get notified when AndThen launches: https://andthen.chat/ Come to our Discord to try our Secret Project: 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 // Jensen Huang's NVIDIA CES Presentation:  https://youtu.be/uDNXjnOqJ-A?si=_h_0Fmiq788YaGZX New 'Alpamayo' Self Driving Car & Software  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jv1vd571wo Hands-on Test Of the Car https://youtu.be/EzAVW1VgzcI?si=B9JCJmSQW6ywXV1x Boston Dynamics New Robot Atlas https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/2008293610308202508?s=20 Real Atlas footage from CES https://x.com/IntuitMachine/status/2008324310230851697?s=20 Google DeepMind + Boston Dynamics https://bostondynamics.com/blog/boston-dynamics-google-deepmind-form-new-ai-partnership/?utm_source=x&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=&utm_content= LG's Cloid 'AI-enabled' Robot Does Laundry *Really* Slowly https://x.com/AP/status/2008746664841146722?s=20 $100 drone with an AI powered vision system… https://x.com/chesterzelaya/status/2008058706500759576?s=20 New Unitree Robot Jumpkicks https://x.com/UnitreeRobotics/status/2007746313220415717?s=20 Guy Gets Kicked In The Nuts By Unitree Robot https://x.com/TheCartelDel/status/2004977640521044335?s=20 Men's Health Device For… You Know https://www.tiktok.com/@verge/video/7592000373989133581 GMAIL is in its GEMINI ERA https://t.co/oq3jYKyvF1 OpenAI's New 'Code Audio': Improving the audio models for the upcoming Jony Ive gadget https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-ramps-audio-ai-efforts-ahead-device?rc=c3oojq&shared=1b7fd8b8ee0b0038 ChatGPT's Move Towards Personal Assistant https://fidjisimo.substack.com/p/closing-the-capability-gap ChatGPT For Health https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2008987566796640575?s=20 Opus 4.5 + Claude Code's Big Moment (maybe we just kind of chat about this) https://www.axios.com/2026/01/07/anthropics-claude-code-vibe-coding Ralph Wiggum + Claude Code https://venturebeat.com/technology/how-ralph-wiggum-went-from-the-simpsons-to-the-biggest-name-in-ai-right-now GAS TOWN https://steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-gas-town-4f25ee16dd04 FoFR Shares His JSON Prompting Techniques https://www.fofr.ai/prompting-with-json Gavin's Examples (What I Did With AI) https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2003148296844652662?s=20 https://x.com/gavinpurcell/status/2007194034171982122?s=20 Star Wars: Beggar's Canyon Is The World's Best AI Fan Film https://youtu.be/SGJC4Hnz3m0?si=EWZktHOnf6_cYcMh Related: PJ's Live Action Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer https://x.com/PJaccetturo/status/2008559114704875888?s=20 Show Fan Eric Curts Creates Cool Way To Make Graphic Novels in Notebook LM https://x.com/ericcurts/status/2007939089635369351?s=20 https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2026/01/graphicnovels.html   Somebod-AI that AI used to know? https://x.com/BrianRoemmele/status/2007838494513906051?s=20   Egg Protein https://x.com/Solopopsss/status/2008961579728130159?s=20  

Our analysts (or “bakers”) compete in a Great British Bake Off–style episode, discussing why Google may overtake OpenAI in 2026 and how the AI boom could get a reality check this year. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Principal Analyst Nate Elliot and Analyst Jacob Bourne. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.   The reports mentioned:  Tech Trends to Watch in 2026 AI Trends to Watch in 2026   Get more insights like these with our free, industry-leading newsletters covering advertising, marketing, and commerce. Sign up at emarketer.com/newsletters Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/ For sponsorship opportunities contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com For a transcript of this episode click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-great-btn-bake-take-off-genai-trends-2026-google-overtakes-openai-behind-numbers © 2026 EMARKETER

Andrew and Ben return from the holidays to discuss Ben's Article AI and the Human Condition, and various responses to the preponderance of pessimistic forecasts for what AI will mean for the future, including thoughts on employment, sex, and the problem with trying to regulate human nature. Then: An email about OpenAI spawns discussion of cultural assumptions, market incentives vs. social incentives, and tech as an amoral force. At the end: Unpacking the logic of Nvidia's deal with Groq, a regulator's own-goal, questions on streaming TV vs. music, sperm racing, and advice for a listener debating whether to embrace suburban living.

This week, we discuss AI's impact on Stack Overflow, Docker's Hardened Images, and Nvidia buying Groq. Plus, thoughts on playing your own game and having fun. Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode (https://www.youtube.com/live/LQSxLbjvz3c?si=ao8f3hwxlCrmH1vX) 554 (https://www.youtube.com/live/LQSxLbjvz3c?si=ao8f3hwxlCrmH1vX) Please complete the Software Defined Talk Listener Survey! (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfl7eHWQJwu2tBLa-FjZqHG2nr6p_Z3zQI3Pp1EyNWQ8Fu-SA/viewform?usp=header) Runner-up Titles It's all brisket after that. Exploring Fun Should I go build a snow man? Pets Innersourcing Two books Michael Lewis should write. Article IV is foundational. Freedom is options. Rundown Stack Overflow is dead. (https://x.com/rohanpaul_ai/status/2008007012920209674?s=20) Hardened Images for Everyone (https://www.docker.com/blog/docker-hardened-images-for-every-developer/) Tanzu's Bitnami stuff does this too (https://blogs.vmware.com/tanzu/what-good-software-supply-chain-security-looks-like-for-highly-regulated-industries/). OpenAI OpenAI's New Fundraising Round Could Value Startup at as Much as $830 Billion (https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openais-new-fundraising-round-could-value-startup-at-a[…]4238&segment_id=212500&user_id=c5a514ba8b7d9a954711959a6031a3fa) OpenAI Reportedly Planning to Make ChatGPT "Prioritize" Advertisers in Conversation (https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-chatgpt-sponsored-ads) OpenAI bets big on audio as Silicon Valley declares war on screens (https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/01/openai-bets-big-on-audio-as-silicon-valley-declares-war-on-screens/) Sam Altman says: He has zero percent interest in remaining OpenAI CEO, once (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/sam-altman-says-he-has-zero-percent-interest-remaining-openai-ceo-once-/articleshow/126350602.cms) Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq's assets for about $20 billion in its largest deal on record (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.html) Relevant to your Interests Broadcom IT uses Tanzu Platform to host MCP Servers (https://news.broadcom.com/app-dev/broadcom-tanzu-platform-agentic-business-transformation). A Brief History Of The Spreadsheet (https://hackaday.com/2025/12/15/a-brief-history-of-the-spreadsheet/) Databricks is raising over $4 billion in Series L funding at a $134 billion (https://x.com/exec_sum/status/2000971604449485132?s=20) Amazon's big AGI reorg decoded by Corey Quinn (https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/jassy_taps_peter_desantis_to_run_agi/) “They burned millions but got nothing.” (https://automaton-media.com/en/news/japanese-game-font-services-aggressive-price-hike-could-be-result-of-parent-companys-alleged-ai-failu/) X sues to protect Twitter brand Musk has been trying to kill (https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/x_twitter_brand_lawsuit/) Mozilla's new CEO says AI is coming to Firefox, but will remain a choice | TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/mozillas-new-ceo-says-ai-is-coming-to-firefox-but-will-remain-a-choice/) Why Oracle keeps sparking AI-bubble fears (https://www.axios.com/2025/12/18/ai-oracle-stock-blue-owl) What's next for Threads (https://sources.news/p/whats-next-for-threads) Salesforce Executives Say Trust in Large Language Models Has Declined (https://www.theinformation.com/articles/salesforce-executives-say-trust-generative-ai-declined?rc=giqjaz) Akamai Technologies Announces Acquisition of Function-as-a-Service Company Fermyon (https://www.akamai.com/newsroom/press-release/akamai-announces-acquisition-of-function-as-a-service-company-fermyon) Google Rolling Out Gmail Address Change Feature: Here Is How It Works (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-rolling-gmail-address-change-033112607.html) The Enshittifinancial Crisis (https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/) MongoBleed: Critical MongoDB Vulnerability CVE-2025-14847 | Wiz Blog (https://www.wiz.io/blog/mongobleed-cve-2025-14847-exploited-in-the-wild-mongodb) Softbank to buy data center firm DigitalBridge for $4 billion in AI push (https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/12/29/digitalbridge-shares-jump-on-report-softbank-in-talks-to-acquire-firm.html) The best tech announced at CES 2026 so far (https://www.theverge.com/tech/854159/ces-2026-best-tech-gadgets-smartphones-appliances-robots-tvs-ai-smart-home) Who's who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter (https://www.ft.com/content/ad94db4c-95a0-4c65-bd8d-3b43e1251091?accessToken=zwAGR7kzep9gkdOtlNtMlaBMZdO9jTtD4SUQkQ.MEYCIQCdZajuC9uga-d9b5Z1t0HI2BIcnkVoq98loextLRpCTgIhAPL3rW72aTHBNL_lS7s1ONpM2vBgNlBNHDBeGbHkPkZj&sharetype=gift&token=a7473827-0799-4064-9008-bf22b3c99711) Manus Joins Meta for Next Era of Innovation (https://manus.im/blog/manus-joins-meta-for-next-era-of-innovation) The WELL: State of the World 2026 with Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky (https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/561/State-of-the-World-2026-with-Bru-page01.html) Virtual machines still run the world (https://cote.io/2026/01/07/virtual-machines-still-run-the.html) Databases in 2025: A Year in Review (https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pavlo/blog/2026/01/2025-databases-retrospective.html) Chat Platform Discord Files Confidentially for IPO (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-06/chat-platform-discord-is-said-to-file-confidentially-for-ipo?embedded-checkout=true) The DRAM shortage explained: AI, rising prices, and what's next (https://www.techradar.com/pro/why-is-ram-so-expensive-right-now-its-more-complicated-than-you-think) Nonsense Palantir CEO buys monastery in Old Snowmass for $120 million (https://www.denverpost.com/2025/12/17/palantir-alex-karp-snowmass-monastery/amp/) H-E-B gives free groceries to all customers after registers glitch today in Burleson, Texas. (https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/ZEcblg7atP) Conferences cfgmgmtcamp 2026 (https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/), February 2nd to 4th, Ghent, BE. Coté speaking - anyone interested in being a SDI guest? DevOpsDayLA at SCALE23x (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x), March 6th, Pasadena, CA Use code: DEVOP for 50% off. Devnexus 2026 (https://devnexus.com), March 4th to 6th, Atlanta, GA. Coté has a discount code, but he's not sure if he can give it out. He's asking! Send him a DM in the meantime. KubeCon EU, March 23rd to 26th, 2026 - Coté will be there on a media pass. Whole bunch of VMUGs, mostly in the US. The CFPs are open (https://app.sessionboard.com/submit/vmug-call-for-content-2026/ae1c7013-8b85-427c-9c21-7d35f8701bbe?utm_campaign=5766542-VMUG%20Voice&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_YREN7dr6p3KSQPYkFSN5K85A-pIVYZ03ZhKZOV0O3t3h0XHdDHethhx5O8gBFguyT5mZ3n3q-ZnPKvjllFXYfWV3thg&_hsmi=393690000&utm_content=393685389&utm_source=hs_email), go speak at them! Coté speaking in Amsterdam. Amsterdam (March 17-19, 2026), Minneapolis (April 7-9, 2026), Toronto (May 12-14, 2026), Dallas (June 9-11, 2026), Orlando (October 20-22, 2026) SDT News & Community Join our Slack community (https://softwaredefinedtalk.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-1hn55iv5d-UTfN7mVX1D9D5ExRt3ZJYQ#/shared-invite/email) Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Follow us on social media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com) Watch us on: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk) Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt) Sponsor the show (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads): ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Recommendations Brandon: Why Data Doesn't Always Win, with a Philosopher of Art (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-points-you-shouldnt-score-a-new-years-resolution/id1685093486?i=1000743950053) (Apple Podcasts) Why Data Doesn't Always Win, with a Philosopher of Art (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AdbePyGS2M&list=RD7AdbePyGS2M&start_radio=1) (YouTube) Coté: “Databases in 2025: A Year in Review.” (https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pavlo/blog/2026/01/2025-databases-retrospective.html) Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/red-and-black-love-neon-light-signage-igJrA98cf4A)

The squad is back for 2026 with updates: Dave's Montana “Snow Report” (spoiler: none), Brit's contrarian love letter to CES, and Sam's new “serious 40-year-old” fashion era. We go rapid-fire through the biggest headlines from the past few weeks we were offline—OpenAI's health app, China cutting off the H200, and a wave of 2026 liquidity from SpaceX and AI that could mint centi-billionaires, or even trillionaires. Sam unpacks his viral 2026 memo, returning to a familiar theme from the pod: why narratives now matter more than reality, why seed should fund “infinity stories,” and how AI is turning software into consumable media. We also dig into the hot topic of the week—California's wealth tax and founder flight—plus AI partners, Claude-code mania, real-world clinical AI, America's hat discourse, and one very specific New Year's resolution (PS: this is why Sam is wearing a collared shirt). Welcome back to More or Less.Chapters:01:04 Morin's Weather Report from Montana01:51 CES Corner: The Squad Yucks on Brit's Yum05:43 The Information: Breaking China's H200 ban (US Vs China Tech Trade War)07:22 Quick Recap: Gifting Etiquette for VCs10:00 2026 liquidity wave: Trillionaire era15:35 California's new wealth tax: Its losing out on the liquidity20:05 Sam's 2026 memo: narratives > reality, seed strategy, and end of the SaaS era31:23 AI companions vs real-world relationships (embodiment over abstraction)48:52 OpenAI Health deep dive56:00 Sam's new style (and hygiene routine) for 2026We're also on ↓X: https://twitter.com/moreorlesspodInstagram: https://instagram.com/moreorlessYouTube: https://youtu.be/DMEDrOnLAGMConnect with us here:1) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin2) Dave Morin: https://x.com/davemorin3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

Paris Marx is joined by Karen Hao to discuss how Sam Altman's goal of scale at all costs has spawned a new empire founded on exploitation of people and the environment, resulting in not only the loss of valuable research into more inventive AI systems, but also exacerbated data privacy issues, intellectual property erosion, and the perpetuation of surveillance capitalism. Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist and the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. This episode originally aired in June 2025. Also mentioned in this episode: Karen was the first journalist to profile OpenAI. Karen has reported on the environmental impacts and human costs of AI. The New York Times reported on why we're unlikely to get artificial general intelligence anytime soon.

AGENDA: 04:30 Groq Acquired by NVIDIA for $20BN: The Breakdown 17:13 Meta's $2BN Acquisition of Manus: Did They Sell Too Early 36:04 OpenAI's Stock-Based Compensation Strategy 47:42 Will AI Replace Venture Capitalists 56:13 Navan Trading at 4x ARR: Who is Good Enough to Go Public? 01:09:46 The Rise of Invisible Unemployment 01:14:21 The Future of Work and Education in an AI-Driven World    

Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer and David Faber explored what to make of the rally in defense stocks such as Northrop Grumman — after President Trump called for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027. Breaking news from David on Paramount Skydance's response to Warner Bros. Discovery after WBD rejected its amended takeover offer. A mega-cap shift in big tech as Alphabet surpasses Apple to become the second-most valuable company. Also in focus: President Trump set to meet with oil company CEOs on Friday to discuss reviving the production of crude in Venezuela, Nvidia's H200 chips and China, Costco's sales beat, "Faber Report" on Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Studies suggest that once you stop taking wegovy, you could gain the weight you lost back. Open AI is launching Chat GPT Health. New US dietary guidelines change the alcohol guidelines.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In-person recording from MGM Grand, we share the highlights from CES including LEGO Smart bricks, multiple humanoid robots, the latest smart home gear, and what exactly is AI doing in everything?Note: No video episode this weekAd-Free + Bonus EpisodesShow Notes via EmailWatch on YouTube!Join the CommunityEmail Us: podcast@primarytech.fm@stephenrobles on Threads@jasonaten on Threads------------------------------Sponsors:Antigravity A1 - Get the world's first 8K 360 drone! Free launch pad when you buy here!CleanMyMac - Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use my code PRIMARYTECH for 20% off at clnmy.com/PrimaryTechnology------------------------------Links from the showLIVE from the CES 2026 Show Floor! - YouTubeCES 2026 Day 1: Smart LEGO Bricks, AI Robots, and Smart Home - YouTubeThe State of Smart Home at CES - YouTubeLEGO Just Announced Its Biggest Innovation Since the MinifigThe Most Revealing Thing About Nvidia's New Chip Comes Down to the Name ★ Support this podcast ★

Google has introduced an AI-powered inbox view for Gmail, designed to enhance user experience by transforming the traditional email interface into a personalized platform that includes to-do items and topic summaries. This feature, currently available to trusted testers in the U.S. for consumer Gmail accounts, aims to help users manage their emails more effectively. However, concerns have been raised about the potential for users to feel overwhelmed by excessive to-do suggestions, and Google has stated that users can opt out of these AI features. The company also reassured users that their Gmail content is not utilized for training AI models.OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Health, a tool that allows users to ask health-related questions in a secure environment while connecting their medical records and wellness apps. Although the tool is not intended for diagnosis or treatment, it raises significant concerns regarding safety and privacy, particularly in sensitive areas like mental health. OpenAI has collaborated with over 260 physicians to refine the model, but the lack of full compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has led to calls for caution, especially for users with health anxiety. The implications of these tools extend beyond user convenience, as they redefine the nature of work and authority in digital environments.The episode also discusses the growing backlash against AI infrastructure, particularly in local communities where data centers are being proposed. Reports indicate that opposition is rising across the political spectrum, with residents voicing concerns about the environmental and economic impacts of these developments. Additionally, polling data shows that 80% of American adults believe the government should regulate AI, reflecting a significant political opportunity for the Democratic Party. This sentiment is prompting leaders to adopt more vocal stances against AI, as many voters feel threatened by its rapid advancement.For Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT service leaders, these developments underscore the importance of understanding the evolving regulatory landscape surrounding AI technologies. As states implement new laws addressing AI safety and consumer rights, MSPs must navigate the complexities of compliance and governance. The episode highlights the necessity for providers to establish clear boundaries regarding AI's influence in client environments, ensuring accountability and minimizing liability risks. As AI continues to integrate into various aspects of technology, the need for informed decision-making and proactive engagement with regulatory changes becomes increasingly critical. Four things to know today 00:00 Google and OpenAI Recast AI as an Authority Layer Over Email and Health Data05:03 From Data Centers to Regulation, AI Expansion Encounters Political and Community Limits08:18 AI, Privacy, and Liability Converge as States Fill the Regulatory Vacuum Left by Washington14:07 Dell Says Consumers Aren't Buying PCs for AI Features, Despite NPU Push This is the Business of Tech.     Supported by: 

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1238:  Ford is promising eyes-off driving by 2028. But back in the bays, finding top-tier techs is still a $160K challenge. OpenAI wants to be your new health co-pilot with ChatGPT Health.Show Notes with links: https://www.autonews.com/ford/an-ces-2026-ford-doug-field-panel-0107/“Eyes off the road” is Ford's new promise—and it's coming sooner than you might expect.Ford announced an “eyes-off” driving system launching in 2028, debuting on its new Universal EV Platform.The platform will support up to 8 affordable EVs, including a $30K midsize pickup.AI assistant coming to the Ford and Lincoln app in 2026 and vehicles like Expedition and Navigator in 2027.Ford is vertically integrating hardware and software to reduce driver-assist system costs by 30%.“Too many companies have outsourced the whole soul of their machines…we chose a more difficult task,” said Doug Field, Ford's Chief EV, Digital, and Design Officer.https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/the-160-000-mechanic-job-that-ford-cant-fill-fe6fd121?mod=autos_news_article_pos3Let's talk about the $160K Ford Mechanic Job No One Wants. Ford has 5,000 open service bay jobs, some paying over $120K. But techs say the path to get there is grueling and costly—with few making it to the top.Ted Hummel, a Senior Master Tech in Ohio, made $160K in 2025—but it took over a decade to reach.Entry-level techs often start under $10/hr and must invest tens of thousands in tools and training.The “flat rate” pay system rewards speed, not hours worked—but also means zero pay when work is slow.Physical strain is intense; many leave the profession due to injury before reaching top pay.“A bay with a lift and tools and no one to work in it,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley, calling it a nationwide crisis.https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-health/ChatGPT Enters the Health Chat: OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT Health, a new experience designed to help users navigate health information more confidently—by connecting medical records and wellness apps securely to AI.Over 230 million people use ChatGPT weekly for health and wellness questions.The Health experience is separate from general ChatGPT chats, with extra layers of privacy and encryption.Users can link data from apps like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and Function for more personalized advice.Medical info stays isolated within Health and is not used for training models.Built with input from 260+ physicians, it's designed to support, not replace, clinical care.“It helps you understand patterns over time—not just moments of illness,” OpenAI said in the announcement.Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

In this episode, we explore OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT Health and what it means for the 230 million weekly users already asking about health topics. I break down how this new focus could change everyday access to health information and why it matters.Get the top 40+ AI Models for $20 at AI Box: ⁠⁠https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustleSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

TO LEARN MORE:       www.CrossFitEdwardsville.com       www.Facebook.com/CrossFitEdwardsville      TikTok: @crossfitedwardsville      Instagram: @crossfitedwardsville        Twitter: @cfedwardsville        YouTube: CrossFit Edwardsville TO GET STARTED AT CFE:     Book a No-Sweat Conversation with a coach, using this scheduler:          https://crossfitedwardsville.com/intro/    You can also find the link to schedule on our website. While this show is educational & entertaining in nature, it does not replace or supplant professional medical guidance from your own physician. Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, please first consult with your doctor.  

Send us a text在 2026 年的开年，《柠檬变成柠檬水》来聊一场正在悄悄重塑世界的技术战争。当越来越多人不再“搜一下”，而是直接“问 AI”，互联网最核心、也最值钱的资产，“入口权”，正在被重新洗牌。这一期节目，主持人俞骅和Poy Zhong从历史出发，回看入口权如何一次次造就科技巨头：从 PC 时代的微软，到搜索时代的 Google，再到今天围绕 AI 展开的新博弈。我们拆解了 Google 的焦虑与反击、OpenAI 离入口最近却不真正掌控入口的处境，以及 Apple 那个最安静、却最难被撼动的默认优势。AI 表面上是在拼模型、比技术，但真正的胜负，或许早已发生在用户决定“第一步去哪”的那一刻。欢迎大家收听！请您在Apple Podcasts, 小宇宙APP, Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube, Amazon Music等，搜寻”柠檬变成柠檬水“。Support the showThank you for listening to our podcasts. We also welcome you to join the "Turn Lemons Into Lemonade" LinkedIn page! Join our very popular WeChat community, please use WeChat ID "reelstone" to contact us.

Artificial intelligence is moving fast - from chatbots to autonomous systems and physical machines. As investment surges, so do concerns about job losses, surveillance, warfare and whether the boom can last. We take a look at where AI is headed in 2026 and the growing resistance against unchecked technological power. In this episode: Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant), Writer of Blood in the Machine newsletter Episode credits: This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker and Chloe K. Li with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Fatima Shafiq, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Noor Wazwaz. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Joe Devon is helping measure accessibility in code and yes, he's worried about jobs too, but there's also good it can do. Learn more about AIMAC's: AI Model Accessibility Checker https://aimac.ai The GAAD Foundation https://gaad.foundation Global Accessibility Awareness Day. https://accessibility.day/ Support the show on Patreon by becoming a supporter!

‘Is it a bubble?' John Lanchester asked in a recent LRB of the colossal amounts of money pouring into AI firms. ‘Of course it's a bubble. The salient questions are how we got here, and what happens next.' On this episode of the podcast, John joins Thomas Jones to discuss some possible answers to those questions. They talk about the history of companies such as Nvidia and OpenAI, the reasons ‘artificial intelligence' is a misnomer, the harms that large language models can cause, and why you shouldn't. From the LRB Subscribe to the LRB: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/subslrbpod Close Readings podcast: ⁠https://lrb.me/crlrbpod⁠ LRB Audiobooks: ⁠https://lrb.me/audiobookslrbpod⁠ Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: ⁠https://lrb.me/storelrbpod⁠ Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

We're finally LIVE from the CES show floor in this special bonus episode! Regular weekly show coming tomorrow. ★ Support this podcast ★

The biggest tech news & social media trends on the internet from January 7th, 2026.Join our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/CentennialWorld  Timestamps:00:00 Intro 1:06 Is OpenAI buying Pinterest?4:51 Anna's Archive domain name suspended 8:36 Reddit overtakes TikTok in site visits in the UK 12:45 Grok generating images undressing women  Subscribe to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/18cqrQI7gMiVfxIMRAeULF   Subscribe to Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/infinite-scroll/id1499785732   Subscribe to our weekly Substack: https://centennialworld.substack.com/   Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infinitescrollpodcast/   Follow our publication: https://www.tiktok.com/@centennialworld   Follow Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenmeisner_/   Follow Lauren on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurenmeisner_Please consider buying us a coffee to help keep Centennial World's weekly podcasts going! Every single dollar goes back into this business

Our 230th 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:Nvidia's acquisition of AI chip startup Groq for $20 billion highlights a strategic move for enhanced inference technology in GPUs.New York's RAISE Act legislation aims to regulate AI safety, marking the second major AI safety bill in the US.The launch of GLM 4.7 by Zhipu AI marks a significant advancement in open-source AI models for coding.Evaluation of long-horizon AI agents raises concerns about the rising costs and efficiency of AI in performing extended tasks.Timestamps:(00:00:10) Intro / Banter(00:01:58) 2025 RetrospectiveTools & Apps(00:24:39) OpenAI bets big on audio as Silicon Valley declares war on screens | TechCrunchApplications & Business(00:26:39) Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20 billion, biggest deal(00:34:28) Exclusive | Meta Buys AI Startup Manus, Adding Millions of Paying Users - WSJ(00:38:05) Cursor continues acquisition spree with Graphite deal | TechCrunch(00:39:15) Micron Hikes CapEx to $20B with 2026 HBM Supply Fully Booked; HBM4 Ramps 2Q26(00:42:06) Chinese fabs are reportedly upgrading older ASML DUV lithography chipmaking machines — secondary channels and independent engineers used to soup up Twinscan NXT seriesProjects & Open Source(00:47:52) Z.AI launches GLM-4.7, new SOTA open-source model for coding(00:50:11) Evaluating AI's ability to perform scientific research tasksResearch & Advancements(00:54:32) Large Causal Models from Large Language Models(00:57:33) Universally Converging Representations of Matter Across Scientific Foundation Models(01:02:11) META-RL INDUCES EXPLORATION IN LANGUAGE AGENTS(01:07:16) Are the Costs of AI Agents Also Rising Exponentially?(01:11:17) METR eval for Opus 4.5(01:16:19) How to game the METR plotPolicy & Safety(01:17:24) New York governor Kathy Hochul signs RAISE Act to regulate AI safety | TechCrunch(01:20:40) Activation Oracles: Training and Evaluating LLMs as General-Purpose Activation Explainers(01:26:46) Monitoring Monitorability(01:32:07) Sam Altman is hiring someone to worry about the dangers of AI | The Verge(01:33:38) X users asking Grok to put this girl in bikini, Grok is happy obliging - India TodaySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

According to Sam Altman, OpenAI's biggest rival isn't Google, it's Apple. WSJ reporter Rolfe Winkler says the AI startup has big ambitions to displace the App Store by growing into an operating system powerful enough to let you access the apps you use every day, from Uber to Instacart, without ever leaving ChatGPT. Plus, WSJ personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen breaks down how AI might help you (finally) stick with your fitness resolutions. Patrick Coffee hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial intelligence adoption is accelerating without formal ownership as employees, customers, and patients integrate AI tools into daily decisions. Surveys from Gallup show 45% of U.S. employees use AI at work at least occasionally, while research cited by OpenAI indicates roughly 60% of American adults recently used AI for health-related questions. Zoho and Arion Research report that 41% of organizations have strengthened privacy measures after adopting AI, reflecting growing concern about data exposure and accountability. For MSPs, the shift places liability closer to the systems being used rather than the vendors supplying them.Trust in digital media is also eroding as AI-generated content becomes harder to distinguish from authentic material. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri states that assuming photos or videos reflect real events is no longer reliable and suggests verification at the point of capture rather than labeling generated content. This approach reframes trust as a technical system rather than a social assumption. For IT providers, the issue extends beyond social platforms to security footage, compliance evidence, training data, and any asset where authenticity must be demonstrated.At the same time, automation and AI training are converging on the same constraint: expert judgment. HireArt's 2025 AI Trainer Compensation Report shows subject-matter experts earning $60 to more than $180 per hour, compared with under $20 for generalist data labelers, reflecting the cost of errors in regulated or technical fields. Kaseya's 2025 EMEA MSP Benchmark Report finds that while nearly 75% of MSPs expect revenue growth, 45% face staffing and skills shortages, increasing reliance on automation built on accurate data and curated exceptions.Major vendors are embedding judgment directly into platforms. ServiceNow's planned $7.75 billion acquisition of Armis expands asset classification and risk scoring within workflows. Freshworks' acquisition of FireHydrant integrates AI-driven incident management into ITSM. Google Cloud's revamped Partner Network shifts incentives toward outcome-based tiers beginning in 2026. For MSPs and IT service leaders, these moves concentrate responsibility around interpretation, governance, and accountability, even as tools increasingly define risk and success.Four things to know today00:00 Surveys Show AI Adoption Is Happening Without Ownership as Employees, Customers, and Patients Lead Usage04:50 Instagram's CEO Says Trust Is No Longer Assumed as AI Forces Proof-of-Reality Models07:22 AI and MSP Automation Are Converging on the Same Bottleneck: Expert Judgment09:52 Vendors Shift From Tools to Judgement as ServiceNow, Freshworks, and Google Cloud Embed Risk, Incidents, and Outcomes This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/

I sat down with Evan Shapiro, the legendary media cartographer and author of the must-read substack Media War and Peace, to kick off 2026 with bold predictions about where our industry is heading. Evan didn't hold back as he unpacked the tension between AI-driven automation and the raw authenticity that makes creators so powerful. We explored how scale and reach are becoming vanity metrics, while fandom and engagement are what truly matter now. From Under Armor to Procter & Gamble, major brands are launching their own content channels and becoming creators themselves rather than just renting influencers. This isn't your typical brand content strategy, this is a fundamental shift in how marketing dollars flow.We also tackled the elephant in the room: YouTube's dominance and whether anyone can challenge it, the explosive growth of retail media networks like Walmart and Amazon, and why traditional media companies like Disney and Warner Brothers are finally embracing platforms they once feared. Evan predicts the AI bubble will burst in 2026, not because the technology isn't valuable, but because it won't be the sexy revolution everyone's hyping. Instead, AI will improve things behind the scenes with targeting optimization and efficiency gains. Plus, we discussed the rise of social media politicians and how $2.5 billion in political ad spending could fundamentally change addressable TV advertising. This conversation is packed with insights you won't want to miss. Key Highlights 

Au programme :La vraie star du CES : LEGO !TikTok US arrive, et personne n'est content ?Grok déshabille tout le monde, et surtout les femmes bien sûrLe reste de l'actualité : Elon Musk, L'IA et l'échafaudage pour le potentiel humain…Infos :Animé par Patrick Beja (Bluesky, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok).Co-animé par Korben (site)Produit par Patrick Beja (LinkedIn) et Fanny Cohen Moreau (LinkedIn).Musique libre de droit par Daniel BejaLe Rendez-vous Tech épisode épisode 648 – On ne retient qu'un truc du CES: LEGO Smart Bricks---Liens :

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on January 05, 2026. This podcast was generated by wondercraft.ai (00:30): It's hard to justify Tahoe iconsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46497712&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(01:53): Anna's Archive loses .org domain after surprise suspensionOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46497164&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(03:17): There were BGP anomalies during the Venezuela blackoutOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46504963&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(04:40): Databases in 2025: A Year in ReviewOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496103&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(06:04): Murder-suicide case shows OpenAI selectively hides data after users dieOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46499983&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(07:28): RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kidsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46499976&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(08:51): Google broke my heartOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46505518&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(10:15): During Helene, I just wanted a plain text websiteOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46494734&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(11:39): Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496465&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(13:02): I switched from VSCode to ZedOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498735&utm_source=wondercraft_aiThis is a third-party project, independent from HN and YC. Text and audio generated using AI, by wondercraft.ai. Create your own studio quality podcast with text as the only input in seconds at app.wondercraft.ai. Issues or feedback? We'd love to hear from you: team@wondercraft.ai

#1. SpaceX's Olympics#2. Starbucks' Library#3. OpenAI's company townTo kick off 2026, we whipped up our 7th annual “3 big business wishes” for the coming year. These ain't *just* predictions — they're wild wishes that if you think about it, make a ton of sense. Predictions sprinkled with razzle dazzle & sprinkle dinkle.Hit us up @tboypod to let us know what you think of these predictions… and to let us know yours.——————————————Buy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYAustin, TX (2/25): https://tickets.austintheatre.org/13274/13275 Arlington, VA (3/11): https://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/shows/341317 New York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): https://www.squadup.com/events/the-best-one-yet-liveGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence? Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+ Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech 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: zscaler.com/security canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT monarch.com with code TWIT Melissa.com/twit redis.io

Coming to you live from Las Vegas with the first of the CES madness. More signs that insider betting on prediction markets is going to become something we're going to have to live with. Is Reddit bigger than TikTok now, at least by one measure? And how Reels became bigger than YouTube by maybe the most important measure. Exclusive: Samsung to double AI mobile devices to 800 million units this year (Reuters) Voice control opening and closing comes to Samsung's Family Hub smart fridges (The Verge) Someone made a ton of money betting on Maduro's capture (The Verge) SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to launch landmark IPOs (Financial Times) Reddit overtakes TikTok in UK thanks to search algorithms and gen Z (The Guardian) How Meta's Reels Became a $50 Billion Business (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meta just made a multi-billion acquisition for AI agents.

What does 2026 hold for indie authors and the publishing industry? I give my thoughts on trends and predictions for the year ahead. In the intro, Quitting the right stuff; how to edit your author business in 2026; Is SubStack Good for Indie Authors?; Business for Authors webinars. If you'd like to join my community and support the show every month, you'll get access to my growing list of Patron videos and audio on all aspects of the author business — for the price of a black coffee (or two) a month. Join us at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn. Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F. Penn. She's also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. (1) More indie authors will sell direct through Shopify, Kickstarter, and local in-person events (2) AI-powered search will start to shift elements of book discoverability (3) The start of Agentic Commerce (4) AI-assisted audiobook narration will go mainstream (5) AI-assisted translation will start to take off beyond the early adopters (6) AI video becomes ubiquitous. ‘Live selling' becomes the next trend in social sales. (7) AI will create, run, and optimise ads without the need for human intervention (8) 1000 True Fans becomes more important than ever You can find all my books as J.F. Penn and Joanna Penn on your favourite online store in all the usual formats, or order from your local library or bookstore. You can also buy direct from me at CreativePennBooks.com and JFPennBooks.com. I'm not really active on social media, but you can always see my photos at Instagram @jfpennauthor. 2026 Trends and Predictions for Indie Authors and Book Publishing (1) More indie authors will sell direct through Shopify, Kickstarter, and local in-person events — and more companies like BookVault will offer even more beautiful physical books and products to support this. This trend will not be a surprise to most of you! Selling direct has been a trend for the last few years, but in 2026, it will continue to grow as a way that independent authors become even more independent. The recent Written Word Media survey from Dec 2025 noted that 30% of authors surveyed are selling direct already and 30% say they plan to start in 2026. Among authors earning over $10,000 per month, roughly half sell direct. In my opinion, selling direct is an advanced author strategy, meaning that you have multiple books and you understand book marketing and have an email list already or some guaranteed way to reach readers. In fact, Kindlepreneur reports that 66% of authors selling direct have more than 5 books, and 46% have more than 10 books. Of course, you can start with the something small, like a table at a local event with a limited number of books for sale, but if you want to consistently sell direct for years to come, you need to consider all the business aspects. Selling direct is not a silver bullet. It's much harder work to sell direct than it is to just upload an ebook to Amazon, whether you choose a Kickstarter campaign, or Shopify/Payhip or other online stores, or regular in-person sales at events/conferences/fairs. You need a business mindset and business practices, for example, you need to pay upfront for setup as well as ongoing management, and bulk printing in some cases. You need to manage taxes and cashflow. You need to be a lot more proactive about marketing, as you won't sell anything if you don't bring readers to your books/products. But selling direct also brings advantages. It sets you apart from the bulk of digital only authors who still only upload ebooks to Amazon, or maybe add a print on demand book, and in an era of AI rapid creation, that number is growing all the time. If you sell direct, you get your customer data and you can reach those customers next time, through your email list. If you don't know who bought your books and don't have a guaranteed way to reach them, you will more easily be disrupted when things change — and they always change eventually. Kindlepreneur notes that “45% of the successful direct selling authors had over 1,000 subscribers on their email lists,” with “a clear, positive correlation between email list size and monthly direct sales income — with authors having an email list of over 15,000 subscribers earning 20X more than authors with email lists under 100 subscribers.” Selling direct means faster money, sometimes the same day or the same week in many cases, or a few weeks after a campaign finishes, as with Kickstarter. And remember, you don't have to sell all your formats directly. You can keep your ebooks in KU, do whatever you like with audiobooks, and just have premium print products direct, or start with a very basic Kickstarter campaign, or a table at a local fair. Lots more tips for Shopify and Kickstarter at https://www.thecreativepenn.com/selldirectresources/ I also recommend the Novel Marketing Podcast on The Shopify Trap: Why authors keep losing money as it is a great counterpoint to my positive endorsement of selling direct on Shopify! Among other things, Thomas notes that a fixed monthly fee for a store doesn't match how most authors make money from books which is more in spikes, the complexity and hassle eats time and can cost more money if you pay for help, and it can reduce sales on Amazon and weaken your ranking. Basically, if you haven't figured out marketing direct to your store, it can hurt you.All true for some authors, for some genres, and for some people's lifestyle. But for authors who don't want to be on the hamster wheel of the Amazon algorithm and who want more diversity and control in income, as well as the incredible creative benefits of what you can do selling direct, then I would say, consider your options in 2025, even if that is trying out a low-financial-goal Kickstarter campaign, or selling some print books at a local fair. Interestingly, traditional publishers are also experimenting with direct sales. Kate Elton, the new CEO of Harper Collins notes in The Bookseller's 2026 trend article, “we are seeing global success with responsive, reader-driven publishing, subscription boxes and TikTok Shop and – crucially – developing strategies that are founded on a comprehensive understanding of the reader.” She also notes, “AI enables us to dramatically change the way we interact with and grow audiences. The opportunities are genuinely exciting – finding new ways to help readers discover books they will love, innovating in the ways we market and reach audiences, building new channels and adapting to new methods of consuming content.” (2) AI-powered search will start to shift elements of book discoverability From LinkedIn's 2026 Big Ideas: “Generative engine optimization (GEO) is set to replace search engine optimization (SEO) as the way brands get discovered in the year ahead. As consumers turn to AI chatbots, agentic workflows and answer engines, appearing prominently in generative outputs will matter more than ranking in search engines.” Google has been rolling out AI Mode with its AI Overviews and is beginning to push it within Google.com itself in some countries, which means the start of a fundamental change in how people discover content online. I first posted about GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) in 2023, and it's going to change how readers find books. For years, we've talked about the long tail of search. Now, with AI-powered search, that tail is getting even longer and more nuanced. AI can understand complex, conversational queries that traditional search engines struggled with. Someone might ask, “What's a good thriller set in a small town with a female protagonist who's a journalist investigating a cold case?” and get highly specific recommendations. This means your book metadata, your website content, and your online presence need to be more detailed and conversational. AI search engines understand context in ways that go far beyond simple keywords. The authors who win in this new landscape will be those who create rich, authentic content about their books and themselves, not just promotional copy. As economist Tyler Cowen has said, “Consider the AIs as part of your audience. Because they are already reading your words and listening to your voice.” We're in the ‘organic' traffic phase right now, where these AI engines are surfacing content for ‘free,' but paid ads are inevitably on the way, and even rumoured to be coming this year to ChatGPT. By the end of 2026, I expect some authors and publishers to be paying for AI traffic, rather than blocking and protesting them. For now, I recommend checking that your author name/s and your books are surfaced when you search on ChatGPT.com as well as Google.com AI Mode (powered by Gemini). You want to make sure your work comes up in some way. I found that Joanna Penn and J.F. Penn searches brought up my Shopify stores, my website, podcast, Instagram, LinkedIn, and even my Patreon page, but did not bring up links to Amazon. If you only have an author presence on Amazon, does it appear in AI search at all? Do you need to improve anything about what the AI search brings up? Traditional publishers are also looking at this, with PublishersWeekly doing webinars on various aspects of AI in early 2026, including sessions on GEO and how book sales are changing, AI agents, and book marketing. In a 2026 predictions article on The Bookseller, the CEO of Bloomsbury Publishing noted, “The boundaries of artificial intelligence will become clearer, enabling publishers to harness its benefits while seeking to safeguard the intellectual property rights of authors, illustrators and publishers.” “AI will be deeply embedded in our workflows, automating tasks such as metadata tagging, freeing teams to focus on creativity and strategy. Challenges will persist. Generative AI threatens traditional web traffic and ad revenue models, making metadata optimisation and SEO critical for visibility as we adjust to this new reality online.” (3) The start of Agentic Commerce AI researches what you want to buy and may even buy on your behalf. Plus, I predict that Amazon does a commerce deal with OpenAI for shopping within ChatGPT by the end of 2026. In September 2025, ChatGPT launched Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which will enable bots to buy on websites in the background if authorised by the human with the credit card. VISA is getting on board with this, so is PayPal, with no doubt more payment options to come. In the USA, ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users can now buy directly from US Etsy sellers inside the chat interface, with over a million Shopify merchants coming soon. Shopify and OpenAI have also announced a partnership to bring commerce to ChatGPT. I am insanely excited about this as it could represent the first time we have been able to more easily find and surface books in a much more nuanced way than the 7 keywords and 3 categories we have relied on for so long! I've been using ChatGPT for at least the last year to find fiction and non-fiction books as I find the Amazon interface is ‘polluted' by ads. I've discovered fascinating books from authors I've never heard of, most in very long tail areas. For example, Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby, recommended by ChatGPT as I am interested in medical anatomy and anatomical Venuses, and The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson, recommended as I like art history and the supernatural. I don't think I would have found either of these within a nuanced discussion with ChatGPT. Even without these direct purchase integrations, ChatGPT now has Shopping Research, which I have found links directly to my Shopify store when I search for my books specifically. Walmart has partnered with OpenAI to create AI-first shopping experiences, and you have to wonder what Amazon might be doing? In Nov 2025, Amazon signed a “strategic partnership” with OpenAI, and even though it's focused on the technical side of AI, those two companies in a room together might also be working on other plans … I'm calling it for 2026. I think Amazon will sign a commerce agreement with OpenAI sometime before the end of the year. This will enable at least recommendation and shopping links into Amazon stores (presumably using an OpenAI affiliate link), or perhaps even Instant Checkout with ChatGPT for Amazon. It will also enable a new marketing angle, especially if paid ads arrive in ChatGPT, perhaps even integrating with Amazon Ads in some way as part of any possible agreement, since ads are such a good revenue stream for Amazon anyway. The line between discovery, engagement, and purchase is collapsing. Someone could be having a conversation with an AI about what to read next, and within that same conversation, purchase a bookwithout ever leaving the chat interface. This already happens within TikTok and social commerce clearly works for many authors. It's possible that the next development for book discoverability and sales might be within AI chats. This will likely stratify the already fragmented book eco-system even more. Some readers will continue to live only within the Amazon ecosystem and (maybe) use their Rufus chatbot to buy, and others will be much wider in their exploration of how to find and discover books (and other products and services). If you haven't tried it yet, try ChatGPT.com Shopping Research for a book. You can do this on the free tier. Use the drop down in the main chat box and select Shopping Research. It doesn't have to be for your book. It can be any book or product, for example, our microwave died just before Christmas so I used it to find a new one. But do a really nuanced search with multiple requirements. Go far beyond what you would search for on Amazon. In the results, notice that (at the time of writing) it does not generally link to Amazon, but to independent sites and stores. As above, I think this will change by the end of 2026, as some kind of commerce deal with Amazon seems inevitable. (4) AI-assisted audiobook narration will go mainstream I've been talking about AI narration of audiobooks since 2019, and over the years, I've tried various different options. In 2025, the technology reached a level of emotional nuance that made it much easier to create satisfying fiction audio as well as non-fiction. It also super-charges accessibility, making audio available in more languages and more accents than ever before. Of course, human narration remains the gold standard, but the cost makes it prohibitive for many authors, and indeed many small traditional publishers, for all books. If it costs $2000 – $10,000 to create an audiobook, you have to sell a lot to make a profit, and the dominance of subscription models have made it harder to recoup the costs. Famous narrators and voice artists who have an audience may still be worth investing in, as well as premium production, but require an even higher upfront cost and therefore higher sales and streams in return. AI voice/audio models are continuing to improve, and even as this goes out, there are rumours on TechCrunch that OpenAI's new device, designed by Jony Ive who designed the iPhone, will be audio first and OpenAI are improving their voice models even more in preparation for that launch. In 2026, I think AI-narrated audio will go mainstream with far-reaching adoption across publishing and the indie author world in many different languages and accents. This will mean a further stratification of audiobooks, with high quality, high production, high cost human narrated audio for a small percentage of books, and then mass market, affordable AI-narrated audio for the rest. AI-narrated audiobooks will make audio ubiquitous, and just as (almost) every print book has an ebook format, in 2026, they will also have an audio format. I straddle both these worlds, as I am still a human audiobook narrator for my own work. I human-narrated Successful Self-Publishing Fourth Edition (free audiobook) and The Buried and the Drowned, my short story collection. I also use AI narration for some books. ElevenLabs remains my preferred service and in 2025, I used my J.F. Penn voice clone for Death Valley and also Blood Vintage, while using a male voice for Catacomb. I clearly label my AI-narration in the sales description and also on the cover, which I think is important, although it is not always required by the various services. You can distribute ElevenLabs narrated audiobooks on Spotify, Kobo Writing Life, YouTube, ElevenReader, and of course your own store if you use Shopify with Bookfunnel. There are many other services springing up all the time, so make sure you check the rights you have over the finished audio, as well as where you can sell and distribute the final files. If they are just using ElevenLabs models in the back-end, then why not just do that directly? (Most services will be using someone's model in the back-end, since most companies do not train their own models.) Of course, you can use Amazon's own narration. While Amazon originally launched Audible audiobooks with Virtual Voice (AVV) in November 2023, it was rolled out to more authors and territories in 2025. If your book is eligible, the option to create an audiobook will appear on your KDP dashboard. With just a few clicks, you can create an audiobook from a range of voices and accents, and publish it on Amazon and Audible. However, the files are not yours. They are exclusive to Amazon and you cannot use them on other platforms or sell them direct yourself. But they are also free, so of course, many authors, especially those in KU, will use this option. I have done some for my mum's sweet romance books as Penny Appleton and I will likely use them for my books in translation when the option becomes available. Traditional publishers are experimenting with AI-assisted audiobook narration as well. MacMillan is selling digital audiobooks read by AI directly on their store. PublishersWeekly reports that PRH Audio “has experimented with artificial voice in specific instances, such as entrepreneur Ely Callaway's posthumous memoir The Unconquerable Game,” when an “authorized voice replica” was created for the audiobook. The article also notes that PRH Audio “embrace artificial intelligence across business operations—my entire department [PRH Audio] is using AI for business applications.” And while indie authors can't use AI voices on ACX right now, Audible have over 100 voices available to selected publishing partnerships, as reported by The Guardian with “two options for publishers wishing to make use of the technology: “Audible-managed” production, or “self-service” whereby publishers produce their own audiobooks with the help of Audible's AI technology.” In 2026, it's likely that more traditional publishers — as well as indie authors — will get their backlist into audio with AI narration. (5) AI-assisted translation will start to take off beyond the early adopters Over the years, I've done translation deals with traditional publishers in different languages (German, French, Spanish, Korean, Italian) for some fiction and non-fiction books. But of course, to get these kinds of deals, you have to be proactive about pitching, or work with an agent for foreign rights only, and those are few and far between! There are also lots of languages and territories worldwide, and most deals are for the bigger markets, leaving a LOT of blue water for books in translation, even if you have licensed some of the bigger markets. I did my first partially AI-translated books in 2019 when I used Deepl.com for the first draft and then worked with a German editor to do 3 non-fiction books in German. While the first draft was cheap, the editing was pretty expensive, so I stopped after only doing a couple. I have made the money back now, but it took years. In 2025, AI Translation began to take off with ScribeShadow, GlobeScribe.ai, and more recently, in November 2025, Kindle Translate boosting the number of translated books available. Kindle Translate is (currently) only available to US authors for English into Spanish and also German into English, but in 2026, this will likely roll out to more languages and more authors, making it easier than ever to produce translations for free. Of course, once again, the gold standard is human translation, or at least human-edited translations, but the cost is prohibitive even just for proof-reading, and if there is a cheap or even free option, like Kindle Translate, then of course, authors are going to try it. If the translation gets bad reviews, they can just un-publish. There are many anecdotal stories of indie success in 2025 with AI-translated genre fiction sales (in series) in under-served markets like Italian, French, and Spanish, as well as more mainstream adoption in German. I was around in the Kindle gold-rush days of 2009-2012 and the AI-translation energy right now feels like that. There are hardly any Kindle ebooks in many of these languages compared to how many there are in English, so inevitably, the rush is on to fill the void, especially in genres that are under-served by traditional publishers in those markets. Yes, some of these AI translated books will be ‘AI-slop,' but readers are not stupid. Those books will get bad reviews and thus will sink to the bottom of the store, never to be seen again. The AI translation models are also improving rapidly, and Amazon's Kindle Translate may improve faster than most, for books specifically, since they will be able to get feedback in terms of page reads. Amazon is also a major investor in Anthropic, which makes Claude.ai, widely considered the best quality for creative writing and translation, so it's likely that is used somewhere in the mix. Some traditional publishers are also experimenting with AI-assisted translation, with Harlequin France reportedly using AI translation and human proofreaders, as reported by the European Council of Literary Translators' Associations in December 2025. Academic publisher Taylor and Francis is also using AI for book translation, noting: “Following a program of rigorous testing, Taylor & Francis has announced plans to use AI translation tools to publish books that would otherwise be unavailable to English-language readers, bringing the latest knowledge to a vastly expanded readership.” “Until now, the time and resources required to translate books has meant that the majority remained accessible only to those who could read them in the original language. Books that were translated often only became available after a significant delay. Today, with the development of sophisticated AI translation tools, it has become possible to make these important texts available to a broad readership at speed, without compromising on accuracy.” (6) AI video becomes ubiquitous. ‘Live selling' becomes the next trend in social sales. In 2025, short form AI-generated video became very high quality. OpenAI released Sora 2, and YouTube announced new Shorts creation tools with Veo 3, which you can also use directly within Gemini. There are tons of different AI video apps now, including those within the social media sites themselves. There is more video than ever and it's much easier to create. I am not a fan of short form video! I don't make it and I don't consume it, but I do love making book trailers for my Kickstarter campaigns and for adding to my book pages and using on social media. I made a trailer for The Buried and the Drowned using Midjourney for images and then animation of those images, and Canva to put them together along with ElevenLabs to generate the music. But despite the AI tools getting so much easier to use, you still have to prompt them with exactly what you want. I can't just upload my book and say, “Make a book trailer,” or “Make a short film.” This may change with generative video ads, which are likely to become more common in 2026, as video turns specifically commercial. Video ads may even be generated specifically for the user, with an audience of one, maybe even holding your book in their hands (using something like Cameos on Sora), in the same way that some AI-powered clothing stores do virtual try-ons. This might also up-end the way we discover and buy things, as the AI for eCommerce and Amazon Sellers newsletter says about OpenAI's Sora app, “OpenAI isn't just trying to build a TikTok competitor. They're building a complete reimagining of how we discover and buy things …” “The combination of ChatGPT's research capabilities and Sora's potential for emotional manipulation—I mean, “engagement”—could create something we've never seen before: an AI ecosystem that might eventually guide you through every type of purchase, from the most considered to the most impulsive.” In 2026, there will be A LOT more AI-generated video, but that also leads to the human trend of more live video. While you can use an AI avatar that looks and sounds like you using tools like HeyGen or Synthesia, live video has all the imperfect human elements that make it stand-out, plus the scarcity element which leads to the purchase decision within a countdown period. Live video is nothing new in terms of brand building and content in general, but it seems that live events primarily for direct sales might be a thing in 2026. Kim Kardashian hosted Kimsmas Live in December 2025 with a 45 minute live shopping event with special guests, described as entertainment but designed to be a sales extravaganza. Indie authors are doing a similar thing on TikTok with their books, so this is a trend to watch in 2026, especially if you feel that live selling might fit with your personality and author business goals. It's certainly not for everyone, but I suspect it will suit a different kind of creator to those who prefer ‘no face' video, or no video at all! On other aspects of the human side of social media, Adam Mosseri the CEO of Instagram put a post on Threads called Authenticity after Abundance. He said, “Everything that made creators matter—the ability to be real, to connect, to have a voice that couldn't be faked—is now suddenly accessible to anyone with the right tools.” “Deepfakes are getting better and better. AI is generating photographs and videos indistinguishable from captured media. The feeds are starting to fill up with synthetic everything. And in that world, here's what I think happens.Creators matter more.” It's a long article so just to pick a few things from it: “We like to talk about “AI slop,” but there is a lot of amazing AI content … we are going to start to see more and more realistic AI content.” I've talked to my Patreon Community about this ‘tsunami of excellence' as these tools are just getting better and better and the word ‘slop' can also be applied to purely human output, too. If you think that AI content is ‘worse' than wholly human content, in 2026, you are wrong. It is now very very good, especially in the hands of people who can drive the AI tools. Back to Adam's post: “Authenticity is fast becoming a scarce resource, …The creators who succeed will be those who figure out how to maintain their authenticity [even when it can be simulated] …” “The bar is going to shift from “can you create?” to “can you make something that only you could create?” He talks about how the personal content on Instagram now is: “unpolished; it's blurry photos and shaky videos of people's daily experiences … flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume. People want content that feels real… Savvy creators are going to lean into explicitly unproduced and unflattering images of themselves. In a world where everything can be perfected, imperfection becomes a signal. Rawness isn't just aesthetic preference anymore—it's proof. It's defensive. A way of saying: this is real because it's imperfect.” While I partially love this, and I really hope it's true, as in I hope we don't need to look good for the camera anymore I would also challenge Adam on this, because pretty much every woman I know on social media has been sent sexual messages, and/or told they are ugly and/or fat when posting anything unflattering. I've certainly had both even for the same content, but I don't expect Adam has been the target for such posting! But I get his point. He goes on:“Labeling content as authentic or AI-generated is only part of the solution though. We, as an industry, are going to need to surface much more context about not only the media on our platforms, but the accounts that are sharing it in order for people to be able to make informed decisions about what to believe. Where is the account? When was it created? What else have they posted?” This is exactly what I've been saying for a while under my double down on being human focus. I use my Instagram @jfpennauthor as evidence of humanity, not as a sales channel. You can do both of course, but increasingly, you need to make sure your accounts at places have longevity and trust, even by the platforms themselves. Adam finishes: “In a world of infinite abundance and infinite doubt, the creators who can maintain trust and signal authenticity—by being real, transparent, and consistent—will stand out.” For other marketing trends for 2026, I recommend publicist Kathleen Schmidt's SubStack which is mostly focused on traditional publishing but still interesting for indies. In her 2026 article, she notes: “We have reached a social media saturation point where going viral can be meaningless and should not be the goal; authenticity and creativity should. She also says, “In-person events are important again,” and, “Social media marketing takes a nosedive… we have reached a saturation point … What publishers must figure out is how to make their social media campaigns stand out. If they remain somewhat uninspired, the money spent on social ads won't convert into book sales.” I think this is part of the rise of live selling as above, which can stand out above more ‘produced' videos. Kathleen also talks about AI usage. “AI can help lighten the burden of publicity and marketing.” “A lot of AI tools are coming to market to lessen the load: they can write pitches, create media lists for you, send pitches for you, and more. I know the industry is grappling with all things AI, but some of these tools are huge time savers and may help a book more than hurt it.” On that note … (7) AI will create, run, and optimise ads without the need for human intervention Many authors will be very happy about this as marketing is often the bane of our author business lives! As I noted in my 2026 goals, I would love to outsource more marketing tasks to AI. I want an “AI book marketing assistant” where I can upload a book and specify a budget and say, ‘Go market this,' then the AI will action the marketing, without me having to cobble together workflows between systems. Of course, it will present plans for me to approve but it will do the work itself on the various platforms and monitor and optimize things for me. I really hope 2026 is the year this becomes possible, because we are on the edge of it already in some areas. Amazon Ads launched a new agentic AI tool in September 2025 that creates professional-quality ads. I've also been working with Claude in Chrome browser to help me analyse my Amazon Ad data and suggest which keywords/products to turn off and what to put more budget into. I'll do a Patreon video on that soon. Meta announced it will enable AI ad creation by the end of 2026 for Facebook and Instagram. For authors who find ad creation overwhelming or time-consuming, this could be a game-changer. Of course, you will still need a budget! (8) 1000 True Fans becomes more important than ever Lots of authors and publishers are moaning about the difficulty of reaching readers in an era of ‘AI slop' but there is no shortage of excellent content created by humans, or humans using AI tools. As ever, our competition is less about other authors, or even authors using AI-assisted creation, we're competing against everything else that jostles for people's attention, and the volume of that is also growing exponentially. I've never been a fan of rapid release, and have said for years that you can't keep up with the pace of the machines. So play a different game. As Kevin Kelly wrote in 2008, If you have 1000 true fans, (also known as super fans), “you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.” [Kevin Kelly was on this show in 2023 talking about Excellent Advice for Living.] Many authors and the publishing industry are stuck in the old model of aiming to sell huge volumes of books at a low profit margin to a massive number of readers, many of them releasing ever faster to try and keep the algorithms moving. But the maths can work for the smaller audience of more invested readers and fans. If you only make $2 profit on an ebook, you need to sell 500 ebooks to make $1000, and then do it again next month. Or you can have a small community like my patreon.com/thecreativepenn where people pay $2 (or more) a month, so even a small revenue per person results in a better outcome over the year, as it is consistent monthly income with no advertising. But what if you could make $20 profit per book? That is entirely possible if you're producing high quality hardbacks on Kickstarter, or bundle deals of audiobooks, or whole series of ebooks. You would only need to sell to 50 people to make $1000. What about $100 profit per sale, which you can do with a small course or live event? You only need 10 people to make $1000, and this in-person focus also amplifies trust and fosters human connection. I've found the intimacy of my live Patreon Office Hours and also my webinars have been rewarding personally, but also financially, and are far more memorable — and potentially transformative — than a pre-recorded video or even another book. From the LinkedIn 2026 Big Ideas article: “In an AI-optimized world, intentional human connection will become the ultimate luxury.” The 1000 True Fans model is about serving a smaller, more personal audience with higher value products (and maybe services if that's your thing). As ever, its about niche and where you fit in the long long long long long tail. It's also about trust. Because there is definitely a shortage of that in so many areas, and as Adam Mosseri of Instagram has said, trust will be increasingly important. Trust takes time to build, but if you focus on serving your audience consistently, and delivering a high quality, and being authentic, this emerges as part of being human. In an echo of what happened when online commerce first took off, we are back to talking about trust. Back in 2010, I read Trust Agents: by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan, which clearly needs a comeback. There was a 10th anniversary edition published in 2020, so that's worth a read/listen. Chris Brogan was also on this show in 2017 when we talked about finding and serving your niche for the long term. That interview is still relevant, here's a quick excerpt, where I have (lightly edited) his response to my question on this topic back in 2017: Jo: The principle of know, like, and trust, why is that still important or perhaps even more important these days? Chris: There are a few things that at play there, Joanna. One is that the same tools that make it so easy for any of us to start and run a business also allow certain elements to decide whether or not they want to do something dubious. And with all new technologies that come, you know, there's nothing unique about these new technologies. In the 1800s, anyone could put anything in a bottle and sell it to you and say, this is gonna cure everything. Cancer — gone. And the bottle could have nothing in. You know, it could be Kool-Aid. And so, the idea of trying to understand what's behind the business though, one beautiful thing that's come is that we can see in much more dimensions who we're dealing with. We can understand better who's the face behind the brand. I really want people to try their best to be a lot clearer on what they stand for or what they say. And I don't really mean a tagline. I mean, humans don't really talk like that. They don't throw some sentence out as often as they can that you remember them for that phrase. But I would say that, we have so many media available to us — the plural of mediums — where we can be more of ourselves. And I think that there's a great opportunity to share the ‘you' behind the scenes, and some people get immediately terrified about this, ‘Ah, the last thing I want is for people to know more about me,' but I think we have such an opportunity. We have such an opportunity to voice our thoughts on something, to talk about the story that goes behind the product. We were all raised on overly produced material, but I think we don't want that anymore. We really want clarity, brevity, simplicity. We want the ability for what we feel is connection and then access. And so I think it's vital that we connect and show people our accessibility, not so that they can pester us with strange questions, but more so that you can say, this person stands with their product and their service and this person believes these things, and I feel something when I hear them and I wanna be part of that.” That's from Chris Brogan's interview here in 2017, and he is still blogging and speaking at writing at ChrisBrogan.com and I'm going to re-listen to the audiobook of Trust Agents again myself as I think it's more relevant than ever. The original quote comes from Bob Burg in his 1994 book, Endless Referrals, “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.” That still applies, and absolutely fits with the 1000 True Fans model of aiming to serve a smaller audience. As Kevin Kelly says in 1000 True Fans, “Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum bestseller hits, blockbusters, and celebrity status, you can aim for direct connection with a thousand true fans.” “On your way, no matter how many fans you actually succeed in gaining, you'll be surrounded not by faddish infatuation, but by genuine and true appreciation. It's a much saner destiny to hope for. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there.” In 2026, I hope that more authors (including me!) let go of ego goals and vanity metrics like ranking, gross sales (income before you take away costs), subscribers, followers, and likes, and consider important business numbers like profit (which is the money you have after costs like marketing are taken out), as well as number of true fans — and also lifestyle elements like number of weekends off, or days spent enjoying life and not just working! OK, that's my list of trends and predictions for 2026. Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you agree? Am I wrong? What have I missed? The post 2026 Trends And Predictions For Indie Authors And The Book Publishing Industry with Joanna Penn first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence? Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+ Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech 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: zscaler.com/security canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT monarch.com with code TWIT Melissa.com/twit redis.io

Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence? Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+ Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech 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: zscaler.com/security canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT monarch.com with code TWIT Melissa.com/twit redis.io

An OpenAI report claims over 40 million Americans use ChatGPT for health information, Switchbot’s new household robot can fold laundry, and a DoorDash driver gets caught using AI-generated images to fake deliveries. MP3 Please SUBSCRIBE HERE for free or get DTNS Live ad-free. A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this wouldContinue reading "Switchbot’s New Household Robot Can Fold Laundry – DTH"

Happy New Year! NVIDIA just spent $20 billion to hollow out an AI company for its brains, while Meta and Google scramble to scoop up fresh talent before AI gets "too weird to manage." Who's winning, who's left behind, and what do these backroom deals mean for the future of artificial intelligence? Andrej Karpathy admits programmers cannot keep pace with AI advances Economic uncertainty in AI despite massive stock market influence Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft drive AI productization for business and consumers OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini battle for consumer AI dominance Journalism struggles to keep up with AI realities and misinformation tools Concerns mount over AI energy, water, and environmental impact narratives Meta buys Manus, expands AI agent ambitions with Llama model OpenAI posts high-stress "Head of Preparedness" job worth $555K+ Training breakthroughs: DeepSeek's mHC and comparisons to Action Park U.S. lawmakers push broad, controversial internet censorship bills Age verification and bans spark state laws, VPN workaround explosion U.S. drone ban labeled protectionist as industry faces tech shortages FCC security initiatives falter; Cyber Trust Mark program scrapped Waymo robotaxis stall in blackouts, raising AV urban planning issues School cellphone bans expose kids' struggle with analog clocks MetroCard era ends in NYC as tap-to-pay takes over subway access RAM, VRAM, and GPU prices soar as AI and gaming squeeze supply CES preview: Samsung QD-OLED TV, Sony AFEELA car, gadget show hype Remembering Stewart Cheifet and Computer Chronicles' legacy Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Dan Patterson and Joey de Villa Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech 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: zscaler.com/security canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT monarch.com with code TWIT Melissa.com/twit redis.io

Molly Graham has worked for some of tech's most effective leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Bret Taylor. Today she leads Glue Club, a community for leaders navigating rapid scale, growth, and change. She's best known for her “Give away your Legos” framework and her collection of practical mental models for leading through hypergrowth.We discuss:1. “Give away your Legos”: a framework for scaling yourself as a leader2. “J-curves vs. stairs”: the two paths of career growth, and why you should pick the scarier path3. “The waterline model” for diagnosing team problems (and why you should “snorkel before you scuba”)4. Six rules for creating effective goals (and aligning everyone around them)5. Rules of thumb for leading through rapid scale and change6. Her biggest leadership lessons from Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sheryl Sandberg, and Bret Taylor—Brought to you by:DX—The developer intelligence platform designed by leading researchersBrex—The banking solution for startupsGoFundMe Giving Funds—Make helping a habit—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-high-growth-handbook-molly-graham—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/182877855/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation—Where to find Molly Graham:• X: https://x.com/molly_g• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mograham• Substack: https://mollyg.substack.com• Website: https://glueclub.com—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Molly Graham(04:28) Molly's background at Google, Facebook, Quip, and CZI(11:29) The “Give away your Legos” framework(16:44) Managing your inner monster(19:49) When not to give away your Legos(21:28) Embracing a long career(23:25) The J-curve vs. stairs approach to career growth(32:00) The gift of knowing yourself(34:28) Learning to be a professional idiot(38:30) The waterline model: snorkel before you scuba(47:16) Six rules for creating strong alignment around goals(57:15) Rules of thumb for leading through rapid scale(01:07:49) Investing in high performers vs. low performers(01:10:54) Lessons from Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and Bret Taylor(1:21:15) Pivoting from ambition to purpose(1:26:32) Finding stability in instability(01:29:44) Final thoughts—Referenced:• Making an impact through authenticity and curiosity | Ami Vora (CPO at Faire, ex-WhatsApp, FB, IG): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/authenticity-and-curiosity-ami-vora• Sheryl Sandberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryl-sandberg-5126652• Elliot Schrage on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotschrage• Quip: https://quip.com• He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor on the future of careers, coding, agents, and more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/he-saved-openai-bret-taylor• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: https://chanzuckerberg.com• 10 contrarian leadership truths every leader needs to hear | Matt MacInnis (Rippling): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-contrarian-leadership-truths• ‘Give Away Your Legos' and Other Commandments for Scaling Startups: https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups• The Muppets: https://muppets.disney.com• Sara Caldwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramcaldwell• J-Curves vs. Stairs: Two Approaches to Career Growth: https://mollyg.substack.com/p/j-curve• Forget the corporate ladder—winners take risks: https://www.ted.com/talks/molly_graham_forget_the_corporate_ladder_winners_take_risks• Chamath Palihapitiya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chamath• Lori Goler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-goler-6b96921• Joseph Campbell's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/192665-the-cave-you-fear-to-enter-holds-the-treasure-you• Zevi Arnovitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zev-arnovitz• Peopling 101: The Waterline Model: https://christinehaskell.com/blog/peopling-101-the-waterline-model• Introduction to NVC: https://www.cnvc.org/learn/what-is-nvc• I hate OKRs... and other thoughts about goal setting: https://mollyg.substack.com/p/i-hate-okrs-and-other-thoughts-about• Lessons from scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO of Stripe): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-stripe-tactics• James Clear's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9614600-problem-1-winners-and-losers-have-the-same-goals• Founder mode: https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html• Stripe: https://stripe.com• Patrick Collison on X: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison• John Collison on X: https://x.com/collision• Seth Godin's best tactics for building remarkable products, strategies, brands and more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/seth-godins-tactics-for-building-remarkable-products• Eric Antonow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonow—Recommended books:• The Artist's Way: https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary/dp/0143129252• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

FOUNDING OPENAI Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. In 2016, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab to develop safe artificial general intelligence (AGI). Backed by investors like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, the organization aimed to be a counterweight to Google's DeepMind, which was driven by profit. The team relied on massive computing power provided by GPUs—originally designed for video games—to train neural networks, recruiting top talent like Sutskever to lead their scientific efforts. NUMBER 13 1955

THE BLIP AND THE FUTURE Colleague Keach Hagey, The Optimist. The viral success of ChatGPT shifted OpenAI's focus from safety to commercialization, despite early internal warnings about the existential risks of AGI. Tensions over safety and Altman's management style led to a "blip" where the nonprofit board fired him, only for him to be quickly reinstated due to employee loyalty. Elon Musk, having lost a power struggle for control of the organization, severed ties, leaving Altman to lead the race toward AGI. NUMBER 16 FEBRUARY 1955