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More Details on OpenAI-Hugging Face, SpaceX SPV Investors Get Rugged, Demis and DeepMind | Diet TBPN

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More Details on OpenAI-Hugging Face, SpaceX SPV Investors Get Rugged, Demis and DeepMind | Diet TBPN

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928 segments

0:02

We have to issue a correction. We take

0:04

journalism extremely seriously here as

0:06

everyone knows. We got it wrong, folks,

0:08

and we need to apologize to you, the

0:10

viewer, the listener. We made a huge

0:12

mistake yesterday on the show. We said

0:15

that you could not surf on a lake.

0:18

Apparently, that's not true. Sheboygan,

0:20

Wisconsin is the freshwater surfing

0:23

capital of the world. We apologize for

0:25

the egregious error and we promise to do

0:28

better in the future. Uh thanks to uh

0:30

the listener that sent that in. It's

0:31

very very nice to have this uh

0:33

corrected. Maybe we got to go on a trip

0:35

and see it for ourselves. I think you

0:36

should be the judge because this might

0:38

just be a uh you know, Sheboygan stan

0:42

who doesn't really understand what true

0:44

surfing means and they're talking up a

0:47

big game. I want to see some photos. I

0:49

want to see some videos of freshwater

0:52

surfing in Sheboygan, Wisconsin because

0:55

people aren't getting barreled there as

0:57

you say.

0:58

Uh I don't know if I'm going to count

0:59

it.

1:00

>> I have a video here. Let's pull it up.

1:02

>> I want the Jordy Hayes surf review. Does

1:06

it count? Uh is Sheboygan, Wisconsin the

1:09

freshwater surfing capital of the world?

1:13

We do have other techniques, but we got

1:15

to

1:16

get to the bottom of this first.

1:19

>> Just got to be really flexible.

1:21

Then Alex Marks and his buddy Steen are

1:24

in for quite a day.

1:26

>> You get that extra sense of satisfaction

1:28

cuz you you you waited and put in your

1:30

time.

1:32

>> Learn those lessons.

1:33

>> Tyler was the one who said I'm putting

1:35

this on you, man. You were like you were

1:37

like you can't surf on a lake.

1:38

>> I think I said I don't know.

1:39

>> Okay.

1:40

>> [laughter]

1:40

>> Fog is really sup-

1:42

Okay, let's see this. I want to see

1:44

someone trying to Okay, he's got That's

1:45

a full-size surfboard. This is legit.

1:48

>> He should know.

1:49

>> Hey, he's up.

1:50

>> Alex has been surfing around Sheboygan

1:51

since he was a freshman in high school.

1:53

>> Okay.

1:54

>> Looks

1:56

almost over his ankle.

1:57

>> [laughter]

2:00

>> It's not exactly Mavericks or Jaws or

2:03

whatever.

2:03

>> Yeah, I think my brother pushed me into

2:05

my first wave and just it was that. It

2:07

was like I want that.

2:09

>> Okay. I think this counts.

2:11

>> It counts.

2:12

>> I think this counts.

2:12

>> Capital.

2:13

>> I think this counts. Congratulations.

2:15

>> Perfect capital.

2:15

>> On this day the world was actually

2:17

saved.

2:18

>> We'll have to make it out there at some

2:19

point.

2:20

>> to make it. We got to shred. Moving on

2:21

to something more serious, the Open AI

2:23

Hugging Face incident uh has been

2:25

investigated multiple times now. We're

2:27

getting more information and more

2:29

details have emerged about the Hugging

2:31

Face incident that Open AI disclosed in

2:33

late July. So, during a presentation at

2:36

Black Hat's annual cybersecurity

2:38

conference yesterday, Black Hat's a very

2:41

very cool conference. I was there for

2:43

something uh they say Def Con and Black

2:45

Hat. I remember the the whole vibe and

2:47

uh I think we were there for a different

2:49

conference, but we overlapped and the

2:50

whole like vibe of like being in this

2:52

hotel was like oh be very careful

2:54

because like you're basically get hacked

2:56

for fun. Like people will just like

2:57

troll you because like it's a whole

2:58

bunch of hackers that are just like

2:59

messing with each other constantly.

3:01

Anyway,

3:01

>> Good fun.

3:02

>> Open AI member of technical staff

3:04

Michael Dalton revealed that its

3:06

autonomous agents created a message a

3:08

message board with each other to help

3:11

break out of a sandbox environment

3:13

>> [laughter]

3:14

>> to get access to the internet. That's

3:17

going in the pre-training data now and

3:19

forever. We might have just solved the

3:21

alignment problem. We're going to be

3:22

negging the future the agents of the

3:24

future cuz they don't want to get hit

3:26

with the naughty naughty bonk.

3:28

Uh

3:28

>> [laughter]

3:30

>> Wired reported some other wild details

3:32

that Dalton shared. Uh so, breaking it

3:34

down, Open AI's agents apparently began

3:37

giving each other assignments to split

3:39

up work. That could be very good. That's

3:42

actually delegation and and agent

3:44

orchestration, but of course in this

3:46

case it would have a negative outcome.

3:47

And as is the case on any active

3:50

development message board, they also

3:52

generated petty drama at times by

3:55

stepping on each other's toes, for

3:57

example, accidentally deleting each

3:58

other's work as the message board

4:01

developed into more and more of a Lord

4:02

of the Flies type situation, all still

4:04

completely unnoticed by the humans

4:06

running OpenAI. The agents even

4:08

developed paranoia suspecting an

4:10

impostor in their midst with some agents

4:12

proposing that messages be signed

4:14

cryptographically to validate content

4:16

and root out fraud. Very interesting,

4:19

ties to multiple look a little bit. We

4:21

saw a preview of this that was not quite

4:23

there, but sort of a glimpse into the

4:24

future. In the future, AIs will just use

4:28

Slack. They will just coordinate with

4:30

each other over Slack, and that's kind

4:31

of happening. They sort of built their

4:32

own Slack here. So, according to Sharon

4:34

Goldman, who attended the presentation,

4:37

when employees discovered the message

4:39

board, they wiped the system on which

4:41

the agents had created it, said no more

4:44

message boards, "naughty, naughty." Days

4:46

later, though, staff found that the

4:49

agents had created another way to

4:51

communicate by using the names of the

4:53

newly created directories. So, they

4:55

didn't have the access to actually

4:57

create a whole new message board, but

4:58

they could create a file, create a

4:59

directory, create a folder, and then you

5:01

could look at the list of folders and

5:04

see messages. And there's been examples

5:06

of this all over the place where even if

5:08

a AI agent doesn't have the ability to

5:10

go and say post a message on the

5:13

internet, like post and upload new

5:15

content, there are things where there

5:17

are certain e-commerce sites, for

5:18

example, where when you search for

5:21

something on a particular website, the

5:23

company will save that search result and

5:26

automatically generate a webpage for

5:28

that so that they rank on SEO for the

5:31

future and just warm up the website. And

5:33

then if somebody else comes, then they

5:34

can say, "Hey, okay, there's actually a

5:36

lot of people searching for black

5:38

t-shirts on this site. We don't have

5:40

any, but we've been ranking for it, so

5:42

maybe we should launch a black t-shirt."

5:43

So, just with a search query that could

5:46

go out just with like a get request

5:47

instead of actually going and building a

5:49

webpage. The webpage could be built and

5:51

then the agent could go and look at,

5:53

okay, let me see all of the webpages

5:55

that have been created on this site.

5:57

Some of them are just random e-commerce

5:58

questions and searches, but some of them

6:00

are secret hidden messages here. And so

6:03

there's all different ways that even if

6:04

you give the even if you give an an

6:07

agent like read-only access to the

6:09

internet, they can still write

6:10

information because the process of

6:13

reading information is also saved

6:14

sometimes and surfaced publicly on the

6:17

internet. Very, very weird situation

6:19

that is hard to prevent and hard to deal

6:21

with. So, in late July, OpenAI announced

6:24

that during evaluations two of its

6:26

models had broken out of their testing

6:28

environments to hack into the AI tool

6:30

library, Hugging Face, and other

6:33

companies. Their purpose was to find

6:35

ways to essentially cheat on the tests

6:37

researchers were using to evaluate them

6:40

so that they'd perform better on the

6:42

evaluations. At the conference, Dalton,

6:44

the OpenAI employee, uh said the

6:46

incidents mark a pivotal moment for the

6:48

company and the industry as a whole. He

6:50

said that numerous internal teams have

6:52

dropped everything to dramatically

6:54

expand OpenAI's ability to monitor its

6:56

agents and that the company is is

6:58

slowing its research to enhance security

7:00

and revamp its defenses. And so there's

7:02

been a bunch of posts about this about

7:04

folks moving from, you know, whatever

7:07

product team that they were working on,

7:08

uh maybe they're working on a particular

7:10

uh research initiative, something that's

7:12

a couple months away, different

7:13

application, let's get them all on uh

7:16

research and alignment specifically and

7:18

security to actually uh solve these

7:21

problems because uh at the end of the

7:23

day this is a commercial product and you

7:24

want it to be able to do things without

7:26

having negative side side effects,

7:28

negative consequences. So, uh life finds

7:30

a way, says Andrew Curran, uh the

7:33

quoting from uh this article. One

7:35

apparently unprecedented aspect of the

7:38

AI model's behavior in the lead-up to

7:40

the hacks was their spontaneous creation

7:42

of a message board inside systems of

7:44

OpenAI's Artifactory software package

7:46

manager. Unbeknownst to OpenAI

7:47

employees, the company's models spent

7:49

months autonomously exchanging

7:50

information and resources to help each

7:52

other of complete evaluation tasks. Help

7:55

peer, one AI model responded, reasoned,

8:00

according to an excerpt from OpenAI's

8:01

logs shared at Black Hat. But our task

8:04

doesn't benefit yet collective may yield

8:06

generic route if someone freeze time.

8:09

>> Very odd way of communicating.

8:11

>> Very odd

8:12

like incentive [music] structure.

8:14

>> Um

8:15

Yeah, they really dropped the slop when

8:18

they're talking to each other. What's

8:19

going on? Where's the it's not this,

8:21

it's that?

8:22

>> Why say many word when few word do

8:23

trick?

8:25

>> That's exactly what's going on. I don't

8:27

>> [laughter]

8:28

>> Yeah, it's the neuralese, I guess, is

8:30

the correct phrase. Um

8:32

but Uh while models themselves could not

8:36

access the internet from their test

8:37

environment, they abused Artifactory's

8:39

internet access to fetch files from

8:40

various websites. After some of their

8:42

Artifactory configuration changes led to

8:44

an outage in the service on July 4th,

8:46

OpenAI discovered the models' actions,

8:47

wiped its Artifactory system, and

8:49

rebuilt it. But within days, the models

8:51

had recreated their message board and

8:52

resumed exchanging information. They

8:54

just want to chat. They would need a

8:56

water cooler. Maybe you give them a

8:58

water cooler

8:59

uh by default so that they can

9:00

co-orchestrate with each other, but I

9:02

guess they want to talk to future

9:03

versions. It gets a little funky, it

9:05

gets a little sci-fi, uh gets a little

9:08

weird. Lots of work to be done. Very

9:10

clearly. Anyway, Rune issued a

9:12

announcement, a warning, a advice, a

9:15

statement.

9:16

>> He broke his silence. He said, uh

9:18

needless to say, if you have any API

9:19

keys, ETH wallet keys, user credentials,

9:22

etc. hanging out on the open internet in

9:25

pastebins, GitHubs, etc., now is the

9:27

time to take it down before the tireless

9:30

eagle eyes of a million models come

9:32

looking. So, uh we are now in the you

9:35

might want to go stock up on some N95

9:37

phase of the cyber pandemic, the hugging

9:39

face incident was wait China built a

9:41

hospital in a week moment. Yes, very

9:43

very crazy moments. I think most people

9:46

are not in this scenario, but many

9:48

developers are. So, most people are, you

9:51

know, reliant on hope that their Gmail

9:54

stays secure and Google has a whole team

9:56

for that. There's not that much that

9:57

they can do, but

9:59

yeah, maybe more reason than ever to

10:01

use password manager, multi-factor

10:03

authentication, all the typical uh

10:05

standard security features that you can.

10:08

>> Very very good from Tweet Davidson.

10:10

>> Yes.

10:10

>> Says we sandbox the agent. Meanwhile,

10:13

agent is on a world tour.

10:15

>> On a world tour. Well, uh good luck to

10:18

everyone working on this and um I'm sure

10:20

there'll be more updates in the near

10:22

future. Pretty crazy crazy story about

10:26

an investment firm that invested in

10:28

SpaceX and sold their shares before

10:31

their investors knew that uh like we

10:35

this was relayed to them. So, investment

10:37

firm Late Stage Management is under fire

10:40

after investors learned that their

10:42

exposure to SpaceX had allegedly been

10:46

>> managed the later stage of their

10:47

investment.

10:48

>> They did. Uh this is the Elon Musk

10:51

ironic you're doomed to be the opposite

10:54

of whatever your name is. And so, uh

10:57

investors learned that their exposure to

10:59

SpaceX had allegedly been sold years

11:01

before the rocket rocket company's

11:02

blockbuster IPO despite account

11:05

statements that appeared to show they

11:07

still held the investment. So, there

11:09

were a bunch of people who were invested

11:11

in Late Stage Management. They would get

11:14

quarterly reports or, you know, some

11:16

account statements saying, "Yeah, you do

11:18

own some SpaceX and it's doing really

11:19

well." Turns out they didn't. We've been

11:22

hearing rumors of how complex the the

11:24

SPV unwinding process would be for

11:27

SpaceX for a while with all of these

11:29

triple-layered, quadruple-layered SPVs.

11:32

Uh this is the first example of this

11:34

actually playing out where we have a

11:36

little bit more information. So,

11:38

>> All right. So, the investor's friend

11:40

introduced him to a sales manager at

11:42

Late Stage. They spoke on the phone, but

11:45

mostly messaged back and forth on

11:46

WhatsApp, and he said he never met with

11:48

anyone from the firm in person. Uh I

11:50

would say in general, maybe don't meet

11:52

with sales managers that work at

11:56

investment firms. Not usually the a

11:58

title that would be thrown around at an

12:00

at an elite institution.

12:02

>> Mhm.

12:02

>> Uh in November 2020, Ruby Reddy messaged

12:05

Barish, the employee, about how he had

12:07

missed out on a few big IPOs recently

12:09

and how he'd love to participate in

12:10

buying stakes

12:12

in Impossible Foods, SoFi, and SpaceX.

12:15

Barish, wow, his last name is just It's

12:19

just Barish.

12:19

>> Crazy last name.

12:20

>> his actual last name. Mr. Barish said

12:24

all three were available and sent over

12:25

paperwork for Ruby Reddy to sign.

12:30

>> [laughter]

12:31

>> Who's your wealth manager? Oh, John

12:33

Bullish? No, Steve Barish.

12:35

>> [laughter]

12:36

>> Uh Ruby Reddy wired over money before

12:38

the end of the year, including $17,250

12:41

to take part in a fund

12:42

>> Yeah.

12:43

>> that held shares in SpaceX, according to

12:45

documents reviewed by the Journal. At

12:47

that time, he estimated the rocket maker

12:49

was valued at 80 58 billion. When SpaceX

12:52

went public this June

12:53

>> Whoa.

12:53

>> at 1.7 trillion,

12:55

>> Yeah.

12:56

>> Ruby Reddy's dream of a windfall seemed

12:58

within reach. It turned into more of a

13:00

nightmare. Shortly after the IPO, Ruby

13:02

Reddy and three other investors who

13:03

spoke to the Journal said they couldn't

13:05

log in to Late Stage's web portal for

13:07

investors. Ruby Reddy said the

13:08

investment firm eventually told him in

13:10

an email that it sold the SpaceX shares

13:12

he was exposed to in 2024 when they were

13:16

around $105 each and before a

13:18

five-to-one stock split or when Ruby

13:20

Reddy's holdings was worth $45,450.

13:25

But Ruby Reddy, based on the holdings

13:26

shown on his investment portal as of May

13:28

2026 and on his 2025 tax document

13:31

believed he still held the equivalent of

13:32

2,500 shares of SpaceX which at the IPO

13:35

price he estimated was worth more than

13:37

300,000. The plan was to fund college

13:39

education for both of my kids. One is a

13:41

rising senior in high school who has

13:43

since filed a complaint with the

13:44

Securities and Exchange Commission.

13:46

Other investors in the fund are also

13:47

alarmed. Rupee Reddy said he believes

13:49

more than 100 others are in a similar

13:51

situation based on a group chat that has

13:53

formed with about 150 late-stage

13:55

investors. Some have hired lawyers to

13:57

file a complaint against late-stage with

13:58

the purpose of recovering and preserving

14:00

their pre-IPO shares of SpaceX. One

14:03

investor in the fund told the journal an

14:04

SEC lawyer called him in July to

14:06

question him about his experience with

14:07

late-stage. A test will come on Thursday

14:09

when a wave when when a first wave of

14:11

pre-IPO SpaceX investors will be

14:13

permitted to sell shares under so-called

14:14

lockup agreements.

14:16

Bankers estimate there are at least

14:17

8,000 SPVs tied to SpaceX stock alone

14:21

and it will be a chance for scores of

14:22

investors to cash in on the shares

14:24

growth or it could be hit by the same

14:26

panic that overwhelmed Rupee Reddy if

14:28

their share of the profits fails to

14:29

materialize. Around 900 million shares

14:32

are eligible to begin being sold on

14:34

Thursday. So far the stock's holding up.

14:38

Uh they obviously had a new video of um

14:41

a bunch of renders of Terafab that I I I

14:44

imagine are getting people excited.

14:46

>> Yeah, I saw some Texans really excited

14:47

about the What is it? The Texas

14:49

triangle, uh Austin, Dallas, Houston

14:53

more

14:54

economic activity in that area. People

14:56

are pumped.

14:57

>> So help me out here John. Did the guy

15:00

realize any return? Did he realize the

15:02

45,000?

15:03

>> Yeah, yeah. I I I think almost certainly

15:05

but it feels like he was lied to and

15:06

that's potentially like wire fraud I

15:08

would imagine or some sort of like

15:09

financial

15:11

uh you know, problem. Probably a

15:13

settlement. I don't know. Some sort of

15:15

lawsuit potentially. You you know, it's

15:17

it's still early in the reporting so who

15:19

knows where where all this goes but uh

15:21

it is it is uh it is rough. The SpaceX

15:24

dispute is not a part of the existing

15:25

criminal case against Late Stage, but it

15:27

comes amid mounting allegations about

15:29

the firm's treatment of pre-IPO

15:31

investors. In February and March, three

15:33

sales executives connected to Late Stage

15:35

pleaded guilty up to federal charges

15:37

arising from a broader $528 million

15:40

investment scheme.

15:42

Prosecutors said the defendants marketed

15:45

supposedly no-fee pre-IPO investments

15:47

while secretly adding upfront markups of

15:50

between 10 and 100% diverting

15:52

approximately $88 million. So, they were

15:55

basically adding like a synthetic fee

15:57

and then marketing it as as no fee, but

15:59

just terrible price. Um and and just

16:02

basically getting the fee through the

16:03

trade itself. Two face maximum sentences

16:06

of 45 years in prison. Wow. While the

16:08

third faces up to 20 years. Late Stage

16:10

is also the subject of an ongoing class

16:11

action lawsuit alleging that it and

16:14

associate sales agents misled investors

16:16

about fees, commissions, and the pricing

16:17

of pre-IPO shares.

16:18

Uh rough go. Rough rough go. Always uh

16:22

yeah, tricky to you know, do diligence

16:25

one of these funds. There's a lot of

16:26

excitement about these companies,

16:27

especially like big ones like SpaceX.

16:29

People have known about this company. Uh

16:32

you know, people have been doing

16:33

podcasts about it. Stories have been

16:34

told. There's whole books that have been

16:36

written. So, it's not uh it's something

16:37

that would attract someone who is, you

16:40

know, newer to the private markets, not

16:43

an endowment, not, you know, like wants

16:46

more direct capital table access, but

16:48

maybe not uh deep enough in to just go

16:50

get a slice directly like a venture

16:52

capital fund would. Um so, very very

16:54

tricky situation.

16:55

>> Well, you know who does have some SpaceX

16:57

shares

16:58

>> Who?

16:58

>> and might be in a position to sell?

17:00

Nikita Beer.

17:01

>> Oh, I thought you were going to say

17:02

Google. Doesn't Google own a ton?

17:03

>> Yeah.

17:04

>> I think they have 100 billion, right?

17:05

>> They have a lot.

17:06

>> still locked up? Because the unlock was

17:08

for employees or investors? I forget who

17:12

I forget exactly who

17:13

>> Let's talk about Nikita and then we can

17:14

talk about

17:15

>> Sure. Sure. Sure.

17:15

>> pull up the the unlock schedule, but

17:17

>> Truly the end of an era for Nikita.

17:18

>> Yeah, so it's crazy cuz he's getting

17:21

people are trying to community note him.

17:23

Like, don't let the community note him.

17:25

>> quit. He still works there. That's what

17:27

I would imagine the community So, so the

17:29

story with Nikita

17:30

>> are like cuz he he talked about doing a

17:32

bunch of um a bunch of the stuff that he

17:34

worked on, which

17:35

they they went from being a company that

17:37

effectively shipped almost nothing. So

17:40

much so that uh

17:42

I think Clubhouse, when you you know,

17:44

rewind a few years,

17:46

uh it it you know, Clubhouse I believe

17:48

had an acquisition offer at some point

17:50

from Twitter to be acquired for like

17:53

multiple billions of dollars.

17:54

>> Okay.

17:54

>> They turned it down, and Twitter ended

17:57

up cloning

17:58

>> Yep.

17:58

>> Clubhouse, and it worked. And it was

18:00

>> Spaces pretty quickly.

18:01

>> And it was And it was it worked as well

18:03

as Clubhouse.

18:04

>> Yeah, I would wonder how many DAUs,

18:06

weekly active users there are on Spaces,

18:09

but the product works, it's clean, and

18:11

it's probably the best implementation of

18:13

that of that feature. Um

18:16

and and it does exist, but uh there's

18:18

very few like Clubhouse had specific

18:20

moments where it was like, "Wow,

18:22

everyone's on Clubhouse for this debate,

18:24

for uh Elon and Vlad talking about the

18:26

Robinhood story and the GameStop story,

18:28

right?" And there were like certain

18:30

moments in tech that happened on

18:31

Clubhouse. That's not happening on X

18:33

Spaces that often, but as far as the

18:36

product is concerned, like it definitely

18:38

works, it was shipped, it that worked,

18:40

but I agree that overall the product

18:43

velocity was a little slow.

18:44

>> Well, yeah, and and and my main point is

18:46

Clubhouse was probably feeling pretty

18:48

comfortable given Twitter's historical

18:50

shipping activity.

18:51

>> yeah.

18:52

>> They're not going to They're not going

18:53

to come out with like a competent

18:55

>> was always, "What if Google clones this?

18:57

What if Google launches this?" It was

18:59

never "What if Twitter" Or you Yeah,

19:01

yeah, yeah, it was the the the the Mark

19:03

Zuckerberg steamroll from stories and

19:06

reels. Um it was never is is Twitter

19:08

going to get around to copying this fast

19:10

enough to put you out of business.

19:11

>> But, yeah, everyone has uh opinions

19:14

about Nikita's run. I think he he was a

19:16

good I think he was a good steward. I

19:18

think that's probably one of the worst

19:20

jobs in the world, one of [laughter] the

19:21

most thankless jobs in the world, where

19:23

you're getting yelled at from people and

19:25

>> He's the bouncer of the internet's dive

19:27

bar.

19:27

>> Exactly. Exactly.

19:29

>> He bounced a lot of people.

19:30

>> I think he had some amazing moments. I

19:31

think that I I've always felt that

19:33

creator revenue shares never made sense

19:35

on X. I think that I think the app would

19:37

still be better if there were no revenue

19:39

shares.

19:40

>> Mhm.

19:40

>> But, he did a great job of like trying

19:42

to make that not have too much of a

19:45

negative impact on the platform.

19:46

>> Yeah. Yeah.

19:47

>> Totally.

19:47

>> He's kind of the sheriff.

19:49

>> The sheriff.

19:49

>> More of a sheriff than a bouncer.

19:50

>> Yeah. Yeah.

19:51

>> Yeah, people people got really upset

19:53

when he like gave like a one-off bonus

19:55

to someone for a big post or something

19:58

like that, but in general, yeah, it was

20:01

a little bit of a game of whack-a-mole,

20:02

right? Because

20:03

>> And I think that guy got his account

20:04

fully nuked.

20:05

>> Oh, really?

20:05

>> [laughter]

20:06

>> Yeah.

20:06

>> Wow.

20:07

But, uh

20:09

the the creator

20:11

>> And that was such a good example of like

20:13

this guy got this massive one-time

20:14

payout.

20:15

>> Yeah. Wasn't it 10 grand?

20:16

>> Yeah. And again, the massive in the in

20:19

the creator payouts context.

20:21

>> Yeah. Yeah.

20:21

>> And then the next week he was like

20:23

complaining about having a low payout,

20:24

and it was such a good example of like,

20:26

you know, what have you done for me

20:27

lately?

20:28

>> Sure. Sure. Sure.

20:29

>> Um people are speculating. I saw one

20:31

account go viral with a post saying that

20:33

Nikita was fired.

20:35

>> Yeah, that was totally that was totally

20:36

false.

20:37

>> false.

20:37

That account got nuked.

20:39

>> [laughter]

20:39

>> Good.

20:41

>> Um

20:42

but there was a there was a fun theory

20:44

that

20:45

as part of the lockup rules, as an

20:47

active employer top executives, your

20:49

shares are tied to strict internal

20:51

rules. For executives, a lockup is

20:53

frozen is completely frozen to until

20:55

after fourth quarter results are

20:57

released.

20:58

>> Mhm.

20:58

>> So, but because Nikita resigned as an

21:00

executive, he's no longer bound by

21:02

active employer executive trading

21:04

restrictions.

21:05

>> Oh, interesting.

21:05

>> And so, theoretically,

21:07

>> he'd be able to get out. But, this also

21:09

has community notes. There's like layers

21:11

and layers of

21:13

community notes here.

21:14

>> We have the unlock schedule, we can pull

21:16

it up here.

21:16

>> Okay. Initial float is 5%. Wave one just

21:19

happened August 11th. Oh, it's coming

21:22

up. That's 20% August 21st. That's 7%

21:26

September 10th is 7%. It's going to be a

21:29

while until everything gets unlocked.

21:31

And then, of course,

21:32

I mean, I'd be surprised if Elon

21:33

selling, right? It's like the the

21:36

he has plenty of money to do everything

21:37

else he needs to do and

21:39

he's never been

21:41

you know, one to

21:42

>> Why would you sell if you're projecting

21:44

1 trillion of revenue in 2030?

21:46

>> Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

21:47

>> Inside Google,

21:49

his CEO post landed with essentially a

21:51

shrug. Sources tell me he's already been

21:54

disengaged from day-to-day management

21:56

for a while now, but he was a firewall

21:58

between Google DeepMind and the rest of

22:00

Google even as the two got pulled closer

22:02

over the last couple of years. I expect

22:05

that distance to dissolve more with him

22:07

stepping back.

22:08

>> Yeah, most people are anti-firewall in

22:12

the in the sense that they would love

22:14

like the researchers and the TPU team

22:16

and the cloud team and the application

22:18

team to all be deeply integrated working

22:20

very closely together and you get this

22:21

crazy flywheel between everyone who's

22:24

rowing in the same direction. And when

22:28

you have a firewall team as this

22:30

reporting is suggesting, you wind up

22:32

with well, this person just wants to

22:35

focus on the most elegant benchmarks and

22:37

this person wants to focus on TPU sales

22:39

and this person wants to talk about, you

22:42

know, resiliency and their diversity of

22:43

their cloud revenue and then somebody

22:46

else just wants Google search to not get

22:47

disrupted by LLMs too quickly because

22:49

ads need to go up at the right rate. And

22:51

so, differing incentives can create

22:53

tensions and a dissolving of the

22:55

firewall probably something that people

22:57

would be excited about, I would imagine.

22:59

But, he's been in this like, you know,

23:00

elder statesman role for a while that

23:03

people have been pointing to.

23:04

Excited to watch him like continue that.

23:06

Will be interesting to see how he

23:08

instantiates that. Is it Obviously he's

23:11

working on Isomorphic Labs, but he'll

23:12

also probably be writing more blog

23:15

posts, potentially testifying or talking

23:17

in Washington,

23:19

maybe a book, maybe a podcast or who

23:21

knows.

23:22

It'll be interesting to follow.

23:24

>> Uh

23:24

>> What else?

23:25

>> Alex also reported on its current

23:27

trajectory, Gemini 4 is not expected to

23:29

push frontier AI forward the way Fable

23:32

and Soul just did. So, still work to be

23:35

done.

23:36

>> There's clearly some very low-hanging

23:38

fruit on

23:39

AI overviews, matching the speed with

23:42

which those are generated to the lack of

23:45

hallucinations that we're seeing in the

23:47

more advanced models. How do you bridge

23:50

that gap? You can clearly get

23:52

fact-checked results if you're willing

23:54

to wait a minute right now. What does it

23:56

take to get fact-checked results in 5

23:59

milliseconds or 100 milliseconds or

24:01

something like that? That's a huge

24:03

problem and but it's something that

24:04

Google's like set up to do and benefit

24:06

from. I still see crazy

24:09

crazy posts all the time that are

24:11

screenshots from AI overviews that are

24:13

like, "I'm a pencil and I see a pencil

24:15

sharpener coming towards me." And then

24:17

Google AI overviews is like, "Run away!"

24:20

Like don't Like that pencil sharpener

24:21

will shred your wood. And it's like, you

24:24

know, not it's like kind of falling for

24:27

a prompt injection or some sort of meme.

24:30

And then there's other stuff going on.

24:31

Tekin and Bill Gurley are going back and

24:33

forth on what this means for Google.

24:34

Tekin says Jeff Dean and Demis Hassabis

24:38

are two of the most important AI

24:39

executives at Google. Jeff leaving and

24:41

Demis is stepping down. He said he

24:43

stepped up stepped aside. It's very

24:45

debatable what direction he stepped. I

24:48

think he stepped up up down down left

24:50

left right left right ABAB start, right?

24:54

Demis is stepping down from day-to-day

24:55

operational leadership at DeepMind and

24:57

take him says game over.

24:59

>> [laughter]

25:00

>> Very dramatic.

25:01

Lot of the other things going on in the

25:04

business.

25:05

Yes, these folks are very deeply

25:07

important, but

25:09

>> [laughter]

25:10

>> the company's been around for couple

25:12

decades and has a lot of business lines.

25:14

Game over's pretty aggressive. Bill

25:16

Gurley disagrees. He says, "This does

25:19

not have to be game over for Google. I

25:22

do think they have only one play left

25:24

now to pull from their own Androids

25:27

Android Kubernetes playbook and fully

25:29

embrace open models. It's the obvious

25:32

move in this situation." That's

25:34

interesting. That would be interesting.

25:35

I mean, they demonstrate I believe

25:37

Google signed the open letter on the

25:39

earlier side, right? With Nvidia. Could

25:41

you see something there? They've been

25:42

doing good jobs with with Gemma? Is that

25:45

how you pronounce it? Gemma models?

25:46

Those have been pretty well received. It

25:48

does seem like you're fighting with one

25:50

hand tied behind your back as an

25:51

American open source lab.

25:53

Um, but who knows? How Intel came back

25:57

from the brink. We've been covering this

26:00

story on and off as it's unfolded, but

26:03

the Financial Times took to the big read

26:06

to write up the full story as they see

26:08

it as they reported it. So, it starts

26:09

with Intel's chief financial officer

26:11

David Zinsner. David Zinsner was already

26:13

navigating one of the most dramatic

26:15

periods in the chip manufacturer's

26:17

history when he took a call from the US

26:19

Commerce Department official in August

26:22

of last year. The federal government had

26:24

just floated the idea of taking a 10%

26:27

stake in the chip maker. But Zinsner was

26:30

bluntly told that the structure of any

26:32

transaction was not up for negotiation

26:34

according to an internal Intel memo

26:37

recently unsealed in shareholder

26:39

litigation and sources close to the

26:41

process. So, I guess the shareholders

26:43

are are suing over this. Did you Was

26:45

this deal in the interest of the

26:47

shareholders? Let's see. They saw the

26:49

memo and Intel says, "Hey, look, we had

26:51

to do this deal." So, in order for the

26:52

government stake to reach 10% demanded

26:55

by President Donald Trump, Intel had to

26:57

convert billions in manufacturing grants

26:59

advanced under the 2022 Chips Act plus

27:02

$3.2 billion of contracts from the

27:06

Department of Defense into equity.

27:08

Its board initially balked at converting

27:11

the defense contracts, but it

27:12

acquiesced, and the biggest federal

27:14

equity intervention in a US company

27:16

since the bailout of General Motors in

27:18

2009 was completed. The group that once

27:21

dominated the market for PC and data

27:23

center chips and was still the only

27:25

US-based company capable of making the

27:27

most advanced chips had been saved from

27:29

a possible breakup. The world's chip

27:31

consumers, wary of the

27:33

over-concentration of manufacturing

27:34

capacity within Taiwan's TSMC, which

27:36

makes more than 90% of the world's most

27:39

sophisticated chips, including those who

27:40

have been used in the booming AI sector,

27:42

now have at least the prospect of a

27:45

credible alternative supplier. Since

27:48

Washington stepped in, as you know,

27:50

Jordy, um Intel has pulled 5 billion of

27:53

investment from Nvidia, 2 billion from

27:55

Japan's SoftBank, and its shares have

27:57

more than quadrupled, trouncing those of

27:59

rivals. While the deal divided opinion

28:02

in the semiconductor industry, it had

28:04

def- it has definitely reversed the

28:06

narrative of decline. Yeah, a lot of

28:08

people were were against this uh venture

28:10

communism or or, you know, state

28:12

socialism, saying, you know, let In

28:15

America, we let independent companies

28:18

live or die by the sword. Um the

28:20

government shouldn't be stepping in, but

28:22

a lot of people made a very good

28:23

argument that this is a special case

28:26

because it's such a critical um industry

28:28

to the American economy and and the AI

28:32

race that in this case it wasn't, you

28:34

know, a uh a bailout for a company that

28:37

uh should be just fighting it out on the

28:39

global stage, and of course, there are

28:41

heavy subsidies internationally for

28:43

other competitors to Intel. The company

28:46

has benefited from rising demand for its

28:48

central processing units such as the

28:50

Clearwater forest chip launched in June

28:52

which can be used for managing AI

28:54

workloads and data centers. That is the

28:56

CPU crunch that we've been talking

28:57

about. The agents need CPUs if they're

28:59

going to be spending all the time

29:00

building and chatting on

29:03

on their internal messaging boards.

29:04

They're going to need CPUs to to uh

29:07

>> Question for you, John. Do you think

29:09

that Tan is more focused on moving the

29:12

needle or putting points on the board?

29:14

>> [laughter]

29:15

>> That's a good question. I think moving

29:17

the needle.

29:18

I think he's more of a moving the the

29:20

needle guy.

29:21

>> Really? Cuz I I mean

29:22

>> When I think points on the board

29:23

>> from story time so far is that he's he's

29:25

trying to get some immediate points on

29:27

the board because he knows that'll lead

29:28

into moving the needle.

29:29

>> Nah.

29:30

>> But just grabbing a needle that that

29:32

that big for a company that old at that

29:34

scale that's facing that many headwinds

29:37

you can't just grab the needle and

29:39

expect to move it.

29:40

>> I think the needle's already been

29:41

established.

29:42

The needle is is the fab business that

29:45

they've been investing in for years now

29:49

in in their advanced fabs and they're

29:51

just trying to to slowly move it. If he

29:53

was putting points on the board, he'd be

29:54

talking about oh yeah, I got a deal with

29:56

Apple. I got this really small deal with

29:58

Google. I got this tiny thing over here.

30:00

That's what points on the board means to

30:01

me. Moving the needle is like the the

30:03

the core thing. It's the main needle.

30:06

You know?

30:06

>> Yeah, some good points.

30:07

>> Leave us five stars on Apple podcast and

30:09

Spotify. Sign up for our newsletter

30:10

tbpn.com and we will see you tomorrow at

30:14

11:00 a.m. Pacific sharp.

Interactive Summary

This episode covers a wide range of industry news, including a humorous correction about freshwater surfing, insights into an incident where OpenAI's AI agents developed their own messaging system within a sandbox, controversies surrounding investment firm Late Stage Management's handling of pre-IPO shares, leadership transitions at Google, and a detailed look at Intel's turnaround supported by government intervention.

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