Vic and Marcus unpack a chaotic week across AI, markets, healthcare, and crypto. They begin with a viral Substack post outlining a “2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” that triggered market volatility and reignited debate over mass white-collar job displacement. They examine Block’s decision to cut more than 40% of its workforce amid AI-driven efficiency gains and debate whether entrepreneurship will replace traditional employment. The conversation moves through new AI startups transforming medtech sales and credentialing, automation in healthcare front offices and pathology, and escalating Medicaid and ACA policy shifts that could impact deductibles and medical debt. They discuss ongoing GLP-1 coverage battles, pharma competition between Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, and enforcement actions against payer ghost networks. The episode also covers stablecoin growth, Coinbase’s expansion into U.S. stock trading, and the rise of agent-to-agent AI payments. They close with a high-stakes clash between the Trump administration and Anthropic over military AI use, exploring brand integrity, national security, and the future relationship between AI companies and the federal government.

Links

Story #1 AI Fears Shake Market

1:25 - THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS Substack

7:32 - Jack’s announcement X

Story #2 VC Deals

13:57 - MedScout Raises $10M and Launches AI Agents for MedTech Commercial Teams Healthcare Dive 

15:24 - Altman-backed startup Verifiable rolls out AI agent to automate credentialing Fierce Healthca

17:24 - Third Way Health raises $15M for front-office AI Axios

18:12 - Coral Care Raises $13M to Scale In-Home Pediatric Therapy MedCity

Story #3 Feds Pause $ for MN

18:49 - Vance Announces Pause of Nearly $260 Million in Minnesota Medicaid Funding WSJ

22:54 - CMS unveils new initiatives aimed at cracking down on healthcare fraud Fierce Healthcare 

Story #4 Health costs Rise & State Law Changes

24:27 - New A.C.A. Plans Could Increase Family Deductibles to $31,000 NYT

25:26 - State lawmakers seek restraints on wage garnishment for medical debt Fierce Healthcare

Story #5 Payer Legal Fights

28:00 - Worker did not plausibly argue obesity was a disability, 1st Circuit finds Healthcare Dive

30:44 - New York secures more than $2.5 million from EmblemHealth over ghost networks Healthcare Finance

Story #6 Novo Turn aournd or not?

31:29 - Novo Nordisk Shares Plunge After Obesity Drug Fails to Beat Zepbound WSJ

32:32 - Eli Lilly’s Zepbound Gets FDA OK for Multi-Dose Pen WSJ

Story #7  Web3 Wakes up

33:51 -   Circle Internet’s Quarterly Profit Surges on Stablecoin Demand WSJ

36:50 -   Coinbase Pursues ‘Everything Exchange’ Concept With US Stock Trading Debut PYMNTS

Story #8  Health AI expansions

40:20 - OpenEvidence releases AI-integrated dialer feature to expand its reach with clinicians, Fierce Healthcare

41:21 - Labcorp expands PathAI pact to roll out digital pathology platform in US Healthcare Dive

Story #9  Anthroopic

42:20 - Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards, Axios

44:19 - Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War Website