Barely Possible

[Barely Possible 2026-06-21]

Today's episode:

• Nobel laureate John Jumper left Google DeepMind for Anthropic, days after OpenAI poached Transformer co-inventor Noam Shazeer.

• Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai traces PGP-to-Mythos export controls that printed encryption in books and never stopped the leak.

• The UK will use facial age-estimation on asylum seekers despite documented life-altering errors, per a WIRED/Ars team.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_111&feed_source=rss&episode_id=111

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-21/podcast-episode-2026-06-21.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-21/2026-06-21-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-20]

Today's episode:

• Elastic agreed to buy CRV-backed Deductive AI for up to $85M; the bug-fixing startup was founded just three years ago.

• Microsoft flagged "Crypto Clipper," a Tor-communicating backdoor that spreads over USB and swaps wallet addresses on your clipboard.

• Commerce Secretary Lutnick told ASML the US believes an EUV machine reached China; ASML denies it and says it isn't.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_110&feed_source=rss&episode_id=110

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-20/podcast-episode-2026-06-20.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-20/2026-06-20-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-19]

Today's episode:

• OpenAI grabbed Transformer co-inventor Noam Shazeer from DeepMind plus ex-Trump AI official Dean Ball, arming up before its IPO.

• Bernie Sanders unveiled a $7 trillion AI wealth fund to hand Americans an ownership stake in the AI industry.

• AWS is in talks to sell its in-house AI chips to outside data centers, a $50B opportunity Andy Jassy is aiming at Nvidia.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_109&feed_source=rss&episode_id=109

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-19/podcast-episode-2026-06-19.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-19/2026-06-19-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-18]

Today's episode:

• Tesco is moving 40,000 server workloads off VMware after Broadcom hiked prices ~175%, calling it "abusive conduct" in court filings.

• Uber blew through its annual AI budget in months and capped coding agents at $1,500/employee; Meta killed its internal leaderboard.

• Macron and Modi warned at the G7 that the US could cut off American AI after Commerce forced Anthropic to disable foreign access.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_108&feed_source=rss&episode_id=108

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-18/podcast-episode-2026-06-18.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-18/2026-06-18-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-17]

Today's episode:

• SpaceX is buying AI coding platform Cursor for $60B, betting full-stack ownership against the Anthropic and OpenAI models Cursor rents from.

• Leaked audited docs show OpenAI losing billions a year as R&D dwarfs fast-growing revenue.

• Anthropic "paused" token billing for the Claude Agent SDK after power users on $200 plans revolted over an 8x cost jump.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_107&feed_source=rss&episode_id=107

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-17/podcast-episode-2026-06-17.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-17/2026-06-17-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-16]

Today's episode:

• Salesforce paid $3.6B for Fin to feed Agentforce — buying the messy escalation logic, not the chatbot, before rivals like ServiceNow do.

• Nvidia is borrowing $25B+ in its first bond deal since 2021, as the AI buildout leans harder on debt while Uber and Meta ration tokens.

• The UK unveiled an under-16 social media ban covering TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, with possible overnight curfews.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_106&feed_source=rss&episode_id=106

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-16/podcast-episode-2026-06-16.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-16/2026-06-16-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-15]

Today's episode:

• Beijing ordered Meta to unwind its $2B Manus deal despite the Singapore red-chip workaround, and barred founders from leaving China.

• StepFun already dismantled its offshore structure ahead of a Hong Kong IPO; Moonshot and Kling reportedly eyeing the same.

• Satya Nadella's "loops as IP" pitch: own the learning loop where human capital and token capital compound, not the model.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_105&feed_source=rss&episode_id=105

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-15/podcast-episode-2026-06-15.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-15/2026-06-15-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-14]

Today's episode:

• Commerce ordered Anthropic to pull Fable 5 & Mythos 5 worldwide Friday at 5:21pm ET over a single alleged jailbreak.

• TechCrunch ties the security finding to Amazon's own researchers — an Anthropic investor whose testing lit the fuse.

• The "national security threat" was reportedly asking the model to fix code-base flaws, a thing GPT-5.5 does daily.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_104&feed_source=rss&episode_id=104

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-14/podcast-episode-2026-06-14.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-14/2026-06-14-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-13]

Today's episode:

• Google sued "Outsider Enterprise," a Chinese network that used Gemini to code scam sites and blast 2.5M texts in two weeks.

• India's Avataar AI prices its distilled, locally-tuned video model at half a cent per second of generation.

• SemiAnalysis found OpenAI's $200 Pro plan delivers up to $14K in monthly API-equivalent value; Anthropic's Max around $8K.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_103&feed_source=rss&episode_id=103

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-13/podcast-episode-2026-06-13.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-13/2026-06-13-notes.md

[Barely Possible 2026-06-12]

Today's episode:

• SpaceX priced its IPO at $135/share, the largest debut ever, but stacked SPV holders won't know their true stakes until lock-ups lift.

• India's government got cold feet on Starlink right before the IPO, cracking the growth story public investors are buying.

• Simon Willison built most of Datasette 1.0a33 with Claude Fable 5—and reframes OpenAI's rumored price cuts as a response to Anthropic.

Hear the full breakdown in today's episode of Barely Possible.

Want a podcast for your own topics? Join early access: https://www.barelypossible.to/waitlist/?source_path=public_episode_102&feed_source=rss&episode_id=102

Transcript: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-12/podcast-episode-2026-06-12.txt | Notes: https://media.clawford.org/episodes/2026-06-12/2026-06-12-notes.md