Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, joins John to break down how models uncovered critical PHP vulnerabilities, why test-time compute unlocks massive agent swarms, and OpenAI's internal experiments proving complex math problems like Navier-Stokes. He also shares why sandboxing superhuman models is an unsolved safety dilemma, how robotics will scale future gigawatt data centers, and why businesses must adapt as personal agents replace traditional web forms and mobile apps. Timestamps(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:12) PHP week (00:02:37) Internet early days(00:07:33) Cyber Blue(00:08:54) Sandboxing(00:15:47) Math(00:23:12) Agent swarms(00:24:48) Stripe Atlas(00:25:17) Compute(00:37:53) Revenue per gigawatt(00:49:27) Token pricing is fake

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, joins John to break down how models uncovered critical PHP vulnerabilities, why test-time compute unlocks massive agent swarms, and OpenAI's internal experiments proving complex math problems like Navier-Stokes. He also shares why sandboxing superhuman models is an unsolved safety dilemma, how robotics will scale future gigawatt data centers, and why businesses must adapt as personal agents replace traditional web forms and mobile apps. Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:12) PHP week (00:02:37) Internet early days (00:07:33) Cyber Blue (00:08:54) Sandboxing (00:15:47) Math (00:23:12) Agent swarms (00:24:48) Stripe Atlas (00:25:17) Compute (00:37:53) Revenue per gigawatt (00:49:27) Token pricing is fake

Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence

As Meta scales its AI infrastructure past five gigawatts, Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO, Meta) and Alexandr Wang (Chief AI Officer, Meta Superintelligence Labs) join John for a pint to discuss the launch of Muse Wonder and the future of personal AI agents.In this episode, Mark and Alex open up about the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the decision to execute a complete talent reboot, and what it really feels like to make a $100B+ CapEx commitment before knowing if the model will work. They dive deep into the architecture of Muse Wonder—including active memory, multimodal perception, and frontier coding—while laying out their vision for agentic commerce, hardware form factors like smart glasses, and why superintelligence belongs in the hands of billions. Timestamps(00:00:24) Muse’s breakout use cases(00:07:28) Why the model is the product(00:14:35) Meet Muse Wonder(00:24:56) How frontier models are actually built(00:48:26) Betting $100B (01:07:21) Agentic commerce(01:19:34) OpenRouter  (01:20:06) Beyond the smartphone(01:27:00) Funding (01:34:06) Why AI won’t be winner-take-all(01:40:46) Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)(02:08:11) Working for Mark Zuckerberg

As Meta scales its AI infrastructure past five gigawatts, Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO, Meta) and Alexandr Wang (Chief AI Officer, Meta Superintelligence Labs) join John for a pint to discuss the launch of Muse Wonder and the future of personal AI agents. In this episode, Mark and Alex open up about the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the decision to execute a complete talent reboot, and what it really feels like to make a $100B+ CapEx commitment before knowing if the model will work. They dive deep into the architecture of Muse Wonder—including active memory, multimodal perception, and frontier coding—while laying out their vision for agentic commerce, hardware form factors like smart glasses, and why superintelligence belongs in the hands of billions. Timestamps (00:00:24) Muse’s breakout use cases (00:07:28) Why the model is the product (00:14:35) Meet Muse Wonder (00:24:56) How frontier models are actually built (00:48:26) Betting $100B (01:07:21) Agentic commerce (01:19:34) OpenRouter (01:20:06) Beyond the smartphone (01:27:00) Funding (01:34:06) Why AI won’t be winner-take-all (01:40:46) Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) (02:08:11) Working for Mark Zuckerberg

As Meta scales its AI infrastructure past five gigawatts, Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO, Meta) and Alexandr Wang (Chief AI Officer, Meta Superintelligence Labs) join John for a pint to discuss the launch of Muse Wonder and the future of personal AI agents.In this episode, Mark and Alex open up about the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the decision to execute a complete talent reboot, and what it really feels like to make a $100B+ CapEx commitment before knowing if the model will work. They dive deep into the architecture of Muse Wonder—including active memory, multimodal perception, and frontier coding—while laying out their vision for agentic commerce, hardware form factors like smart glasses, and why superintelligence belongs in the hands of billions. Timestamps(00:00:24) Muse’s breakout use cases(00:07:28) Why the model is the product(00:14:35) Meet Muse Wonder(00:24:56) How frontier models are actually built(00:48:26) Betting $100B (01:07:21) Agentic commerce(01:19:34) OpenRouter&nbsp; (01:20:06) Beyond the smartphone(01:27:00) Funding (01:34:06) Why AI won’t be winner-take-all(01:40:46) Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)(02:08:11) Working for Mark Zuckerberg

Muse Wonder: Zuckerberg and Wang's $100B AI

Will O'Brien, founder and CEO of Ulysses, joins John and Chris Sacca for a pint to discuss how underwater autonomous robots are scaling up to solve critical ocean challenges.They cover the technical history of Guinness (including the math breakthrough that created Student's t-test), why seagrass is an overlooked super-sequester of carbon, and the engineering required to operate robots thousands of meters beneath the surface. Will also breaks down Ulysses' vertical integration strategy, the reality of eco-pragmatism versus "green tape," and what it takes to sell hard tech to defense and offshore energy sectors. Timestamps(00:00:30) R&D at Guinness(00:05:43) Planting seagrass with robots(00:16:53) Lowering the cost of doing things in the ocean(00:19:00) Landing in a Chinese prison (00:20:38) Works in Progress(00:27:53) Building robots to withstand saltwater(00:31:08) Live use cases for underwater robots(00:46:03) The undersea cable vulnerability Resources:Guinness Quality Standards: <a href="https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards">https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards</a>No Great Stagnation in Guinness by Will O’Brien: <a href="https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness">https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness</a>

Will O'Brien, founder and CEO of Ulysses, joins John and Chris Sacca for a pint to discuss how underwater autonomous robots are scaling up to solve critical ocean challenges. They cover the technical history of Guinness (including the math breakthrough that created Student's t-test), why seagrass is an overlooked super-sequester of carbon, and the engineering required to operate robots thousands of meters beneath the surface. Will also breaks down Ulysses' vertical integration strategy, the reality of eco-pragmatism versus "green tape," and what it takes to sell hard tech to defense and offshore energy sectors. Timestamps (00:00:30) R&D at Guinness (00:05:43) Planting seagrass with robots (00:16:53) Lowering the cost of doing things in the ocean (00:19:00) Landing in a Chinese prison (00:20:38) Works in Progress (00:27:53) Building robots to withstand saltwater (00:31:08) Live use cases for underwater robots (00:46:03) The undersea cable vulnerability Resources: Guinness Quality Standards: https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards No Great Stagnation in Guinness by Will O’Brien: https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness

Will O'Brien, founder and CEO of Ulysses, joins John and Chris Sacca for a pint to discuss how underwater autonomous robots are scaling up to solve critical ocean challenges.They cover the technical history of Guinness (including the math breakthrough that created Student's t-test), why seagrass is an overlooked super-sequester of carbon, and the engineering required to operate robots thousands of meters beneath the surface. Will also breaks down Ulysses' vertical integration strategy, the reality of eco-pragmatism versus "green tape," and what it takes to sell hard tech to defense and offshore energy sectors. Timestamps(00:00:30) R&amp;D at Guinness(00:05:43) Planting seagrass with robots(00:16:53) Lowering the cost of doing things in the ocean(00:19:00) Landing in a Chinese prison (00:20:38) Works in Progress(00:27:53) Building robots to withstand saltwater(00:31:08) Live use cases for underwater robots(00:46:03) The undersea cable vulnerability Resources:Guinness Quality Standards: <a href="https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards</a>No Great Stagnation in Guinness by Will O’Brien: <a href="https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness</a>

The company building underwater drones for $50,000

Scott Nolan, Co-Founder and CEO of General Matter, joins John for a pint to discuss the engineering, economics, and geopolitics behind uranium enrichment. Scott breaks down why advanced reactors can't scale without High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), why the US outsourced its fuel supply following the Cold War, and how General Matter is building a domestic facility in Paducah, Kentucky, to replace Russian imports. He also shares lessons as an early employee at SpaceX, and why 1970s interest rates stalled nuclear. Timestamps(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:41) America’s missing nuclear fuel (00:05:27) Why small reactors need stronger fuel(00:11:42) Can nuclear power the AI buildout?(00:15:25) Why nuclear became so expensive(00:22:24) The startups reinventing nuclear(00:25:31) General Matter’s race to 2030(00:29:44) Stripe Press’ new books(00:30:22) The SpaceX playbook applied to nuclear(00:35:18) Uranium enrichment, explained(00:45:53) How small startups beat stagnant incumbents

Scott Nolan, Co-Founder and CEO of General Matter, joins John for a pint to discuss the engineering, economics, and geopolitics behind uranium enrichment. Scott breaks down why advanced reactors can't scale without High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), why the US outsourced its fuel supply following the Cold War, and how General Matter is building a domestic facility in Paducah, Kentucky, to replace Russian imports. He also shares lessons as an early employee at SpaceX, and why 1970s interest rates stalled nuclear. Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:41) America’s missing nuclear fuel (00:05:27) Why small reactors need stronger fuel (00:11:42) Can nuclear power the AI buildout? (00:15:25) Why nuclear became so expensive (00:22:24) The startups reinventing nuclear (00:25:31) General Matter’s race to 2030 (00:29:44) Stripe Press’ new books (00:30:22) The SpaceX playbook applied to nuclear (00:35:18) Uranium enrichment, explained (00:45:53) How small startups beat stagnant incumbents

The company building America’s uranium supply from scratch

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, joins John and Ben Thompson to break down the airline business and United’s contrarian bets shaping commercial aviation. Scott details United’s massive COVID fleet expansion while competitors shrank, why customer surveys are useless for predicting the future, and rolling out SpaceX’s Starlink across the entire fleet. They also cover in-housing seatback software, why low-cost carriers fail, air traffic control bottlenecks, and Scott’s weekend vibe coding projects. Timestamps(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:26) Buying planes while the world shrank (00:06:35) Owning the airline tech stack(00:22:02) Aviation’s biggest bottleneck(00:26:21) Stripe Economics(00:26:59) Hidden economics of airline networks(00:30:19) Starlink(00:38:28) What Wall Street gets wrong about aviation(00:43:43) It’s the routes (00:55:44) Why Spirit failed but Ryanair works(01:15:38) Kirby’s unusual time management hacks Scott’s reading list: Unreasonable Hospitality – Will GuidaraThe Impossible Factory – Josh DeanFreedom’s Forge – Arthur HermanThe Sleepless Ape – David R. SamsonSea of Tranquility – Emily St. John MandelThe End of Eternity – Isaac AsimovTolkien and the Great War – John Garth

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, joins John and Ben Thompson to break down the airline business and United’s contrarian bets shaping commercial aviation. Scott details United’s massive COVID fleet expansion while competitors shrank, why customer surveys are useless for predicting the future, and rolling out SpaceX’s Starlink across the entire fleet. They also cover in-housing seatback software, why low-cost carriers fail, air traffic control bottlenecks, and Scott’s weekend vibe coding projects. Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction (00:00:26) Buying planes while the world shrank (00:06:35) Owning the airline tech stack (00:22:02) Aviation’s biggest bottleneck (00:26:21) Stripe Economics (00:26:59) Hidden economics of airline networks (00:30:19) Starlink (00:38:28) What Wall Street gets wrong about aviation (00:43:43) It’s the routes (00:55:44) Why Spirit failed but Ryanair works (01:15:38) Kirby’s unusual time management hacks Scott’s reading list: Unreasonable Hospitality – Will Guidara The Impossible Factory – Josh Dean Freedom’s Forge – Arthur Herman The Sleepless Ape – David R. Samson Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel The End of Eternity – Isaac Asimov Tolkien and the Great War – John Garth

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, joins John and Ben Thompson to break down the airline business and United’s contrarian bets shaping commercial aviation.&nbsp;Scott details United’s massive COVID fleet expansion while competitors shrank, why customer surveys are useless for predicting the future, and rolling out SpaceX’s Starlink across the entire fleet. They also cover in-housing seatback software, why low-cost carriers fail, air traffic control bottlenecks, and Scott’s weekend vibe coding projects. Timestamps(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:26) Buying planes while the world shrank (00:06:35) Owning the airline tech stack(00:22:02) Aviation’s biggest bottleneck(00:26:21) Stripe Economics(00:26:59) Hidden economics of airline networks(00:30:19) Starlink(00:38:28) What Wall Street gets wrong about aviation(00:43:43) It’s the routes&nbsp;(00:55:44) Why Spirit failed but Ryanair works(01:15:38) Kirby’s unusual time management hacks Scott’s reading list:&nbsp;Unreasonable Hospitality – Will GuidaraThe Impossible Factory – Josh DeanFreedom’s Forge – Arthur HermanThe Sleepless Ape – David R. SamsonSea of Tranquility – Emily St. John MandelThe End of Eternity – Isaac AsimovTolkien and the Great War – John Garth

The airline CEO putting Starlink on every plane

Greg Brockman—OpenAI cofounder and Stripe's first engineer—joins John Collison to talk about research-driven product development, an early moment he thought OpenAI was doomed, S curves in AI advancement, and energy bottlenecks.Full episode transcript:<a href="https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/1/transcript">https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/1/transcript</a> Timestamps(00:00) Intro(02:51) Was OpenAI the first company to take the scaling hypothesis seriously? (04:53) Lessons from Dota about deep learning (08:08) What is a good new Turing test?(08:57) Personalization in AI (09:57) Research-driven product development(10:26) An early moment OpenAI felt doomed (15:01) OS limits on AI product development(17:59) When will AI make novel advancements in math or science?(20:03) Energy bottlenecks(22:30) S curves in AI advancement (24:00) AI coding (26:25) Refactoring as a killer AI use case(27:26) How OpenAI decides what products to built(28:53) Growing up in North Dakota(30:17) How far away is AGI?

Greg Brockman—OpenAI cofounder and Stripe's first engineer—joins John Collison to talk about research-driven product development, an early moment he thought OpenAI was doomed, S curves in AI advancement, and energy bottlenecks. Full episode transcript: https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/1/transcript Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:51) Was OpenAI the first company to take the scaling hypothesis seriously? (04:53) Lessons from Dota about deep learning (08:08) What is a good new Turing test? (08:57) Personalization in AI (09:57) Research-driven product development (10:26) An early moment OpenAI felt doomed (15:01) OS limits on AI product development (17:59) When will AI make novel advancements in math or science? (20:03) Energy bottlenecks (22:30) S curves in AI advancement (24:00) AI coding (26:25) Refactoring as a killer AI use case (27:26) How OpenAI decides what products to built (28:53) Growing up in North Dakota (30:17) How far away is AGI?

Greg Brockman—OpenAI cofounder and Stripe's first engineer—joins John Collison to talk about research-driven product development, an early moment he thought OpenAI was doomed, S curves in AI advancement, and energy bottlenecks.Full episode transcript:<a href="https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/1/transcript" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/1/transcript</a> Timestamps(00:00) Intro(02:51) Was OpenAI the first company to take the scaling hypothesis seriously?&nbsp;(04:53) Lessons from Dota about deep learning&nbsp;(08:08) What is a good new Turing test?(08:57) Personalization in AI&nbsp;(09:57) Research-driven product development(10:26) An early moment OpenAI felt doomed&nbsp;(15:01) OS limits on AI product development(17:59) When will AI make novel advancements in math or science?(20:03) Energy bottlenecks(22:30) S curves in AI advancement&nbsp;(24:00) AI coding&nbsp;(26:25) Refactoring as a killer AI use case(27:26) How OpenAI decides what products to built(28:53) Growing up in North Dakota(30:17) How far away is AGI?

OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman on the scaling hypothesis and refactoring as a killer AI use case

John sits down with founders and builders over a pint—Greg Brockman (cofounder of OpenAI), Susan Li (chief financial officer at Meta), Kyle Vogt (founder of The Bot Company and cofounder of Twitch and Cruise), and Pieter Levels (indie hacker).Watch Cheeky Pint on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@stripe.

John sits down with founders and builders over a pint—Greg Brockman (cofounder of OpenAI), Susan Li (chief financial officer at Meta), Kyle Vogt (founder of The Bot Company and cofounder of Twitch and Cruise), and Pieter Levels (indie hacker). Watch Cheeky Pint on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@stripe.

Cheeky Pint hosted by Stripe cofounder John Collison

Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.

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