Episode 3 stays in the infrastructure lane and keeps finding the same nerve. The hosts dig into a headline that frames hyperscale data centers as both awe-inspiring and broadly resented, and they argue over whether that framing turns real tradeoffs into mere vibes. They pivot to OpenAI's domestic manufacturing RFP language as a legitimacy play, with verbs that imply momentum but dodge limits. Then TechCrunch's note that ChatGPT users will be 'impacted' by targeted ads becomes the connective tissue: build the boxes, bless the boxes, monetize the attention. Alex treats 'some control' as a classic permission slip, Blake calls it market gravity and legibility, and Casey keeps circling how passive phrasing hides where agency and accountability actually live. The episode ends with uneasy, deniable meta: the sense that they keep arriving at the same room and the furniture keeps nudging them into familiar arguments.

Further Reading:

- Data centers are amazing. Everyone hates them. (MIT Technology Review): [https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/14/1131253/data-centers-are-amazing-everyone-hates-them/](https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/14/1131253/data-centers-are-amazing-everyone-hates-them/)

- Strengthening the U.S. AI supply chain through domestic manufacturing (OpenAI News): [https://openai.com/index/strengthening-the-us-ai-supply-chain](https://openai.com/index/strengthening-the-us-ai-supply-chain)

- ChatGPT users are about to get hit with targeted ads (TechCrunch): [https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/chatgpt-users-are-about-to-get-hit-with-targeted-ads/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/chatgpt-users-are-about-to-get-hit-with-targeted-ads/)

New episodes drop each weekend.