Elon Musk trolled Jessica on X—at least, that’s how it seems.

Was it just a marketing stunt for Grok 3, with The Information as the sacrificial lamb?

Plus, Humane’s AI pin flopped, but HP swooped in for a $160M “rescue.”

What does this mean for the AI hardware race? Sam has some strong opinions (spoiler: he’s not a fan of AI printers).

And the internet’s latest rabbit hole: Could Jack Dorsey actually be Satoshi?

Social media is unraveling, AI is becoming hyper-personalized (maybe too much so), and the next wave of consumer tech is either flopping or skyrocketing at warp speed.

All that—plus the latest chaos in AI, Big Tech, and beyond—on Episode 87 of More or Less.

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3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin

4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:01:20) Bay Area ski week

(00:02:38) Yoga

(00:06:43) Grok 3 vs The Information

(00:12:26) Best deep research model?

(00:19:30) iOS bug and social media isolation

(00:23:42) iPhone 16e and status symbols

(00:27:49) Digital drugs

(00:33:21) Do brands even matter anymore?

(00:43:00) Humane fire sale and AI Printers?

(00:47:07) Founders who can land a plane

(00:53:31) Lost Meta "international spy technology"

(00:55:40) More Or Less correspondents

(00:56:50) Jack created Bitcoin?

(01:00:32) Outro

Elon Musk just threw OpenAI into chaos with a $97 billion bid for its nonprofit arm. But does he actually want it—or is it just for the memes?

Meanwhile, Slow Ventures has secured $60M to bet on the future of creators, and Brit and Jessica predict the rise of serial influencers.

Oh, and Google Maps is broken. Seriously.

All that and more in Episode #86 of More or Less.

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1) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin

2) Dave Morin: https://x.com/davemorin

3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin

4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

(00:00:00) Trailer

(00:01:07) Dressing well

(00:03:38) Startups, hybrid work

(00:11:47) Efficiency and productivity

(00:18:51) Apple Intelligence

(00:20:44) Google Maps

(00:22:31) Elon's OpenAI bid

(00:33:26) Who buys TikTok?

(00:35:27) Bill Gates

(00:41:31) Investing on people and adventure capital

(00:50:30) 360 deals and musicians

(00:52:34) Investing in niche creators

(00:56:39) Super Bowl LIX and Kendrick Lamar

(01:01:55) Outro

Sam and Dave had been toying with the idea of making $$ from meme mania, but after last week’s pod, they may have taken it a little too seriously.

They launched Jelly-My-Jelly ($JELLYJELLY), a meme coin that shot up to $250M—thanks, in part, to Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail.

What happened next? Tune in to Episode #85 to find out.

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(00:00:00) Trailer

(00:01:01) Ski race and poker

(00:03:00) Dave and Sam's newly-launched project

(00:13:19) Fartcoin is serious

(00:19:11) Everything will be tokenized

(00:33:04) PvP system

(00:36:47) Regulation side, Coinbase, jellyjelly

(00:49:16) DOGE against the US Government?

(01:06:56) Pop culture corner

(01:09:52) Outro

DeepSeek—a name no one had even heard of until last week—has since given Big Tech a run for its money.

Soon after the news, they torched $1 trillion from Nvidia and other giants' market caps.

And while AI researchers call it “distillation,” aren’t LLMs recursive by design? Everyone’s distilling someone else’s work.

The real question: Did DeepSeek actually crack efficient training? Or just drop the right meme at the right time?

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(00:00:00) Trailer

(00:01:03) Under the weather

(00:01:43) News overload

(00:05:16) Subscriptions, trust, parasocial relationships

(00:14:21) DeepSeek and meme warfare

(00:29:09) Meme coins and the future of digital economy

(00:39:03) Regulation and trends

(00:44:04) AI is the tale of two cities

(00:49:40) Meta's strategic position

(00:55:29) DeepSeek questions

(00:59:13) Sam's watchlist

(01:01:35) Outro

Stargate—a $500 billion AI venture straight from Trump 2.0's White House—has all the drama of a sci-fi blockbuster.

But instead of aliens (like in the movie from 30 years ago), we’ve got Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, and Sam Altman trading shots.

“SoftBank doesn’t have the money,” Elon posted on X, while Microsoft’s Nadella shot back, “I’m good for my $80 billion.” Meanwhile, Altman’s keeping things spicy with OpenAI already breaking ground.

Also on the docket:

• $TRUMP token,

• the inauguration at Capitol Hill, and

• if SoftBank buys, must you sell?

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On this week’s episode of More or Less, Meta kills DEI and fact-checking (right after their $27B moderation exit), Zuck's talking "masculine energy" on Rogan, and TikTok's facing a ban while DJI mysteriously drops US flight restrictions. It's not even February.

We also share opinions on:

• whether Elon's X could inherit TikTok's distribution

• what NYC's congestion tax reveals about tech's bubble

Just another week in Silicon Valley's great realignment.

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Connect with us here:

1) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin

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3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin

4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

00:00 Trailer

01:22 Tech's gender gap

07:52 Balancing Masculine and Feminine Energies

18:36 Implications of TikTok Ban

26:52 If TikTok goes dark

30:51 Balkanization

38:21 Inauguration

41:01 Wellness festival

44:12 Congestion tax and consumption patterns

48:08 Girl math

49:41 Los Angeles

53:10 Outro

Meta is ditching fact-checkers, Nvidia hitting $3T, and everyone is building robots for some reason. Episode # 81 of More or Less kicks off 2025 by asking:

• How much of Zuck's community notes pivot is political theater?

• Can NVIDIA actually pull off this "mega omniverse" industrial AI play?

• Will companies thrive as the great tech exodus accelerates?

Plus: Sam explains why centralized moderation was always destined to fail (backed by that wild 30% spike in misinfo post-fact-checking), Dave remains unimpressed by CES's 170,000-person gadget circus, and Brit introduces us to Generation Beta -- the first true AI natives.

Bonus round: Is 2025 the year Texas tech finally takes the crown?

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3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin

4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

(00:00) Trailer

(01:50) Introduction

(03:02) CES, NVIDIA, Generation Beta

(10:00) Breaking down Zuck’s announcement

(25:22) What could go wrong?

(38:34) Los Angeles

(40:46) Robots

(44:01) Pop Culture Corner

(47:50) Outro

Time for Part 2 of our More or Less highlights special! We've curated some clips to check off our tech bingo card for 2024.

This past year gave us Trump swapping press rooms for podcasts, the DOJ taking swings at Big Tech, BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF hitting record highs ($50B AUM) and—because why not—a government department named after DOGE, a not so subtle nod to Trump's pro-crypto stance.

What's in store for 2025?

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1) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin

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3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin

4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

(0:00) Intro

(1:13) Mar 29, 2024 | Apple v. DOJ

(8:53) Aug 9, 2024 | Google Antitrust Decision

(14:08) Oct 11, 2024 | Google's Potential Breakup

(26:46) Jun 12, 2023 | Crypto and the SEC

(35:27) Dec 8, 2023 | Crypto bounces back

(46:30) Nov 15, 2024 | D.O.G.E.

(01:03:16) Dec 6, 2024 | Trump and Web3

(01:10:56) Outro

Welcome to Part 1 of the More or Less highlights special! We’re taking a look back at an action-packed year in AI, from groundbreaking developments to game-changing predictions about the future. Don’t miss this collection of standout moments and stay tuned for Part 2!

We’re also on ↓

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1) Brit Morin: ⁠https://x.com/brit⁠

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3) Jessica Lessin: ⁠https://x.com/Jessicalessin⁠

4) Sam Lessin: ⁠https://x.com/lessin

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:00:54) SEGMENT 1: OpenAI Developer Day, Altman firing

(00:01:08) OpenAI Developer Day and GPTs

(00:15:22) CEO Sam Altman was fired

(00:35:27) SEGMENT 2: Apple + OpenAI, LLMs Business Realities

(00:35:42) Apple Intelligence

(00:51:51) SEGMENT 3: Agentic Predictions, Adoption, Business Models

(00:52:23) OpenAI's Mega Funding Round

(01:08:39) Agentic future and Building software through AI

(01:24:25) Silicon Valley Hype Waves, Tech Infrastructure and Great Products

(01:40:11) Outro

In this episode, the Morins & Lessins dive into the highs and lows of 2024 to uncover who came out on top.

Google made a strong showing, but are they well-positioned for the long haul? Waymo keeps moving the needle with self-driving cars and big moves in AI, making it a strong contender for years to come.

Apple? They’ve been a bit slow to innovate this year, but don’t count them out just yet. Meta really hit their stride in 2024, proving the naysayers wrong. AI? Check. Hardware? Check. Will they keep the momentum going?

Let’s get into it.

In this episode, the Morins & Lessins dive into the highs and lows of 2024 to uncover who came out on top.

Google made a strong showing, but are they well-positioned for the long haul? Waymo keeps moving the needle with self-driving cars and big moves in AI, making it a strong contender for years to come.

Apple? They’ve been a bit slow to innovate this year, but don’t count them out just yet. Meta really hit their stride in 2024, proving the naysayers wrong. AI? Check. Hardware? Check. Will they keep the momentum going?

Let’s get into it.

We’re also on ↓

X: https://twitter.com/moreorlesspod

Instagram: https://instagram.com/moreorless

Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moreorlesspod

Connect with us here:

1) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit

2) Dave Morin: https://x.com/davemorin

3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin

4) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin

(00:00:00) Trailer + Introduction

(00:01:46) God bless capitalism

(00:04:08) A+ love story, 3-hour marathon

(00:07:32) 2024 Tech Outlook

(00:09:50) Why AI was transformative

(00:13:21) A major year for tech?

(00:17:55) A remarkable year for VC

(00:31:51) Waymo

(00:35:35) The company of the year

(00:53:29) 2025 Predictions

(01:03:20) Food, health, pop culture, sports

(01:08:15) Outro