Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

By Andrew Sharp and Ben ThompsonTechnology

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26 min
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Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson episodes

October 02 (Preview) All About Agents: Dots Arrive, Google and Apple Questions, Muse Follow-Ups, Super Intelligence, and the Mandate of Heaven
Ben and Andrew begin with a note on VIM and reactions to a confusing product launch from OpenAI at Dev Day earlier this week. Then: Will personal agents be a winner-take-all market? What can Apple and Google do in the consumer agent space? Will normal people take longer than expected to adopt these products? And did Meta’s push into the enterprise break the company’s hot streak? From there: Emails on the future of payments, “super intelligence” branding for AI, America.gov, and firing Dario Amodei. At the end: AI Show & Tell with notes on generational adoption shifts (and Tamagotchis), movie games, a personalized sports page, App Store hell, and going full KGB on messaging.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Dot.com — Grok Bot
Apps, Agents, and Aggregation — Stratechery
OpenAI Dev Day, Dot and OpenAI’s Product Transition, Sign In With ChatGPT — Stratechery Update
The Problem with Payments — Stratechery
Google Grapples With Employee Skepticism About New Gemini 4 — Bloomberg
One More Note on Agents, Meta Connect, Meta Enterprise Platform — Stratechery Update
Super Intelligence Is Not Right, Either — Sharp Text
Enterprise Philosophy and the First Wave of AI — Stratechery
Tentpole Game — Tentpole
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
23 min
September 25 (Preview) Three Weeks of Meta Momentum, The Ultimate Muse Upside, A King Kong vs. Godzilla Aggregator War
Ben and Andrew begin with the Meta Connect keynote and a simple question: is this the first time since 2021 that Meta has been cool? From there, new VR glasses, the Muse Charm, a basketball analogy for Meta Connect in 2026, and the infrastructure and talent investments that have helped Muse resonate over the past few weeks. Then: An emailer shares his Muse epiphany, a potential secondary effect of agents saving users money, why Muse is not sharing user data with Meta, and the ultimate “aggregator of aggregators” upside. Then: Extended thoughts on the Muse vs. Amazon tensions, why Meta’s Walmart deal was potentially crucial, and Amazon’s moat in logistics (and returns) that may prove durable in the agents era. At the end: A CarPlay victory lap, and a round of AI Show and Tell with a wedding planner, a SunOS coder, and a fantasy football league.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Meta Debuts Dedicated ‘Charm’ Device for Using Muse AI — Bloomberg
Meta Launches Lightweight $1,299 VR Headset That Looks Like Glasses — Bloomberg
Amazon Blocks Muse, Amazon’s Moat, Aggregator v Aggregator — Stratechery Update
More on Muse, Amazon, and Walmart; Muse and Expedia; Whither Google? — Stratechery Update
Amazon and Shopify, Shopify and Its Merchants, The Payments Question — Stratechery Update
An Interview with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg About AI and the Evolution of Social Media — Stratechery Interview
Ben on AI’s Problem Marketing Consumer AI — X: @TBPN
Ben’s Full Interview on TBPN — X: @TBPN
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
27 min
September 18 (Preview) Doom Debates Go Mainstream, AI Religion and the Economic Future, Several Vectors of the China Question
On today’s Ben and Andrew begin with Andrew’s article on AI alarmism, the primacy of the effective altruists in AI risk conversations, and why these discussions are exhausting without more evidence, even as AI risk becomes the biggest story in American politics. From there: A distinction between regulation malaise five years ago and where we are today, the grind of modern software, and questions responding to Ben’s Update on Monday, including thoughts on why OpenAI and Anthropic won’t unilaterally slow down, why Sam Altman and Elon Musk were incentivized to agree with Dario Amodei, and an emailer who asks whether doomerism hysteria is crowding out more urgent economic questions. Then: Questions on China’s incentives in AI, the strategic benefits of chip sales and distillation, military implications of American lead in AI, and China’s messy cybersecurity situation. At the end: An ode to ApplePay, Walmart, and Walton Goggins (but not Matt LaFleur).
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Some of All Fears — Sharp Text
Pacing the Frontier, AI’s Digital Limits, AI Commissars — Stratechery Update
Anthropic’s Safety Superpower — Stratechery
Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote — Goodreads
AI Promise and Chip Precariousness — Stratechery
OpenAI Ads, Amazon Ads in ChatGPT, Walmart to Accept Apple Pay — Stratechery Update
Sharp Text on EZ-Pass History — Sharp Text
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
34 min
September 10 (Preview) Astra (and AGI?) Arrives, Meta’s Muse and the Agent Opportunity, Anthropic and the Revival of (P)Doom Angst
Andrew and Ben begin with Ben’s article on Tuesday on the transformative value of LLMs writing things down. Topics include: How assistants have helped Ben solve his blindspots, the omnicompetent assistants that are now available to everyone, a brief detour into markdown file history, the arrival of OpenAI’s Astra models, a future of models that use computers, the astounding value of a pro subscription to Anthropic and OpenAI, and the pace of AI progress in the fall of 2026. From there: More on the Hugging Face incident, a listener asks for advice on getting started with agents, and Meta’s Muse arrives to help normal unlock the potential of agents. At the end: Reactions to a pair of viral p(doom) tweets from Anthropic employees, why one writer’s pandemic callback offers an unintentionally instructive parallel, and an emotional announcement about the iPhone Air.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Write Things Down — Stratechery
An Interview with OpenAI President Greg Brockman About Astra and Alignment — Stratechery Interview
OpenAI Does Math, Reward-Hacking, Meta Launches Personal Agent — Stratechery Update
Anthropic Researcher Jacob Coxon Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears — The Wall Street Journal
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
25 min
September 03 (Preview) Fable 5.1 and Anthropic’s Data Retention Pivot, AI Civilizations and Related Matters, Q&A on Meta, Shopify, 3-D Printing
On today’s show Ben and Andrew begin with notes on a home networking project before turning to the release of Fable 5.1, including Anthropic’s announcement that it has walked back the data retention safety initiative the company announced earlier this year. From there: Reactions to a viral post on the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, the problem with anthropomorphizing machines, and why Ben finds this discourse unhinged and unproductive. At the end: Follow-ups to last week’s Meta discussion on the tension between libertarian and conservative impulses, Shopify is a platform and not an aggregator (and that’s great), a well-timed question about 3-D Printing, an F1 app PSA, a listener’s girlfriend hates vibe coding, and apropos of last week, a pronunciation email.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Fable 5.1, Enterprise Frontier Safeguards — Stratechery Update
The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations — Dwarkesh Podcast
Meta Settles, A Framework For Regulating Content, The Rest of Big Tech — Stratechery Update
Friction — Stratechery
An Interview with Michael Morton About E-Commerce in the Age of AI — Stratechery Interview
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
26 min
August 28 (Preview) Meta’s New Restrictions for Teens, Nvidia’s Open Source Investments, Q&A on Netflix, Druckenmiller, Parameters and Performance
On today’s show Ben and Andrew begin with initial reactions to Meta’s settlement with 29 states, including behavioral remedies that will impose restrictions on teens using Facebook and Instagram. From there: Reactions to a report that Nvidia is set to acquire HuggingFace, including why a robust open source ecosystem looks increasingly urgent for Nvidia, and why OpenAI’s surprisingly impressive jalapeño chip underscores the point. At the end: Netflix pivots from a longstanding refusal to funnel customers to rivals, F1’s declining ratings on AppleTV, ESPN abandons the bottom line for college football, Stanley Druckenmiller uses AI for his Wall Street Journal op ed, a vibe coding question (and more adventures with Ben’s over-engineered psychosis), a coffee pot question, parameter sizes and the mysteries of model performance, and a hurling PSA yields an appreciation for various sports on TV.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Meta to Pay up to $18 Billion in Settlement With States Over Social-Media Addiction Claims — Variety
Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make Sure His Competitors Share His Pain — New York Times
I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup — Slate Star Codex
Nvidia Agrees to Buy Open Source AI Platform Hugging Face For $12.9 Billion — The Information
The Biggest Dogs in Streaming Want You to Use Only Their App — New York Times
Analysis shows F1 viewership on Apple TV down significantly from ESPN — Awful Announcing
ESPN Removing BottomLine Ticker on College Football Games — Front Office Sports
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s WSJ Op-Ed Criticizing Bessent Was Written With AI — NOTUS
The Magic of Hurling — YouTube
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
23 min
August 21 (Preview) The App Store in the Shadow of AI, Offensive and Defensive Cybersecurity, Q&A on Financial Planning, AI Writing, American Sports
On today’s show Andrew and Ben begin with reflections on big Apple news that feels relatively small alongside a world of growth and dramatic questions across technology in the AI era. Then: They turn to the news that OpenAI is pausing its Internet model training, the incentive structure that makes cybersecurity challenging and how AI compounds the challenge, two digressions from Ben on misalignment and a new AI use case, and why black hat and white hat cybersecurity actors are both doing the same thing in the AI era. At the end: More thoughts on bubble benefits that may survive, an emailer considers a financial planning career but is concerned about AI, two follow-ups on AI and the writing process, and European emailer thinks Americans who love sports love everything but the actual sport.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Apple Settles With E.U.; U.S. App Store Fees; ATT Rules in — Stratechery Update
Data and Definitions — Stratechery
What Happened: OpenAI and Hugging Face — The Zvi
Black Hat USA 2026 | The ‘Breaking’ News: The OpenAI–Hugging Face Incident — Black Hat YouTube
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
21 min
August 14 (Preview) Nvidia’s Answer to Capital Constraints, Google’s Attrition and Direction, Q&A on AI Writing, Vision Pro, Vibe Coding
Ben and Andrew begin with Nvidia’s announcements of a new funding model for AI infrastructure, including the differences and similarities with railroad expansion 150 years ago, why LLMs were a gift and curse to Nvidia’s business, the pressure on Nvidia coming from Google and Amazon, and the expanded blast radius as Nvidia works to mobilize third party funding. From there: Why the turnover at Google may actually be a good sign for Google’s frontier efforts, and extended thoughts the future of AI-generated output, ideas and substantiation, and Anthropic’s plan to watermark outputs. At the end: A question about the Vision Pro, the obstacles for Starlink Mobile, and a cranky emailer yields a clarifying answer on why Ben is excited about his vibe coded app.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Nvidia’s Risky Business — Stratechery
The Google Capital Company — Stratechery
Anthropic’s Watermarking, How It (Probably) Works, Worse Than It Seems — Stratechery Update
The AI Unbundling — Stratechery
Apple Earnings, OpenAI Deep Research, The Unbundling of Substantiation — Stratechery Update
My Vibe Coding Adventure, The App and the Experience, Ten Takeaways — Stratechery Update
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
27 min
August 06 (Preview) Microsoft’s Plan for Platform Survival, Meta and the Market’s Permission, A Lack of Situational Awareness
On today’s show Ben and Andrew begin with Microsoft, Meta and Google in the wake of their latest earnings reports. First: Microsoft’s push to be the middle layer for enterprise AI, threats to the company’s competitive position in the long run, and the subtext of the open weights open letter frenzy two weeks ago. Then: Parsing Google and Meta strategies as Google hedges its frontier bets, while Meta continues its frontier spending and announces questionable plans for an enterprise business. At the end: The future of the lending environment for Meta and the other hyperscalers, a bubble check-in, a rundown of what happened between Citadel and the Situational Awareness, close encounters with Ben’s vibe coded app, and an emailer offers a compelling theory on the push for Permanent Daylight Savings Time.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Microsoft Earnings, Microsoft vs. Meta, The Efficiency Payoff — Stratechery Update
Meta Earnings, Meta’s Timing Problems, The Financial Tail — Stratechery Update
Google Earnings, The Frontier Case, Amazon Earnings — Stratechery Update
Microsoft’s Monopoly Hangover — Stratechery
Citadel Securities Sees Warsh Delivering Surprise Fed Hike — Bloomberg
Citadel Buys Situational Awareness’s Stock Portfolio After Big Losses in AI — Wall Street Journal
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
29 min
July 23 (Preview) An OpenAI Model Escapes Sandboxing, Intelligence Will Be a Commodity Market, The Chinese Model Conundrum
On today’s show Ben and Andrew begin with takeaways from OpenAI’s sandboxing snafu, including a reminder that the big bad wolf is real, OpenAI’s failures, and the timing challenge with warnings from AI labs. From there: Talking through Ben’s article on Kimi K3 and the future of open weights AI models in the U.S., including why the U.S. open source market has stagnated, the motives of various tech constituencies to drive competition with OpenAI and Anthropic, the difference between the training market and the inference market, intelligence as a commodity, and why OpenAI and Anthropic may have a more defensible lead than it seems. At the end: The government’s disagreements about how to handle Chinese models, the argument for encouraging U.S. distillation, the security risks of building atop Chinese infrastructure, an email about Chinese innovation, concerns over American credentialism, and a potential curveball from the CCP after a week of Kimi anxiety.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Who’s Afraid of Chinese Models? — Stratechery
OpenAI Hacks Hugging Face, What Happened, Alignment and Paper Clips — Stratechery Update
Economic Power in the Age of Abundance — Stratechery
China weighs tighter export controls on AI models and chips — Financial Times
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
12 min