Brian Merchant and Paris Marx are back with the very first guest of System Crash: Molly White! With Molly’s help, we walk through the biggest stories in the crypto world. We explore the resurgence of crypto, how its backers influenced the election and won Trump’s favor, what the crypto industry wants from the incoming administration—and how it plans to wield power. 

Mentioned this week:

• Molly White is the creator of Web3 is going just great and Follow the Crypto.
• Paris wrote about the return of self-driving hype and its relationship to the broader AI bubble.
• Molly was part of a complaint alleging Coinbase violated campaign finance laws.
• Brian wrote about Luigi Mangione and how the rise in violent politically coded acts reflects a growing despair over failing institutions.
• The Hawk Tuah girl launched a memecoin and (unsurprisingly) seems to have done a rug pull.
• OpenAI launched a $200 ChatGPT subscription and claimed to make its Sora video generator public, but many people couldn’t actually access it.
• GM has pulled the plug on its Cruise robotaxi and self-driving division after spending nearly $10 billion on it.

Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT. Production is by Eric Wickham.

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Brian Merchant and Paris Marx are back to celebrate ChatGPT’s second birthday while questioning how OpenAI is really doing as it embraces advertising and the rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk continues to escalate.

Mentioned this week:

• Brian has a new report out with the AI Now Institute: AI-Generated Business: AGI and the Rush to Find a Working Business Model,
• Paris co-authored a white paper to make an ambitious case for countries to reclaim their digital sovereignty. On Disconnect, he wrote about why it’s essential in shaky geopolitical times and in light of the return of Trump.
• Business Insider reported on growing tensions inside Microsoft over Copilot's shortcomings.
• The Financial Times reported on OpenAI’s plans to embrace advertising.
• Reed Albergotti in Semafor reports a new lawsuit from employees accuses Apple of spying on them via their personal iCloud accounts and non-work devices.
• NYT reported Google had concerns about potential human rights violations connected to Project Nimbus, while The Intercept reported the contract is subject to an “adjusted” terms of service.
• The Financial Times says Zuckerberg seeks an “active role” in tech policy with the administration.
• NPR reported on jailbots in Georgia being used to track prison inmates.

Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT. Production is by Eric Wickham.

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The system is crashing, and we’re here to guide you through the wreckage. In the inaugural episode of System Crash, Brian Merchant and Paris Marx dig into how the alliance of Donald Trump and Elon Musk—along with his Silicon Valley cohort—is poised to transform both our politics and the tech world. Plus, how generative AI is trained on thousands of Hollywood scripts and why Bluesky gives us (a least a little) hope.

Mentioned this week:

• Sam Biddle on how Trump is a win for tech’s “warrior class” in the Intercept.
• The Financial Times wrote about advertisers heading back to Twitter/X to gain the favor of Trump and Musk. (See also: Paris’s newsletter on Musk and advertising.)
• Alex Risner wrote about generative AI being trained on Hollywood scripts for the Atlantic.
• The Hollywood Reporter on the #Xodus. (See also: Brian’s newsletter on why Bluesky is succeeding because it’s everything big tech’s not)

Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT. Production is by Eric Wickham.

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The system, clearly, has crashed — and we’re here to help you dig through the wreckage. System Crash is a weekly tech news show willing to tell the hard truths about how tech — and the titans who own and operate it — is really transforming the world, hosted by Paris Marx and Brian Merchant. Tune in Friday for the first episode.

Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT.

Support the show