This Week in Startups

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Today’s show:

Democrats swept the midterms, and a lot of their candidates ran explicitly against AI data centers. Then on Thursday, the Nasdaq fell 5%. But fear not: Jason says the panic is overblown. Back in August, he predicted that the anti-data center rhetoric on the campaign trail would transform into cutting a deal once the voters were counted.

On TWiST, Jason and Lon discuss the route to compromise that could define the next year of AI discourse. Find out why Jason still gives President Trump an A+ on AI, even as he lost touch with the country’s mood on other issues.

Plus we’re checking out some highlights from the archive, as the show followed the decline of Trump 2.0 in real time, and Jason explains his simple method for staying informed and in touch with everyday reality. (Talk to lots of different people!)

Plus: OpenAI’s post-election pledge, Anthropic’s first content licensing deal, Apple cuts engineer AI budgets, Lon’s latest This Week in AI demo, and the guys get mega-hyped for “Godzilla Minus Zero.”

Relevant Links

Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/04/data-center-ballot-measures-2026-midterm.html

Hinojosa's call for a data center moratorium until the legislature acts (campaign): https://ginafortexas.com/2026/07/new-hinojosa-calls-on-greg-abbott-to-put-moratorium-on-data-centers-until-a-legislative-session-that-puts-texans-first/

Talarico defeats Ken Paxton (Texas Tribune): https://www.texastribune.org/2026/11/03/texas-ken-paxton-james-talarico-us-senate-elections-2026/

Microsoft pulls out of its UK data center deal with Nscale (Computing): https://computing.co.uk/news/2026/ai/microsoft-exits-nscale-deal-ipo-at-risk

Gavin Baker on TX data center rules: https://x.com/GavinSBaker/status/2118420042283102604

California's billionaire tax (Prop 40) goes down (Bloomberg): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-05/california-voters-poised-to-reject-first-ever-billionaire-tax

TWiST E2113 w/ Steven Borrelli of Cuts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qxDoJvzSiY

TWiST E2332 w/ Jason’s data center prediction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSmG6xHCdI

OpenAI pledges to pay for its data centers' power and halt NDAs (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/05/openai-to-pay-for-data-center-power-after-election-shows-ai-concern.html

Anthropic strikes its first licensing deal, with the AP, for election coverage (Adweek): https://www.adweek.com/media/anthropic-licensing-deal-ap-election/

The New York Times v. OpenAI discovery fight (Bloomberg Law): https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/new-york-times-wants-access-to-top-openai-executives-documents

Apple's first touchscreen MacBook Pro, from $2,899 (Tom's Guide): https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/macbooks/apple-reveals-oled-touchscreen-macbook-pro

Lon’s Plaud demo post: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/p/record-your-ideas-with-plaud-then

Plaud MCP for ChatGPT and Claude: https://in.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-mcp-for-chatgpt-and-claude

Terry Black's Barbecue: https://terryblacksbbq.com

P. Terry's: https://www.pterrys.com

Torchy's Tacos: https://torchystacos.com

Velvet Taco: https://www.velvettaco.com

”Godzilla Minus Zero” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu0pH5BuCPM

“Hope” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYRc2Gl7geY

“Dark Matter” Season 2 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhB6_1UbR7s

“House of the Dragon” Season 3 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JlMjgqduVw

Timestamps:

0:00 Jason’s initial take on the Blue Wave

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Today’s show:

Democrats took the House and Senate, and overnight trading suggested a huge market drop. But in the morning, the markets went another way, and D.A. Wallach thinks he knows why. A Congress that can’t get anything done can’t do anything BAD, like start a war or a tariff fight. The only thing markets hate than gridlock is uncertainty.

On the first post-midterm This Week in VC roundtable, Jason is joined by Wallach (Time BioVentures), Elana Gold (Two Roads Capital), and Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures).

Together, they work out what a split government could mean for tech and venture. Data centers are now a political target for both parties. 2027 might be the last major window for big M&A. Plus, D.A. worries that an intergenerational war could be brewing, between the people who own AI’s upside, and the young workers who fear getting replaced.

Plus thoughts on Cava’s 22% layoffs, Sequoia shutting down its Scouts and Arc program, the SPV “boiler room,” and more.

Guests

D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach

Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/

Elana Gold on X: https://x.com/ItsElanaGold

Two Roads Capital: https://tworoads.vc/

Tomasz Tunguz on X: https://x.com/ttunguz

Theory Ventures: https://theoryvc.com/

Relevant Links:

NBC exit poll: 56% say AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor (DCD): https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nbc-exit-poll-56-say-ai-data-centers-were-a-crucial-or-major-factor-in-congressional-vote-decision/

How AI backlash shaped the 2026 midterms (TIME): https://time.com/article/2026/11/04/midterm-elections-results-ai-industry-data-centers/

Musk on chips outrunning electricity in 2026, with Elon's reply: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2117649850644705591

Panthalassa raises $140M for wave-powered AI compute at sea (Tom's Hardware): https://tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/palantir-co-founder-peter-thiel-backs-usd140m-wave-powered-ai-data-center-startup-panthalassa-aims-to-run-offshore-compute-nodes-using-ocean-energy

Marvell to buy Lumentum in a $115B deal (The Next Web): https://thenextweb.com/news/marvell-lumentum-acquisition-115bn-all-stock

San Francisco mourns bodega cat killed by a Waymo (CBS SF): https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sf-mission-district-mourns-store-cat-killed-by-waymo

Meta launches $115M program to train workers for data center jobs (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2026/06/08/meta-data-center-workforce-academy-job-guarantee

Keep track of the value you're getting from AI (TWiST): https://twistartups.substack.com/p/keep-track-of-the-value-youre-getting-da4

Meta's Muse hits 10.9M downloads (Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/metas-muse-ai-agent-hits-109-million-downloads-as-chatgpt-slides-25-153532560.html

Curbie (Revere Robotics): https://www.revererobotics.com/

Canva lays off over 1,200 people amid slowing growth (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/canva-lays-off-over-1200-people-amid-slowing-growth/

Ollama raises $65M as it nears 9M developers (Startup Fortune): https://startupfortune.com/ollama-raises-65-million-as-it-grows-to-nearly-9-million-developers/

Sequoia hits rewind, undoing 20 years of expansion (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/sequoia-hits-rewind-undoing-20-years-of-expansion/

"The Sequoia of Tomorrow" (Sequoia): https://x.com/sequoia/status/2117961312143855764

Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/travis-kalanicks-robotics-company-raises-1-7b-led-by-a16z/

Vast: https://www.vastspace.com

SEC accredited investor exam could expand private-market access (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/01/sec-accredited-investor-exam-private-markets.html

General Compute raises a $100M Series A (DCD): https://datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/neocloud-general-compute-raises-100m-in-series-a-funding-round

Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan on democratizing pre-IPO access (Motley Fool): https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/10/19/hyperliquid-ceo-jeff-yan-says-perpetual-futures-ma/

Kalshi Perps: https://kalshi.com/perps

Aalo Atomics: https://www.aalo.com

Exowatt: https://www.exowatt.com

Timestamps:

0:00 The Blue Wave: Dems take Congress

0:10 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

6:42 What a split gov’t means for defense tech

9:21 Is 2027 the last big window for tech M&A?

11:04 Every.io: For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io.

13:44 Are anti-robotaxi laws coming?

18:51 The need for positive AI stories

24:12 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

25:59 How AI can make voters smarter

31:22 Self-driving and the future of car insurance

40:17 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

45:00 Jason’s $12K Mac Studio

50:12 Sequoia retires its Scouts and Arc programs

58:21 Jason’s barbell: Zipline, Atoms, and Vast

1:01:19 When VC firms go public

1:08:42 Scrap the accredited investor rule

1:14:26 Hyperliquid and permissionless synthetic markets

1:17:17 Kalshi perps and Anthropic price discovery

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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

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Today’s show:

Odyssey co-founder and CEO Oliver Cameron builds simulated worlds for a living, so we asked him the obvious question: are we all living in one, right now? He says he’s 90% certain that, yes, we are.

To help make the case (and show off their world model technology), Oliver’s team dropped a simulated fruit fly brain into an AI world, that’s being rendered and created in real time. So far, on X, 6.2 million people have watched the virtual fly navigate an imaginary world.

On TWiST, we’re digging into how world models learn about physics, gravity, and causality just by watching videos, what make Odyssey-3 an ideal trainig ground for AI agents, and why a world model only renders the parts of the world that are currently being experienced.

It’s a peek inside the technology that may, one day, allow us to enslave people in The Matrix and turn them into batteries. Or train self-driving cars more effectively! One of those.

Plus: SpaceX throttles Grok Bot over unsustainably high costs, but Jason says it’s worth every penny. And will OpenAI’s suggested name change from data centers to “compute campuses,” and Meta’s efforts to improve El Paso, help turn around American attitudes? Or is blasting them into space the only remaining viable option?

Guest

Oliver Cameron on X: https://x.com/olivercameron

Odyssey: https://odyssey.systems/

Relevant Links

The fruit fly brain flying inside Odyssey-3 (6.2M views): https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616

Meet Odyssey-3, Odyssey's foundation world model: https://odyssey.systems/meet-odyssey-3

FlyWire: https://flywire.ai/

Nick Bostrom, "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?”: https://simulation-argument.com/simulation.pdf

Do we live in a simulation? Chances are about 50-50 (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-live-in-a-simulation-chances-are-about-50-50/

"Beyond Perception: Proposing Our Reality as an ASI Alignment Simulation" (Ali Eslami, IPI Letters): https://ipipublishing.org/index.php/ipil/article/view/350

The double-slit experiment explained (Royal Institution, Jim Al-Khalili): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9tKncAdlHQ

“A Glitch in the Matrix” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au8eT79WUJ0

Elon Musk throttles Grok Bot limits over "unsustainably high" costs (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/elon-musk-throttles-grok-bot-limits-due-to-unsustainably-high-costs/

Elon's post: "The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue”: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2116992258520064397

Jason's post: "< $40k a year on tokens… getting $2m+ in value": https://x.com/Jason/status/2117126320962351277

Grok Bot: https://x.ai/bot

Plaud Web: https://web.plaud.ai

Founder University Japan: https://japan.founder.university/

Most Americans say AI is bad for society and oppose more data centers (ABC/WaPo/Ipsos): https://abc7ny.com/story/most-americans-say-ai-is-bad-society-oppose-more-data-centers-abcpostipsos-poll/19964027/

Chris Lehane's memo: AI will be the issue in 2028 (TNW): https://thenextweb.com/news/chris-lehane-memo-openai-2028-ai-election

Meta touts El Paso water and grid pledges as council weighs incentives (KFOX): https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/meta-touts-10b-el-paso-data-center-water-and-grid-pledges-as-council-weighs-incentives

UT Austin's Texas Advance Commitment (free tuition under $100K): https://admissions.utexas.edu/cost-aid/financial-aid/texas-advance-commitment/

Andrej Karpathy's HackerTube post: https://x.com/karpathy/status/2116957135661945283

Jason's "Unsponsored" Chrome extension for Amazon: https://x.com/Jason/status/2116380861167714594

Google's first data center satellite is online and writing poetry (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/googles-first-data-center-satellite-is-online-and-writing-poetry/

What is low Earth orbit? (Universe Today): https://www.universetoday.com/articles/what-is-low-earth-orbit

Timestamps:

0:00 Grok Bot users are at their limit

3:36 How Jason and LAUNCH get $2M+ in value out of AI

5:46 Jason’s Grok-made jacket lookbook

10:35 Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Jason. Use https://getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.

14:12 Everything changed in AI over the last 90 days

20:41 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

22:06 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

22:37 Wiring our Plaud into our Grok Bot

23:24 Odyssey’s fruit fly video zooms to 6.2M views

27:32 All About Simulation Theory

34:34 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

38:33 What is the double slit experiment?

40:47 How to teach a robot about physics

50:01 OpenAI’s plan to make Americans love data centers

56:53 Meta’s El Paso data center pitch

1:02:26 AI companies should overfund local schools

1:06:27 Karpathy’s HackerTube project

1:13:02 Google’s first space data center goes online

1:17:51 How much room is there in low Earth orbit?

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X: https://x.com/lons

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Thank you to our partners:

Paper is the legal backbone for thousands of startup founders and fund managers - including Jason. Use https://getpaper.ai/twist to get your cap table free for a year - or two years if you're leaving Carta.

G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to G2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

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Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Follow TWiST:

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Today’s show:

Binance lost an estimated $6.3 billion in the biggest crypto hack ever, and Jason proposes a radical solution. The entire tech industry should stop shipping new features for one month a year, and do nothing but patch. (Call it No App November?)

On a busy Friday show, Jason and Lon dig into the. Binance breach and look back at Jason’s prescient 2021 warning about leaving your money in crypto exchanges. (He recommends spreading your wealth around various different banks!) Plus, why he’s giving CZ credit for backstopping customer losses out of his own fortune.

Plus, DoorDash’s $17B acquisition of Instacart… Did DoorDash overpay? And is this happening now to avoid the harsher regulatory climate should Democrats regain power in the midterms?

Then we’ve got Hermetiq co-founder and CEO Jake Newfield, who has twice won the LAUNCH Accelerator’s pitch competition. Hear the celebrated two-minute pitch for an AI build engineer, and find out why Jason thinks having a “lighthouse customer” makes such a huge difference.

Finally, we’re awarding the Grand Prize in our $5K bounty competition to create Jason’s Annotated app, and remembering the legendary film and TV actor Sir Patrick Stewart.

Guest

Jake Newfield on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakenewfield/

Hermetiq: https://www.hermetiq.com/

Bazel: https://bazel.build

Apply to the LAUNCH Accelerator: https://www.launch.co/apply

Relevant Links

Binance links the $6.3B theft to a compromised DevOps laptop (BleepingComputer): https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/binance-links-63-billion-crypto-theft-to-compromised-devops-laptop/

The 1978 Lufthansa heist (History.com): https://www.history.com/articles/1978-lufthansa-heist-jfk-henry-hill-goodfellas

Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (KWTX/AP): https://www.kwtx.com/2025/10/23/trump-pardons-binance-founder-changpeng-zhao

CrowdStrike: https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/

Palo Alto Networks: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/

Grant Cardone challenges Jason to $1M Bitcoin bet: https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/grant-cardone-challenges-bitcoin-bear-to-1-million-bet

DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17B (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/29/doordash-to-acquire-instacart-for-17b/

Economic Liberties calls on the FTC to block the deal: https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/economic-liberties-calls-on-ftc-to-block-doordash-instacart-merger/

Central Market, H-E-B's upscale banner, expands home delivery (Supermarket News): https://www.supermarketnews.com/foodservice-retail/central-market-expands-curbside-and-home-delivery

People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/people-are-using-ai-to-make-their-smart-tvs-dumb-again/

TWiST $5K Bounties: https://bounty.thisweekinstartups.com/

Founder University: https://founder.university/

Founder University x Japan: https://japan.founder.university/

Inside.com domain auction: https://inside.com/

Yank Sing: https://yanksing.com/

Cafe du Monde coffee and chicory: https://shop.cafedumonde.com/product/coffee-beignets/cafe-du-monde-coffee-and-chicory

Patrick Stewart, "Star Trek" and "X-Men" actor, dead at 86 (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/29/entertainment/patrick-stewart-death

“Time Squared” (Star Trek: TNG S2E13): https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Time_Squared_(episode)

“Green Room” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8XSARX3DQg

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2zYHWDZKo

Timestamps:

0:00 The largest crypto hack or theft in history

5:45 Jason gives CZ credit for backstopping losses

7:34 Jason’s cybersecurity proposals

11:48 Stripe Startups - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.

14:49 DoorDash buys Instacart for $17B

18:48 Is DoorDash overpaying?

24:28 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

26:26 Vibecoding your smart TV

27:20 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

30:04 Jake Newfield (Hermetiq) gives a perfect pitch

34:13 Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! - Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

37:12 Lead with your lighthouse customer

43:14 The Cafe Du Monde branding lesson

51:10 The Annotated Bounty finals begin

1:04:00 Jason announces the grand prize winner

1:07:34 RIP Sir Patrick Stewart

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X: https://x.com/lons

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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

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Today’s show:

Anthropic’s S-1 is here, and finally, we can start to develop a real understanding for the AI economy and whether the numbers add up. Anthropic shows an operating profit, a mostly non-cash $80.7 billion loss, and customers spending a shocking 9x what they were spending on intelligence just one year ago.

Is this the greatest business in history? Is AI now as addictive to enterprises as cigarettes once were to impressionable teens?

On this week’s VC Roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by D.A. Wallach (Time BioVentures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Ben Black (Akkadian Ventures / Powerlaw Corp.) to seek some answers.

They dig into the numbers, including that wild 900% net revenue retention, and consider how retail investors will consider the convertible-note charge behind their $80B loss. Plus they’ll debate whether Anthropic’s founders are really true believers driven by religious fervor, and if so, whether they’re destined to be out-competed by “rabid capitalists.”

Guests

D.A. Wallach on X: https://x.com/dawallach

Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/

Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure

Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/

Trading Places podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalVentureCapital

Ben Black on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/benblack

Akkadian Ventures: https://akkadian.vc/

Powerlaw Corp: https://pwrl.com

Relevant Links

Anthropic’s S-1, by the numbers (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/27/anthropic-s1-ipo-filing-financials-profits/

900% NRR and an $80.7B loss that mostly ins’t (HackerNoon): https://hackernoon.com/anthropics-s-1-shows-163b-in-half-year-revenue-a-900percent-nrr-and-an-807b-loss-that-mostly-isnt

Tickertrends: https://tickertrends.io/

Replit makes OpenAI its default (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/replit-is-no-longer-working-with-anthropic-ceo-says/

Dario Amodei warns that rivals’ spending could risk bankruptcy (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/02/14/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-spending-capex-risk-ai-revenue-forecasts-bankruptcy

Machines of Loving Grace (Dario Amodei): https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace

Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says AI researchers are taking up smoking (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/10/13/palantir-cto-shyam-sankar-ai-researchers-smoking-cigarettes-cure-cancer-artificial-general-intelligence-silicon-valley-mass-psychosis-effective-altruism/

Microsoft offers its first-ever voluntary buyouts (TechSpot): https://www.techspot.com/news/112174-microsoft-offers-voluntary-buyouts-thousands-us-workers-ai.html

Canva ranks among the top consumer AI apps (SmartCompany): https://www.smartcompany.com.au/artificial-intelligence/canva-new-ai-consumer-web-app-ranking-andreesen-horowitz/

SpaceX Q3: Musk says it could rent out its AI compute several times over (Constellation Research): https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/spacexs-q3-musk-says-it-could-rent-out-its-ai-compute-several-times-over

Jason’s 2026 “Bitcoin is Dead” post: https://x.com/Jason/status/2114956980674605075

Jason to Michael Saylor: "there are better places to invest your money”: https://x.com/Jason/status/2115274438979756346

Timestamps:

0:00 Anthropic files its public S-1

4:58 Anthropic vs. OpenAI revenue run rates

9:20 PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business

10:02 “The greatest business in the history of capitalism”

11:58 Is intelligence the new tobacco?

18:08 The “meat sack constraint”

20:36 Thanks to our partner, The Conservation Fund! Learn more at https://www.conservationfund.org/

22:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

24:32 The Who Has the Most Subscribers Challenge

28:08 Is Apple waiting out the AI race on purpose

30:22 Hostinger: The all-in-one platform for domains, websites, email, and marketing. Go to https://hostinger.com/twist and use the code TWIST for an additional 10% off Black Friday and Cyber Monday

34:19 Is Canva an AI company?

39:08 True Believers who still want to make money

48:21 The $72.4B convertible-note charge, explained

51:03 How long does AI compute stay useful?

58:19 Jason’s monthly “Bitcoin is Dead” post

1:04:41 Alicorns are unicorns with pegasus wings

1:09:58 Subscribe to the TWiST Newsletter!

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Today’s show:

Amanda Bradford’s “launch party” for her dating app The League actually extended for months.

She “pre-gamed” the app’s formal launch with months of mixers, boat parties, and free events, where the only ticket required for admission was having the app on your phone.

By launch day, she had a massive wait list, and still just let in 500 people, who ensure maximum buzz (and FOMO).

At LAUNCH’s first-ever Tactical & Practical live event from San Francisco, Amanda walks the crowd through how she built a vetted, two-sided dating marketplace as a solo founder, eventually getting prominent enough to attract the attention of Match Group. (She sold The League for ~$30 million in 2020.)

Hear exclusive tips you won’t get anywhere else, like how Amanda used a “fake paywall” to gauge willingness to pay for subscriptions, and how to time your rate of expansion into new markets.

Plus, an all-new Flashback segment, featuring Alex and Lon looking back at a classic 2017 interview between Jason and Stripe’s Patrick Collison.

Guests

Amanda Bradford on X: https://x.com/amandabradford

Book a Call with Amanda: https://intro.co/amandabradford

The League: https://www.theleague.com/

Patrick Collison on X: https://x.com/patrickc?lang=en

Stripe: https://stripe.com/

Relevant Links:

The League was called "elitist." Its founder says that was never the case (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/founder-of-the-league-on-dating-ambition-and-that-viral-ad-campaign.html

Alex Wilhelm’s Cautious Optimism: https://www.cautiousoptimism.news/

TWiST E723: Patrick Collison (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-NepiMQGvY

Timestamps:

0:00 Amanda Bradford on building The League

4:30 Hand-reviewing early applications

6:40 Building an MVP with a rented co-founder

8:56 The VIP approach

13:10 Why Amanda only let in 500 people

15:44 The “Heavy Hitter” fake paywall test

16:44 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist

17:46 Why live events are the real unlock

21:35 Controversy as a hook

24:22 Flashback to Patrick Collison in 2017

25:13 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

28:13 Stripe: Then vs. Now

30:53 G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to https://g2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

32:17 Why did PayPal stay PayPal?

37:50 Problem, not a product

44:33 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

45:46 The outage nobody noticed

51:00 Why persistence beats pivoting

52:13 What’s left before a Stripe IPO?

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G2i has been recruiting software engineers for over a decade. Go to G2i.co/twist to find out how G2i vets engineers, and can help you hire them in days, not weeks.

Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

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Today’s show:

Is OpenAI finally priced correctly? Jason argues that the reported $30 billion raise at a $1.25 trillion valuation is finally “right-sized.” He also says that he’d put money in at that price, while walking through the risks that could still sink the investment.

It’s a Friday all-news episode with Jason and Lon, covering OpenAI’s latest round, SpaceX’s push to become America’s fourth major carrier, Zuck and Meta’s creative move around the proposed California billionaire tax, and some of Lon and Jason’s favorite documentaries.

Plus we’re asking the timely question: who watches the AI watchdogs?

Relevant Links

OpenAI nears up to $30B round at $1.25T valuation, led by UAE investors (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/22/openai-funding-round-uae-investors.html

Anthropic investors eye a $2T IPO (Nasdaq): https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/move-over-spacex-anthropic-targets-2-trillion-valuation

Uber puts all 30,000 employees on ChatGPT Work (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/22/uber-puts-all-30000-employees-on-chatgpt-work/

Telecom stocks fall as SpaceX eyes 80,000 cell sites (Yahoo Finance): https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/telecom-stocks-fall-spacex-eyes-134838815.html

Verizon launches simpler plans and drops activation and upgrade fees (Fox Business): https://foxbusiness.com/markets/verizon-launches-simpler-plans-new-loyalty-program-drops-some-fees

Amazon Leo's launch slips past early 2026 (ITdaily): https://itdaily.com/news/network/amazon-leo-faces-delays/

METR and Redwood Research's write-up on red-teaming OpenAI's agent monitoring: https://metr.org/blog/2026-10-22-red-teaming-openai-agent-monitoring/

Open Philanthropy is now Coefficient Giving: https://coefficientgiving.org/research/the-story-behind-our-new-name/

Court documents show the alleged FSU shooter's ChatGPT chats (AOL): https://www.aol.com/news/court-documents-show-florida-state-233829466.html

Meta's 8-K filing on the Founder Alignment Agreement (SEC): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001326801/000162828026066700/meta-20261019.htm

Polymarket: will California's billionaire tax pass?: https://polymarket.com/event/billionaire-one-time-wealth-tax-passes-in-california-election-2026

Mark Cuban vs. Ro Khanna on the billionaire tax (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/mark-cuban-california-billionaires-tax-wealth-ro-khanna/

Elizabeth Holmes: The Theranos Deception (60 Minutes archive): https://cbsnews.com/video/elizabeth-holmes-the-theranos-deception-60-minutes-archive

“The Act of Killing” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FcB1UZHlg

“Grizzly Man” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWA7GtDmNFU

“Hoop Dreams” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9Nq2ju0t0

“The King of Kong” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5XvArGGIzk

“A Short Stay in Hell” by Steven L. Peck: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983748446

“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges [PDF]: https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Borges-The-Library-of-Babel.pdf

“The Eureka Machine” by Richard Socher: https://www.amazon.com/dp/154170570X

Timestamps:

0:00 Jason’s in SF with the LAUNCH Accelerator 37 cohort

2:40 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

6:34 Tactical & Practical talks live at Salesforce Tower

10:21 Using Claude for brainstorming, not writing

19:26 Sentry - New users can get $240 in free credits when they go to https://sentry.io/twist and use the code TWIST26

20:42 OpenAI closing $30B at a $1.25T valuation

26:04 Why OpenAI could still lose

30:25 Would you put 30% of your retirement into OpenAI?

32:34 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app

34:27 Every Tesla becomes a Starlink hotspot

43:06 What would be the ultimate SpaceX domain name?

45:00 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

46:10 Is METR a fair watchdog for OpenAI?

54:03 Jason’s “Know Your Customer” plan for AI models

1:03:34 Meta’s deal to keep Zuckerberg in Cali

1:14:35 Why Jason would raise the minimum wage

1:18:42 Does Nathan Fielder give Liz Holmes a pass?

1:30:59 “A Short Stay in Hell” and “The Eureka Machine”

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Follow Lon:

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X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

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Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

Today’s show:

Elizabeth Holmes remains in prison for defrauding Theranos investors, even as she stars in the hit Nathan Fielder/Lance Oppenheim documentary “You Can See Everything.” But we’re asking the real question: After all the very public accusations… the hit pieces in the press and the Hulu drama series picking apart the scandal… would tech investors and VCs be willing to back her NEXT startup, if the numbers were right?

On today’s TWiST roundtable, Jason Calacanis is joined by Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures), Paige Finn Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures), and Jenny Fielding (Everywhere Ventures). In addition to reviews of the movie tech insiders can’t stop talking about, they cover why every seed portfolio needs a little bit of fraud, how diligence scales with check size, having trademark rights to your own voice, and the pro rata rights debate that’s still raging over Valar Atomics’ lawsuit with seed investors Day One Ventures.

Guests

Sam Lessin on X: https://x.com/lessin

Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/

Paige Finn Doherty on X: https://x.com/paigefinnn

Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/

Jenny Fielding on X: https://x.com/jefielding

Everywhere Ventures: https://www.everywhere.vc/

Relevant Links

OpenSnow: https://opensnow.com/

“You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44

HBO Max “The Rehearsal” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic

Elizabeth Holmes moves to halfway house in 2027 (ABC7): https://abc7.com/story/elizabeth-holmes-scheduled-move-halfway-house-august-2027/19862832/

Billy Evans’ blood-testing startup Haemanthus (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/10/elizabeth-holmes-partner-reportedly-fundraising-for-new-blood-testing-startup/

Polymarket: Oscars 2027 Best Picture: https://polymarket.com/event/oscars-2027-best-picture-winner-20260727173620857

Kalshi: Oscars 2027 Best Documentary: https://kalshi.com/markets/kxoscardocu/event/kxoscardocu-27

Charlie Javice sentenced to 7 years (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/charlie-javice-sentenced-7-years-prison-fraudulent-175m-sale-financial-rcna234536

Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2025/03/28/trump-pardons-nikola-founder-trevor-milton

Sequoia writes its FTX stake down to zero (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2022/11/10/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sequoia-writes-down-214-million-investment-to-zero-venture-capital-crypto

Who lost money on Theranos? (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2018/05/04/theranos-investment-lost

“Barbarians at the Gate” on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Gate-Fall-RJR-Nabisco/dp/B08YP9MDHX

a16z backs Adam Neumann’s Flow (Commercial Observer): https://commercialobserver.com/2022/08/adam-neumann-350m-backing-andreessen-horowitz/

Martin Shkreli lifetime pharma ban (FTC): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/01/statement-chair-lina-m-khan-ruling-judge-denise-l-cote-federal-trade-commission-et-al-v-vyera

Isaia Taylor post announcing Valar suit: https://x.com/isaiah_p_taylor/status/2108679133467414855

Day One Ventures response: https://x.com/mashadrokova/status/2108732979191390528

ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace

Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer, a history (MacTech): https://www.mactech.com/2004/04/09/a-history-of-the-apple-vs-apple-dispute

Cameo for Business: https://www.cameo.com/business

Nox Metals: https://noxmetals.co

Electric Plant Company: https://www.electricplant.co/

Ablieration: https://abliteration.ai/

Timestamps:

0:00 Our new “This Week in VC” newsletter

2:15 Panel intro: Sam Lessin, Paige Doherty, Jenny Fielding

8:09 Why gambling loses appeal for VCs

11:02 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

16:18 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today - and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%

17:35 Best moments from “You Can See Everything”

21:42 Unreliable narrators and unknowable situations

24:41 Living in a post-truth moment

30:02 Due diligence horror stories

32:45 Odoo: The all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://odoo.com/twist

34:50 The VCs remember their fraud investments

38:39 How LAUNCH trains founders to prep for diligence

44:31 How Elizabeth Holmes kept raising money

54:54 Would you invest in an Elizabeth Holmes company?

57:27 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

1:02:28 Why seed funds need pro rata rights

1:09:02 When “founder friendly” means rolling over

1:16:25 The three investor relationships: team, founders, LPs

1:21:02 ElevenLabs “Archer” voice controversy

1:27:16 How NIL deals reshaped college sports

1:33:54 Cameo for Business and long-tail celeb endorsements

1:35:51 Portfolio company shoutouts

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Follow Lon:

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X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

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Today’s show:

Jason can’t stop praising Nathan Fielder’s new A24 hybrid documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, “You Can See Everything,” and he’s insisting that Lon check it out before the next podcast. Hear his spoiler-free review, how the film upended his expectations based on Fielder’s previous work, and why Lon also recommends Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Max series “Ren Faire.”

Plus, we’re talking to Clone Robotics co-founder and CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan about why he thinks robots should not just be humanoid but should look and move precisely like humans. We’re digging deep into how his hydraulic myofiber artificial muscle technology alters and even improves on the pulley-based systems being deployed by competitors, why he thinks the models that power domestic helper-bots will be commoditized, and how quickly he thinks he can put a robo-butler in every American home.

Plus we’re comparing the potential impact of Anthropic’s new Public Benefit Fund vs. Elon Musk’s plan to give every baby a share of SpaceX, and re-considering simulation theory after Odyssey dropped an artificial fruit fly brain into an artificial landscape.

Guest

Dhanush Radhakrishnan on X: https://x.com/dhanushisrad

Clone Robotics: https://clonerobotics.com/

Related Links

“You Can See Everything” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44

“You Can See Everything” on Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/you_can_see_everything

John Carreyrou’s Theranos investigation (Wall Street Journal): https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901

“Ren Faire” HBO Max trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZUVTrrexE

“Nathan for You”: Smokers Allowed clip (Comedy Central): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttB2fYAm-8

Anthropic: Investing in the Public Benefit: https://www.anthropic.com/news/public-benefit-fund

Elon Musk SpaceX pledge: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2112089556615123114

Dell’s $6.25B Invest America commitment: https://www.onedell.com/investamerica/

Odyssey Fly Simulation X post: https://x.com/odysseyml/status/2111589148146749616

Chris Williamson: “The ElevenLabs Situation is Crazy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDNHLgWInU

ElevenLabs’ Legendary Voices marketplace: https://elevenlabs.io/iconic-marketplace

TWiST newsletter on Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com/

LAUNCH Careers page: https://careers.launch.co/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:10 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

03:18 Jason's "You Can See Everything" reaction

14:37 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

15:27 What films max out RT's critic and audience scores

20:08 Anthropic commits 5% equity to Public Benefit Fund

24:28 Would equity change how Americans feel about AI?

27:08 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist

38:38 Rippling - Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://rippling.ai/twist and get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

39:48 Dhanush from Clone Robotics joins the show

42:43 How hydraulic muscle technology actually works

54:55 When can we have our robot butlers please?

56:55 Where will Clone get its robot brains?

1:12:17 Odyssey trapped a fake fly brain in a simulated environment

1:23:09 Did ElevenLabs steal a podcaster's voice?

1:30:13 Check us out on Substack!

Subscribe to our newsletters on Substack:

TWiST: https://twistartups.substack.com/

TWiAI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/

TWiVC: https://thisweekinvc.substack.com/

Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp

Follow Lon:

X: https://x.com/lons

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

Follow TWiST:

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Today’s show:

Today’s college grads are showing up to work at Jason’s company unable to write three sentences. He’s asking what Shishir Mehrotra of Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, can do to fix that.

Shishir delves into Superhuman’s reasons for acquiring GPTZero, the most popular AI detector, and the AI notetaker Fathom, and the spreadsheet startup Rows. Plus, how Shishir responds to accusations that Grammarly helps students cheat in the classroom, why writers should disclose when they’re collaborating with an LLM, and Jason's CEO wish list for fresh Grammarly features.

In the news, Tesla demoed its long-awaited Roadster, which used SpaceX thrusters to do some flips and propel itself over five other Teslas… And OpenAI warned staffers that spies may be trying to seduce them in order to steal company secrets… And the shutdown of Character AI prompts Jason to declare: “AI relationships are evil.”

Guests:

Shishir Mehrotra on X: https://x.com/shishirmehrotra Superhuman: https://superhuman.com

Relevant Links:

Rows, the spreadsheet startup Superhuman bought, announces the deal → https://rows.com/blog/post/rows-is-joining-superhuman

Superhuman to acquire GPTZero (Business Wire) → https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260623083788/en/Superhuman-to-Acquire-GPTZero-AI-Authenticity-Platform

Is the Internet AI, GPTZero's live tracker of AI content on Reddit, LinkedIn and X → https://istheinternetai.com

GPTZero AI Vision, the extension that flags AI posts as you browse → https://gptzero.me/ai-vision

Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/14/superhuman-acquires-yc-backed-notetaker-fathom-as-productivity-platforms-push-for-agentic-work/

Grammarly Authorship, which shows how much of your writing came from AI → https://www.grammarly.com/authorship

GPTZero Authorship and Writing Replay → https://gptzero.me/authorship

Stanley Druckenmiller says his WSJ op-ed was written with AI (NOTUS) → https://www.notus.org/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai

Superhuman Go, the AI assistant that works wherever you type → https://superhuman.com/go

Tesla reveals its new Roadster with SpaceX thrusters (TechCrunch) → https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/tesla-reveals-spacex-powered-roadster-that-flies-and-falls-with-style/

OpenAI employee arrested over a hidden listening device in an executive conference room (NBC News) → https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-employee-arrested-hidden-listening-device-company-says-rcna603262

Eight states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT's alleged harm to kids (NBC News) → https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-sued-eight-states-alleged-harm-chatgpt-rcna603614

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:07:14 GPTZero and the fight over what's human

00:09:27 How much of Reddit, LinkedIn and X is AI

00:10:56 Fathom and the 90% of work that's spoken

00:12:05 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you - it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app/

00:16:27 Why Jason says every employee should use Grammarly

00:18:04 How to test whether new hires can actually write

00:22:08 Every - For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://every.io/.

00:24:22 Grammarly Authorship and proving the work is yours

00:25:53 How accurate are AI detectors

00:30:36 Jason wants AI writing flagged by default

00:32:34 Enforcing Grammarly and Go across a whole team

00:36:45 PayPal - PayPal is built for all businesses. Get started at https://paypal.com/business

00:37:28 Assist, chat and do, three kinds of AI agents

00:41:06 Jason's feedback on the Grammarly keyboard

01:13:27 Tesla demos the Roadster on SpaceX thrusters

01:21:20 OpenAI engineer charged with bugging an executive conference room

01:21:43 Why OpenAI warned employees about foreign spies

01:27:57 Eight states sue OpenAI over harm to kids

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