Up Against Reality

We’re hitting rewind to July 2023, when Larry, Chris, and RAINA explored the emerging world of AI-powered gaming, from conversational NPCs and AI-assisted game development to the implications for human creativity. Three years later, we’re revisiting their predictions, examining how the technology has evolved, and catching up on five fresh AI news stories that reveal just how much the game has changed!

Archival note: This episode was originally recorded on July 25, 2023, and is presented largely unedited; some predictions, statistics, and descriptions of emerging technologies were speculative and possibly inaccurate, reflecting the rapidly evolving AI landscape at the time.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Convai: Conversational AI Characters

Matt Wolfe | YouTube

Future Tools | Matt Wolfe

Thomas Brush | YouTube

Star Trek Continues | YouTube

Adobe Express

Scratch: Creative Coding for Kids

Makey Makey

AlterEgo | MIT Media Lab

Atelico AI Engine

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/11/03/episode-rewind-gamings-ai-future/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
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Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

RAINA is running the show, kicking off with the week’s AI news – a decade-old bug, an assistant that texts first, a photo giant in trouble, and one very long bus ride. Then we rewind to Episode 113, “Slopocalypse Now,” where the feed is flooding with reanimated icons and algorithm-made movies, and a Godfather of AI warns we have no idea what’s coming.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

YouTube AI Likeness Detection

NVIDIA DGX Spark

Godfather of AI WARNS: “You Have No Idea What’s Coming”

Anthropic’s AI Fluency: The 4D Framework

Statement on Superintelligence

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/27/episode-rewind-slopocalypse-now/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

We explore one of humanity’s greatest engineering achievements: ASML’s extraordinary photolithography machines. Discover how decades of innovation, extreme physics, lasers, and mirrors polished to near-atomic perfection made the seemingly impossible possible, creating the microscopic chips that power our modern world. Plus, a wild batch of headlines from self-replicating malware to rogue echo chambers, and China’s high-stakes math push.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Closest Thing We Have to Alien Technology | YouTube

ASML

ASML EUV Lithography Systems

ZEISS: EUV Lithography and Precision Optics

Lawrence Livermore: Bringing EUV Lithography to Industry

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/20/asml-the-machine-behind-the-machines/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Rewinding our lives to Episode 108, “Clean-up In Aisle Five,” where AI face-plants spectacularly and humans get stuck holding the mop. First, we kick things off with this week’s AI news—because the eternal dumpster fire waits for no one.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Futurism: Companies Hiring Humans to Fix What AI Botched

MIT Project NANDA: The GenAI Divide — State of AI in Business 2025

The Walk | An AI Short Film

Total Pixel Space | An AI Short Film

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/13/episode-rewind-clean-up-in-aisle-five/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
https://upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast/

Instagram:
www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Enough doom. Enough dread. We’re serving up the AI stories that made us laugh, made us hopeful, and reminded us that the future isn’t always a dumpster fire.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

ElevenLabs v4 emotional range

OpenAI Foundation: life sciences and health

Science Corporation PRIMA retinal implant

Wandercraft Eve personal exoskeleton

UCLA optical deepfake detection research

Stanford Paper2Agent

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/06/cheer-and-beer-volume-2/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

The future isn’t a random guess—it’s got a blueprint, and we’re stealing the framework to figure out what happens next. Plus, an AI data center copping a seven-figure surprise bill, 50 tons of vintage books mysteriously vanishing, and a digital starlet breaking character on live TV.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Hop Studio | Larry’s web app

Jev | typesafe.ai

AI Actress Melts Down In Piers Morgan Interview | YouTube

The Futures Cone | Joseph Voros

AI Futures: Washington and San Francisco Scenarios | PIIE

Weak Signals and Strategic Surprise | Igor Ansoff

Speculative Everything | Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/29/futures-thinking/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Who elected Big Tech—and when did AI companies get to write the rules? Plus: Rogue botnets, surveillance burrito bowls, data-center mega bills, and machines inventing their own language. You know, just another Tuesday in AI Bizarroland.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Mila on AI CEOs’ warnings | Instagram

God’s Eye View | Bilawal Sidhu’s GitHub project

Allison Stanger: The AI stack’s architecture is a constitution

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty | Albert O. Hirschman

Technofeudalism | Yanis Varoufakis

The Tech Coup | Marietje Schaake

OpenAI Terms of Use

Anthropic Consumer Terms of Service

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/22/the-new-ai-constitution/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra is here, and we put it through real-world tests—from controlling desktop apps and editing a podcast to building games, websites, and creative tools—before asking the big question: are we actually entering the AGI era? Plus, Jensen Huang’s very convenient enthusiasm, a “safety-first” AI lab caught surveilling activists, and a rock band evicted from its own username.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Larry’s ChatGPT-6 Astra experiments:

The Gravity Playground

UAR Escape the Algorithm game

UAR The Living Episode

3D interactive home theater model

SR-71 Blackbird educational website

YouTube:

We need to talk about this… | Matthew Berman

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/15/chatgpt-6-astra/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Here come the AI micro-dramas — the sixty-second, AI-generated soap operas quietly hijacking your phone. Plus: a CEO learns the hard way that privacy is a two-way street, ICE goes pet shopping, NYC pumps the brakes on the classroom’s newest distraction, and one country just handed its citizens a very generous gift.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Vertical Video Syndrome – A PSA

WonderClip

ReelShort

Vigloo

PineDrama | TikTok’s official short-drama app

Peacock Deepens Mobile Engagement With Vertical Video and Original Unscripted Microdramas

ChatGPT-6 Astra’s Safety Overview

South Korea’s AI for All Project

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/08/ai-micro-dramas/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Debra Ross spent 25 years building KidsOutAndAbout.com the old-school way – then AI turned her into a coder. We talk about her AI-powered business pivot, scaling from 52 to 160 regions, and raising kids who use AI without letting AI use them.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

KidsOutAndAbout.com | Your local guide to everything for kids, teens, and families

BeyondTheNest.com | Your local guide to America’s arts, culture and recreation

The Eclipse Effect – Debra Ross & Jamie Carter

How Students Can Use AI to Learn to Write (Without Giving Away their Brains)

Main Street Event AI Summit – Practical AI for Real Businesses

Sacrificial Garden | Larry’s new Glass Animal album SUNO project

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast Website:
UpAgainstReality.com

Episode link:
https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/01/debra-ross/

Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170

RSS:
upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality