Sophia Dew and Sofia Puccini are joined by Ruby Thelot, designer, artist, cyberethnographer, professor at NYU, and founder of 13101401, for a wide-ranging conversation about internet culture, AI, digital communities, and how technology is reshaping the way we relate to one another.
Drawing on years of research into online behavior, Ruby explains how digital cultures form, why algorithms shape more than just what we see, and what AI is changing about creativity, communication, and identity. They discuss cyberethnography, online subcultures, "machinic taste," AI companions, social norms, internet language, and why Americans often say they dislike AI—even as they increasingly rely on it in everyday life.
Resources:
Follow Ruby X: https://x.com/being_on_line
Substack: https://beingonline.substack.com/
Follow Sophia on X: https://x.com/sophiadew
Follow Sofia on X: https://x.com/schisofrenia
Follow MTS on X: https://x.com/mtslive
Stay Updated:
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Brian Armstrong changed his profile picture to a memecoin. It pumped to thirty million. Ten thousand wallets piled in. Less than twenty-four hours later, he changed it back — and every one of those wallets felt it.
That one move cracked open the week's biggest debate: what should Coinbase and Base actually be for? And what does it mean that Robinhood's new L2 — launched three weeks ago, supposedly for tokenized stocks — already has five hundred million in memecoin volume versus thirteen million in RWAs?
This week on The Defiant, Camila Russo sits down with three guests who can't agree on anything — and that's exactly why this conversation works.
Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge / NYU Stern) says Base's behavior was both an intellectual and moral failing — memecoins are gambling, and Coinbase can't build payment infrastructure while promoting gambling to young people at the same time. Jason Yanowitz (Blockworks) says the strategy is closer to right than people admit, and the real problem is execution, not direction. Michael Lee (LienFi), a Base builder since day one, says Armstrong's PFP move caused real damage — but mercenary traders have also paid twenty million dollars to creators on Base, and nobody else is stepping in to do that.
School bus. Rocket ship. Same company. That's the problem.
Guests: Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge / NYU Stern) | Jason Yanowitz (Blockworks) | Michael Lee (LienFi) Topics: Memecoins, Coinbase, Base, Robinhood L2, content coins, Brian Armstrong, crypto regulation, everything exchange
This week, with news that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Texas’ age verification law for app stores, we check in on how social media bans are going around the globe and what may be coming soon to a state near you. Then, we’re joined by Jeff Sebo, an associate professor at N.Y.U., to discuss new research into “A.I. welfare” and whether A.I. could ever become conscious. And finally, in our latest edition of Tool Time, we show each other some of the latest tech tools we’ve been experimenting with.
Guest:
Jeff Sebo, associate professor and the director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at N.Y.U.
Additional Reading:
Why Social Media Bans Are Gaining Steam
Four in Five Under-16s in Australia Using Social Media Despite Ban, Study Shows
It Turns Out Banning Teens From Social Media Is Hard
Studying A.I. Welfare Empirically
A Global Workspace in Language Models
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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File this under the definition of irony: last month, The New York Times reported that a high-profile new book, "The Future of Truth: How AI reshapes reality," includes several quotes that appear to be made up or misattributed. Author Steven Rosenbaum acknowledged he'd used AI in the writing process.
One of the quotes came, allegedly, from a book by data journalist and NYU professor Meredith Broussard. It was a critique of trusting algorithms to make decisions in medicine.
Here at “Marketplace Tech,” we have an unexpected connection to this story. We called up Broussard to discuss it.
AI CEOs are selling us the dream of ‘freedom’, making billions off the fear of mass job loss! Scott Galloway reveals the truth is more complicated and far more deceptive.
Scott Galloway is an NYU Stern Professor of Marketing, entrepreneur, and host of The Prof G Pod and Pivot. He is known for breaking down the biggest shifts in business, technology, wealth, and culture. He is also the bestselling author of books such as The Four, The Algebra of Happiness, and Post Corona.
He explains:
◼️Why the AI job apocalypse is just marketing hype
◼️How AI is making the rich richer while leaving ordinary people anxious
◼️Why Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Big Tech leaders should not be blindly trusted
◼️How robots and AI will reshape work, but may not destroy it completely
◼️Why storytelling, relationships, and resilience may become the most valuable skills
◼️Why young men are losing the ability to handle rejection
◼️How billionaires are quietly separating themselves from society
00:00 Intro
02:25 What’s Actually True About AI
05:00 Are AI CEOs Exaggerating The Future To Raise Billions?
09:00 What Would Prove The AI Skeptics Wrong?
11:05 Could AI Move Too Fast For Society To Handle?
16:05 What Happens When AI Combines With Robots?
19:05 Is Elon Musk Selling Vision Or Reality?
24:05 Which Jobs Are First To Disappear In The AI Shift?
30:05 What Skills Will Actually Matter In The Future?
33:45 Are Young People Losing The Ability To Handle Rejection?
39:55 Can You Trust The People Building AI?
44:50 Are Tech Leaders Quietly Preparing For The End?
52:00 Do Some AI Leaders Believe The Risk Is Worth It?
58:04 Ads
01:00:05 Could AI Make Us More Human?
01:05:00 What Happens When AI Becomes Your Closest Companion
01:10:00 The Hidden Trade-Off Between Convenience And Real Relationships
01:15:00 Why Loneliness Could Explode
01:19:26 The Real Reason Human Connection Might Become More Valuable
01:25:00 What This Means For The Next Generation
01:30:00 How Power, Politics, And AI Are Becoming Intertwined
01:35:00 The Dangerous Gap Between Technology And Regulation
01:40:00 What Happens If Governments Can’t Keep Up With AI
01:45:00 The Future Of Work, Power, And Who Really Wins
01:50:00 Why The Biggest AI Risks Aren’t What You’ve Been Told
Follow Scott Galloway:
Instagram - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/vBFaVJ
X - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/16DDqOa
YouTube - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/D5fzguH
Website - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5Vfyd55
You can purchase Scott’s book, ‘Notes on Being a Man’, here: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/D2dQqxN
Sponsors:
Linkedin Talent Solutions - http://linkedin.com/DOAC
Function Health - https://Functionhealth.com/DOAC to sign up for $365 a year. One dollar a day for your health
Jon Krohn rounds up March’s interviews in this ICYMI episode. Hear from AI and data science experts across the fields of education and business in this wide-ranging series of clips that take listeners from the Renaissance to the near future. Guests include Lin Quiao (Episode 971), Chris Fregly (Episode 973), Zack Kass (Episode 975), Kyunghyun Cho (Episode 977), and Rohit Choudhary (Episode 979).
Additional materials: www.superdatascience.com/982
Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information.
What’s going to be the next big step function that blasts us forward in AI capabilities? To find out, Jon Krohn sits down with Professor Kyunghyun Cho, whose 200,000 citations and co-authorship of the first paper on attention place him among the most influential AI researchers in the world. In this episode, Kyunghyun explains why today’s models have already captured most correlations in passive data, making the real challenge about actively choosing which data to collect. He also weighs in on the open debate around world models, whether AI needs high-fidelity, step-by-step imagination or whether a high-level latent representation that lets it skip ahead is sufficient and shares the surprising discovery that 80% of his 200 computer science students had never installed a coding agent.
Additional materials: www.superdatascience.com/977
Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Email natalie@superdatascience.com for sponsorship information.
In this episode you will learn:
(06:43) The story behind the attention mechanism
(28:43) Sample efficiency and active data collection
(39:04) World models and latent planning
(49:52) Teaching undergrads with coding agents
(58:21) Reranking, multi-stage ranking, and the foundations of RAG
Get Scott's no-BS guide reveals on building wealth and living well: https://clickhubspot.com/mfb
Episode 796: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) ask Scott Galloway ( https://x.com/profgalloway ) 10 burning questions.
—
Show Notes:
(0:00) What’s the illuminati like?
(5:27) You’re post-economic. What can money not buy you?
(10:41) What's the best thing to spend on?
(14:13) Is the U.S. staying flat?
(18:35) You're Dictator for a day. What are you doing in 24hrs?
(24:28) Who profits from the male loneliness epidemic?
(30:53) What's the easiest way to ruin your life?
(46:55) What changes in your 50s?
(50:20) Name the number for economic security.
(54:54) What advice is too harsh to give?
(1:01:28) Resist and unsubscribe
—
Links:
• Resist and Unsubscribe - https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/
—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com
• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
• I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out:
beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge
—
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /
Scott Galloway is spearheading a consumer-led protest movement with a simple goal: to get people to cancel their subscriptions to tech companies that have disproportionate influence over the U.S. economy. The New York University marketing professor and Kara’s “Pivot” co-host says targeting the companies that dominate the stock market — and by extension many of the CEOs who’ve cozied up to President Trump — is an easy way to pressure an administration that doesn’t respond to citizen outrage or media criticism.
Kara and Scott talk about his goals for the Resist and Unsubscribe campaign, how he came up with a list of companies worth targeting, and the outsized impact unsubscribing can have on a tech company’s market capitalization. They also talk about the potential to extend the Resist and Unsubscribe boycott beyond February.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gary Marcus, professor emeritus at NYU, explains the differences between large language models and "world models" — and why he thinks the latter are key to achieving artificial general intelligence.
Scott Galloway speaks with Jonathan Haidt and Richard Reeves about why so many young men are struggling today.
They discuss how technology, education, and economic shifts have changed the path to adulthood, why boys need structure and challenge to develop, and what it will take to rebuild purpose and opportunity for the next generation.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Scott Galloway has spent the last few years ringing the alarm about how boys and young men are falling behind. Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University, best-selling author, and Kara’s ‘Pivot’ co-host, says his concern stems from the fact that he can relate to their problems. As a young boy raised by a single mom, Scott struggled in school, didn’t have many friends, and barely got into college. But he went on to found several successful marketing firms, make millions, and raise two sons of his own. He shares his story — and his own advice on how to be a good man — in his new book, “Notes on Being a Man.”
Kara and Scott talk about how the Trump campaign was able to win over young men with its regressive version of masculinity, why he thinks we need to re-embrace young men’s horniness, and why more men need to step up as mentors. They also talk about Scott’s difficult relationship with his late father, and the ways he’s trying to be a better father to his sons.
Check out our sponsor Smartsheet here!
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Scott Galloway is a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, a public speaker, entrepreneur and an author.
Why are so many young men struggling today? In a world that often focuses on the oppression of others, it’s easy to forget that men are part of that story too. What’s actually being done to address men’s challenges, and how can both society and men themselves help turn things around?
Expect to learn why men struggling is actually affecting women too, why the left haven't recognised the problems men face and deal with, what is broken in manhood for the current generation, the 4 variables every man should be solving for, the one stat the keep Scott up at night about the state of young men, what boys lose when men don’t have a father figure, the best kind of risks that build men, what healthy masculinity actually looks like and much more…
Timestamps:
(0:00) Why are We Inserting Women into Men’s Issues?
(15:03) The Quiet Return of Soft Bigotry
(25:47) Are Progressives Finally Ready to Talk About Men’s Issues?
(33:23) Are Men More Emotionally Fragile Than Women?
(44:41) How #MeToo Movement Rewired Male Behaviour Around Women
(55:16) Why Male Friendships are So Hard to Build
(01:03:23) What is Broken in Modern Manhood?
(01:11:56) Why Women Seek a Provider and Protector
(01:22:01) How Sex Motivates Men
(01:31:06) Kindness is a Man’s Secret Weapon
Sponsors:
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Extra Stuff:
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Episodes You Might Enjoy:
#577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins
#712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson
#700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman
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Professor Andrew Wilson from NYU explains why many common-sense ideas in artificial intelligence might be wrong. For decades, the rule of thumb in machine learning has been to fear complexity. The thinking goes: if your model has too many parameters (is "too complex") for the amount of data you have, it will "overfit" by essentially memorizing the data instead of learning the underlying patterns. This leads to poor performance on new, unseen data. This is known as the classic "bias-variance trade-off" i.e. a balancing act between a model that's too simple and one that's too complex.
**SPONSOR MESSAGES**
—
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This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with one of the best labs in Europe
Contact Benjamin Crouzier - https://tufalabs.ai/
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—
Description Continued:
Professor Wilson challenges this fundamental belief (fearing complexity). He makes a few surprising points:
**Bigger Can Be Better**: massive models don't just get more flexible; they also develop a stronger "simplicity bias". So, if your model is overfitting, the solution might paradoxically be to make it even bigger.
**The "Bias-Variance Trade-off" is a Misnomer**: Wilson claims you don't actually have to trade one for the other. You can have a model that is incredibly expressive and flexible while also being strongly biased toward simple solutions. He points to the "double descent" phenomenon, where performance first gets worse as models get more complex, but then surprisingly starts getting better again.
**Honest Beliefs and Bayesian Thinking**: His core philosophy is that we should build models that honestly represent our beliefs about the world. We believe the world is complex, so our models should be expressive. But we also believe in Occam's razor—that the simplest explanation is often the best. He champions Bayesian methods, which naturally balance these two ideas through a process called marginalization, which he describes as an automatic Occam's razor.
TOC:
[00:00:00] Introduction and Thesis
[00:04:19] Challenging Conventional Wisdom
[00:11:17] The Philosophy of a Scientist-Engineer
[00:16:47] Expressiveness, Overfitting, and Bias
[00:28:15] Understanding, Compression, and Kolmogorov Complexity
[01:05:06] The Surprising Power of Generalization
[01:13:21] The Elegance of Bayesian Inference
[01:33:02] The Geometry of Learning
[01:46:28] Practical Advice and The Future of AI
Prof. Andrew Gordon Wilson:
https://x.com/andrewgwils
https://cims.nyu.edu/~andrewgw/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=twWX2LIAAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aja0kZeWRy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp4TOrkwV4
TRANSCRIPT:
https://app.rescript.info/public/share/H4Io1Y7Rr54MM05FuZgAv4yphoukCfkqokyzSYJwCK8
Hosts:
Dr. Tim Scarfe / Dr. Keith Duggar (MIT Ph.D)
REFS:
Deep Learning is Not So Mysterious or Different [Andrew Gordon Wilson]
https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.02113
Bayesian Deep Learning and a Probabilistic Perspective of Generalization [Andrew Gordon Wilson, Pavel Izmailov]
https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.08791
Compute-Optimal LLMs Provably Generalize Better With Scale [Marc Finzi, Sanyam Kapoor, Diego Granziol, Anming Gu, Christopher De Sa, J. Zico Kolter, Andrew Gordon Wilson]
https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15208
Austin Campbell (NYU) and Omid Malekan (Columbia) debate a simple question: is Ethereum ready to host real-world assets?
They walk through stress tests—what if an exchange is hacked, a stablecoin breaks, or a court order targets the chain—and whether the network should ever step in.
You’ll hear where they agree and disagree, what protections are realistic today, and what still needs to be built before RWAs can scale.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
6:13 Twitter Debate Genesis
8:58 Bybit Hack
17:56 Crypto vs RWA Immutability
29:29 Ethereum Validator Intervention
33:11 Dealing with Multiple Jurisdictions
52:23 Credible Neutrality for a Multipolar World
1:00:32 Blockchain Use Cases
1:13:40 Consortium Chains
1:24:57 Closing Arguments
------
RESOURCES
Omid Malekan
https://x.com/malekanoms
https://www.omidmalekan.com/
Austin Campbell
https://x.com/campbelljaustin
https://zero-in.beehiiv.com/
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Stablecoin-focused blockchains are popping up everywhere. Stripe, Circle, and more are betting they can dominate payments. But are these chains even needed? And will Ethereum ever be ready for real-world assets?
Austin Campbell, NYU professor and founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting, joins Unchained to cut through the hype. From why “the market eventually eats you” to how consumers, not companies, could be the real winners, Campbell unpacks the competitive landscape and warns that the ultimate champion might be someone who isn’t even on the field today.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Walrus
Xapo Bank
Guest:
Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting
Links:
Unchained:
Circle to Launch Layer 1 Blockchain ‘Arc’
Stripe Is Building Its Own Layer 1 Blockchain: Report
Fortune: Top crypto VC Matt Huang to lead Stripe blockchain Tempo as CEO, stay at Paradigm
Timestamps:
🎬 0:00 Intro
💸 4:23 Whether the world really needs stablecoin-specific blockchains
🧪 9:45 How Stripe’s Tempo chain could gain an edge in the payments game
🌐 12:25 Why Circle’s Arc might struggle to stand out
🏆 15:19 Who could emerge as the winner of the stablecoin payments race
🗺️ 20:35 What the broader stablecoin chain landscape looks like right now
🏦 23:36 Whether crypto companies have a real shot at disrupting traditional finance
🙋 27:51 Who could end up being the biggest winners
🧱 31:52 Why Ethereum may not be ready for the RWA moment
🔮 34:52 Who’s best positioned to capitalize on the next wave of blockchain-based payments
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Scott Galloway is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern, where he's taught for over two decades. He's the founder of several successful companies, including L2 (acquired by Gartner for over $150M), Red Envelope, and Prophet. He's a New York Times bestselling author of four books on business and tech, and co-hosts the award-winning Pivot podcast. Galloway also serves on the boards of The New York Times Company and Panera, and his public talks have been viewed tens of millions of times globally.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
02:00 – How to Win in a New Economy of AI
06:00 – Should We Break Up Big Tech?
08:00 – Why Young People Have a Right to Be Angry?
11:00 – Why the Tax Code Is Rigged Against the Young
13:00 – Tax Changes That Would Make Young People Rich Again
17:00 – The Tinder Effect: Why Men Are Angry
20:00 – The Loneliness Epidemic in Men
23:00 – Remote Work & The Case for Alcohol
26:00 – Why Richer Families are Happier Families
30:00 – The Truth About Kids and Career
34:00 – Are Billionaires Happy?
38:00 – Becoming a Better Son, Father, Partner
46:00 – Behind the Persona: Who Scott Galloway Really Is
What if the most powerful technology in human history is being built by people who openly admit they don't trust each other? In this explosive 2-hour debate, three AI experts pull back the curtain on the shocking psychology driving the race to Artificial General Intelligence—and why the people building it might be the biggest threat of all. Kokotajlo predicts AGI by 2028 based on compute scaling trends. Marcus argues we haven't solved basic cognitive problems from his 2001 research. The stakes? If Kokotajlo is right and Marcus is wrong about safety progress, humanity may have already lost control.
Sponsor messages:
========
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Tufa AI Labs are hiring for ML Engineers and a Chief Scientist in Zurich/SF. They are top of the ARCv2 leaderboard!
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========
Guest Powerhouse
Gary Marcus - Cognitive scientist, author of "Taming Silicon Valley," and AI's most prominent skeptic who's been warning about the same fundamental problems for 25 years (https://garymarcus.substack.com/)
Daniel Kokotajlo - Former OpenAI insider turned whistleblower who reveals the disturbing rationalizations of AI lab leaders in his viral "AI 2027" scenario (https://ai-2027.com/)
Dan Hendrycks - Director of the Center for AI Safety who created the benchmarks used to measure AI progress and argues we have only years, not decades, to prevent catastrophe (https://danhendrycks.com/)
Transcript:
http://app.rescript.info/public/share/tEcx4UkToi-2jwS1cN51CW70A4Eh6QulBRxDILoXOno
TOC:
Introduction: The AI Arms Race
00:00:04 - The Danger of Automated AI R&D
00:00:43 - The Rationalization: "If we don't, someone else will"
00:01:56 - Sponsor Reads (Tufa AI Labs & Google Gemini)
00:02:55 - Guest Introductions
The Philosophical Stakes
00:04:13 - What is the Positive Vision for AGI?
00:07:00 - The Abundance Scenario: Superintelligent Economy
00:09:06 - Differentiating AGI and Superintelligence (ASI)
00:11:41 - Sam Altman: "A Decade in a Month"
00:14:47 - Economic Inequality & The UBI Problem
Policy and Red Lines
00:17:13 - The Pause Letter: Stopping vs. Delaying AI
00:20:03 - Defining Three Concrete Red Lines for AI Development
00:25:24 - Racing Towards Red Lines & The Myth of "Durable Advantage"
00:31:15 - Transparency and Public Perception
00:35:16 - The Rationalization Cascade: Why AI Labs Race to "Win"
Forecasting AGI: Timelines and Methodologies
00:42:29 - The Case for Short Timelines (Median 2028)
00:47:00 - Scaling Limits: Compute, Data, and Money
00:49:36 - Forecasting Models: Bio-Anchors and Agentic Coding
00:53:15 - The 10^45 FLOP Thought Experiment
The Great Debate: Cognitive Gaps vs. Scaling
00:58:41 - Gary Marcus's Counterpoint: The Unsolved Problems of Cognition
01:00:46 - Current AI Can't Play Chess Reliably
01:08:23 - Can Tools and Neurosymbolic AI Fill the Gaps?
01:16:13 - The Multi-Dimensional Nature of Intelligence
01:24:26 - The Benchmark Debate: Data Contamination and Reliability
01:31:15 - The Superhuman Coder Milestone Debate
01:37:45 - The Driverless Car Analogy
The Alignment Problem
01:39:45 - Has Any Progress Been Made on Alignment?
01:42:43 - "Fairly Reasonably Scares the Sh*t Out of Me"
01:46:30 - Distinguishing Model vs. Process Alignment
Scenarios and Conclusions
01:49:26 - Gary's Alternative Scenario: The Neurosymbolic Shift
01:53:35 - Will AI Become Jeff Dean?
01:58:41 - Takeoff Speeds and Exceeding Human Intelligence
02:03:19 - Final Disagreements and Closing Remarks
REFS:
Gary Marcus (2001) - The Algebraic Mind
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262632683/the-algebraic-mind/
00:59:00
Gary Marcus & Ernest Davis (2019) - Rebooting AI
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566677/rebooting-ai-by-gary-marcus-and-ernest-davis/
01:31:59
Gary Marcus (2024) - Taming SV
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/gary-marcus/taming-silicon-valley/9781541704091/
00:03:01
Yield-bearing stablecoins have had decent growth, now topping $6 billion in supply and paying out nearly $600 million to users, according to data from Stablewatch. But just as these products go mainstream, the U.S. Senate is moving forward with a stablecoin bill that could ban them outright in America.
In this episode, NYU professor and Zero Knowledge Consulting founder Austin Campbell joins Laura to break down:
Why yield-bearing stablecoins are under fire in Washington
Why Dems are pushing for the ban and who stands to benefit
How this bill could give foreign issuers an edge over U.S. ones
Whether yield-bearing stablecoins are securities under U.S. law
And what the future holds for projects like Ethena, Sky, and others
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
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Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting
Unchained:
How the Senate Stablecoin Bill Enriches Corporations at the Expense of Consumers
Stablecoin Bill Passes Key Hurdle: Dems Join GOP to Deliver a Crypto Win
Tether in the Clear? Yes, Under This New Republican-Led Senate Stablecoin Bill
Stablecoin Bill Stalls in Senate as GOP Cries Foul Over Dem Resistance
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
💣 1:29 Why the new stablecoin bill takes direct aim at yield-bearing stablecoins
🗳️ 3:36 How Democrats are driving the push for a ban and what their motivations might be
🏦 6:28 Why calling stablecoins “banks” leads to major policy confusion
🌍 13:49 How the bill could hand an advantage to offshore stablecoin issuers
🎒 19:31 Whether Tether is warning about risk or just protecting its own interests
⚖️ 21:09 Are yield-bearing stablecoins actually securities under U.S. law?
💰 23:40 What real benefits yield-bearing stablecoins offer to users
🚫 29:54 Why Austin opposes the proposed 10% interest cap
📚 32:04 Why Ethena would likely be regulated under market structure rules instead
📰 35:04 Weekly News Recap
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Episode 708: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Scott Galloway ( https://x.com/profgalloway ) about his wildest investments, plus advice for men in their 20s and 30s.
—
Show Notes:
(0:00) FTX bankruptcy claims (Turning $2M into $15M with one trade)
(6:56) NJOY (Turning $2.5M into $75M)
(15:58) YellowPages (Turning $4M into $20M)
(21:10) Prediction: The U.S market is about to have a 15-year downturn
(27:55) The inverse galloway index
(31:55) Who Scott admires
(33:14) Advice for young men
(37:19) Scott spots the next $1B trend: European markets
(44:18) How does one ball?
(46:00) Trump's meme coin and transnational oligarchs
(53:25) More advice for young men
—
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• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
—
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• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
Gary Marcus is a cognitive scientist, author, and longtime AI skeptic. Marcus joins Big Technology to discuss whether large‑language‑model scaling is running into a wall. Tune in to hear a frank debate on the limits of “just add GPUs" and what that means for the next wave of AI. We also cover data‑privacy fallout from ad‑driven assistants, open‑source bio‑risk fears, and the quest for interpretability. Hit play for a reality check on AI’s future — and the insight you need to follow where the industry heads next.
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Are we raising a lost generation of men? Is society failing young boys? In this emergency discussion, Steven sits down with expert guests to explore the recently published ‘Lost Boys Report’.
Scott Galloway is a professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and a member of the advisory council for the American Institute for Boys and Men. Logan Ury is a behavioral scientist turned dating coach and the Director of Relationship Science at Hinge. Together, they bring expertise in culture, psychology, and societal trends to unpack the crisis highlighted in the Lost Boys Report.
They explain:
Why young men are giving up on love, work, and ambition
How toxic masculinity narratives are damaging adolescent boys
Why dating apps may be fuelling loneliness and resentment in young men
How rising violence among young males signals a deeper societal problem
Why traditional paths to success are failing modern boys
00:00 Intro
02:13 The Lost Boys Report
03:46 Who Is Logan and What Does She Do?
05:07 Who Is Scott
06:12 How Did This Happen?
10:38 Fatherless Homes
14:40 Are Boys Mentally Weaker?
16:51 Is the Education System the Problem?
22:49 Where Are Male Role Models?
30:08 What the Stats Say About Dating
34:42 Dating Standards
44:23 Do Women Really Want Emotionally Attuned Men?
46:16 If They're Okay, Always Go on a Second Date
48:06 Men's Groups: Should We Have Them and What Are the Benefits?
54:57 Ads
55:50 Steve's Supportive Group of Friends
1:02:42 The Dangers of Porn for Young Boys
1:08:01 How Scott Helps Men With Porn Addiction
1:13:12 Men Approaching Women in a Post-MeToo Era
1:15:27 Teens Don’t Know How to Ask Girls Out in Person
1:25:22 Do Successful Women Struggle to Find a Partner?
1:28:11 Ads
1:29:14 The Rise of Feminism
1:30:54 Money Equals Identity for Men
1:36:09 Does Money Give Self-Worth to Women?
1:38:42 The Human Dating Boot Camp
1:47:33 How Is the Left Going to Get Men Back?
1:52:16 Advice for Parents of Young Boys
1:55:12 What Scott and Steve Had to Unlearn About Being a Man
2:10:02 Closing Message for the Lost Boys
You can learn more about the March 2025 CSJ Report, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/2kI16MnW6Rb
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You can purchase Scott’s book, ‘The Algebra of Happiness: The Pursuit of Success, Love and What It All Means’, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/gNRRlBCU6Rb
You can purchase Logan’s book, ‘How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love’, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/4aQGk5EU6Rb
Research document: https://stevenbartlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DOAC-Lost-Boys-Independent-Research-and-Further-Reading.pdf
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Yann LeCun is the chief AI scientist at Meta. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the strengths and limitations of current AI models, weighing in on why they've been unable to invent new things despite possessing almost all the world's written knowledge. LeCun digs deep into AI science, explaining why AI systems must build an abstract knowledge of the way the world operates to truly advance. We also cover whether AI research will hit a wall, whether investors in AI will be disappointed, and the value of open source after DeepSeek. Tune in for a fascinating conversation with one of the world's leading AI pioneers.
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Trump has taken the oath of office, but what does this really mean for the future of the world?
The Diary Of A CEO’s first ever election round table is joined by three renowned voices: Scott Galloway, Daniel Priestly and Konstantin Kisin.
Konstantin Kisin, a political and social commentator known for discussing some of society's most controversial topics.
Professor Scott Galloway, a renowned professor and business analyst who publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, offers sharp, data-driven critiques of Trump’s policies and their impact on democracy and the economy.
Daniel Priestley, an entrepreneur and strategist, examines how Trump’s election could reshape the business landscape, addressing the challenges and opportunities for industries adapting to new policies.
In this conversation, the guests and Steven discuss topics such as, how Trump will redefine masculinity, how wokeism is strengthening the right wing, what Trump’s return means for censorship, and the impact of the election on the UK.
00:00 Intro
02:31 What's the Big Picture as It Relates to This Election?
05:16 The Things Trump Is Promising Are Things That Should Happen
09:30 Has the Left Lost Its Way?
13:44 Did Trump Just Have a Better Marketing Campaign?
17:26 Millionaires Are Leaving the UK
20:18 Is the UK Still a Good Place for Business vs. the US?
23:30 Is the UK a Failing Nation?
24:57 Elon Musk's Attack on the UK
26:13 The UK's Attitude Toward the Rich Is Wrong
28:08 Is the British Attitude Holding Us Back From Our Potential?
31:13 Young Men Are Struggling in America
37:15 The Rollback of Trump's DEI Measures
44:13 Trump's Move Toward a Merit-Based Society
47:55 Masculinity and Identity Issues
52:51 Trump's Stance on Masculinity
56:04 Elon Musk and Censorship
58:49 The Power of Freedom of Speech
01:00:56 Why Has Elon Chosen Now to Raise These Issues?
01:04:00 What Does Elon Musk Want?
01:06:49 Big Tech Cosying Up to Trump
01:10:11 Living in an Echo Chamber With Algorithms
01:16:15 Social Networks Are Becoming Political Environments
01:24:16 Where Is the West Heading?
01:27:54 What's Not Getting Enough Attention Right Now?
01:33:24 Best Advice to Prepare Young Men for the Future
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We all know that the new Trump administration is likely to be more friendly to the crypto industry than the Biden administration was. And we know that the industry has generally been rather supportive and enthusiastic about the change at the White House. But what's actually coming next? What does being favorable to the industry really look like in practice? What does the crypto industry actually want to see in terms of changing regulations under a new administration? On this episode, we speak with Austin Campbell, professor at NYU's Stern School of Business and the CEO of stablecoin company WSPN USA about the possibilities ahead, and what moves the industry is hoping to see from the SEC and bank regulators.00
Read More: Trump Plans to Designate Cryptocurrency as a National Priority
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In this moment Scott Galloway provides practical tips for building wealth and saving for the future. He explains why starting early, investing in low-cost index funds, and using simple tools like savings apps can make a big difference. Scott also talks about the benefits and risks of real estate and the importance of diversifying your investments. It's an easy-to-follow guide to managing money wisely and planning for long-term success.
Listen to the full episode here -
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We're bringing you a special episode of On With Kara Swisher! Kara sits down for a live interview with Meta's Yann LeCun, an “early AI prophet” and the brains behind the largest open-source large language model in the world. The two discuss the potential dangers that come with open-source models, the massive amounts of money pouring into AI research, and the pros and cons of AI regulation. They also dive into LeCun’s surprisingly spicy social media feeds — unlike a lot of tech employees who toe the HR line, LeCun isn’t afraid to say what he thinks of Elon Musk or President-elect Donald Trump.
This interview was recorded live at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC as part of their Discovery Series.
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Kara sits down for a live interview with Yann LeCun, an “early AI prophet” and the brains behind the largest open-source large language model in the world. The two discuss the potential dangers that come with open-source models, the massive amounts of money pouring into AI research, and the pros and cons of AI regulation. They also dive into LeCun’s surprisingly spicy social media feeds — unlike a lot of tech employees who toe the HR line, Yann isn’t afraid to say what he thinks of Elon Musk or President-elect Donald Trump.
This interview was recorded live at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC as part of their Discovery Series.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
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Why is marketing so important for businesses? In this episode, we've picked the highlights from our conversations with Josh Kaufman, Scott Galloway, Rory Sutherland, Whitney Wolf Herd to bring you the TL;DR on how to succeed at marketing your business.
Head to https://www.linkedin.com/doac24 to claim your credit.
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This is an episode we think you’d enjoy of On with Kara Swisher.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has won a resounding victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, and now, the man who promised political retribution and said he may use the military to go after “the enemy within” is headed back to the White House. Only this time, there will be no guardrails — only enablers. In order to understand the threat Trump poses to our democracy, Kara talks to two historians who know a lot about the birth of American democracy and the last time we came close to losing it: Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Dr. Timothy Naftali.
Chervinsky is a presidential historian and the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Her newest book is Making the Presidency, John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. Naftali is a senior research scholar in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the former director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram/TikTok as @onwithkaraswisher
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