OpenAI Teases GPT-5, Musk's Plan For xAI, Loneliness in Remote Work Era
Brian McCullough, host the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, joins us our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) OpenAI teasing GPT-5 2) Or wait, was it GPT-6? 3) Satya Nadella speaks with Sam Altman about OpenAI's Apple partnership 4) How long will OpenAI and Microsoft be best buds? 5) Does OpenAI benefit by diversifying partnerships? 6) Is Apple going to go all-in on AI at WWDC? 7) What the new Siri might look like? 8) OpenAI's ex-board members speak up about Altman firing episode 9) Statement from OpenAI on alignment work 10) Elon Musk gets $6 billion to build 'gigafactory of compute' at xAI 11) Could Ilya join Elon again? 12) How remote work is increasing loneliness 13) The meetings will continue until morale improves
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New Release at Big Technology, AI Bubble Looms, Apple's Next Event — With Brian McCullough
Brian McCullough is the host of Techmeme Ride Home and general partner of the Ride Home Fund. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a deep dive into the week's news and a fresh announcement from Big Technology. We cover: 1) Big Technology Premium 2) The state of Big Tech at the end of a year-end that started with layoffs 3) Is self-driving tech's biggest story this year? 4) Who is winning the AI battle among the incumbents? 5) What happened to crypto 6) Apple's new Super Scary event on 10/30
You can subscribe to Big Technology Premium for 25% off at https://bit.ly/bigtechnology or at bigtechnology.com
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A New AI Investment Fund's Strategy and Opportunity — With Techmeme Ride Home
Brian McCullough and Chris Messina are starting a new, $15 million fund for pre-seed through Series A investments in AI companies. They've already raised money from Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Dennis Crowley and join Big Technology Podcast for a special episode where they share their strategy and the opportunity they're going after. At the core of this question is whether AI companies are worthy of investment or will just be subsumed by larger players. Stay tuned for the second half where we cover AI + Hollywood strikes and AI + warfare.
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OpenAI's Business Model Problem, Apple's Mixed Reality Vision, Ed Sheeran's Copyright Win — Techmeme Ride Home Crossover
Brian McCullough of the Techmeme Ride Home Podcast joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover: 1) OpenAI's massive losses 2) Whether generative AI has a business model problem 3) The battle between open source AI and proprietary research 3) AI fears go mainstream 4) The White House hosts AI leaders amid worries 5) The AI PR industrial complex 6) The WGA strike and AI's potential to replace writers 7) The Fed pause 8) Apple earnings 9) Apple's mixed reality device 10) Ed Sheeran's copyright victory 11) How Sheeran's win might influence AI 12) Welcome to Brooklyn, Ed Sheeran.
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Meta's Awkward Pivot, Crypto's Future, Amazon's Challenge — Crossover With Techmeme Ride Home
Techmeme Ride Home is a top-rated tech news podcast and its host, Brian McCullough, joins us for a crossover episode airing on both feeds. In this bonus episode, we discuss Meta's attempts to turn Instagram into TikTok, how Amazon can handle its next chapter under CEO Andy Jassy, and what the future of crypto looks like after the crash. Stay tuned for our travel hacks at the end of the show!
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(Bonus) Who Is Chris Messina?
As I said on Friday's show, I figured that since Chris Messina has been co-hosting with me for about a year, maybe it's time to republish the Internet History Podcast episode I did with him. After all, many of you might know him as the inventor of the hashtag, but did you know about all of the early Web 2.0 stuff he did? It might help you better understand the perspective Chris brings to our interview episodes.
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How the Internet Happened
In his book (and podcast), Brian McCullough chronicles the history and evolution of the internet -- from college kids in a basement and the dot-com boom, to the applications built on top of it and the entrepreneurs behind them.
General partner Chris Dixon chats with McCullough about How the Internet Happened -- and more broadly, about how tech adoption and innovation happens. They discuss lessons learned, how innovation doesn’t happen in a straight line, and what the past can tell us about the next phase of the internet and technology.
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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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(Bonus) Techmeme Experience On Clubhouse
Chris Messina and I go deeper on some of the news of the week.
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(Bonus) Office Hours With Chris Messina
A deep-dive conversation with hashtag inventor Chris Messina about what makes good product design, how to Product Hunt effectively, and his unique advice about finding success in the Tech Industry.
Sponsors:
VistaPrint.com/techmeme
Netgear.com/bestwifi
Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vekRLZcnfpU
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a16z Podcast: How the Internet Happened
In his book (and podcast), Brian McCullough chronicles the history and evolution of the internet -- from college kids in a basement and the dot-com boom, to the applications built on top of it and the entrepreneurs behind them.
General partner Chris Dixon chats with McCullough about How the Internet Happened -- and more broadly, about how tech adoption and innovation happens.
The content provided here is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase any investment solution or a recommendation to buy or sell a security; nor it is to be taken as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. In fact, none of the information in this or other content on a16zcrypto.com should be relied on in any manner as advice. Please see https://a16zcrypto.com/disclosures/ for further information.
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Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
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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Episode 44: AOL - Time Warner (with the Internet History Podcast)
On this extra-long episode of Acquired, Brian McCullough from the Internet History Podcast returns to discuss perhaps the most (in)famous merger of all time: AOL - Time Warner. Who doesn’t remember the soothing sounds of 56k modems and the timeless phrase, “You’ve Got Mail”? Join us all as we unpack how one of the biggest ISP’s of the 90’s tried to take over the world… and fell far short.
Sponsors:
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
WorkOS: https://acquired.fm/unpluggedPlaying Cards: https://bit.ly/workOSshop (Code: ACQDECK)
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26
More Acquired!
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
Topics Covered Include: AOL’s status in the 90’s / early 00’s
Explaining just what it is that AOL did at the height of their popularity
How AOL pioneered a number of internet paradigms
AOL’s persistent money troubles and bailouts from other companies
Steve Case foreseeing the coming era of broadband, inspiring AOL to pursue working with a cable company
Ebay vs. Time Warner in a down-to-the-wire war for a merger with AOL
Why the money dried up for AOL after their merger with Time Warner
AOL and its value in the post-Time-Warner era
Speculating about what would have happened had AOL and others stayed independent businesses
And much discussion on how to grade this one…
The Carve Out:
Ben: Give and Take by Adam Grant
David: Season of the Witch by David Talbot
Brian: A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Rob Goodman
Episode 33: Overture (with the Internet History Podcast!)
Episode 33: Overture (with the Internet History Podcast!) Ben & David dive deep into the early days of internet search, with the help of the best in the internet history business: Brian McCullough from the Internet History Podcast! We are huge fans of IHP at Acquired, so this was a real treat to collaborate with Brian and the great work he does over there. In this episode we cover the story of how a small incubator in Southern California spawned perhaps the greatest tech business model of all-time, Yahoo!’s fumbling of that golden opportunity, and Google’s recovery of that fumble to cross into the end zone of tech history behind the biggest moat ever constructed on the internet.
Sponsors:
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
WorkOS: https://acquired.fm/unpluggedPlaying Cards: https://bit.ly/workOSshop (Code: ACQDECK)
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26
More Acquired!
Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
Join the Slack
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
Topics covered include: Overture’s origins as part of the Idealab incubator run by famed early internet entrepreneur Bill Gross
Invention of the paid search business model… initially by returning ADS ONLY in response to search queries
The eventual marrying of Overture’s paid search (ads) with organic search results via syndication on other properties like Yahoo!
Revenue from Overture’s ad partnership saving Yahoo!’s business after the internet bubble burst
Yahoo!’s eventual acquisition of Overture for $1.4B in 2003
But… the really interesting story here: Overture’s 'inspiration' of Google’s business model and the creation of "the greatest advertising machine in the history of the world"
The original (pre-Overture) Google business model: selling a box!
Google’s differentiation vs Overture: focusing on the long tail, ad quality scores, and an advertiser-friendly auction structure
Google’s first major search syndication victory over Overture: AOL
Yahoo!’s failed attempt to buy Google for $3B in 2002, leading it to settle for acquiring Overture instead the following year
“Project Panama” at Yahoo!, and its impact on the tech and internet history
Overture's (and later Yahoo!’s) lawsuit against Google for stealing the paid search business model— "the O.G. version of Snapchat and Instagram”
Paul Graham’s take on "What Happened to Yahoo?”
Perhaps the most important technology to come out of this whole episode: Hadoop
The power of incentive alignment in marketplaces— and creating the widest and deepest moats on the internet
The Carve Out:
Ben: The famous University of Washington's “Love Lab” Dr. John Gottman: “The Secret to Love is Just Kindness”
David: Berlin
Brian: The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s
a16z Podcast: Bots and Beyond
So... about those bots. Bots bots bots. Bots!
In this episode of the botcast, a16z partners Benedict Evans and Connie Chan -- along with Chris Messina, longtime advocate of the open web and more -- pull apart various threads related to the topic of bots, mobile, and beyond: the (evolution?) from web to apps to messaging to bots; chat as an interface; “conversational commerce”; and so on. They also discuss why framing messaging through the lens of WeChat both reveals useful things (what works/ might not work) and not-so-useful things (such as seeking the “WeChat of the West”).
More importantly, how can we keep bots, and what they represent, in perspective -- beyond the fad? Especially when it comes to considering innovation on the 'web' vs. 'mobile' (remember the mobile browser!) and when it comes to removing friction (vs. adding limited interaction). What contexts (like customer service) are most useful for thinking about bots? And how can we even know, given it’s early days yet and we haven’t moved much beyond the command-line interface...
Finally, as computing moves outside the classic work-centric paradigm to room- and urban-scale, how do we think about integrating online and offline, ubiquitous and “diffuse” computing through bots?
The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.
Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.
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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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