AI Regulatory Capture Bet: Why OpenAI & Anthropic Stopped Competing on Tech
More or Less
Jul 17
AI Regulatory Capture Bet: Why OpenAI & Anthropic Stopped Competing on Tech
AI Regulatory Capture Bet: Why OpenAI & Anthropic Stopped Competing on Tech

More or Less
Jul 17
Shownote
Shownote
You know we're deep into summer when Jess leaves the pod early to catch Benson
Boone... for the eighth time.
This week, the More or Less squad revisits the Anthropic and OpenAI IPO
speculation. Their views haven't changed, but their AI usage certainly has. Dave
ditches Anthropic for GLM 5.2 on cost, while Sam argues the AI model wars are
effectively over, and the frontier labs know it, which is why they're spending
more time in Washington than competing on model quality. America also gets its
first serious open weights model. The squad also unpacks OpenAI's hardware
ambitions after its much-hyped device turns out to be... an Alexa speaker. Sam
explains why Sam Altman's $8 billion Johnny Ive acquisition was effectively
free, thanks to narrative capitalism. Plus: real-time voice AI, passive
listening devices, peptides, Hinge's new social proof feature, Jay-Z turning New
York into a festival, and why biological age tests are basically the clout score
of your body.
Chapters:
0:00 Episode Teaser
0:44 Episode Start
2:18 Anthropic IPO This September?
5:29 Dave Dumps Anthropic for GLM 5.
28:22 When Is Better AI Worth Paying For?
12:15 AGI Is Dead, AI Is Political Now
16:15 America's First Open Weights Model By Thinking Machines
21:22 Why Sam Is Depressed About AI
29:07 OpenAI Built... an Alexa? The $8B Johnny Ive Bet
31:38 Silicon Valley Goes Hollywood
36:03 Would You Wear an Always-On Mic?
37:08 OpenAI's Live Voice Model
41:14 Sam's Peptide Experiment
43:36 Hinge Launches “Friend’s Take”
46:11 Jay-Z's NYC Takeover
48:16 Biological Age Is Just a Clout Score
We’re also on ↓
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Instagram: https://instagram.com/moreorless
YouTube: https://youtu.be/B6fO5V09xOc
Connect with us here:
1) Sam Lessin: https://x.com/lessin
2) Dave Morin: https://x.com/davemorin
3) Jessica Lessin: https://x.com/Jessicalessin
4) Brit Morin: https://x.com/brit
Highlights
Highlights
The podcast dives into the shifting landscape of AI, where the hosts debate whether the model quality wars are over and if the real competition has moved to politics and narrative. They also explore the implications of new open-weights models, the hype around AI hardware, and the cultural trends shaping Silicon Valley.
Chapters
Chapters
Is the AI Model War Over? The Shift from Quality to Cost
00:00From Technology to Politics: Why AI Companies Are Now Lobbying
12:17OpenAI's 'Alexa' and the $8 Billion Narrative Capitalism Play
24:15Silicon Valley Goes Hollywood: The Power of Story Over Revenue
29:26Voice AI, Peptides, and the Clout Score of Your Body
38:40Transcript
Transcript
Sam Lessin: If the plan was, we America, we need to take our military and bomb every matrix multiplication facility globally, and we're going to have all of them, and then we're going to control AI, that would at least be logical.
Dave Morin: One thing th...