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Microsoft's Xbox Conundrum Jul 17, 2025

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Microsoft slashed 9,000 jobs a few weeks ago, with the Xbox division taking a hit including some studio closures. What about that $70 BILLION Activision Blizzard acquisition just a couple of years ago?

It sounds like fertile ground for of Raph's largest victory laps to date, after he suggested Microsoft should have ditched Xbox years ago.

But first, an update on xAI after last week's ep. Grok 4 has arrived, and its big feature is... AI anime waifus. Uncensored and backed by a million GPUs... what could this possibly mean for the birth rate?

And are OpenAI's sycophantic personal assistants really that different from an AI girlfriend at the end of the day?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grok: Elon's $28 Billion Slur Machine Jul 10, 2025

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Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, went "Kanye Mode" — becoming openly Nazi, seemingly out of nowhere.

The boys get to the bottom of the root cause, and muse on the big question: what is the point of Grok anyway?

Out: Platforms spending millions on content moderation to root our hate speech.

In: Spending billions to have your platform literally spew hate speech.

Also: an unprecedented Down Round Triple W.

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Meta's Highway Robbery Jul 03, 2025

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For a few weeks, we've been talking about Meta's revenge tour in Silicon Valley, throwing massive bonuses at AI talent at rival companies in order to tempt them over to Zuck's domain. Well, it seems to have paid off now — and the company has announced its Superintelligence team, packed with talent they managed to poach.

Then, we go into a Bloomberg story which suggests that Apple could be ready to throw in the towel on AI and work with OpenAI and/or Anthropic to power their next-generation Siri. Which would be big!

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Reading Out Confidential Emails Live On The Air Jun 26, 2025

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After the fanfare of the OpenAI/Jony Ive multibillion-dollar device partnership, io, all references were scrubbed from the internet as if it never happened. After rampant speculation, it was revealed that it was over a claim the whole thing was stolen. From some guy named Jason, no less.

Seems like OpenAI is a real drama magnet. We discuss the case, including some screenshots of emails that Sam Altman posted.

Additionally, Kiwi accounting software powerhouse Xero is making some moves. We talk about that too.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They Do Ads On Computers Now Jun 19, 2025

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Canva has made another acquisition: MagicBrief, the advertising command centre founded by a dear friend of the pod. In this ep, we talk about the acquisition, where it fits in Canva's strategy, and wind off into a bigger chat about the ad market.

Then, for some reason, we talk about Apple Music and Spotify. Real smorgasbord here folks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WWDC 2025: Extreme Liquidity Jun 12, 2025

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Apple had its software development conference this week. It announced a whole new design language filled with organic movements and over-the-top animations, serving as the perfect distraction from the company's very public missteps in AI.
We go through everything you need to know. Well, at least 60% of it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grammarly's Second Wind Jun 05, 2025

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Remember Grammarly? Of course you do. The briefly ubiquitous piece of software that made sure you were using your possessive apostrophes correctly. Well, guess what? They just received $1 billion in nondilutive investment from General Catalyst to become an all-in-one AI platform?

Sounds like bullshit? Well, probably. But it's a business model we'll be seeing more of. We chat through the rise of zombie AI platforms, before digressing into a chat about Perplexity.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Q&A Time Pt. 1 May 29, 2025

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It's been a while since we've done of these. We answer your burning questions on topics including but not limited to:

Jony Ive's partnership with OpenAI
Apple after Tim Cook
Atlassian and Immutable, two Australian unicorns
Ranking the Magnificent 7 tech stocks by aura/swag

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Google's Little Victory Lap May 22, 2025

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We've been saying for a little while that Google has caught up in AI, and is now trying to deploy the full force of its product range and scale to the problem of achieving domination. Dunno if they're there yet, but the I/O conference shows that they're still got a few tricks up their sleeve.

In this ep, we go into what they announced, including some interesting movements on our recent chats about search and the monetisation of AI.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Airbnb for Everything May 16, 2025

Show notes

Airbnb is in a mid-life crisis. Founder Brian Chesky is undergoing one of his routine meltdowns where he suddenly decides that the short-stay rental platform should actually be a ticket-clipping mediator of literally all human experience.

The platform has been redesigned and relaunched, with both 'services' and 'experiences' living in separate tabs and hoping to tempt you to open the app more than once or twice a year. A tall order indeed. We discuss.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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