Technology

Nerd Snipe with Theo and Ben

“The only dev podcast hosted by real devs” – Theo (not a real dev)

Latest Episodes:

5 different models dropped last week & the GPT-5.6 usage limits are brutal Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

This week Grok 4.5, Muse Spark 1.1, GPT-Live, and GPT 5.6 all dropped. ⁠Theo⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Ben⁠⁠ break down which models you should care about, how OpenAI fumbled the Codex to ChatGPT app transition, the abysmal usage numbers for 5.6, and the latest drama surrounding OpenAI and Sam Altman. Plus, how many satellites would it take to trap humanity on Earth, and how many data centers to heat up the ocean?

Thank you to this episode's sponsors: Composio & WorkOs.

Sources available on Substack: https://nerdsnipe.substack.com/

We Tested GPT 5.6 Sol Early Jul 09, 2026

Show notes

We've spent six figures in tokens testing OpenAI's 5.6 Sol model to see whether if its better than Fable and what OpenAI have done to make it even better than 5.5. Also, we breakdown why we both moved our agents to Linux boxes, how to actually burn $65k on a single loop, and the Codex vs Claude Code subagent gap that's now bigger than the model gap itself.

Thanks to this episode's sponsors Clerk and General Translation:

Clerk, the auth platform with the best DX: https://nerdsnipe.link/clerk
General Translation: https://nerdsnipe.link/gt

Sources Available on our Substack:

https://nerdsnipe.substack.com/

Fable Is Back...kinda? Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

Fable was supposed to give us 14 days and instead we got 3 before the export ban. Now it's back at half the rate limits. Also, we break down why AI-generated Claude Code skills fall apart, what actually triggers Fable-to-Opus rerouting, the Mythos export-control timeline, and whether GLM 5.2 can really touch Sonnet 5.

Thank you to PostHog for sponsoring today's episode!

PostHog, all in one suite of product tools: ⁠https://nerdsnipe.link/posthog

Sources available on our Substack:

https://nerdsnipe.substack.com/

GPT-5.6 is here! And none of us can use it. Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

A new "government-approved rollout" for GPT-5.6 is coming, and it's got us wondering: are we entering the next dark age of AI model access? Additionally, we break down the launch of T3 Code x Grok CLI, Apple's price hikes, the memory supply crunch driving RAM and SSD costs up, a repo-poisoning and AI PR spam wave hitting open source, the GPT-5.6 non-launch, and what frontier model access looks like in a Fable/Mythos-tier world.

Thank you to Composio for sponsoring this episode!

Composio, connect your agents to everything: https://nerdsnipe.link/composio

Sources Available on our Substack:

https://nerdsnipe.substack.com/

The US Government Banned Claude Fable 5... Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

The US government banned Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models just after launch so we break down exactly how Project Glass Wing, a panicked AWS engineer, and Dario's failure to communicate with Washington triggered the chaos. Plus: SpaceX's $60B Cursor acquisition, GLM 5.2 beating Google, the Codex trick for running 200 parallel agents, and why your next GPU will ship with a GPS tracker

Thank you to Composio and WorkOS for sponsoring this episode!

Composio, connect your agents to everything: https://nerdsnipe.link/composio
WorkOS, your enterprise ready solution: https://nerdsnipe.link/workos

Sources Available on our Substack: https://nerdsnipe.substack.com/

Our impressions of Claude Fable/Mythos (we filmed this before the ban) Jun 15, 2026

Show notes

RIP Fable 5. We recorded this before it got taken offline, but it's still worth talking about. The model is incredible. We really miss it.

Thank you, Firecrawl, Depot, and Clerk for sponsoring!

Firecrawl, the best api for searching and crawling the web: nerdsnipe.link/firecrawl
Depot, better CI in every way: nerdsnipe.link/depot
Clerk, the best dx in auth: nerdsnipe.link/clerk

Sources

https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2043177597434306699
https://cognition.ai/blog/frontier-code
https://x.com/paradite_/status/2064585901351792887
https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/d00db56fa754a1b115b6dd7cb2e3c342ee809620.pdf (page 13 has the “prompt modification” quote)
https://www.anthropic.com/institute/recursive-self-improvement

Timestamps

0:00 Intro
3:29 Fable First Impressions
10:24 Benchmark Drama
26:42 Claude Code & Workflows
36:07 Pricing & June 22 Cutoff
39:54 Data Retention
45:58 Hidden Safeguards
1:07:01 The Claude Constitution

Now even Google's buying GPUs from SpaceX? Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Cloudflare buys Void0, Google buying up compute from xAI, and Claude seems to be getting more anxious so we're here to break down everything this week on another episode of Nerd Snipe!

Thank you to Composio for sponsoring today's episode!

Composio, connect your agents to everything: https://nerdsnipe.link/composio

Sources:

01:58 Cloudflare vs Vercel

13:03 Convex angle

19:59 SpaceX compute

35:49 AI self-improvement

44:45 Article reactions

50:28 Claude anxiety

57:42 Guardrails

01:08:21 Cursed image gen

01:19:18 Hermes agents

We (mostly) like Claude Opus 4.8 Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

Opus 4.8 + a ton of new stuff in Claude Code dropped this week, and we actually kinda like it. There's also a new benchmark that's actually good, and we have a lot of thoughts about the future of these AI labs...

Thank you PostHog and Clerk for sponsoring!

PostHog, the all in one suite of product tools: nerdsnipe.link/posthog
Clerk, the best dx in auth: nerdsnipe.link/clerk

SOURCES

00:00 - Shower Thoughts

02:44 - Deep SWE Benchmark

10:45 - Opus vs GPT-5.5

19:57 - Anthropic’s Huge Raise

25:39 - Token Maxing

40:02 - AI Slot Machine

43:49 - Claude Code Friction

50:01 - Opus, Mythos, and Safety

Google is Not a Serious Company May 28, 2026

Show notes

Not only did Google accidentally ban Railway's account, but their new flagship model Gemini 3.5 Flash is absurdly bad. Oh and apparently Theo's building his own cloud...

Thank you Macroscope and GT for sponsoring today's episode!

Macroscope: ⁠nerdsnipe.link/macroscope
General Translation: nerdsnipe.link/gt

SOURCES

⁠https://x.com/theo/status/2057359424378097823⁠

⁠https://x.com/JustJake/status/2056881510939283776⁠

⁠https://x.com/KorduGG/status/2059141337895604626⁠

⁠https://x.com/unboringtech/status/2059144145273491610⁠

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Gemini fallout

05:21 - Video gen

10:10 - Google Cloud

14:04 - Windsurf/Cursor

25:10 - Manus/Meta

30:00 - China lock-in

35:00 - Cursor/xAI

45:00 - Cloud workflows

50:32 - Lakebed

65:22 - Hermes/security

How the OpenClaw creator uses $1.3 million of tokens May 20, 2026

Show notes

Peter, the creator of openclaw is apparently going through $1,300,000 worth of tokens every month. Seems like we're not using nearly enough tokens. Oh and the security psychosis is getting worse. (Anthropic is being bad again too)

Thank you to today's sponsors!

- AgentMail, email inboxes for your agents: nerdsnipe.link/agentmail

- Clerk, the best experience for auth, orgs, billing, and more: nerdsnipe.link/clerk

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

02:44 - Token Spend

06:47 - Token Future

12:12 - Secure Agents

22:50 - Anthropic Rules

31:35 - Security

39:36 - Token Tax

49:49 - AI Psychosis