The Attention Mechanism with Andrew Mayne

Latest Episodes:

Reshuffling the Deck Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin take a look at the continuing fallout of Anthropic's fight with the government, including the delayed general availability of OpenAI's GPT-5.6. Plus, is China catching up with the US in terms of model performance, agentic apps continue to make their way to mobile devices, and is Apple's recent RAM-related price hike a permanent blemish on the end of Tim Cook's career?

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:02 - Anthropic Fallout Continues

00:14:45 - China's Window?

00:30:22 - Anthropic and OpenAI Timeline Predictions

00:31:53 - GPT-5.6

00:38:22 - 5.6 on Cerberus

00:44:58 - Mobile Agents

00:52:23 - Apple's Price Hikes

01:00:31 - Wrap-up

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Everything's a Metaphor Jun 23, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin zoom in on the continued fallout surrounding Anthropic following the government's decision to issue an export-control directive on its Mythos-based models. Now that it's been over a week, what are the next steps for Dario Amodei's company? They also discuss the pending launch of GPT-5.6 and the ongoing AI brain drain currently happening in the offices of Google.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:42 - Anthropic

00:23:02 - GPT-5.6

00:42:48 - Google Brain Drain

01:03:29 - Wrap-up

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Mythos Goes Myth Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin dive into the ongoing drama surrounding Anthropic and the US government, as an emergency export control directive forced the AI giant to suspend access to both Mythos 5 and Fable 5.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:08 - Anthropic

00:27:48 - Fable 5, ChatGPT 5.6, and Model Performance

00:44:58 - Meta and the AI Window

01:01:25 - Wrap-up

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Third Time's the Charm Jun 09, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin dig into Apple's latest — and Tim Cook's final — WWDC, where Apple Intelligence once again promised to change how you use your iPhone. They also dive into the ongoing IPO races with several S-1 filings, dig into superapp rumors, and pour one out for Pulse.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

01:32 - WWDC

13:56 - IPO

30:12 - Mythos, Codex, and superapps

49:14 - RIP Pulse and wrap-up

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The Good, the Bad, and the I/O May 26, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin recap Google's big announcements coming out of this year's I/O conference. Aside from its new Omni video model, what else left the pair excited about Google's AI efforts? Honestly, not a ton. They also discuss "tokenmaxxing," before digging into a new report surrounding Anthropic's eventual plans for Mythos.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

02:37 - Google I/O (good!)

09:20 - Google I/O (bad!)

27:22 - Tokenmaxxing

36:29 - Mythos

43:22 - Wrap-up

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Suing Your Way to the Moon May 19, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin talk through the fallout of the Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman lawsuit, which played out in dramatic fashion over the last couple of weeks before ending prematurely on a statue of limitations ruling.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

00:36 - Musk v. Altman

32:35 - Google I/O

36:16 - Wrap-up

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Good Vibes May 12, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin reconvene to talk about a busy couple of weeks in AI, including diving into Andrew's time at OpenAI's 5.5 launch party. Before that, the two discuss the new compute partnership between xAI and Anthropic and wonder what it might mean for the future of Elon's company ahead of its IPO, and eventually dig into the arrival of Realtime 2, why you can't buy a Mac Mini, and much more.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:36 - xAI and Anthropic

00:18:51 - The 5.5 Launch Party

00:23:17 - Good Vibes and Rumors at OpenAI

00:40:09 - Realtime 2

00:49:47 - Thinking Machines

01:01:20 - Wrap-up

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The Compute Crisis Apr 14, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin discuss Anthropic's increasingly high compute demands, leading to frequent downtime and throttled usage, and compare it to OpenAI's treatment of its Codex users and the recent decision to shutter Sora. They also discuss Anthropic's Mythos announcement and its warnings surrounding cybersecurity, along with some thoughts on the IPO race for both companies.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

01:14 - Compute

16:08 - Mythos

35:33 - IPOs

36:39 - Wrap-up

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Heated Rivalry Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin dive into the rumors surrounding Anthropic's Mythos and OpenAI's Spud. With IPOs on the horizon for both companies, are we looking at an all-new kind of tech rivalry?

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

00:22 - Mythos and Spud Expectations

13:28 - Anthropic-OpenAI Rivalry

20:50 - Claude's Hiccups

27:38 - Sora's Death

45:12 - Wrap-up

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The Cursor Issue Mar 24, 2026

Show notes

Andrew and Justin dive into the recent drama surrounding Cursor. The team behind the beloved AI coding tool recently launched their own model to compete against the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI without specifically disclosing that their product was actually built on top of Chinese LLMs. After, they discuss reports that OpenAI might bundle its various projects into one single application, asking whether a superapp is right for ChatGPT, before ending on the project that is RentAHuman.AI.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

00:34 - The Cursor Issue

09:27 - Superapps

33:40 - RentAHuman

37:04 - Wrap-up

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