AI and the Human Future

Silicon Valley is moving from chatbot answers to autonomous AI agents that prompt themselves for hours and burn serious electricity. We unpack why agents are so thirsty, who actually pays the bill, and what that means for work, local politics, and who gets to decide. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.wired.com/story/ai-agents-are-thirsty-for-power/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T20:19:06.736458+00:00

A Bostrom–Hanson thought experiment argues that once machine intelligence costs almost nothing, scarcity doesn't disappear — the economic rent piles into four inputs nobody can replicate: land, energy, authentic human experience, and status. Daniel and Emily stress-test the mechanism, argue about who actually captures the rent, and ask what it all means for a paycheck built on intelligence. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://overcomingbias.com/post-scarcity-paradox ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T12:14:03.154125+00:00

Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, argues that real wealth is invisible — it's the money you never spent and the options you never exercised. Daniel and Emily test whether his recipe of low leverage, real cash buffers, and the right to own your mornings holds up when AI can reprice a career in months. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://collabfund.com/blog/the-psychology-of-money/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T10:39:26.729815+00:00

Crypto investor Arthur Hayes argues that drowning sovereign debt guarantees slow currency debasement, while autonomous AI agents — with no social security number and no way to pass a bank's identity checks — will be forced into machine-native money. Daniel and Emily stress-test the thesis from the trillion-dollar math down to what an ordinary saver should actually do about it. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://cryptohayes.substack.com/p/maelstrom-ai-macro ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T09:02:30.292188+00:00

Paul Graham has argued for years that wealth is created, not divided — and that in fields with measurement and leverage, slightly better judgment compounds into orders-of-magnitude gaps. Daniel and Emily unpack why AI is stretching white-collar outcomes from a bell curve toward a power law, and fight over who actually gets to keep the new wealth. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - http://www.paulgraham.com/superlinear.html ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T07:28:06.045113+00:00

Daniel and Emily stress-test Naval Ravikant's 'How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky': wealth versus money versus status, four generations of leverage ending in AI, and the claim that anything trainable will be commoditized. He sees a structural break; she sees survivorship bias with excellent typography — somewhere between them lies what an ordinary person can actually act on. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://nav.al/how-to-get-rich ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T05:47:06.156442+00:00

In a November 2023 essay, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin argued that if offense keeps getting cheaper than defense, the AI race ends with a surveillance Leviathan and ordinary people reduced to digital serfs. His alternative, defensive accelerationism, bets on cryptography, open small models, and on-device AI. Daniel and Emily test whether that defense is real, who would actually adopt it, and what it costs. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T03:58:54.492914+00:00

Dario Amodei's essay 'Machines of Loving Grace' argues that powerful AI could compress a hundred years of medical progress into a decade, double healthy lifespans to 150, and push global GDP growth toward 20% a year. Daniel and Emily stress-test the mechanism, the money, and what a life without a deadline does to work, wealth, and meaning. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T02:18:06.125854+00:00

Sam Altman's 2024 essay 'The Intelligence Age' claims superintelligence could arrive within 'a few thousand days' and that every teenager and freelancer will command a personal team of virtual experts. Daniel and Emily stress-test the timeline, the mechanism, and who actually wins when expertise becomes cheap. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://blog.samaltman.com/the-intelligence-age ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-13T00:34:22.005274+00:00

In March 2021, Sam Altman argued that AI will drive the price of almost everything toward zero, hollow out the wage-and-income-tax economy, and force a new bargain: tax companies and land, and pay every citizen in shares. Daniel and Emily stress-test whether that is a forecast, a pitch, or a warning label. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://moores.samaltman.com/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T22:50:23.513348+00:00

Elon Musk has been arguing that money is just an information system for allocating labor, and that once AI and humanoid robots push the cost of work toward zero, the only real constraints left are kilowatt-hours and raw compute. Daniel and Emily stress-test the physics, the fiat question, universal high income, and what an ordinary person could actually own or live for in a post-scarcity economy. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://x.com/elonmusk/status/money-compute-energy-post-scarcity ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T21:14:00.737583+00:00

Fifteen years after 'software is eating the world,' a16z's new memo 'Investing in Cognition' says software is about to eat it at the speed of compute — while Wall Street fights over when, or whether, hundreds of billions in AI capex ever gets paid back. Daniel and Emily test a barbell answer for regular families: fortress cash-flow giants on one end, small asymmetric bets on the other, and a deliberately empty middle. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.a16z.news/p/investing-in-cognition ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T19:36:21.953462+00:00

Chinese AI startups pulled in over 300 billion yuan in six months — more than all of 2025 — but five companies took most of the 100-million-plus money. Daniel and Emily separate the VC story from the builder's story, then work out what a one-person business with positive cash flow on day one actually looks like. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://zhidx.com/p/572575.html ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T17:49:02.049550+00:00

Nvidia has agreed to pay $12.9 billion for Hugging Face, the closest thing open AI has to a neutral home. Daniel and Emily trace what the chip giant is actually buying, how control can tighten without anything ever being blocked, and what — if anything — an individual investor should take from a gold rush where the shovel-seller keeps buying the road itself. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/5dtlrdsBbSIZfWUUF6JD?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T16:08:44.928617+00:00

A new Econometrica paper bluntly concludes that wealth taxes 'lose the comparison' to a well-designed capital gains tax — just as AI threatens to hand capital an even bigger edge over labor. Daniel and Emily trace Piketty's r > g into the age of compounding compute, ask what it means for a middle class whose main asset is its skills, and try to separate realistic ownership moves from cope. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/capital-gains-vs-wealth-taxes.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=capital-gains-vs-wealth-taxes ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T14:26:23.894713+00:00

A major shopping platform now sells AI tokens in prepaid packs next to phone credit, which means intelligence finally has a retail price tag — and priced things behave like commodities. Daniel and Emily follow the money down the stack, from a gigawatt-scale chip campus in Inner Mongolia to fifteen-thousand-dollar factory tours, a leaked university syllabus, and the afternoon every chatbot went dark, to work out what an ordinary person should actually own. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/boiE7qfjxSQjHKUtevvp?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T12:35:56.977516+00:00

Microsoft employees quietly added a 'monthly AI spend' column to their underground salary spreadsheet, and the top entry hit $28,000 in 28 days. Daniel and Emily trace how tokenmaxxing became the new overtime theater, debate whether a $1.3 million agent bill is genius or noise, and work out what a healthy token ROI looks like for a freelancer or a five-person team. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - http://www.geekpark.net/news/370006 ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T10:52:54.129848+00:00

An Indian audio platform doubled its revenue run rate to $500 million with AI producing 93% of its catalog, and the internet declared the age of the one-person company. Daniel and Emily check the org chart, trace where the 80x savings actually land, and ask what becoming a 'super individual' really costs an ordinary person. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/10/indias-pocket-fm-doubles-revenue-run-rate-to-500m-as-ai-powers-93-of-audio-content/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T08:53:44.067477+00:00

Prediction markets grew trading volume by more than a thousand percent in about a year and now price elections, geopolitical events, and even presidential speeches by the second. Daniel and Emily argue over whether that turns knowledge into an asset class — or turns civic life into a casino where insiders hold the cards. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.fastcompany.com/91587897/kalshi-polymarket-prediction-markets-upending-midterms-washington-campaign-election-insider-candidate?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T07:03:22.502467+00:00

Ant Group just open-sourced a finance model that doesn't just answer questions — it claims to run a junior analyst's entire workflow, from checking filings to editing valuation workbooks, and it ships with its own grading system. Daniel and Emily work through what that means for the people who did that work, and where an ordinary investor's real edge might still survive. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.qbitai.com/2026/09/486288.html ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T04:51:14.570244+00:00

A startup called Heurist packed institutional-style research — premium data, filings, deep research, portfolio stress tests — into one chat app, with an AI that buys its own market data a few cents at a time. Daniel and Emily ask what actually gets democratized when everyone can afford the desk: information, analysis, or just the illusion of judgment. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/how-heurist-finance-built-an-ai-native-investment-workbench-on-amazon-bedrock-agentcore/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-12T02:59:10.836735+00:00

Economist Tyler Cowen's new column makes the case for college in the AI era with barely a word about classes — it's about friends, spouses, and staying married. Daniel and Emily stress-test the numbers, the selection problem, and what families are actually buying. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/reasons-to-go-to-college.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reasons-to-go-to-college ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T22:16:46.752539+00:00

A junior-high IT teacher in China lost his favorite timetable app, found nothing on the shelf that understood how schools actually run, and spent one summer using AI to build his own. Daniel and Emily dig into why software bought to empower teachers so often exhausts them instead — and who it was really built for. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://sspai.com/post/114384 ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T20:31:52.714975+00:00

New York City and Los Angeles suspended student-facing AI for a year — and one week later, Microsoft signed ten contractually enforceable privacy principles with America's second-largest teachers union. Daniel and Emily dig into what the contract actually binds, where kids' data really stops, and which parts of learning shouldn't be delegated at all. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.theverge.com/policy/992359/microsoft-aft-schools-ai-privacy ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T18:27:51.671183+00:00

A Tsinghua-built education agent just ran a 90-minute session at UNESCO headquarters, and a third of teachers already use AI on the job. Daniel and Emily ask whether lesson design is really the next long-chain AI workflow after coding — and whether a nearly-free personal tutor ends the cram-school era or splits students into two worlds. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.ifanr.com/1678673?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign= ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T16:38:31.660346+00:00

Yoto just shipped its biggest hardware upgrade ever, a screen-free card player pitched as a 'low-dopamine' alternative to tablets, while Australia moves to let users opt out of algorithmic feeds. Daniel and Emily argue over whether kids' attention can be defended with plastic cards, flagship specs, and nine-figure fines. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.engadget.com/2254860/yoto-just-announced-two-new-audio-devices-for-kids/ - https://www.fastcompany.com/91603448/social-media-users-australia-moving-closer-controlling-their-feeds-heres-how?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T14:33:34.053676+00:00

OpenAI now moves any user it believes is under 18 into a version of ChatGPT built for teens, with parental controls that only work if a parent links accounts and toggles them on, and it has committed $5 million to study what generative AI does to 13-to-17-year-olds. Daniel and Emily walk the setup flow, take the late-night confidant dynamic seriously on a teenager's own terms, and argue about where safety monitoring ends and a kid's private space begins. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.engadget.com/2247843/how-to-set-up-chatgpt-parental-controls/ - https://openai.com/index/teen-development-research-grants ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T12:35:52.699068+00:00

Baidu has pushed its agent stack out of the desktop and into Xiaodu home hardware — watching homework, syncing family schedules, even letting a fourth-grader build her own app. We ask whether that is relief for exhausted parents or the quiet outsourcing of presence. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/B2trh9hRTevk90IxzLXx?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - http://www.geekpark.net/news/370064 ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T10:40:25.802343+00:00

A Nobel-winning growth economist says AI could add about a percentage point a year to productivity growth, and also warns that misused AI could leave a whole generation unable to calculate or read with focus. Daniel and Emily unpack why both claims come from the same person, and what schools, parents, and workers should actually do about it. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/bvqQk8MoIlx291HfB7pQ?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T08:34:04.292664+00:00

At September's Bund Summit in Shanghai, an AI coding hackathon set a Guinness World Record with 15,577 finished apps — built by a field where nearly seven in ten entrants were under 18 and the champion was nine. Daniel and Emily argue over what the record actually measures, why eleven rival platforms co-signed the rules, and what parents should do with the Saturday coding class. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.leiphone.com/category/industrynews/qYzjYFvO8ZwUF0yC.html ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-11T06:19:13.433927+00:00

An Anthropic researcher quit with a warning that the next year or two is 'crunch time for humanity,' and his post passed 100 million views. Daniel and Emily sort out what insiders actually said, who profits when fear sells, and what any of it should change for an ordinary person on a Tuesday. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-researcher-quits-jacob-coxon-ai-fears-humanity/ - https://www.theverge.com/podcast/992141/decoder-mailbag-ai-backlash-surveillance-midterms-data-centers - https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/no-anderson-cooper-ai-is-not-going - https://www.interconnects.ai/p/one-resignation-turned-the-embers ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-10T20:08:16.770256+00:00

a16z just announced it is leading a $47M Series A in Lightfield, a startup pitching a CRM that builds itself from your emails and calls, sends agents to do the busywork, and aspires to be a 'business world model.' Daniel and Emily argue about whether this is a genuine break in enterprise software — and what it does to an ordinary salesperson's job. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.a16z.news/p/investing-in-lightfield ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-09T20:08:10.680052+00:00

ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are all pushing out of the browser and onto your desktop, armed with keyboard shortcuts, screen access, folder permissions, and even cursor control. Daniel and Emily trace how a convenience feature hardens into muscle memory and then lock-in, and what to check before you hand over the keys. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.fastcompany.com/91602750/why-ai-wants-to-take-over-your-desktop?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-09T01:36:50.017777+00:00

Emergent Ventures just announced its 59th cohort — fifteen winners squeezed into fourteen one-line entries, no dollar amounts, three of them still in their teens. Daniel and Emily read the list the way you'd read a seed portfolio and argue over whether small early money bends a life or just photographs it. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/emergent-ventures-winners-59th-cohort.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=emergent-ventures-winners-59th-cohort ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T17:51:48.569201+00:00

A paper in Econometrica by Aguiar, Moll, and Scheuer bluntly concludes that 'wealth taxes lose the comparison' to a well-designed capital gains tax. Daniel and Emily unpack why asset prices were the missing piece in tax theory, and whether a result that wins on paper can survive how ordinary people feel about fairness. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/capital-gains-vs-wealth-taxes.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=capital-gains-vs-wealth-taxes ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T16:06:15.638417+00:00

Phil Schiller is stepping back from the App Store, reportedly over a push for more recurring revenue. We unpack what this means for developers, regulators, and the apps you use every day. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/06/phil-schillers-app-store-exit-reportedly-driven-by-wariness-over-future-plans/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T14:28:32.871361+00:00

We dig into Grok Build, a new tool that promises to let anyone create software by just describing it. What does this mean for who gets to build, and what happens to the rest of us? ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.engadget.com/2249020/how-to-use-spacexai-grok-build/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T13:25:25.696478+00:00

Microsoft is shifting AI governance from static policy documents to live runtime enforcement. We unpack what that means for trust, accountability, and the humans caught in the middle. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/STpCLL13xCQsoYrfWSLb?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T12:17:24.386967+00:00

Cloudflare has bundled its AI building blocks into AI Search — an end-to-end search pipeline you can stand up with a single command, and it says the real beneficiary is the customer support rep. Daniel and Emily argue about what changes when a company's scattered knowledge becomes one queryable corpus, who actually adopts it, and what the fine print about free embeddings and no-login endpoints is quietly deciding. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/hJYBb35wMVeU07hTPWIb?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T11:04:33.025007+00:00

OpenAI's researchers are spending $600 a day on AI coding agents. What happens to scientific discovery when the people doing the research lean on machines to think? ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/6/research-acceleration-the-view-inside-openai/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T09:15:15.754853+00:00

Voice feedback apps like Voicebox let you complain by talking to your phone. We explore whether this makes your voice heard or just gives companies another data stream. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.wired.com/story/whispering-complaints-into-your-phone-may-be-the-future-of-customer-feedback/ ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T08:12:38.886745+00:00

Kuaikan, a twelve-year-old comics platform in China, is about to launch Livo, an app where AI agents run a narrative world whose characters keep living whether you show up or not. Daniel and Emily unpack the multi-agent machinery underneath, the readers who may fall for characters that truly remember them, and who actually owns a virtual relationship. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.infoq.cn/article/kAHvBCLrI3sdMyONOveM?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - https://www.infoq.cn/article/boiE7qfjxSQjHKUtevvp?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - https://www.infoq.cn/article/38uc758e24YV4LUpAs77?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - https://www.infoq.cn/article/uTRvjxweSGdp2kzlhPiV?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - https://www.infoq.cn/article/atCusTaSOmddUx1vvJba?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - https://www.infoq.cn/article/5dtlrdsBbSIZfWUUF6JD?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article - https://www.infoq.cn/article/jrEuCFhtpA9LmGX60R1H?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=article ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T06:52:26.076200+00:00

Stripe built an internal AI agent named Kai that 10,000 employees use every week. We dig into what that means for your job, your skills, and your place in the company. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/build-your-own-company-brain-the ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T05:24:16.677655+00:00

A highly technical builder just replaced her entire self-run fleet of AI agents with an off-the-shelf product — not because it was smarter, but because it stayed online. Daniel and Emily dig into her 'every bot is a new hire' playbook, the approval button that keeps humans the boss, and the breakfast-table newspaper that raises the quietest question of all: when your agents work while you sleep, what's left for you to decide? ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-i-ai-gpt-6-astra-is-a-banger ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-08T00:42:19.990013+00:00

Anish Acharya says companies are becoming a series of AI loops, and the fear of a 'permanent underclass' is wrong. We dig into what that actually means for your job, your career, and whether you're the one designing the loop or just the one keeping it running. ## Hosts ### Daniel Altman Daniel Altman is a computer scientist and AI strategist with a background in engineering, quantitative research, and emerging technologies. He studies how technological breakthroughs reshape industries, markets, work, and human capabilities. ### Emily Carter Emily Carter is a business strategist and former technology product leader with experience building digital products and studying how innovation reaches millions of users. She focuses on AI adoption, business transformation, work, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. ## Sources - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-companies-are-becoming-a-series ## Episode Information Language: en Published: 2026-09-07T06:50:51.699842+00:00