Best AWS Bites Podcasts (2025)

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How to Scale an 8 figure Amazon Business (with Sameed Naviwala CEO Bumble Towels) | Upside #60 37:27

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1d ago37:27

37:27

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/amazon-rapid-sales-growth-faster-resolutions-bigger-margins-tickets-1968010438198?aff=oddtdtcreator In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir sit down with Sameed Naviwala, CEO of Bumble Towels, to unpack how he built an eight-figure e-commerce brand from nothing. From starting with zero capital to becoming a recognised …

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Dear K–12, AI Isn’t Optional Anymore. Love, Emily 12:16

2h ago12:16

12:16

Banning ChatGPT in schools is like banning pencils because kids might doodle. In this episode, host Emily Laird takes a flamethrower to the myth that AI’s not in your classroom, because it is, and your students are already using it. Also… you know that. Right? Emily breaks down what real AI literacy looks like, why AI detectors are academic snake o…

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OpenAI's New Atlas Browser 10:25

3h ago10:25

10:25

OpenAI just gave your browser a brain and possibly a caffeine addiction. In this episode, host Emily Laird is ripping into Atlas, OpenAI’s Chrome-powered AI browser with baked-in ChatGPT, Agent Mode, and a memory function that might remember your possum research. Yes, your browser now clicks stuff for you. Welcome to the future. Try not to let it d…

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GPU-nami: OpenAI’s $38B Cloud Fling with AWS 9:06

2h ago9:06

9:06

OpenAI just dropped $38 billion like it’s tipping the bartender at the GPU speakeasy, and the lucky recipient? Amazon Web Services (AWS if ya nasty). In this episode, host Emily Laird digs into why OpenAI is making moves on AWS while still keeping things cozy with Microsoft, what this deal means for the cloud infrastructure arms race, and how your …

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What is Claude 4.5? 9:26

3d ago9:26

9:26

Claude 4.5 isn’t just the teacher’s pet, it’s running the class, grading the papers, and rewriting the syllabus in Python. In this episode, Emily Laird breaks down why Anthropic’s newest model might be the best coder alive (sorry, humans), how it quietly dominates your Slack threads, and what makes it the new heavyweight champ in AI tooling. From b…

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Sora, Deepfakes, and the Hidden Cost of AI Progress | Upside #59 19:39

8d ago19:39

19:39

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir explore the accelerating rise of artificial intelligence and what it means for business, creativity, and society at large. From the launch of OpenAI’s Sora 2 to Google’s Nanobanana, the duo unpack the astonishing speed of progress in AI and the growing concern that regulation may not be keeping pace. What’s Co…

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Alexa, Fire Middle Management: The Amazon Layoffs 8:40

2d ago8:40

8:40

Last week, Amazon axed 14,000 white-collar jobs, and this time, the pink slip came with a side of machine learning. In this episode, Emily Laird is unpacking the biggest corporate AI bloodbath of 2025; how generative AI took aim not at warehouses, but at the middle managers, HR folks, and program leads who thought they were safe behind a PowerPoint…

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GPU vs TPU 11:06

3d ago11:06

11:06

What do Call of Duty, Google Cloud, and your favorite cat video have in common? They all owe their lives to a battle raging deep inside your devices: GPU versus TPU. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down these silicon powerhouses, one’s a Swiss Army knife slinging pixels and precision, the other’s a neural network assassin built by Google o…

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REC (2007): Demonic Zombies & Found Footage Fears 58:14

8d ago58:14

58:14

REC is a clever zombie film that follows people trapped in an apartment building. While trying to survive and get to the bottom of this quarantine, our protagonists fight to record the horrors around them. Joined by regular guest, Wi-Moto Nyoka (Dusky Projects), Ghouls discuss the unique villain, found footage horrors, and other faves.…

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Amazon Fined $2.5B, Higher Selling Fees, and TikTok's Crackdown on Generic Content | Upside #58 14:45

15d ago14:45

14:45

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir break down a packed week in e-commerce — from billion-dollar fines to shifting seller fees and evolving platform policies. The conversation opens with the Federal Trade Commission’s record $2.5 billion fine against Amazon over deceptive Prime membership practices, before branching into global tax changes, risi…

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Meta Firings: The Great FAIR Purge and Rise of the AI Death Star 9:05

9d ago9:05

9:05

Meta just threw its AI playbook in the shredder, lit the ashes on fire, and built a secret lab on top. In this episode, Emily Laird breaks down the end of FAIR, the open-source darling of Meta AI, and the rise of a new AGI-obsessed regime led by Alexandr Wang. We’re talking layoffs, lab coats, and the TBD Lab (a.k.a. Meta’s AI Navy SEALs). Forget t…

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Domo Arigato, Laundry-Bot-o: Meet Figure 03 8:04

17d ago8:04

8:04

Humanoid robots are no longer sci-fi fever dreams or Silicon Valley party tricks, they’re coming for your chores (at least we hope). In this episode, Emily Laird's getting hands-on (literally) with Figure 03, a humanoid robot from Figure AI that walks, sees, hears, and maybe folds towels better than you. Powered by Helix, a model that blends vision…

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Faith & Freedom: After Kirk - Justice Without Revenge 19:28

14d ago19:28

19:28

Send us a text October 14th, 2025: President Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. September 25th: State Department quietly revokes 47 visas for non-citizens who celebrated Kirk's assassination. Justice without revenge - that's the Christian balance we all need to understand. Five weeks after starting this podcas…

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Blood Quantum (2019): Red They Dead, White They Bite 1:00:50

15d ago1:00:50

1:00:50

Jeff Barnaby's Blood Quantum is a relentless, gory zombie film with an interesting twist. This film pulls no punches and through the anti-hero Lysol, we get to see that generational trauma, anger and resolve acted out in vengeance and graphic horror. Ghouls revisit one of their all time favorite horror films that turns the classic monster, zombie, …

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AWS Crash, Brands Losing Thousands, and Government Conspiracy (With Danu Abeysuriya) | Upside #57 20:46

22d ago20:46

20:46

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir are joined by Danu Abeysuriya to unpack the recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that sent ripples through the digital world. The incident disrupted everything from Seller Central logins to Amazon’s own checkout processes, shining a spotlight on just how dependent global infrastructure has become on a singl…

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Tech Deep Dive - When the Cloud Goes Dark: Observability After the AWS Outage 22:46

16d ago22:46

22:46

Send us a text Episode 9: When the Cloud Goes Dark - Observability After the AWS Outage Yesterday's AWS outage cost hundreds of billions and took down Snapchat, Coinbase, Ring, even Amazon's own retail site. 15+ hours of chaos exposed a critical truth: most organizations are doing observability completely wrong. THE RECEIPTS: - October 20, 2025, 3:…

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Tilly Norwood: Artificially Famous 9:18

23d ago9:18

9:18

Tilly Norwood isn’t real but she is raising real eyebrows. Billed as the next Natalie Portman (if Natalie were a laggy IKEA algorithm), this AI “actress” is part influencer, part software stack, and part lawsuit waiting to happen. In this episode, host Emily Laird unpacks the tech behind Tilly’s digital debut, from glitchy expressions to Frankensta…

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Tech Deep Dive: Platform Engineering - The DevOps Evolution 38:03

23d ago38:03

38:03

Send us a text Platform Engineering isn't just another buzzword—it's the evolution that makes DevOps, DevSecOps, and SRE practices actually scale across entire organizations. In this episode, Scott shares a real story from a scrum call where a simple code formatting mistake became the catalyst for building automated systems that eliminate toil fore…

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ZOM100: Optimism in the Apocalypse 1:00:09

22d ago1:00:09

1:00:09

ZOM100 is a quirky show set during the zombie apocalypse that encourages viewers to take advantage of the time we have left. When our jobs under the oppressive systems of capitalism have already turned us into zombies, flesh eating monsters can feel like a fresh start and a good excuse to start living. Joined by the Boos Next Door (Mike Levitt & Is…

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Swamp Thing: Musk’s AI Beast Rises in Memphis 9:26

24d ago9:26

9:26

Elon Musk isn’t just tweeting through it, he’s building a supercomputer the size of a football stadium in the swamps of Memphis. It's called Colossus, and it’s stuffed with hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips, guzzling gigawatts of power like a frat boy with a Monster Energy addiction. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down Musk’s big AI b…

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Q4: The Make or Break Season for Sellers | Upside #56 25:50

28d ago25:50

25:50

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir tackle the most important stretch of the e-commerce calendar, Q4. With consumer intent at its highest and sales potential peaking, the duo unpack why this period can make or break a brand’s year. They explore how up to 60% of annual revenue can come from these 13 weeks and share practical advice on how to prep…

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Janitor AI: Chatbots Gone Wild (Seriously) 13:44

23d ago13:44

13:44

A continuation of Emily's exploration into the Andreeson Horowitz Top 100 Generative AI apps. Janitor AI is a full-blown fever dream with 5 million users, 2 million characters, and zero shame. In this episode, host Emily Laird explores the spicy underworld of AI role-play, where lonely hearts, anime stans, and fantasy nerds collide. From vampire lo…

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OpenAI Dev Day 2025: The Recap 8:55

26d ago8:55

8:55

OpenAI Dev Day 2025 wasn’t just a product drop, it was a full-on software coup. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down how ChatGPT graduated from chatbot to operating system, complete with apps, agents, and enough compute power to fry your toaster. From booking a Rome trip mid-chat to building AI assistants without writing code, it’s clear: …

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Faith & Freedom: Apple vs. the Sabbath - When 'Inclusion' Excludes Faith 22:54

1M ago22:54

22:54

Send us a text Apple vs. the Sabbath: When "Inclusion" Excludes Faith | Faith & Freedom #7 The EEOC just filed a federal lawsuit that exposes Big Tech's double standard: diversity for everything except genuine religious conviction. THE CASE (WITH RECEIPTS): On September 30, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal lawsuit a…

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All of Us Are Dead: No One is Coming to Save Us 1:01:12

1M ago1:01:12

1:01:12

All of Us Are Dead is a compelling and emotionally charged TV series about a zombie outbreak at a high school in South Korea. The zombies cause chaos, but the true horrors, as always, are the many ways society fails these kids. Ghouls discuss the parts they love of the show, what they hope to see in a season 2, and how this show differs from other …

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Talk Nerdy to Me: All About Character AI 11:51

29d ago11:51

11:51

Character.AI is where Shakespeare meets Snapchat and your anime boyfriend quotes Nietzsche in real time. In this episode, Emily Laird explores the company turning chatbot conversations into Gen Z’s favorite form of weird therapy and role-play. Founded by two ex-Googlers (Transformer royalty, no less), Character.AI has raised big money, signed a $2.…

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Missed Prime Day? Here’s Why That Might Be a Good Thing | Upside #55 14:57

1M ago14:57

14:57

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir dive into Amazon’s second Prime Day of the year, an event that sparks more debate than excitement. Is it a genuine opportunity for shoppers and sellers, or a manufactured moment designed to inflate demand ahead of the holidays? The duo unpacks the origins of October Prime Day, born in the pandemic, the psychol…

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OpenAI's New Toys: Sora 2, a New App, and a Pulse in Pulse 9:33

1M ago9:33

9:33

By Emily Laird

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Tech Deep Dive: Building Bridges, Not Walls: Multi-Cloud Native Design 31:04

1M ago31:04

31:04

Send us a text Real enterprise multi-cloud architecture from 20+ years in the trenches. AWS, Azure, GCP - when to use each, how to bridge them, and why most organizations fail at multi-cloud. THE RECEIPTS (Sources & Facts): Scott's credentials: Google Cloud PSO, AWS ProServe, consulting with McKinsey, PWC, Deloitte on Fortune 500 transformations AW…

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Dear AGI, You Still Make Me Nervous... Love Always, Emily. 11:02

1M ago11:02

11:02

What do you get when you mix billion-dollar egos, unfinished AI code, and an arms race mindset? A potential disaster with better branding. In this episode, Emily Laird breaks down why “safety pledges” and AI ethics guidelines sound great… right up until there’s money on the table. From vaporware promises to high-stakes standoffs between sleepy engi…

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From the Free State - Tampa's Conservative Awakening 16:24

1M ago16:24

16:24

Send us a text Seven thousand students worshipping Jesus at USF while a UT professor mocks prayer for the President. Three hundred baptisms versus profanity in the classroom. This is the battle for Tampa's soul. After watching Raleigh fall to liberal migration for 12 years, I moved to the Free State of Florida to help build what America can become.…

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Faith & Freedom: Big Tech's Confession - YouTube Censorship Exposed & TikTok's Future 18:14

1M ago18:14

18:14

Send us a text Google admits Biden administration pressured YouTube to censor content that didn't violate policies. In this explosive Faith & Freedom episode, we unpack Google's September 23rd confession to Congress, the shadowbanning of conservative voices, and what the Oracle-led TikTok restructuring means for free speech in tech. Plus, my person…

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28 Years Later (2025): Growing Pains & Toxic Masculinty 1:08:17

1M ago1:08:17

1:08:17

28 Years Later is a wild, emotional ride exploring the complications of growing up in the midst of an apocalypse. Garland and Boyle return to the series, offering a vibrant and creative story where even amongst decades of death, the loss of a loved one still hits hard. Ghouls are joined by fellow podcaster, Erick Barragan of Cinepamina to discuss t…

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How to Turn Creativity into Conversions (With Will Plant) | Upside #54 24:15

1M ago24:15

24:15

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir sit down with Will Plant, Creative Manager at This Way Up, to unpack why design is the most underrated growth lever on Amazon and beyond. From the main image that wins the click to A+ modules that tell your story, Will shares a practical playbook for turning creative into conversions. What’s Covered in This Ep…

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Tech Deep Dive: Kubernetes Like a Sailor | Military Precision Meets Container Orchestration 23:38

1M ago23:38

23:38

Send us a text Former Navy Engineman Scott W Houghton transforms a real pirate attack on the USS Ashland into the most memorable Kubernetes lesson you'll ever hear. Drawing from his experience during the April 10, 2010 engagement in the Gulf of Aden, Scott parallels naval operations with container orchestration, making complex DevSecOps concepts cr…

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Faith & Freedom Special: The Muslim Question - Setting the Record Straight 12:27

2M ago12:27

12:27

Send us a text Scott interrupts his regular production schedule to address concerning comments about targeting Muslims following Florida's Operation One Way Ticket. Drawing from his Navy service alongside Muslim allies and presenting hard data on radical Islamic terrorism, he makes the crucial distinction between peaceful Muslims practicing their f…

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Special Episode - Faith & Freedom - From the Free State "Alligator Justice: Florida's Bold Stand for Law and Order" 15:12

2M ago15:12

15:12

Send us a text 🚨 SPECIAL FLORIDA EDITION: From the Free State comes a powerful examination of law, order, and liberty. This week's Central Florida operation detained 354 illegal immigrants in just 4 days, while Florida builds "Alligator Alcatraz" and expands ICE partnerships by 577% since January. Scott Houghton broadcasts from Tampa with hard fact…

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Tech Bites: LLMs Unmasked - The AI Truth Bomb 13:59

2M ago13:59

13:59

Send us a text Scott breaks down Large Language Models (LLMs) in plain English – super-powered autocomplete that's changing everything. Compare Claude Opus 4.1, ChatGPT 5, Grok 4, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot from someone who uses them all professionally. Learn why "AI won't replace people, but people using AI will replace those who don't" applies…

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Tech Deep Dive: "DevSecOps and Discipline" 28:35

2M ago28:35

28:35

Send us a text Tech Deep Dive: DevSecOps and Discipline - Show Notes Where security principles meet spiritual discipline - because the same practices that protect our systems can protect our souls. Scott Houghton (20+ years in tech, contractor for Google Cloud PSO, AWS ProServe, Fortune 500s) breaks down how DevSecOps isn't just about securing infr…

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Faith & Freedom: The Charlie Kirk Effect 19:06

2M ago19:06

19:06

Send us a text Faith, Freedom & Tech Episode 3: The Charlie Kirk Effect - Show Notes Episode 3: The Charlie Kirk Effect - Gen Z's Return to Traditional Values September 25, 2025 Two weeks after Charlie Kirk's assassination at Utah Valley University, we're witnessing a global youth revolution. From 100,000+ protesters in London chanting "We are Char…

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Does Amazon Play Fair? Breaking Down The Private Label Myths | Upside #53 14:40

2M ago14:40

14:40

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir dissect a viral video claiming Amazon “rigs the game” with its private label products. The video has millions of views, but is it telling the full story, or just sensational clickbait? The guys unpack what’s true, what’s misleading, and what every brand owner needs to know before drawing the wrong conclusion. …

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10 Gigawatts and a Dream: OpenAI, NVIDIA, and the $100B Compute Flex 7:54

2M ago7:54

7:54

What do you get when OpenAI and NVIDIA throw $100 billion at the problem of thinking machines? A digital superhighway powered by 10 gigawatts of GPU-fueled fury, and maybe the early blueprints for artificial general intelligence. In this episode, Emily Laird breaks down why compute is the new oil, what the hell “Vera Rubin” has to do with your favo…

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Intro: Finding My Voice Again 18:51

2M ago18:51

18:51

Send us a text After 20+ years of hiding his faith and conservative values in tech, Scott Houghton is done being silent. In this raw, unfiltered premiere episode of Faith, Freedom & Tech, Scott shares: Why watching Charlie Kirk die for his beliefs changed everything The real cost of being a Christian in Silicon Valley How he went from hacking schoo…

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Meta’s AR Glow-Up 11:06

2M ago11:06

11:06

Meta’s back on your face and this time, it’s not just a privacy nightmare in disguise. In this episode, Emily Laird breaks down Meta’s latest smart glasses lineup: the Ray-Ban Display (complete with a mini screen in your eyeball), the Oakley Vanguard (for outdoorsy cyborgs), and the Ray-Ban Gen 2 (TikTok-ready, dystopia-lite). We talk wrist-reading…

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149. Headless CMS on AWS 33:29

2M ago33:29

33:29

We dive deep into Strapi, an open-source headless CMS that's changing how we approach content management and CRUD applications. In this episode, we explore how Strapi separates content from presentation, allowing marketing teams to manage content independently while developers maintain full control over the frontend experience. We discuss the power…

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Are Walmart coming to the UK? | Upside #52 11:49

2M ago11:49

11:49

In this episode of Upside, Ali & Zamir run a spicy thought experiment: what if a US retail behemoth—say, Walmart—launched a UK marketplace? From physical stores and fulfillment networks to seller experience and ad budgets, they map out how a serious Amazon competitor could reshape the landscape—and why brands should prep now, not later. What’s Cove…

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Fact-Check or Fail: How to Keep Your AI From Making Stuff Up 11:08

2M ago11:08

11:08

In this episode, host Emily Laird teaches you how to keep your AI from bluffing like your cousin Chad at Thanksgiving. No code. No blood moon rituals. Just smarter prompts and better fact-checking. Emily breaks down how to get AI to cough up citations, quote sources, and admit when it doesn’t know jack. Whether you’re working with PDFs, web tools, …

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OpenAI, Oracle, and the 4.5 Gigawatt Hunger Games 9:31

2M ago9:31

9:31

Title: a16z 5th Edition Pt. 4: No-Code, Just Vibes & the Top of the Class OpenAI’s rumored $300 billion cloud pact with Oracle isn’t just another tech headline, it’s a sci-fi-sized bet on the future of AI. Host Emily Laird is talking 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity (that’s two Hoover Dams of electricity), millions of GPUs, and enough water to…

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The FTC Enters the Chat (And It’s Not Flirting) 9:28

2M ago9:28

9:28

The FTC just knocked on the doors of seven AI giants, including OpenAI, Meta, and Snap (amongst many others) with legally binding orders, and they’re not here for small talk. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down why regulators suddenly care if your teenager is whispering secrets to an anime chatbot at 2 a.m., what the investigation means f…

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a16z 5th Edition Pt. 4: No-Code, Just Vibes & the Top of the Class 10:54

2M ago10:54

10:54

Forget Python. The new software builders are riding high on vibes, drag, drop, done. In this episode, host Emily Laird breaks down “vibe coding,” the sticky magic of user retention, and the AI All‑Stars dominating the charts like it’s 2001 TRL. From ChatGPT to Cutout Pro, and yes, even JanitorAI (don’t ask), these are the tools you’ll be using even…