Best Builder Podcast Network Podcasts (2025)

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Kenny Mayne on Sports Media 1:03:38

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3d ago1:03:38

1:03:38

Larry is joined by former ESPN contributor Kenny Mayne to discuss his newest podcast We Need a Fourth! They also discuss the going's on of sports media, the fallout from poor fan behavior in golf, and much more. Host: Larry Wilmore Producers: Steve Ahlman and Brandy LaPlante Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

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The Customer Service Revolution: Building Fin, with Eoghan McCabe & Fergal Reid of Intercom 1:34:04

4d ago1:34:04

1:34:04

Today Eoghan McCabe and Fergal Reid of Intercom join The Cognitive Revolution to discuss building their AI customer service agent Fin, exploring how they achieved a 65% resolution rate through rigorous optimization and custom model training rather than relying on base model improvements, while pioneering outcome-based pricing at $0.99 per resolutio…

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217: The Art of Kadesh (Livestream) 1:14:15

5d ago1:14:15

1:14:15

Our final part of the Kadesh story is Ramesses' art. Wall carvings, on major temples, present the pharaohs' summary of Kadesh and the conflict. They include many fun details, including enemy combatants, and comparing some scenes with artefacts allows us to imagine aspects of the ancient battle. Video version available here and on my YouTube channel…

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Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z) 1:00:33

6d ago1:00:33

1:00:33

Today’s special crosspost features a16z General Partner Anjney Midha with Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk of Periodic Labs. They discuss experiments in training frontier AI models on real-world physics lab experiments—rather than digital reward functions—and how coupling language models with automated materials synthesis could accelerate the discov…

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The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days 2:16:08

10d ago2:16:08

2:16:08

Today, Emad Mostaque, founder of Intelligent Internet, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his book "The Last Economy" and his radical "intelligence theory" framework for reimagining economics in the AI age, exploring concepts like the abundance trap, metabolic rift, and his proposed cryptocurrency-funded system of collectively-owned AI infra…

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Listener Mailbag 1:04:35

10d ago1:04:35

1:04:35

Larry weighs in on the latest with Jimmy Kimmel and Charlie Kirk, the future of the Democratic Party, the role of artists in culture, his love of magic, conspiracy theories, and much more on this week’s episode of ‘Black on the Air.’ Host: Larry Wilmore Producers: Devon Renaldo and Brandy LaPlante Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoi…

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Ancient Historical Fiction with Dr. Colleen Darnell 1:01:40

12d ago1:01:40

1:01:40

My guest today is Dr. Colleen Darnell, who will speak to us about New Kingdom literature (featuring rulers like Ramesses, Thutmose III, Seqenenra, and more). It’s a fun discussion, ranging from the calamitous death of Seqenenra Tao, to the triumphs of Thutmose III and Ramesses II, to the divine glamour of chariots, and how pharaohs became literary …

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Stripe's Payments Foundation Model: How Data & Infra Create Compounding Advantage, w/ Emily Sands 1:21:09

13d ago1:21:09

1:21:09

Today, Emily Sands, head of data and AI at Stripe, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss how the company built a payments foundation model that processes tens of billions of transactions into dense embeddings, exploring the technical architecture behind fraud detection improvements and the modular approach that enables rapid deployment of AI ac…

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Full-Stack AI Safety: Why Defense-in-Depth Might Work, with Far.AI CEO Adam Gleave 1:27:00

18d ago1:27:00

1:27:00

Today Adam Gleave, co-founder and CEO of FAR.AI, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his cautiously optimistic vision for post-AGI futures and AI capability timelines across three distinct tiers, exploring the safety challenges and alignment techniques needed as FAR.AI scales from foundational research to policy advocacy to ensure their innov…

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216b: Kadesh, the ROCK Musical (Preview) 3:38

19d ago3:38

3:38

Heavy Metal Hittites. This is a preview of my "rock musical" version of Kadesh. Full version available at patreon.com/c/egyptpodcast. Song produced by Hermanubis (aka Luke Chaos https://chaosmusick.bandcamp.com/). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Dominic Perry

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Can We Stop AI Deception? Apollo Research Tests OpenAI's Deliberative Alignment, w/ Marius Hobbhahn 2:08:56

20d ago2:08:56

2:08:56

Today Marius Hobbhahn of Apollo Research joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss their collaboration with OpenAI using "deliberative alignment" to reduce AI scheming behavior by 30x, exploring the safety challenges and concerning findings about models' growing situational awareness and increasingly cryptic reasoning patterns that emerge when fron…

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User-Owned AI: On-Chain Training, Inference, and Agents, with NEAR's Illia Polosukhin 1:33:08

25d ago1:33:08

1:33:08

Today Illia Polosukhin, founder of Near Protocol joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss the intersection of AI and blockchain technologies, exploring how decentralized infrastructure can enable "user-owned AI" through privacy-preserving model training, confidential computing, and autonomous agents that operate via smart contracts without central…

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216: Kadesh, The Musical! 36:28

27d ago36:28

36:28

The war of the words. Following his strategic defeat at Kadesh, Ramesses set about putting his version of the story into wide circulation. Today, art and texts of this conflict survive at the temples of Abu Simbel, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, and the Ramesseum. Among those texts, we have the “Literary Record” or “Kadesh Poem.” A lengthy, dramatised vers…

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Coaching the Creators: Inside the Minds Building Frontier AI with Executive Coach Joe Hudson 1:44:57

27d ago1:44:57

1:44:57

Today Joe Hudson, founder of Art of Accomplishment and coach to executives at major AI labs including OpenAI and Anthropic, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss the psychological patterns he observes among AI researchers and leaders, exploring what's missing beyond pure intelligence in current AI systems and arguing for supportive rather than …

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Tara Palmeri on Epstein and His Survivors 53:11

1M ago53:11

53:11

This week, Larry is joined by investigative journalist, author, and podcast host Tara Palmeri to sift through the complexities of the Epstein files and his survivors—just days after several of his accusers traveled to Capitol Hill to demand accountability (1:26). They explore the confusion surrounding the case, the role of money, and how Epstein se…

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Zvi Mowshowitz on Longer Timelines, RL-induced Doom, and Why China is Refusing H20s 3:13:14

1M ago3:13:14

3:13:14

Today, Zvi Mowshowitz returns to The Cognitive Revolution to discuss how recent AI developments like GPT-5 and IMO gold medals have led to modestly extended timelines despite being on-trend, while policy missteps around chip exports to China and alignment challenges from reinforcement learning have increased risk assessments, covering everything fr…

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Kadesh: What Was It Good For? with Prof. Peter Brand 1:35:48

1M ago1:35:48

1:35:48

Why is the Battle of Kadesh so famous, compared to other ancient conflicts? What can we take away from Ramesses' account in terms of "truth" vs "rhetoric." And what did it all up to, really? Prof. Peter Brand returns to discuss the battle in great detail, from the blow-by-blow moments to the larger strategic and political context. Along the way, we…

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In-AI Advertising: Better Answers for Users, Big Questions for Society, with ZeroClick's Ryan Hudson 1:51:02

1M ago1:51:02

1:51:02

Today Ryan Hudson, Founder and CEO of ZeroClick, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss creating advertising infrastructure for AI applications through paid inference-time consideration of advertiser content, examining how to build sustainable monetization for free-tier AI services while learning from the successes and failures of social media's…

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Material Abundance: Radical AI’s Closed-Loop Lab Automates Scientific Discovery 1:54:55

1M ago1:54:55

1:54:55

Today Joseph Krause and Jorge Colindres of Radical AI join The Cognitive Revolution to discuss their ambitious mission to revolutionize materials science by combining AI-powered discovery engines with fully autonomous robotic laboratories, exploring how they're accelerating the development of breakthrough materials like high-entropy alloys and room…

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215: Ramesses II Taking Hands, Healing Wounds 46:22

1M ago46:22

46:22

Who won? In the aftermath of battle, Ramesses and Muwattalli withdrew from Kadesh. We discuss the short- and long-term fallout and consider the "score card" for the respective armies. Then, we spend time with the wounded soldiers, using the Edwin Smith Papyrus to understand diagnoses and treatments used by ancient Egyptian physicians (swnw). Finall…

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Untangling Neural Network Mechanisms: Goodfire's Lee Sharkey on Parameter-based Interpretability 2:02:11

1M ago2:02:11

2:02:11

Today Lee Sharkey of Goodfire joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his research on parameter decomposition methods that break down neural networks into interpretable computational components, exploring how his team's "stochastic parameter decomposition" approach addresses the limitations of sparse autoencoders and offers new pathways for under…

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Christopher Jackson on the 10-Year Anniversary of 'Hamilton,' His Return to Broadway, and More 1:09:17

1M ago1:09:17

1:09:17

Larry is joined by Tony Award–nominated actor, Grammy- and Emmy-winning songwriter, and composer Christopher Jackson. Jackson reflects on the 10-year anniversary of ‘Hamilton,’ how the show came to life, and his experience originating the role of George Washington (2:20). He discusses his upcoming musical, 'The Crossover'; his process of writing fo…

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What if Humans Weaponize Superintelligence, w/ Tom Davidson, from Future of Life Institute Podcast 2:04:18

2M ago2:04:18

2:04:18

Today Tom Davidson of Forethought joins Gus Docker of the Future of Life Institute podcast to discuss AI-enabled coups and how future AI systems could help powerful individuals seize political control, exploring three threat models—singular loyalties, secret loyalties, and exclusive access—along with their estimated 10% likelihood over the next 30 …

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The AI Whistleblower Initiative: Supporting AGI Insiders When It Matters Most, w/ founder Karl Koch 1:51:18

2M ago1:51:18

1:51:18

Today Karl Koch, Co-Founder of the AI Whistleblower Initiative, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss the barriers preventing AI insiders from raising safety concerns, his organization's anonymous "Third Opinion" service connecting whistleblowers with independent experts, and their campaign demanding frontier AI companies publish their internal…

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Wendy Lobel on ‘Anxiety Club’ 55:44

2M ago55:44

55:44

Larry is joined by Emmy Award-winning producer Wendy Lobel to discuss her directorial debut film ‘Anxiety Club’, currently streaming on Jolt.film. They begin their conversation by talking about why Wendy wanted to make the documentary and exploring the ways that the standup comedians featured in the film use their craft as built-in therapy. This le…

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Autonomous Organizations: Vending Bench & Beyond, w/ Lukas Petersson & Axel Backlund of Andon Labs 1:48:43

2M ago1:48:43

1:48:43

Today Lukas Petersson and Axel Backlund of Andon Labs join The Cognitive Revolution to discuss their experiments deploying autonomous AI agents to run real-world vending machines, exploring the safety challenges and unexpected behaviors that emerge when frontier models like Claude and Grok operate without human oversight. Read transcript of the epi…

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214: Ramesses II The Battle of Kadesh 1:59:17

2M ago1:59:17

1:59:17

In June of 1287 BCE (approximately), one of antiquity’s great conflicts unfolded in southern Syria. Meeting near Kadesh (Qidsha), the armies of Egypt and Hatti fought each other in a spectacular engagement. The events of that battle are recorded, somewhat grandiosely, by Ramesses II in temple art and extended hieroglyph narratives. With those as ou…

1
Dean W. Ball on America's AI Action Plan & 4 Months at the White House 3:14:15

2M ago3:14:15

3:14:15

Today Dean W. Ball, former White House AI policy advisor joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his role in crafting the Trump administration's AI Action Plan, his reasons for leaving government, and his perspectives on AI policy, US-China competition, and the future of AI regulation and adoption. Check out our sponsors: Fin, Labelbox, Oracle Cl…

1
Jonathan Mahler on ‘The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990’ 54:38

2M ago54:38

54:38

Larry is joined by New York Times journalist and author Jonathan Mahler to discuss his newest book, ‘The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990,’ publishing on August 12. They begin their conversation by detailing why Jonathan decided to write the book and shining a light on the rich history…

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Jake Sullivan on Navigating AI Uncertainty and Managing Competition with China 1:12:31

2M ago1:12:31

1:12:31

Today Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor from 2021-2025 joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss AI as a critical national security issue. Check out our sponsors: Labelbox, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Shopify. Shownotes below brought to you by Notion AI Meeting Notes - try one month for free at https://notion.com/lp/nathan Four-Cat…

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213: Ramesses II Seven Nation Army 50:09

2M ago50:09

50:09

Ramesses, Muwattalli, and the Trojans(?). In June of 1287 BCE, the Great Kings of Hatti and Egypt were on the verge of a major confrontation. Ramesses, marching across Sinai and into Canaan, made careful preparations for his assault on Kadesh. Alas, even the best-planned campaign could not be hidden from a watchful enemy. In Hatti, Muwattalli II se…

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Sovereign AI: Geopolitical Strategy & Industrial Policy for Countries 3-193, with Anjney Midha, a16z 1:42:55

2M ago1:42:55

1:42:55

Today Anjney Midha, General Partner at a16z joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss sovereign AI and China's growing semiconductor capabilities. Check out our sponsors: Gemini CLI, Labelbox, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Shopify. Shownotes below brought to you by Notion AI Meeting Notes - try one month for free at https://notion.com/lp/nathan What…

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The Revolution in Services: General Catalyst's AI Rollup Strategy, with Marc Bhargava 1:24:03

2M ago1:24:03

1:24:03

Marc Bhargava from General Catalyst discusses their Creation Strategy for building AI-enabled roll-ups – companies that start as vertical software startups, then grow by acquiring traditional service businesses and transforming them through AI automation. They explore how systematic analysis of 70 service categories identified 10 verticals where 30…

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212: Ramesses II The Arsenal of Pharaohcracy 32:37

2M ago32:37

32:37

Preparing for Kadesh. In 1287 BCE (late in his fifth regnal year) King Ramesses II departed Egypt on campaign. His target? The city of Kadesh / Qidsha in southern Syria. The Kadesh campaign is famous, as one of history’s “great battles.” Today, we “set the scene,” and explore the preparations for this war. We have a surprisingly detailed picture of…

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Liability for AI Harms: How Ancient Law Can Govern Frontier Technology Risk, with Prof Gabriel Weil 2:11:58

2M ago2:11:58

2:11:58

Gabriel Weil from Touro University argues that liability law may be our best tool for governing AI development, offering a framework that can adapt to new technologies without requiring new legislation. The conversation explores how negligence, products liability, and "abnormally dangerous activities" doctrines could incentivize AI developers to pr…

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Kadesh: The 200 Year Enemy with Prof. Peter Brand 49:54

3M ago49:54

49:54

Leading up to the Battle of Kadesh (c.1287 BCE) betwen Ramesses II of Egypt and Muwatalli II of Hatti, we need to understand the background. Why was this city the epicentre of such a major conflict? How did the rulers of Kadesh (Kadeshians?) persistently frustrate pharaohs dating back two centuries to Thutmose III (c.1480 BCE). Today, Prof. Peter B…

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Private Governance: Creating a Market in AI Regulation, with Dr. Gillian Hadfield & Andrew Freedman 1:53:29

3M ago1:53:29

1:53:29

Dr. Gillian Hadfield from Johns Hopkins University and Andrew Freedman from Fathom discuss their innovative proposal to govern AI through private regulatory markets, which has been introduced as California's SB 813. Their system would separate democratic goal-setting from technical rule-making by having government bodies articulate safety outcomes …

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Maya Lau on ‘Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story’ 1:05:33

3M ago1:05:33

1:05:33

Larry is joined by journalist Maya Lau to discuss her latest podcast, Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story, currently streaming on Apple Podcasts. They begin their conversation by describing the story and subsequent legacy of Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant who, in 1920, defrauded his "investors" of the modern equivalent of a quarter of a billio…

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Ancient Egyptian Curse / Swear Words 14:32

3M ago14:32

14:32

We learn how to insult someone in ancient Egyptian, based on the surviving texts... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Dominic Perry

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The Dawn of Dynamic AI: RFT Comes Online, w/ Predibase CEO Dev Rishi, from Inference by Turing Post 35:47

3M ago35:47

35:47

This crossover episode from Inference by Turing Post features CEO Dev Rishi of Predibase discussing the shift from static to continuously learning AI systems that can adapt and improve from ongoing user feedback in production. Rishi provides grounded insights from deploying these dynamic models to real enterprise customers in healthcare and finance…

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Nate Jackson on 'Nate Jackson: Super Funny' 1:16:39

3M ago1:16:39

1:16:39

Larry is joined by comedian Nate Jackson to talk about his new Netflix special ‘Nate Jackson: Super Funny’. They begin their conversation by examining the different ways that comedians develop relationships with an audience and sharing how they each mentally process jokes while they're performing. Nate then details how he became a comedian and the …

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Ramesses' Wild West with Prof. Steven Snape 1:07:49

3M ago1:07:49

1:07:49

Heart of Darkness at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham. Far from the Nile Valley, on Egypt’s northern coastline, Ramessid soldiers and civilians constructed a significant fortress to control the maritime roads. This remote garrison faced off against Libyan tribes coming from the far west (e.g. the Meshwesh of Cyrenaica), traded with Mediterranean merchants, po…

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Cracking the Medical Code: Why Cleveland Clinic Doctors Love Their Ambience Healthcare AI Scribe 1:28:38

3M ago1:28:38

1:28:38

Brendan Fortuner from Ambience Healthcare and Ben Shahshahani from Cleveland Clinic discuss how AI is transforming medical documentation and coding in a healthcare system that spends $1 trillion annually on administrative tasks. They explore Ambience's technical breakthrough using OpenAI's Reinforcement Fine-Tuning to achieve medical coding accurac…

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The Data Factory: Inside the $100B Race for Post-Training Supremacy, with Labelbox CEO Manu Sharma 1:41:55

3M ago1:41:55

1:41:55

Manu Sharma, founder and CEO of Labelbox, explains how frontier AI training data has evolved far beyond simple labeling to sophisticated reinforcement learning environments where domain experts create "gyms" for models to develop complex skills. With every Western frontier lab now spending over a billion dollars annually on training data, the conve…

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Elizabeth Wagmeister on the Diddy Trial 52:30

3M ago52:30

52:30

Larry is joined by reporter and journalist Elizabeth Wagmeister to talk about her experiences covering the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs federal criminal case for CNN. They begin their conversation by shining a light on the atmosphere both inside and outside the courtroom, and detailing the individual charges being brought against Combs. They then examine the…

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Cheat on Everything: Cluely's Vision for Always-On AI Assistance 1:19:36

3M ago1:19:36

1:19:36

Roy Lee, founder and CEO of Cluely, discusses his AI startup's $15 million Andreessen Horowitz investment and their provocative "cheat on everything" marketing approach that has gone viral across the tech industry. They explore Cluely's real-time AI assistant that provides undetectable information during meetings and interviews, Roy's philosophy of…

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NSFW Not Safe for Water (Did Pharaohs Masturbate into the Nile?) 14:30

3M ago14:30

14:30

Explicit content. There's a factoid floating around on the internet. It claims that, to ensure fertility and good harvest, pharaohs would annually masturbate into the River Nile. This claim is total bubkis, but where did it come from? Which deities and myths were most closely associated with such concepts? In this mini episode, we explore the facto…

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The AI Village: Previewing the Giga-Agent Future with Adam Binksmith, Founder of AI Digest 1:25:22

3M ago1:25:22

1:25:22

Adam Binksmith, founder of AI Digest, discusses his AI Village experiment where four frontier AI agents (Claude, o3, and Gemini models) collaborate in a shared environment with persistent memory and group chat access to pursue concrete goals over weeks. The conversation explores fascinating multi-agent dynamics from their completed seasons, includi…

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402 Payment Required: a New Way for AI Agents to Pay, with Nemil Dalal, Dev Platform Lead @ Coinbase 1:22:21

3M ago1:22:21

1:22:21

Nemil Dalal from Coinbase discusses the x402 protocol, a new open standard that enables AI agents to make cryptocurrency payments for online resources using the long-dormant HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code. The conversation covers stablecoin fundamentals, including how they work and who maintains their stability, before exploring how crypto…

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Hapi Days (or, Ramesses in DeNile) 20:15

3M ago20:15

20:15

Hapi was Egypt. The life-giving waters of the annual flood (inundation) were his work; and thanks to these waters, Egypt flourished, its people were fed, the gods received their offerings, and the social order was maintained. From the New Kingdom, papyrus and ostraca record songs/poems to the river god, called "Praise (dua) of Hapi." From the days …