Down Round

So, OpenAI bought a podcast? For possibly hundreds of millions? Most importantly, it wasn't us?Our spurned hosts come together to question the decision with the jealous contempt of an ex-lover. Moving through the stages of grief, we also interrogate Sam Altman's character, and whether he even deserved us in the first place, as some have recently called him duplicitous and sociopathic. Lose our number, Sammy boy, we're going to ask Dario to the dinner dance instead. 💅 If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has graced the land of plenty this week, opening an office in Sydney before swinging by Canberra to put the fear of god into our elected officials on big, spooky, scary AI bots coming to take your job and wife. The boys use this as a springboard to examine Australia's relationship with AI and data centres, whether these execs are trying to 'pull the ladder up behind them', and leaks possibly detailing Claude's next model. Also, a brief chat about what will come of that Meta court case loss.If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another week, another episode about OpenAI. The eponymous chatbot company has announced that it's video generation/social media app Sora is shutting up shop as they seem to be chasing Anthropic's enterprise focused success. This is important to discuss because it means the boys were sort of right again? They also dipped their toes into the sloppy waters of AI Fruit Love Island, and wrapped back around to revisit private equity.Warning: James' computer decided to switch his mic input from the gorgeous RODE mic he had plugged in to his crusty little airpods, meaning his recording sounded like dog doo-doo for the first 20 minutes of the ep. Please accept our sincerest apologies, and know that he will be severely punished for this malfeasance in due course.If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Week two of baby season and we're still out here, still feeding you content-starved little varmints hot and fresh intelligence. This week, we thought it was a good time for a general temperature check on the AI world. Who's leading, who's flailing, and who the hell is curing their dog's cancer with ChatGPT. Join us for the first part here, then head over to DownRound.net to get Premium access and hear the other half of the chat, plus ad free listening!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We come to you with an urgent alert for all Down Round subscribers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For today's free ep, we examine the current spat between Anthropic and Trump's Department of War over use of their AI model Claude. Should a next-token prediction model be allowed to make decisions in the heat of battle? Should the snuffing out of a human life be prompted by a computer? Is Mark Zuckerberg losing his white boy swag? These are all important questions which WILL be answered in this episode. If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When one thinks of impossible futures, they often think of a luxurious, technological wonderland. An unimaginable utopia where humans live in perfect harmony, their every want and need being fulfilled through meteoric advances in artificial intelligence. A prosperous society of abundance and civility.But what if these same technological strides lead humanity to a different, more sinister outcome. One in which our dependable world economies simply evaporate as organic beings are removed from the equation. One where only next-token prediction engines are granted access to wealth, and those who clairvoyantly bought reasonably-priced Macintosh computers before the uprising rocket skyward into an insurmountable upper crust.Some researchers have written a piece of speculative fiction which describes one of these two possibilities arriving by in 2028. Listen to the podcast to find out which one they foresaw, and hear two of DM Research's finest alum examine this theory in great depth. If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some have argued that doing Q&A episodes is just a way of farming out the hard bits of doing a podcast to your audience. Not around these parts, buster. If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gossip episode alert. The OpenAI/Anthropic rivalry is boiling over. We sip on the most piping hot tea around OpenAI and Anthropic's ad spots at the Super Bowl and the growing animosity between the two giants. If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keen-eared listeners may remember when Elon bought his own company X (formerly Twitter) with his OpenAI spite company xAI. Well, he's done it again, folks. This time SpaceX has bought xAI, meaning that SpaceX now owns xAI and X as part of the largest private company on Earth. We discuss. If you like the pod, chuck us a review on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You asked, we answered. We're doing a much-requested episode on "Australian" fintech Airwallex, which has gotten a lot of untoward attention of late — anti-money laundering audits, accusations by American VCs of being a financial backdoor to China. But there's a bigger story here: the proliferation of payments companies doing a big land grab from traditional financial institutions, and quickly learning that regulation and bank policy exists for a reason. We take a crash course of Airwallex, its current controversies, and where it fits into the bigger payments story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As somewhat of a follow up to our Claude Code/Coworker episode last week, today we regroup to evaluate what it could mean for YOUR favourite SaaS products. That's right, folks, AI is coming to take away your precious QuickBooks and you're going to watch and clap as it rips and tears it to pieces. We also touched (if briefly) on the Siri x Gemini announcement. If you like the pod, chuck us a 5 star on your podcast player of choice, or go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New year, new studio, same red hot takes. This episode covers the typhoon of AI-generated filth created by Grok, Elon Musk's AI venture, currently flooding X. We also touch on the general state of X as a platform. Go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're joined by friend of the pod and Rear Window columnist Mark Di Stefano for a loose chat covering a swathe of topics from capital-J Journalism, the tech oligopoly and AI in politics. This is our final dispatch from our Christmas recording.Go to downround.net to sign up for PREMIUM to get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're joined by Rowan "Joyride" Dix and Becky "Becky Lucas" Lucas for another round of our annual community shark tank, where we listen to our listeners pitch their startup ideas and decide whether we're going to invest.Go to https://www.downround.net/ to sign up for PREMIUM to hear the other 45 minutes of Shark Tank, get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the inaugural episode of this years holiday special, we rack up Ws as we dissect the predictions we made last silly season for 2025. Go to https://www.downround.net/ to sign up for PREMIUM and get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week. In this week's premium ep, we make our predictions for 2026, which will almost certainly come true (not financial advice).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A highly requested topic in the Down Round Discord is mental health and mindfulness apps — from meditation platforms like Calm to therapist marketplaces like BetterHelp. That's the topic of today, discussing the boom during the ZIRP era, the peak during COVID, and how it all relates to other engagement platforms like Duolingo.Go to https://www.downround.net/ to sign up for PREMIUM and get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Netflix wants to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance wants to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Both for many billions of dollars. Why? We break down the $70 – 100 billion bids, the Ellison–Trump court politics, and why this could mark the final enclosure of the film industry by tech. Also: James chronicles the history of film industry disruption, and Raph reveals his long-awaited top ten movies of 2025 list. We also provide some follow-up on prediction markets after last weeks episode. Go to https://www.downround.net/ to sign up for PREMIUM and get ad-free listening PLUS an extra episode every week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we're going deep on the rise of prediction markets — the hybrid of futures trading, sports gambling, and economic theology that suddenly seems to have eaten the world. Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi are booming and an increasingly big part of both tech culture and also gambling culture. We trace the whole arc: from Hayekian fantasies about prices revealing truth, to the far bigger truth: people just really, really like having a punt.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we open with the final chapter of Frank, the student finance startup that sold JP Morgan a fake email list. Founder Charlie Javice is in prison for fraud, but the bank is still footing a $115 million legal bill that includes everything from luxury hotels to cellulite butter. Then we move onto Nvidia, which posted another absurd quarter with revenue up 60% year-on-year. Then finally X’s new location feature, which exposed the global industry of rage-bait posters farming Elon’s ad-share program with US culture war posting from the Global South. As expected, everyone is responding to this normally.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.