Oracle. Unless you're a big database guy, it's probably not a company you're going to be all that interested in. But it is one of the biggest companies on Earth, and its stock just pumped 40% — not something you often see for an outfit which started in the 1970s. Why? Because it just signed a $300 billion multiyear deal with OpenAI to provide compute. In this ep, we dive into the big question on literally eveeryone's lips: what the hell is up with Oracle?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apple have announced their new iPhones — and they sort of stink of desperation. But one of them is orange, which may or may not appeal to you. Plus, a notable absence of Apple Intelligence chat. The boys are back in the same room after a prolonged interregnum and break it all down for you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We're dipping into the world of streaming and East Asian cultural dominance today, talking about Netflix's smash hit movie K-Pop Demon Hunters. We talk about the pandemic era deal struck between Sony and Netflix, what this means for the streaming landscape, and whether it would have been as much of a cultural phenomenon if it was a traditional cinematic release.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A big topic of conversation Down Under over the past couple of weeks has been copyright — namely, whether we should loosen the rules to make it easier for AI companies to operate in Australia, and for data centre companies to build here. The Productivity Commission and Tech Council boss Scott Farquhar think we should. Creatives are less enthused. We go into the dynamics of the conversation, the asymmetry between the parties, and answer the question once and for all: how much money do artists deserve??See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After many months of hype and news stories, OpenAI has released GPT-5, the next major numbered iteration of its large language model. There have been all sorts of models since it released GPT-4 in 2023, but this is supposed to be the big dog. In this ep, we talk about the rocky launch — starting with the fact that most people aren't that impressed with it, and ending with the much weirder world of people who developed an emotional attachment to GPT-4o and became furious that their friend is gone.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today James is joined by previous Down Round guest Cam Wilson, who has written a new book with (another former Down Round guest) Ariel Bogle, Conspiracy Nation, which is about the Australian conspiracy community. While Raph is living it up on the coastline of Croatia, James and Cam had a freewheeling chat about online conspiracy culture, how it has engaged with online platforms, and the future of going crazy on the computer in the age of AI. Also, we check in on Australia's teen social media ban.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Several years ago, Down Round listener Tim Stewart submitted a question to one of our Q&A mailbag episodes: when is the new rugby league video game for PlayStation 5 coming out? We couldn't answer him, because we didn't know what the hell he was talking about. But now, years later, it has come out, and everyone seems to agree it's really not very good. So we decided to bring Tim on to finally answer his own question. What follows is an odyssey into the world of Australian sports video games, and the virtues of pestering CEOs on Twitter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tea, the app which offers what it describes as "dating safety tools which protect women", has been hacked. It follows a couple of weeks where it went viral and led the app charts in the US. For those not familiar, it is basically an app version of those 'are we dating the same guy' Facebook groups, where women share pics, tips and intel on bad dates and dangerous men. In this ep, we talk about the hack, the app's surge in popularity, and where it fits in range of social surveillance and trust tools that have emerged to serve an increasing scaled social ecosystem where you can no longer be sure who you're talking to. (We actually recorded this ep for release just before the hack, and our recording was corrupted — maybe a good thing, given that it would have been immediately irrelevant.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Microsoft slashed 9,000 jobs a few weeks ago, with the Xbox division taking a hit including some studio closures. What about that $70 BILLION Activision Blizzard acquisition just a couple of years ago? It sounds like fertile ground for of Raph's largest victory laps to date, after he suggested Microsoft should have ditched Xbox years ago. But first, an update on xAI after last week's ep. Grok 4 has arrived, and its big feature is... AI anime waifus. Uncensored and backed by a million GPUs... what could this possibly mean for the birth rate? And are OpenAI's sycophantic personal assistants really that different from an AI girlfriend at the end of the day? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, went "Kanye Mode" — becoming openly Nazi, seemingly out of nowhere. The boys get to the bottom of the root cause, and muse on the big question: what is the point of Grok anyway? Out: Platforms spending millions on content moderation to root our hate speech. In: Spending billions to have your platform literally spew hate speech. Also: an unprecedented Down Round Triple W. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For a few weeks, we've been talking about Meta's revenge tour in Silicon Valley, throwing massive bonuses at AI talent at rival companies in order to tempt them over to Zuck's domain. Well, it seems to have paid off now — and the company has announced its Superintelligence team, packed with talent they managed to poach. Then, we go into a Bloomberg story which suggests that Apple could be ready to throw in the towel on AI and work with OpenAI and/or Anthropic to power their next-generation Siri. Which would be big!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After the fanfare of the OpenAI/Jony Ive multibillion-dollar device partnership, io, all references were scrubbed from the internet as if it never happened. After rampant speculation, it was revealed that it was over a claim the whole thing was stolen. From some guy named Jason, no less. Seems like OpenAI is a real drama magnet. We discuss the case, including some screenshots of emails that Sam Altman posted. Additionally, Kiwi accounting software powerhouse Xero is making some moves. We talk about that too.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Canva has made another acquisition: MagicBrief, the advertising command centre founded by a dear friend of the pod. In this ep, we talk about the acquisition, where it fits in Canva's strategy, and wind off into a bigger chat about the ad market. Then, for some reason, we talk about Apple Music and Spotify. Real smorgasbord here folks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apple had its software development conference this week. It announced a whole new design language filled with organic movements and over-the-top animations, serving as the perfect distraction from the company's very public missteps in AI.We go through everything you need to know. Well, at least 60% of it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Remember Grammarly? Of course you do. The briefly ubiquitous piece of software that made sure you were using your possessive apostrophes correctly. Well, guess what? They just received $1 billion in nondilutive investment from General Catalyst to become an all-in-one AI platform? Sounds like bullshit? Well, probably. But it's a business model we'll be seeing more of. We chat through the rise of zombie AI platforms, before digressing into a chat about Perplexity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's been a while since we've done of these. We answer your burning questions on topics including but not limited to: Jony Ive's partnership with OpenAI Apple after Tim Cook Atlassian and Immutable, two Australian unicorns Ranking the Magnificent 7 tech stocks by aura/swag See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We've been saying for a little while that Google has caught up in AI, and is now trying to deploy the full force of its product range and scale to the problem of achieving domination. Dunno if they're there yet, but the I/O conference shows that they're still got a few tricks up their sleeve. In this ep, we go into what they announced, including some interesting movements on our recent chats about search and the monetisation of AI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Airbnb is in a mid-life crisis. Founder Brian Chesky is undergoing one of his routine meltdowns where he suddenly decides that the short-stay rental platform should actually be a ticket-clipping mediator of literally all human experience. The platform has been redesigned and relaunched, with both 'services' and 'experiences' living in separate tabs and hoping to tempt you to open the app more than once or twice a year. A tall order indeed. We discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Last week we gave some cursory attention to Apple's legal troubles in its battle with Epic Games and every other developer who chafes at paying the 30% Apple tax on everything. This time, we give it a little more attention and thought. Plus, the company's services boss Eddy Cue popped up in another trial, and gave us some intriguing insight into Apple's relationship with Google. Insight which caused Alphabet stock to crater nearly 9%.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Australia's graphic design unicorn is yet to go public, and find themselves in an intersting position. As we all know infinite growth means you can't just be a really nice graphic design platform, you have to be Microsoft. The boys ask the question, are Canva an enterprise company or for SMEs? Are they for pros or amateurs? What the hell is AI? And also an update on Apple's App Store issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.