Sunday Pick: Tech Solutions (#3): How one of China's biggest tech companies is tackling carbon removal (with Xu Hao)
Host Sherelle Dorsey talks with Dr. Xu Hao, Vice President of Sustainable Social Value at Tencent, about how the company is investing in and accelerating carbon removal and decarbonization technologies, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors like steel, cement, and chemicals. They examine the cost and scaling challenges these technologies face, the role of digital tools such as AI, data, and virtual power plants in improving efficiency and cutting emissions, and Tencent's own path toward carbon neutrality and net zero. The conversation also covers Tencent's use of video games for climate education and the need to pursue multiple climate solutions in the face of uncertainty about which technologies will ultimately dominate.
How AI can solve its own energy crisis | Varun Sivaram
Host Elise Hu introduces a talk by grid futurist Varun Sivaram about the looming clash between rapidly growing AI data center demand and an aging electricity grid. Sivaram explains how making AI data centers flexible in when and where they consume power can relieve grid stress, unlock existing unused capacity, and accelerate the integration of cheap renewable energy. He describes Emerald AI's "Emerald Conductor" software, real-world demonstrations, and industry collaborations aimed at turning AI from a grid threat into a key ally for a cleaner, more reliable energy system.
Nvidia Hits $5 Trillion, Elon Musk Launches Grokipedia, and OpenAI's IPO Future
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with personal updates about travel, anxiety when far from home, co-sleeping and parenting, as well as Kara's visit to a Ken Burns screening and Scott receiving a Spirit of Hope award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Toronto. They then dive into OpenAI's shift to a public benefit corporation structure and potential IPO, AI's use in mental health and risks for minors, Nvidia's explosive valuation and Jensen Huang's praise of Donald Trump, Elon Musk's Grokpedia and Truth Social's prediction market, Tesla's proposed trillion‑dollar pay package, major tech earnings and AI-driven capex, CNN's new streaming strategy, and the broader impact of AI as a "corporate Ozempic" driving layoffs and inequality.
We're doing AI all wrong. Here's how to get it right | Sasha Luccioni
AI sustainability expert Sasha Luccioni argues that current AI development is being driven by a "bigger is better" mentality that concentrates power in a few large tech companies while causing significant environmental and social harms. She contrasts massive, energy-hungry large language models and data centers with smaller, task-specific and open AI systems that can run on modest hardware and support climate solutions. Luccioni calls for transparent energy metrics, supportive regulation, and user choices that prioritize sustainable, equitable AI that serves all of humanity and the planet.
Colleges Push Back, Ozempic Price Promise, and White House vs. Anthropic
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway open with personal banter about Las Vegas, aging, relationships, and Kara's upcoming trip to Korea to film a show about demographic aging. They then discuss the nationwide No Kings protests against Trump, the Trump administration's proposed Compact for Academic Excellence and universities' coordinated pushback, and the White House's conflict with Anthropic over AI regulation amid broader concerns about regulatory capture by big tech. The hosts also cover GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Trump's claim about cutting their price, a major Chinese-linked cyberattack on F5 and U.S. infrastructure vulnerabilities, the externalities of AI data centers, and wins and fails including the protests, George Santos' commuted sentence, and debates over billionaire influence and philanthropy.
Mark Zuckerberg on the AI bubble and Meta's new display glasses | ACCESS
Hosts Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger introduce their new tech podcast Access, explain the show's concept, and discuss Alex's early hands-on experience with Meta's new Ray-Ban display smart glasses and neural input band. Alex then interviews Mark Zuckerberg about why Meta is betting on smart glasses as the next computing platform, how the neural band works, and how AI will integrate into these devices. Zuckerberg details Meta's broader strategy for VR/AR, Horizon creation tools, and its aggressive push to build a frontier AI lab and massive compute infrastructure for superintelligence, including how he weighs the risk of an AI investment bubble versus underinvesting, and early signs of AI systems improving Meta's own products.
TECH004: Sam Altman & the Rise of OpenAI w/ Seb Bunney
Host Preston Pysh and guest Seb Bunney discuss Karen Howe's book "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares of Sam Altman's OpenAI," using it as a springboard to explore Sam Altman's biography, the founding and evolution of OpenAI, and the opaque 2023 boardroom crisis that briefly ousted Altman. They examine OpenAI's unusual nonprofit/for‑profit hybrid structure, its partnership with Microsoft, tensions between AI safety and competitive speed, and the hidden labor and economic costs of training large AI models. The conversation also touches on AGI definitions, human-AI interaction, other labs like Anthropic and DeepMind, NVIDIA's role in AI, and briefly previews their next book on longevity.
#611 - Louis C.K.
Theo Von talks with Louis C.K. about performing edgy stand-up in different kinds of venues, parenting, childhood neglect, race and taboo language, and the creative process behind Louis's novel "Ingram". They explore the American literary voice, the evolution of language, and broader cultural issues like polarization, social media addiction, and technology's physical footprint. A large part of the conversation centers on Louis's public downfall, his struggles with sex and pornography addiction, 12‑step recovery, and how confronting his own failures has reshaped his life, work, and friendship with Theo.