Big Technology Podcast - podcast cover

Big Technology Podcast

Alex Kantrowitzwww.bigtechnology.com
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators. Alex Kantrowitz, a Silicon Valley journalist who's interviewed the world's top tech CEOs — from Mark Zuckerberg to Larry Ellison — is the host.
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Episodes

OpenAI’s & NVIDIA's $100 Billion Marriage, Meta’s Sloppy Vibes, TikTok Deal Arrives?

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Nvidia invests $100 billion in OpenAI 2) Will the money ever get there? 3) Do AI companies have to make money eventually? 4) What has to happen for OpenAI to return NVIDIA's investment? 5) Is another financial crisis coming? 6) OpenAI's new Pulse feature 7) Is Pulse a precursor to ChatGPT ads? 8) Meta's new Vibes feed of AI slop 9) TikTok deal is on the table 10) Ranjan says TIkTok deal isn't happenin...

Sep 26, 20251 hr

Is Generative AI a Cybersecurity Disaster Waiting to Happen? — With Yinon Costica

Yinon Costica is the co-founder and VP of product at Wiz, which sold to Google for $32 billion in cash. Costica joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the extent of the cybersecurity threats that generative AI is creating, from vulnerabilities in AI software to the risks involved in “vibe coding.” Tune in to hear how attackers are using AI, why defenders face new asymmetries, and what guardrails organizations need now. We also cover Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, the DeepSeek controve...

Sep 24, 20251 hr 3 min

How We Use ChatGPT, Meta’s New AI Glasses, Can Jimmy Kimmel Be Canceled?

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI tells us how people use ChatGPT 2) Practical guidance is the top use of ChatGPT 3) Is generative AI actually a threat to search given the use cases? 4) OpenAI has a very broad definition of 'doing' or agent work 5) The hidden impact of AI 'decision support' in the economy 6) People trust AI bots massively - is that bad? 7) ChatGPT's massive growth 8) Anthropic shares Claude's economic uses 9) A...

Sep 19, 202556 min

Are 95% of Businesses Really Getting No Return on AI Investment? — With Aaron Levie

Aaron Levie is the CEO of Box. Levie joins Big Technology to discuss the reports that a vast majority of businesses are not getting a return on their AI investments. Levie shares his takeaways from the reports, gives a rebuttal, and discusses the reality on the ground. Stay tuned for the second half where we separate hype from reality in the AI agent conversation. Tune in for a wide-ranging, post-Boxworks deep dive on where AI is heading in the coming years. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? ...

Sep 17, 202547 min

Do We Care About The iPhone Air?, Nepal's Discord Revolution, San Francisco’s 996 Culture

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Apple's impressive new iPhone Pro models 2) Who is the iPhone Air for? 3) Has the phone reached its ultimate form factor 4) Is generative AI threatening to upend the smartphone market 5) Meta's new smartglasses are coming 6) Nepal's Gen Z overthrows the government and picks a new leader on Discord 7) OpenAI growth stats after GPT-5 launch 8) Oracle and OpenAI's new $300 billion deal 9) Flirting with C...

Sep 12, 202555 min

Booz Allen CTO: Can AI Fix The Government — With Bill Vass

Bill Vass is the Chief Technology Officer of Booz Allen. Vass joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how governments can harness AI to cut redundancy and deliver better citizen services. Tune in to hear his inside view on LLM deployments from the VA to the International Space Station and the difficulty of modernizing mass bureaucracies. We also cover autonomous driving, humanoid robots, and quantum computing’s first real use-cases. Hit play for fascinating look into public sector AI, along with...

Sep 10, 20251 hr 8 min

Google’s Best Week Ever, AI’s Rising Costs, Putin and Xi’s Immortality Quest

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Google's Gemini may power Siri 2) Google gets to keep Chrome and Android 3) Google can keep paying Apple for distribution 4) Is generative AI enough rationale to allow the market to decide Google's fate? 5) Google's Nano Banana image creator goes viral 6) Google's stock is up 47% in the past year and still cheap 7) Do we want the iPhone 17 Air? 8) AI is getting more expensive to run 9) But AI is getti...

Sep 05, 202557 min

Brain Computer Interface Frontier: Movement, Coma, Depression, AI Merge

Dr. Ben Rapoport and Michael Mager are the co-founders of Precision Neuroscience, a company building a minimally invasive, high-resolution brain-computer interface. The two join Big Technology to discuss the modern day applications of BCIs and frontiers of the technology, including computer control, stroke rehab, decoding consciousness in coma patients, AI-powered neural biomarkers for depression, and the long-term prospect of merging human cognition with machines. Tune in for a fascinating look...

Sep 03, 20251 hr 14 min

Did OpenAI Break ChatGPT?, Apple’s New iPhones, Saving Intel

M.G. Siegler is the author of Spyglass. He joins Big Technology podcast for the latest of our monthly discussions about Big Tech strategy and AI. Today we cover whether OpenAI broke ChatGPT with its GPT-5 rollout and whether new AI models are similar to typical technology rollouts. We also cover Apple's forthcoming new lineup of phones: the iPhone Air, the folding iPhone, and the curved glass iPhone. We conclude with a discussion of the U.S. taking ownership 10% of Intel. --- Enjoying Big Techno...

Aug 29, 20251 hr

The Hidden Science Behind Brain-Computer Interfaces — With Sally Adee

Sally Adee is the author of We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds. Adee joins Big Technology Podcast to pull back the curtain on the body’s hidden wiring and brain-computer interfaces. We dig into how electricity drives every thought and twitch, why Neuralink’s first patient blew our minds, and what it will take to keep implants working long after the hype cycle fades. Tune in for a tour of limb-regrowing tadpoles, cancer cells that ...

Aug 27, 202554 min

The Big GPT-5 Debate, Sam Altman’s AI Bubble, OnlyFans Chatbots

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Did AI take a step back with GPT-5? 2) Is AI hype going to cool off? 3) GPT-5's switching problem 4) Do we need AI agents? 5) Thinking Vs. Doing AI 6) Sam Altman says parts of AI are a bubble 7) Eric Schmidt says the U.S. should stop overindexing on AGI and instead build it into products 8) GPT-6 is going to have much better memory 9) MIT study says 95% of AI projects fail to achieve their goals 10) A...

Aug 22, 202554 min

Inside Google's Generative AI Reinvention — With Nick Fox and Liz Reid

Nick Fox is the SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google. Liz Reid is the VP of Search at Google. The two join Big Technology Podcast to discuss the way Google plans and builds in the generative AI era, including how it chooses what to ship and when. We also cover publisher traffic, search monetization and ads, shopping and product research, and the near-term future of the web. Hit play for a clear, no-fluff conversation with the leaders building search’s next chapter. --- Enjoying Big Technol...

Aug 20, 20251 hr 6 min

Can The Web Survive Generative AI? — With Matthew Prince

Matthew Prince is the CEO of Cloudflare. He joins Big Technology podcast to discuss whether the web can withstand a wave of generative AI companies scraping content, summarizing it, and not cutting the original creators into the revenue. Tune in to hear Prince masterfully dissect the problem and put forth a solution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 15, 202555 min

Is The AI Going To Escape? — With Anthony Aguirre

Anthony Aguirre is the executive director of the Future of Life Institute. He joins Big Technology to discuss how AI could fail in the worst case and whether our push toward increasingly autonomous, general systems puts control out of reach. Tune in to hear how agentic systems operating at superhuman speed complicate oversight, and why “just unplug it” is naive. Hit play for a cool‑headed, nuanced conversation with clear takeaways you can use to evaluate AI strategy, policy, and risk. --- Enjoyi...

Aug 13, 202559 min

Does GPT-5 Live Up To the Hype?, AGI Wait Continues, Self-Loathing Gemini

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI's launch of GPT-5 2) Whether GPT-5's tool calling ability is its hidden strength 3) GPT-5 is good at 'doing stuff' 4) But GPT-5 is not AGI 5) Do AI models need more than book smarts to thrive? 6) OpenAI's medicine play 7) GPT-5's coding use case 8) We need AI tables for travel 9) Do the big model players now subsume AI startups? 10) Gemini has a breakdown --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Pl...

Aug 08, 202554 min

OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap: GPT-5's Capabilities, Why It Matters, and Where AI Goes Next

Brad Lightcap is the Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI. Lightcap joins Big Technology to discuss the launch of GPT-5, how it works, what sets it apart from previous models, and whether it's AGI. We also cover scaling laws, post-training breakthroughs, enterprise adoption, health care applications, pricing strategy, and the company’s profitability outlook. Hit play for a front-row seat to OpenAI’s thinking on the future of AI. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ i...

Aug 08, 202531 min

Vibe Coding: Everything You Need To Know — With Amjad Masad

Amjad Masad is the CEO of Replit. Masad joins Big Technology podcast for a frank discussion about vibe coding, or building software via prompt. We discuss all the use cases, whether anyone can do it or whether it's just a tool for already-technical builders, whether vibe coding replaces saas, and what the role of the engineer becomes in the future. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss whether the AI coding business is sustainable given the costs of delivering the technology. --- Enjoy...

Aug 06, 20251 hr 7 min

Mark Zuckerberg’s Personal Superintelligence, Layoffs and Payoffs, Writing With AI — With M.G. Siegler

M.G. Siegler is the author of Spyglass. He joins Big Technology podcast for the latest of our first Monday of the month discussion about Big Tech strategy and AI. Today we cover Mark Zuckerberg's vision for personal superintelligence and whether it's more of a recruiting play or a real difference in the way the company builds AI. We also cover the massive bets on AI and whether they'll ever pay off, how interlinked big tech is with AI, and whether you should outsource your writing to AI. --- Enj...

Aug 04, 202559 min

Anthropic’s Potential, AI Video Gets Crazy, Market Bubble Approaching?

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Alex's profile of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei + extra reporting 2) Are Anthropic's convictions earnest or marketing? 3) Where does Anthropic fit in the broader AI landscape 4) Will one AI company 'win it all' 5) Anthropic is raising at a new, $170 billion valuation 6) OpenAI hits 700 million ChatGPT users 7) Hyped for GPT-5? 8) AI video creation's promise 9) Videos in Google's NotebookLM 10) Is the sto...

Aug 01, 202552 min

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: AI's Potential, OpenAI Rivalry, GenAI Business, Doomerism

Dario Amodei is the CEO of Anthropic. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a raw, unfiltered conversation about AI's potential, its stakes, and the source of his outspokenness. The interview is part of a major Big Technology profile about Amodei, ft. interviews with more than two dozen of his colleagues, friends, and critics. You can read that story for free here: https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-making-of-dario-amodei We also cover Mark Zuckerberg's AI talent spending spree, Amodei's rivalry ...

Jul 30, 20251 hr 10 min

Countdown to GPT-5, OpenAI’s Stargate Sputters, AI Math Wars

Financial Times San Francisco Bureau Chief Stephen Morris joins for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Is GPT-5 really on its way? 2) GPT-5's reported capabilities 3) Is Sam Altman going to call GPT-5 AGI? 4) If GPT-5 codes well, where does that leave Anthropic? 5) Stargate hasn't made a single data center deal yet 6) Scaling Laws back in vogue? 7) AI math olympiad faceoff 8) AI data centers energy costs 9) Google's impressive earnings 10) Tesla's dark outlook 11) Satya ...

Jul 25, 20251 hr 5 min

Are AI's Economics Unsustainable? — With Ed Zitron

Ed Zitron is the owner of EZPR, host of Better Offline, and author of the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter. Zitron joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether the generative-AI boom is an unsustainable bubble ready to pop. Tune in to hear him debate OpenAI’s multi-billion-dollar burn rate, Microsoft’s leverage, and the economics behind ChatGPT. We also cover Nvidia’s GPU market, SoftBank’s colossal bets, advertiser drift from Google Search, and the hype around “AI companions." Hit play for a sh...

Jul 23, 20251 hr 36 min

Grok's AI Lovebot, Aqui-Hire-Sition Backlash, OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent Debuts

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Can Zuck and Elon buy their way into the AI race? 2) Will scaling laws turn AI progress over to the biggest tech 3) Grok's new AI avatars - Rudy and Ani 4) Grok's Ani AI bot gets steamy quickly 5) Why AI companies are counting on companion/love bots 6) The backlash to Aqui-Hire-Sitions after Windsurf, Scale, etc. 7) Did Big Tech antitrust backfire? 8) OpenAI announces ChatGPT Agent 9) Is Perplexity's ...

Jul 18, 202556 min

Condoleezza Rice: U.S. Tech at Risk Amid University Cuts, China Threat

Condoleezza Rice is a former U.S. Secretary of State and current director of Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Rice joins Big Technology to discuss whether the United States can hold its technological edge as China races ahead in AI, batteries, and advanced manufacturing. Tune in to hear her candid take on the U.S.–China tech arms race, the ripple effects of chip export controls, and why she believes democracies are safer stewards of frontier technologies. We also cover the squeeze on university re...

Jul 16, 202546 min

Big Technology @ Five Years

Big Technology Podcast is five years old. Today, we share a quick update with 1) Gratitude for our listeners 2) A change in ad network and what our ads will sound like next 3) Our editorial philosophy 4) How you can help. --- Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Questions? Feedback? Write to...

Jul 14, 202510 min

OpenAI’s Windsurf Crash, Grok’s Wild Week, Replace Tim Cook? — With Aaron Levie

Box CEO Aaron Levie is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAi's Windsurf deal falls through 2) Is OpenAI okay? 3) What percentage of all AI spend goes to coding? 4) Google's AI code play 5) Grok 4 is out 6) Does Grok show the scaling laws are still in effect? 7) Would Box work with Grok? 8) NVIDIA hits $4 trillion 9) Are we in an AI bubble? 10) Should Tim Cook step down? 11) Could Apple merge with OpenAI? --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us fi...

Jul 12, 202549 min

Trade War Scorecard: What's Changing, Who's Winning, What's Next — With Ryan Petersen

Ryan Petersen is the CEO of Flexport. Petersen joins Big Technology to discuss how the latest round of tariffs and trade-war maneuvers are rewiring supply chains worldwide. Tune in to hear him unpack everything from 145 % “Liberation Day” duties and $5 K containers to the death of the de minimis loophole and what it means for Amazon, Temu, and Shein. We also cover the Panama Canal drought, AI that robocalls 400 K truckers, warehouse-robot reality checks, and why customs fraud just became the DOJ...

Jul 09, 20251 hr 9 min

Apple’s Anthropic Flirtation, Can Meta Build Superintelligence?, AI Browser Wars — With M.G. Siegler

M.G. Siegler is the author of Spyglass. He joins Big Technology podcast for the first installment of our new monthly discussion about Big Tech strategy and AI! Today, we cover why Apple may want to outsource Siri's brain to Anthropic or OpenAI, the rise of voice Ai, why Anthropic could be the right fit, and the complexity of what working with Apple would mean for Anthropic's business. We also touch on Zuck's superintelligence bet, Elon's new third party, the end of the EV credit, and whether AI ...

Jul 07, 202559 min

$100 Million AI Engineers, Vending Machine Claude, Legend Of Soham

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Meta's reported $100 million offers to AI engineers 2) If those reports are false, who planted the rumor? 3) Why talent might be all that matters in AI right now 4) Will Meta's bet work? 5) Anthropic's project vend 6) If AI can't stock a fridge, will it take your job? 7) Claudius' identity crisis 8) ChatGPT's hilarious Wealthfront hallucination 9) The Legend of Soham 10) Happy July 4th! --- Enjoying B...

Jul 04, 202559 min

Is AI Really Taking Our Jobs? — With Noah Smith

Noah Smith is a star economics writer behind the “Noahpinion” blog and co-host of the Econ 102 podcast. Smith joins Big Technology to discuss whether generative AI is actually boosting productivity or still waiting for its “electricity moment.” Tune in to hear his contrarian take on the so-called AI jobs apocalypse and how businesses will need to reorganize before the gains show up in earnings. We also cover immigration crackdowns, tariff uncertainty, wage-inequality myths, and how China’s milit...

Jul 02, 202556 min
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