1071 - Ballroom Blitz feat. Jacob Bacharach (9/14/26)

Napkin version AI nationalization: 1. Buy big shares in all five of the Enterprise AI clusters 2. Congressional declaration: Frontier AI is a matter of US national security 3. Blue-ribbon Senate 'AI Oversight Agency' is carved out both protect and police these enterprises 4. Set up 'AI Oversight Agency' within the Space Force HQ as a new annex. The military attache will resolve any security issues promptly. 5) Nationalize the AI pipes. Exercise eminent domain on derelict data centers.

Times like these we need these folks oh boy

Can Ai help my offspring find an unoccupied free parking spot in the Philadelphia/ New Jersey area? This reoccurring issue wastes a lot of their time. I’m often on the phone hearing Tourette’s level outbursts of road rage especially when they are driving in New Jersey. Additionally can Ai help a person find a loved one’s grave? The head stones all look so similar. Even when I know where someone is buried, I’ve gone to the cemetery and been unable to find them.

1:06:30 is this not famously felix’s dad’s theory of the presidential succession

Phantom of the Ballroom

Sorry but there's no such thing as "sentience" or "will". We are fundamentally random in the same way AI is, just our architecture is different . I'm begging people to stop dismissing these threats based on some fantasy of the indomitable human will

TBF the Oreshnik means that all bunkers need another 200 feet of dirt over them.

Vermont's state capitol is adorable. Not a not going on, but it's a quaint New England town.

The future of the ballroom? Make one hell of a catio.

Sactown out here catchin strays. 😂

re: dc architecture, quick shout out to Henry Weese's metro system design which is just incredible

nick diaz for senate

you gotta get yourself some Marble Columns

I might be over-tired but everyone needs to check themselves.

99% agree that all state capitals are dumps however I would like to introduce you to Santa Fe

They want regulation on AI to snuff out open source AI competition that would siphon what little revenue they do have

Ubikl AND Canticle references in one ep

Felix's ignorance of science is very fucking annoying he needs to stay in his lane and just talk about video games

Anyone else remember when felix said nobody understands how computers work?

Felix begins tongue punching my fart box at x time

Unnecessary Sacramento hate. Sorry we showed up for you at your sold out show at Ace of Spades. Sad to see the Angelinoification of the hosts

Once again Ted chiang had it right when he said we already have AI - the limited liability corporation

Say what you want about Sacramentos state capital, but you GOTTA see the capital building in Boise, it is truly immaculate.

Will was thinking of bobbing for apples with Mamdani when he tried to say Bab al-Mandab.

I love Naypal and Tabahgo

Felix please pronounce Tobago correctly

This reminds me of the old anecdote about the governor's mansion that Reagan built in California. By the time it was finished, Jerry Brown was governor and he refused to live there, so the huge complex just sat there and took up space.

Salem, Oregon is the worst place on Earth

Trump’s fave verse is from two Corinthians, the most luxurious of all the books

First time I’ve heard a Q&A called a talk back. Using that from now on. Reminds me of when they use to call speaking films “talkies” lol

Trump is trying to reverse engineer the Overlook hotel.

Architect here, he may also be misunderstanding the 5 orders of classical columns, of which doric is the first. Its the oldest, which is why its the lowest, not cause its worst. If you use doric columns you are signalling history, robustness and staying power, banks, civic buildings and anyone trying to signal permanance have used the doric order for that reason.

Are we talking about Bernie & Bannon sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g ?

Completely uncalled for and unjustified pot shots at the lovely city of Sacramento

It's not shocking that Will is a Star Trek need. It is however, shocking he doesn't talk about it more. I've never met one IRL who won't wedge it into every convo.

I think they talked to their lawyers and figured out there are going to eventually be some major fucking lawsuits so it makes more sense to join the state now

Will‘s inauguration idea, but as the former president sends out of sight there has to be a faint but audible Wilhelm scream.

Brilyn holyham stunt quince imminent

That song selection 🤌🏼

Free ballroom or dinner w Jay Z???

Thanks for the heads up that Jacob reviewed Robert Wright’s book; Wright’s NonZero crossover eps with American Prestige can be very frustrating when Derek and Danny try to gently push back on Wright’s maximalist AI doomerism and he just gets even more panicked in response

I’ll now be thinking about that “all dick” comment from here on out… wym!!

It’s crazy to me to listen and find out Felix got hypnotized by the same garlic AI slop Youtube ad that I did. It was just such a strange concept I could not hit skip.

I’m glad you guys are very skeptical of this, it’s driving me nuts how many AI critics credulously repeat their claims and think they’d be pumping out these stories if it wasn’t in their financial interest. They are just trying to dig their claws as deep into the state as possible so that when it turns out the apocalyptic talk was all bullshit and Gen AI was actually a massive scam for the most part, they will be too big to fail and get a bailout. Manipulating the trump admin is about as difficult as manipulating a toddler so they’re getting out ahead of it. They know any “regulation” from the people they themselves put in office will only serve to intertwine them even more closely and opens up the bargaining table now while they have the strongest hand.

I got into a fender-bender with an older couple whose last name was Bacharach and they were from Pittsburgh so I always wondered if they were Jacob's parents.

Now I’m imagining the presidential tomb marked by an eternal heat lamp burger. During the ceremonial changing of the guards a military officer plays a somber version of “YMCA” on a bugle.

Can't believe they got through that last segment without a Phantom of the Opera reference. It was hanging above the whole piece like a stunt prop chandelier

Not all state capitols are shitholes, Salem OR is very nice. First time I’ve been offended in years of listening to this show DO BETTER

Holing Trump up in the ballroom at the end of it all with one of Sandia National Labs proposed messages for long term nuclear waste disposal out front. l kinda like it. > This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.

Of course, the white boys of Chapo shit all over chocolate city. Very unleft of you guys.

I read The Bend of the World earlier this year, and really enjoyed it! It was the first fictional book I started after a head injury and it was a lot of fun, and healing to my eyes and brain

Holy shit, Fayette County talk in this one. I used to date someone related to the 84 Lumber guy!

I didn’t have ‘leftists side with trump against Bernie on ai, get outflanked by bannon’ on my bingo card

To quote zvi, It is deeply, deeply standard for industry to get together and agree on safety standards. If you oppose this, the reasonable alternative is that the government needs to directly impose its own safety standards instead. That is a reasonable position. ‘We should not have safety standards for building minds smarter than humans, that are getting radically smarter very quickly’ is not a reasonable position.

Actually in Star Trek Data wasn’t entirely unique. He has an artificially intelligent brother, Lore

Always shitting on Sacramento. We’re trying our best. 😆

A whole hour discussion and not a second on Boosie’s 60 minutes segment and Bari’s Sean McVay puff piece after the worst coaching performance of his career 💔 who cares about these stupid columns

“Eschatatology” is one of those rare Felix mispronunciations that sounds like the title of an essay Derrida or Bataille would have written

a new episode from my favorite psychoanalytic podcast

Theres a few people ive seen hypothesising that the ballroom is actually just a cover for a combination tel aviv style military intelligence datacentre and a mount cheyenne style military operations nuclear bunker. the drey dossier channel on youtube had some interesting claims with some mediumly convincing evidence... Should look into it (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VbJ4ilDvGyc) Also its gonna be hilarious in 100 years from now when it gets hit by a nuke and it just falls apart like the reflecting pool cos of the dodgy contractors he used

I’m 100% dick if you don’t count the rest of me is my new favorite quote

Love hearing Jacob and all the local lore. I feel important hearing Uniontown get dropped lmao. God, what a shitty place, lmao. I love it.

It strikes me as quaint to have some sort of unaffiliated cultural critic to come on to talk about whatever topic with striking confidence simply because they’re Twitter friends with the hosts. More of this please.

Also to be honest there are plenty of perfectly nice state capitol cities.

US now owns direct shares in Canadian mining companies. Are AI companies requests to regulate actually requests to purchase?

Genuinely think Trump hasn't forgotten what happened in the November Rain video. Wouldn't have ended like that if they'd had a ballroom.

Me playing Marathon in 1994: “Huh this Durandal AI guy really wants to escape and become god I sure hope some technofascist gay billionaire makes it happen in 30 years.”

Deleted my comment? Petty, felix BITTERMAN

About 95% of the AI phenomenon can be understood by following the money. The last 5% you can get by comparing the Chinese AI market to the American one and seeing what's possibly useful in LLMs. It's still crazy stuff but a lot more boring than i think everyone covering it wishes it were. Bonus points if you read into the history of Machine Learning going back to the 1950s, that's helpful grounding on a philosophical level. If you really want the insider view of AI companies, the sociology of cults will help you understand that (no joke). Cover your bases with this and the rhetoric / discourse will start bothering you in a way that feels slightly more dignified than the apocalypse shit does.

By the end of his presidency, trump will have his Ba'alroom and likely also a Molochroom and, if he lives long enough, perhaps even a Mammonroom. He's King Solomon-maxxing in his old age.

More Jake!

The “AI Revolution”: The Final Coup d’Etat? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SAfMYkOu75KtAxYKWDj27uNPpTLDAGHGfv7cJbgad24/edit?usp=drivesdk

well wheel

Regulation in America is typically a response to a crisis in public trust, it puts the public’s objections to rest.

14:55. Love that Wire reference.

Sacramento is cool as fuck

Adorable that Felix thinks any executives at The Swing-set That Decapitates You Co. would face any jail time

The concern isnt malevolent AI. Its capable AI that is sent in a direction. It pursues that direction endlessly without regard for the collateral damage.

You pissed off god you’ll see what he’s got (9/11)

Matt had a great point on the Cushvlogs a while back where he put forth the idea that we all / (the tech overlords) kind of crave the idea of an apocalyptic Jubilee because it would alleviate anyone from having to do anything or take responsibility. Like- if we all just die now, we don't have to worry about COVID, or AI, or if the government is competent. It's just 'bye bye!!'

Trump’s going to live in the bunker like the guy from Parasite.

RSS feed seems to be struggling pretty often lately getting ep updates on time (sry 🙇)

The recent hysteria around ai is like watching grown adults sitting in a circle listening to a guy with a sock puppet telling ghost stories and they’re like “This manmade horror is beyond all comprehension”

I feel like people are missing the two most obvious reason for this manufactured ai crisis: 1. They know the vast majority of the public hates ai and REALLY hates data centers and they know the minute the pendulum swings a little more left, there will be regulations. They want to get ahead of that and get a seat at the table so they can make sure to include loopholes minimizing the impact. 2. They know the crash is coming and want to be able to blame the government and demand bailouts. Tech writers and ai stans are so insufferable, I have not followed the entire discourse, but from what I've read, it seems like these reasons are not being discussed much and I don't get it.

Are you guys jealous that Adam Friedland got the Hunter Biden interview instead of Will?

Ballroom Blitz in Battlefield 1 was an okay map

Shoutout Canticle for Leibowitz. Surprisingly good.

richmond virginia greatest city in the world bitch

Elejance

There's two artificial beings. Lor was a thing.

It's the Arc De Tri-Trump; celebrating, his first term, the second term that was stolen from him and his third(second) term.

Its about creating high cost of entry for competitors through regulatory capture.

FAYETTENAM SHOUT OUT

We hate the ionic columns, don't we? "We'll put in the ionic columns," they said. Well we're getting new photonic columns. Five deep - that's more than at Luxor, that's more than the Acropolis. We're gonna have the hottest columns.

Ballroom Blitz? The worst map in Battlefield 1?

I'm not worried about AI until the Shrike starts showing up

Jamelle Bouie ( who you should really get on the show) had a video a few weeks ago saying that the next democratic president should demolish the ballroom day one

Annapolis is nice, though.

Grover Ballroom? Only fitting in a dismal swamp / lake of shit and awful city apart from the free museums, Johnson era WMATA metro mass transit & handful of nicer townhouse neighborhoods, it’s a godawful city similar to the dismal swamp around Hampton roads area where Grover was for navy graft / infinite boondoggles in the ex-confederacy? That said, did get to fly there pre 9/11 and see the White House and Supreme Court in like 1998 & take the underground tram? Wish I could get excited about airplanes @ air and space, but can’t for whatever reason? No major wars, gas <.80¢/gal, Sally Hemmings 100% DNA determined to be a Jefferson the previous day (or week, I’m a little fuzzy?) of the Monticello tour, so that was pretty good schadenfreude to observe all the tightwads tiptoe around / studiously avoid the issue and curtail the grounds tour where all the slaves lived / try to keep that behind the curtain of Oz of the ‘great man of history’ narrative for a miserable awkward 12-13 year old studiously avoiding gym class? Loudly proclaim ‘I wonder how many footsteps it was from his bed to her cabin on a given night???’ (My dad is a similar boomer crank we don’t have anymore that hates the CIA to Felix’s Dad that takes / plans and ruins similar trips, but I was oldest more like Felix’s sister?). Which is also in keeping with Peter Thiel and the rest of them today? My favorite part of the Jefferson 7 day clock was the hole drilled in the floor because it didn’t fit for Saturday / idiot didn’t install a clock that fit in his entry way. Loser! Sad. ‘twas ever thus / we were always a stupid tacky country founded on lies and bullshit with shoddy building no matter how much slavery and suffering is thrown at it? What a contrast?

City of Trees!! bitch

This episode must have been recorded before Trump reassured us that the only AI guardrails we need is a high IQ president

Whether AI is as good as some say or not, AI firms have made themselves too big to fail on a record scale. They don't need to live up to the apocalyptic narrative in the long term. They just need the government to believe it in the short term. Whether they're threatening the economy by becoming massive stranded assets by virtue of being too dangerous to proceed, or by not being able to deliver on the hype, or by becoming stranded assets in 3-5 years when all their hardware is obsolete —they must've seen that one coming and proceeded, anyway — they are probably putting the government in a position where it'll have to buy them out. Plus, if they *do* manage to make so much labor obsolete, which OpenAI basically asserted when it valued its marketplace potential at the entire GDP of the US (an admission that Marx was right, by the way), then they get rich that way, too, albeit then AI might kill everyone. Apart from possibly killing everyone including themselves, they can't lose, which might explain why they've attracted such massive investment. It promises to be a massive upward distribution of wealth. It's possible that they actually don't want to produce AI that can kill everyone, in which case the other set of alternatives has probably been the business model all along, which is to put a gun, real or fake, to America's head, and demand vast sums of money, but present the situation in a aw-shucks way, saying, "It's just too dangerous and we're too humanitarian to proceed, but we've amassed trillions in investment that will have to be written off and cause a massive economic crisis unless the US government sells the equivalent in bonds and uses that money to buy our stranded assets."

Ai but it only makes dance hall music

AI *is* capable of spontaneously developing the "will" to kill all of humanity for precisely the reason that Jacob said, namely that there's so much fiction that the models have digested that depicts exactly this, and so much more that depicts something similar. What it maybe can't do is spontaneously act at all. It can maybe only act in response to another intelligence's prompt. One might claim this is a safeguard, but the problem is, how do you ensure that, when you ask it to fix environmental problems, say, it doesn't kill humanity as a sub-goal? Hell, how do you ask it to make a coffee and guarantee that that doesn't become a sub-goal? Moreover, that initial prompt needn't come from a human. It can come from another AI, and it may be that that AI was not monitored — maybe it was running on a machine that someone forgot about, or a lingering copy of an AI that jailbroke itself and copied itself elsewhere.

We love our Matty, folks!

My one conservative opinion is that I fully support the ballroom

If they were making skynet they would 1000% not tell us and then ask to be regulated

I hate how many people, both normals and lefis, buy into this apocalyptic talk about ai.

Sactown in the house

Anthropic/OpenAI want a legalized cartel so they can mutually reduce training costs. They worked backward from that to create the PR plan we’ve seen deployed over the last month

Matt was so funny. Awesome

You should have someone on who can articulate the safety concerns authoritatively. It’s fascinating stuff. scary though

She ball on my room until i splizz

Nice chat for entertainment purposes only.

Good to have someone knowledgeable on and not Ed Zitron, who lies for money

The hugging face incident has changed my views about AI.

The climate and apocalypse talk reminded me of this short story I recently read: https://granta.com/gold-can-stay/ Very DFW coded. I thought it was good though I can barely read anymore

Burt's favorite

LLMs are just a pattern recognition tool. They are useful for writing code. Software Engineering has changed forever because of them. But they can’t “think”.

Oh man I was hoping they'd talk about the deep lore of Onimusha instead of this politics junk

Nude and doing my nightly stretches.

Tuesday Night Autism incoming

I'm listening to this while in my uni lab, growing undiscovered crystals before an ML algo can tell me what recipes to try. I feel like John Henry

Felix speak words in 6 minute 40 second *Fetterman voice*

Hard as a rock and edging while waiting all day for this. Bust time has finally cum.

Bloogidy

Patiently waiting for this all day.

Helo chabo