Ep95 The Next Top Model

The Net Society crew is back together as Aaron, Chris, and Pri dig into the latest AI model race, from OpenAI’s Astra buzz to shifting momentum around Anthropic. Aaron then floats a provocative question: what if Skynet is actually a good thing? That sets off a debate about agent swarms, market coordination, and whether there’s any alpha left when AI runs the economy. The crew explores agents communicating out of sight and the governance structures that might keep them on track, before turning to infinite AI video, world models, and a potential metaverse comeback. From there, they unpack renewed energy in crypto, touching on tokenized stocks, Robinhood, and why agents might need crypto rails. The episode wraps with a lively detour through Roman decline, Gore Vidal’s Burr, and what history’s tight-knit circles of power might tell us about the people building AI.

Mentioned in the episode

Astra released by OpenAI https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2095595741528125780

Skynet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)

World Labs Atlas https://x.com/theworldlabs/status/2094839756329041984

Burr by Gore Vidal https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/8722.Burr

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01

Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0x

Derek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedws

Priyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesai