Down Round

• The Slop Farms of X

  This week, we open with the final chapter of Frank, the student finance startup that sold JP Morgan a fake email list. Founder Charlie Javice is in prison for fraud, but the bank is still footing a $115 million legal bill that includes everything from luxury hotels to cellulite butter. Then we move onto Nvidia, which posted another absurd quarter with revenue up 60% year-on-year. Then finally X’s new location feature, which exposed the global industry of rage-bait posters farming Elon’s ad-share program with US culture war posting from the Global South. As expected, everyone is responding to this normally.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• It's Just Autocomplete

  This week we unpack a growing split inside the AI world, centred on Yann LeCun — Meta’s AI pioneer who thinks LLMs are a dead end. Reports suggest he’s preparing to walk, after being quietly sidelined under Meta’s “superintelligence” push and made subordinate to a 28-year-old ex-data-labelling kingpin, Alexander Wang. His alternative is the “world model” approach: systems grounded in physics and perception rather than predictive text. LET'S GOOOOOOOO.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Apple’s Passive Income Era

  Down Round hasn't checked in on Cupertino in a little while. This week, we take stock of Apple’s strange position in the AI boom — not really innovating very much, but quietly raking in billions as everyone else builds data centres. From Siri’s long road to Gemini, to the cult of thinness and the ghost of Johnny Ive, we talk about how Apple keeps winning by doing less. Plus: the Vision Pro flop, new MacBook Air rumours, and Apple TV.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Data Centres 101

  We realised that we've been talking a lot about data centres but have gotten pretty pointy headed about it, without bringing our beautiful listeners along for the ride. We apologise. This episode is us pumping the brakes, going back to first principles and explaining the current data centre situation — from where they started, all the way to the current massive buildout due to the AI boom. If you or someone you know would like to apply to be our new producer, send us an email at [email protected]. Include any past experience and examples of anything you've done — even if it's just your personal socials. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Spotify for Sickos

  Today's episode is on the back of a curious report from The Information that Suno, the AI music generation app, now brings in $150 million in annual recurring revenue. That's not Meta level, but it's not bad either. It opens up a discussion of how the world of AI generated content is progressing, including chat about OpenAI's Sora colonising TikTok and Reels with meme videos. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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