Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Andrew and Ben begin with reflections on Ben’s changing relationship with the Mac and two markets that may ultimately be impossible to serve with one product and operating system. Then: Why Apple’s plans for your living room make sense, reactions to the Duo, and the near-term outlook for humanoid robots in the home. From there: More specifics on why agents put certain types of advertising at risk, thoughts on Amazon adopting a YouTube Premium model, and a question about product pricing that spawns a lesson in advertising, generally. Then: Reactions to OpenAI’s math progress, anxiety among mathematicians, inter-disciplinary skills, joining forces on Machine Intelligence Island, and a reminder that equating raw IQ with value is a bad idea. At the end: Grading Ben Affleck’s AI knowledge, Mike Tomlin’s Minecraft habit, and a digression on IBM, Compaq, and the decompilation of video games (and why fair use is not a viable defense for hackers).

Ben and Andrew begin with a note on VIM and reactions to a confusing product launch from OpenAI at Dev Day earlier this week. Then: Will personal agents be a winner-take-all market? What can Apple and Google do in the consumer agent space? Will normal people take longer than expected to adopt these products? And did Meta’s push into the enterprise break the company’s hot streak? From there: Emails on the future of payments, “super intelligence” branding for AI, America.gov, and firing Dario Amodei. At the end: AI Show & Tell with notes on generational adoption shifts (and Tamagotchis), movie games, a personalized sports page, App Store hell, and going full KGB on messaging.

Ben and Andrew begin with the Meta Connect keynote and a simple question: is this the first time since 2021 that Meta has been cool? From there, new VR glasses, the Muse Charm, a basketball analogy for Meta Connect in 2026, and the infrastructure and talent investments that have helped Muse resonate over the past few weeks. Then: An emailer shares his Muse epiphany, a potential secondary effect of agents saving users money, why Muse is not sharing user data with Meta, and the ultimate “aggregator of aggregators” upside. Then: Extended thoughts on the Muse vs. Amazon tensions, why Meta’s Walmart deal was potentially crucial, and Amazon’s moat in logistics (and returns) that may prove durable in the agents era. At the end: A CarPlay victory lap, and a round of AI Show and Tell with a wedding planner, a SunOS coder, and a fantasy football league.

On today’s Ben and Andrew begin with Andrew’s article on AI alarmism, the primacy of the effective altruists in AI risk conversations, and why these discussions are exhausting without more evidence, even as AI risk becomes the biggest story in American politics. From there: A distinction between regulation malaise five years ago and where we are today, the grind of modern software, and questions responding to Ben’s Update on Monday, including thoughts on why OpenAI and Anthropic won’t unilaterally slow down, why Sam Altman and Elon Musk were incentivized to agree with Dario Amodei, and an emailer who asks whether doomerism hysteria is crowding out more urgent economic questions. Then: Questions on China’s incentives in AI, the strategic benefits of chip sales and distillation, military implications of American lead in AI, and China’s messy cybersecurity situation. At the end: An ode to ApplePay, Walmart, and Walton Goggins (but not Matt LaFleur).

Andrew and Ben begin with Ben’s article on Tuesday on the transformative value of LLMs writing things down. Topics include: How assistants have helped Ben solve his blindspots, the omnicompetent assistants that are now available to everyone, a brief detour into markdown file history, the arrival of OpenAI’s Astra models, a future of models that use computers, the astounding value of a pro subscription to Anthropic and OpenAI, and the pace of AI progress in the fall of 2026. From there: More on the Hugging Face incident, a listener asks for advice on getting started with agents, and Meta’s Muse arrives to help normal unlock the potential of agents. At the end: Reactions to a pair of viral p(doom) tweets from Anthropic employees, why one writer’s pandemic callback offers an unintentionally instructive parallel, and an emotional announcement about the iPhone Air.