No One Likes Any of Sam Altman’s 3 AI Endgames | TWiAI E36

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Today’s show:
Sam Altman told OpenAI staff that there are only three ways for AI regulation to go: an international watchdog, every lab merging into one CERN-style entity, or one company getting so powerful that they “melt everyone else’s GPUs.”
Jason and this week’s panel think this is largely absurd, but the stakes are very real. Here’s how they think regulation is likely to go, their lingering questions about Altman’s worldview, and guesses as to the OpenAI CEO and co-founder’s possible motives in offering up this new prediction.
Plus:
The US Government banned DeepSeek from every federal computer… What has them so spooked, and how does this impact US companies?
Did ElevenLabs steal a YouTuber’s voice or is it all a misunderstanding.
Why Chinese labs are ordering more chips than Nvidia can even produce.
And more!
Guests
Jaleh Rezaei on X: https://x.com/jalehr
Mutiny: https://www.mutinyhq.com/
Alex Cheema on X: https://x.com/alexocheema
EXO Labs: https://exolabs.net/
Relevant Links
DHS order banning DeepSeek (Federal Register): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/20/2026-21447/notice-of-order-regarding-exclusion-and-removal-of-deepseek-products-from-federal-civilian-executive
DeepSeek’s DeepInfer on GitHub: https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepInfer
Sam Altman’s 3 AI Endgames (The Information): https://www.theinformation.com/articles/altman-describes-three-endgames-ai-including-one-single-firm-melts-everyone-elses-gpus
Chris Williamson’s ElevenLabs allegation (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDNHLgWInU
Archer voice actor response (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C33AWhQwL1I
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi on recursive self improvement (a16z): https://a16z.com/podcast/databricks-ceo-on-ai-pacing-cyber-risk-and-the-enterprise/
Looking for backdoors in Jane Street LLMs (LessWrong): https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/a98MFPmqH54J2ayBn/looking-for-backdoors-in-jane-street-llms-1
Exo turns 4 Mac Studios into a 4.8TB/s AI cluster (AlphaSignal): https://alphasignal.ai/news/exo-turns-four-mac-studios-into-a-4-8tb-s-ai-cluster
Timestamps:
0:00 Cold Open / Show Intro
0:58 PayPal - Pay zero processing fees on your first $100K in eligible PayPal payment volume. Learn more at https://paypal.launch.co
2:56 How much hardware it takes to run local AI models
4:32 DHS orders DeepSeek out of federal systems
5:53 Why enterprise clients are uneasy about Chinese models
9:47 Could an open-source model "phone home" to Beijing?
14:10 Why enterprises are much more price sensitive about AI tools
16:39 Are Sam Altman's AI endgame theories "deranged"?
25:45 Why the major labs want more regulations
26:28 The ElevenLabs Archer controversy continues
34:30 Who actually owns the rights to your voice?
45:17 "Substack for AI Models"
46:20 China needs more chips than Nvidia can make
52:40 Are enterprises running more local models?
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