The John Johnston Lounge

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Tesla car owners are in revolt over Tesla’s Full Self-Driving promises. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that an international backlash is growing, over outdated Tesla hardware that Elon previously said would work with Hardware 3 (HW3). Tesla owners allege that Elon Musk and Tesla have made repeated claims that were false about the self-driving capabilities o...

John Johnston (JJ) discusses how failing shoe brand Allbirds is “pivoting” to be an AI company, and how this is yet another sign of the AI boom turning into a bubble. Similar moves have been made during previous market bubbles, including the massive Dot Com Bubble.   Related episodes: Sam Altman: Silicon Valley’s Greatest Grift? (Ed Zitron Reaction) https://open.spotify.com/episode/7Aj85Hr7fc5I7vF...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Tesla is supposedly expanding it’s unsupervised robotaxis to two new cities in Texas (Dallas and Houston), and more in Austin, but is it mostly more smoke and mirrors ahead of Tesla Earnings? Related episodes:  Elon Musk’s Twitter Fraud Deposition Was A Trainwreck (Footage) https://open.spotify.com/episode/5W6cess0tRaAIXA1wwL246 Elon Musk's Double Blow: Chauf...

John Johnston (JJ) discusses the ramifications of the recent attacks on AI tech billionaire Sam Altman and others, and why AI is facing a growing public backlash. JJ also reacts to Ed Elson from Prof G Markets, and Ed Zitron from Better Offline and The Tech Report, on the subject of growing AI resistance and the “dangerous rhetoric” surrounding the AI boom. Related episodes: OpenAI Insiders: Sam A...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to some video clips from Elon Musk’s revealing deposition from the Twitter fraud case, in which Elon was found by a jury to have misled investors ahead of the $44 billion acquisition.  Related episodes: Elon Musk’s $25B ‘Desperate’ Terafab, $2.6B Court Loss & FSD Crisis https://open.spotify.com/episode/78OQ3eeaWYqgpbNRqII50T Elon Musk Moves For Twitter Fraud Mistrial...

John Johnston (JJ) responds to an Atlantic article about the upcoming SpaceX IPO, that asserts that Elon Musk is banking on his “Elongelical fanboys” to make the SpaceX the most expensive big stock in the stock market. We also look at an article from Will Lockett, who details just how big of a leap Starship’s V3 needs to be to achieve what has been planned.  Related episodes: Biggest Money Grab Ev...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to part of a Patrick Boyle video, in which he chronicles how  Mark Zuckerberg spent $88 Billion on Meta’s failed Metaverse. We also look at how Meta wants to build facial recognition into its Meta AI glasses, which many civil liberties groups oppose.  Related episodes: Mark Zuckerberg’s $379M Disaster: A Jury Just Broke Meta https://open.spotify.com/episode/00QVKKj3WjFo3x...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to some of a recent interview with Ed Zitron, who thinks that OpenAI’s Sam Altman “is an historic con artist”, and the the AI boom is mostly inflated hype This follows a recent New Yorker expose about Altman, by respected investigative journalists Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz. Related episodes: Stop Believing AI Hype (Elon Taught Them Everything)  https://open.spotify....

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to authoritarian expert Anne Applebaum, who discusses with The Bulwark’s Tim Miller how the Trump administration has been copying the increasingly authoritarian playbook of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. Related episodes: What Authoritarians Have in Common & How to Build A Resistance https://youtu.be/5cnBHlXLkkU It's Time to Confront the Reality of Fascism in America ht...

John Johnston (JJ) reacts to a Bloomberg opinion piece, in which Max Chafkin asserts that the upcoming SpaceX IPO is Elon Musk’s most audacious product launch yet, with it’s $2 trillion valuation leaning heavily on current AI hype. Tesla investors are also already abuzz about a potential Tesla merger with SpaceX. Related episodes: They REALLY Want SpaceX Starship to be a War Machine https://open.s...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship could in the future be used to launch powerful munitions into orbit, to be deployed quickly against international adversaries in times of war. This is the suggestion of a visiting “geopolitics scholar” at Cambridge University, via the Wall Street Journal. Related episodes: Prediction: US Defeat in Iran War Will Pop AI Bubble https://op...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the astonishing news that OpenAI has acquired TBPN tech podcast for “low hundreds of millions” of dollars, supposedly to “accelerate the global conversation around AI”.  Related episodes: AI Bubble: Is OpenAI Going Broke? https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xPM7mmWrmDHcRmdytpEoq Stop Believing AI Hype (Elon Taught Them Everything)  https://open.spotify.com/episode/7v9q...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how new interviews and closely guarded documents about the head of OpenAI, Sam Altman, have shed light on “persistent doubts” about Altman’s trustworthiness. The 18-month investigation was led by Ronan Farrow and Drew Marantz for The New Yorker, resulting in an extensive article. Related episodes: AI Bubble: Is OpenAI Cooked? Walls Are Closing In https://open.spotify...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that multiple investment banking analysts are predicting as much as 60% downside for Tesla stock, after the Q1 2026 deliveries miss. Tesla also seems to have produced around 50,000 more cars than it could sell. Related episodes: Elon Musk’s $25B ‘Desperate’ Terafab, $2.6B Court Loss & FSD Crisis  https://open.spotify.com/episode/78OQ3eeaWYqgpbNRqII50T Te...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has filed to go public ahead of AI rivals, with an IPO that is poised to be one of the biggest ever. The company is aiming to raise between $40 billion and $80 billion in the offering, with a market valuation that could be as much as $1.75 trillion. Will it be worth it, or is the FOMO and market hype getting carried away. Related epis...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how Silicon Valley AI CEOs such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have been making some grand claims and predictions for their AI products, in a similar way to how Elon Musk has been doing this for years now. The “predictions” and claims have been mostly wildly inaccurate, or just plain wrong. There are more cracks staring to show in the AI boom or...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the latest AI boom or bubble news. JJ reacts to an Ed Zitron interview from The Tech Report, in which Ed discusses how AI data center building is not as big as it has been hyped to be, and Nvidia’s GPUs are being bought but many not being used. We also listen to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on AI safety, and Kara Swisher and Tristan Harris on some of the potential dang...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that Vivian Wilson, Elon Musk’s estranged trans daughter, has turned Elon’s anti-trans comment into a fundraiser for LGBTQ+ youth, with a merch line featuring the phrase “Evil Woke Mind Virus”. Also, xAI’s Grok has been ordered by a Dutch court to stop creating AI-generated non-consensual nude images of people. JJ also looks at the controversy surrounding th...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that the California regulator says that Tesla’s “Robotaxis” are not yet operating as an autonomous vehicle service, and that Tesla just holds the same permit as a limousine company. Also, a court has dismissed a lawsuit from Elon Musk’s X, alleging brands illegally boycotted the social media platform with their advertising. The judge admonished X for leading...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has just been handed a couple of devastating courtroom defeats, involving the company intentionally misleading users about the safety of it’s products, particularly in relation to social media addiction and the alleged harm it can do to young minds. Related episodes: Zuckerberg's REAL Goal of Meta’s AI ‘Superintelligence’ https://...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that a judge has ruled that Tesla CEO Elon Musk must face a lawsuit alleging power overreach, when Elon was a Trump administration adviser, heading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In addition, a top Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official has quit amid rumblings of tension between the official and other top SEC official...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the view that the Iran War could derail the AI boom or AI bubble. Part of the view, from Tej Parikh of the Financial Times, is that the whole AI chip supply chain depends on energy and chemical imports from the Middle East. Also, JJ reacts to an interview from veteran investor Jeremy Grantham, who has been a student of financial bubbles over history, and thinks the c...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down the news that Tesla and SpaceX have announced a $25 billion chip factory, but it could be evidence of desperation from Elon Musk. A jury has also found that Elon Musk misled Twitter investors ahead of this $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. Also, NHTSA has escalated its investigation tin Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system’s inability to handle various reduc...

John Johnston (JJ) delves into the current AI boom, or is it an AI bubble? We look at how various people are saying so, from AI sector insiders to economists. Another important question addressed is: when the AI bubble bursts, will it cause wider economic damage, including a recession?  Related episodes: AI Bubble: Is OpenAI Cooked? Walls Are Closing In https://open.spotify.com/episode/1a4VbuQlYl8...

John Johnston (JJ) breaks down how a new article from a former Uber self-driving chief details how his Tesla crashed while on FSD (Supervised). He says accidents like this expose the danger of almost-perfect tech, especially when lives are at stake. Tech like this can lull you into a false sense of security. Related episodes: Tesla’s Unsupervised Robotaxi: Was Elon Musk Wrong or Lying? https://ope...