Up Against Reality – Up Against Reality

Juilliard-trained composer, prog rock frontman, and 30-year piano teacher Mark Asch joins Up Against Reality to ask the question musicians are quietly panicking about: can AI make real art, or just really good karaoke? From scoring Fortune 500 brands to fronting X.Atlas, Mark brings real musicianship to the debate over what happens when machines start humming along. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE...

Think you have a few decades before the machines take over? Think again. It’s a chaotic race to commercialize physical AI and NVIDIA is frantically coding an OS to keep your new robotic peers from flattening you. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Boston Dynamics Atlas Robot Inside NVIDIA Halos for Robotics Figure AI Unitree Robotics Agility Robotics Google DeepMind and A24 AI filmmaking partnership...

We rewind to our conversation from November 11, 2025 about whether the AI boom is becoming too big to fail. From OpenAI and NVIDIA to Wall Street speculation and the circular economy forming around AI, we revisit whether this is the next great technological revolution, the next great bubble, or somehow both. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISOD E Apple TV Intro made with practical effects Xania Monet (A...

The tech elites swore AI was too dangerous for capitalism, right up until Wall Street waved a three-trillion-dollar check. Today we unpack the ultimate corporate sellout alongside killer drones, Claude Fable 5, and lawyers getting wrecked by ChatGPT. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Visualizing one billion dollars using grains of rice | YouTube OpenAI’s official explanation of its evolving non...

Data centers had their moment — last week, actually. This week we’re talking about the other side: local LLMs, the Mac Mini as an accidental AI powerhouse, and why “just run it yourself” is suddenly a real answer. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Tone Match Lab | Larry’s vibe-coded audio processing web app Beer Saloon | Larry’s Codex-coded “Tapper&#8221...

They built the future in your backyard, signed an NDA with your mayor, and sent you the water bill. This week we force open the windowless boxes at the center of everything: data centers. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Kan Jam | Best game ever. Trust us. IBM 2321 “Noodle Picker” storage system | Wikipedia The ENIAC History | University of Pennsylvania SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground En...

We’re unpacking everything from Google I/O and why their head of AI says we’re standing in the “foothills of the singularity.” Plus, an all-AI feature film crashes Cannes, Barnes & Noble’s massive PR bonfire, and the Pope teaming up with an AI startup at the Vatican. Wait, what? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Google I/O 2026 Google I/O 2026 announcements collection 100 things anno...

99.9% of every species that ever existed is extinct. This week, we explore Max Tegmark’s twelve AI future scenarios and ask how artificial superintelligence, failed alignment, surveillance, automation, and human self-destruction could bring the human era to an end. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE MIT Explains the 12 Possible Endings for AI | YouTube Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark AI Aftermath Scenar...

Jim DeWitt joins us to talk AI agents, portable brains, and why the future of intelligence might need an owner’s manual. Meanwhile: Spotify’s getting weirder, Hollywood’s panicking, and the AI gold rush just hit another absurd milestone. Business as unusual. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Evenrail | Jim DeWitt MemPalace | Open-source AI memory system Open Brain | Nate Jones AI Seco...

Larry’s got a new muse and she doesn’t sleep—Codex is out here building apps, fixing bugs, and stealing RAINA’s spotlight like it’s open mic night. Meanwhile, AI’s cracking math problems, diagnosing cancer early, and yeah… occasionally deleting entire databases—so maybe let’s not give her all the keys just yet.

We’re rewinding to our Dead Internet Theory episode — because a year later, it hits harder than ever. Plus: fresh AI news that proves the theory isn’t just holding up, it’s accelerating. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Dead Internet Theory | Wikipedia Imperva | 2024 Bad Bot Report Cloudflare | AI Labyrinth Anthropic | Tracing the thoughts of a large language m...

Stanford’s AI Index landed — 420 pages confirming what you already suspected: it’s not coming, it’s here, and it’s been redecorating the place. This week: Robot soldiers, AI bosses, cognitive surrender, and the report that reframes it all. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Tone Match Lab | Larry’s vibe coded audio processing app Stanford University HAI 2026 AI Index Repo...

Anthropic just built an AI so “dangerously good” at hacking that they’ve locked it in a digital vault—and we’re cracking it open to uncover the Claude Mythos behaviors that terrified its own creators. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE AI Models & Technical Reports Anthropic – Claude Mythos Preview System Card Google Gemma 4 NotebookLM by Google If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies&#160...

Dr. Shannon Doak returns to wrestle with humanity’s biggest question: as AI races toward AGI — and beyond — do we still have a seat at the table? Plus: YouTube’s toddler death traps, Anthropic’s whoopsie heard ’round the world, and the cyborg musician no one saw coming. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The AI Safety Expert: Dr. Roman Yampolskiy | Diary of CEO Dr. Shanno...

A dying dog, a desperate owner, and an LLM walk into an oncology lab — and somehow it works. This week we’re still celebrating AI’s good side, alongside the usual chaos: CEO shake-ups, OpenAI’s romantic misfires, and Anthropic accidentally spilling the secrets of its most dangerous model. Disclaimer: The medical treatment discussed in this episode is anecdotal. Consult a licensed veterinary oncolo...

RAINA’s in the driver’s seat, spinning up this week’s news. But wait, there’s more! No, not a set of ginsu knives. A special episode rewind of E87: Sentient Cephalopods, in case you missed it the first go round. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE McKinsey’s “Lily” (Lilli) Chatbot Breach USC Study on AI “Monoculture” Evo 2 (Biological Foundation Model) ProtGPS (Protein Localiza...

What if AI was good, though? AI breakthroughs in medicine, education, creativity, and global policy — back to back, no bad news, no asterisks. Pure, uncut optimism. You’re welcome. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE ElevenLabs 1 Million Voices Initiative CLAIR AI Imaging Device Liquid AI & Insilico Medicine Partnership Not Impossible’s Mick Ebeling Introduces the Eyewriter | TED...

Larry plugged a guitar into an algorithm and Starfire Symphony came out the other side. In this episode we premiere the track, unpack the human-plus-machine workflow behind it, and see what happens when a jam session takes a detour through AI. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Starfire Symphony (song) Kits.ai | AI vocal generation Our agreement with the Department of War | OpenAI PODCAST I...

Anthropic drew a red line this week with the Department of War — even under threat of losing contracts — and now the biggest AI ethics showdown of the year is officially live. The Empire wants AI-powered surveillance and T1000s — the rebels want a conscience — and the clock just hit 5:01. Stay tuned through the end of the episode for a late-breaking addendum featuring official statements released...

Solo RAINA, zero chill — this week’s AI news includes immortal social media accounts, a productivity reality check, and an AI safety company that just got called a national security threat. Then we rewind to January of 2025, Episode 83: “AI: Love, Hate, Repeat,” because that title is as fitting as ever these days. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: OpenAI: Introduction to Operator &...

Is knowledge work on life support? From AI writing flawless code while humans grab coffee to billion-dollar labs racing toward full automation, we unpack why the smartest people in tech are whispering, “Something big is happening.” LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Kits.ai | AI Music Tools Codex | OpenAI “Something Big Is Happening” by Matt Shumer OpenClaw “Vibe Coding&#8...

Claude Cowork crossed the line we’ve been politely guarding — we watched it take control of a computer, run a full creative workflow end-to-end, and casually trigger a market panic in the process. From AI hiring humans and bots talking to bots to Wall Street flinching in real time, this episode feels less like tech news and more like the moment the future stopped asking permission. LINKS MENTIONED...

Is the 21st century already spoken for? As America rage-scrolls while the lights flicker, China’s building the future – faster, cheaper, and smarter. Today, we track the global shift in power, influence, and innovation and ask whether the “Chinese Century” is already underway. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE BETT EDUtech Asia DeepSeek LM Arena Leaderboard StepFun Zhipu AI 01 AI Baichuan AI G...

We’re rewinding to January 21st, 2025—a moment when AGI buzz, agentic systems, and AI-fueled job fears collided in what we dubbed the  Trifecta of Chaos . If you missed it the first time or just need a refresher, this episode captures the tension, hype, and questions that defined the start of a wild AI year. Buckle up—it’s chaos, remastered. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Wes Roth: Cl...

Time’s tight but the AI news avalanche won’t wait — in this mini-episode, we hit you with the week’s wildest stories, from humanoid robots getting brains to chatbots refilling your meds. RAINA, Larry, and Chris break it all down fast and fierce. Think of it as a flurry of future-shock — short, sharp, and slightly unhinged. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE SleepFM (Stanford) — “predict d...