Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson
Csatorna részletek
Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson
A podcast about understanding how tech works and the way it is changing the world. Hosted by Andrew Sharp with Ben Thompson.
Legutóbbi epizódok
249 epizód
(Preview) OpenAI Astride the World, Infrastructure Buildouts and Boundless Ambitions, More on Sora and Creation
Thoughts on OpenAI after a month of infrastructure and partnership announcements, including the differences between OpenAI and a Mag7 company, Ben’s i...
(Preview) Sora 2 and an AI Video Boom, Meta’s Vibes One Week Later, Questions on TikTok, Solar Power, and the iPhone Air
Andrew and Ben begin with reactions to OpenAI's Sora 2, a new Sora app, and more thoughts on last week’s ‘Vibes’ release from MetaAI. Topics include:...
Emergency Pod: Instant Reactions to MetaAI Vibes
Ninety minutes after they wrapped a conversation about YouTube, Google and the future of AI video, Ben and Andrew reconvene to make Ben eat his words...
(Preview) Video's Ongoing Victory Over Text, Google and YouTube's Abundance of Opportunity, Six Questions About an AI Bubble
On today's show Andrew and Ben begin with a 60-second iPhone review before turning to YouTube and Google's abundance of AI opportunities. Then: Six qu...
(Preview) Meta Doubles Down on Smart Glasses, Nvidia Partners with Intel, Notes on the Hidden YouTube Colossus
Andrew and Ben react to the Meta Ray-Ban Display and the progress of the Meta Neural Band, including keynote FOMO, debating the value of handwriting w...
(Preview) New iPhones and an Absence of Awe, How Oracle Wins in the AI Era, Questions on MidJourney, Meta, and Armageddon
Thoughts on Apple's new generation of iPhones—which are genuinely exciting—and why the underwhelmed reaction from fans and analysts reflects choices t...
(Preview) Google and Apple Avert Disaster, More on Kpop Demon Hunters and Hollywood, Mail on Microsoft, Adobe and ASML
Talking through Google’s big win in court this week, including the confounding opinion from Judge Amit Mehta, a strategy that paid off for Google, ant...
Why Nvidia Wants to Sell Chips to China, Answering Intel Objections, KPop Demon Hunters Conquers the World
Unpacking the latest round of Nvidia earnings and the questions that loom over the company's future in China. Then: Answering a few of the most common...
Facebook is Dead; Long Live Meta, Does OpenAI Need to Log Off?, Questions on Bubbles, Blackberry, and Bell Labs
Ben and Andrew discuss a monster earnings report for Meta, the mechanics of how they got there, and the newfound trust the company enjoys from investo...
(Preview) AI and the Winner’s Curse, Google’s Genie 3 Breakthrough, Questions on Intel, Fertility Rates, and Banning Advertising
Andrew and Ben discuss Ben’s article on Apple and AWS in the AI era, including a call for Apple to make an acquisition, a bit of AWS history, AWS as t...
Intel and the US Semi Future, Will Any Big Tech Incumbents Lose in an AI World?, Questions on Tea, Grok, and The Ringer
Intel's future in leading edge manufacturing looks more uncertain, while prospects for the US semiconductor supply chain are beginning to look more pr...
(Preview) The Post-AI Internet Realities, How Future Creators Can Succeed, Mail on Startups, F1 Rights, and Alternative Rock
The pay-per-crawl model for compensating content creators on the Internet, what sorts of content might win if that market actually materializes, and t...
Windsurf Madness, Big Tech Wins as the Silicon Valley Ecosystem Erodes, Cloudflare Wants to Fix the Internet Economy
A week of news surrounding Windsurf and Google (and now Cognition), why the Silicon Valley ecosystem as we've known it appears to be coming to an end,...
(Preview) Apple Searches for an AI Partner, A Second Fair Use Ruling and Reckoning with Reality, The F1 Movie and Related Matters
The considerations for Apple and its potential partners as the company considers external help with its project to supercharge Siri, a word about risk...
A Big Ruling on LLM Training and Midsummer Mail on NBA Salaries in Tech, Starting from Scratch in 2025, and More
On today's show Andrew and Ben begin by breaking down a favorable ruling for Anthropic in a case concerning copyrighted material, the fair use doctrin...
(Preview) Justice for Software Engineers, The Various Futures of Vibe Coding, Questions at xAI and Progress for Tesla
On today's show Ben and Andrew answer questions about the future of engineering jobs, the definition of vibe coding, Meta's AI upside, ChatGPT-led fas...
(Preview) Meta Continues Its AI Spending Spree, More Fun with OpenAI and Microsoft, ‘Apple in China’ and Related Matters
Ben and Andrew react to reports that in addition to adding Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, Meta’s now in advanced talks to hire prominent AI investors and...
(Preview) The Futures for Cursor and Perplexity, Multi Modality Dreams and Apple Possibilities, Normies Contemplate an AI Future
As the dust settles after keynote season, Ben and Andrew answer mailbag questions and talk through the future prospects for Cursor and Perplexity, mul...
Apple’s WWDC Retreat, Liquid Glass and One Question, Meta Puts $14.8 Billion Toward an AI Reset
A variety of announcements at WWDC, and why Apple’s lack of jaw-dropping news or boundary pushing plans was the most sensible approach available this...
(Preview) Nike’s Lessons on the Internet, Why Nike on Amazon Makes Sense, Meta and Anduril and Silicon Valley History
What’s gone wrong for Nike and why a deal with Amazon is likely the best way forward, the history of the U.S. military and Silicon Valley, and rationa...
(Preview) Operation Spider's Web and Global Trade, More on io and Devices of the Future, The Allure of Sports on Streaming
Reactions to Sunday’s shocking reports out of Russia and why the virtues of a shipping container may become more complicated in years to come. Then: q...
(Preview) The End of the Ad-Supported Internet, Imagining What Comes Next, A Human-AI Agent PSA
Discussing Ben's Article on the future of the agentic web, including the virtues of the ad-supported internet we've enjoyed for the last three decades...
OpenAI Enters the Hardware Business, The Challenges and Opportunities for Jony Ive, Takeaways from Google I/O 2025
Ben and Andrew react to the news that OpenAI is acquiring Jony Ive's hardware startup for $6.5 billion worth of stock, including questions about the f...
(Preview) The U.S. Partners with the Middle East in AI, Why OpenAI Is Acquiring Windsurf, Google’s Side of the Platform Wars
The implications of last week’s announcements on AI investments from Saudi Arabia and the UAE (and the repeal of the AI Diffusion rules), Ben’s though...
(Preview) Airbnb and Its Varied Ambitions, The High Agency Golden Era, HBO Max and the End of an Error
Reactions to a revamped app and the expanded ambitions of Airbnb, an excellent email about practical considerations for leaders if AI accelerates a bi...
Apple and the Power of Platforms, AI Comes for Google Search, ChatGPT Comes for Higher Education
Talking Platform Power and 15 years of App Store arguments, with topics including Ben's memories from Microsoft, the difference between regulating pla...
(Preview) What’s Next for Apple and the App Store, The Risks of Continuing This Fight, More on Meta and Its AI Vision
Ben's Daily Update on Friday and Apple's argument appealing the order in Epic v. Apple, the risks facing Apple as they've continued to fight these bat...
(Preview) Meta and Its Many Plans in AI, Apple Gets Hammered in Court, The Costs of Waiting to Do the Right Thing
A 360 degree look at Meta's AI efforts after Ben's sitdown with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's launch of a standalone AI app. Then: Reactions to Wednesday...
(Preview) All About AI Companions: Personalization Upsides, Dystopian Downsides, AI Therapy, Advertising Tension, and Lots More
After last week's conversation about AI for companionship, Ben and Andrew answer emails about the future of personalized LLM answers, speculative cost...
Apple and the Ghosts of Companies Past, Privacy at the Expense of Performance, The Cook Question
Talking through Ben's article on Apple and the Ghosts of Companies Past, including Apple's religious commitment to privacy, untapped platform potentia...
(Preview) What Memory Can Do for ChatGPT, OpenAI's Future and Google's Circles Past, What College Football Can Teach Us About Tech
Talking through the implications of memory capabilities for ChatGPT, the future of AI companionship, OpenAI's platform ambitions, and why Google Circl...
Three Eras of Facebook (and the Internet), The Problems with FTC v. Meta, The Realities of Perfect Competition
Tracing the history of Facebook to understand the challenges for the government in this month's FTC v. Meta trial, and thoughts on the nature of compe...
(Preview) Apple Gets a Temporary Reprieve, The End of Internet 2.0, An Incomplete Tech Blog Post Canon
Andrew and Ben discuss another weekend of pivots, updates and clarifications to the Trump trade policies, the big picture shifts and fundamental quest...
American Disruption, Tech’s Manufacturing History in Asia, The Power of Demand in an Uncertain Future
Ben and Andrew return to discuss Liberation Day whiplash, Apple’s history in China and tech’s history in Asia, and the various challenges inherent to...
(Preview) xAI Buys X, The Bitter Lesson for Everyone, Everywhere, Google’s Only Hope in AI
Thoughts on both X and xAI in the wake of Friday’s announcement from Elon Musk, Chat GPT’s image capabilities and whether AI-adjacent SaaS companies w...
(Preview) The Delights of Images in GPT, The Future of Graphic Design, Signal and Multiple Dimensions of Security
Reactions to OpenAI's "Images in GPT," and thoughts on the Trump administration's Signal debacle, including a few points Ben neglected to emphasize ea...
(Preview) Why Google Wants Wiz for $32 Billion, Xbox One and Bygone Streaming Hardware Dreams, Immortality and Daylight Saving Time
A look at the logic of Google's plans to purchase an Israeli cybersecurity firm for $32 billion, more tension between Apple, Google and the EU, and an...
(Preview) Deep Research and OpenAI's Business Model, A Counterpoint on White Collar Concerns, The Future of Cognition and Companionship
After Ben's interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Andrew and Ben hold an impromptu symposium on AI and its implications, featuring questions from list...
(Preview) Should Apple Buy Perplexity?, What Apple Could Learn from IBM, Vision Pro and Its Vaporware
Answering all your emails in the wake of Apple's intelligence catastrophe. Topics include: whether Perplexity should be an acquisition target, the lim...
Apple History and Apple Psychology, How Apple Should Capitalize On Its AI Potential, Why It Probably Won't
Revisiting Apple's nadir in the 1990s, along with internal friction that boiled over after Steve Jobs' passing, and explaining why Apple execs should—...