IM 858: The Itinerant Salt Miner from Buffalo - Silicon Valley's Military Dilemma

IM 858: The Itinerant Salt Miner from Buffalo - Silicon Valley's Military Dilemma

Author: TWiT February 19, 2026 Duration: 2:51:57

OpenClaw's creator makes headlines by joining OpenAI after GitHub fame and a whirlwind of VC and big tech offers, redefining what's possible for independent developers in the AI arms race. Is this the year agentic AI goes mainstream, and are the big players ready for that disruption?

  • OpenClaw, OpenAI and the future | Peter Steinberger
  • OpenAI disbands mission alignment team
  • Opinion | I Left My Job at OpenAI. Putting Ads on ChatGPT Was the Last Straw. - The New York Times
  • Introducing GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark
  • Anthropic releases Sonnet 4.6
  • Exclusive: Pentagon threatens to cut off Anthropic in AI safeguards dispute
  • Google's Pixel 10a Launches on March 5 for $499
  • Google's AI drug discovery spinoff Isomorphic Labs claims major leap beyond AlphaFold 3
  • Gemini 3 Deep Think: AI model update designed for science
  • Radio host David Greene says Google's NotebookLM tool stole his voice
  • A new way to express yourself: Gemini can now create music
  • Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood
  • GPT-5 outperforms federal judges 100% to 52% in legal reasoning experiment
  • An AI project is creating videos to go with Supreme Court justices' real words
  • I used Claude to negotiate $163,000 off a hospital bill. In a complex healthcare system, AI is giving patients power.
  • Sony Tech Can Identify Original Music in AI-Generated Songs
  • AI Pioneer Fei-Fei Li's Startup World Labs Raises $1 Billion
  • Yann v. Yoshua on directed systems
  • Dr. Oz pushes AI avatars as a fix for rural health care. Not so fast, critics say
  • An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me
  • An Ars Technica Reporter Blamed A.I. Tools for Fabricating Quotes in a Bizarre A.I. Story
  • Plain Dealer using AI to write reporters' stories
  • Mediahuis trials use of AI agents to carry out 'first-line' news reporting
  • DJI's first robovac is an autonomous cleaning drone you can't trust
  • Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand 'Search Party' Surveillance Beyond Dogs
  • ai;dr
  • I hate my AI pet with every fiber of my being
  • Thanks a lot, AI: Hard drives are sold out for the year, says WD
  • Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs:' Inside an AI-Powered Private School
  • peon-ping — Stop babysitting your terminal
  • Hugo Barra makes a to-do agent
  • Raspberry Pi soars 40% as CEO buys stock, AI chatter builds

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Emily Forlini

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From the team at TWiT, Intelligent Machines (Video) dives into the seismic shift unfolding right now. The first part of this century was defined by networks connecting people; the coming era will be defined by the intelligence embedded within the objects and systems around us. This isn't just about speculative fiction-it's about the algorithms in your car, the logic in your home appliances, and the evolving minds within our phones and robots. Each episode of this podcast unpacks a piece of that complex reality, examining both the profound potential and the tangible risks of this transformation. We're moving beyond simple gadget reviews to explore the deeper societal, ethical, and personal implications of living alongside thinking machines. The conversation is grounded in the present, looking at real-world applications and the engineers, philosophers, and policymakers shaping our automated future. Tune in for clear-eyed analysis and thoughtful discussion that aims to demystify the technology, helping you grasp not only what these systems do, but how they will redefine work, creativity, privacy, and human agency itself. Join us as we navigate the most significant technological revolution in generations, seeking to understand what we're building before it reshapes everything.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 33

Intelligent Machines (Video)
Podcast Episodes
IM 877: Model Now Available - The Race for Smarter, Freer AI Models [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:47:26
Think your AI assistant is working perfectly? This episode reveals why most AI breakdowns go completely unnoticed and how these "invisible failures" could be skewing the results we rely on. Fable is Back! Alex Stamos: An…
IM 876: It's No Melania - Section 230 on Trial [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:44:51
Section 230 takes center stage as Olivier Sylvain argues it's time to confront Big Tech's legal shield, sparking a fierce debate on whether Internet giants should be liable for platform harms or if reform risks choking s…
IM 875: Florida Dad - Amazon, Anthropic, and the AI Power Struggle [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:15:12
The sudden US government shutdown of Anthropic's Fable model has tech insiders reeling and rival global labs surging ahead. This episode breaks down the unexpected political power play rattling the future of AI innovatio…
IM 873: Superman's Mustache - AI in Hollywood [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:31:07
AI is upending the movie business, from Amazon's new AI Creators Fund to contract battles that just gave synthetic actors the green light in Hollywood. This episode dives into the real-world impact of generative tools on…
IM 872: Infinite Jeffs - Why the Pope's AI Manifesto Matters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:32:25
Photographer Rick Sammon shows how AI is transforming creative work and what happens when the Pope issues a sweeping 42,000-word encyclical on artificial intelligence and invites tech skeptics and true believers to weigh…
IM 871: CTRL-F Techno King - Google's Search Overhaul [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:53:48
Dashlane's CTO pulls back the curtain on how password managers are actually using AI, why it's more complicated than hype suggests, and what the rise of AI-powered code review means for the next wave of digital security.…