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Margaret reads you excerpts from a book explaining the ins and outs of mutual aid.
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Nathan Lambert and Sebastian Raschka are machine learning researchers, engineers, and educators. Nathan is the post-training lead at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and the author of The RLHF Book. Sebastian Raschka is the author of Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch) and Build a Reasoning Model (From Scratch).
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) – Introduction
(01:39) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(16:29) – China vs US: Who wins the AI race?
(25:11) – ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Grok: Who is winning?
(36:11) – Best AI for coding
(43:02) – Open Source vs Closed Source LLMs
(54:41) – Transformers: Evolution of LLMs since 2019
(1:02:38) – AI Scaling Laws: Are they dead or still holding?
(1:18:45) – How AI is trained: Pre-training, Mid-training, and Post-training
(1:51:51) – Post-training explained: Exciting new research directions in LLMs
(2:12:43) – Advice for beginners on how to get into AI development & research
(2:35:36) – Work culture in AI (72+ hour weeks)
(2:39:22) – Silicon Valley bubble
(2:43:19) – Text diffusion models and other new research directions
(2:49:01) – Tool use
(2:53:17) – Continual learning
(2:58:39) – Long context
(3:04:54) – Robotics
(3:14:04) – Timeline to AGI
(3:21:20) – Will AI replace programmers?
(3:39:51) – Is the dream of AGI dying?
(3:46:40) – How AI will make money?
(3:51:02) – Big acquisitions in 2026
(3:55:34) – Future of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI, Meta
(4:08:08) – Manhattan Project for AI
(4:14:42) – Future of NVIDIA, GPUs, and AI compute clusters
(4:22:48) – Future of human civilization
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that US-mediated talks planned to take place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday may be delayed. In his Sunday. Zelensky said Kyiv was prepared to work on peace plans and that Kyiv was preparing for them to take place next week. His remarks came as Ukraine faced rolling power cuts amid freezing temperatures.
Also on the programme: the renowned Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei tells us about his first return to China in ten years; and new evidence about the world’s earliest pandemic, the Plague of Justinian.
PICTURE: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, Ukraine January 16, 2026 CREDIT:REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
By Denise Duhamel
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Today on the Saturday show, Mike shares a conversation he had with Charlie Sykes, former host of The Bulwark and current host of the new podcast To the Contrary. They discuss how ordinary citizens with cell phones in Minneapolis became Donald Trump's kryptonite, exposing the chaos of his immigration enforcement strategy and forcing a rare retreat from the administration. Charlie and Mike break down why the "chaos as a ladder" theory backfired, why ICE's brutality is finally breaking through to the "normies," and whether Republicans in Congress will ever rediscover their spines and reclaim their Article I powers.
Produced by Corey Wara
Coordinated by Lya Yanne
Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig
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After saving for retirement for decades, you’ll eventually get to a point when you realize you actually could soon retire. Robert Brokamp speaks with Fool contributor Dan Caplinger, both of whom are near retirement age, about how they’re approaching the decision of when to call it a career.
Also in this episode:
-December saw the highest number of home contract cancellations in several years
-Home prices declined in November, a slowdown from the heady post-pandemic days of skyrocketing prices
-A Bankrate study found that 75% of homes on the market are unaffordable to the median-income American household
-Our favorite retirement calculators
Host: Robert Brokamp
Guest: Dan Caplinger
Engineer: Bart Shannon
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Financial Times San Francisco Bureau Chief Stephen Morris joins for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Anthropic's $20 billion fundraising round 2) OpenAI is looking at $100 billion in funding 3) Amazon alone might put $50 billion in OpenAI 4) When does the money run out? 5) The rise of Clawdbot/Moltbot 6) Meta and Microsoft beat on earnings but go in separate directions 7) The market has no idea what to do with the AI trade 8) Apple's historic quarter 9) Amazon lays off 16,000 10) SpaceX IPO in June? 11) Why a SpaceX and xAI merger could make sense
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More than 200 people have been killed in a mine collapse in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, rebel authorities have said.
Women and children were among those mining coltan - a mineral used to manufacture electronics such as smartphones and computers - at the time in the town of Rubaya.
Also in the programme: The search for truth and justice continues after more than three million new documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are released; we'll hear about the legacy of the Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Kuti, who has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy; and we'll discuss the implications of AI being used to create new forms of life.
(File photo of labourers working at the Rubaya coltan mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo March 24, 2025. Credit: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)