Author: Alex Kantrowitz

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) What an 'AI-First Company' is 2) Aaron Levie's AI-first memo to Box. 3) Luis von Ahn's AI-first memo to Duolingo 4) Tobi Lutke's AI-first memo to Shopify 5) Can non-tech company be AI-first? 6) Apple earnings 7) Apple's federal government issues 8) Microsoft earnings 9) Amazon earnings 10) Meta Earnings 11) NVIDIA vs. Anthropic 12) More on AI consciousness 13) The very handy Mag2

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Jamil Ghani is Amazon’s Vice President of Prime. Ghani joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss Amazon's position in the ongoing trade war and how Alexa Plus combined with Prime will appeal to its customers. Tune in to hear Ghani debunk the headline about tariff price labels, walk through Alexa Plus’s rollout, and outline why Amazon believes its approach to a contextually-aware assistant will work. We also cover Prime Day strategy, supply-chain regionalization, warehouse robotics, and Amazon’s growing AI alliance with Anthropic. Hit play for a fast, candid look at how the world’s largest online retailer is positioning itself for the next era of commerce and consumer tech.

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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Anthropic researcher's assertion that there's a 15% chance Claude is conscious 2) What happens if people believe AI is sentient? 3) Why consciousness and intelligence are different 4) Hey, is this all just marketing? 5) Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's push for AI model interpretability 6) China's robot half-marathon 7) Tesla's wild earnings week 8) Why Google is thriving despite the ChatGPT threat 9) Are we going to shop directly within ChatGPT? 10) Kevin Systrom's flawed testimony against Facebook 11) Washington DC thinks Big Tech is getting broken up.

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Dylan Patel is the founder and CEO of SemiAnalysis. He joins Big Technology Podcast to explain how generative AI work, explaining the inner workings of tokens, pre-training, fine-tuning, open source, and reasoning. We also cover DeepSeek’s efficiency breakthrough, the race to build colossal AI data centers, and what GPT-5’s hybrid training approach could unlock. Hit play for a masterclass you’ll want to send to every friend puzzled (or excited) about the future of AI.

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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Is OpenAI's o3 model AGI? 2) Maybe it's AGI when you squint 3) Why people are floating the idea that OpenAi is close to AGI 4) Is OpenAI going to declare that GPT-5 is AGI 5) What's in it for companies saying they've achieved AGI first? 6) AI's new memory capabilities add something big to the experience 7) Is AI the new social media? 8) Facebook has moved away from friend sharing 9) Could Google be broken up? 10) Is Google's stake in the open web actually a good thing?

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Grace Shao is a Hong Kong-based writer and analyst, and author of AI Proem on Substack newsletter. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss China's rise in artificial intelligence, and whether (and how) it can be a global player. Tune in to hear how China's AI startups are rapidly productizing cutting-edge tech, why it keeps developing open-source models, and why it's surging in robotics. We also cover AI agents like Manus, chip shortages, and the entrepreneurial resurgence transforming Chinese tech culture. Hit play for an essential conversation on China’s AI ambitions and their global implications.

You can read more from Grace here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aiproem

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack? Here’s 40% off for the first year: https://tinyurl.com/bigtechnology

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Ranjan's experience during the financial crisis 2) The uncertainty around operating a business today 3) Why bond traders are important 4) Could the U.S. position in global trade decline? 5) Was it the tariffs or the rollout that's causing chaos? 6) Why Apple manufactures in China 7) Exposure of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, And Meta to tariffs 8) How this might end

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

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Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack? Here’s 40% off for the first year: https://tinyurl.com/bigtechnology

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Thomas Kurian is the CEO of Google Cloud Platform. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how AI is changing the competitive balance in cloud services and why he believes Google has a chance to win. We also discuss the various use cases Google customers are finding for GenAI in the technology's early days, and whether the agent buzz is real. Finally, towards the end of the conversation we touch on tariffs and their impact on the cloud services business. Tune in for a wide ranging conversation with Google's top guy on cloud computing.

Ryan Petersen is the CEO of Flexport. Adam Parker is the CEO of Trivariate Research. Today we host an 'emergency' special report on the impact of tariffs on tech and the economy. Join us for the first half where Petersen breaks down what the administration is hoping to do with its tariff policy, whether it's advisable, what the near and long term impacts will be, and whether Trump will blink. In the second half, Parker, a star equity analyst, highlights how Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla will react to the tariffs. Tune in for a comprehensive deep dive on what's driving the biggest economic disruption in years and what happens from here.

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

Here's Ryan Petersen's tariff briefing: https://youtu.be/Z1rBu2-lEY8?si=8ptEQdrU9yiCHWLO

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

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Mustafa Suleyman is the CEO of Microsoft AI and a co-founder of DeepMind. He joins Big Technology to discuss Microsoft's strategy to build more personalized and emotionally intelligent AI companions. Tune in to hear how Microsoft is differentiating its AI offerings through personality design, memory features, and action capabilities that could transform our digital interactions. We also cover Microsoft's data center plans, its relationship with OpenAI, and predictions about when we might reach AGI. Hit play for a fascinating look at the future of human-AI relationships and what it means for work, technology, and society.

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Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack? Here’s 40% off for the first year: https://tinyurl.com/bigtechnology

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com