Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026 · 23 min

(Preview) All About Agents: Dots Arrive, Google and Apple Questions, Muse Follow-Ups, Super Intelligence, and the Mandate of Heaven

Ben and Andrew begin with a note on VIM and reactions to a confusing product launch from OpenAI at Dev Day earlier this week. Then: Will personal agents be a winner-take-all market? What can Apple and Google do in the consumer agent space? Will normal people take longer than expected to adopt these products? And did Meta’s push into the enterprise break the company’s hot streak? From there: Emails on the future of payments, “super intelligence” branding for AI, America.gov, and firing Dario Amodei. At the end: AI Show & Tell with notes on generational adoption shifts (and Tamagotchis), movie…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

1. 

   25 Sep 2026 · 26 min

   (Preview) Three Weeks of Meta Momentum, The Ultimate Muse Upside, A King Kong vs. Godzilla Aggregator War

   Ben and Andrew begin with the Meta Connect keynote and a simple question: is this the first time since 2021 that Meta has been cool? From there, new VR glasses, the Muse Charm, a basketball analogy for Meta Connect in 2026, and the infrastructure and talent investments that have helped Muse resonate over the past few weeks. Then: An emailer shares his Muse epiphany, a potential secondary effect of agents saving users money, why Muse is not sharing user data with Meta, and the ultimate “aggregator of aggregators” upside. Then: Extended thoughts on the Muse vs. Amazon tensions, why Meta’s…

2. 

   18 Sep 2026 · 33 min

   (Preview) Doom Debates Go Mainstream, AI Religion and the Economic Future, Several Vectors of the China Question

   On today’s Ben and Andrew begin with Andrew’s article on AI alarmism, the primacy of the effective altruists in AI risk conversations, and why these discussions are exhausting without more evidence, even as AI risk becomes the biggest story in American politics. From there: A distinction between regulation malaise five years ago and where we are today, the grind of modern software, and questions responding to Ben’s Update on Monday, including thoughts on why OpenAI and Anthropic won’t unilaterally slow down, why Sam Altman and Elon Musk were incentivized to agree with Dario Amodei, and an…

3. 

   10 Sep 2026 · 25 min

   (Preview) Astra (and AGI?) Arrives, Meta’s Muse and the Agent Opportunity, Anthropic and the Revival of (P)Doom Angst

   Andrew and Ben begin with Ben’s article on Tuesday on the transformative value of LLMs writing things down. Topics include: How assistants have helped Ben solve his blindspots, the omnicompetent assistants that are now available to everyone, a brief detour into markdown file history, the arrival of OpenAI’s Astra models, a future of models that use computers, the astounding value of a pro subscription to Anthropic and OpenAI, and the pace of AI progress in the fall of 2026. From there: More on the Hugging Face incident, a listener asks for advice on getting started with agents, and Meta’s…

4. 

   3 Sep 2026 · 25 min

   (Preview) Fable 5.1 and Anthropic’s Data Retention Pivot, AI Civilizations and Related Matters, Q&A on Meta, Shopify, 3-D Printing

   On today’s show Ben and Andrew begin with notes on a home networking project before turning to the release of Fable 5.1, including Anthropic’s announcement that it has walked back the data retention safety initiative the company announced earlier this year. From there: Reactions to a viral post on the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, the problem with anthropomorphizing machines, and why Ben finds this discourse unhinged and unproductive. At the end: Follow-ups to last week’s Meta discussion on the tension between libertarian and conservative impulses, Shopify is a platform and not an aggregator…

5. 

   28 Aug 2026 · 22 min

   (Preview) Meta’s New Restrictions for Teens, Nvidia’s Open Source Investments, Q&A on Netflix, Druckenmiller, Parameters and Performance

   On today’s show Ben and Andrew begin with initial reactions to Meta’s settlement with 29 states, including behavioral remedies that will impose restrictions on teens using Facebook and Instagram. From there: Reactions to a report that Nvidia is set to acquire HuggingFace, including why a robust open source ecosystem looks increasingly urgent for Nvidia, and why OpenAI’s surprisingly impressive jalapeño chip underscores the point. At the end: Netflix pivots from a longstanding refusal to funnel customers to rivals, F1’s declining ratings on AppleTV, ESPN abandons the bottom line for college…

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