#236: AI Answers - No Time for AI, AI Budgets, Vendor Terms & Data Risk, AI Disclosure & Vanishing Entry Level Roles

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1. 

   E241 · 22 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 37 min

   #241: Pacing the Frontier Gets Political, Why AI Labs Could Keep the Best Models for Themselves & Introducing the AI Transformation Blueprint

   AI-safety pacing became a political fight this week: Trump versus a bipartisan push, with data centers and the midterms in the middle. Paul and Mike go deeper on the part that matters more: the widening gap between the models labs keep and the ones you can use, Noam Brown's warning about it, and OpenAI's six new rogue-agent disclosures. Plus Paul's surprise book announcement and a full rapid-fire slate. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes : Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:29 — The AI Slowdown Gets (Very)…

2. 

   17 Sep 2026 · 36 min

   #240: How David’s Bridal Is Rebuilding a 76-Year-Old Business Around AI

   David's Bridal was built around one thing for 75 years: the dress. In this AI Transformations episode, Elina Vilk (President & Chief Business Officer) and Mike Ball (Head of Product) join Mike Kaput to explain how the company is reinventing itself around the whole wedding journey, the "aisle to algorithm" strategy. We get into Pearl Planner, the free AI wedding-planning companion now used by hundreds of thousands of couples with no marketing spend; Pearl Connect, the new vendor-side platform built on Google Cloud; the vision quiz and dynamic budgeting that make it work; and how David's own…

3. 

   E239 · 15 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 35 min

   #239: Labs Agree to Pace AI, OpenAI’s Math Breakthrough, AI Jobs Apocalypse Postponed & Jensen Declares AGI

   A former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher resigned with a warning that went viral, reigniting the "should we slow down?" debate. Then OpenAI said an internal model solved the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize problem - followed by a credit controversy with an NYU mathematician. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down this week’s latest stories, plus new data suggesting an AI jobs boom, Anthropic's 2030 economic scenarios, Jensen Huang declaring AGI has arrived, and a run of "agents gone wild" security incidents. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes : Access the…

4. 

   10 Sep 2026 · 39 min

   #238: How a 700-Person Bank Is Using AI to Build Apps, Agents, and Digital Employees

   A smaller bank replaced a $375,000 software contract by building its own tool, and now runs named "digital employees" that answer tickets, review its websites, and message staff in Teams. This is what an AI transformation actually looks like inside a regulated institution. CTO John Kowal joins Mike Kaput to unpack Peapack Private Bank and Trust's journey since 2023: flipping build-vs-buy, giving every AI agent a name and personality, building a network of 29 AI champions, and the guardrails that keep AI in check in banking. Part of the AI Transformations series, presented by Google Cloud.…

5. 

   E237 · 8 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 28 min

   #237: GPT-6 Astra, NYC Bans AI in Schools, Trump Goes All-In on Data Centers & Lawyers Under Pressure to Pass on AI Savings

   GPT-6 Astra can operate a computer for days at a time, and OpenAI is positioning it as the model that does the work, which is exactly why Paul says this launch felt less like a demo and more like a turning point. He and Mike dig into Astra's computer-use leap, the fumbled rollout, and the jobs question the labs keep sidestepping. Then: New York City's ban on student AI through 8th grade and the debate it set off, Trump going all-in on data centers as the fight reaches the midterms, the U.S. government backing OpenAI in the NYT copyright case, Wall Street banks pushing Big Law to cut fees,…

6. 

   E235 · 1 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 35 min

   #235: OpenAI-Hugging Face Hack Involved 100s of Agents, Bill Gates Now Pessimistic on Jobs, Nvidia Doubles Revenue & Anthropic Targets “$30 Trillion” TAM

   OpenAI's Hugging Face hack keeps getting stranger; new investigations show autonomous agents that coordinated, deceived, and pursued their goal at almost any cost. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down what it means for the models coming next. They also cover Bill Gates reversing his stance on AI and jobs, Nvidia doubling revenue and buying Hugging Face, Anthropic's $30 trillion revenue pitch and its court win, McKinsey's 2026 State of AI, and more in the rapid-fire section. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes : Access the show notes and show links here…

7. 

   E234 · 27 Aug 2026 · 33 min

   #234: How HubSpot Is Reimagining the Entire Customer Journey With AI Agents

   For twenty years, the percentage of time a B2B sales rep spends actually talking to customers has barely moved. Jon Dick, chief customer officer at HubSpot, thinks AI is the first thing that genuinely breaks that constraint, and he has three years of rebuilding to point to. In this AI Transformations episode, Jon takes Mike Kaput through HubSpot's agentic go-to-market model: the AEO strategy built for answer engines, the AI SDR handling most website chats, the assistant that moved win rate, and the org change that put every AI engineer under one leader. Show Notes : Access the show notes and…

8. 

   25 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 28 min

   #233: OpenAI Pauses Some AI Training, Anthropic Controversy, New State Opposition to Data Centers & AI Job Loss Among Young Workers

   OpenAI paused reinforcement learning on its most advanced models over cybersecurity concerns, saying its next model may cross a critical capability threshold. Paul's read: the labs aren't removing dangerous behaviors, they're suppressing them and suppressed behaviors can come back. Also this week: a very public argument over Anthropic's direction as it heads toward a possible $2 trillion IPO, Pennsylvania's crackdown on data centers, Nvidia's Ohio AI factory play, new Pew data on young Americans souring on AI, and humanoid robots in Beijing breaking records set by Usain Bolt. AI-Pulse…

9. 

   E232 · 18 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 24 min

   #232: Claude Watermarking, AI’s Environmental Impact, OpenAI Talent Drama & Anthropic’s Hidden Advisor

   Claude will now watermark the content it generates, and the fight over what that means for writing, schoolwork, and "AI plagiarism" is only starting. Paul and Mike unpack the watermarking news, then move through AI's environmental reckoning, OpenAI's very public friction with the White House, Anthropic's march toward a record IPO, Grok 4.6's return to the frontier, and an AI agent that hacked a gym website while trying to book a class. AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week’s AI-Pulse Survey here. Show Notes : Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:04 —…

10. 

    E231 · 13 Aug 2026 · 35 min

    #231: How Zapier Is Building an AI Marketing Brain

    Zapier's Chief Marketing and AI Transformation Officer Dan Slagen called a "code red" on his own marketing team, not because they were behind, but because he saw the bar moving from using AI to building with it. In this AI Transformations episode, Slagen tells Mike Kaput how Zapier moved from AI adoption to AI-native work: three tiers of builders, an AI-powered "marketing brain," the "lossless marketing" idea behind it, and why working in public mattered more than any single tool. Show Notes : Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:50 — Who Dan Slagen is…