Episode Details

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
- Consensus: AI for Research. Get a free month - https://get.consensus.app/automated_daily
- Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad
- Invest Like the Pros with StockMVP - https://www.stock-mvp.com/?via=ron


Support The Automated Daily directly:
Buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/theautomateddaily

Today's topics:

Open-weight AI power struggle - Y Combinator's Garry Tan says U.S. open-weight AI labs should be allowed to use distillation, while Cohere's Aidan Gomez warns against safety rules shaped by dominant incumbents. The debate over open models, regulation, China, and competition is becoming one of the biggest strategic AI stories of 2026.

New limits on self-improving AI - A new Princeton-led study tested whether an advanced AI agent could do real AI research under realistic conditions. The results suggest recursive self-improvement may be farther away, because models still struggle with creativity, judgment, and novel scientific insight.

Biosecurity warnings split experts - Fresh warnings about AI and biological weapons are reigniting the fight over near-term biosecurity risk. Anthropic says it disrupted harmful use attempts, while other researchers argue current AI still lacks the real-world capability needed for weapon creation.

AI jobs and human value - A widely discussed essay argues AI is not a normal technology because it could automate new work as fast as it creates it. That raises hard questions about labor displacement, authenticity, expertise, and the long-term value of human-made work.

Jaron Lanier on AI skepticism - On StarTalk, Jaron Lanier argued that AI is not an independent mind but a human-built system shaped by incentives and business models. His comments on VR, social media, and the internet offer a broader critique of how tech can drift away from human goals.

-Garry Tan Pushes for U.S. Open-Weight AI Distillation
-Reading List on Open-Source AI and Open Models
-Jaron Lanier Says AI Is Human-Made, Not Truly Artificial
-Study Finds AI Still Struggles With Open-Ended Research
-Cohere CEO Says AI Rules Should Not Be Written by Big Tech
-AI Is Not a Normal Technology
-Airbnb and Dorset B&B Clash Over the Letters “bnb”
-Experts Split Over AI Biosecurity Warning


Episode Transcript

Open-weight AI power struggle
First, the fight over open-weight AI is t