Elon Musk’s Mega-Merger + We Test Google’s Project Genie + What’s Next for Moltbook Creator
2/6/20261 hr 4 min
This week, the A.I. initial-public-offering race is heating up! We break down SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI, as well as OpenAI and Nvidia’s messy situationship. Then, it’s time for show and tell. We got our hands on the latest experimental A.I. prototype from Google called Project Genie, and we discuss our experience using it to generate and navigate video-game-like environments. Finally, we’re joined by Moltbook’s founder, Matt Schlicht, to discuss his new social media platform for A.I. agents, and how he’s planning to deal with security risks and spam on the site.
Guest:
- Matt Schlicht, creator of Moltbook
Additional Reading:
- Elon Musk Merges SpaceX With His A.I. Start-Up xAI
- The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice
- Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds
- An A.I. Pioneer Warns the Tech ‘Herd’ Is Marching Into a Dead End
- Moltbook Mania Explained
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Kevin Roose· Host0:34
Did you hear about the prediction market grocery wars?
Casey Newton· Host0:36
No, what's going on over there?
Kevin Roose· Host0:38
So in New York City, Polymarket and Kalshi are doing dueling stunts, uh, involving groceries.
Casey Newton· Host0:45
Okay.
Kevin Roose· Host0:45
So Kalshi launched a $50 grocery giveaway at an East Village grocery store, and Polymarket said that they are opening a whole grocery store that's gonna be totally free, subsidized, of course, by the [chuckles] tears of the gambling addicts who power their site.
Casey Newton· Host1:00
Wait, a free grocery store?
Kevin Roose· Host1:01
A free grocery store. They're calling it The Polymarket. I checked, it's not just for poly people. [laughing] If you're monogamous, you can go, too. But yeah, for five days, they're doing a, uh, free grocery store in New York City.
Casey Newton· Host1:12
Just for five days.
Kevin Roose· Host1:13
Yeah.
Casey Newton· Host1:13
It seems... I, I saw someone make a comment about this online, which is, it seems like these people feel like they have about 20 minutes left to generate goodwill before they're just sort of shut down by the police. [laughing] Is that what's going on here?
Kevin Roose· Host1:26
[laughing] I'm not sure what's going on, but, uh- I don't think you open