Is AI Trending Up or Down in 2026? | AI Reality Check

4/23/20261 hr 13 min

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia 0:00 What has Actually Happened in AI in 2026? 3:07 Open Claw 27:53 Anthropic and the Department of War 49:06 Data Centers Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow https://www.axios.com/2026/01/31/ai-moltbook-human-need-tech https://www.macstories.net/stories/clawdbot-showed-me-what-the-future-of-personal-ai-assistants-looks-like/ https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war https://futurism.com/science-energy/data-centers-construction-supply Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clips

First 90 seconds

Cal Newport· Host0:00
AI news comes at you fast. Each article feels more breathless and more terrifying than the last. But before you have a chance to see how any particular story turns out, there's 10 more in its place. I think the speed and lack of accountability can create a sense of overwhelming disruption and change that can really be pretty disquieting. Well, it's Thursday, which means it's time for an AI reality check episode, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try to slow down this news onslaught and get a better sense of what has actually been happening in the AI space recently. All right, here's my plan. I've invited the AI commentator Ed Zitron to join me, and we're gonna look at three of the biggest stories about AI to land in twenty twenty-six so far, including one in which Ed is actually very much involved. And what we're gonna do is for each of these stories, we're gonna take a closer look on what actually happened and how things have since turned out. Our goal by the end of the episode is to answer a simple but critical question: Has twenty twenty-six been a good or bad year for AI so far? And we have a lot to cover, so let's get right into it. As always, I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions, the show for people seeking depth in a distracted world. And we'll get started right after the music.
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