[i_have_an_idea]

To be honest, until a month ago, I hadn't even heard of TBPN or seen any of their content. But, seemingly, out of nowhere, they managed to get all the leaders in AI to appear in their programming.

The core of the information they present isn't much different than what you'd hear on Dwarkesh or other industry podcasts, the presentation is some weird mix of ESPN and Mad Money that I personally don't get, but maybe makes sense to a US audience.

I don't see why that is interesting to OpenAI, but maybe I'm missing something.

[clueless]

Super confusing... seems like some sort of in with the VCs that can pull this program's guests was enough to create a new podcast that is now seen as influential. My best is, this was a side liquidity event for the openAI VCs that had somehow invested into the podcast, looking to get some money out of openAI stake.

[christoff12]

I like this theory for no other reason than it seems plausible lol

[thundergolfer]

Dwarkesh gets far more technical and in the weeds than TPBN. It’s very different. I can’t listen to TPBN though it seems fun but I’ll relisten to Dwarkesh episodes more than once.

[nojvek]

For anyone who really cares about AI in depth, Dwarkesh and the sxyz podcasts are the OG.

[born-jre]

have not heard of sxyz podcasts? searching yt did not gave anything meaningful

[oceansweep]

Likely meant 'swyx', https://www.latent.space/podcast

[swyx]

(came from f5 bot) haha yeah if any ai companies are looking i’ll talk for $200m!!!

[GorbachevyChase]

I don’t know. I find him pretty hard to listen to. He has admitted that his show prep is AI produced, and I think the gaps in his understanding come across in conversation. I also find his child-like irreverence and familiar tone with his guests to be very distasteful. He also can’t drink a pint of Guinness and you just can’t trust people like that.

[dyauspitr]

His elbows are too pointy?

[GorbachevyChase]

Did you listen to his interview with Amodei? The guy goes on about, “well don’t you know about such and such” or “yeah but an AI can’t learn like an intern…” like he’s trying to argue with him. Look, this is coming from a guy who hasn’t really done anything with his life other than be friends with people in San Francisco, talking to the head of a company that’s changing the way an entire industry operates. I think Dwarkesh just needs to shut up and listen. The total lack of respect puts me off.

[mlinsey]

Just based on the number of very prominent guests they get to do interviews, they clearly have a lot of viewers in influential tech/vc circles, even if their total audience size isn’t huge.

[i_have_an_idea]

That's true, but a lot of these people are also competitors. I can't imagine it'll be attractive going to the OpenAI media channel to talk about Gemini or Grok.

[xyst]

Me neither. Just seems like a money grab (tbpn founders getting a massive rip) and allows OpenAI to push corporate propaganda.

[popalchemist]

OpenAI is to TBPN what Fox is to Republicans. A propaganda puppet.

[pembrook]

OpenAI is the most well-capitalized startup in history, and simultaneously in the center of the most hated cycle in tech (AI) since the mechanized loom.

Isn't the arbitrage these guys ran using their VC connections pretty obvious? TBPN is one of the few professionalized-with-a-team media outlets that offers a positive view of AI vs. the doomer stance of all other media (by a factor of like 100 to 1).

Total audience size is irrelevant if a good percentage of the people in that audience are tech influencers/billionaires, regardless of how niche and mainstream-irrelevant outside of X that TBPN is.

Media properties, like sports teams, are different than other businesses. To the people who own them, influence can be far more important than cashflows. Hence why a surprisingly large percentage of 19th century newspapers in many countries are still under the control of the families who founded them (just look at the NY Times).

While acquiring a youtube channel with 50K subs for hundreds of millions is definitely dotcom bubble-esque nonsense and will be viewed as such looking back, it makes total sense to me why its happening.

[georgeven]

I have known about TBPN since early summer last year. They are widely known about in Cali startup culture at least.

[skeeter2020]

This is the IT version of "I was listening to them before they got big!". Just as nerdy.

[gkoberger]

American here.

I'm equally confused, but I think it's playing into the types of people who were previously into crypto or sports betting or prediction markets.

Every sports bar I go to, there's some middle-aged finance bro name referring to "Sam" like they're old friends or talking about how their NVIDIA stock is up. They're confidently predicting markets due to trends.

The stock market has been kinda monolithic the past decade or so. Things went up and down, but mostly in sync. AI represents a disruption; billion dollar companies can go to zero overnight and the right bet can be the next NVIDIA. So, this show matches that vibe.

tl;dr = it's for gamblers

[hrldcpr]

I would guess that the whole "manosphere" phenomenon helped cryptocurrencies and Trump, so probably can help OpenAI too?

[bargainbin]

Funny, this gave me strong manosphere vibes as well, despite ostensibly not being about using misogyny to extract wealth from incels.

[archeantus]

Distribution is the moat. This is distribution, I guess.

[tootie]

Conspiracy theory: they recorded a guest with egregious dirt on OpenAI and this money is to bury it. I have no proof and it's implausible but it makes more sense than the stated reasons.