Cuban v Amodei: The Great AI Debate

Top News

• Will AI take your job or not?!: Earlier this week, in a chat with Axios, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggested that he thinks unemployment is about to soar — hitting 10% or even 20% over just the next five years. More specifically, Amodei predicts that AI could wipe out as many as half of all entry-level jobs in sectors like finance, law, and consulting, and adds that he thinks his fellow AI CEOs are “sugar-coating” the most dire consequences of their innovations. On Wednesday, Mark Cuban responded on Bluesky, arguing that AI advances will actually increase total employment. He sees AI as a “creative tool” making human workers more effective, not a “decision-maker” that takes over their duties. So who is right? We’ll have to wait five years to find out.

• Palmer Luckey rejoins Meta: 8 years after his heated departure, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey will once more collaborate with the Facebook parent through his defense company, Anduril Industries. Meta and Anduril are teaming for a new line of “rugged” AR/VR-friendly helmets, glasses, and wearables specifically for the military. They’ll feature a network of sensors, known as “EagleEye,” that enhance and expand a soldier’s hearing and vision in the field, while allowing them to interact in real-time with AI-powered weapons systems.

• Grammarly raises another $1 billion: The copyediting and writing assistant — a TWiST 500 company — raised the new funds from General Catalyst and others, and plan to use the funds to continue growing their AI apps and agents business. Grammarly currently claims more than 40 million MAUs, with annual revenue of more than $700 million, powered mostly by its writing helper that uses AI to assist in proofreading, paraphrasing, and other editorial work.

TWiST500

Flock Safety, a relatively recent entrant to the TWiST 500, produces a variety of surveillance hardware and software for police departments, neighborhood watch groups, property owners, and other customers who need to keep a constant, watchful eye on something. Their interconnected network of cameras is armed with image recognition tech, and paired with machine learning, making it a powerful tool for locating individuals wherever they may be, and whether or not they particularly want to be found.

While that’s obviously a huge selling point for police departments, who often find themselves tasked with tracking people down, it has raised red flags for activists concerned with civil liberties and opponents of mass surveillance more generally.

A story this week, first reported by 404 Media, is sure to add fuel to this fire. According to 404, authorities in Texas used Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to locate a woman they claim had performed a self-administered abortion. While abortion laws are already a divisive issue, what stands out most about this particular incident is that the search included cameras in states where abortion remains legal, such as Washington and Illinois. Flock’s scan ultimately involved 6,809 different networks, employing a total of 83,345 cameras.

There are extenuating issues in this particular case. Sheriff Adam King of Johnson County, whose office conducted the search, claims their mission was not punitive. Family members of the woman were concerned about her and had asked for help in locating her, for her own safety.

Still, the fact that Flock is enabling law enforcement to quickly and covertly conduct extraterritorial searches for suspects is nonetheless sure to raise some eyebrows. It’s a story that speaks to the remarkable effectiveness of their tracking technology, but also poses still-unanswered questions about how this will be used against US citizens. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2131: Jason’s in Singapore but he refuses to miss an episode, so we’re still doing TWiST. Along with Alex and Lon in the US, he check out Google’s new “Stitch” AI design took, examines Salesforce’s acquisition of Informatica and what it means for the wider world of M&A, and hypes up Circle’s IPO and the future of stablecoins. PLUS why Jason is bullish on Joby, Trump’s “golden share” of US steel, and much more.

E2130: On Friday’s pre-holiday TWiST, Jason, Alex and Lon talk about President Trump’s latest tariff announcement and its potential impact on Apple and iPhones. Plus, Claude gets a fresh upgrade, OnlyFans may be for sale, and the crew debates whether or not we really need “smart” toilets. PLUS the final round of the Founder Friday city competition! See who wins!

E2129: On a new TWiST, Jason and Alex are talking OpenAI’s collaboration with Jony Ive and predicting what this will mean for the future of AI hardware. PLUS Tesla and Waymo are battling it out for robotaxi market share, Microsoft partners with xAI, and Congress debates the stablecoin GENIUS Act. All that and Jason’s shoutout to influential online broadcaster (and “Dilbert” creator) Scott Adams.

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