This Week in Tech (Audio) This Week in Tech (Audio)

TWiT 1087: Evil is the Root of All Money - Could Local AI Laptops Compete With Data Center Giants?

Jun 8, 2026 · 2h 43m

Summary

Hosts Leo Laporte, Father Robert Ballas, Jeff Jarvis, and Joey Davila discuss the massive IPO filings from Anthropic, SpaceX, and OpenAI, alongside NVIDIA’s Computex announcements and Microsoft’s Build conference. The panel debates the sustainability of the AI data center boom, questioning if it resembles a bubble, and explores Anthropic’s claims of recursive self-improvement. They also delve into philosophical questions regarding AI consciousness, digital versus analog processing, and the ethical implications raised by a new papal encyclical.

Topics discussed

Intro: TWIT from the Vatican and guest introductions Big Tech AI spending: Google, Meta, and data center overbuild Anthropic's Mythos model and AI coding productivity OpenAI's ChatGPT overhaul and the industrial revolution analogy Geoffrey Hinton's views on AI, consciousness, and digital minds Sponsors: ExpressVPN and local AI hardware discussions Apple's AI strategy, local models, and NVIDIA's Vera Rubin Microsoft Build announcements and IBM's wearable AI The Vatican's custom LLM trained on religious texts Thinkst Canary security tools and retirement community humor Sponsors: Melissa data quality and Helix Sleep Meta smart glasses, facial recognition, and AI regulation FCC router security, Bing rewards, and network privacy YouTube growth, AI-generated content, and media consumption Outro: Jeff Jarvis's audiobook and final thoughts
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