Explore every episode of the podcast Last Week in AI
Dive into the complete episode list for Last Week in AI. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
#222 - Sora 2, Sonnet 4.5, Vibes, Thinking Machines
07 Oct 2025
01:37:16
Our 222st episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
OpenAI introduced several new features, including SOA 2 for text-to-video generation, Claude Sonnet 4.5 for coding and agentic tasks, and the pulse feature for personalized morning briefs.
Meta launched a new AI video creation feature called Vibes in its Meta AI app and on meta.ai, facing mixed reactions from the public regarding AI-generated content.
California's SB 53, the Transparency in Frontier AI Act, has become law, requiring large AI companies to disclose safety and security processes, while SB 942 mandates AI detection tools for user-generated content.
AI regulations and industry dynamics, including battles over intellectual property, startup funding, and the integration of AI into everyday tools and services like Microsoft's AI agents for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
OpenAI releases a new version of Codex integrated with GPT-5, enhancing coding capabilities and aiming to compete with other AI coding tools like Cloud Code.
Significant updates in the robotics sector include new ventures in humanoid robots from companies like Figure AI and China’s Unitree, as well as expansions in robotaxi services from Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox.
New open-source models and research advancements were discussed, including Google's DeepMind's self-improving foundation model for robotics and a physics foundation model aimed at generalizing across various physical systems.
Legal battles continue to surface in the AI landscape with Warner Bros. suing MidJourney for copyright violations and Rolling Stone suing Google over AI-generated content summaries, highlighting challenges in AI governance and ethics.
OpenAI introduces O3 PRO for ChatGPT, highlighting significant improvements in performance and cost-efficiency.
Anthropic sees an influx of talent from OpenAI and DeepMind, with significantly higher retention rates and competitive advantages in AI capabilities.
New research indicates that reinforcing negative responses in LLMs significantly improves performance across all metrics, highlighting novel approaches in reinforcement learning.
A security flaw in Microsoft Copilot demonstrates the growing risk of AI agents being hacked, emphasizing the need for robust protection against zero-click attacks.
Quantum Physics Made Me Do It tells the story of human self-understanding through the lens of physics. It explores what we can and can’t know about reality, and how tiny tweaks to quantum theory can reshape our entire picture of the universe. And because I couldn't resist, it explains what that story means for AI and the future of sentience
You can find it on Amazon in the UK, Canada, and the US — here are the links:
Quantum Physics Made Me Do It tells the story of human self-understanding through the lens of physics. It explores what we can and can’t know about reality, and how tiny tweaks to quantum theory can reshape our entire picture of the universe. And because I couldn't resist, it explains what that story means for AI and the future of sentience
You can find it on Amazon in the UK, Canada, and the US — here are the links:
(00:00) Intro / Banter
(04:35) Episode Preview
(06:00) Russia's Sberbank releases ChatGPT rival GigaChat + Hugging Face releases its own version of ChatGPT + Stability AI launches StableLM, an open source ChatGPT alternative
(14:30) Stack Overflow joins Reddit and Twitter in charging AI companies for training data + Inside the secret list of websites that make AI like ChatGPT sound smart
(24:45) Big Tech is racing to claim its share of the generative AI market
(27:42) Microsoft Building Its Own AI Chip on TSMC's 5nm Process
(30:45) Snapchat’s getting review-bombed after pinning its new AI chatbot to the top of users’ feeds
(33:30) Create generative AI video-to-video right from your phone with Runway’s iOS app
(35:50) Align your Latents: High-Resolution Video Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models
(40:30) Autonomous Agents & Agent Simulations
(46:13) Scaling Transformer to 1M tokens and beyond with RMT
(49:05) Meet MiniGPT-4: An Open-Source AI Model That Performs Complex Vision-Language Tasks Like GPT-4
(50:50) Visual Instruction Tuning
(52:25) AudioGPT: Understanding and Generating Speech, Music, Sound, and Talking Head
(54:05) Performance of ChatGPT on the US Fundamentals of Engineering Exam: Comprehensive Assessment of Proficiency and Potential Implications for Professional Environmental Engineering Practice
(58:20) ChatGPT is still no match for humans when it comes to accounting
(01:01:13) Large Language Models Are Human-Level Prompt Engineers
(01:05:00) RedPajama, a project to create leading open-source models, starts by reproducing LLaMA training dataset of over 1.2 trillion tokens
(01:05:55) Do Embodied Agents Dream of Pixelated Sheep: Embodied Decision Making using Language Guided World Modelling
(01:08:45) Fundamental Limitations of Alignment in Large Language Models
(01:11:35) Harnessing the Power of LLMs in Practice: A Survey on ChatGPT and Beyond
(01:15:40) Tool Learning with Foundation Models
(01:17:20) With AI Watermarking, Creators Strike Back
(01:22:02) EU lawmakers pass draft of AI Act, includes copyright rules for generative AI
(01:26:44) How can we build human values into AI?
(01:32:20) How prompt injection can hijack autonomous AI agents like Auto-GPT
(01:34:30) AI Simply Needs a Kill Switch
(01:39:35) Anthropic calls for $15 million in funding to boost the government’s AI risk assessment work
(01:41:48) ‘AI isn’t a threat’ – Boris Eldagsen, whose fake photo duped the Sony judges, hits back
(01:45:20) AI Art Sites Censor Prompts About Abortion
(01:48:15) Outro
Quantum Physics Made Me Do It tells the story of human self-understanding through the lens of physics. It explores what we can and can’t know about reality, and how tiny tweaks to quantum theory can reshape our entire picture of the universe. And because I couldn't resist, it explains what that story means for AI and the future of sentience
You can find it on Amazon in the UK, Canada, and the US — here are the links:
Recent AI podcast covers significant AI news: startups, new tools, applications, investments in hardware, and research advancements.
Discussions include the introduction of various new tools and applications such as Flux's new image generating models and Perplexity's new spreadsheet and dashboard functionalities.
A notable segment focuses on OpenAI's partnership with the UAE and discussions on potential legislation aiming to prevent states from regulating AI for a decade.
Concerns around model behaviors and safety are discussed, highlighting incidents like Claude Opus 4's blackmail attempt and Palisade Research's tests showing AI models bypassing shutdown commands.
Google's Gemini diffusion technology showcases significant improvements in speed and efficiency for generating text, potentially revolutionizing the auto-regressive generation paradigm.
Anthropic activates AI Safety Level 3 protections for Claude Opus 4, implementing robust measures such as bug bounties, synthetic jailbreak data, and preliminary egress bandwidth controls to mitigate bio-risk threats.
OpenAI responds to the California Attorney General, refuting claims by the not-for-private-gain coalition and defending their controversial restructuring plans amidst ongoing criticism.
Mistral delays the release of its Llama 4 Behemoth model due to training challenges, while Meta faces similar obstacles in rolling out its large-scale AI models, signaling difficulties in reaching frontier level performance.
#99 - Drone Mail Delivery, Human-Robot Teamwork, ToxiGen, Robot Companions
02 Jun 2022
00:47:36
Our 99th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
#98 - Autonomous Boats, DeepMind’s General AI, Google’s DALLE-2, Cringe AI Novel
28 May 2022
00:46:37
Our 98th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
(38:12) Fatal Tesla Model S Crash in California Prompts Federal Probe - "The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating a fatal crash involving a 2022 Tesla Model S that may have had its automated driving system activated."
(39:10) Facebook issues $397 checks to Illinois residents as part of class-action - "More than a million Illinois residents will receive a $397 settlement payment from Facebook this week, thanks to a legal battle over the platform’s since-retired photo-tagging system that used facial recognition."
(39:50) Clearview AI's Facial Recognition Tool Coming to Apps, Schools - “Clearview AI is expanding sales of its facial recognition software to companies from mainly serving the police, it told Reuters, inviting scrutiny on how the startup capitalizes on billions of photos it scrapes from social media profiles. Instead of online photo comparisons, the new private-sector offering matches people to ID photos and other data that clients collect with subjects' permission. It is meant to verify identities for access to physical or digital spaces.”
#97 - New Google AI Features, Enzyme Discovery, Clearview AI Ban, Kendric Lamar Deepfakes
18 May 2022
00:43:12
Our 97th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
#96 - FDA Clearances, Firing at Google AI, AI for Apple Watch, Beer and Wine Reviews
13 May 2022
00:45:12
Our 96th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
#95 - AI Kills Cookie Pop-Ups, Models Volcanoes, Screens for Child Neglect, Paints Harry Potter
05 May 2022
00:43:07
Our 95th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
OpenAI has decided not to transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity, instead opting to become a public benefit corporation influenced by legal and civic discussions.
Trump administration meetings with Saudi Arabia and the UAE have opened floodgates for AI deals, leading to partnerships with companies like Nvidia and aiming to bolster AI infrastructure in the Middle East.
DeepMind introduced Alpha Evolve, a new coding agent designed for scientific and algorithmic discovery, showing improvements in automated code generation and efficiency.
OpenAI pledges greater transparency in AI safety by launching the Safety Evaluations Hub, a platform showcasing various safety test results for their models.
#94 - AI Driving Instructors, MASSIVE Speech Dataset, AI ’Show Stealers’, Tesla Jet Crash
29 Apr 2022
00:46:46
Our 94th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Zencastr, our go-to tool for recording the podcast. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. Go to http://zen.ai/lastweekinai and get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account!
Warning: some curse words are used in this episode towards the end
Nurse-assisting robotics firm Diligent raises $30M - "We’ve seen robotics applied to just about every other field of late, so why not nursing — a field that will require one million new faces to keep up with demand in the U.S. alone?
(7:50) Deep Learning Poised to ‘Blow Up’ Famed Fluid Equations - "For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that “blowup” is near."
(11:20) Analog A.I.? It sounds crazy, but it might be the future - "Forget digital. The future of A.I. is … analog? At least, that’s the assertion of Mythic, an A.I. chip company that’s, its own words, taking “a leap forward in performance in power” by going back in time. Sort of."
(18:45) House lawmakers launch investigation of face-scan contractor ID.me - "The House probe marks an escalation of years of controversy over the government’s growing reliance on facial recognition, which boiled over earlier this year after the IRS said it would require Americans to scan their faces in order to access their IRS tax accounts."
AI turns infrared images taken in total darkness into full colour - "The black-and-white images provided by night-vision cameras can be colourised using AI, but it must always be trained on similar images and is unlikely to ever work on unfamiliar general scenes"
Applications & Business
(12:15) First autonomous X-ray-analyzing AI is cleared in the EU - "An artificial intelligence tool that reads chest X-rays without oversight from a radiologist got regulatory clearance in the European Union last week — a first for a fully autonomous medical imaging AI, the company, called Oxipit, said in a statement."
Face scanner Clearview AI aims to branch out beyond police - “The new "consent-based" product, with aspirations of competing with Amazon and Microsoft, would use Clearview's algorithms to verify a person's face for bank transactions or commercial purposes.”
Google Says AI Generated Content Is Against Guidelines - "Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller says content automatically generated with AI writing tools is considered spam, according to the search engine’s webmaster guidelines."
OpenAI showcases new integration capabilities in their API, enhancing the performance of LLMs and image generators with updated functionalities and improved user interfaces.
Analysis of OpenAI's preparedness framework reveals updates focusing on biological and chemical risks, cybersecurity, and AI self-improvement, while tone down the emphasis on persuasion capabilities.
Anthropic's research highlights potential security vulnerabilities in AI models, demonstrating various malicious use cases such as influence operations and hacking tool creation.
A detailed examination of AI competition between the US and China reveals China's impending capability to match the US in AI advancement this year, emphasizing the impact of export controls and the importance of geopolitical strategy.
Looking Back at AI in 2021 with Jeremie from Towards Data Science
06 Jan 2022
00:49:32
For our first episode in 2022, we are joined with our friends from the Towards Data Science podcast to discuss our thoughts about the AI-related trends and events that happened in 2021.
Some things we discuss are:
Foundation models continue to grow, but one interesting trend is the focus on efficiency along with (instead of?) scale. For example, while DeepMind’s Gopher model has fewer than twice the parameters of GPT-3, it’s reportedly 25 times more efficient, meaning that much more value is being squeezed out of the same training data and compute. AI21Labs’ Jurrassic models are also equal to GPT-3 on a parameter count basis, but reflect a focus on architecture optimization over raw scaling that we expect to persist into 2022. (That’s not to say significant scaling won’t happen, or that it hasn’t happened already; Microsoft Turing-NLG, released a few months ago, is over half a trillion parameters in size. But it’s safe to say that scaling won’t be done without simultaneous efficiency optimizations that were less of a focus in late-2020.)
Procedural environment generation has been a big theme in reinforcement learning. In Open-Ended Learning Leads to Generally Capable Agents, the team at DeepMind showed how training RL agents on a wide range of environments can lead to emergent behaviour associated with generalization, like trial and error and cooperation with friendly agents.
Open-ended learning (OEL) seems like an interesting wildcard, which some researchers think might be an important ingredient in the final AGI recipe. We spoke with OpenAI’s head of open-ended learning, Ken Stanley, about what role OEL might play in the future of AI on this episode of the TDS podcast.
A NeurIPS spotlight paper titled Optimal Policies Tend to Seek Power, and subsequent work by the same author, are showing that we should expect highly capable AI systems to engage in dangerous behaviour that’s misaligned with human values, by default. Specifically, highly competent agents will tend to search for states that are powerful, in the sense that they offer many downstream options. This finding makes a compelling case that AI alignment ought to be prioritized, particularly given the rate of progress we’re seeing in AI capabilities more broadly. If it really is the case that capable AI systems will be dangerous by default, active effort must be invested in safety research.