What Does Winning At AI Even Look Like?

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Two years ago, this show was two guys and a Zoom link. This week we hit Episode 99 on our 2-year anniversary, and it's the longest one yet, because there was too much to leave out.

The centerpiece: a full down-ballot breakdown of North Carolina's 2026 midterms, the open Senate seat (Cooper vs. Whatley), the Supreme Court race (Earls vs. Stevens), the Don Davis rematch in CD-1, and the General Assembly races that actually draw the state's maps, including Senate Leader Phil Berger's primary loss. If you live in NC, this episode is basically your ballot guide: early voting runs October 15–31, and the registration deadline is Friday, October 9.

Then things got weird: the heads of OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI publicly aligned this week on slowing AI development, days after a whistleblower report. Chuck and Manny walk through why that alignment is either a genuine warning sign or a very convenient ask for government money, and why it matters either way.

We closed with the GOP's first-ever midterm convention and the $5,000 "tariff dividend" promise that needed a walk-back before the week was out. Jeezy does the math on what $5,000 actually buys once gas, groceries, and rent take their cut.

Pickle of the Week goes to Sen. John Fetterman. Spotlights cover the Fed's rate-hike odds, a lab-grown biological computer out of Singapore, and Mitch McConnell's expected return to the Senate floor.

Thank you for two years. We started this on a whim and you're the reason it's still going.

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