Episodi

  • Memory

    Memory
    Mar 27 2026

    You probably won't remember this episode. That's partly the joke, and partly the point. Duncan and Ollie get into what AI is doing to human memory: why it's already unreliable, why offloading recall to a machine might be making it worse, and why you'll eventually stop noticing the difference between a decision you made and one a chatbot/agent made for you. Also: a 17p refund dispute, and Ollie's four-and-a-half-year search for a new car.

    Long or short on memory? They're both short. The argument is worth hearing anyway.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    33 min
  • Short Fuse News: Meta Confused, Vibe Coding, Bernie vs Claude, NVIDIA DLSS5

    Short Fuse News: Meta Confused, Vibe Coding, Bernie vs Claude, NVIDIA DLSS5
    Mar 20 2026

    Meta's VR retreat turns out to be more complicated than the LinkedIn takes suggested. Karpathy vibe-coded a jobs analysis, got ratio'd, and deleted it. Bernie Sanders got Claude to endorse a data centre moratorium, which tells you more about how these models work than it does about data centres. Nvidia's DLSS5 is yassifying your favourite game characters whether you asked for it or not. And the big tech giants signed a voluntary energy pledge at the White House, which is going about as well as the stakeholder capitalism open letter from 2019.

    Also: the Carey System gets its first official outing, Ollie is still not buying a car, and Duncan nearly gets something right about Jensen Huang.

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    39 min
  • Education

    Education
    Mar 13 2026
    Are teachers obsolete? Duncan and Ollie place their bets on the future of education in an age of AI tutors, personalised learning, and students who are angrier about AI than you'd expect. From Alpha Schools and their two-hour AI-led curriculum to Duncan's catastrophic one-out-of-ten test score that got a standing ovation from a chatbot, this one gets into the real questions: what is education actually for, who benefits when human teachers get replaced, and does any of this solve the fact that seven years of French lessons produced zero French speakers?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    42 min
  • Capitalism

    Capitalism
    Mar 6 2026
    What happens to capitalism when AI can outproduce 10,000 workers on a single GPU? When white collar jobs vanish, software builds itself, and the middlemen connecting buyers to sellers get replaced? Duncan and Ollie go long and short on the future of the entire economic system, using a viral (and wildly controversial) research report as their launchpad. They cover the barriers standing between today and full AI automation, why developer hiring keeps rising despite coding AI, the hidden RAM crisis driving up the price of everything from phones to cars, and what happens when consumers start pushing back against an infrastructure they never asked for. The answer to whether capitalism survives might be less about technology and more about how greedy, stubborn, and inventive humans turn out to be. Plus, a live AI-generated poem about economic collapse that invents at least one word.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    52 min
  • SHORT FUSE NEWS

    SHORT FUSE NEWS
    Mar 2 2026
    Ollie and Duncan are back with a quick news roundup, from layoffs and market-moving essays to the growing debate around AI safety and government contracts.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    20 min
  • Leadership

    Leadership
    Feb 12 2026
    Are human leaders becoming obsolete in the age of AI? Join Duncan and Ollie as they dig into the future of leadership. Discover if AI can truly replace the intuition, inspiration, and moral judgment of human leaders. This episode explores the subtle ways AI is reshaping leadership roles and questions whether our uniquely human traits can keep leadership alive. Perfect for anyone curious about the future of leadership in a tech-driven world. Hit play to find out if the future is leaderless or more human than ever.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    45 min
  • Moltbook, AI Catfighting, Silent Speech

    Moltbook, AI Catfighting, Silent Speech
    Feb 3 2026

    On this week's Short Fuse podcast, Duncan and Ollie dive into the latest tech intelligence dashboard to dissect the biggest stories shaking up the industry. From the persistent debates on government surveillance and job displacement to the "catfight" between AI giants, we break down what's hype and what's actually happening.


    We explore the rise of local AI agents like "MoltBot" and the security nightmares they might bring, alongside Apple's fascinating (and slightly creepy) acquisition of Q.AI for silent speech. Plus, we discuss Elon Musk's latest moves with SpaceX acquiring xAI and what it means for the future of tech valuation.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    40 min
  • Advertising

    Advertising
    Jan 26 2026

    OpenAI is finally bringing ads to ChatGPT. In this episode, Duncan and Ollie decide if they are Long or Short on this strategy.


    The cost of computing power is massive. We discuss whether advertising is the necessary answer for OpenAI or if it fundamentally breaks the utility of the product. The discussion covers the incentives behind the move, the likely impact on user behaviour, and what this signals for the wider industry.


    We debate if this is a smart commercial play or a sign of trouble.


    In this episode:


    Are we Long or Short on ChatGPT ads?


    The trade-off between user experience and revenue.


    First principles: Why ad-supported AI might look different than search.


    Subscribe to Short Fuse for more analysis on tech, culture, and where we are placing our bets.

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    39 min