Luxury Space Communism: Is AI Profitable?, Executive Orders, the Pope's Encyclical

Luxury Space Communism: Is AI Profitable?, Executive Orders, the Pope's Encyclical

Today is a Carly^2 episode with Carly Ho, a software engineer-slash-paralegal. We discuss the website isaiprofitable.com [http://isaiprofitable.com] and recent developments in AI economics, a postponed executive order from Trump and a real one from Gavin Newsom, and the Pope's AI encyclical and the value of having a variety of perspectives. -- Show notes: AI economics * https://isaiprofitable.com [https://isaiprofitable.com]  * Anthropic projects Q2 operating profit https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/the-briefing/anthropic-likely-generating-least-35-revenue-openai [https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/the-briefing/anthropic-likely-generating-least-35-revenue-openai] * https://stratechery.com/2026/the-spacex-ipo-and-data-centers-in-space/ [https://stratechery.com/2026/the-spacex-ipo-and-data-centers-in-space/]  AI exec orders * Trump order postponed https://www.axios.com/2026/05/21/trump-ai-executive-order-postponed-why [https://www.axios.com/2026/05/21/trump-ai-executive-order-postponed-why?ref=platformer.news] * Gavin Newsom order https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/21/governor-newsom-signs-first-of-its-kind-executive-order-to-prepare-workers-and-businesses-for-potential-ai-disruption/ [https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/21/governor-newsom-signs-first-of-its-kind-executive-order-to-prepare-workers-and-businesses-for-potential-ai-disruption/]  "Widening the conversation on AI" https://www.anthropic.com/news/widening-conversation-ai [https://www.anthropic.com/news/widening-conversation-ai]  * Pope Leo XIV on AI https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html [https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html]   * Anthropic exec remarks at presentation https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical [https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical]

Nonsense Grounds: AI in Law, LLM Ethics, Google IO, AI Leaders' Response to Backlash

Today's episode is focused on AI in law, and features Sarah Frankel, an Australian laywer working in immigration. We discuss the trend of lawyers submitting AI-generated briefs with hallucinated citations, where LLM tools can be useful for lawyers, how the problems we see in law are common across all domains, the issues that arise when you have LLMs making ethical decisions, how LLMs value facts, how changes to Google Search will affect the internet, the response of Sundar Pichai and other AI leaders to the AI backlash, and why a lot of AGI belief is more religious than anything. Find Sarah on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-frankel-570749134/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-frankel-570749134/] -- Show notes: Discussed in "AI in Law" section: * https://www.404media.co/18-lawyers-caught-using-ai-explain-why-they-did-it/ [https://www.404media.co/18-lawyers-caught-using-ai-explain-why-they-did-it/] * https://www.harvey.ai/blog/building-a-legal-coworker-with-gpt-5 [https://www.harvey.ai/blog/building-a-legal-coworker-with-gpt-5] * https://claude.com/blog/claude-for-the-legal-industry [https://claude.com/blog/claude-for-the-legal-industry] * https://mpathic.ai/mpact-misinformation-benchmark/ [https://mpathic.ai/mpact-misinformation-benchmark/] * https://www.anthropic.com/constitution [https://www.anthropic.com/constitution] Discussed in Google IO section: * https://www.businessinsider.com/google-new-ai-search-will-ruin-internet-web-2026-5 [https://www.businessinsider.com/google-new-ai-search-will-ruin-internet-web-2026-5]?  * https://www.platformer.news/google-agents-daily-brief-newsletters-ask-youtube/ [https://www.platformer.news/google-agents-daily-brief-newsletters-ask-youtube/]  * https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/podcasts/our-field-trip-to-google-i-o-a-sit-down-with-sundar-pichai-system-update.html [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/podcasts/our-field-trip-to-google-i-o-a-sit-down-with-sundar-pichai-system-update.html]

Skill Issue: Agentic Coding Tools, Circular Funding Deals, Double Standards in Content Policy

Today's show is cohosted by Oz Brown! Oz is nontraditional software engineer who went through bootcamp at Amazon after a history doing creative work, including voice acting, and customer support, including for Xbox. We talk about the philosophy and current state of agentic coding tools, the Anthropic-SpaceX deal and the state of circular funding, and the double standards in platform content policy and copyright enforcement. -- Show Notes: State of AI coding tools * https://ramp.com/leading-indicators/ai-index-may-2026 [https://ramp.com/leading-indicators/ai-index-may-2026]  * Are software engineers' brains rotting https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/ [https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/]  Circular finance * https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-ai-circular-deals/ [https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-ai-circular-deals/] * https://www.anthropic.com/news/higher-limits-spacex [https://www.anthropic.com/news/higher-limits-spacex] * https://www.platformer.news/did-xai-just-concede-the-ai-race/ [https://www.platformer.news/did-xai-just-concede-the-ai-race/]    Copyright/content policies and inconsistent enforcement * Kickstarter: https://www.comicsbeat.com/kickstarter-nsfw-ban-story/ [https://www.comicsbeat.com/kickstarter-nsfw-ban-story/]

Multiple Specialized Throbbing Brains: AI & Jobs, UBI, PSM

This week I'm joined by Frank Kane, independent educator and one of the handful of people I know posting sane takes about AI on LinkedIn. We have the AI job loss conversation in the context of reporting that software engineer job listings are actually rising, go over recent developments in the realm of universal basic income (or similar things), and then talk about Anthropic's "Persona Selection Model" as a new framework for thinking about how LLM's work. Find more about Frank at: https://www.sundog-education.com/ [https://www.sundog-education.com/] -- Show Notes: Is AI killing jobs? Update * https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/opinion/ai-jobs-unemployment-silicon-valley.html [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/opinion/ai-jobs-unemployment-silicon-valley.html?unlocked_article_code=1.f1A.Ax4x.HdNCkCgVSsk_&smid=url-share] * https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-isnt-killing-software-coding-jobs-booming-trueup-2026-4 [https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-isnt-killing-software-coding-jobs-booming-trueup-2026-4] UBI developments * https://www.platformer.news/ubi-ai-public-wealth-fund-musk-openai-bores/ [https://www.platformer.news/ubi-ai-public-wealth-fund-musk-openai-bores/]  * OpenAI policy doc https://openai.com/index/industrial-policy-for-the-intelligence-age/ [https://openai.com/index/industrial-policy-for-the-intelligence-age/]  * Elon Musk tweet https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2044990537145753894 [https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2044990537145753894]  * Andrew Yang https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/podcasts/hardfork-tim-cook-yang-ubi.html [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/podcasts/hardfork-tim-cook-yang-ubi.html]  * Alex Bores proposal https://www.alexbores.nyc/files/Bores-Dividend_Policy.pdf [https://www.alexbores.nyc/files/Bores-Dividend_Policy.pdf] Persona Selection Model https://www.anthropic.com/research/persona-selection-model [https://www.anthropic.com/research/persona-selection-model]

Programming Note: Schedule & Format Changes

There will be a hiatus in weekly episodes of this podcast and there may be some newer things coming soon! Email podcast@graphenesoftware.com [podcast@graphenesoftware.com] with suggestions or if you'd like to come on the pod!