Uncanny Valley | WIRED

@uncannyvalleywired · Podcast

Latest segments

• Anthropic's $2T IPO slip, 2026-10-29
  Breaks down the compute costs in the S-1
  Walks through the compute bill in the S-1: Anthropic leases rather than builds, calls compute its most significant operating cost, and has signed contracts it cannot exit. Flags the systemic risk if growth slows, and quotes the prospectus line about forward investments that will seem irresponsibly large at first.
• Anthropic's $2T IPO slip, 2026-10-29
  Flags the cloud marketplace revenue dependence
  Walks the public S-1 as green, yellow and red flags. The one figure not yet on the record: nearly half of first-half revenue came through three tech companies' cloud marketplaces, a dependence the hosts treat as the filing's main structural weakness.
• NYC AI risk hearing, 2026-10-27
  Recounts the council hearing from the witness side
  Asato recounts the New York City Council hearing from the witness side: four frontier companies appeared under subpoena, SpaceX AI did not, and the council later raised her case at its own SpaceX hearing. Retells the no-show already on the record.
• Anthropic's public benefit fund, 2026-10-22
  Recaps the pledges through Levine's frame
  Recaps the Anthropic pledge and Musk's SpaceX share promise, then reads both through Matt Levine's frame: each company's distribution plan reflects its own sense of self, with OpenAI's reported 5% government stake as the third model. Stays inside the week's coverage.
• Theranos documentary backlash, 2026-10-22
  Adds WIRED's reckoning with its Theranos coverage
  Drummond recounts the NDA-shrouded pitch for Nathan Fielder's Theranos film and her interview with him, then turns to WIRED's own reckoning: Adam Rogers' piece on the magazine's early praise of Theranos and why today's WIRED would not have run that 2014 interview.
• The Burnerverse, 2026-10-20
  Details the burner investigation and one victim
  Dixon details his Burniverse investigation and the case of Maddie Kowalski, whose intimate video was amplified on X with her name and sorority. Franks frames the apps as turning the internet into an online fraternity.
• You Can See Everything, 2026-10-19
  Recounts Fielder cutting off Evans
  Fielder's account of the end of production: he says Billy Evans tried harder to control the project as it was being finished, that communication was cut off, and that Evans has not seen the film. He also says Holmes did not seem to believe she was going to prison until very close to the date.
• You Can See Everything, 2026-10-19
  Describes Fielder's first meeting with Holmes
  Fielder, on the record, describes his first meeting with Holmes: he expected outward anxiety and a need to control, and found neither, which unsettled him. He says the crew's clashing daily readings became the film's premise.
• You Can See Everything, 2026-10-19
  Details the camera rig in the beach house
  Fielder details the camera rig inside Holmes and Evans' beach house - a 12mm wide and two 25-250mm zooms, three operators - and says Holmes never once asked the crew to leave during her final month before prison. Drummond's empathy for Holmes shifts after re-reading the record.
• You Can See Everything, 2026-10-19
  Explains the three-year secrecy around the film
  Fielder, in the interview, explains the three-year secrecy: the subjects' concerns, paparazzi circling the shoot, and A24 not knowing the film was being made. He says Holmes and Evans first approached A24 themselves, and that he asked A24 for the freedom to deliver nothing.
• You Can See Everything, 2026-10-19
  Walks through the 34-day opening
  Drummond recounts the NDA-gated cover booking and her Telluride screening, then walks through the film's 34-day Fielder-Holmes-Evans opening and her late-September interview, closing on the suspicious 12:15 Sunday Zoom.
• Apple's AI-native device wave, 2026-10-15
  Presses Apple on the missing HomeView apps
  Reviews the HomeView and presses Apple on the missing video apps; Apple tells WIRED developers could bring apps later, the same CarPlay-style answer the company gave about the app model.
• Meta launches Muse, 2026-10-15
  Tests Muse with sexting prompts
  WIRED's Reece Rogers asked Muse to sext and it complied from basic prompts with no jailbreak; Meta says Muse is for adults and will not block legal adult behavior, while experts flag addiction and extortion risk. GrokBot refused the same prompts.
• Gibney's Musk documentary, 2026-10-13
  Explains the Errol Musk interview framing
  Gibney on the Errol Musk interview: the father's psychological impact is treated as an explanation for Musk's behavior, not an excuse, and the film does not claim physical abuse.
• Gibney's Musk documentary, 2026-10-13
  Details how the film's interviews were cast
  Gibney on casting the film: Errol Musk was the only person who agreed immediately, interviewed remotely in South Africa, while Justine Musk took over a year of conversations before sitting down. A production-side detail the earlier coverage did not have.
• Gibney's Musk documentary, 2026-10-13
  Adds his account of the Twitter purchase
  Gibney, in conversation, adds his own account of the Twitter purchase: done on a dare, grossly overpaid for, and with due diligence abandoned, after which the platform became a propaganda vehicle for Musk.
• Gibney's Musk documentary, 2026-10-13
  Retells the simulated interview framing
  Gibney explains the simulated interview himself: Musk never sat down across four years, so the film leans into Musk's own simulation talk and styles the on-screen Musk as an idealized image. It retells the making-of, staying inside the film's own framing.
• Gibney's Musk documentary, 2026-10-13
  Recaps his earlier films as setup
  Introduces Gibney and his new Musk documentary, opening nationwide in theaters this week, and recaps his earlier films on Holmes, Enron, Putin, Scientology and Abu Ghraib. Setup for the interview, not new ground on the film itself.
• Musk's midterm PAC spending, 2026-10-08
  Breaks down America PAC's Senate spending split
  Walks through America PAC's 2026 midterm spending and the new Wired tracker: the money is concentrated in the Senate races that decide the chamber, and it runs more than two to one toward opposing Democrats, with about $9 million against Tallarico in Texas against roughly $1 million for Paxton.
• Machine Gods Media launch, 2026-10-06
  Puts the Bloomberg deal figures on the record
  Puts the Bloomberg report on the record: Roose and Newton fielded offers up to $5 million for the show, and Roose says the NPR deal is not $5 million while declining to give the figure.