Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 06/18 – Oh Yeah. What About TikTok?

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Remember how that TikTok ban or sale thing has never been resolved? Yeah. Sam Altman describes the money he says Meta is throwing at AI researchers. Is xAI the one with the real money crunch in the AI race? And a review of the first of this new wave of smartglasses. Sponsors: Quince.com/ridehome Links: Trump will grant TikTok another 90-day extension in enforcement of sale-or-ban law (CNNBusiness) Sam Altman says Meta tried and failed to poach OpenAI’s talent with $100M offers (TechCrunch) Musk’s xAI Burns Through $1 Billion a Month as Costs Pile Up (Bloomberg) YouTube to Add Google’s Veo 3 to Shorts in Move That Could Turbocharge AI on the Video Platform (The Hollywood Reporter) Amazon expects to cut corporate jobs as it relies more on AI (NBCNews) Xreal’s One Pro Are a Stopgap Ahead of True AR Smart Glasses (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeBrain Home for Wednesday, June 18th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Remember how that TikTok banner sale thing has never been resolved? Yeah. Sam Altman describes the money he says meta is throwing at AI researchers. Is XAI the one with the real money crunch in the AI race? And a review of the first of this new wave of smart glasses. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. From the remember this is still going on in the background file, President Trump, apparently plans to sign an executive order this week to grant TikTok another 90-day extension

in enforcement of that sale or ban law. This marks his third extension of this saga. Quoting CNN business, President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running, Caroline Levitt, White House press secretary said in a statement. As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. This extension will last 90 days, which the administration will spend working to ensure this deal is close. so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure, end quote. Trump's latest enforcement delay raises questions about the status of a deal that could secure TikTok's long-term future in the United States. The Chinese government has offered little public indication that it would be willing to approve a sale beyond suggesting that any deal could not include TikTok's algorithm,

which has been called the app's secret sauce. Tuesday's announcement comes after the United States and China agreed on a framework to ease export controls a move that's expected to ease tension, and prevent further escalation of export and other restrictions between the two countries. It's not clear whether a TikTok deal is included in the framework, but cooperation between the two sides could make an agreement to transfer control of the app to a U.S. buyer more likely. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that a TikTok deal would, quote, probably require approval by the Chinese government and said, quote, I think we'll get it done. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it. Yes.

The U.S. president added, and quote, on Jack Altman's podcast, his brother, Sam Altman, said that Meta has been trying to poach AI people from OpenAI doing things like offering $100 million signing bonuses. This, of course, appears to be part of Mark Zuckerberg's recent efforts to jump back into the lead in the AI race, quoting TechCrunch. Meta has started making these like giant offers to a lot of people on our team, Sam Altman said on the podcast. You know, like $100 million signing bonuses, more than the...

that in compensation per year. I'm really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take him up on that, end quote. The OpenAI CEO said he believed his employees made the assessment that OpenAI had a better chance of achieving AGI and may one day be the more valuable company. He also said he believes Mehta's focus on high compensation packages for employees rather than the mission of delivering AGI would not likely create a great culture. Meta reportedly tried to poach one of OpenAI's lead researchers, Noam Brown, as well as Google's AI architect Correy Covancholo. However, both efforts were unsuccessful. Sam Altman went on to say he believes Open AI's culture of innovation has been a major key to its success in that meta's, quote,

current AI efforts have not worked as well as they hoped. The OpenAI CEO said he respects many things about meta, but noted he doesn't, quote, think they're a company that's great at innovation. Later in the podcast, Altman said he believes it's not enough for companies to to catch up on AI, they have to truly innovate to stay ahead. The OpenAI's CEO's comments highlight some of the challenges that Meta has to overcome in order to build out a successful AI superintelligence lab. Besides bringing on Alexander Wang, Meta announced last week that it invested significantly in Wang's former company's scale AI. The company has also reportedly nabbed a few star AI researchers such as Google DeepMinds Jack Ray and Sesame AI's Johan

Shalkowak, but there's more work ahead. In the coming year, Meta will have to staff up its new AI team while OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Deep Mind, operate at full speed. In the coming months, OpenAI is expected to release an OpenAI model that is likely to set Meta back in the AI race even further. Later on in the podcast, Sam Alden described an AI-powered social media feed that seems likely to encroach on meta's apps. The OpenAI CEO said he's curious about exploring a social media app that uses AI to deliver custom feeds based on what users want, rather than the default algorithmic feed that exists on traditional social media apps. OpenAI is reportedly working on a social networking app internally.

Meanwhile, meta is experimenting with an AI-powered social network through its meta-AI app. However, it seems that some users are confused by the meta-AI app and have shared some hyper-personal chats with the broader world, end quote. Meanwhile, in the AI race, sources tell Bloomberg that X-AI is burning through around a billion dollars per month. It expects to burn through around $13 billion this year 2025, while at the same time projecting its revenue to be just $500 million this year, though they do expect it to rise to more than $2 billion next year, 2026. The rate at which the company is bleeding cash provides a stark illustration of the unprecedented

financial demands of the artificial intelligence industry, particularly at XAI, where revenues have been slow to materialize. To cover the gap, Elon Musk's startup is currently trying to raise 9.3,000. billion in debt and equity, according to people briefed on the deal terms, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. But even before the money is in the bank, the company has plans to spend more than half of it in just the next three months, the people said. Over the course of 2025 XAI, which is responsible for the AI-powered chatbot Grock, expects to burn through about $13 billion, as reflected in the company's levered cash flow,

according to details shared with investors. As a result, its prolific fundraising efforts are just barely keeping pace with expenses, the people added. The losses are due in part to the huge costs that all AI companies face as they build the server farms and buy the specialized computer chips that are needed to train advanced AI models like GROC and ChatGTPT. Carlisle Group estimates that over $1.8 trillion of capital will be deployed by 2030 to meet that demand to build out AI infrastructure chief executive officer Harvey Schwartz wrote in a shareholder letter. Model builders will look to raise debt and they're going to burn lots and lots of cash, Jordan Schafflin, senior analyst and head of technology at credit sites. The space is very competitive,

and they are battling for technical supremacy. But Musk's entrant in the AI race has struggled to develop revenue streams at the same rate as some of its direct competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. While almost none of these companies offer public figures on their finances, Bloomberg has previously reported that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGBTBT, is expecting to bring in revenues of $12.7 billion this year. At XAI, revenues are expected to be just $500 million this year, rising to north of $2 billion next year, investors were recently told, end quote. As I said, all advertising is probably going to be AI soon, and given evidence even in earlier segments on today's show, it's increasingly looking like all social media is going the

same way. At Khan, YouTube CEO Neil Moen said YouTube plans to integrate Google's most advanced AI video generation tool V-O-3 into YouTube shorts later this summer. So yeah, the 10-second video format space. Be ready for that to be mostly AI stuff in what, 18 months? Quoting the Hollywood reporter. The possibilities with AI are limitless, Moen said. A lot can change in a generation. Entertainment itself has changed more in the last two decades than at any other time in history. Creators led this revolution. My bet for the next 20 years, creators will flip formats, blend genres, into the mainstream as brand ambassadors, big business ventures, and visionary storytellers, he continued. Communities will continue to surprise us with the power of their collective fandom, and cutting-edge

AI technology will push the limits of human creativity. My biggest bet is that YouTube will continue to be the stage where it all happens, where anyone with a story can share and turn their dream into a career, and anyone with a voice can bring people together and change the world, end quote. YouTube already uses an older generation of VO for its dream screen background generation tool, but VO3 is a substantial upgrade. It announced the product back in 2023 and has been iterating on it since. The company has also been proactive in trying to get ahead of potential issues or controversies, including partnering with CAA and some top creators to develop a tool that gives celebrities and other high-profile people control over their likeness on the platform.

Already, videos created by VO3 have gone viral on social platforms, including concepts that imagine if historical or fictional figures were vloggers, though Moen framed its integration into shorts as a tool to, quote, open new creative lanes for creators. Shorts has become a strategic imperative for YouTube as platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels also battle for shares of the short form video audience. YouTube launched shorts in 2021, and Moan revealed Wednesday that it now averages more than 200 billion views per day, an astonishing number that underscores YouTube's scale in streaming video. Moen also used the keynote to highlight something that has become a recurring theme for the platform in recent years, that YouTube has become a dominant force in entertainment and popular

culture and telling the crowd in Cannes are, quote, the startups of Hollywood. Like most startups, these creators are reimagining the industry that inspired them and creating new jobs for writers, editors, actors, and producers. Some are even building state-of-the-art studios, he said. As THR previously reported, some creators have raised financing and turned to entertainment veterans to build bonafide production facilities, end quote. Some CEOs seem to be hesitant to make broad prognostications about what AI will do to their organizations and especially to jobs in their companies. They might be planning to have AI take over a percentage of their workforce, maybe even hoping for it, but most of them don't want to admit that in the open for obvious reasons.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is not one of those shy CEOs. He's made several predictions like this at this point. Quoting NBC News. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that the company expects artificial intelligence, quote, will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains over time. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people to do other types of jobs. Jassie added an memo to Amazon's workforce. The CEO of the country's second largest retailer and employer said Amazon is using generative AI, quote, in virtually every corner of the company. Amazon employees, more than one and a half million people worldwide, according to its most recent annual report.

This year, Amazon plans to spend $100 billion to expand AI services and data centers that power them up from $83 billion last year. Jesse said he believes so-called AI agents will change how we all work and live. While many of these agents have yet to be built, he said, they're coming and fast, end quote. He continued by saying that they will, quote, change the scope and speed at which we can innovate for customers. Amazon currently has more than a thousand AI services and applications running inside the company or in progress of being built. Jassy's comments Tuesday will likely invoke fears that many corporate workers have had as artificial intelligence captures the eye of efficiency-minded executives across corporate America. A recent study from Bloomberg Intelligence said

that AI could replace up to 200,000 banking jobs. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike eliminated 5% of its workforce in May, saying that AI was driving efficiencies, both the front and back office. Shopify CEO Toby Lutke said managers at the e-commerce company will be expected to prove why they, quote, cannot get what they want done using AI before asking for more headcount. Language learning firm Duolingo also recently said that it would replace contract workers with artificial intelligence. We'll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle. CEO Louis von On wrote in a memo to Duolingo employees in May. Headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work, Von On added, end quote.

Finally today, a review of one of the first of this new generation of smart glasses. Bloomberg takes a look at the One Pro from our friends at Xreal. They call the new $649 AR glasses impressive in the way they resemble normal spectacles at a distance and Excel as a high-definition external display for PCs and phones. Quote, they're discreet and comfortable to wear, but they're not. not an example of true standalone AR glasses that blend digital content with the real world while also supplanting a phone. Instead, they excel at one important feature, plugging into smartphones, computers, gaming devices, and other equipment, and turning into a virtual high-definition external

display. Because they use augmented reality, you can see your PC screen, a video on your iPhone, or a Steam Deck game surrounded by real-world views through clear lenses. Unlike Apple's Vision Pro and the meta-quest, mixed reality devices, the X-real product isn't using pass-through cameras. You're actually seeing what's in front of you like real glasses. The One Pro glasses are an impressive example of how rapidly wearable AR gadgets have progressed in recent years, and the floating picture you see when peering through the lenses is bright, colorful, and crisp enough to give the illusion that you're watching videos or playing games on an enormous projection screen. The glasses, which cost about the price of a mid-tier smartphone, connect to devices over an included USBC cable.

Within the increasingly crowded glasses space, X-Reels profile is rising as the market leader. Next year, it'll team up with Google to release true AR glasses that don't require a phone or a PC. Instead, they'll hook up to a puck and function similarly to meta's planned AR glasses for 2027. Even more competition is emerging, though, with meta announcing new smart glasses with Oakley on Friday and the company planning its first glasses with a display this fall, end quote. So apparently the One Pro is basically, as described a head-worn external display that must be tethered to a device like a smartphone laptop or gaming handheld. This weird design eliminates the need for a battery, but if the cable

is disconnected, the glasses apparently shut off instantly. The One Pro is built for entertainment and gaming, offering 1080P resolution per eye and a broader 57-degree field of view and upgrade over X-Rue's previous model, though still narrower than mixed-reality headsets. Comfort is apparently a huge strong point, with balanced weight, adjustable nose pieces, and optional prescription lens inserts. Audio is delivered through built-in Bose-tuned speakers, though the sound is not fully private. Users can select from different viewing modes, anchored, follow, and ultra-wide, all managed by X-Reels X-1 chip, which helps minimize motion sickness. The glasses have what they call capable dimming tech, but apparently can't fully block out peripheral distractions,

making the experience less immersive than enclosed VR headsets. But, you know, at $649, up from 599, apparently due to tariffs. They're still far more affordable than Apple's $3,499 Vision Pro, albeit with significantly less advanced hardware. Quoting from the conclusion, X-Reel's 1 Pro glasses aren't trying to be a next-generation computing device. Their displays aren't intricate enough for productivity work, but the relatively normal design goes a long way in making these appealing in those moments when someone else is using the TV or when your laptop proves underwhelming for watching movies on a plane. As an entertainment gadget, the One Pro doesn't need to offer a glimpse of the future. They're fun enough to use in the here and now. But it's that lack of

futuristic operating system and persistent technical constraints and sacrificing untethered freedom. That still makes these AR glasses and others like them before a nice-to-have gadget instead of an essential wearable, end quote. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.