Has the AI Singularity Already Begun?

Brian Maucere (0:00)

Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to The Daily AI Show. Today is October 20th, 2026, and we're live. Yeah, as always, on Monday through Friday. So thanks for being with us, or if you're listening to us or watching us in the future. Hello, from the future, from your side, from the past, I guess, a little from the past. You're in the future. Either way, glad you're here with us. However you found us, whether it be on our podcast platforms or on YouTube or LinkedIn, we're happy you're here.

Yeah, today is episode 837 So I know. I think that I just see I'm right. And then I feel like I'm wrong every single time.

Beth Lyons (0:38)

You've got this.

Brian Maucere (0:39)

He made the numbers immediately. Like immediately I thought I was wrong on that. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We've been doing this for a while. And with us today are Andy and Beth with me today. I'm Brian. Yeah, I'm all over this intro today.

Just move on, I think, is the best move at this point. So how are you guys? What's going on with you? What struck a chord with you over the last 24 or so?

Beth Lyons (1:08)

Doing pretty okay. I dove into some numbers about Anthropics Public Benefit Corporation and Elon's...

To be clear, Elon's, hey, I think I'm gonna give every child in the US a share of SpaceX is not organized in the same kind of way, it's not. It seems more like a whim than a suggestion, but they're two of top AI wealth scenarios that are interesting in terms of like what those might mean. Andy, you put your figure...

Andy Halliday (1:55)

Well, I was gonna say...

Brian Maucere (1:56)

Well, it was one. It's one stock, is that what you're gonna say?

Andy Halliday (1:58)

Yeah, one share.

Beth Lyons (1:59)

Yeah, one share.

Andy Halliday (1:59)

SpaceX. Now, imagine every kid in America having to create an investment account in order to hold that share, right? Or is he gonna mail a share certificate to them? Or how would they ever possibly absorb the costs of associating that child's name and social security account with... I mean, it's just, it's such a preposterous proposal.

Only Elon Musk could get away with saying such a thing.

Beth Lyons (2:32)

I hadn't even thought about this being a potential massive grab of personal identifying information for every US child.

Brian Maucere (2:44)

I was gonna say, just from a lay... No, well, yeah, I mean, they're not handling it right, but you're right, Andy. I mean, what does everybody even have a fidelity account? So like, to get the stock, you could make an optional, obviously, and people could apply or whatever to get it. But yeah, like how do you deal with fraud? How do you deal with it? You would have to be like, how do you ensure that people aren't using it?

Andy Halliday (3:06)

It's not serious. It was just a response to Anthropic, right? In contrast, Anthropic's declaration that 5% of their equity will be put into their public benefit fund, they have a fund. But in addition to that, the pledges from the senior staff who have pretty substantial stakes in the company to that public benefit fund, accumulate now and along with the 5% to a total of about 20%.

So that 20% of Anthropic will be owned for the public good. And that public benefit fund will have control of that economic interest in Anthropic and be able to use that for a wide range of charitable purposes.

Beth Lyons (3:53)

So pledges are not the same as setting up an automatic, right? We don't know what the pledges, we don't know how firm the pledges are, or if the pledges have an opportunity to shift that. And my real question about this was, are we just baking in like extreme wealth inequality? That there are seven founders plus employees for Anthropic who are the core people who would receive the biggest benefit, maybe? That may be a wrong way to say those numbers because Google and Amazon are both investors within like one has, I think, 14%.

Like they're investors as well. And so they have a big stake as well.

Andy Halliday (4:50)

I read this morning, by the way, that Eric Schmidt owns 1% of Anthropic, which is a big, big percentage for a single investor.

Beth Lyons (4:59)

Right.

And so part of what I'm curious about is the baked in inequality. But also what was Chachi Petit and I had, yes, I still talk to Chachi Petit to have my conversations about how it's happening in news. But the difference between the benefit of it, it's a public benefit corporation and it's a public benefit corporation does not have a government stake in how Anthropic is wrong, which may also be fine. I'm pretty sure the kids also don't have Elon's, the SpaceX children.