(Preview) The Continuing Adventures of OpenAI, Apple’s Trade Secrets Lawsuit, Q&A on Mainframes, Meta, Daylight Savings Time

**Andrew Sharp** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome to a free preview of Sharp Tech.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Sharp Tech. I'm Andrew Sharp, and on the other line, Ben Thompson. Ben, how are you doing?

**Ben Thompson** (0:19)
Feeling incredibly smug. Smug and proud of myself right now. Just, you've made my day. No, you haven't made my day, you've made my year.

**Andrew Sharp** (0:29)
How so?

**Ben Thompson** (0:30)
You are on, you know, your traditional summer trip somewhere in New England, I don't want to know.
Beautiful setting, great cabin, great video background, and your internet is absolute garbage. We are on like the fifth take here, trying to record this podcast. I think we're on your cellular hotspot right now. And do you know why your internet is garbage right now?

**Andrew Sharp** (0:52)
Because I do not have a Starlink, that's why.

**Ben Thompson** (0:55)
Because you're on cable internet. And I'm almost certainly what is happening is your neighborhood is saturated. You're just randomly getting dropped. All the things that happened to me. And you know what's not happening to me on any conversation for the last nine months?

**Andrew Sharp** (1:09)
Oh, boy, live in the fiber dream out there.

**Ben Thompson** (1:13)
I just say like, it was ridiculous. It was ridiculous that I spent the money to get this done.
But every time someone else suffers, then I just didn't feel great about myself. So thank you. I appreciate that. Retroactive justification for me spending ridiculous money to get fiber out of my house.

**Andrew Sharp** (1:29)
Absolutely. Look, I'm glad that my personal pain as I sit here squirming with the worst f-ing internet on the face of the earth. Our collective pain as a podcast team, I'm glad that at least it validates your individual choices out there in Madison. I'm ready to hop on a flight to get back to my fiber internet in Washington, DC.
But here we are and we have a lot to get to.

**Ben Thompson** (1:56)
We are going to look into the back of Starlink for you as you travel going forward. I'm telling you, greatest technology ever.
Anyhow, I do have to go.

**Andrew Sharp** (2:03)
It's never sounded better to me just for the record.

**Ben Thompson** (2:06)
You have on the rundown. Before we begin, I'd like to formally recant a take.

**Andrew Sharp** (2:12)
That's right.

**Ben Thompson** (2:12)
What is this?

**Andrew Sharp** (2:14)
Taking it on the chin left and right here. No, look, a couple weeks ago on the podcast, you asked me whether OpenAI had been overtaken by Anthropic in the tech takeability rankings. And in a regrettable moment, I said that, yes, they probably have. Anthropic is the new number one for tech takeability at war with the US government every other week.
What an idiotic thing for me to say or even think, to consider the possibility that anyone in the history of the world would ever unseat OpenAI in the tech takeability rankings. Here we are like three weeks later. I regret all of it. I apologize to Sam, to the audience, everyone. I regret the error.

**Ben Thompson** (3:00)
I regret your apology. No, this, no, I'm sorry. This is what you should have said. Okay, you should have said, you know, Ben, just like you are proud of your fiber internet, I am proud of the role I played in OpenAI's recent news.
There was a moment where they were just not making enough news and to motivate them, to give them a kick in the rear end, I said that Anthropic was more takeable than they had. Did I believe that? Of course I didn't believe that. No one will ever surpass OpenAI, but they needed some motivation.

**Andrew Sharp** (3:36)
I was coaching.

**Ben Thompson** (3:36)
I delivered it and they came through. So good job, Sam. I'm glad you take coaching. You are definitely number one. I never questioned you.

**Andrew Sharp** (3:44)
Filled with the fire, ready to go get sued by Apple and be great again. Here we are. I love it. Yes.

**Ben Thompson** (3:51)
And y'all, where do we start? Do we start with Apple?

**Andrew Sharp** (3:54)
Well, we do. Well, no, we're not going to start with Apple. We're going to start with the competition that Apple is worried about. Obviously, this is not the only OpenAI hardware news of the past seven days, but I want to start with a headline from Mark Gurman. He wrote, OpenAI's first device will be a movable screenless speaker built as AI companion. And he writes at Bloomberg, OpenAI's much anticipated push into consumer devices is slated to begin with a mobile screen-free smart speaker designed to be a new type of home computer for the AI era. The product, still under development, is meant to serve as a human-like AI companion that lives in the home. It will help control smart home appliances, play media, answer questions, respond to messages, and tap into the range of capabilities offered by OpenAI's ChatGPT.