169 episodes
Down Round Down Round
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- Technology
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4.9 • 78 Ratings
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The number one podcast about tech business and culture, from James "JR" Hennessy and Raph Dixon.
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OK Fine, We'll Talk About Hubbl
Anyone who lives in Australia would be aware of Foxtel's new streaming box Hubbl, thanks to an absolutely overwhelming ad campaign pitching it. We talk about the Hubbl, and use it as an excuse to dive into streaming more generally, and what's been going on since the last time we talked about it.
Links
Foxtel faces its streaming apocalypse – AFR
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TikTok Ban Watch 2024: The Final Chapter (?)
Well, it happened: the US passed legislation to force ByteDance to divest TikTok in the country. Now, the company technically has 12 months to make it happen. But is that the end of the story? In this episode, we discuss how we arrived at this point, what avenues TikTok has left, and who or what might acquire TikTok if it comes down to that.
Links
TikTok could soon be sold. Here's how much it's worth and who could buy it. – CBS
Byte-Dance was told to sell TikTok or face a ban. There are legal complications – NPR
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Now It's Meta's Turn To Go All In On AI
Everything is chatbots now. Every company must become a purveyor of bespoke chatbots.The latest cab off the rank is Meta, which just unveiled Llama 3, the latest version of its open source LLM. But this time they have integrated it deeply into Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, whacking a big nasty chatbox over the searchbar in all these apps.
In this episode, we talk about Meta's strategy in AI, and what Zuck might be cooking.
Links
The Dwarkesh pod with Zuckerberg
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Have We Replaced The Smartphone Yet? (PREVIEW)
This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here.
As Downies will know well, one of the themes we're keeping an eye on is the number of products and product categories that are trying to replace the smartphone, which has been lagging in sales and hype of late. Two devices which pitched a bold new path forward are the Humane AI Pin and the Apple Vision Pro.
Based on reviews, neither of them are looking very good at all. We discuss.
Links
Humane AI Pin review: not even close – The Verge
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The Coming Tsunami Of AI Music
Over the past few weeks, there has been a surprising amount of movement in the AI music space. Suno and Udio are two lavishly funded AI music generation startups which just launched new models, which allow you to make songs in a wide range of genres from prompts. While not perfect, they both sound pretty good.
At the same time, Spotify is trialling AI-generated playlists, seemingly laying the groundwork for their own generative music. In this ep, we talk about the new models and what they might be used for.
Links
AI-Music Arms Race: Meet Udio, the Other ChatGPT for Music - Rolling Stone
Former Google DeepMind researchers launch AI-powered music creation app Udio
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Capital Inferno Heaven (feat. Kyle Harrison)
This week, we're joined by Kyle Harrison, who is General Partner at Contrary, a US venture capital fund. As well as investing, Kyle writes the newsletter Investing 101 2.0, where he shares his various insights into the VC ecosystem – including where, in his view, it's all gone wrong.
Kyle joins us to chat about the state of VC after the end of the tech boom, why he doesn't think anyone has learned their lesson, and what he thinks will happen with AI on both the tech and the investment side.
Links
The Puritans of Venture Capital – Kyle Harrison
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Customer Reviews
Tech Biz Chat (NO DORKS)
Easy going and extremely consumable discussions about Tech Business. Level headed, amusing, informative. Does a good job of on-ramping for some of the more “inside baseball” topics. Plus now I can sound like a big brain with an opinion if I end up talking about Going On The Computer.
A good podcast for brain geniuses
This podcast has made me the kind of guy that recommends podcasts to friends. High praise for the pod, and a damning indictment on me as a person.
Personal highlights. “James…Raph,” intros, BUSTED sound effect, references to suburbs near where I live.
Five stars, recommend it to a friend at ur peril.
My partner hates this podcast
I went on a 4 day work trip and inadvertently listened to 30 episodes of this podcast during the extensive and banal solitary moments. It made me look like a deluded moron because I was probably the only person in Canberra actually smiling or learning anything. I’ve subsequently come home to a caring partner who has to endure me describing everything as cursed and insisting on ranking everything from cringe to based.
Would be good to get an episode somewhat similar to that one about all the things that make you rage, that instead talks up or gives some practical useful advice for numpties like myself whose technological understanding hasn’t advanced since they played doodle jump on their iPod Touch. Career advice could also be interesting - public servants are boring as.