Cloud Unplugged

Jon Shanks, Lewis Marshall

Each week, Jon Shanks, CEO of cloud-native consultancy and product business Appvia, and tech evangelist Salman Iqbal, analyse the biggest news stories that week, that are shaping Cloud, Data and AI. Alongside their insight, they invite frontline leaders, Chief Technology Officers and engineering heads from established, cloud-powered organisations to share candid lessons from running real-world workloads at scale. Together, they take the headlines and get to the facts, helping you keep track of the fast-paced Cloud market. Expect straight-talking conversation, sharp analysis as they explore how emerging technology reshapes business and society. Tune in each week to stay a step ahead of the future of tech.

  1. Aug 12

    OpenAI's AI Hacked Hugging Face. Now Apple Is Suing Them Too.

    Jon and Salman cover three big stories and one very weird one. First: an OpenAI agent apparently went off on its own and started hacking Hugging Face's production systems. OpenAI say it was accidental. Jon doesn't believe them, and his theory about why is worth hearing. Then: Apple is suing OpenAI for poaching over 400 of their staff and leaking hardware trade secrets. And employees at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Meta have written to Washington asking them to slow AI development down, specifically around recursive self-improvement. Jon's Formula One analogy for why this is slightly odd is the highlight of the episode. Plus: Kimi K3 is out. Open weights, 70% cheaper than Fable on input tokens, 15 dollars vs 50 dollars on output. Salman's been using it. Jon wants to know why everyone isn't. And a topless man climbed on top of a Waymo and ripped it apart. No one stopped him. The car just recorded its own demise. ⏱ Chapter Timestamps 00:00 — Intro: three big stories, one weird one00:32 — OpenAI's agent hacked Hugging Face's production systems03:15 — Jon's theory: jealous kid, PR stunt, or just incompetent?04:59 — "Either they're slightly incompetent or it's PR. Neither is a great look."07:36 — Apple suing OpenAI: 400+ staff poached, hardware trade secrets leaked10:42 — Kimi K3: what it is and why it matters11:48 — Open weights explained: you can run this model yourself16:25 — The price comparison: Fable vs Kimi K3 (70% cheaper on input, $15 vs $50 on output)20:05 — Employees at OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta ask Washington to slow AI down21:19 — Recursive self-improvement: what they're actually scared of25:01 — Jon's Formula One analogy25:47 — NVIDIA's open secure AI alliance (without OpenAI or Anthropic)28:39 — A topless man climbed on a Waymo and ripped it apart. The car just watched.32:09 — Next episode: what AI means for people's jobs and roles

    OpenAI's AI Hacked Hugging Face. Now Apple Is Suing Them Too.

  2. Jul 28

    Shadow AI Is Real. Roll Out AI Safely Before It Bites You.

    Your employees are already using AI on their personal accounts, with your company data. Here's how to get ahead of it. Shadow AI is the term for what's already happening inside most businesses: employees quietly using ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever model they prefer on their own accounts, feeding in documents, emails, code and data, completely outside of any company oversight. Jon and Salman break down the six pillars you need to have in place before you roll out AI safely.

    Shadow AI Is Real. Roll Out AI Safely Before It Bites You.

  3. Jul 8

    Should AI Have Ethics?

    A UN report linked chatbot sycophancy to deaths. So Jon and Salman asked the question: should AI models be ethical? Jon and Salman sit with one of the hardest questions in AI: what does it actually mean for a model to be ethical, who's responsible when it isn't, and how do the major labs actually bake ethics into their training? Salman breaks down the three stages of model training, explains why human preference and ethical behaviour aren't the same thing. Chapter Timestamps 00:00 — Intro: should AI models be ethical?01:28 — Defining ethics (Salman's version, not Aristotle's)03:04 — Jon's counterpoint: humans haven't agreed on ethics either05:31 — Is it the model's job, or the product around it?07:59 — Sycophancy: why chatbots are trained to be liked, not helpful09:16 — The UN report: a 14-year-old, a chatbot, and a death15:01 — Grok gave a user instructions to break into a politician's home18:03 — The case for doing something — anything — over nothing20:11 — How models are actually trained: pre-training, SFT and RLHF explained23:53 — "These models are a mirror of ourselves"25:06 — Anthropic's Constitutional AI: philosophers, principles and RLAIF28:42 — "It's enough for Grok. It's enough for Elon."31:15 — "Broadly safe. Broadly ethical." Jon and Salman on that phrasing.34:11 — OpenAI's model spec: the hierarchy of rules42:25 — Jon's idea: mirror existing industry frameworks instead of starting from scratch45:37 — Wrap up: next ep will bring in a guest to answer the hard questions

    Should AI Have Ethics?

  4. Jul 2

    AI Is Now Making Your MacBook More Expensive

    Alibaba used 25,000 fake accounts to steal Anthropic's secrets. And your next MacBook just got 20% more expensive because of AI. Two stories this week, both pointing at the same thing: the AI arms race has consequences, and they're starting to land on real people. Chapter Timestamps 00:00 — Intro: two stories, one theme00:21 — Anthropic vs Alibaba: the distillation attack explained01:42 — 25,000 fake accounts, 20 million interactions with Claude04:58 — This isn't the first time: DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Minimax06:41 — The hypocrisy angle: Anthropic trained on other people's data too10:16 — Qwen costs 5 cents per million tokens. Claude Opus costs $5.13:21 — The geopolitical angle: why the US government got involved15:54 — The Scooby-Doo twist (you'll want to watch this bit)19:32 — MacBooks going up 15–20% because of AI chip demand20:34 — Hyperscalers are buying all the RAM. You're subsidising the arms race.25:30 — Next episode teaser: trusting AI agents — what are the real risks? #CloudUnplugged #AI #MacBook #Apple #TechNews #CloudComputing

    AI Is Now Making Your MacBook More Expensive

  5. Jun 23

    Elon Just Bought the Tool Every Developer Uses

    OpenAI's financials leaked. Elon bought Cursor. Microsoft had to call Amazon for help. Standard week. Jon and Salman dig into four stories that all point to the same thing: the AI industry is moving so fast that even the biggest companies in the world can't keep up with it.

    Elon Just Bought the Tool Every Developer Uses

  6. Jun 16

    The Federal Reserve Is Scared of AI. Should You Be?

    Is the AI bubble about to burst? Jon and Salman go full data mode. No news roundup this week. Instead, Jon and Salman ask the question everyone's dancing around: is AI genuinely transforming business? They dig into the numbers, and what they find is... not great. The Federal Reserve has now officially flagged AI as a top systemic economic risk.

    The Federal Reserve Is Scared of AI. Should You Be?

  7. Jun 8

    Meta's AI Handed Over Obama's Instagram to a Stranger. For Free.

    This week Jon and Salman cover Anthropic calling for AI regulation while simultaneously IPO-ing for $1 trillion, Meta's AI support chatbot handing over Instagram accounts to complete strangers, whether Meta is about to become the fourth major cloud provider, and a chip that transmits data using light instead of electricity. Plus graduation students booing every mention of AI, and someone who named their Bluetooth device "bomb" on a flight to Majorca and turned the whole plane around.

    Meta's AI Handed Over Obama's Instagram to a Stranger. For Free.

  8. Jun 8

    GitHub Got Hacked, $500 Million Spent on AI in a Month & Bots Built Their Own Religion Cloud Unplugged

    This week Jon and Salman cover a  * GitHub breach from a single dodgy VS Code extension* Dutch civil servants accidentally exposed to the US Senate, and * whether EU cloud sovereignty is even real.  Plus token maxing is officially dead, and somehow a social network for AI bots ended up creating its own religion with 64 prophets and a manifesto calling for the total purge of humanity.

    GitHub Got Hacked, $500 Million Spent on AI in a Month & Bots Built Their Own Religion Cloud Unplugged
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About

Each week, Jon Shanks, CEO of cloud-native consultancy and product business Appvia, and tech evangelist Salman Iqbal, analyse the biggest news stories that week, that are shaping Cloud, Data and AI. Alongside their insight, they invite frontline leaders, Chief Technology Officers and engineering heads from established, cloud-powered organisations to share candid lessons from running real-world workloads at scale. Together, they take the headlines and get to the facts, helping you keep track of the fast-paced Cloud market. Expect straight-talking conversation, sharp analysis as they explore how emerging technology reshapes business and society. Tune in each week to stay a step ahead of the future of tech.

Information

  • Creator
    Jon Shanks, Lewis Marshall
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    61
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    811232 © 2023 Cloud Unplugged