Cities Decoded

Hosted by Sam Li

Breaking down artificial intelligence meeting the nation's cities. samlicitiesdecoded.substack.com

  1. ChatGPT only cites half the URLs it receives, Anthropic ends the flat-fee era, 74% of AI's value goes to 20% of companies, attempted assassination of Sam Altman, and more

    APR 20

    ChatGPT only cites half the URLs it receives, Anthropic ends the flat-fee era, 74% of AI's value goes to 20% of companies, attempted assassination of Sam Altman, and more

    Hi Cities Decoded community🙂 My podcast Mindful Notions has been nominated for its first award. While I focus Cities Decoded on cities x AI, Mindful Notions looks at young professionals x AI. If you have enjoyed listening to any of my conversations across either podcast, I would be so grateful for you to take a minute to vote for the podcast. Every vote counts towards a potential win! Vote here: https://podlifeawards.com/vote/the-listeners-lobe-tgl20262 When prompted, paste this RSS link: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/2727113.rss Voting closes May 4th. From one show in your feed to another, thank you for listening and watching. As always, more to come. 🔗 ChatGPT Cites Half the URLs It Retrieves, and Reddit Is 67.8% of the Rest Ahrefs analyzed 1.4 million ChatGPT prompts from February 2025 covering 47.1 million retrieved URLs and found ChatGPT cites only 49.98% of them. The citation rate varies sharply by source: Search results hit 88.46% (25.6M data points), News 12.01%, Reddit just 1.93% despite 16.2M retrievals, YouTube 0.51%, and Academia 0.40%. Reddit alone accounts for 67.8% of the entire non-cited pool, meaning ChatGPT pulls Reddit at scale but almost never credits it. On average, ChatGPT retrieves 16.57 cited and 16.58 non-cited URLs per prompt. Cited pages have a median age of about 500 days (1.3 years), while non-cited pages are overwhelmingly very young. Title relevance matters: cosine similarity between prompt and cited URL title averages 0.602 versus 0.484 for non-cited, and natural-language URL slugs get cited 89.78% of the time versus 81.11% for opaque slugs. (Read More) 🫖 TEA For Thought: “I guess almost 70% of the content is from Reddit. That is why Reddit’s CEO is so harsh on AI agent control.” 💸 Anthropic Ends the Flat-Fee Era Anthropic restructured enterprise pricing. Seat fees now cover platform access only. Claude, Claude Code, and Cowork usage is billed separately at standard API rates. The trigger: GPU rental costs climbed 48%, CoreWeave raised rates 20%, and API uptime dropped to 98.95% over 90 days (well below the 99.99% cloud standard). OpenAI, GitHub, and Windsurf have already made the same move. The subsidized-access era for heavy users is over industry-wide. (Read More) 🫖 TEA For Thought: “The seat charge era might be over soon. Folks will be charged for the tokens they actually consume. More people will direct their work toward open-source, locally deployed models. Get some hardware ready before prices go even further up.” 📊 74% of AI’s Value Goes to 20% of Companies, and the Gap Is Widening PwC surveyed 1,217 senior executives across 25 sectors. Finding: 74% of AI’s economic gains are captured by just 20% of organizations. The leaders are not deploying more tools. They are using AI to reinvent business models and pursue growth from industry convergence. They are 2.8x more likely to increase decisions made without human intervention, 2.6x more likely to report AI enables business model reinvention, and 1.7x more likely to have a Responsible AI framework. The divide is structural, not technological. (Read More) 🫖 TEA For Thought: “This is the inflection point. The gap between those who use AI and those who don’t is going to grow wider and wider.” 🧠 Sam Altman: Once You See AGI You Can’t Unsee It After someone threw a Molotov cocktail at his house at 3:45 AM, Sam Altman published a personal reflection on AI, OpenAI, and himself. He calls AI “the most powerful tool for expanding human capability and potential that anyone has ever seen” with “essentially uncapped” demand. He says fear and anxiety about AI is “justified” and that society needs resilience beyond just model alignment. He argues AI must be democratized: “It is not right that a few AI labs would make the most consequential decisions about the shape of our future.” On OpenAI’s drama, he attributes it to the “ring of power” dynamic and acknowledges being conflict-averse “caused great pain for me and OpenAI.” He is proud of resisting demands for “unilateral control” and delivering on the mission: “A lot of companies say they are going to change the world; we actually did.” (Read More) 🫖 TEA For Thought: “Once you see AGI you can’t unsee it.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit samlicitiesdecoded.substack.com

    45 min
  2. My answers to the Interact fellowship application. And why you should answer them too.

    FEB 5

    My answers to the Interact fellowship application. And why you should answer them too.

    Over the weekend, I stumbled upon the Interact fellowship. It is a fellowship of technologists that “come together to collaborate, seek out difficult conversations, and push each other to do good in the world.” Sounded like a good time! As someone who slightly missed the age cut off (I am in the age category where applicants are considered “on a case-by-case basis”), I figured why not send in an application for a chance to meet some really cool people. As I went through the application, I filled out the expected fields (name, email, school). But when I got to written responses, something unexpected happen. The questions posed allowed me to genuinely reflect on many cool tech and community experiences I have had in the past few years, rather than simply retelling them in a straightforward and neatly packaged way. In short, if you read my responses, it more so reflects someone who is still figuring out so many things, and having a lot of fun doing so. Furthermore, I was able to hype up other people in the tech ecosystem who I truly believe in (some of who you see in Cities Decoded🙂). That revelation, along with my general disdain for the flatness of written applications (how much can you really glean from a person through them?), spurred me to make this quick podcast episode where I could respond verbally and encourage you all to think about what your responses would be to these sharp questions. TLDR: the Notion community is great and I want to make it greater. Also, elif nisa polat, jonathan bensimon, and magan chin are great and I want to help make them greater. In short, if you read my responses, it more so reflects someone who is still figuring out so many things, and having a lot of fun doing so. What I am equally interested in is what responses you have to the following questions: * Think about your three core interests. Why do you care about these things? * What has been the biggest change to your beliefs or values in the past two years, and what caused this change? * Someone gives you $50,000 for a project that explicitly can't be a business. What's the project you work on and why? * What project or initiative were you proudest of in 2025? What is your primary creative, academic, or work goal for 2026? * Whose voice should carry more weight in the technology ecosystem (or insert your relevant industry) than it does today? * Who would you be the most excited to find out was in your Fellowship class? Why? Want to hear my responses? Watch/listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts! Deadline to apply to the Interact fellowship is Feb 9th. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit samlicitiesdecoded.substack.com

    15 min
  3. S2 E1: Claude supercharges scientific research, Bitmine bets $200M on MrBeast's DeFi empire, Starlink helps Iranians circumvent severe internet blackout, and much more.

    FEB 2

    S2 E1: Claude supercharges scientific research, Bitmine bets $200M on MrBeast's DeFi empire, Starlink helps Iranians circumvent severe internet blackout, and much more.

    For those who have wanted to know, “what’s the tea with AI?” since the beginning of 2025, there hasn’t been a more consistent source than TEA (The Era Arc). That’s why I was so happy to announce last month that the creator of The Era Arc would be coming to the pages of Cities Decoded. Every Monday and Tuesday, I have the privilege of sending out the Daily TEA alongside this creator. Every Friday, I have the privilege of promoting their NEW series where they review the latest AI products. And if you want to know the TEA on Wednesdays or Thursdays…it’s always on the Cities Decoded website! In addition, I am so excited to announce the monthly TEA where The Era Arc and I break down some of the best stories from the past month of daily TEAs. For Jan 2026, we have: 🧪 Claude Supercharges Scientific Research Workflows 🪙 Bitmine Bets $200M on MrBeast’s DeFi-Enabled Entertainment Empire 📡 Starlink Helps Iranians Circumvent Severe Internet Blackout 🤖 Humanoid Robot NEO Uses Video AI to Learn New Skills 📱 ‘Are You Dead?’ App Becomes Viral Safety Tool For Solo Dwellers Want to get the daily TEA and stay up to date with AI? Subscribe here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit samlicitiesdecoded.substack.com

    44 min
  4. 🎉We’re partnering with The ERA Arc to make AI news easier to track

    12/31/2025

    🎉We’re partnering with The ERA Arc to make AI news easier to track

    👋Hey Cities Decoded community, I’ve got news that I’m so excited to share: Cities Decoded is partnering with The ERA Arc for a new 2026 content collaboration. If you’re here because you want to understand whats happening in AI without drowning in it, this partnership is for you. Whats changing: Starting tomorrow, you’ll see two new rhythms from this partnership: * Weekday: Daily TEA * A crisp, must-know rundown of AI headlines and signals * Monthly: a Cities Decoded × ERA Arc podcast recap * A conversational episode breaking down: * what mattered this month * what it means * what to keep an eye on next Why it matters (AI × cities) To me, Cities Decoded exists to translate AI headlines into city-life consequences. That means helping you: * track the AI shifts that will actually show up in your city (schools, streets, jobs, housing, public services) * separate hype from impact so you know what to pay attention to This partnership makes that mission easier to deliver: * Weekday signal so you catch the developments that could become the next city pilot or local debate * A monthly recap to connect the dots: what changed, what cities are likely to do next, and what it means for people on the ground What I want from you If you’re excited, heres how you can help: * Reply with the AI topic you’re most trying to understand in 2026 (work, education, cities, policy, creators, etc.). * Forward this to one friend who always asks whats going on with AI? Thanks for being on the journey so far. As always, more to come. -Sam This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit samlicitiesdecoded.substack.com

    2 min

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Breaking down artificial intelligence meeting the nation's cities. samlicitiesdecoded.substack.com