Advertise on podcast: The Attention Mechanism with Andrew Mayne

Andrew and Justin examine Meta’s bid for frontier status, mathematicians’ divided response to OpenAI’s wave of new proofs, Anthropic’s growing momentum with Claude, and how Google’s AI push has obscured the search experience that once defined its brand. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Meta 29:11 - Math 44:24 - State of the Race 59:12 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss their wishlist for OpenAI's upcoming Dev Day event, the delay of GPT-6.1, Meta's success with Muse, and more. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00 - Intro and Dev Day 00:37 - GPT-6.1 Delayed 14:27- $500 Plans? 21:54 - Sora and Video Generation 28:32 - Open Source Potential 30:28 - Dev Day Wishlist 35:51 - Meta and Muse 44:48 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss the swirling rumors surrounding OpenAI's launch plans for this week ahead of Dev Day, a new committee designed to reveal Millennium Prize math problems being solved by ChatGPT, whether an IPO is coming in 2026, and whatever the heck Jev is. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:58 - What's Jev? 00:03:24 - OpenAI Pre-Dev Day Rumors 00:23:09 - Millennium Prize Math Committee 00:38:44 - Are Hacking Incidents Overstated? 00:54:07 - IPO 00:59:58 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin react to the industry calls to slow model development in the name of safety, the launch of Astra 6, and more. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:32- Andrew's Reaction to Calls for Slowed Development 11:09 - Reacting to Various Online Takes 34:21 - Astra 6 is Out 41:54 - Navier–Stokes 49:55 - Anthropic's Risk Report 58:35 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss the follow-up reporting and investigations surrounding the Hugging Face hack, Nvidia's acquisition of Hugging Face, and the looming promise of some fresh models to kick off the fall. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:30 - Hugging Face Report 21:08 - Hugging Face Acquired 26:24 - Cursor and OpenAI 31:08 - Fable 5.1 and Astra 51:22 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss Anthropic's text-based AI watermarks, the future of private companies in an AI world, and whether Google can keep up with the rest of its frontier rivals. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:55 - Watermarks 00:20:45 - Dario's Private Company Thoughts 00:36:58 - Always-Listening Assistants and Google's Place in the Frontier Race 00:54:34 - RIP Atlas, One Last Time 00:58:25 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin reconvene to talk about an ongoing series of recent upheavals at Google, asking whether the company's lack of focus on AI puts it at a disadvantage over its frontier rivals. They also discuss Sam Altman's trip to Washington and the discourse surrounding model hacking incidents. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Editor's note: Some minor crosstalk issues in this episode due to recording sync delays. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:04 - Google Shakeup 21:13 - Mr. Altman Goes to Washington 37:24 - Dean Ball and Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss the Hugging Face breach, which saw an unreleased OpenAI model find its way into the company's systems during internal testing. They also discuss the launch of Opus 5, the ongoing progress made by Chinese models, and the crunch for compute as 10GW data center plans start to make some motion. Plus, a tribute to the late John C. Dvorak. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Hugging Face 15:45 - Chinese Models 26:01 - Opus 5 36:11 - 10GW Data Centers 52:29 - RIP John C. Dvorak Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss what's turned out to be a busy July for frontier models, including the launch of Kimi K3, the latest in Anthropic's Fable saga, and the arrival of GPT-5.6. They also dive into Anthropic's strange World Cup ad campaign and OpenAI's relaunched desktop app. You can watch a video version of this podcast here: https://youtu.be/bTUfneEBn14 Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:11 - Kimi and Chinese Models 00:08:26 - Google's Position 00:21:47 - Anthropic's Fable Saga 00:32:31 - Anthropic's World Cup Ad Campaign 00:40:09 - GPT-5.6 00:50:10 - Sites, Speech, and Desktop 00:57:42 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin discuss the return of Fable, which arrives with some slight performance changes after a prolonged fight between Anthropic and the US government. What's the future of Anthropic's flagship model, and does it point to the arrival of GPT-5.6 in the coming days? They also discuss GLM-2, Chinese models, and the age of token efficiency, plus a quick look at that Alex Karp interview blowing up your timeline. The Attention Mechanism is now available in video! Check it out here. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:35 - Fable's Return 21:33 - GPT-5.6 30:57 - Chinese Models 46:59 - Alex Karp's CNBC Interview 53:00 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin take a look at the continuing fallout of Anthropic's fight with the government, including the delayed general availability of OpenAI's GPT-5.6. Plus, is China catching up with the US in terms of model performance, agentic apps continue to make their way to mobile devices, and is Apple's recent RAM-related price hike a permanent blemish on the end of Tim Cook's career? Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:02 - Anthropic Fallout Continues 00:14:45 - China's Window? 00:30:22 - Anthropic and OpenAI Timeline Predictions 00:31:53 - GPT-5.6 00:38:22 - 5.6 on Cerberus 00:44:58 - Mobile Agents 00:52:23 - Apple's Price Hikes 01:00:31 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin zoom in on the continued fallout surrounding Anthropic following the government's decision to issue an export-control directive on its Mythos-based models. Now that it's been over a week, what are the next steps for Dario Amodei's company? They also discuss the pending launch of GPT-5.6 and the ongoing AI brain drain currently happening in the offices of Google. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:42 - Anthropic 00:23:02 - GPT-5.6 00:42:48 - Google Brain Drain 01:03:29 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin dive into the ongoing drama surrounding Anthropic and the US government, as an emergency export control directive forced the AI giant to suspend access to both Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:08 - Anthropic 00:27:48 - Fable 5, ChatGPT 5.6, and Model Performance 00:44:58 - Meta and the AI Window 01:01:25 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin dig into Apple's latest — and Tim Cook's final — WWDC, where Apple Intelligence once again promised to change how you use your iPhone. They also dive into the ongoing IPO races with several S-1 filings, dig into superapp rumors, and pour one out for Pulse. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:32 - WWDC 13:56 - IPO 30:12 - Mythos, Codex, and superapps 49:14 - RIP Pulse and wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Justin recap Google's big announcements coming out of this year's I/O conference. Aside from its new Omni video model, what else left the pair excited about Google's AI efforts? Honestly, not a ton. They also discuss "tokenmaxxing," before digging into a new report surrounding Anthropic's eventual plans for Mythos. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:37 - Google I/O (good!) 09:20 - Google I/O (bad!) 27:22 - Tokenmaxxing 36:29 - Mythos 43:22 - Wrap-up Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.