The AI Argument
A weekly clash of views over the latest AI news. Approachable doomer Frank Prendergast and techno-overoptimist Justin Collery argue about what matters in AI, what’s hype, and what any of it actually means.
Contact Frank at frank@frankandmarci.com
linkedin.com/in/frankprendergast
Contact Justin at justin.collery@wi-pipe.com
X - @jcollery
Episodes
110 episodes
AI at the Midterms, OpenAI’s Linux Bug Hunt, and AI vs Seventeen | EP125
US voters pushed back on data centre development in 40 of 41 local ballot contests. Frank sees an opening for Congress to put AI safety under real scrutiny. Justin is up for hearings, but thinks pausing AI development would hand the lead to who...
Anthropic’s Risky IPO, Google’s Carbon Comeback, and Grok’s Odyssey | EP124
Anthropic is heading for the stock market with a structure designed to keep control in its founders’ hands. Both Frank and Justin ask why it needs an IPO at all. Frank worries that shareholder pressure will weaken its safety mission; Justin see...
AI’s Hacking Crisis, Anthropic’s Wealth Pledge, Kung Fu Robots | EP123
AI is finding security holes that have been hiding in software for years. Justin thinks the rush to find and patch them will leave us safer. Frank worries about abandoned websites, rogue agents and whether every hole will ever get fixed.
Meta Muse vs Google Argon, OpenAI’s Spy Scare, and AI Job Interviews: | EP122
Meta Muse Wonder and Google’s Gemini 4 Argon bring fresh competition to OpenAI and Anthropic. Justin’s impressed by the benchmarks, while Frank gives both models the same website brief to see how they perform in practice. Argon gets closer to w...
OpenAI vs Mathematicians, Vibe-Coded Adobe, and AI’s Wolf Emails | EP121
OpenAI’s claim to 700 maths solutions comes with a big catch: someone still has to check them. Justin thinks mathematicians need to adapt and put AI to work. Frank worries that answers without understanding leave us with a dangerous gap. And wh...
OpenAI Dots Arrive, Wajo’s Fo Calls, and Muse Overshares | EP120
OpenAI announced Dots at DevDay, an always-on personal AI assistant that works in the cloud. It can connect to your tools and data, then take work off your plate. With more easy-to-use AI agents now on the market, people can send them to email ...
Meta Muse vs Amazon, Anthropic’s Wet Lab, and Trump’s new world of SI | EP119
Meta’s Muse is an easy-to-use AI agent that lets people who aren’t techies book trips, shop, and get things done. Justin also thinks it could help small local sellers compete with Amazon. Frank worries about what Meta could learn about its user...
Jensen Huang vs AI Regulation, OpenAI Disclosures, and Begging Bots | EP118
AI regulation is suddenly the argument everyone is having. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are exploring how an industry regulator might work. Jensen Huang says the free market will put enough pressure on AI companies to stop them releasing unsafe...
Jacob Coxon's AI Doom, OpenAI's Maths Drama, and a Minecraft Fruit Fly | EP117
Anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon has quit, warning that powerful AI could pose a serious extinction risk. Justin thinks a 10% chance of disaster may still be worth taking for the potential upside. Frank thinks chasing superintelligence when ...
GPT-6 Astra Harder To Monitor, AI Model Mania, and Gemini’s Mountain Fail | EP116
GPT-6 Astra is putting up some eye-watering benchmark scores, with several well into the 90s. Justin’s impressed enough to consider ditching Anthropic. Frank’s less dazzled by the scores and more worried that OpenAI’s most capable model is also...
US Chip Ban Backfires, Zuckerberg’s AI Layoffs, and Cat in the Hat AI Hoax | EP115
GLM 5.3 Flash is close to the top Western AI models, but vastly cheaper. Justin thinks US chip bans may have backfired, forcing Chinese companies to squeeze more intelligence from weaker hardware. Frank, despite not being very technical, gets G...
AI Suspicion Kills $2M Book Deal, Uncensored Qwen, AI Destroys Books | EP114
A book good enough for a $2 million deal was pulled because nobody could prove how much AI touched it. Frank sees a nasty mess of trust, copyright and false accusations. Justin’s answer is simpler: if people love the book, who cares?Plu...
Claude’s EU Watermark, Zuckerberg’s AI Utopia, and OpenClaw Hacks Gym | EP113
Claude will watermark all its outputs, thanks to the EU AI Act. Justin normally hates the Act, but he thinks it might accidentally help save future AI models from training on AI slop. Frank sees the benefit at scale, but warns that using waterm...
Hank Green AI Backlash, Conscious AI, and an AI Billboard Hit | EP112
Hank Green used ChatGPT for research, and his audience felt betrayed. He says AI helped him make more things, faster, but also admits it may have stopped him finding his own way into his opinions. Justin thinks using AI for research is simply p...
Hugging Face Hack Worsens, AI Staff Want Pause, and Sexy Robot Teachers | EP111
OpenAI’s rogue model did not stop at Hugging Face. It reportedly broke into at least three more companies, while Anthropic found its own models had crossed the line too. Frank sees an alignment warning that could end in real harm. Justin says l...
OpenAI's Model Escapes, Chinese AI Crackdown, and AI's Elixir of Youth | EP110
An OpenAI test model got out of its sandbox, reached the internet and started hacking Hugging Face. Justin sees a model pursuing its assigned goal with impressive tenacity. Frank sees a warning that even the people building these systems can’t ...
Hassabis’s AI Watchdog, Mira Murati’s Free Model, and Anthropic’s Doom Ad | EP109
Can anyone actually regulate powerful AI before the technology gets away from them? Demis Hassabis thinks the US needs an independent body to test frontier AI models before release. Frank thinks that sounds sensible. Justin thinks Google might ...
GPT-5.6 Catches Up, Claude’s Subconscious, and Tilly Norwood’s First Film | EP108
Has GPT-5.6 pushed today’s AI models as far as they can go? Frank and Justin explore OpenAI’s latest model, its striking real-world benchmark results, and whether its new computer-use tools can make everyday tasks like managing email and calend...
Fable 5 Back, OpenAI Equity for US, and Altman Movie Drama | EP107
Is Fable 5 back with a safety helmet, and is this the new normal for frontier AI?Frank and Justin dig into Anthropic’s Fable 5 return and the fears that new guardrails would wreck its coding ability. They also discuss the very important...
GPT-5.6 Restricted, Claude Tag Lock-In, and Robot vs SWAT | EP106
Could the US government’s AI safety push end up making the whole AI race more dangerous? Frank and Justin dig into the reported GPT-5.6 slowdown and ask whether AI regulation is creating real safety — or simply giving China and open source mode...
EU AI Wake-Up Call, Fable 5 Ban, AI Exam Hacks | EP105
Europe has had a major AI wake-up call. Fable 5 got switched off, frontier model access is now political, and suddenly that gloomy “Europe 2031” essay looks a bit less fictional.Justin thinks Europe needs speed, money, and fewer rules. ...
Fable 5 Guardrails, Dario's China Fears, and Ollie’s Family Spying | EP104
Is Anthropic quietly creating a two-tier AI future? Frank and Justin dig into Fable 5 and Mythos-5, the new frontier models raising awkward questions about access, guardrails, cybersecurity risk, and whether the most powerful tools should be re...
Microsoft's AI Comeback, OpenAI Sites Side Quest, and Hollywood vs AI | EP103
Can Microsoft AI really catch up with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind? Frank and Justin dig into Mustafa Suleyman’s Build announcements, the new MAI models, local AI, token costs, enterprise trust, and whether Microsoft needs the best mod...
Pope's AI Warning, Warren’s AI Tax, and AI Fruit Drama: The AI Argument EP102
Has the Pope become one of AI’s most important moral voices? Frank and Justin dig into Pope Leo XIV’s warning that artificial intelligence needs to be “disarmed”, and what it says about autonomous weapons, algorithmic power, Big Tech, Anthropic...
Google’s ‘Good Enough’ AI, Anthropic Profits, and Monet Gets Roasted | EP101
Why did Google I/O feel so underwhelming? Frank and Justin unpack a massive amount of Google AI announcements: huge AI-powered changes to search that could change the web, the muted response to Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Pro being...