Weird Things

AI, Dinosaurs, and the Future of Entertainment

Weird Things ·

2025/05/30

Andrew opens by demoing Replicate's Trellis model, which turns a 2D image into a 3D mesh. He uses a ChatGPT-generated Blade Runner-style car image, shows the model producing a 3D asset in a little over a minute for about seven cents, and the hosts discuss how accessible 3D asset generation could change creative workflows, games, and set design. The conversation moves into broader AI optimism and skepticism. Justin argues that AI development will keep accelerating and that productized value is still

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Quantum Leaps, Human Cannonballs, and AI Evolution

Weird Things ·

2025/05/30

The episode opens with a discussion of a possible biosignature on exoplanet K218b, with Andrew explaining that dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide were reported in the planet's atmosphere and are associated on Earth with marine microorganisms, while stressing that instrument error or unknown abiotic chemistry could still explain it. The hosts broaden that into a conversation about how exoplanet discovery and the search for life have advanced incrementally, and how it would not be surprising to

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Of Mammoths and Mice: The Weird Science of De-Extinction

Weird Things ·

2025/03/21

In this episode, Andrew Mayne, Justin Robert Young, and Brian Brushwood kick things off with a nod to the anniversary of GPT-4, reflecting on its impact and the rapid pace of AI development. The conversation takes a historical detour to the Ramree Island crocodile attack during World War II, with Andrew using AI to sift fact from fiction in this tale of survival and crocodile-infested mangroves. The trio then shifts focus to Colossal Biosciences’ efforts to bring back the woolly mammoth, starting

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Nano Arcade and AI Musings

Weird Things ·

2025/03/07

The episode opens with Andrew describing a workflow automation he built in n8n to collect story ideas and email him a pre-show list, then moves into a discussion of a research team creating the world's smallest shooting video game with nanoscale technology. The hosts react to the demonstration, compare it to miniature hockey or "inner space," and Andrew reflects on how nanotech has proved much harder than early optimism suggested. From there, the conversation broadens into AI-assisted science,

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Asteroids, Quantum Computing, and Disneyland Adventures

Weird Things ·

2025/03/07

The episode opens with the hosts discussing asteroid 2024 YR4, whose Earth impact odds have dropped, and quickly turns to the less certain but more interesting possibility of a lunar strike. They talk through the visible flash, dust, crater formation, and whether any ejecta could reach Earth, while Andrew reads from a Deep Research report estimating the object as a city-killer-sized asteroid and describing its effects on the Moon. The conversation then ranges across moon impacts, the role of the

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Asteroids, AI, and the Art of Avoiding Armageddon

Weird Things ·

2025/02/22

The episode opens with a discussion of asteroid 2024 YR4 and its reported 2.2% chance of hitting Earth on December 22, 2032. The hosts discuss its estimated building-sized range, possible blast-wave, thermal, seismic, and tsunami effects, and compare the event to Tunguska and Chelyabinsk as examples of severe but non-civilization-ending damage. A long middle section focuses on AI tools and moderation, including Brian's frustration with being restricted or banned by ChatGPT/OpenAI for questions he

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The AI Frontier: Deep Dive into DeepSeek, O3, and Beyond

Weird Things ·

2025/02/05

The episode opens with a long discussion of DeepSeek, its V3 and R1 reasoning models, and why the release caused such a big reaction in AI circles and on Wall Street. Andrew says DeepSeek appears to have made real efficiency gains in training and hardware use, while Justin argues the market overreacted to the idea that less compute would be needed; both stress that the models do not mean chips or compute are suddenly unnecessary (L17-L17, L25-L25, L49-L49, L53-L57, L61-L65, L73-L77, L101-L105). The

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AI’s Latest Leap: Operator and the Future of Internet...

Weird Things ·

2025/02/02

The episode opens with a discussion of DeepSeek's V3 and R1 models, which the hosts describe as highly capable and unusually efficient. They frame the reaction as part of a broader open-source versus closed-source AI debate, while also noting uncertainty and controversy about whether some of DeepSeek's progress came from training on frontier model outputs or distillation. The hosts stress that the technical achievements are real, even if the competitive landscape and provenance are murky. A large

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The AI Frontier: Hitting Walls and Vaulting Over Them

Weird Things ·

2025/01/25

The episode opens with a discussion of rapid recent AI releases and whether AI has "hit a wall." Andrew points to OpenAI's O3 and Google video models as evidence that capabilities are still advancing, while Justin uses the ARC Prize and AGI as the lens for asking how quickly systems are improving and whether a reasonable AGI label could arrive within the next year. Andrew's response emphasizes the "jagged frontier": models can be very strong on some tasks and weak on others, so benchmark gains do

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A Timeless Dive into the Future and Past of...

Weird Things ·

2025/01/24

In this episode, Andrew Mayne, Justin Robert Young, and Brian Brushwood take listeners on a fascinating exploration of entertainment’s past, present, and future. They kick off with a nostalgic look at how theme parks like Universal Studios have evolved, highlighting the technological advancements in attractions such as the Born Stunt Spectacular. The conversation then shifts to the potential of AI in creating immersive experiences, with Andrew sharing insights into reasoning models and the concept

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The AI Frontier: Robotics, Simulators, and the Future...

Weird Things ·

2025/01/24

The episode opens with a discussion of OpenAI's Shipmas announcements and a comparison with Google's recent AI releases. The hosts focus on OpenAI's o3 model, describing it as a real, usable research milestone and noting that it scored highly on the ARC Prize benchmark and coding evaluations, while also acknowledging that some announced features are not immediately available to everyone. The conversation then broadens into how current AI tools are being used in practice. The hosts talk about ChatGPT

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Magic, AI, and the Future of Video Generation

Weird Things ·

2024/12/21

The episode opens with the hosts talking about new live multimodal AI features in ChatGPT and Google Gemini, including Andrew's demo of showing ChatGPT a card trick over live video. They note that these features had been demonstrated earlier and are now shipping, but emphasize that backend compute, server connections, and GPU supply make rollout slower than some people expect. Most of the episode is spent on OpenAI's Sora and other video generators. The hosts discuss how to use Sora, including

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The Future of Robotics and Sky Quakes

Weird Things ·

2024/12/21

In this episode, Andrew Mayne, Justin Robert Young, and Brian Brushwood kick things off with a brief chat about the latest addition to Justin’s family and the implications of raising a child in today’s tech-saturated world. The conversation quickly shifts to Elon Musk’s recent showcase of Tesla’s advancements in robotics, including the Optimus robot and the Cyber Cab. The hosts speculate on the impact of these technologies on the future, from personal robotics to autonomous transportation networks

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Space Catchers and the Future of Robotics

Weird Things ·

2024/12/18

The episode opens with a long discussion of SpaceX successfully catching the Starship booster with Mechazilla. The hosts focus on the scale of the tower and booster, the surprise and delight of the SpaceX team, and what the feat implies for fully reusable rockets. They also broaden the conversation into Elon Musk's impact, conviction and persistence in engineering, and how institutions and experts can be wrong about what is possible. [L21-L29, L33-L41, L47-L57] The middle of the episode turns to

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The AI Revolution Marches On

Weird Things ·

2024/10/10

The episode opens with Andrew detailing OpenAI's Dev Day announcements, especially the real-time API for continuous text or audio conversations and demos aimed at customer support and phone ordering. The hosts then debate AI as a replacement or augmentation for customer service, with Brian and Justin emphasizing how frustrating human support can be and how useful a capable AI agent might be if it can actually solve problems. Andrew walks through several additional OpenAI features, including prompt

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Augmented Reality, VR, and the Quest for the Perfect...

Weird Things ·

2024/10/10

In this episode, Andrew Mayne, Justin Robert Young, and Brian Brushwood kick things off with a chat about the weather before diving into the world of augmented reality and virtual reality. They discuss the limitations of Apple’s Vision Pro and the potential of Facebook’s Project Orion, comparing the two and expressing their hopes for the future of AR. The conversation then shifts to acoustic holograms, showcasing how sound can be used to manipulate objects in space, creating what could be the future

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The Quest for a Silent Burrito Delivery

Weird Things ·

2024/10/07

The episode opens with the hosts joking about wanting burritos immediately and turns into a discussion of faster delivery systems. Andrew introduces Zipline's drone-delivery model, describing how it keeps the aircraft high above the ground and lowers cargo by line to avoid noise and landing-safety problems. That leads naturally into a broader conversation about autonomous transport, including Waymo's route-based ride service and Zoox's purpose-built vehicle design, along with speculation about

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The Matrix Adventure and AI Revelations

Weird Things ·

2024/09/14

The episode opens with a long discussion of OpenAI's Strawberry / O1-style reasoning models. Andrew Mayne explains that these models seem to work better when asked to break problems into steps, use tools, and reason through tasks in a more structured way than ordinary one-shot chat models. The hosts compare this to prompt engineering, discuss examples like decimal comparisons and counting the R's in "strawberry," and talk about how longer structured prompts, patience, and using the right model for

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From Space Mazes to Aquatic Apes: A Weird Things Journey

Weird Things ·

2024/09/01

Andrew Mayne, Brian Brushwood, and Justin Robert Young (eventually) take us on a journey from the depths of space to the mysteries of our ancient past. They kick off with space news, discussing the return path for astronauts via SpaceX, not Boeing’s Starliner, and delve into the grounding of SpaceX launches due to a mishap. The conversation then shifts to a natural phenomenon where butterflies harness static electricity, and ancient shark attack victims, suggesting our long history with these marine

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SpaceX Oopsie and Genetic Frontiers

Weird Things ·

2024/07/26

The episode opens with Justin and Brian discussing a New York Times story about a SpaceX Starlink launch that experienced an upper-stage problem. They note that the first stage landed normally on a drone ship, but the second stage did not reach the intended altitude to deploy the satellites properly, and they mention SpaceX describing the event as a very rare glitch and a rapid unscheduled disassembly. The middle of the episode becomes a long speculative conversation about frontier life, space

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