Energy Trends and Trade Skills Renaissance

This chapter examines the contrasting electricity generation trends in the U.S. and China, emphasizing the need for skilled labor in trades due to increasing energy demands. It explores the implications of automation on education and the potential for new industries emerging from advancements in power generation.

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In this week’s convo with Liz, we unpacked the AI news that should’ve broken the internet:

🔹 $6.5B for Johnny Ive?!
OpenAI “acquires” the legendary Apple designer’s agency in a full stock deal. No one knows what they’re building, but it’s probably wearable, creepy, and context-aware—and it’s a flex timed perfectly to steal headlines from Google I/O.

🔹 Google’s comeback attempt
They’re finally rolling out AI-native search with ads—and it’s a big deal. $60B+ of ad revenue is on the line. We dig into what’s launching, how to use tools like Gemini, Flow, and VO, and why Google still feels like 27 startups duct-taped together.

🔹 VO3 is insane
AI-generated video so good, you can’t tell it’s fake. We demo what it can do (photo-realistic balloon animals discussing AI??) and debate if it’s ready for real ad production.

🔹 Energy is the real bottleneck
You want AGI? You better build power plants. Liz drops a chart that shows how far ahead China is in electricity generation—and why AI’s future might be limited by kilowatts, not compute.

🔹 Trades are about to boom
If you can build a data center, wire a panel, or install cooling systems, the AI wave might make you rich. We riff on counterculture investments, labor shortages, and why electricians may beat coders in the next economy.

🔹 The privacy backlash is coming
We debate whether AI wearables will be a privacy nightmare—or the best documentation tool ever (think body cams for healthcare). Liz shares surprising data that body cams reduced lawsuits. Mind blown.

🔹 Bonus: Anthropic teaser
We didn’t even get to it—but next week we’re diving into Claude, Model Context Protocol, and tools normal people can use without needing a CS degree.

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This week we covered:

00:00 The Acquisition of Johnny Ive by OpenAI

05:10 The Future of AI and Wearable Technology