Shipmas or Nah? OpenAI's release strategy

The episode kicked off with the OpenAI and NORAD partnership for the annual Santa Tracker, a live fail on the new “Elf Enrollment” tool, and a broader point about how slow and outdated OpenAI’s image generation has become compared to Gemini and Nano Banana Pro. From there the news moved into Google’s upcoming Gemini Projects feature, LinkedIn’s gender bias crisis, new Clone robotics demos, Apple leadership changes, the state of video models, and a larger debate about whether OpenAI will skip Shipmas entirely this year.

Key Points Discussed

OpenAI partners with NORAD for Santa Tracker tools, including Elf Enrollment and Toy Lab

Dull image quality and slow generation highlight OpenAI’s lag behind Gemini and Nano Banana Pro

Google teases Gemini Projects, a persistent workspace for multi chat task organization

Gemini 3 continues pushing Google stock and investor confidence

Cindy Gallop and others expose LinkedIn’s gender bias suppression patterns

Viral trend of women rewriting LinkedIn bios using “bro coded” phrasing to break algorithmic bias

Calls for petitions, engagement boosts, and potential class action

Clone robotics debuts a human like motion captured hand using fluid driven tendons

Discussion on real household robot limitations and why dexterity matters more than humanoid form

Apple replaces its head of AI, bringing in a former Google engineering leader

Talk of talent reshuffling across Google, Apple, and Microsoft

Timestamps and Topics

00:00:00 👋 Opening, Brian returns, holiday mode

00:02:04 🎅 NORAD Santa Tracker, Elf Enrollment demo fail

00:04:30 🧊 OpenAI image generation struggles next to Gemini

00:06:00 🤣 Elf result goes off the rails

00:07:00 🔥 Expectations shift for end of 2025 model behavior

00:08:01 💬 Andy introduces Google Projects preview

00:08:43 📂 Gemini Projects, multi chat organization

00:09:23 📈 Google stock climbs on Gemini 3 adoption

00:10:01 💼 Cathie Wood invests heavily in Google

00:11:03 📉 Big Short confusion, Nvidia vs Google

00:12:06 🎨 Gemini used in slide creation and workflow

00:12:39 👋 Carl joins

00:13:22 ⚠️ LinkedIn gender bias crisis explained

00:14:31 📉 Women suppressed in reach, engagement, and ranking

00:15:40 🛑 Algorithmic bias across 30 years of hiring data

00:16:18 📝 Change.org petition and action steps

00:18:46 ⚖️ Class action discussions begin

00:22:05 🤖 Clone robot hand demo with mocap control

00:23:54 😬 Human like movement sparks medical and industrial use cases

00:25:26 🧩 Household robot limits and time dependent tasks

00:27:54 🔄 Remote control robots as a service

00:29:56 🧠 Emerging Neuro controls and floor based holodecks

00:32:12 🍎 Apple fires AI lead, hires Google’s Gemini Assistant engineer

00:33:31 🔁 Talent shuffle across OpenAI, Google, Apple, Microsoft

00:35:58 🚢 Ship or Nah segment begins

00:36:36 🔥 Last year’s Shipmas hype vs this year’s silence

00:37:18 📉 Code Red memo shows internal pressure at OpenAI

00:38:22 🎧 OpenAI research chief’s Core Memory podcast insights

00:39:48 🌍 Internal models reportedly already outperform Gemini 3

00:42:59 🧪 Scaling, safety, and unreleased model pipelines

00:44:09 🧩 Gemini 3 feels fundamentally different in interaction style

00:45:42 🧭 Why OpenAI may skip Shipmas to avoid scrutiny

00:47:18 🛠️ ChatGPT UX improvements as alternate Shipmas focus

00:49:22 ❄️ Kling launches Omni Launch Week

00:50:55 🎥 Kling video generation added to Higgsfield

00:53:19 🧪 Shipmas as a vocabulary term shows language drift

00:56:06 🦩 Merriam Webster and Tampa Airport shoutouts

00:57:24 🤳 Final elf redo succeeds

00:58:22 🏁 Closing and Slack community plug