Am I Even Needed Anymore? GLM-5, Agentic Loops & AI Productivity Psychosis - EP99.34

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Feb 13, 2026

They unpack GLM-5’s Huawei-backed release and why cheap, coding-optimized models are reshaping the model war. Agentic loops, 200K context windows, and the trade-offs of parallel workers get debated. They explore AI productivity psychosis, rising workloads from automation, and the safety researcher exodus. There’s also talk of ergonomics, voice input pivots, and whether agent-driven workflows will redefine roles.

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INSIGHT

AI Productivity Psychosis

Michael Sharkey and Chris Sharkey describe a new fatigue from limitless AI capability they call "AI productivity psychosis."
The pressure to do more constantly leads to neglect of non-work life and mental strain.

INSIGHT

GLM-5 Shifts The Model Landscape

GLM-5 is a cheap, open-source frontier model trained on Huawei Ascend chips with competitive performance.
Its low cost and zero US-hardware dependency shift the competitive landscape for model deployment.

ANECDOTE

Early GLM-5 Agentic Loop Tests

Chris plugged GLM-5 into an agentic loop and found it failed in familiar ways like other frontier models.
Michael's early tests found GLM-5 indistinguishable from Codex/Opus on basic tasks.

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GLM-5 just dropped and it's trained entirely on Huawei chips – zero US hardware dependency. Meanwhile, we're having existential crises about whether we're even needed anymore. In this episode, we break down China's new frontier model that's competing with Opus 4.6 and Codex at a fraction of the price, why agentic loops are making 200K context windows the sweet spot (sorry, million-token dreams), and the very real phenomenon of AI productivity psychosis. We dive into why coding-optimized models are secretly winning at everything, the Harvard study confirming AI doesn't reduce work – it intensifies it, and the exodus of safety researchers from XAI, Anthropic, and OpenAI (spoiler: they're not giving back their shares). Plus: Mike's arm is failing from too much mouse usage, we debate whether the chatbot era is actually fading, and yes – there's a safety researcher diss track called "Is This The End?"

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro - Is This The End? (Song Preview)
0:11 Still Relevant Tour Update & NASA Listener Callout
1:42 AI Productivity Psychosis: The Pressure of Infinite Capability
4:25 GLM-5 Breakdown: China's New Frontier Model on Huawei Chips
7:24 First Impressions: GLM-5 in Agentic Loops
9:48 Why Cheap Models Matter & The New Model War
14:09 Codex Vibe Shift: Is OpenAI Winning?
16:24 Does Context Window Size Even Matter Anymore?
22:27 The Parallelization Problem & Cognitive Overload
27:27 Mike's Arm Injury & The Voice Input Pivot
31:17 Single-Threaded Work & The 95% Problem
35:06 UX is Unsolved: Rolling Back Agentic Mistakes
38:45 Harvard Study: AI Doesn't Reduce Work, It Intensifies It
44:01 How AI Erodes Company Structure & Why Adoption Takes Years
50:14 My AI vs Your AI: Household Debates
50:43 The Safety Researcher Exodus: XAI, Anthropic, OpenAI
56:49 Final Thoughts: Are We All Still Relevant?
59:04 BONUS: Full "Is This The End?" Diss Track

Thanks for listening. Like & Sub. Links above for the Still Relevant Tour signup and Simtheory. GLM-5 is here, your productivity psychosis is valid, and the safety researchers are becoming poets. xoxo