Perfectly Honest and Completely Untrue

In this episode of AdTech AdTalk, Adam and Gareth break down the big news of the week: Pinterest acquiring TV Scientific. Is it about CTV tags, or is it really about IP address stuffing to juice attribution?The duo goes deep on the AI wars, debating whether Google’s "stack" strategy will crush open standards, the "vertical integration" lesson from the browser wars, and the suspicious claim that Gemini 3 has no ads (yet). They also tackle the "passive voice" of the Irish exit, the surprising economics of OnlyFans chatbots, and why SaaS investors are panicking about AI.Plus, a look back at the "Vast Arbitrage" era, why LiveRail ruined ad tech acquisitions for a decade, and why nobody can name a single piece of "new knowledge" generated by an LLM.0:00 Intro2:12 The "Irish Exit" & Holiday Party Anxiety04:08 AI Standards vs. The Google Stack06:40 The Browser Wars & Vertical Integration 11:34 The "Architects of AI" & Godzilla Battles 15:28 The ROI of AI: Application Layer vs. Infrastructure 19:02 AI Won't Make Investors Rich (But Might Make You Rich) 23:11 The Service Industry Boom & The End of SaaS Playbooks 28:43 Pinterest Acquires TV Scientific: Attribution Gaming? 39:08 The "LiveRail Chill" on Ad Tech M&A 44:37 Post-Mortem: Google's "No Ads in Gemini" Claim 50:05 Post-Mortem: Vast Arbitrage & Waterfalls Explained 54:58 Post-Mortem: Can AI Create New Knowledge? 59:43 Q&A: Affiliate Links in Custom GPTs 1:01:23 OnlyFans Chatbots & The Future of Influencer AI 1:02:46 Outro & Hanukkah Wishes