This Week in Startups

Anthropic Gives Away 5% of Its Shares, Clone’s Muscle Robot, ElevenLabs Steals Podcaster's Voice

96 snips
Oct 20, 2026
Guest
Dhanush Radhakrishna
Dhanush Radhakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of Clone Robotics, is building lifelike androids powered by hydraulic artificial muscles. He explains why robots should move like humans, how Clone’s technology differs from rival systems, and when robo-butlers could reach homes. The conversation also explores Anthropic’s equity giveaway, simulated brains, AI risk, and ElevenLabs’ controversial voice cloning.
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INSIGHT

Shared Equity Could Change Attitudes Toward AI

  • Directly giving families company equity could make people feel included in technological growth instead of watching wealthy founders benefit while jobs disappear.
  • Jason Calacanis compares ownership to learning how credit cards, cars, and financial systems work through firsthand experience.
ADVICE

Favor Direct Ownership Over Opaque Benefit Funds

  • Prefer transparent, direct ownership programs over vaguely governed public-benefit funds whose managers decide which causes receive money.
  • Jason Calacanis warns that discretionary funds can become slush funds, favor insiders, and deepen divisions through selective treatment.
INSIGHT

Clone Replaces Robot Motors With Hydraulic Muscles

  • Clone Robotics is pursuing lifelike androids with hydraulic artificial muscles rather than the motors, pulleys, and tendon cables used by competitors.
  • Pressurized fluid contracts a rubber-like tube inside a braided sleeve, producing linear contraction that imitates antagonistic human muscle motion.
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