E125: Palantir’s Politics, Elon’s Approach to DOGE, and AI’s Effects on Writing w/ Byrne Hobart

36 snips

Mar 13, 2025

Explore the impact of AI on writing and the challenges of distinguishing it from human output. Discover how blogging has disrupted traditional media, reshaping credibility and monetization. Delve into the implications of AI on job security and personal privacy concerns in the digital age. Examine how media ownership influences political narratives and the consequences of foreign aid budget cuts. Finally, discuss the evolving political landscape of tech companies and their shift from rebellion to establishment as they navigate societal challenges.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

AI's Impact on Writing Quality

While Large Language Models (LLMs) can produce decent writing, it's often detectable and not good enough for high-quality writing markets.
The 95th percentile writing LLMs generate is impressive technically, but insufficient for truly competitive writing.

ANECDOTE

Blogging's Disruptive Influence

Byrne Hobart argues that blogging's impact was more significant than AI's on writing, disrupting established journalistic hierarchies.
Initially criticized, blogs became integrated into mainstream media, accelerating news cycles and forcing traditional outlets to adapt.

INSIGHT

The Changing News Landscape

News outlets now operate across various cadences, recognizing they can't compete with real-time platforms for breaking news.
Instead, they focus on providing in-depth analysis and the 'last word' on events, leveraging their expertise.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Today on Upstream, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg dive into the wide-ranging effects of technological change on media and society. They cover the AI debate, blogging's social impact, AI's influence on search and data, the changing news industry, foreign aid cuts, and the rise of new tech elites.

This episode originally aired on The Riff (March 11, 2025).

—

📰 Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess

🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—

RECOMMENDED PODCASTS:

🎙️Investor and writer of the popular newsletter The Diff, Byrne Hobart, and co-host Erik Torenberg discuss today’s major inflection points in technology, business, and markets – and help listeners build a diversified portfolio of trends and ideas for the future.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-riff-with-byrne-hobart-and-erik-torenberg/id1716646486

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6rANlV54GCARLgMOtpkzKt

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRiffPodcast

—

SPONSORS:

☁️Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

🎯Say goodbye to the headaches of out-of-home advertising. AdQuick combines technology, OOH expertise, and data to enable efficient, seamless ad buying across the globe. Visit adquick.com to start reaching your customers in the real world.

🕵️‍♂️Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code UPSTREAM at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/upstream

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—

LINKS:

Byrne’s writing: https://thediff.co

—

X / TWITTER:

@byrnehobart

@eriktorenberg

@turpentinemedia

—

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:

AI's impact on written content is overstated despite its technical achievements.
The social adjustment to blogging was more disruptive than our current adjustment to AI-generated content.
Traditional media eventually incorporated blogging and adapted to different publishing cadences.
"Real news" remains the least lucrative part of the news business.
Media outlets drive partisan narratives through topic selection, not just content framing.
Readers generally don't want nuanced views that might challenge their existing beliefs.
Bezos positioned the Washington Post to serve growth-oriented progressives and non-Trumpist conservatives.
Elon Musk's "Doge" review of USAID may use a strategy of cutting drastically then restoring essential services.
Programs like PEPFAR (AIDS relief) have extremely high returns on investment that shouldn't be overlooked.
US military spending could be viewed as a form of foreign aid by preventing global conflicts.
Karp critiques tech for excelling at "delivering delightful trivialities" but neglecting serious national challenges.
Silicon Valley has shifted from "atheist libertarianism" to more nationalist viewpoints.
Companies like Palantir represent a public-private synthesis of government capability.
Tech companies had anti-establishment cultures when small but now are the establishment themselves.
Education polarization has strongly influenced political alignments in the tech industry.
When outsiders become insiders, they need to adopt more pragmatic governance approaches.