Show Notes
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Today’s show:
Elon revives the Hyperloop, promising a 30-minute commute between Austin and San Antonio. It's the kind of project that could reshape how Texans think about getting between two major cities entirely. Then, Jason and Lon explain why this pitch is different from the other Boring Company tunnels.
Learn why President Trump wants to rename artificial intelligence itself and launch an "AI Force." It's a move that could reshape how the government talks about AI policy going forward. PLUS, a new startup's model refuses to write a single word of text, and it is 5 to 18 times faster with better accuracy. It's a completely different approach to how AI agents make decisions, and it might be a preview of where the industry heads next.
Relevant Links:
"Elon Musk's latest Boring Company pitch involves a Hyperloop between Austin and San Antonio" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/20/elon-musks-latest-boring-company-pitch-involves-a-hyperloop-between-austin-and-san-antonio/
The Boring Company → https://www.boringcompany.com/
Elon Musk's original 2013 Hyperloop white paper → https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf
Trump's Truth Social post proposing "Superior/Extreme/Supreme Intelligence" and announcing an AI Force and AI czar → https://www.unite.ai/trump-proposes-renaming-artificial-intelligence-announces-ai-force/
TechCrunch: "Trump says it's time to rebrand AI with a new name — and he's also creating an AI Force" → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/19/trump-suggests-rebranding-ai-with-a-new-name-says-hes-also-creating-an-ai-force/
Vercel AI Open vs Closed Source Volume Chart → https://vercel.com/ai-gateway/leaderboards/models
TypeSafe AI — makers of Jev, the "System One Model" → https://typesafe.ai/
TypeSafe AI blog: "Introducing System One Models & Jev" → https://typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models-and-jev
GeekWire: "Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI assistant in new standoff over agentic shopping" → https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-blocks-metas-muse-ai-assistant-in-new-standoff-over-agentic-shopping/
Meta's Muse — the AI agent Amazon blocked from shopping on its site → https://www.meta.ai/
"Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta's Future" (All-In Podcast, YouTube) — the clip discussed on the show → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp2IbgJ5Z-8
Robocurve's RoboHarm report — the robot-safety benchmark discussed on air → https://robocurve.org/roboharm/
RoboHarm on GitHub (tasks, protocol, and tooling) → https://github.com/robocurve/roboharm
Timestamps:
0:00 Elon Musk revives the Hyperloop: a 30-minute Austin–San Antonio tunnel
1:03 A brief history of Hyperloop and the white paper
8:56 Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist
16:46 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
20:32 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.
21:40 News: Trump proposes an "AI Force," an AI czar, and renaming AI itself
22:49 "Get back to work, nerds"
30:22 Lightfield - Name one person who's ever enjoyed updating a CRM. Exactly. Lightfield's AI agent does it for you — it even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at https://lightfield.app
31:56 TypeSafe's Jev, a "System One" model built to decide, not chat
39:49 Amazon blocks Meta's Muse AI agent
49:57 Dina Powell McCormick's tense All-In Summit exchange with Jason
1:02:38 Off-Duty: Robocurve's RoboHarm benchmark
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This Week In Startups is made possible by:
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
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This Week In Startups is made possible by:
This Week In Startups is made possible by: