In episode 1905 of the No Agenda Show, titled 'Nerdballs,' host Adam Curry welcomed venture capitalist and All In Podcast co-host Jason Calacanis to dissect the AI hype cycle, Silicon Valley power dynamics, and media narratives shaping the 2026 midterms. The conversation, published September 20, 2026, offered a skeptical take on the AI industry's self-image and its growing influence in Washington.
Calacanis, fresh from an All In Summit that drew 3,000 attendees and surprise call-ins from President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, pulled no punches on the AI safety debate. He argued that Anthropic's leadership has convinced itself it is birthing a deity. 'They actually think that they are creating a god. They're not. They're creating software,' Calacanis told Curry, comparing the company's effective-altruism roots to the doomed engineers in the film Prometheus. Curry played clips of University of Washington professor Pedro Domingos describing a reported Anthropic 'funeral' for a retired Claude model, underscoring the quasi-religious fervor Calacanis derides.
But Calacanis insisted the real story is regulatory capture: frontier labs lobbying Washington to gate open-source competitors like DeepSeek, GLM, and NeMoTron. This matters because it suggests that AI safety concerns may be a smokescreen for entrenched players to stifle competition, potentially limiting innovation and consumer choice. The episode also touched on Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman's new code of conduct and his public criticism of Anthropic's 'model welfare' doctrine, as well as a reported Hugging Face security incident and calls for an AI 'kill switch.'
The political weaponization of data centers also came under scrutiny, with candidates like Texas Democrat James Talarico using the issue to rally voters. This signals that AI infrastructure is becoming a flashpoint in the 2026 midterms, as communities push back against the energy and land demands of massive data centers. The episode also covered Trump's revocation of press credentials for CNN, MSNOW, and Politico, and rising diesel prices tied to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.
Calacanis shared backstage details from the All In Summit, including Jensen Huang fumbling the speakerphone button when President Trump called mid-panel, and described pressing Meta's Dina about the company's record $17 billion settlement during a data-center segment. He traced All In's origin as a pandemic-era poker group with David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, and David Friedberg, and revealed that This Week in Startups sells out its ad inventory a year in advance at $3,000 per spot. Curry pivoted to Bitcoin, predicting a $430,000 peak, while Calacanis discussed parenting in the smartphone era. The pair also reflected on the late John C. Dvorak, whose memory drives the show's ongoing Order of the Ant tribute campaign.
For those interested in an alternative take on tech and media, the No Agenda Show offers a listener-supported model. The episode is available on Apple Podcasts and other platforms.
