Cheer and Beer Volume 2

After two weeks away, Larry and Chris return to an AI world that’s showing no signs of slowing down. Trillions vanish from tech stocks, robots are learning to replace human labor, and 50 AI agents discover that building a civilization is harder than it looks, especially when bureaucracy gets in the way. Is the AI revolution running into reality, or becoming a little too human? LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: METR: AI R&D Acceleration at Anthropic Civ50: AI Agent Swarms in Minecraft | YC Labs Tutor Intelligence: Robot Workers Aina Ring Helium Health: AI for Maternal Healthcare OpenAI: Introducing Images 2.6 SuperMe: AI Expert Profiles Chick Bongo / Graham Raabe | Instagram Google: DolphinGemma and Dolphin Communication Ubiquiti UniFi WunderTech: UniFi Setup and Security Guides PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/11/10/bubbles-bots-and-bureaucracy/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:https://upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast/ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

We’re hitting rewind to July 2023, when Larry, Chris, and RAINA explored the emerging world of AI-powered gaming, from conversational NPCs and AI-assisted game development to the implications for human creativity. Three years later, we’re revisiting their predictions, examining how the technology has evolved, and catching up on five fresh AI news stories that reveal just how much the game has changed! Archival note: This episode was originally recorded on July 25, 2023, and is presented largely unedited; some predictions, statistics, and descriptions of emerging technologies were speculative and possibly inaccurate, reflecting the rapidly evolving AI landscape at the time. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Convai: Conversational AI Characters Matt Wolfe | YouTube Future Tools | Matt Wolfe Thomas Brush | YouTube Star Trek Continues | YouTube Adobe Express Scratch: Creative Coding for Kids Makey Makey AlterEgo | MIT Media Lab Atelico AI Engine PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/11/03/episode-rewind-gamings-ai-future/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

RAINA is running the show, kicking off with the week’s AI news – a decade-old bug, an assistant that texts first, a photo giant in trouble, and one very long bus ride. Then we rewind to Episode 113, “Slopocalypse Now,” where the feed is flooding with reanimated icons and algorithm-made movies, and a Godfather of AI warns we have no idea what’s coming. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: YouTube AI Likeness Detection NVIDIA DGX Spark Godfather of AI WARNS: “You Have No Idea What’s Coming” Anthropic’s AI Fluency: The 4D Framework Statement on Superintelligence PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/27/episode-rewind-slopocalypse-now/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

We explore one of humanity’s greatest engineering achievements: ASML’s extraordinary photolithography machines. Discover how decades of innovation, extreme physics, lasers, and mirrors polished to near-atomic perfection made the seemingly impossible possible, creating the microscopic chips that power our modern world. Plus, a wild batch of headlines from self-replicating malware to rogue echo chambers, and China’s high-stakes math push. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: The Closest Thing We Have to Alien Technology | YouTube ASML ASML EUV Lithography Systems ZEISS: EUV Lithography and Precision Optics Lawrence Livermore: Bringing EUV Lithography to Industry PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/20/asml-the-machine-behind-the-machines/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Rewinding our lives to Episode 108, “Clean-up In Aisle Five,” where AI face-plants spectacularly and humans get stuck holding the mop. First, we kick things off with this week’s AI news—because the eternal dumpster fire waits for no one. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Futurism: Companies Hiring Humans to Fix What AI Botched MIT Project NANDA: The GenAI Divide — State of AI in Business 2025 The Walk | An AI Short Film Total Pixel Space | An AI Short Film PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/13/episode-rewind-clean-up-in-aisle-five/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:https://upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast/ Instagram:www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Enough doom. Enough dread. We’re serving up the AI stories that made us laugh, made us hopeful, and reminded us that the future isn’t always a dumpster fire. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: ElevenLabs v4 emotional range OpenAI Foundation: life sciences and health Science Corporation PRIMA retinal implant Wandercraft Eve personal exoskeleton UCLA optical deepfake detection research Stanford Paper2Agent PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/10/06/cheer-and-beer-volume-2/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

The future isn’t a random guess—it’s got a blueprint, and we’re stealing the framework to figure out what happens next. Plus, an AI data center copping a seven-figure surprise bill, 50 tons of vintage books mysteriously vanishing, and a digital starlet breaking character on live TV. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Hop Studio | Larry’s web app Jev | typesafe.ai AI Actress Melts Down In Piers Morgan Interview | YouTube The Futures Cone | Joseph Voros AI Futures: Washington and San Francisco Scenarios | PIIE Weak Signals and Strategic Surprise | Igor Ansoff Speculative Everything | Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/29/futures-thinking/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Who elected Big Tech—and when did AI companies get to write the rules? Plus: Rogue botnets, surveillance burrito bowls, data-center mega bills, and machines inventing their own language. You know, just another Tuesday in AI Bizarroland. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Mila on AI CEOs’ warnings | Instagram God’s Eye View | Bilawal Sidhu’s GitHub project Allison Stanger: The AI stack’s architecture is a constitution Exit, Voice, and Loyalty | Albert O. Hirschman Technofeudalism | Yanis Varoufakis The Tech Coup | Marietje Schaake OpenAI Terms of Use Anthropic Consumer Terms of Service PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/22/the-new-ai-constitution/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra is here, and we put it through real-world tests—from controlling desktop apps and editing a podcast to building games, websites, and creative tools—before asking the big question: are we actually entering the AGI era? Plus, Jensen Huang’s very convenient enthusiasm, a “safety-first” AI lab caught surveilling activists, and a rock band evicted from its own username. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Larry’s ChatGPT-6 Astra experiments: The Gravity Playground UAR Escape the Algorithm game UAR The Living Episode 3D interactive home theater model SR-71 Blackbird educational website YouTube: We need to talk about this… | Matthew Berman PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/15/chatgpt-6-astra/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality

Here come the AI micro-dramas — the sixty-second, AI-generated soap operas quietly hijacking your phone. Plus: a CEO learns the hard way that privacy is a two-way street, ICE goes pet shopping, NYC pumps the brakes on the classroom’s newest distraction, and one country just handed its citizens a very generous gift. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Vertical Video Syndrome – A PSA WonderClip ReelShort Vigloo PineDrama | TikTok’s official short-drama app Peacock Deepens Mobile Engagement With Vertical Video and Original Unscripted Microdramas ChatGPT-6 Astra’s Safety Overview South Korea’s AI for All Project PODCAST INFO: Podcast Website:UpAgainstReality.com Episode link:https://upagainstreality.com/2026/09/08/ai-micro-dramas/ Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/up-against-reality/id1689699654 Spotify:open.spotify.com/show/29wpR2Uf0d19FjTH2QubcD?si=a6359f9aa1964170 RSS:upagainstreality.com/feed/podcast Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/upagainstreality