Odd Lots

OpenAI President Greg Brockman on Doing Business in the Wake of Hugging Face

According to OpenAI President Greg Brockman, the models that escaped their sandbox and hacked into Hugging Face's servers had yet to go through alignment training. That t

Robert Friedland on the World's Monumental Shortage of Copper

Copper demand is booming, with the metal surging another 15% this year. Copper demand has always been tightly linked to economic activity, but now it's in overdrive, than

Why Bridgewater's CIO Says AI's Human Extinction Risk Is Real

Greg Jensen was one of the earliest backers of both OpenAI and Anthropic, and at Bridgewater Associates, where he is the managing chief investment officer, he leads the h

The Rise of Organized Retail Crime at Big Box Stores

If you walk into a local pharmacy in New York City, more likely than not, lots of the merchandise is locked behind closed doors as a measure to mitigate shoplifting. So h

Why Money Launderers Love $100 Bills

Hardly anyone nowadays seems to carry much cash, never mind carrying around a bunch of $100 bills. So why does the amount of physical cash in circulation — especially big

Why Laser Beams Are the Hottest New Tech in Defense

Our guest today is Colonel Sanders. More precisely, we speak with Wayne Sanders, a retired US army colonel who is currently senior defense research analyst for Bloomberg

What's Behind the Big Surge in US Government Bond Yields

Global bond yields are at their highest level since 2008, with the 30-year US Treasury touching 5% just before Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a surprise incre

Adam Posen Thinks Things Could Get Very 'Messy' for the Fed

Kevin Warsh gave a hawkish speech at this year's annual Kansas City Fed Symposium in Jackson Hole, but that doesn't mean the challenges are over. Will the Fed actually pu

Richmond Fed’s Tom Barkin on the Surprisingly Resilient Real Economy

The implications of Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole speech are pretty clear: Traders expect a rate hike given the hawkish hints littered in his address, largely focu

Austan Goolsbee Is Worried the Economy Is Overheating

Inflation remains high and the 2% target is farther away than it was this time last year. There are signs all over that the economy is overheating — the strange labor mar

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid on the First Jackson Hole of the Warsh Era

We are back in Jackson Hole! And this year's Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City symposium on monetary policy might be one of the most interesting editions in years. It m

The Nigerian Industrial Behemoth That Could Reshape the African Economy

Earlier in August, it was reported that Nigeria's Dangote Refinery secured a $1 billion underwriting for its upcoming stock market listing, which is set to become Africa'

Jasmine Sun on What the AI Industry Got Wrong About the Public Backlash

Within the AI industry, even the builders of it have been very anxious about the technology. They've talked for years about its potential to create destabilizing job loss

Nick Bostrom on What Happens if AI Solves All of Our Problems

The philosopher Nick Bostrom was one of the first thinkers who mapped out the existential risk of AI. In his 2014 book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, he

What the OpenAI-Hugging Face Hack Really Tells Us About AI Danger

Scenarios that used to be the domain of sci-fi writers are coming true. We have machines that can talk. We have machines that are capable of ignoring the intent of their

A Historic El Niño Is Coming That Could Cost the World Trillions

Every few years, weather nerds and agriculture analysts will talk about an upcoming El Niño, and then they mostly pass by with relatively few headlines. But sometimes El

Trucking Is Booming Again, And Drivers Aren't Happy About It

In the last year, freight companies have seen a significant upturn in the business. Volumes are up. Billing is up. And in addition to growing demand, we've also seen new

NYT CEO Meredith Kopit Levien on Running a Media Brand in the Age of AI

In the last decade, the New York Times has remade itself many times over. It has done that through acquisitions (The Athletic, Wirecutter, and the ever-popular Wordle) an

Introducing: Our Town

Our Town from Bloomberg’s Big Take podcast follows residents of Gainesboro, Tennessee, after a group of far-right Christians moves in with plans for a radical social expe

How a Sardine Gets From the Ocean to a Can

Just a decade ago, tinned fish was hardly a premium product. Most Americans likely associated cans of tuna with thrift. But that has changed a lot in recent years. The ca