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Model Mayhem, NVIDIA x Hugging Face Deal, GPT-6 Astra | Pablo Torre, Mohit Aron, Akshay Narisetti, Hari Ravichandran, Matt Caldwell & Jordy Leiser, Jeff Thornburg, Charlie O’Neill, Sridhar Ramaswamy

September 3, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Model Mayhem, NVIDIA x Hugging Face, and the Clippers Scandal

The AI labs all dropped new models in the same week — Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1, Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash, Meta's Muse Spark 1.3, and OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, which scored 99.9% on Arc AGI 3. Meanwhile, NVIDIA acquired Hugging Face for $12.903 billion (the Unicode decimal for the hugging face emoji), and Pablo Torre joined to explain how Steve Ballmer allegedly funneled $48 million to Kawhi Leonard through fake endorsement deals. It was a dense Thursday.

The Model Dump

Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1 scored 66 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index — the highest ever, ahead of Opus 5 at 63 and Fable at 62. Anthropic claims it's cheaper and more efficient, with an improved caching system making ordinary work and long-horizon agentic jobs 45% cheaper. Notably, Anthropic is dropping its zero data retention policy (ZDR) and replacing it with "Enterprise Frontier Safeguards." Ben Thompson had pointed out that ZDR was hurting enterprise adoption — companies didn't want their data going into Anthropic's databases. The new policy keeps data on infrastructure the company owns, monitored for hostile usage but not absorbed into Anthropic's training set.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:02) **Episode Kickoff & Model Mayhem Overview** - The hosts open with a wave of new AI model releases and the simultaneous outage of several major services.
  • 2 (01:58) **Birthday Song & Conference Tease** - The team sings "Happy Birthday" to a team member and promotes an upcoming All-In conference in Los Angeles.
  • 3 (03:15) **Model Mayhem Roundup: Claude Fable 5.1 & Gemini 3.8 Flash** - A detailed breakdown of the new models from Anthropic and Google, including their benchmark scores and key features.
  • 4 (05:18) **Anthropic's Data Policy Shift & Enterprise Adoption** - The hosts analyze the strategic change in Anthropic's data retention policy, moving from "no zero data retention" to "Enterprise Frontier Safeguards."
  • 5 (06:36) **MetaMuse Spark 1.3 & Enterprise AI Revenue Concentration** - The hosts cover MetaMuse Spark 1.3's strong benchmark performance and then dive into a chart showing extreme concentration in enterprise AI revenue.
  • 6 (07:49) **Deep Dive: The 1% Driving 80% of AI Spend** - The hosts explore the implications of the extreme revenue concentration, comparing it to hiring and sales data across the US economy.
  • 7 (11:08) **Guest Introduction: Pablo Torre on the Kawhi Leonard Scandal** - The hosts welcome investigative journalist Pablo Torre to discuss his reporting on the Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard salary cap circumvention story.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Pablo Torre

Show Notes

  • (00:19) - Model Mayhem
  • (13:12) - Why NVIDIA Bought Hugging Face
  • (23:55) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions
  • (31:25) - Pablo Torre discusses his investigation into an alleged salary-cap circumvention scheme involving Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard. The investigative journalist and host of Pablo Torre Finds Out explains the evidence, the NBA’s punishment, and why Ballmer’s threatened legal battle could further damage the team.
  • (55:06) - Mohit Aron is the founder of SaiFin and previously founded enterprise technology companies Cohesity and Nutanix. Aron discusses SaiFin’s mission to use AI to unify fragmented go-to-market context, support real-time decision-making, and serve companies of all sizes while keeping humans involved to ensure accuracy.
  • (01:01:09) - Akshay Narisetti, founder of Pocket, discusses building an AI-powered recording device that has sold 300,000 units by making professional note-taking more convenient and reliable than phone apps. He explains Pocket’s hardware, subscription model, privacy safeguards, specialized transcription technology, and plans for agents that turn conversations into reports, presentations, and other work products.
  • (01:18:12) - Hari Ravichandran, founder and CEO of consumer security company Aura, discusses the growing threat of AI-enabled scams, identity theft, and data breaches affecting families and businesses. He explains Aura’s personalized, family-centered approach to digital protection, its focus on streamlined onboarding, and its growth to approximately $340 million in annual recurring revenue.
  • (01:26:39) - GPT-6 Astra
  • (01:31:23) - Matt Caldwell, CEO of the Minnesota Timberwolves, discusses how the team is using Jump’s direct-to-consumer ticketing platform to simplify purchases, own fan data, and deepen engagement. He also highlights AI-driven ticket pricing and broader distribution across marketplaces to increase attendance and revenue. Jordy Leiser is the co-founder and CEO of Jump, a sports technology company building an all-in-one platform for teams to manage ticketing, commerce, and the fan experience. He previously co-founded StellaService/Stella Connect, which was acquired by Medallia, and began his career in investment banking at JPMorgan. Jump now works with teams across the NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NWSL.
  • (01:45:50) - Jeff Thornburg, a space-industry veteran and former SpaceX executive, discusses founding Portal Space Systems to build highly maneuverable spacecraft for defense and civil exploration. He highlights the company’s orbital testing progress, growing team, evolving government-industry partnerships, and the importance of tenacity and calm leadership in solving difficult engineering challenges.
  • (01:54:15) - Charlie O, head of AI model training, discusses the future of personalized open-source models, continual learning, and Base Labs’ mission to make AI more useful through o
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