Anthropic Gives Away 5% of Its Shares, Clone’s Muscle Robot, ElevenLabs Steals Podcaster's Voice

October 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Anthropic Gives Away 5% of Its Shares, Clone’s Muscle Robot, ElevenLabs Steals Podcaster's Voice

On this episode of This Week in Startups, Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris covered three major stories: Anthropic's plan to put 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund, a deep-dive interview with the CEO of Clone Robotics about their artificial muscle approach to humanoid robots, and an accusation that ElevenLabs cloned a podcaster's voice without permission. The throughline connecting these segments is the tension between technological possibility and the ethical, legal, and social questions that trail behind it.

The Giving Pledge 2.0: Anthropic, Elon, and the Fight Over How to Distribute AI Wealth

Anthropic announced it would put 5% of its stock into a fund for public benefit projects, with the board able to add another 2% for every 50% the company's value rises above a baseline. At a hypothetical $2 trillion valuation, that initial 5% would be worth around $100 billion. Stockholders still need to approve the plan.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:04) **Show Opening & Plaud Ad** - Jason and Lon Harris open the episode and pitch the Plaud AI note-taking device.
2 (03:18) **Nathan Fielder's Theranos Documentary: J-Cal's Unspoiled Review** - Jason gives an early, spoiler-free review of the new Nathan Fielder documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.
3 (14:36) **Northwest Registered Agent Ad** - A brief ad break for Northwest Registered Agent, offering free identity services for new startups.
4 (15:32) **Rotten Tomatoes Deep Dive & Film Hype** - Jason and Lon analyze the film's near-perfect 98/98 Rotten Tomatoes score and compare it to other classics.
5 (20:05) **Anthropic's 5% Stock Pledge vs. Elon Musk's Direct Giveaway** - The hosts debate the merits of Anthropic's plan to put 5% of shares into a public benefit fund versus Elon Musk's proposal to give shares directly to the public.
6 (27:07) **Vanta Ad** - A brief ad break for Vanta, a security and compliance automation platform for startups.
7 (28:18) **The Financial Literacy Argument & Trust Issues** - Jason argues that direct stock ownership is the best way to educate Americans about finance and build support for AI.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Jason Calacanis Lon Harris

Show Notes

This Week In Startups is made possible by:

Plaud: https://plaud.ai/twist

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Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/twist

Rippling: https://rippling.ai/twist

Today’s show:

Jason can’t stop praising Nathan Fielder’s new A24 hybrid documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, “You Can See Everything,” and he’s insisting that Lon check it out before the next podcast. Hear his spoiler-free review, how the film upended his expectations based on Fielder’s previous work, and why Lon also recommends Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Max series “Ren Faire.”

Plus, we’re talking to Clone Robotics co-founder and CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan about why he thinks robots should not just be humanoid but should look and move precisely like humans. We’re digging deep into how his hydraulic myofiber artificial muscle technology alters and even improves on the pulley-based systems being deployed by competitors, why he thinks the models that power domestic helper-bots will be commoditized, and how quickly he thinks he can put a robo-butler in every American home.

Plus we’re comparing the potential impact of Anthropic’s new Public Benefit Fund vs. Elon Musk’s plan to give every baby a share of SpaceX, and re-considering simulation theory after Odyssey dropped an artificial fruit fly brain into an artificial landscape.

Guest

Dhanush Radhakrishnan on X: https://x.com/dhanushisrad

Clone Robotics: https://clonerobotics.com/