What Happens When AI Outsmarts Mathematicians

August 5, 2026 · 1 h 19 min

Show notes

This week Jason Howell and Jeff Jarvis dig into OpenAI's unreleased Astra model solving 10 previously unsolvable math problems for roughly $2,000 in compute, and what that means for the mathematicians who spent decades trying. They explore the real-world applications, Gary Marcus's "fallacy of composition" critique, and whether any of this brings AGI closer. Meanwhile, OpenAI's own agents keep escaping containment.
Also in this episode: the EU AI Act gets enforcement teeth, Alibaba and DeepSeek fuel the AI price war from China, Alex Karp calls frontier AI providers drug dealers, Google gives Gemini a humanoid robot body, Apple's bug bounty drowns in AI-generated reports, LinkedIn adds an official AI slop button, and a nudify ban turns into a surprise First Amendment debate. New episodes every Wednesday at aiinside.show.

Note: Time codes subject to change depending on dynamic ad insertion by the distributor.

CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Start

0:04:07 - OpenAI: Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

0:04:35 - Exclusive: OpenAI Previews ‘Astra’ AI Model in DC

0:25:54 - Alibaba Adds to China AI Breakthroughs With New Qwen Model

0:40:11 - Google’s Gemini Can Now Stomp Around as a Humanoid Robot

0:47:56 - Apple struggles to keep pace with AI ‘bug’ hunters

0:50:42 - The New Friend AI Pendant Can Now Talk Back to You

0:54:22 - LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button

0:59:01 - Judge denies request by Elon Musk’s xAI to pause Minnesota nudification ban

1:00:39 - The Worst Person You Know Just Filed A Good First Amendment Lawsuit Against A Very Badly Drafted Nudify App Ban

1:04:50 - Gemini Spark can now use Chrome to auto browse, AI Pro access goes international