The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce

Ranking history

About the show

Latest episodes

• THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 -- EP 5 THE AGE OF COGNITION

  September 13, 2026 · 13 min

  Investing your cognition surplus. Within the next year we'll have "good enough" AI running on our smartphones, walking around with an extra 'brain in our pocket'. In our series final, we look forward into a future where we're all living…

• THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 -- EP4 AI COMES HOME

  September 6, 2026 · 13 min

  AI@70 Episode 4 - AI COMES HOME AI models get 'trained' inside massive data centres, using some of the most powerful computers ever built. We've now learned how to make those models small enough to run on a laptop. Seventy years after it…

• THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 -- EP 3: TALK TO THE CLAW

  August 30, 2026 · 10 min

  Pete Steinberger set the world on fire with OpenClaw, the first general-purpose agent - and one with a soul. We'll look at how being in the right time and the right place with the right vibe fundamentally changed the public perception of…

• THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 EP 2 -- THE WATERSHED

  August 21, 2026 · 10 min

  THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS: AI@70 EP 2: THE WATERSHED ChatGPT opened the door to artificial intelligence. Almost immediately, researchers built 'agents' using it - but three years of hard yards passed before agents were 'good enough' to be…

• THIS BILLION SECONDS: AI @ 70 Ep 1: AI TAKES THE PENSION

  August 16, 2026 · 11 min

  THIS BILLION SECONDS AI @ 70 -- EPISODE ONE: AI TAKES THE PENSION  On the 17th August 1956, artificial intelligence was born. The founders of the field reckoned they'd have thinking machines equivalent to humans in five year, perhaps…

• Pokemon Go used to train killer drones (RNZ Nine to Noon rebroadcast)

  June 18, 2026 · 15 min

  On RNZ's "Nine to Noon" Mark gave host Kathryn Ryan an update on the US export controls on the "Fable 5" AI model - and how that's causing them trouble with their allies, who had already integrated it into workflows. Then they'll look at…

• Unsafe AI? Anthropic's Fable 5 - an AI that may be too smart for its own good (RNZ "Nine To Noon" rebroadcast)

  June 15, 2026 · 12 min

  On Friday 12 June, AI powerhouse Anthropic cut off all access to their latest-and-greatest "Fable 5" AI model. Based on the incredibly powerful Mythos - which has the capacity to hack into almost any computer - Fable had safeguards to…

• RNZ "Nine To Noon" - Vulnageddon, RAMageddon and ChatGPT Goblins?

  May 14, 2026 · 18 min

  Host Kathryn Ryan in conversation with Mark, profiling the concerning capability of Anthropic's Mythos AI model to hack into the most protected systems - now it seems other AI models are just as powerful. RAMageddon could be on the way…