Modern AI Merlins

AI labs' breakeven revenue needs vastly exceed corporate AI returns, and embedded debt now makes a failure systemic, not just an equity event.

• Anthropic S-1 leak: Izabella Kaminska and hosts Ben/Squirrel debate how to value AI labs now that financials are public, framing founders as 'Merlins' whose tech is binary magic—utopia or 'Mordor.'
• Alignment as game theory: Kaminska argues safety calls were strategic posturing; an Atlantic report allegedly shows OpenAI/Anthropic discussing auctioning AGI to the highest-bidding government.

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