Bradley Hope is a journalist, author and co-founder of Project Brazen, a narrative non-fiction production studio. His piece in Wired, ‘A Spymaster Sheikh Controls a $1.5 Trillion Fortune. He Wants to Use It to Dominate AI,’ outlines how one Gulf royal – Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan – came to control vast sums of sovereign wealth. Hope sits down with Oz to discuss Sheikh Tahnoun’s early obsession with AI, his path to becoming the UAE’s national security advisor and the country's role in the global AI race. 

Bradley Hope is a journalist, author and co-founder of Project Brazen, a narrative non-fiction production studio. His piece in Wired, &lsquo;A Spymaster Sheikh Controls a $1.5 Trillion Fortune. He Wants to Use It to Dominate AI,&rsquo; outlines how one Gulf royal &ndash; Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan &ndash; came to control vast sums of sovereign wealth. Hope sits down with Oz to discuss Sheikh Tahnoun&rsquo;s early obsession with AI, his path to becoming the UAE&rsquo;s national security advisor and the country's role in the global AI race.&nbsp;

Behind every innovation is a new kind of power. TechStuff unpacks how technology reshapes influence, creativity, and control, from Silicon Valley’s rising moguls to the cultural forces they create. Because tech is the new religion, economy, and entertainment, all at once.

Each week, Oz Woloshyn and the brightest minds covering tech dig into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling ways technology, AI, and the internet shape our daily lives. From AI and social media to privacy, digital burnout, and the creator economy, they ask how all this innovation is changing who we are, how we work, love, and make meaning.

Smart talk, strange stories, and the questions everyone’s Googling: whether AI will replace us, how social media is affecting our kids, and what it all says about us.

Get in touch here: techstuffpodcast@gmail.com

Behind every innovation is a new kind of power. TechStuff unpacks how technology reshapes influence, creativity, and control, from Silicon Valley&rsquo;s rising moguls to the cultural forces they create. Because tech is the new religion, economy, and entertainment, all at once.
Each week, Oz Woloshyn and the brightest minds covering tech dig into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling ways technology, AI, and the internet shape our daily lives. From AI and social media to privacy, digital burnout, and the creator economy, they ask how all this innovation is changing who we are, how we work, love, and make meaning.
Smart talk, strange stories, and the questions everyone&rsquo;s Googling: whether AI will replace us, how social media is affecting our kids, and what it all says about us.
Get in touch here:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:techstuffpodcast@gmail.com" data-stringify-link="mailto:techstuffpodcast@gmail.com" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-haspopup="menu">techstuffpodcast@gmail.com</a>

TechStuff

Behind every innovation is a new kind of power. TechStuff unpacks how technology reshapes influence, creativity, and control, from Silicon Valley’s rising moguls to the cultural forces they create. Because tech is the new religion, economy, and entertainment, all at once.

Each week, Oz Woloshyn and the brightest minds covering tech dig into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling ways technology, AI, and the internet shape our daily lives. From AI and social media to privacy, digital burnout, and the creator economy, they ask how all this innovation is changing who we are, how we work, love, and make meaning.

Smart talk, strange stories, and the questions everyone’s Googling: whether AI will replace us, how social media is affecting our kids, and what it all says about us.

Behind every innovation is a new kind of power. TechStuff unpacks how technology reshapes influence, creativity, and control, from Silicon Valley&rsquo;s rising moguls to the cultural forces they create. Because tech is the new religion, economy, and entertainment, all at once.
Each week, Oz Woloshyn and the brightest minds covering tech dig into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling ways technology, AI, and the internet shape our daily lives. From AI and social media to privacy, digital burnout, and the creator economy, they ask how all this innovation is changing who we are, how we work, love, and make meaning.
Smart talk, strange stories, and the questions everyone&rsquo;s Googling: whether AI will replace us, how social media is affecting our kids, and what it all says about us.

The Story: A Spymaster Sheikh’s AI Ambitions w/ Bradley Hope

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/5c06cf49-1cc2-4045-a381-b297007e5f5e/transcript

Do chatbots have feelings? Anthropic, Google, and Meta are hiring computer scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers to find out. Nitasha Tiku (The Washington Post) explains why the search for AI consciousness has gone from fringe theory to Silicon Valley mainstream, and why the answer matters more than you think. Then, Taylor Lorenz (User Mag) traveled cross-country to attend an anti-big tech festival in New York City called the Summer of Ludd. She tells us about cleansing her laptop, talking to the event’s puppet spokesperson, and learning what these young organizers hope the future holds. Finally, Reed Albergotti (Semaphor) on what happens when your AI coding agent goes rogue while you're on vacation in the Alps — and the heroic lengths required to reach an actual human at OpenAI.

Additional Reading: 

AI Makes Mistakes, Too | Semafor 
They built the world's most powerful AI. They're facing a mystery they can't explain. | The Washington Post

Do chatbots have feelings? Anthropic, Google, and Meta are hiring computer scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers to find out. Nitasha Tiku (The Washington Post) explains why the search for AI consciousness has gone from fringe theory to Silicon Valley mainstream, and why the answer matters more than you think. Then, Taylor Lorenz (User Mag) traveled cross-country to attend an anti-big tech festival in New York City called the Summer of Ludd. She tells us about cleansing her laptop, talking to the event&rsquo;s puppet spokesperson, and learning what these young organizers hope the future holds. Finally, Reed Albergotti (Semaphor) on what happens when your AI coding agent goes rogue while you're on vacation in the Alps &mdash; and the heroic lengths required to reach an actual human at OpenAI.
Additional Reading: 
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/07/08/2026/the-trump-administration-is-taking-a-sober-approach-to-quantum-computing">AI Makes Mistakes, Too | Semafor</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/07/01/biggest-tech-companies-are-considering-whether-chatbots-have-emotions/">They built the world's most powerful AI. They're facing a mystery they can't explain. | The Washington Post</a></li>
</ul>

Why Animal Rights Advocates Are Investigating AI Consciousness - Week in Tech

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/08ac83eb-5dbc-4d41-8fa7-b48300384101/transcript

Do you work with machines, or for machines? Cory Doctorow, who coined the term “enshittification,” has a new book that asks exactly that. In The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late, he challenges the belief that AI is inevitable, explains why tech boosters are pushing this message, and how it leads to companies that are “too big to fail… too big to jail… too big to care.” 

Cory Doctorow and Oz discuss the economics of a bubble, algorithmic wage discrimination, and what you can do to help save your industry from disruption. 

Additional Reading: 
The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late | Verso Books

Do you work with machines, or for machines? Cory Doctorow, who coined the term &ldquo;enshittification,&rdquo; has a new book that asks exactly that. In The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late, he challenges the belief that AI is inevitable, explains why tech boosters are pushing this message, and how it leads to companies that are &ldquo;too big to fail&hellip; too big to jail&hellip; too big to care.&rdquo; Cory Doctorow and Oz discuss the economics of a bubble, algorithmic wage discrimination, and what you can do to help save your industry from disruption.&nbsp;
Additional Reading:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/3584-the-reverse-centaur-s-guide-to-life-after-ai?srsltid=AfmBOop6TzMRw3HTWtL6Jlo1P7WmpYHZJrU5r-J0ucWTt_Pa8lMEfnsp">The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late | Verso Books</a></li>
</ul>

Big Tech’s Most Valuable Product Isn’t AI. It’s the Belief that AI is Inevitable - The Story

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/18d5d399-eb9f-4f19-bdce-b4810011401c/transcript

Evan pushes the experiment one step further, sending his AI voice agent to talk to his closest friends and family — his buddies, his daughters, his dad. With their alternately joyful, skeptical, and painful reactions to meeting an AI version of him, he tries to come to terms with what generative AI means in this machine-made age.Shell Game is made by humans. More specifically, it's made by three humans: Evan Ratliff (host and writer), Sophie Bridges (producer), and Samantha Henig (executive producer). Visit shellgame.co to find out more and support the show.

Evan pushes the experiment one step further, sending his AI voice agent to talk to his closest friends and family &mdash; his buddies, his daughters, his dad. With their alternately joyful, skeptical, and painful reactions to meeting an AI version of him, he tries to come to terms with what generative AI means in this machine-made age.Shell Game is made by humans. More specifically, it's made by three humans: Evan Ratliff (host and writer), Sophie Bridges (producer), and Samantha Henig (executive producer). Visit shellgame.co to find out more and support the show.

Shell Game: The Future Isn't Real

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/fd6d4295-7b73-45f2-9793-b4720188afef/transcript

The Story: A Spymaster Sheikh’s AI Ambitions w/ Bradley Hope

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