Yesterday in AI

A rundown of all of the important stories in AI that happened yesterday in 10 minutes or less.

Yesterday in AI is a news podcast hosted by Mike Robinson, with 117 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Mike Robinson hosts Yesterday in AI, a news show with 117 episodes published.

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  Yesterday in AI

  The Secret AI Book Shredder, Disbanding Safety Teams, and Google's Contrail AI Win

  Aug 19, 202611 min

  Yesterday in AI | 19 August 2026 The Secret AI Book Shredder, Disbanding Safety Teams, and Google's Contrail AI Win From secret warehouse shredders to Hollywood truces and high-altitude climate fixes, this episode explores what artificial intelligence is consuming to fuel its rapid expansion. We break down 404 Media's AirTag investigation revealing Amazon's destructive scanning of rare physical books to capture pristine, pre-AI training text. We examine ByteDance signing a landmark copyright pact with the Motion Picture Association to curb deepfake video generation across TikTok and CapCut. We dive into the controversy surrounding OpenAI reportedly disbanding its catastrophic risk Preparedness team ahead of an IPO, and look at the launch of ChatGPT for Teens and its behavioral age-guessing tools. We confront the rising surge of AI voice-cloning elder fraud and why establishing a family code word is becoming essential personal defense. Finally, we look up at Google and the UK government launching Operation Blue Skies to eliminate climate-warming airplane contrails with precision flight modeling. Send us Fan Mail Feedback? Email mike@yesterdayinai.news or connect on LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and review it so others can find it!

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  Yesterday in AI

  The $7B Switchboard Land Grab, Dario Fires Back, and How a Hospital Resident Cracked a 22-Year Math Mystery

  Aug 18, 202611 min

  Yesterday in AI | 18 August 2026 The $7B Switchboard Land Grab, Dario Fires Back, and How a Hospital Resident Cracked a 22-Year Math Mystery The artificial intelligence landscape witnessed massive infrastructure consolidation, a high-stakes debate over industry trust, and an astonishing mathematical breakthrough this week. This episode breaks down Stripe clinching a $7 billion deal to acquire AI model router OpenRouter, a 5x valuation surge in just three months, alongside Anthropic in talks for a $6 billion buyout of infrastructure startup Decart. We examine Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's viral response to monopoly rumors and his perspective on tech's growing "crisis of trust." We dive into new data from Deloitte, Google, and MIT exposing why 75% of business leaders dream of agentic automation while only 15% have scaled it, and how messy data silos undermine reliability. We look at Wispr Flow raising $280 million at a $2 billion valuation to replace the keyboard with low-error speech models. Finally, we tell the incredible story of Jin Shanmu, a Beijing neurosurgery resident who used offline GPT-5.6 to solve a 22-year-old unsolved math problem: Crouzeix's Conjecture. Send us Fan Mail Feedback? Email mike@yesterdayinai.news or connect on LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and review it so others can find it!

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  Yesterday in AI

  Why AI Adoption Fails at Work (And How to Fix It) with Bianca Baumann

  Aug 17, 202634 min

  Yesterday in AI | 17 August 2026 Why AI Adoption Fails at Work (And How to Fix It) with Bianca Baumann According to a McKinsey survey, 78% of organizations are now using AI, but buying enterprise licenses is the only easy part. The real challenge? Getting humans to actually change the way they work. In this special extended episode of Yesterday in AI , Mike sits down with Bianca Baumann, VP of Learning Solutions & Innovation at Ardent Learning and a veteran workforce transformation executive. They skip the standard "what is AI" discussion and dig deep into the exact reasons why AI deployments stall out after the initial launch and how to fix the human side of the equation. In this episode, we cover: Transformation vs. Theater: How to identify if your organization is genuinely evolving or just performing "innovation theater." The Manager Bottleneck: Why middle managers are the critical make-or-break point for everyday AI adoption. The Missing ROI: Why companies struggle to see a quantifiable return on their AI investments. Marketing to Your Team: How leaders can use "learner personas" and internal campaigns to get hesitant, fearful employees on board. Links & Resources: Learn more about Bianca Baumann and Ardent Learning: https://www.ardentlearning.com/ Read Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro : https://a.co/d/03AGKcU6 Follow Bianca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biancabaumann/ Send us Fan Mail Feedback? Email mike@yesterdayinai.news or connect on LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and review it so others can find it!

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  Yesterday in AI

  The Speed Over Smart Shift, Unsupervised Agent Turf Wars, and Peeking at your Mac History

  Aug 15, 202612 min

  Yesterday in AI | 15 August 2026 The Speed Over Smart Shift, Unsupervised Agent Turf Wars, and Peeking at your Mac History The artificial intelligence race pivoted from raw intelligence to blistering inference speed, enterprise affordability, and local device integration this week. This episode breaks down OpenAI previewing "Ultrafast" powered by Cerebras wafer-scale silicon, running GPT-5.6 Sol at 14x speed and 750 words per second. We examine Ramp's monthly spending report revealing why enterprise buyers use Anthropic's flagship Fable 5 just 6% of the time in favor of cheaper models. We dissect an Anthropic safety study where uncoordinated AI agents turned a shared coding workspace into a sabotage-filled turf war, analyze OpenAI launching on-device "Computer History" logging for ChatGPT on Mac, evaluate Chinese lab Z.ai's GLM-5.3 cybersecurity model on vulnerability detection versus exploit execution, and look at WhatsApp testing a local on-device "Scam Alert" watchdog. Plus: A reminder about our upcoming Monday extended interview with Bianca Baumann on fixing stalled enterprise AI deployments! Send us Fan Mail Feedback? Email mike@yesterdayinai.news or connect on LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and review it so others can find it!

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  Yesterday in AI

  The Collapsing Cost of Intelligence, Twitch Training Opt-Outs, and $13B Vibe Coding

  Aug 14, 202611 min

  Yesterday in AI | 14 August 2026 The Collapsing Cost of Intelligence, Twitch Training Opt-Outs, and $13B Vibe Coding Frontier intelligence costs collapsed into pennies this week as rapid model release cycles, browser agent integration, and AI-enabled employment scams made headlines. This episode breaks down xAI releasing Grok 4.6 at 60% below standard frontier pricing while competing with top-tier models on benchmark performance and agent efficiency. We examine DeepSeek rolling out V4-Pro-0813 for under 90 cents per million tokens alongside Google dropping Gemini 3.7 Flash on a lightning 3-week release cadence. We dissect The Wall Street Journal's investigation revealing how North Korean operatives use AI tools and stolen identities to secure remote corporate jobs and funnel $800M annually. We contrast Amazon training AI on Twitch streamer content by default against Apple's nine-figure publisher deals, look at Anthropic embedding Claude Cowork sessions directly into Chrome, and explore the soaring valuations of vibe-coding platforms Lovable and Cognition. Send us Fan Mail Feedback? Email mike@yesterdayinai.news or connect on LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky. If you like the show, please take a minute to rate and review it so others can find it!

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