In episode 1905 of the No Agenda Show, titled 'Nerdballs' and published September 20, 2026, host Adam Curry welcomed venture capitalist and All In Podcast co-host Jason Calacanis for a critical examination of the artificial intelligence industry, Silicon Valley politics, and the media narratives influencing the 2026 midterms. Broadcasting from the Texas Hill Country, Curry introduced Calacanis as 'the get of the week,' noting his recent appearance at the All In Summit at the Shrine Auditorium, which drew 3,000 attendees and surprise call-ins from President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The conversation covered several of the week's most-discussed stories, including Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman's new code of conduct and his public criticism of Anthropic's 'model welfare' doctrine, a reported Hugging Face security incident and subsequent calls for an AI 'kill switch,' the political weaponization of data centers by candidates such as Texas Democrat James Talarico, President Trump's revocation of press credentials for CNN, MSNOW, and Politico, and rising diesel prices linked to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.
Calacanis was particularly blunt on the AI safety debate, arguing that Anthropic's leadership has convinced itself it is creating a deity. 'They actually think that they are creating a god. They're not. They're creating software,' he told Curry, comparing the company's effective-altruism roots to the doomed engineers in the film Prometheus. Curry played clips of University of Washington professor Pedro Domingos describing a reported Anthropic 'funeral' for a retired Claude model, while Calacanis insisted the real story is regulatory capture: frontier labs lobbying Washington to gate open-source competitors like DeepSeek, GLM, and NeMoTron.
The episode also provided rare backstage detail from the All In Summit. Calacanis recounted Jensen Huang fumbling the speakerphone button when President Trump called mid-panel, and described pressing Meta's Dina about the company's record $17 billion settlement during a data-center segment. He shared the origin story of All In as a pandemic-era poker group with David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, and David Friedberg, and revealed that This Week in Startups sells out its ad inventory a year in advance at $3,000 per spot.
Curry pivoted to Bitcoin, predicting a $430,000 peak, while Calacanis discussed parenting in the smartphone era. The pair also reflected on the late John C. Dvorak, whose memory drives the show's ongoing Order of the Ant tribute campaign.
For listeners and industry observers, the episode offers a contrarian take on the AI boom, highlighting internal contradictions within AI safety advocacy and the growing political resistance to data center expansion. Calacanis's critique of regulatory capture suggests that the battle over open-source AI models may intensify, with frontier labs seeking to protect their market positions through Washington lobbying. The discussion of data center backlash, exemplified by Talarico's campaign, indicates that AI infrastructure projects could face increasing local opposition, potentially slowing deployment and raising costs. Moreover, the backstage anecdotes from the All In Summit reveal the close ties between tech leaders and political figures, underscoring the high stakes of the 2026 midterms for the technology sector. As AI continues to permeate the economy, these debates will shape investment decisions, regulatory frameworks, and public perception, making the No Agenda Show's deconstruction a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the forces driving the industry.
