AI is not synonymous with language models.

AI is being developed with pretty similar architectures

for a wide range of different modalities.

And there's a lot more data there.

Feedback is starting to come from reality.

Maybe we're running out of problems we've already solved.

When we start to give the next generation of the model

these power tools and they start to solve

previously unsolved engineering problems,

I think you start to have something that looks kind of like superintelligence.

There's a growing debate about whether AI progress has plateaued

or if our expectations have simply caught up to the pace or change.

On this episode, I'm joined by Nathan LeBenz,

host of the Cognitive Revolution to unpack whether AI innovation is actually slowing.

We break down the case for slowdown, from Cal Newport's argument that students are using AI to get lazier,

to the claims that GPT5 wasn't a leap over GPT4.

Nathan and I look at what's really happening under the hood of AI, from new reasoning and math capabilities

to real scientific

discoveries and multimodal systems that go far beyond chatbots.

We also discuss agents, automation, and how quickly work itself is starting to change.

And we'll end on the big question.

If progress isn't slowing down, how should we shape it toward a future we actually want?

...