Anthropic Throws Jabs at OpenAI's Ad Plan & Super Bowl-Olympics Preview

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0:31Toby Maloney:Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, Anthropic throws jabs at OpenAI ahead of the Super Bowl.

0:39Neal Freyman:Ben, it's tough to tell which is colder right now, real winter or this crypto winter. It's Friday, February 6th. Let's ride.

0:52Toby Maloney:Good morning and happy Friday. It's been a long week, but we made it. So this week, Facebook turned 22 years old, and to mark the occasion, Mark Zuckerberg shared a list of five songs he listened to while creating the social app as a 19-year-old, a playlist called 2004 Facebook Coding Jams. Ready to hear what's on it? Headstrong by Trapped, Like a Stone by Audioslave, The Reason by Hoobastank, In the End by Linkin Park, and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk, which I got to admit, is pretty much what I was listening to in 2004 while not building a future$2 trillion company. Toby, thoughts on 2004 Facebook coding jams?

1:30Neal Freyman:I mean, pretty good list. It also led me down a rabbit hole of what other soundtracks powered famous people or famous pursuits. Michael Lewis, who wrote The Big Short, told us when we interviewed him that he listens to the same bubblegum pop anthems over and over while writing his books. So he's a pop guy. Albert Einstein was a big Mozart guy, maybe unsurprisingly. And then definitely unsurprisingly, Steve Jobs, Bob Dylan, and a Beatles guy. Neil Freiman. This is a true story. Listens to ambient sounds to wash away distractions on a website called a soft murmur. I look over sometimes to say something to Neil while we're prepping for the show.

2:07Neal Freyman:And he's got rain sounds playing at 100 % volume. This is why you haven't created a$2 trillion company.

2:14Toby Maloney:It's essentially, yeah, white noise. They're going to inspect my brain and be like, what the hell is going on here? Because I think I'm in a rainstorm for like 10 hours of the day.

2:23Neal Freyman:I know. It's like fight or flight instincts. I just listened to movie soundtracks, so I think I'm the main character of my own story. All right, let's hear from our sponsor, Sandals Resorts. Neil, let me pitch you a business idea. Imagine a scenic seaside resort with attractions for parents and children. That sounds like Beaches Resorts. No, I'm pretty sure this is something I thought of. It's a Toby original, and it's never been done before.

2:46Toby Maloney:Nope. Beaches Resorts deliver family fun across the Caribbean. Kids can enjoy the Pirate Island water park and Sesame Street programming at their world-famous kids' camps.

2:56Neal Freyman:Okay, but can parents unwind with spa treatments or beachside cocktails?

3:00Toby Maloney:Again, yes. Plus, they can explore the Caribbean's most beautiful islands like Turks and Caicos and Jamaica.

3:06Neal Freyman:Fine, I guess there's no better place to experience the Caribbean than at resorts founded by a family from the Caribbean. And I'm totally unoriginal. For the latest offers, visit sandals.com. That's sandals.com.

3:17Toby Maloney:The Super Bowl is coming up on Friday, and we're gonna run down some storylines to make you the most interesting person at your party. First up, while the Seahawks take on the Patriots on the field, perhaps an even more intriguing battle will play out during the commercial breaks. Anthropic versus OpenAI in a clash of the chatbots. This week, Anthropic, which makes Claude, dropped the gauntlet on its rival by ridiculing its push into advertising. In a series of four commercials, two of which will air around the game, Anthropic stage scenes where someone asks questions of another person whose robotic answers resemble a chatbot.

3:50Toby Maloney:At the end of their reply, the AI character suddenly goes into an ad read, emphasizing how disruptive this experience might be for users. The subtext of Anthropik's campaign is that last month, OpenAI said it would begin to include ads in chat GPT, while this week, Anthropik loudly proclaimed that Claude would remain ad-free. Toby, this sparked a million marketing debates. How do you think Anthropik's attack on OpenAI was received, and do you think it's an effective pitch for potential customers?

4:16Neal Freyman:I mean, I think we've seen this before on the Super Bowl advertising stage. I'm thinking back to get a Mac where you contrast a Mac versus a PC. This is something that advertisers have done for a long time. It's not breaking any laws, by the way. They're not defaming OpenAI because they actually never named them, which is why so many people were so excited by this campaign because the way that the people who are embodying Chachapiti talk in this campaign, everyone's like, I understand what they're referencing. So you create this in-group feeling of people who get the joke. Also, they're trying to drum up Pressford.

4:49Neal Freyman:their potential IPO maybe in the coming months. So this is a good win for Anthropic. Of course, OpenAI is not happy. Sam Altman responded on X. Even calling it a response feels like I'm underselling it. This was, he wrote a full essay on X, calling it funny, but clearly dishonest and deceptive. He says, we are not stupid and we know our users would reject our ads if we ran them like that. So he tried to fire back, but it's very tough to bring an essay to a Super Bowl funny ad fight.

5:23Toby Maloney:Well, they're not just bringing an essay. OpenAI is also taking out a 60-second ad in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row. AI companies are really amping up their marketing, especially on traditional television. Last year, tech companies like Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, they collectively spent$334 million on broadcast TV ads pitching their AI wares, which was a 43 % year-over-year increase. This battle is playing out in the Super Bowl. We often talk about the Super Bowl commercials as being the arena for whatever new technology is coming into the fore a few years ago. It was crypto, and then in the past few years, it has been AI, and it's interesting to see what particular marketing tech that OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Google, all these other tech companies are gonna take.

6:08Neal Freyman:The one thing that I think could come back to bite Anthropic, though, is basically what you're doing is undermining a competitor right now, but you're also potentially putting some doubt in consumers' minds about LLMs in general and if ads are going to undermine that process. So I wonder if maybe they're trading long-term credibility for a short-term win right now, because a lot of people are crowning this a short-term win, but I just don't know if it's the right tack to play. If you want to broadly make your company a trustworthy company, if you want AI to eventually become a thing that many consumers use, why are you framing it in such a negative light on such a big stage?

6:47Neal Freyman:So that is some of the critique I've seen of this, is that maybe it's just short-term internet points versus something that will damage your brand and your industry long-term.

6:57Toby Maloney:Right, because it comes at a time when more Americans than not say they're fearful over AI than excited for it. So a lot of AI marketing in the past has done, to assuage those fears this this only amplifies them okay we also have to talk about bad bunny the headline performer of the super bowl halftime show and an artist at the peak of his powers the puerto rican singer is coming off a huge night at the grammys nabbing album of the year which followed a 2025 where he was spotify's most streamed artist globally also last year bad bunny held a historic residency in puerto rico that was attended by more than half a million people and added hundreds of millions of dollars to the island's economy his super bowl performance has taken on a political residents as well.

7:37Toby Maloney:Bad Bunny's been critical of the Trump administration, and in one of his victory speeches at the Grammys, he declared ice out. Toby, even if you don't care about football, you are going to be glued to the halftime show.

7:47Neal Freyman:Yeah, here's a good data point for how big a Bad Bunny halftime show will be. His post teasing his performance is the most liked one ever in the history of teasing Super Bowl halftime shows. Rihanna's teaser had 72 million views, 4.1 million likes. Kendrick Lamar's had 54 million views, 3 million likes. Bad Bunny's has 151 million. So it's twice, it's three times the size of Kendrick's and 8.4 million likes. So Rian and Kendrick Lamar are obviously like massive mega stars, but Bad Bunny is a super ultra mega global star.

8:21Toby Maloney:He's, he's just so popular. Nothing compares to him right now. And we'll probably get a new viewership record. Last year, Kendrick Lamar, when he was, he was involved in this Drake beef. So a lot of people were tuned in. He did set the record for a halftime show in terms of viewership with 133.5 million. You have to expect with Bad Bunny being whatever superstar, megastar he is right now across the world will eclipse that number.

8:47Neal Freyman:By the way, a lot of people were comparing Anthropic and Open Eyes beef for as Kendrick and Drake beef for nerd. So we're basically getting beefs, you know, times two.

8:57Toby Maloney:Finally, while we don't necessarily condone betting, there is one Super Bowl wager I do want to discuss. So among the more unusual bets you can place on the game is the length of the national anthem. This year, Charlie Puth is belting the banner and the line right now is over under 120 and a half seconds or just about two minutes flat. That would track with last year when John Batiste clocked in at one minute and 59 seconds. Toby, are you expecting an uptempo anthem or a little more largo?

9:23Neal Freyman:I think I'm going up tempo because I did find a video of Charlie Puth playing the national anthem back in 2021. Now, he's just in his house and he's not singing. He's just doing an instrumental version of it. But the length of that version is just one minute and one second. So obviously, all those other confounding factors say that this is not going to be his actual performance. But that's something to keep an eye on because he raced through that one. So I am taking the under. I also went digging for my own prop bets, and I just want to run a couple by you. Guest performers for Bad Bunny's halftime show, do you have any ideas of who the favorite is for him to bring out?

10:05Neal Freyman:Jay Balvin. Jay Balvin is minus 160. Cardi B is actually the favorite, but I'm liking Shakira at plus 340 because, remember, he's got some history with Shakira. This is not Bad Bunny's first halftime performance appearance, actually. He came out in 2020 as a special guest when J-Lo and Shakira hosted it. So maybe he's returning the favor with J-Lo and Shakira this year. Will a player or coach cry during the national anthem?

10:31Toby Maloney:No.

10:32Neal Freyman:No is plus 184. It is not the favorite. Yes is minus 230. So we got some emotional kings on the sideline. I cried during Charlie Puth's song, so I can see that. And then this is a fun one. Which Bay Area landmark will be shown first? The odds on favorite is, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge at minus 1 ,000. But I like some value in Alcatraz Island plus 550. And this is my thinking around this. I can see a segment on the Seahawks' very good defense where the announcer goes like, you know, you would be better off seeing them around this place right here. And they show Alcatraz Island. So that's something to think about.

11:08Neal Freyman:And then finally, this is the infinite money hack. Will an unauthorized person, a.k.a. streaker, enter the field of play? yes is plus 300, no is minus 500. Put a million dollars on yourself. Go make history. Go make your own luck right there. You literally have control over your own destiny right there. You will do time.

11:26Toby Maloney:All right, thank you for your pick, Stub. We all know that the surest way to make money is to do the inverse, Toby. Yes, inverse, Toby. Do not tell me. Okay, it's been a brutal start for the year for layoffs, so much so that it's the worst January for job cuts since the Great Recession. According to a new report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas, U.S. companies announced the largest number of layoffs in January since 2009, 108 ,000, more than double the figure from last year. Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at the data firm, said generally we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January.

11:58Toby Maloney:It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less than optimistic about the outlook for 2026. About 40 % of January's total is accounted for by two companies, Amazon and UPS. A few weeks ago, Amazon said it was cutting 16 ,000 corporate jobs, while UPS announced 30 ,000 layoffs. But companies like Pinterest, Dow, Peloton, and Nike also slimmed down their workforces in January. If layoffs weren't bad enough, corporate America isn't in the mood to hire either. Companies announced plans to bring on just 5 ,300 new employees in January, which is the lowest total for the month since records began in 2009.

12:35Toby Maloney:Toby, fresh signs that the labor market is limping along at best.

12:39Neal Freyman:Yeah, the storyline that we've been kind of saying over the past few months is that we are in a no hire, no fire market where everything is just frozen over and not a lot is going on. That narrative is starting to crack, actually, because the fire is coming back in droves right now. And the no hire part is happening as well. So we are getting no hire and lots of fire. So that is a lot of cracks appearing in the labor market right now. And, you know, we are seeing it kind of concentrated at this point because a lot of these layoffs are driven by a few big corporations. I mean, Amazon obviously has a lot of employees.

13:16Neal Freyman:UPS has a lot of employees. So these are high profile cuts, but they are cuts and they are kind of showing that, hey, maybe the labor market isn't as stable as maybe even the Fed thought.

13:26Toby Maloney:Yeah. So we were in a low fire moment. I think we're in a zero high. We're in a low higher moment. Now I think we're in essentially a zero hire moment because in addition to this Challenger J and Christmas report that came out yesterday, so did a government report on job openings. And job openings fell by 386 ,000 to 6.5 million in December, which is the lowest level since September 2020. Firms are not even thinking about hiring right now. There's only basically two areas of the economy that are hiring anyone. It's health care. And then it's also if you are the best AI superstar in the world. And if you're not any of those, it's very, very hard to get a job.

14:05Toby Maloney:We also don't have a great picture of the labor market. We have a few tidbits here. But today, this morning, the jobs report for January was supposed to come out, but it's not. And that's because there was that government shutdown, partial government shutdown for a few days earlier this week. and that pushed back the jobs report to February 11th. So the next time we'll get a good read on the jobs market is not till next week.

14:27Neal Freyman:All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back right after this with our Stock of the Week and Dog of the Week.

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