🚨 “Sam-mergency” — OpenAI’s Code Red. American Eagle’s Anti-AI. Waymo’s safety report. +Wall Street Wrapped

0:00This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, December 4th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, Yetis, thank you for all the love for our live tour launch yesterday. Austin, Texas, Washington, D.C., New York, New York, and Los Angeles. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Oh, mark your calendars. Tickets on sale tomorrow. We got a link in this episode description to grab them. Next spring, we're going to announce the rest of the IPO tour, and it's going to be legendary. Okay, but in the meantime, Jack, we've got three fantastic stories for today's show.

0:35What do we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, Sam Altman just sent a company-wide Code Red emergency at OpenAI. So we'll explain how the AI race is starting to look like a Mario Kart race. For our second story, American Eagle stock surged 15 % yesterday, thanks to Sidney Sweeney, Travis Kelsey, and Martha Stewart. For the real reason American Eagle is soaring, It's hashtag not AI. And our third and final story. If you live in San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, or Phoenix, have you noticed that the robo-taxis have started driving more aggressively? Uh, yeah. Waymo just confirmed it's true. A software update that Jack and I call crazy New York City taxi mode.

1:14But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, I'm walking here. Where you going, Waymo? Your Instagram is probably still flooded by your friend's Spotify screenshots. That's right. A happy Spotify rap season to all those who celebrate. Spotify rap told me that my music taste is that of a 76-year-old. Jack, Spotify rap told me that I'm in the top 1 % of listeners for both Baby Shark and Sabrina Carpenter. Okay, so Spotify thinks I'm very old and you're ridiculously young. Yeah, we got to speak to a manager. But Yetis, did you know that when Spotify rap launched back in 2015, it was actually an intern's idea?

1:49And now every media CEO has stolen that intern's idea. YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Strava, they all do their own version of year in review. Basically, Spotify wrapped, got zucked. So, right now, we're going to do the same. Yeah, let's do it. The best one yet's Wall Street wrapped. Yes, it's our year in review of the pop biz headlines. Jack, kick it off for us over there. In 2025, Wall Street's least favorite genre was a new one, slop bowls. And Elon Musk averaged 143 tweets per day. Kim Kardashian's skim sold enough underwear to circle planet Earth 12 times. And a trillion billion dollar investments were announced at the White House.

2:31Hollywood made 962 PG sequels. And prediction markets predicted that they'd become the top app out of all the predicted apps. Sam Altman launched 1 ,000 new products this year. NVIDIA invested in 1 million new startups this year. And the Fed lowered interest rates, but not enough. And Apple, to round it all out, launched zero AI products. Even though they announced them last year. It's all right. You can still work on it, guys. Yetis, that is our Wall Street Rap for 2025. Drop in the comments what we missed. Yeah. What happened this year on Wall Street? What did we miss? What do you think we missed?

3:02What's in your Wall Street Rap 2025? Hit us up here and Jack, let's hit our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

3:32Start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

3:43This episode is brought to you by Built, the intelligent finance platform that helps businesses scale with proven results. Look, Yeti's paying and getting paid. That is a pain for small and medium businesses out there. Did you send the invoice? Did they see it? Did you remember to remind them to remember to pay it? Oh, I totally forgot, Jack. Besties, if you drop the ball on any of those, you don't get paid and you're missing out on cash flow. And unless your customers are mind readers, which they aren't, they're probably just busy and forgot. You shouldn't have to chase them down. Powered by AI, Bill does all that simply and automated so that you don't have to.

4:14ACH, check, credit card, international wire transfers, they probably do carrier pigeon. Bill lets you pay and get paid how you want. Bill is the intelligent finance platform trusted by nearly half a million businesses and over 90 of the top 100 US accounting firms to manage, move, and maximize their money. They've securely processed over a trillion in real transactions, that is proven infrastructure you can actually trust. Talk with an expert at bill.com slash proven and get a$250 gift card as a thank you. That's bill.com slash proven. Terms and conditions apply. See offer page for details. So yet he's Jack's instituted a new business model for his Airbnb hosting.

4:50And Jack, what is it? Here it is. Host equals guest. Yes. I funnel all my revenue from being a host on Airbnb into one bank account and use that same bank account to book travel for myself. And basically it's Jack's host guest bank account for when he hosts and when he's a guest somewhere else. When I lived in the city, Nick, every time my apartment was available on Airbnb, it would get booked like that. I mean, think about how often are you away from home? You got the bridesmaid, you got the shower, you got the bachelorette, you got the wedding. That's three weekends away just for one wedding right there.

5:20Plus you got to visit your mother. Naturally, well, that's a lot of potential hosting that you could be doing on Airbnb. Let someone else stay at your place while you're away. Take that host money and spend it when you're a guest somewhere else. Have a business model like me. If you want to travel more, hosting more is a great way to make it happen, financially. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

5:44For our first story, on Monday, Sam Altman called Code Red at OpenAI. It's a company-wide emergency. The reason? Google and Anthropic became the big men on the artificial intelligence campus. So Sammy slammed that emergency button. Code red. Code red. That was the subject line of a company-wide email sent by Sam Altman on Monday at OpenAI. We don't know if he used the red flashing light emoji like we used in the podcast title for today's episode, but if you're at OpenAI, DM us in the comments. And the reason? Well, we'll let Jim Cramer explain. Push and play. I don't want to steal something because I've got these guys that I've won for a podcast this morning, TBOI.

6:24They're really pretty terrific. that's the best one yet. It's a great podcast, but they're just saying, listen, what's happened here is that OpenAI wants to be Alphabet, but we don't need OpenAI because Alphabet is Alphabet. Alphabet has everything that OpenAI would like to have. I think it's a great analysis and I think it became clear to people over the last 100 points that Alphabet is the best of all of these. And if OpenAI thinks they can take on Alphabet, they're greatly mistaken. Pretty cool that Jim Cramer mentioned us on CNBC. Jimmy, thanks for the shout out, buddy. But Sam Altman must also have internal data that people are using OpenAI's chatbot less.

7:05And to be honest, I'm one of them. Yeah, you're one of them. Why don't you tell the Yetis? I was using OpenAI's Atlas browser ever since we covered it on the pod, but I consistently came into annoying issues that made me miss Google Chrome. Yeah. So Jack went back and now Google stock is up 92 % in the last six months. And Jack, How are OpenAI shareholders doing in that time? Well, OpenAI doesn't have stock, but its shareholders do, and Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Oracle are all down. Hence the code RED. Sam Altman told everyone to stop all non-core projects and double down on improving the chatbot, ChatGPT.

7:39It's like the red goal light at a hockey game, and it is wailing right now. But besties, ChatGPT is not only being attacked on the left flank, it's also being attacked on the right flank too. From Google on one side and Anthropic on the other. Anthropic, the number two pure play generative AI company. They are known for their chatbot, Claude. Anthropic is the Pepsi to OpenAI's Coke. It's the Puma to OpenAI's Adidas. The Madewell to its anthropology, Jack. Yeah, it is. Anthropic, we were shocked by these numbers. Anthropic is catching up to OpenAI in terms of its business. Anthropic's doing$10 billion in annualized revenue rate right now.

8:17That's like the same ballpark as OpenAI. And Anthropic also just got a$15 billion private investment led by Microsoft and NVIDIA, who were supposed to be dating OpenAI. Yeah, OpenAI was like, Microsoft and NVIDIA, I thought you guys were with me. But Jack, worst of all, the Financial Times reports that Anthropic has hired lawyers to IPO as early as next year. The reports say that the IPO would be one of the biggest of any company ever. A$300 billion valuation if Anthropic IPO is next year. It's like 30 lifts. If Anthropic beats OpenAI to the stock market, it could become the darling of retail traders.

8:53So Sam Altman, in just a couple months, has gone from unstoppable tech emperor on a conquest for world domination, Genghis AI con, to tech entrepreneur in retreat, asking why NVIDIA and Microsoft are sleeping with the competition. Jack, I love a Game of Thrones analogy right here, but I prefer our Mario Kart one. So let's get to the takeaway. What's the takeaway for our buddies over at OpenAI? There is no first mover advantage when it comes to AI. In fact, it's the first mover disadvantage. Yetis, until 2022, Google was the leader in AI. It was believed to be on the brink of a new chatbot. But then OpenAI became the leader.

9:33And since, they've expanded into every tech product category. But Jack, now Google and Anthropic are copping OpenAI's best product features and doing them better. Remember that tweet we just saw from Mark Benioff? He said, I've used ChatGPT every day for three years, but I just spent two hours on Google's Gemini 3 and I'm not going back. The leap is insane. Basties, this reminds us of Mario Kart the video game. Remember like heading to the finish line, you want to be the second player in Mario Kart so you get the red shell to unseat the first player. If you're in first, you're going to get a banana and you're not going to win.

10:08You always want to be in second place in Mario Kart. Well, Yeti's the race to win AI. It is still very much competitive, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, they are neck, neck, and neck. And it all proves there's no first mover advantage in AI. In fact, it could be a disadvantage. For our second story, the top stock yesterday, American Eagle, it soared 15 % in the markets. It wasn't just a Sydney Sweeney surge. American Eagle is soaring because of its anti-AI pledge. Now, Yetis, to kick off this story. Quick question. Drop your answer in the comments, Jack. What's the question? What celebrities are you putting on Gen Z's Mount Rushmore?

10:47All right, I got some here, Jack. You ready for this? How about Travis Kelsey, Coco Gauff, and Sidney Sweeney? Well, because American Eagle has signed all of them. Oh, and American Eagle just signed Martha Stewart last month, my friend. There's nothing a 23-year-old respects more than a crispy pumpkin pie prepared in a gingham apron and a awesome candle burning nearby on the counter. That's a nice touch. Hiring Gen Z's Mount Rushmore as brand ambassadors is paying off for American Eagle. Get this, American Eagle just announced record revenues, which grew 6%. They just had their best Thanksgiving weekend of sales in history.

11:24Nick, if American Eagle signs Zendaya and Timothee Chalamet, the stock may head an all-time high. But besties, here's what Jack and I find fascinating. 6 % sales growth, that is good, but it's not exactly great. I'm not writing home about 6 % sales growth. No, no, no, no, no. The bigger reason why American Eagle is all the rage now, it's anti-AI pledge. In October, American Eagle's underwear brand, Aerie, went on social media to do what many teens do, an emotional Instagram post. Here it is. Today we commit, no AI-generated bodies or people, real people only. Then Aerie went on and said in the post, no retouching, no AI, 100 % Aerie real.

12:04At the American Eagle lunch table, Chachy Petit can't sit with us. No, and the result of this Instagram post, it became their top performing post of the entire year. Forget Travis Kelsey thirst trap pics and torn American Eagle denim. Yeah, Jack. American Eagle's best post this year is five lines of text that we hope were written by humans, not AI. Because besties, remember the story we did earlier this year on J.Crew's epic AI mistake? Yeah, the biggest fashion faux pas of the year. J.Crew sneakily used AI to create vintage-looking images for their magazine. But upon further review, the model's foot was backwards and the popped collar was like hallucinated awkwardly.

12:43J.Crew got dragged for using AI, so American Eagle is doing the opposite. That got Jack and I thinking, and we whipped up this takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at American Eagle? Anti-AI is the new organic. Yetis, as AI floods the zone, we are already seeing a popular pushback. And we've seen this before in another industry, the food industry. Most companies are embracing AI just like most companies embraced processed food at first. AI allows companies to scale productivity. Artificial ingredients allowed companies to scale their produce. Both were scientific innovation, and initially, both were broadly popular.

13:20But eventually, cultural and scientific backlash arrived, leading to a new consumer equilibrium. We tolerate artificial ingredients, but we admire organic ones. American Eagle taps into that exact admiration, that the market will also enthusiastically support what is natural. It's the start of the growing anti-AI trend. We call it digitally organic. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Top hats, baseball hats, Von Dutch hats. We wear so many hats on this podcast. Honestly, we're not great at all of them. No, we've been avoiding hiring someone to wear those hats instead of us, especially the Von Dutch one, because hiring and training can take forever.

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14:32So just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Monarch. When I had student debt, I tracked my progress on an Excel spreadsheet I manually updated each month. Oh, I was Jack a spreadsheet jockey because when he was paying off his student debt, Monarch didn't exist yet. Well, one year ago, I proudly killed that spreadsheet I'd been building for 12 years. RIP spreadsheet because Monarch is a way better solution.

15:09All your financial accounts are linked to Monarch. Every credit card, checking account, brokerage account, even our mortgages, live balances updated in real time. I'm still paying down my mortgage and Monarch gives me the visibility and tools to do it. You can use it too. Create savings buckets and financial goals in Monarch. Set yourself up for financial success this year. Are you familiar with the Sankey diagram? I had no idea what it was yet. Well, once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's brilliant. And Monarch visually shows you what you're spending. And we did not make up that term. Your investment portfolio, Monarch compares it to the S &P 500 for you.

15:39Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch. The all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code T-Boy at monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code T-Boy. For our third and final story, Waymo just announced that after 100 million miles, their self-driving cars had 90 % fewer accidents than human drivers did. So guess what? They just tweaked their algorithm to make Waymo's drive like crazy New York City cow drivers. Hey, watch out over there! Oh, Yetis. Waymo's nationwide expansion kind of feels like the NFL draft the way Jack and I see it.

16:21Everyone is waiting to get selected. Dun, dun, dun. The latest draft picks, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Congratulations. Step on up. Waymo test robo-taxis are headed your way. Google's self-driving car operation is now active in five cities, and 18 more cities have been announced. Besties, check the Waymo blog. Milwaukee, you could be next. I don't think Burlington, Vermont is next. No, I don't think it is either, Jack. But for Alphabet, whose stock has become the best on Wall Street lately, they have even more to gloat about with Waymo. Because Waymo released their biggest study yet on whether their Waymos are actually safe.

16:58And Jack and I call it the Declaration of Dependence. As in, it turns out you can depend on robo-taxis more than you realize, right? That's really good. It's good. It's good. Run with that, Waymo. Run with it. Waymos, it turns out, are much safer than human drivers. although maybe not for long. Waymo released data covering 100 million driverless miles that their vehicles have taken across four different American cities. And here's the hero stat. Waymos are involved in 91 % fewer crashes that seriously injure people compared to human-driven cars. They were also involved in 96 % fewer collisions with pedestrians at intersections compared to human-driven cars.

17:36Yet he's added all up, and honestly, Jack and I, As a couple guys who take Waymos all the time, not that surprised. Waymos don't get distracted by text messages coming in. They don't try to answer their phone when someone's calling. And they don't try to eat tacos while they're driving the car. And they don't try to text while eating the tacos. Right. Now, we should point out there have been two deaths involving Waymos, but both were caused by the human driver in the other car. And we should also point out, Jack, that a Waymo did run over an unleashed dog down the street in San Francisco on Sunday night, which is tragic.

18:06But still, let's look at the bigger picture. They're 90 % safer. Nick, for a technology this young, that's incredible. It sounds like for the investors, if Waymo. It did. And scaled across more cities, more cars, and more miles, self-driving cars are going to be a huge public health win. Not trying to be techno-optimist here, but delaying self-driving, it's kind of missing a chance to save lives. It's missing a chance to make intersections where pedestrians cross the street 96%. safer. But besties, all of that declaration of dependence is what makes the next part of our story so awkward. Waymo just updated the software in their cars to drive like insane humans, not computers.

18:49Oh yeah. Hmm. Honk honk. You can let me out right here, actually. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Waymo? Waymo thinks it can drive like a New York City cab and still drive carefully. Yetis. In San Francisco, tourists stand in front of Waymo's, block them and take pictures. Honestly, it's a tourist attraction. It's happened to be a bunch. It's kind of fun, but it slows you down. And the Waymos don't mind. Waymos are so polite. They will wait forever until you slowly cross the road. You can mess with them, and they won't mind at all. But not anymore. The Wall Street Journal just reported that Waymos in San Francisco suddenly got more aggressive.

19:27More like New York City cabbies, according to the Wall Street Journal. They're making daring passes and tunnels. They're not coming to full stops every time. They're even making illegal U-turns sometimes. Jack, remember you were with me in a Waymo a few weeks ago and it just took off down the street? It went zero to 60 like fast. Yeti's Jack actually said, whoa there girl. Like it was a horse. It was so weird, but that's why he did it. And get this, Waymo actually confirmed to the Wall Street Journal, this is true. They adjusted the settings in their cars to be, and I quote, confidently assertive because Waymo says the vehicle's passiveness was holding it back.

20:00And we understand that too. For example, if a construction vehicle was blocking the lane, in the past, Waymo's would just wait forever. Now, they'll cross the double yellow to make a safe pass. Add it all up and Waymo made a software update. Boom, it went from passive to a little bit pushy. Waymo says this won't come at the expense of the safety that they just bragged about either. Because computers can still predict and avoid collisions better than a human, even while hanging a Yui. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Open AI declared a company-wide code red because it's lost its AI lead to Google and Anthropic.

20:37Besties, when it comes to AI, there's no first-mover advantage. It's a first-mover disadvantage. For our second story, American Eagle stock jumped 15 % yesterday, but not just on Sidney Sweeney, on an anti-AI pledge. There's a growing anti-AI trend, and we call it digitally organic. And our third and final story, Waymo data shows they're 90 % safer than human-driven cars, but now they're driving more aggressive. Limo thinks it can drive like a New York City cabbie and still be careful. You can just let me out right here. Oh, one second. Oh, yeah, easy, buddy. Hey, I'm walking here. But besties, this pod's not over yet.

21:15Here's what else you need to know today. First, Nike advertisements in the United Kingdom just got banned by the UK's advertising watchdog. The reason? Misleading claims on sustainability. So it just did it, but then had to undo it. Yeah, Nike had an ad promoting their environmental credibility, but it wasn't backed up by enough evidence. Allbirds loves this news. Yeah, it's a case of greenwashing and the Brits won't have it. And second, we're finally getting the bill on the government shutdown. And for Delta, it is 200 million bones. The CEO said in the earnings yesterday that they lost 200 million in potential profit because they had to cancel 2 ,000 flights during the 43-day government shutdown.

21:55Maybe that is why Delta is jacking up the price of my next flight to New York City. Come on, guys. And finally, rage bait. I'm not doing rage bait. Rage bait is the Oxford word of the year. That's right. There were 30 ,000 submissions and other top words of the year were aura farming and biohacking. Don't know what aura farming is, but isn't it a type of biohacking? No, you don't know what aura farming is, Jack. But rage bait won, which, Jack, could you use rage baiting in a sentence for us, please? Yeah, it's when you post something intentionally to drive emotional, strong reactions from people.

22:29Basically, you bait people into rage responses. Yeah, like Jack, sometimes I'll order a half-calf coffee with Molly, but then I'll only drink half of the half-calf, so it's a quarter-calf. That's basically rage-baiting. It's kind of rage-baiting, yeah. I don't think she likes it. Actually, rage-baits the barista. They worked hard on that thing. All right, well, now I just feel guilty. Now, time for the best fact yet. Yet this one sent in as a response to the story we did yesterday on smell. Did you know that sommeliers literally grow a larger smell processing area in their brain than non-sommeliers?

23:03That's right, wine sommeliers, the wine experts at restaurants who smell your wine before they serve it to you. Years of aroma training increased the size of that brain region that handles scent and memory. Wow. Ain't no schnoz like a sommelier schmoz. No, this is about his brain, not his schnoz. See, that's rage fitting. What you did right there, Jack, that's rage fitting. Yetis, you look fantastic. Tomorrow, the tickets for our live 2026 IPO tour go on sale tomorrow. It is the ultimate expression of Nick and me in this show. And man, I am so pumped to go on the road next year. We can't wait to see you there.

23:42Don't worry, we'll remind you again tomorrow to snag your tickets before they go. In the meantime, celebrate the wins.

23:52And before we go, a happy 60th birthday to legendary Yeti, Eric Jantra in Tyler, Texas, who's been listening to this show since the early days and is coming to our Austin live show. We'll see you there. Heyo! Happy birthday to Teddy Panzer over in Montclair, New Jersey. And Evan Frederick in Columbus, Ohio loves to spell out O-H-I-O. I see what you did there, Evan, and I don't like it. Bradley T. is turning 30 years old, celebrating the big one in lovely Connecticut. Happy 23rd birthday to Libby Guy Eisler in West Hartford, Connecticut. This is a finance gal. Karen Braswell over in San Francisco is a ballroom dancer with the best birthday yet.

24:28Happy 10th birthday to Cassidy Felix in Belmore, New York, and a big cheer competition coming this weekend. Be excited. Be excited. And Lauren Lyon, our number one listener, the Princessa Ross, the queen of Northern California. Thank you for making the best one yet and the best idea yet your best yet. And get this. Rodrigo Tomaz, his Spotify wrapped, had both of our shows as number one and number two. Oh, we got some more of those, Jack. Oh, Rodrigo, you're a legend. We want to give you a hug at our live show. And finally, to Brian Johnson, congratulations on now having a girlfriend. Lucky guy.

25:06Lucky guy.

25:10This is Jack, Nick on Stock and Nike. and we both own stock in Spotify and Apple.