AI takes over meetings, the SF vs London tech scene, and ethics in media

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[gentle music] When is the AI bubble gonna burst? How do you AI-proof your job? How should colleges handle AI and prepare students for a shifting job market? I'm Henry Blodget, and on my show, Solutions, I've been exploring all of those questions and more with experts who have actual answers. We hear enough about our problems. Let's solve them. Follow Solutions with Henry Blodget.

[gentle music] Ellis has AI butthole icons in our show prep notes-

[laughs]

... and I just want Ellis to ask about that. What is that about?

Obviously, it is different than the little Claude butthole I have or the OpenAI techno butthole. Yeah, I mean, it's certainly adjacent, right?

Yeah, it's butthole adjacent. Yeah, I'll give you that, yeah.

[laughs] This week on Access, Alex and I chat about his upcoming field trip to OpenAI, the rising relevance of film photography, and #ethics in the modern age of content creation. Then we're joined by Sam Stevenson, co-founder of Granola. The viral AI note-taking app is hot on the heels of their big raise, which values Granola at more than $1 billion. We get into it all from their controversial rebrand, if AI should actually run our meetings, opening their first office in San Francisco, and much more. Welcome to Access.

Welcome to Access. I'm Alex Heath, here as always with my co-host, Ellis Hamburger. Ellis, how's it going?

Oh, I'm all right. As always, I am afflicted by something, uh, from my children.

[laughs]

One of whom was up at 4:00 AM last night for unknown reasons.

[laughs] We'll get into that. Uh-

Yeah

... I'm pretty excited for this week's guest. I am a Granola power user. Did I convert you to Granola, or were you already a user as well?

It's honestly hard to keep track of how many things you've pilled me on, Claude being, Claude being the latest. I think you need to start getting, like, a kickback.

I do. I do need a kickback. I've definitely pilled, um, a lot of people on Granola. We have the co-founder, Sam Stevenson. It's a great chat. Uh, really interested in the direction they're going, AI note-taking, how I'm outsourcing my brain, all of the above.

Well, but Alex, what is your ethics situation now that you're no longer in a big media newsroom? Are we accepting hats and water bottles now at the very least?

Oh, [sighs] like, would I s- ex- you know, accept some granola granola? Is that what you're saying?

[laughs] Exactly, yeah.

[laughs] You know, if it's perishable, I'll, I'll accept it.

[laughs]

[laughs]

I mean, it is funny. I mean, I love the spirit of a lot of these, you know, rules and ethics statements because it is such a slippery slope, but when you look at it in the moment and it's like if you were to be biased by a sack of granola to, like, corrupt your entire