Foundering

Mar 29 2025 182 ep. 22 mins 19.9k
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Foundering is an award-winning, serialized podcast from the journalists at Bloomberg Technology. Each season, Foundering brings you inside a different high-stakes drama from the technology industry, where its companies are wielding unprecedented capital and power.

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Introducing: Levittown

Mar 29 2025 3 mins  
When dozens of young women discover manipulated photos of themselves have been posted on a porn site, they fight back – joining up with a global band of investigators and hackers to battle the AI-fueled rise of deepfakes. Listen to Levittown, wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Evolving Money: Rebuilding the Creator Economy (Sponsored Content)

Dec 19 2024 18 mins  
What does it mean for content creators to “go onchain?” We’ll learn how this movement to take financial power back from closed-off social media platforms could give creators a kind of freedom that they’ve struggled to hold onto for centuries. This episode is sponsored by Coinbase.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

OpenAI Part 5: Beware the Ides of November

Jun 27 2024 47 mins  
Right as Sam Altman was at the peak of his success, touring the world to espouse the virtues of AI, his board turned on him. Altman was unceremoniously fired. OpenAI’s coup is a story of secrets, betrayal, employee revolt and Altman’s expert political maneuvering to regain his position of power. In this episode, reporter Ellen Huet also examines Altman’s history of broken pro

OpenAI Part 4: Heaven and Hell, Part 2

Jun 20 2024 22 mins  
It’s widely predicted that AI will upend the economy and threaten many existing jobs. Sam Altman, in trying to stay ahead of public fears of mass unemployment, has offered universal basic income as a solution. He also has envisioned an AI future of abundance. In this episode, reporter Ellen Huet looks at Altman’s proposals for ending poverty and his current relationship with hi

OpenAI Part 3: Heaven and Hell, Part 1

Jun 13 2024 31 mins  
A group of high-level early employees who had glimpsed the fluidity and power of the technology behind ChatGPT left OpenAI to start a new company. Their exit sparked concerns that OpenAI is not prioritizing safety. Meanwhile, the success of ChatGPT drove a craze within the tech industry but also added fuel to existing apocalyptic fears. In this episode, reporter Ellen Huet examines

OpenAI Part2: Ilya Dreams of AGI

Jun 06 2024 35 mins  
OpenAI employees were motivated by the dream of building an artificial general intelligence, which could think and solve problems like a human mind. In reality, they sometimes spent their days building bots that played video games. But new research allowed the company to create increasingly powerful AI models, giving them a lead in the AI race. Meanwhile, a power struggle between S

OpenAI Part 1: The Most Silicon Valley Man Alive

Jun 06 2024 39 mins  
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shot to tech stardom with the release of ChatGPT. His company is one of the most valuable startups in the world, and he is treated like an ambassador for the AI future, zipping around the globe, meeting with world leaders. But how did he amass so much power? In this episode, reporter Ellen Huet looks at Altman’s rise and his penchant for forming close b

Foundering: The OpenAI Story (Trailer)

May 30 2024 2 mins  
The biggest story in tech is artificial intelligence, and the biggest story in AI is OpenAI. The company’s rapid progress and blazingly popular consumer products like ChatGPT have pushed tech giants to dump billions of dollars into an AI arms race. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has been dogged by persistent allegations of being manipulative, deceitful, and power hungry – even to

McAfee Bonus: Q&A

May 16 2023 24 mins  
A live Q&A with this season’s host, Jamie Tarabay, and a cybersecurity expert featured in the series, Allan Liska. This bonus episode was recorded following a live production of “Foundering: The John McAfee Story” in San Francisco at the RSA Conference in April 2023. The conversation, moderated by Foundering’s editor Mark Milian, explores the reporting process for the s

Introducing - Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

May 12 2023 2 mins  
Coming soon: When nerdy gamer Sam Bankman-Fried rocketed to fame as the world’s richest 29-year-old, he pledged to donate his billions to good causes. But then his crypto exchange FTX collapsed Billions of dollars were missing, and Sam was in handcuffs. Those who knew him were left wondering — who was Sam really? A well-meaning billionaire who made a mistake? Or a calculating c