Why The AI Oligarchs Lost Big In The Midterms

This week Jason Howell and Jeff Jarvis dig into an election where AI data centers became a deciding issue, as Democrats flipped Congress and new governors in Texas, Ohio and Georgia promised to slow the buildout. Jeff argues the real target is AI's oligarchs, OpenAI rebrands data centers as "AI compute campuses," and Anthropic's revised S-1 shows $17 billion in quarterly revenue, nearly $900 billion in commitments and a warning that self-building AI may be imminent.

Also in this episode: Google tells schools that no AI means no Search, AI users work longer days, Gartner bets on open models, and the security firm behind the AI breakouts blames its own error. New episodes every Wednesday at aiinside.show.

Note: Time codes subject to change depending on dynamic ad insertion by the distributor.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Podcast begins

06:37 - Midterms, data centers and AI oligarchs

26:07 - Anthropic IPO, revenue and computing commitments

30:57 - Self-building AI and model welfare

36:24 - Google Search and AI in schools

46:50 - Are AI users working longer days?

53:37 - Open models and enterprise agents

58:39 - Jensen Huang spy-plot reporting

1:02:31 - AI security tests and independent oversight

1:06:15 - ChatGPT Chat and Work tabs

1:07:20 - Apple Watch Live Rewind

1:11:22 - Apple age limits for AI companions

1:12:01 - Claude Code and game cloning

1:13:30 - Closing thoughts and plugs

• AI Data Center Boom Set for Upheaval After US Election Rout (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-04/ai-data…)

• Democratic governors elected on promises to stop data centre building (ft.com/content/badd6af9-88b7-47b7-b1c2-067814e…)

• OpenAI plans a post-midterms policy and PR blitz, pushing mandatory “speed limits” for powerful AI and rebranding its data centers as “AI compute campuses” (axios.com/2026/11/01/scoop-openai-post-midterm…)

• OpenAI Would Reportedly Like You to Use Its Pleasant New Term for Data Centers (gizmodo.com/openai-would-reportedly-like-you-t…)

• Old, Polluting Jet Engines Are Being Scavenged to Power Data Centers (nytimes.com/2026/11/03/climate/jet-engines-ai-…)

• Elon Musk suffers major blow in US midterms (politico.eu/article/elon-musk-dealt-major-blow…)

• Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX Tumble After Republican Losses (nytimes.com/2026/11/04/business/musk-elections…)

• Anthropic reports $17 billion in Q3 revenue, purchase commitments of $895.4 billion in revised S-1 (cnbc.com/2026/11/02/anthropic-ant-s-1-quarter-…)

• Anthropic Discloses Huge Computing Bill (wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp…)

• Anthropic's spending commitments surge to nearly $900 billion (axios.com/2026/11/02/anthropic-spending-revenu…)

• Anthropic warns that it’s very close to RSI capability, aka self-building AI (techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/anthropic-warns-that…)

• Anthropic says you can’t be mean to Claude. It’s not about feelings (cnn.com/2026/11/01/business/anthropic-dont-be-…)

• Suleyman against model welfare (lnkd.in/p/gQXGG7FT)

• "Google will let schools disable its AI tools, but not without sacrificing Search | TechCrunch" (techcrunch.com/2026/11/03/google-will-let-scho…)

• "AI Is Making Employees Work Longer Days, New Data Shows - Bloomberg" (bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-11-02/ai-i…)

• "Open models can do 90% of agentic work at a twentieth of the cost of a frontier LLM: Gartner" (theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/11/03/open-mode…)

• British fintech Revolut slashes AI coding costs 10x by cutting out Claude and going self-hosted (theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/11/03/british-f…)

• "Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may have been the target of a spy plot through 'Chinese intelligence asset,' report claims" (tomshardware.com/tech-industry/policy/nvidia-c…)

• "Security Firm Tied to OpenAI, Anthropic AI Hacks Blames ‘Error’ - Bloomberg" (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-03/securit…)

• OpenAI is finally merging ChatGPT’s Chat and Work tabs (techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/openai-is-finally-me…)

• "Apple Watch's AI features for rewinding and recapping conversations begin beta testing | TechCrunch" (techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/apple-watchs-ai-feat…)

• "Apple restricts dating apps and AI companions to users 18 and up | TechCrunch" (techcrunch.com/2026/11/03/apple-restricts-dati…)

• Anthropic confirms new Claude Code limits to prevent game cloning — users report Opus 5.5 is also actively blocking reverse engineering tasks (tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-inte…)

• Intelligence — AI and Humanity (medium.com/whither-news/intelligence-ai-and-hu…)

Hosts: Jason Howell and Jeff Jarvis

Download and subscribe to AI Inside in audio and video: aiinside.show

Support the podcast on Patreon for special perks: patreon.com/aiinsideshow. You’ll get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, T-shirts and stickers, and exclusive content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices