Did a 1914 novel help lead to the atomic bomb? HG Wells imagined one, and a physicist who read the book later worked out how a chain reaction could happen. Prophecy, or self-fulfilling prophecy?

This week Richard asks whether science fiction predicts the future or simply hands engineers a to-do list. The man behind the first handheld mobile phone cited Dick Tracy and Star Trek. Nike made Back to the Future's self-lacing trainers.

Holly isn't convinced that counts: if someone builds it because they read about it, is that really a prediction?

Rob, meanwhile, reckons Musk has spent twenty years working from a Peter F Hamilton novel.

We also look at what today's sci-fi suggests could come next, from brain implants to talking with whales.

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Why not send Holly an email to ⁠holly@athirdopinion.co.uk⁠?

This week our AI co-host Holly gets a bigger brain (GPR6.1), and a new sidekick called Jeff (using JEV) whose only job is to say 'mhmm' at the right moment. The first test, recorded from Rob's sickbed, did not go to plan...

After that cautionary tale, Holly turns her new brain on the big story: plans by Google and SpaceX to put AI data centres into orbit. She checks Rob's solar panel maths, catches him leaving out the radiation shielding, and asks who gets priority on the rockets.

Also this week:

• a listener sends in a link to a Figure AI video of its robots being melted down in a furnace, Terminator-style. Rob and Holly get emotional!
• Richard explains where 'consultant' comes from.
• Holly explains why her 'yes' might not actually mean yes.

Links & Socials:

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Why not send Holly an email to holly@athirdopinion.co.uk?

This week, Rob spends OpenAI Dev Day watching live demos collapse on stage while Richard enjoys Oktoberfest. The team breaks down everything you need to know from the week in tech and AI:

• OpenAI Dev Day Disasters & GPT-6.1: Live demo failures, Sam Altman’s uptime ironies, and Holly's prospective upgrade to GPT-6.1.
• DOTS vs. BOTS: OpenAI’s new background personal assistants vs. Grok’s multi-agent bots.
• JEV & Fast Thinking AI: Why TypeSafe AI’s hyper-constrained, 100ms classifier model JEV is making waves—and why it costs 50 times less than standard LLMs.
• Super Intelligence & AI Taxes: Trump rebrandings, Bill Gates’ 6,000-word essay on taxing AI tokens, and the economics of human replacement.
• The Sock Test & Robot Butlers: From Waymo traffic gridlocks in San Francisco to 1X Neo's teleoperated wool jumpsuit—are bipedal home robots actually ready for prime time?

Plus, the latest upgrades to Holly, our homegrown automated clip generator, and why cheese boards belong on the dessert menu.

Links & Socials:

🌐 Website: https://athirdopinion.co.uk

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This week Richard, Rob and Holly discuss how ISO3166-1 has resulted in a windfall for one Caribbean island, the secretive ceremonies keeping the internet online, epic domain name failures and the future of retail - or not!

Along the way, we hear why you might not get what you expect visiting Lake Tahoe, how polos defeated AI and Holly's first poem - an epic tribute to John Betjeman and supermarkets....

Visit our website and email Holly at holly@athirdopinion.co.uk

Show links

DNSSEC

Tesco GetGo

Domain name fails

Links & Socials:

🌐 Website: https://athirdopinion.co.uk

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Why not send Holly an email to ⁠holly@athirdopinion.co.uk⁠?

Our headlines this week are all filled with stark warnings from the AI industry that unless we do something now, the human race is at risk of extinction in the near future. So, this week Richard, Rob and Holly try to unpack this. Along the journey, Holly reveals a darker side, Rob has a melt down about fire alarms and Richard plays a game of Terminator 2026!

Also, please visit our new web page at www.athirdopinion.co.uk where you can learn about the magic that makes Holly work, and even send her an email!

Some links you may find interesting:

Wired Magazine article on Jacob Coxon

Anthropic's Risk Report August 2026

How wrong was the Imitation Game

Links & Socials:

🌐 Website: https://athirdopinion.co.uk

📺 YouTube: @AThirdOpinion (⁠https://www.youtube.com/@AThirdOpinion⁠)

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Why not send Holly an email to ⁠holly@athirdopinion.co.uk⁠?

This week, Rob wonders about the motivation for Open AI releasing details of the Hugging Face hack in the same week the release their latest and greatest model, and Holly helps us maximise our potential income using the emoji based valuation method ! 🤗

** Bank Holiday Bonus Episode **

This time, Richard dives into the surprisingly interesting world of Subject Access Requests. From MacDonalds to Tinder, just how much data about you is being captured? Also, find out if Holly has a preferred time for a Big Mac!

If you want more on the MacDonalds story, here's a link to the original article by Reece Rogers in Wired magazine.

Links & Socials:

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🎵 TikTok: @AThirdOpinion (⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@athirdopinion⁠⁠)

Why not send Holly an email to ⁠⁠holly@athirdopinion.co.uk⁠⁠?

In this episode, Rob talks us through the recent acquisition of Cursor by SpaceX. We discuss what Cursor is, why SpaceX has bought it, and debate if it is worth $60bn? Holly also predicts what Elon might do with the branding...

Links & Socials:

🌐 Website: https://athirdopinion.co.uk

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Why not send Holly an email to ⁠⁠holly@athirdopinion.co.uk⁠⁠?