The Great AI Sellout: OpenAI vs Anthropic drama! 🧪

Anthropic dropped a Super Bowl ad, but was it a clever ethical flex or just pure PR shade thrown at OpenAI? Meanwhile, Sam Altman is calling Anthropic “elitist” while his own company stares down a brutal business math problem: only 5% of ChatGPT users pay. So… are ads inevitable for OpenAI to survive? 💸

Join Juan and Kate as they unravel the deep-seated rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic, tracing the beef back to fundamental disagreements about AI's mission and ethics. We're talking:

👉 The OpenAI–Anthropic Breakup: Why the founders left, and how it shaped today’s AI landscape.

👉 The High Cost of AI: Why these models are so expensive to run, and what that means for their business models.

👉 Competing Futures: Is Claude’s focused, paid approach genuinely more ethical, or will ChatGPT’s “AI for everyone” strategy dominate (or collapse)?

👉 Sam Altman’s Irony: The regulation guy criticizing others for… gatekeeping? We unpack the contradictions.

👉 Our Spiciest Take: Who’s actually positioned to win the AI arms race (and why it might not be who you think).

Beyond the AI ads, this episode dives into the soul of artificial intelligence: the incentives driving it, the people it really serves, and what happens when “doing good” collides with “making money.”

What do you think — is AI doomed to become just another ad machine, or is there still a path to principled, powerful AI? Drop your takes in the comments, we’re reading them all.

🫟 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Harvard University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVRHTWWEIz4&t=2322s

Anthropic Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmnjDLwZckA

"Claude is a space to think" (Anthropic)

https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-is-a-space-to-think

"Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT" (OpenAI)

https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access/

"Big Tech’s $630 billion AI spree now rivals Sweden’s economy, unsettling investors" (Fortune)

https://fortune.com/2026/02/06/what-is-a-data-center-capex-spending-630-billion-dollars-amazon-microsoft-google-meta/

"Financial Expert Says OpenAI Is on the Verge of Running Out of Money" (Yahoo! Finance)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/financial-expert-says-openai-verge-200606874.html?guccounter=1

Sam Altman's post about Anthropic's ad:

https://x.com/sama/status/2019139174339928189

🫟 TOPICS

00:00 – The Great AI Sellout: What’s Actually Going On?

00:21 – Reacting to Claude’s Super Bowl Ad Roast

00:48 – Sam Altman Reacts to Claude's Ad

01:23 – The OpenAI-Anthropic Breakup: Why Founders Left

02:45 – The AI Super Bowl Ad Battle Begins

04:57 – OpenAI's Money Problem: Why They NEED to Monetize

06:39 – Can OpenAI Survive on Only 5% Paid Users?

08:10 – Claude vs ChatGPT: Two Competing AI Futures

08:41 – Sam Altman Calls Anthropic "Elitist": The Class War Argument

11:00 – The Irony of Altman Calling Out AI Regulation

12:44 – Is AI Advertising Inherently Misleading?

14:06– Who Wins the AI Race? Claude, ChatGPT, or Google?

15:14 – Why Claude's Focused Approach Just Makes Sense

15:38 – Our Spiciest Take: Google Will Probably Win Anyway

16:43 – Final Verdict: Don't Trust a Brand, Watch the Incentives

17:41 – Bad Bunny Te Amamos + Outro

🫟 ABOUT SLOP WORLD

Juan Faisal and Kate Cook plunge into the slop pile—AI news, cultural shifts, and the future’s endless curveballs. They’re not here to sanitize the mess; they’re here to wrestle with it, laugh at it, and find meaning where you least expect it.