This Day in AI Podcast


Two new models dropped this week — Gemini 3.1 Pro and Claude Sonnet 4.6 — and honestly? We're struggling to care. In this episode, we break down why Gemini went from being our daily driver to a model we barely touch, the "tunnel vision" hallucination problem that killed the Gemini 3 series for us, and whether 3.1 Pro actually fixes it. We put Gemini 3.1 Pro head-to-head against Claude Opus building a Geoffrey Hinton Doom Center, debate whether anyone can actually tell the difference between Sonnet 4.5 and 4.6, and make the case that smaller models running in agentic loops are secretly beating the frontiers. Plus: OpenAI acquires OpenClaw and we ask why a $100B company couldn't just build it themselves, DHH calls out the AI pricing bubble, Mike compares AI models to cheap wine hangovers, and Sam Altman refuses to hold Dario's hand at the India AI Summit. The model wars are getting weird.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro & "Is This The End" Now on Spotify
1:10 Gemini 3.1 Pro: Thinking Controls & The Medium Mode Fix
3:14 The Speed vs Intelligence Trade-Off in Agentic Work
5:10 Why Multitasking With AI Agents Made Us Anxious
6:34 Solid Updates: The Real Goal of Agentic Coding
7:45 Gemini's Fall From Grace: From Daily Driver to Dead Model
10:08 The Tunnel Vision Problem That Killed Gemini 3
13:35 Mixed Reactions: Fanboys vs Reality on Gemini 3.1 Pro
15:06 Side-by-Side Test: Gemini 3.1 Pro vs Claude Opus (Hinton Doom Center)
17:39 Why File Manipulation Accuracy Matters More Than Context Windows
19:27 The Context Window Debate: 1M Tokens vs Smart Sub-Agents
22:05 DHH on Token Pricing: "If There's a Bubble, It's This"
24:11 Should Models Ship as Agent vs Chat Variants?
28:43 Claude Sonnet 4.6: A $2 Discount on Opus?
31:44 The Model Mix: Why One Model Won't Rule Them All
34:40 Anthropic Is Winning — But Can Anyone Tell the Difference?
38:58 OpenAI Acquires OpenClaw: Why Couldn't They Just Build It?
44:18 The Silicon Valley Moment: Sam vs Dario at India AI Summit
47:05 Will Smaller Models Win the Enterprise? The Cost Reality Check
51:27 The End of Single-Shot: Why Agentic Loops Change Everything
55:48 Final Thoughts & Gemini 3.1 Pro Gets One More Week

Thanks for listening. Like & Sub. Links above for the Still Relevant Tour signup and Simtheory. Two models dropped on a week again. What a time to be alive. xoxo

What is This Day in AI Podcast?

Join Michael and Chris Sharkey, two proudly average tech enthusiasts, as they stumble through the world of artificial intelligence with all the grace of a robot learning to dance. This (sometimes weekly*) podcast delivers an hour-long conversation about their thoroughly middle-of-the-road adventures with AI.

No PhDs. No Silicon Valley insights. Just two guys with enough technical knowledge to be dangerous, sharing their unexceptional yet entertaining experiences with AI tools and technology.

Subscribe now to hear:

• Mediocre hot takes on AI developments
• Stories of AI experiments gone adequately okay
• The most average advice you'll ever need
• Two Sharkeys trying their best to sound smart about algorithms
• Childish AI prank calls that somehow fool everybody
• Attempts at using AI for phishing attacks on their mother
• "Chart-topping" AI songs according to the brothers

Join our perfectly mediocre community where being average at AI is celebrated, questions are encouraged, and learning through mistakes is our specialty. Because let's face it - most of us are figuring this out as we go along.

New episodes drop whenever we remember to record them. 🎙️

Proudly supported by Simtheory.ai