The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce

Pete Steinberger set the world on fire with OpenClaw, the first general-purpose agent - and one with a soul. We'll look at how being in the right time and the right place with the right vibe fundamentally changed the public perception of AI.

It took about three years after the release of ChatGPT for AI tools to get to the point where they could be truly useful. 

The first folks to gain those benefits were software engineers.

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THE NEXT BILLION SECONDS: AI@70

EP 2: THE WATERSHED

ChatGPT opened the door to artificial intelligence. Almost immediately, researchers built 'agents' using it - but three years of hard yards passed before agents were 'good enough' to be useful. In this episode we trace the path from 'bad' to 'good enough' agents - and what it unlocked as we 'crossed the watershed'.

No one really thought that on the last day of November in 2022, th...

THIS BILLION SECONDS

AI @ 70 -- EPISODE ONE: AI TAKES THE PENSION 

On the 17th August 1956, artificial intelligence was born. The founders of the field reckoned they'd have thinking machines equivalent to humans in five year, perhaps ten at the most. What looked easy at the outset turned into a seven-decade struggle - across two "AI winters", when the discipline nearly faded away - before we got to ChatGPT.

TRANSCRIPT: 

On RNZ's "Nine to Noon" Mark gave host Kathryn Ryan an update on the US export controls on the "Fable 5" AI model - and how that's causing them trouble with their allies, who had already integrated it into workflows. Then they'll look at what happens when a security researcher goes rogue - threatening the world's fourth most valuable company. The episode includes the unpleasant story of how millions of Pokemon Go players unwittingl...

On Friday 12 June, AI powerhouse Anthropic cut off all access to their latest-and-greatest "Fable 5" AI model. Based on the incredibly powerful Mythos - which has the capacity to hack into almost any computer - Fable had safeguards to block that sort of use - or so Anthropic believed. A hack to 'jailbreak' Fable 5 went viral just a day after it went live - and very quickly, the White House got alarmed. Mark Pesce shares the whole t...

Host Kathryn Ryan in conversation with Mark, profiling the concerning capability of Anthropic's Mythos AI model to hack into the most protected systems - now it seems other AI models are just as powerful. RAMageddon could be on the way - with a major shortage of RAM forcing prices higher and why does ChatGPT have a goblin problem?

Thanks to RNZ - Nine To Noon

The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce is produced by Ampel and My...

On "Nine to Noon" host Kathryn Ryan and Mark discuss Anthropic's latest 'Mythos' AI model,  considered so dangerous to cybersecurity the company has set up a cross-company partnership to work on patching all of the hacks it found. Will other companies be as responsible if similar, powerful models of AI are created? Ronan Farrow's New Yorker piece on Sam Altman paints him in a diabolical light. And the new White House...

Leading AI firm Anthropic drew two red lines on their work with the newly renamed US 'Department of War': No mass surveillance of Americans, and no autonomous weapons. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth threatened to declare Anthropic a 'supply chain risk' (basically, an enemy of the state) unless they erased those red lines. Anthropic held fast - and that's changed the politics of AI. Plus: Let the app know you're not dead!

See o...

RNZ replay 30 January 2026

In conversation with RNZ "Nine to Noon" host Kathryn Ryan, we look at the recent massive layoffs at Amazon, France's social media laws for under 15s, Microsoft giving the keys to your data kingdom to the FBI, and what happens when an organisation tasked with maintaining the safety of the airways turns to a computer to 'flood the zone' with regulation?

Thanks to RNZ - Nine To Noon

The Next Billion Seconds ...

Abby Bloom, Catherine Ball and I (along with Sally Dominguez) are heading back to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see the latest innovations in 'agetech' - technologies that help restore ability and increase agency as we age. Is agetech "the" solution to the crisis in care, or is it, instead, kit that helps support us as we transition toward a culture where care is a central and valued activity?

The second of two SXSW...

Abby Bloom wants us to face an uncomfortable truth: we need a lot more space and time for care in our culture. A rapidly aging population - living twenty to thirty years longer than the generations preceding - means we're going to have to rethink and redesign our lives, our work and our whole civilisation so that we don't disappear beneath a burden of care that no one can bear alone. How do we make that transition? Abby's new book ...

Could it be that the smartphone and social media brought us together only to make us completely intolerant? Research seems to be pointing that way - so what can we do? Also, fake receipts, fake voices and fake apologies - the more AI we use, the more we get faked out. Finally, 'mind captioning' - could bring a voice to those who can not use their own! Recorded live on Radio New Zealand's "Nine To Noon" show on Thursday 20 November ...

While the US put its car in reverse (at speed!) and European automakers chased their own tails about whether or not to abandon ICEs, the Chinese put the pedal to the metal in their high-tourque EVs, leaving everyone one else in the dust. A once-in-a-lifetime platform transition - without any international competitors! Co-host Sally Dominguez, Special Correspondent Drew Smith and host Mark Pesce discuss a world that already looks ra...

What a difference a year makes. A transition to EVs that once seemed utterly inevitable has been thoroughly disrupted by a change of regime in the United States. Using every tool in its arsenal to bribe, cajole and even threaten its allies into dropping any support or incentives for electrification, the USA seems intent upon reviving a past where the internal combustion engine ruled unchallenged. Will it work? Co-host Sally Domingu...

Can a big business transform its processes and workflows using AI? With very few successful examples to follow, how does the Big End of Town even get started? L'Oreal Groupe - the biggest beauty products firm on Earth - got started three years ago. We sit down with L'Oreal Groupe ANZ CEO Alex Davison to explore how they did it, why they did it - and how it's changed their business. L'Oreal is rated by FORTUNE Magazine to be the #1 ...

There's an elephant in the room along with artificial intelligence - its impact on the climate. Demand for electricity has skyrocketed as Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft build vast new data centres to handle the anticipated global demand for AI products and services. Is that wise? In conversation with legendary entrepreneur and ClimateSalad CEO Mick Liubinskas, we explore whether we're approaching the age of AI with e...

Massive increases in productivity lure businesses into adopting artificial intelligence. But what if pursuit of that elusive 'superprodctivity' produces exactly the opposite? A rebroadcast of Radio New Zealand's Nine To Noon from16 October 2025, host Kathryn Ryan and I ask whether any business advantage can be gained by the 'promiscuous' use of AI.

The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce is produced by Ampel and Myrtle and Pi...

What would you do if you lost your job to an AI? Would you even know? It happened to me - and I didn't learn the truth for six months. In the aftermath I recognised how my work needed to change. That became the core of 'Building Resistance', a set of practices that help us focus on the most human elements of our work. Leaning into those - in this episode, you'll learn how - makes it harder to get automated into oblivion.

For more i...