Altman, Amodei, Hassabis, Liang: A Field Guide to the Minds Building AI

Why does Claude feel different from ChatGPT, which feels different from Gemini? Not the training data — the founder.

This is a field guide to the temperaments building AI: Sam Altman the operator, Dario Amodei the missionary who spends 40% of his time on culture, Demis Hassabis the scientist rebuilt under fire, and China's idealists running labs with no KPIs. Each personality becomes an org chart, and each org chart becomes a product you can feel.

Google's failure to ship ChatGPT despite inventing the Transformer is where we start — proof that the org, not the science, is the story.

I'm Dan. AI moves too fast to keep up with, so I built my own stack of AI tools to research, analyse, verify and illustrate the questions I can't stop thinking about — mostly to learn it myself, and I share what I find. AI-assisted, fact-checked, worth a second look.

Follow Dan's AI Intel in whatever app you're listening in — it's free, and a follow is the single biggest thing that helps a small independent show grow. One quick thing, from Dan — I make this show mostly to keep up with AI myself, and I'd love to make it better. If there's something you'd push back on or want me to go deeper on, tell me: [email protected] — I read every one.

The full written report — with the charts, sources and interactive exhibits — is on the site: read it here. Browse every episode and all of Dan's shows at connectiveshift.com.

This show is AI-generated and fact-checked — deeply researched, and worth a second look. Follow Dan's AI Intel — it's free, and the single best way to help a small independent show grow. Thoughts or pushback? [email protected] — I read every one.