Bittensor Drama! TAO down 15%! | E2274

Summary

Jason Calacanis and Alex discuss the recent controversy in the Bittensor network where Covenant AI departed, causing a sharp drop in the TAO token. They interview Gareth Howells from Vidaio (subnet 85) for the community perspective and to learn about his video processing subnet. Later, Ole Lehmann demonstrates an AI council of advisers tool inspired by Andrej Karpathy, showcasing how AI can assist in decision-making for startups and life advice.

• TAO token fell ~15% after Covenant AI left Bittensor, citing centralization concerns and conflicts with a co-founder.
• Jason Calacanis explains his investment thesis in TAO, viewing it as a decentralized, deflationary network for AI services.
• Gareth Howells describes Vidaio's video processing subnet (subnet 85), which uses AI for upscaling, compression, and optimization.
• The incident highlights governance challenges in Bittensor, but the community sees it as a learning opportunity to strengthen subnet controls.
• Ole Lehmann builds an AI council of advisers using Claude, simulating multiple personas to provide balanced business and life advice.
• The hosts share off-duty recommendations, including the new Star Wars series 'Maul' and the MacBook Pro for local AI workloads.
• Bittensor subnets enable permissionless global participation, tapping into talent from regions like Vietnam for machine learning tasks.
• The video emphasizes the potential of decentralized AI networks to reduce costs and increase competition across borders.