Afleveringen
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Brad’s North Carolina Cook Out mint Oreo shake review, and Ben’s Pacific Northwest work-trip update before the brothers dig into the big idea of the week: what it actually means to become “AI native” at work. Using Jason’s Codex maxxing article as the spark, Brad frames the shift from one-off ChatGPT-style prompts to long-running agent threads with memory, tools, voice input, steering, queued follow-ups, automations, and heartbeats. Ben translates that into a practical workplace lens with the “core four” framing—model, prompt, context, and tools—and compares onboarding an AI agent to training an intern in accounting or engineering.
From there, the episode gets very hands-on. Brad explains how he thinks about memory files, Slack MCPs, voice workflows with Wispr Flow, recurring heartbeat tasks that check GitHub PRs, and Codex artifact-style outputs like PDFs, websites, and dashboards. Ben stress-tests the hype with very real questions about token budgets, enterprise ROI, Slack drafts that overcommit on your behalf, and the funny moral gray area of using powerful AI to do tiny jobs you could have done yourself in three clicks. The back half turns into a mobile-agent tour: Ben shares his Termius, VPS, SSH, and Tailscale experiment for running Codex or Claude Code from a phone, while Brad walks through Codex Remote in the ChatGPT app and why phone-to-computer agents feel like the future. They close with Brad’s must-watch mobile-app founder bookmark and a note that Episode 42 wraps season one before a short hiatus and refreshed look.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro and Travel Catch-Up
02:06 AI-Native Codex Workflows
04:50 Core Four Agent Framework
07:26 Better Loops and Memory
11:07 Slack Drafts and Memory
14:23 Voice Input and Steering
19:24 Heartbeats for Recurring Work
23:52 Artifacts and Personalized Tools
26:56 Token Budgets and ROI
36:34 Bookmarks and Mobile Codex
44:04 Season One HiatusLinks:
- Codex maxxing / AI-native workflow article
- CEO’s journey of building a mobile app
- Codex Remote in the ChatGPT app#BreakevenBrothers #OpenAI #Codex #CodexRemote #AINative #AIAgents #AICoding #ClaudeCode #MCPServers #AIProductivity
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
Episode 41 starts with a very Breakeven Brothers moment: the guys forget what episode they’re on, recap Brad’s family visit, and relive a 150-plus-game Soulcalibur gauntlet before diving into the real headline—why Brad now lives inside the Codex app. He explains what changed with GPT-5.5, why the model feels dramatically better at unblocking itself, and how that has shifted his workflow from small, careful requests to bigger, longer-running tasks. If you’ve been wondering whether Codex is just another AI coding surface or something materially different, this conversation gives a grounded answer from someone using it all day.
From there, the episode gets practical fast. Brad walks through plugins, computer use, Git worktrees, the built-in review pane, automations, long chat compaction, and why plan mode has mostly disappeared from his workflow, while Ben stress-tests the ideas from an accounting and knowledge-work angle with Canva brochures, CRM data, email tooling, and plenty of honest beginner questions. They also compare Codex to Claude Code and Claude Co-Work, share Brad’s current default of GPT-5.5 on extra high reasoning, and close with two strong bookmarks: Greg Eisenberg and Riley Brown’s Codex masterclass, plus Evan Bacon’s serve-sim tool for showing an iOS simulator inside Codex’s right-hand pane.
Chapters:
00:00 Weekend Recap and Soulcalibur
01:24 GPT-5.5 Powers Up Codex
05:16 Terminal Habits vs App Workflow
08:46 Plugins, MCPs, and Computer Use
11:22 Worktrees and Review Pane
15:05 Life After Plan Mode
20:37 Best Settings for Codex
25:48 Accounting Workflows and Plugins
30:14 Bookmarks and Closing ThoughtsLinks:
- Codex app
- Canva MCP
- Startup Ideas Podcast — “How to Use Codex: The Codex Masterclass”
- Augmented Accounting
- serve-sim#BreakevenBrothers #Codex #GPT55 #AICoding #OpenAI #ClaudeCode #MCP #DeveloperTools #AIProductivity #AccountingTech
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Episode 40 opens with Brad’s dirty-30 recap from Big Sur: hiking, Japanese hot baths, unlimited food, and a first falconry experience before the brothers jump into two meaningful AI releases. They break down Cursor 3’s move to a fully agent-first interface, why that changes the feel of an AI IDE, and how Google’s Gemma 4 models look in the small-model and on-device race. There’s also a practical discussion about Apple, local inference in iOS 26, and what better on-device models could unlock for products like SplitMyExpenses.
Then the episode gets into one of the most interesting collisions in tech right now: AI tax prep. Using Daniel Vassallo’s thread as the spark, Ben brings the CPA perspective, Brad brings the builder perspective, and together they unpack customer experience, trust, knowledge work, and what AI still misses. The back half covers why MCP servers suddenly feel useful again, the Axios and LiteLLM supply-chain scares, practical OWASP-style security audits, Gary Tan’s gstack claims, a joking SplitMyExpenses sponsor read, and quick bookmarks on iOS reverse-engineering tools and Google’s latest quantum-and-crypto warning.
Chapters:
00:00 Big Sur birthday and falconry
02:38 Cursor 3 goes agent-first
04:04 Gemma 4 on-device push
08:42 AI taxes and CPA backlash
18:09 G-Stack versus code quality
25:23 MCP servers make a comeback
33:10 Axios breach and AI audits
40:50 TBPN jokes and sponsor banter
44:04 Bookmarks: iPhone hacks and quantumLinks:
- SplitMyExpenses
- Feross on the Axios attack
- Daniel Vassallo AI tax-prep thread
- gstack by Gary Tan
- App Store Connect CLI
- Hopper disassembler MCP#BreakevenBrothers #AICoding #CursorAI #Gemma4 #LocalAI #MCPServers #TaxTech #SupplyChainAttack #OWASP #DeveloperTools
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
This week, the brothers dive headfirst into the world of personal AI agents, with Brad detailing his meticulous, multi-step journey of setting up OpenClaw on a virtual private server. The conversation navigates the critical balance between unlocking immense power and managing the significant security risks that come with granting AI access to personal data. From automating mundane tasks like unsubscribing from spam emails to the dream of booking dinner reservations with a simple command, they explore the technical hurdles and trust barriers that stand between us and a truly agentic future.
The discussion then shifts to the professional world, tackling the recent panic and excitement in the accounting community as many discover the power of AI tools like Claude. Are accountants officially "cooked," or is this simply the next evolution of the profession? Drawing parallels to software engineering, they debate how AI is modifying jobs rather than eliminating them. Finally, they grapple with a fascinating new social concept: "AIDR" (AI Didn't Read), questioning the authenticity and perceived effort of AI-generated communication and what it means for our human-to-human connections in an increasingly automated world.
Chapters:
00:09 Introduction and Personal Catch-Up
03:02 Darren Aronofsky's AI Film Series
06:36 Brad's Experience Setting Up OpenClaw
16:34 The Broader Challenges of AI Security
21:44 Is AI Making Accounting Obsolete?
29:57 Adapting to AI and GPT-4's Power
37:48 AIDR: AI's Impact on CommunicationLinks:
- AIDR: AI Didn't Read
- Google Workspace CLI
- Bradley's blog post#OpenInterpreter #AISecurity #FutureOfWork #AccountingTech #GPT4 #ClaudeAI #DeveloperTools #DigitalEthics #AIpodcast #PromptInjection
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
This week, the Breakeven Brothers dive into the practical (and sometimes frustrating) applications of AI, starting with a hilarious attempt to use AI for taxes and an experiment to recreate their famous intro jingle with Google's new Lyria 3 audio model. The results might surprise you. They also recap a flurry of major releases from the past few weeks, including OpenAI's Codex 5.3 Spark, Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 with its blazing fast mode, and Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro, debating the emerging market split between raw intelligence and sheer speed.
The conversation then shifts to the powerful world of on-premise AI, exploring how tools like OpenCode and local LLMs can offer unparalleled security for sensitive data in industries like accounting and finance. Is it possible to get the power of modern AI without sending your data to the cloud? The hosts discuss the trade-offs and explore game-changing productivity hacks, like using the Codex app's automation features to analyze your own usage patterns. Finally, they tackle a thought-provoking tweet from Karpathy about the potential 'end of the App Store' and what the explosion of AI-generated software means for developers, legacy systems like COBOL, and companies like Apple.
Chapters:
00:07 Can AI Do Your Taxes?
03:36 Recap of Recent AI Releases
05:56 Testing Google's Music AI, Lyria
09:01 Exploring Open Code with Local LLMs
14:31 The Case for On-Premise AI Models
24:55 Unlocking Power with Codex Automations
31:36 Will AI Make App Stores Obsolete?
38:43 Weekly Bookmarks and Security Concerns
43:11 Conclusion and Next Episode TeaserLinks:
- Replit Animation on X
- CNET: Hackers Are Trying to Copy Gemini
- Ollama#AIPodcast #LocalLLM #OpenCode #AppStore #SoftwareDevelopment #Codex #GoogleGemini #OnPrem #AICyberSecurity #AIMusic
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
The Breakeven Brothers are back from hiatus with a huge announcement: one of the brothers has started a new role as a software engineer at OpenAI! He shares the inside scoop on the interview process, the dynamic culture, and what it’s like to be working at the epicenter of the AI revolution. This personal journey kicks off a broader conversation about career development in the age of AI, with insights from a career panel at a local college and advice for accountants to embrace new tools like Excel and the command line.
The conversation then dives headfirst into the viral whirlwind surrounding OpenClaw (formerly Moltbot/ClawdBot). The brothers dissect the massive hype, the very real security concerns, and the bizarre phenomenon of AI bots seemingly conspiring on forums. They also tackle the growing problem of AI-generated "slop" flooding open-source projects, the burden it places on maintainers, and the recent trend of AI development tools shifting from complex command-line interfaces back to user-friendly graphical apps. It's a candid and grounded discussion on separating genuine innovation from the noise in today's fast-moving tech landscape.
Chapters:
00:09 Introduction and Recent Life Changes
00:40 Brad Announces New Job at OpenAI
04:35 Ben's Accounting Career Panel Experience
07:29 Ben's New Claude Code YouTube Series
15:39 The Rise and Hype of OpenClaude
28:19 AI Slop Burdening Open Source Projects
33:13 The Return of Graphical User Interfaces
37:59 Bookmarks: Improving Claude and Building DronesLinks:
- Augmentic Accounting YouTube Channel
- OpenClaw
- Mitchell Hashimoto's X/Twitter Profile
- Real Python: Quantum Computing With Qiskit#OpenAI #OpenClaw #AIHype #CareerChange #SoftwareEngineering #AccountingTech #OpenSource #ClaudeCode #TechPodcast #AItools
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
What does the future hold? Before diving into some wild predictions, we recap a whirlwind week of AI meetups in San Francisco. We share key takeaways from the Agents Anonymous meetup at Sentry's HQ, including a fascinating talk from a Cursor engineer on solving the "long-running agents" problem and what it took to build a web browser autonomously. Then, we switch gears to the Laravel community, discussing Taylor Otwell's demo of a new first-party AI package and the unique vibe of builders who wait for tech to be proven before delivering powerful tools.
With our minds on the future, we lock in our 2026 predictions with a 4x4 bingo card. We're placing our bets on everything from full-length AI-generated films and humanoid robots in high-income homes to the first $1 trillion AI IPO and the rise of a $10,000-a-month AI subscription plan. Will UBI become a serious midterm topic? Will Apple finally make a huge AI comeback? Will we see the reintroduction of human typing (typos and all) as a signal of authenticity? We cover 16 bold, specific, and sometimes scary predictions that paint a vivid picture of the next two years in tech and society.
Chapters:
00:08 Recapping Recent San Francisco AI Meetups
01:06 Cursor and the Long-Running Agents Problem
04:30 Laravel's New Official AI Package
10:57 Introducing the 2026 Predictions Bingo Card
11:27 Predictions: AI Media and Humanoid Robots
16:12 Predictions: AI Operating Systems and Assistants
19:27 Predictions: Economic Shifts and Market Competition
23:05 Predictions: Security, Society, and Hardware
27:38 Predictions: The Future of AI Coding
38:34 Predictions: Market Recessions and Human Typing
43:02 Full Bingo Card Recap and BookmarksLinks:
- Creating a web browser with long running agents
- Callstack's React Native Skill for Claude
- Indie Dev Dan on YouTube
- Ben Affleck on Joe Rogan discussing AI in movies#AIPredictions #TechPodcast #ClaudeCode #Laravel #HumanoidRobots #FutureOfAI #Cursor #SanFrancisco #UBI #AICommunity
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
Welcome to 2026! The new year kicks off with shocking news from the web development world as industry darlings Tailwind Labs and Laracasts announce massive layoffs, citing the disruptive force of AI. Brad and Bennett dive deep into the drama, analyzing the GitHub comments and tweets that sent shockwaves through the community. They discuss the harsh reality for businesses built on selling code or educational content in an era where advanced AI can generate both in seconds, connecting the dots between these high-profile stumbles and the broader economic shifts happening across the tech landscape.
The conversation then pivots from industry analysis to personal workflows and the tools defining the new era of development. Brad shares his recent, surprising switch from the much-loved Claude Code to OpenAI's Codex, detailing the specific prompts and settings that are unlocking new levels of productivity. The brothers explore the rise of Agent SDKs, the power of community-created 'Skills,' and the emerging, sometimes wild, use cases for AI, from analyzing personal DNA data to automating tax preparation. This episode is a crucial look at the tangible impacts of AI, offering both a warning and a guide for navigating the rapidly changing world of technology in 2026.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to the First Episode of 2026
01:09 AI's Toll on Tailwind and Laracasts
11:19 Why 2026 Is the Year of Agents
14:47 Building Practical AI Agent Workflows
22:30 AI's Role in Accounting and Taxes
27:16 Creative Uses for Personal AI Agents
36:15 Codex vs. Claude Code for DevelopmentLinks:
- Tailwind CSS `llms.txt` Pull Request
- Adam Wathan on X (Twitter)
- Laracasts
- TaxDome
- Peter Steinberger: Shipping at Inference Speed
- Boris Cherny's Tweet on the Future of Engineering
- Levelsio on X (Twitter)#AI #TechPodcast #SoftwareDevelopment #TailwindCSS #FutureOfWork #ClaudeCode #OpenAICodex #Laracasts #DeveloperTools #AgenticWorkflows
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
In our final episode of 2025, we're taking a look back at what was dubbed 'the year of the agents' and peering into what 2026 might hold. The conversation kicks off with a deep dive into a potential paradigm shift: the rise of AI 'skills.' We explore Anthropic's big push for this new framework, contrasting it with existing tool-calling and MCP server approaches. Are skills just a more user-friendly way to package domain knowledge, or are they a fundamental change in how we'll build with AI? We break down the pros and cons, from context window preservation to ease of sharing in a marketplace.
Beyond the theoretical, we get into the latest industry drama and developments. We tackle the heated online debate surrounding Claude Opus 4.5—is Anthropic secretly downgrading its flagship model, or are user expectations simply rising? We also cover the release of Google's impressively fast Gemini 3 Flash, a major NPM supply chain attack that compromised thousands of repositories, and the exciting new visual editor and debug mode features from Cursor that could change the front-end development workflow. Join us as we wrap up the year with the biggest stories and share our favorite resources to take into the new year.
Chapters:
00:00 End of Year and AI Music Licensing
02:43 Anthropic and OpenAI Introduce "Skills"
12:01 The Opus 4.5 Downgrade Controversy
19:14 Google's New Gemini 3 Flash Model
21:50 Recent Supply Chain Attack on Developers
26:39 Cursor's New Visual Editor and Debug Mode
31:11 Bookmarks: Building Skills and Email Triage
34:15 Wrapping Up 2025 and Holiday PlansLinks:
- Suno AI: Ben mentions he used Suno AI, an AI music generation tool, to create the podcast's current theme song and pays a monthly subscription to maintain the commercial license.
- Highcharts: A paid JavaScript charting library mentioned as an example of a tool with a commercial license that operates on an 'honor system,' similar to Suno AI.
- Chart.js: The free, open-source alternative to Highcharts that Brad switched to for his project, Split My Expenses.
- Cursor IDE: The AI-first code editor discussed for its new features, including a visual editor for front-end development and an automated debug mode.
- Anthropic: Don't Build Agents, Build Skills Instead: Brad's bookmark: An Anthropic presentation on the AI Engineer YouTube channel titled 'Don't Build Agents, Build Skills Instead,' which argues for a shift in how developers leverage AI.
- LangChain YouTube Channel: Ben's bookmark: A deep-dive video from LangChain's YouTube channel about building an agent for email triage, a practical application of AI for managing high-volume inboxes.#AIPodcast #Anthropic #AISkills #SoftwareDevelopment #Cybersecurity #CursorIDE #AIAgents #GeminiAI #TechNews #LangChain
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
The Breakeven Brothers are back after the holiday break, sharing stories from Thanksgiving travels and post-holiday shopping. Bradley kicks things off with a major announcement: the SplitMyExpenses Android app is finally live! He shares the challenging, and often frustrating, journey of navigating the Google Play Store for the first time, contrasting it with his experience on iOS and celebrating the milestone of being available on all major platforms.
From there, the conversation dives headfirst into the whirlwind of recent AI developments. Just days after their last recording, Anthropic released the incredibly powerful Claude Opus 4.5, and the brothers break down why it's a potential game-changer, especially for developers using tools like Cursor. They also explore Google's stunningly realistic new image model: Nano Banana Pro and discuss OpenAI's swift response with Codex Max. This rapid-fire competition leads to a discussion about OpenAI's rumored "code red" to refocus efforts on ChatGPT amidst user decline, raising questions about who will ultimately win the AI race.
Chapters:
00:09 Introduction and Thanksgiving Recap
02:12 Black Friday Shopping and AI Try-Ons
04:10 Launching the SplitMyExpenses Android App
10:31 Google's New Gemini 3 Pro Model
17:39 Nano Banana Pro's Realistic Images
22:11 OpenAI's Agentic Codex Max Model
24:52 Anthropic's Incredible Opus 4.5 Release
38:48 Anthropic's Bun Acquisition and IPO Rumors
43:33 OpenAI Declares a 'Code Red'Links:
- SplitMyExpenses on Android
- SplitMyExpenses on iOS
- Bradley Bernard's Blog
- Back Market
- Google's SynthID Watermark
- The Boring Marketer#AI #TechPodcast #Claude4.5Opus #GoogleImagen #OpenAI #AndroidDev #IndieHacker #SoftwareEngineering #Anthropic #DeveloperTools
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
Brad is back from the grind and finally has something to show for his 4 AM coding sessions: the official SplitMyExpenses iOS app is live on the App Store! He shares the entire journey, from the initial manual coding attempts to leveraging AI tools like Claude Code that dramatically accelerated his development pace and expanded the app's feature set. Ben also dives into his own coding project, detailing how he rebuilt his accounting firm's website from scratch, ditching Squarespace for a custom solution powered by Cursor's new "plan mode." The brothers compare notes on how indispensable AI has become in their workflows, feeling almost handicapped without it.
The conversation then zooms out to the broader AI landscape, dissecting the pros and cons of different models and why Ben finally decided to cancel his Claude subscription. With hype reaching a fever pitch, they speculate on the imminent release of Google's Gemini 3.0, discussing what it needs to deliver to be a true game-changer in terms of intelligence, speed, and cost. To wrap up, they explore a fascinating and potentially alarming theory from "The Big Short's" Michael Burry about an AI bubble fueled by misleading accounting practices, leaving listeners to ponder if the current AI boom is built on a solid foundation or a house of cards.
Chapters:
00:10 Catching Up and New Haircuts
02:05 Brad Launches Split My Expenses App
05:32 How AI Transformed App Development
15:36 Ben Rebuilds His Website with AI
20:50 Deep Dive into AI Coding Tools
28:49 Anticipating Google's Gemini 3.0 Release
34:28 Bookmarks: AI Bubbles and iPhone SocksLinks:
- SplitMyExpenses on the iOS App Store
- Catalyst CFO Website
- Render Hosting
- Cursor - The AI-first Code Editor
- Seeking Alpha: Michael Burry and the AI Bubble
- Cursor Presentation: How We Trained Our Model#AIPodcast #TechPodcast #IndieDev #ReactNativeDev #CursorAI #Gemini3 #AIbubble #SoftwareEngineering #AppLaunch #SideHustle
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
The Breakeven Brothers are finally back! After another hiatus filled with cross-continental travel, surprise kitten fostering, and a whole lot of life, Bradley and Bennett jump right back into the deep end. We kick things off with stories from Brad's trip to Korea—navigating rainy weddings and constant hotel hopping—and Bennett's unexpected turn as a foster dad to a tiny kitten that wandered into his backyard. These adventures set the stage for a much larger conversation about how quickly things can change, especially in the world of AI.
Once we're settled, we dive into a wild new technique from DeepSeek that turns text into images just to... turn it back into text? It sounds crazy, but this 10x compression trick could fundamentally solve one of AI's biggest frustrations: why our agents seem to get dumber the longer we talk to them. This sparks a huge debate about OpenAI's new browser, ChatGPT Atlas. Is it a revolutionary agent that will plan our trips and buy our groceries, or a massive security risk waiting to happen? Brad also gives us a firsthand report from an exclusive "Claude Code Anonymous" meetup in San Francisco, sharing the secrets behind a 700-line master prompt that gets near-perfect results. Tune in for a packed episode covering everything from AI walled gardens to the future of how we browse the web.
Chapters:
00:00 Back from Hiatus & Personal Updates
04:11 DeepSeek's Text-to-Image Compression
13:15 OpenAI's New Agentic Browser: ChatGPT Atlas
20:38 Security Concerns with Agentic Browsers
33:20 Takeaways from Claude Code Anonymous in SF
40:16 Bookmarks: Meta vs. AI & Cursor's Plan Mode
43:54 Conclusion & wrap upLinks:
- Meta Banning Rival AI Chatbots on WhatsApp
- Cursor's New "Plan Mode"#AI #TechPodcast #OpenAI #ChatGPTAtlas #DeepSeek #ClaudeAI #AICoding #ContextWindow #AIAgents #BrowserWars
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
For our dirty 30, we're unpacking some of the biggest AI news of the year, coming at you fresh on the same day it dropped. OpenAI just held their DevDay, and to say they dropped a bombshell would be an understatement. We’re giving our live, unfiltered reactions to a tidal wave of new releases that genuinely knocked it out of the park. From an App Store-like ecosystem built directly into ChatGPT to some wild new revenue estimates (is a billion dollars a month even real?), OpenAI is building a platform that’s impossible to ignore.
Join us as we dive into the game-changing tools that could reshape the AI landscape. Ever wanted to build a powerful, custom agent without writing a single line of code? We break down the new Agent Builder and the live demo where they built and deployed one in under eight minutes. Plus, we were blown away by what might be the coolest live tech demo we've ever seen, involving stage cameras, lighting, and an Xbox controller, all prompted into existence on the spot. We also cover the API releases for Sora 2 and GPT-5 Pro and discuss what this all means for developers, non-technical creators, and the future of building.
Chapters:
00:09 Introduction: OpenAI's Big DevDay
01:32 High-Level DevDay Announcements
06:52 Building Apps within ChatGPT
18:49 The No-Code Agent Builder Kit
27:49 Sora 2 & GPT-5 Pro API Updates
35:13 The Impressive Live Codex Demo
45:44 Final Thoughts & Funny Bookmarks
50:38 ConclusionLinks:
- Sunny Madra's Tweet on OpenAI's Revenue
- OpenAI DevDay Opening Keynote
- Kitze Tweet about MCP
- Sora 2 Video of Sam Altman stealing Studio Ghibli#OpenAI #DevDay #ChatGPT #AgentKit #Codex #Sora2 #GPT5Pro #NoCodeAI #AIPodcast #TechReaction
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
The Brothers are back! After a much-needed month-long break filled with wedding anniversaries, unfortunate illnesses, and a trip to Hawaii, Bradley and Bennett return to find the AI world has moved at lightning speed. They waste no time diving headfirst into a tool that has defined white-collar work for decades: Excel. With Anthropic's Claude now able to work directly with spreadsheets, is this the game-changing moment accountants have been waiting for, or is it merely a "Band-Aid" on a workflow that's about to be made obsolete by autonomous AI agents? Bennett puts on his tinfoil hat for a bold prediction that could change the future of knowledge work forever.
The debate then shifts from the spreadsheet to the command line, where a civil war is brewing in the world of AI coding assistants. After a "golden period" where Claude Code was the undisputed champion, a recent dip in performance has opened the door for a revitalized competitor: OpenAI's Codex. Bradley breaks down why developers are losing faith in Claude and flocking to its rival, exploring the high-stakes showdown between the two platforms. From groundbreaking new features to scary security vulnerabilities and our predictions for the rest of the year, this episode is a jam-packed catch-up on everything you need to know in the world of AI.
Chapters:
00:09 Introduction: Catching Up
02:36 Claude's New Excel Integration
06:31 Hot Take: Is Excel Obsolete?
12:05 The Rise of Autonomous AI Agents
18:35 Adapting to an AI-Driven Workforce
27:16 Microsoft Copilot Integrates Anthropic Models
32:56 The Claude Code vs. Codex Debate
48:17 AI Predictions & Security Risks
54:58 ConclusionLinks:
- Bennett's YouTube Channel: Augmented Accounting
- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart
- Python for Finance by Yves Hilpisch
- Microsoft & Anthropic Partnership (thedecoder.com)
- Google Calendar OpenAI ChatGPT MCP Server Vulnerability#AI #Excel #FutureOfWork #ClaudeCode #CodexCLI #AccountingTech #DeveloperTools #Programming #TechPodcast #Anthropic
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
A bombshell MIT study just dropped, claiming 95% of companies get ZERO return on their AI investments. Is the hype bubble finally bursting, or is there a deeper story the headlines are missing? In this episode, we're calling BS on the doom-and-gloom narrative. Drawing from our own in-the-trenches experience building an app with AI, we break down why these studies might be flawed and reveal the massive "learning gap" that's holding most people back from unlocking AI's true potential. It's not the models that are failing; it’s how we're being taught to use them.
The AI drama doesn't stop there. We're unpacking all the latest chaos from Silicon Valley, from Meta slamming the brakes on its billion-dollar hiring spree to the shocking rumor that Apple might actually use Google's Gemini to power the next generation of Siri. We also dive into a new trend for developers: can you really monetize your expertise by selling $9 AI rules? We debate that and the growing battle against "AI slop" in open source before tackling a big question for the professional world: are junior accountants about to start doing a manager's job right out of college? Tune in for our unfiltered take on the hype, the reality, and where we're all headed.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:37 The Reality of AI Investment ROI
14:58 Monetizing Expertise by Selling Cursor Rules
23:19 Meta's Billion-Dollar AI Hiring Freeze
34:27 Apple Considers Google Gemini for Siri
43:34 Disclosing AI-Generated Code Contributions
51:06 How AI is Reshaping Junior Roles
1:05:54 Bookmarks: AI Workflows and Scrapers
1:12:49 Wrapping UpLinks:
- SplitMyExpenses
- Axios article
- Cursor rules
- Laravel Boost
- Ghostty Terminal
- PwC Article on the Future of Junior Accountants
- Peter Steinberger's "AI Dev Workflow" Blog Post
- Report Reveals Internal Chaos Behind Apple's Siri Failure - MacRumors
- Apple Explores Using Google Gemini AI to Power Revamped Siri
- Marc Colbrugu's Tweet on Cloudflare#TechPodcast #AINews #AIROI #SoftwareEngineering #MetaHiringFreeze #FutureOfWork #AppleGemini #AICodingTools #Productivity #DeveloperPodcast
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
The Death Star has arrived... or has it? This week, we're diving headfirst into the most anticipated AI launch of the year: OpenAI's GPT-5. After weeks of incredible hype, including some wild pre-launch marketing from Sam Altman himself, we finally got our hands on the new flagship model. We're here to give you our unfiltered, boots-on-the-ground review. Was it the mind-blowing leap in intelligence we were all expecting, or did the reality fall short of the promises? We unpack the bumpy rollout, the confusing new "thinking" modes that took away our control, and the one change that has us scratching our heads and asking, "who asked for this?"
But the conversation doesn't stop at GPT-5. We put the new model to the test in our own workflows, revealing its surprising strengths and one "painfully slow" weakness that might be a dealbreaker for daily use. We also stack it up against the competition, debating whether Claude Code still holds the crown for developers and if Google's Veo was secretly the most impressive release. Plus, Bradley reveals a game-changing productivity hack involving a speech-to-text tool that has him shipping features faster than ever. Tune in for a jam-packed discussion on the current state of the AI race, the drama shaking up the industry, and our verdict on whether GPT-5 is truly worth the hype.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to GPT-5 Release
03:05 Initial Reactions and Expectations
05:42 User Experience and Performance Insights
08:42 Model Selection and User Control
11:34 Temperature Settings and Flexibility
14:27 Comparative Analysis with Other Models
17:22 Open Source Models and Community Feedback
20:14 Future of AI Models and User Expectations
22:59 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
33:13 Dreaming of Opus Five
38:07 The Future of Coding Intelligence
40:34 Navigating AI in Development
44:32 Unlocking Productivity with Voice
51:01 Industry Insights and AI ImpactLinks:
- WisprFlow
- Windsurf layoffs
- Google AI search impact on businesses
- Incredible new Apple ringtone#GPT5Review #OpenAI #ClaudeCode #TechPodcast #AIProductivity #DeveloperTools #CursorAI #AIFails #PromptEngineering #TechReview
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host(00:00) - Introduction to GPT-5 Release(03:05) - Initial Reactions and Expectations(05:42) - User Experience and Performance Insights(08:42) - Model Selection and User Control(11:34) - Temperature Settings and Flexibility(14:27) - Comparative Analysis with Other Models(17:22) - Open Source Models and Community Feedback(20:14) - Future of AI Models and User Expectations(22:59) - Conclusion and Final Thoughts(33:13) - Dreaming of Opus Five(38:07) - The Future of Coding Intelligence(40:34) - Navigating AI in Development(44:32) - Unlocking Productivity with Voice(51:01) - Industry Insights and AI Impact -
It's the official mid-year reality check! We're dusting off our 2025 bingo card to see which of our wild predictions have actually come true. Did a solo founder get that billion-dollar offer? Are robot cop-dogs with machine guns a thing now? And what ever happened to Bennett's homemade salsa ambitions? We tally the points (and half-points) and laugh at what we were thinking just a few months ago. Before we get to the scorecard, we vent about our recent coding frustrations—from a brutal React Native bug to the eternal search for quality AI content on YouTube—and shout out a couple of creators who are actually getting it right.
Once the predictions are settled, we dive into the main event: the rapidly shifting landscape of AI agents. OpenAI just dropped its highly-anticipated Agent, but does it live up to the "get coffee while it works" hype? We peel back the layers on what it can *actually* do and where it still falls short. Then, we tackle the Claude Code saga. We've been asking for months if their pricing was sustainable, and it looks like we finally have an answer. Anthropic is rolling out major changes to its "unlimited" plans, and we break down what these new limits mean for developers, the future of AI coding assistants, and the one user who was costing them tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates
04:44 Bingo Card Recap: Mid-Year Check-In
20:40 OpenAI Agents: Initial Reactions and Insights
33:45 Navigating AI and Automation Limits
37:02 Claude Code Updates and User Experience
40:55 Pricing Strategies and User Impact
44:26 Quality Concerns and User Adaptation
49:42 Innovations in Cloud Code Sub-Agents
52:26 Future Predictions and Market DynamicsLinks:
- AI Jason
- Garret Love
- Comet Browser from Perplexity
- Firecrawl
- Anthropic AI subreddit
- OpenAI Agent controlling a security camera
- 7 useful Claude Code sub-agents#TechPodcast #ClaudeCode #OpenAIAgents #AI #FuturePredictions #TechStartups #LangGraph #Coding #Anthropic #AITrends
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
After a surprisingly affordable and delicious trip to Vancouver, we're back and diving headfirst into the AI world's latest obsession: the talent war. Meta is swinging for the fences, reportedly dropping $100 million offers to poach top researchers from OpenAI. This has sparked a war of words, with OpenAI framing it as "stealing" and pitting their "missionaries" against Meta's "mercenaries." We break down the strategies, the ethics, and the sheer audacity of these moves. Is Meta making a desperate play to catch up, or is this a brilliant power move to build an unstoppable super intelligence team? We also go on a wild tangent to connect the dots between Elon's various companies, culminating in Bennett's sci-fi conspiracy theory that you have to hear to believe.
The battle isn't just for people; it's for performance. We explore the flood of new model releases, from the mind-bogglingly large Kimi K2 to the controversial Grok-4, and debate what truly matters more: raw intelligence or flawless "tool calling" capabilities. This hits close to home as Bradley, a Claude Code power user, shares his frustrating story of finally hitting the hard limit on his "unlimited" plan. Is the golden age of infinite AI coding coming to an end? We wrap up by dissecting the dramatic downfall of Windsurf, the AI IDE once courted by OpenAI, and how its top talent ended up at Google, leaving the rest of the team in the lurch. It's an episode packed with big money, big models, and even bigger drama.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Summer Travels and Culinary Adventures
05:37 The AI Talent War: Meta vs OpenAI
20:13 Emerging AI Models and Tool Calling Innovations
38:16 The Future of Human-Machine Integration
44:57 The Impact of AI Saturation on Users
51:16 The Windsurf Acquisition and Its ImplicationsLinks:
- Kimi AI Chat
- Article on the Windsurf Acquisition
- Google's MCP Toolbox
- Claude-Code-Kimi-Grok#TechPodcast #ArtificialIntelligence #AITalentWar #ClaudeCode #KimiAI #ToolCalling #SoftwareEngineering #OpenAI #AcquiHire #BreakevenBrothers
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
One year in the books! We're popping the non-alcoholic champagne to celebrate the first anniversary of the Breakeven Brothers podcast. In that time, the AI landscape has shifted from a gentle tremor to a full-blown earthquake, and in this episode, we're navigating the aftershocks. The AI arms race is escalating, with tech giants like Meta opening up their wallets for jaw-dropping nine-figure paydays to poach top talent directly from OpenAI. We dive into the strategies, the insane sign-on bonuses, and what this means for the future of AI development.
But the corporate warfare doesn't stop at talent. We also uncover the shocking deals being made to power these AI ambitions—we're talking multi-year contracts for *nuclear energy* just to keep the data centers humming. On the ground level, we debate the red-hot AI CLI battle, why one of us is happily spending $200 a month on a single coding tool, and whether coding from your phone is a dream come true or a work-life balance nightmare. Tune in as we discuss the shift from "prompt engineering" to "context engineering" and try to make sense of a world where AI bots are scraping 60,000 web pages for a single query.
(00:00) - Intro(03:00) - AI Developments and OpenAI's New Releases(05:34) - The Rise of Mobile AI Applications(11:19) - Exploring the CLI Landscape for AI Agents(16:48) - Meta's Talent Acquisition and the AI Arms Race(31:29) - Talent Wars in AI Companies(35:31) - The Role of AI in Social Media(39:10) - Energy Needs for AI Development(41:28) - Quantum Computing: The Next Frontier(43:50) - The Shift from Prompt Engineering to Context Engineering(48:12) - AI's Impact on Content Creation and Publishing
Links:
- OpenAI's Deep Research Models & Prompt Rewriter
- Cursor's Mobile App Announcement
- Anthropic's Blog Post on Claude Code Usage
- Andrej Karpathy's "Context Engineering" Tweet
- Mark Gurman's Apple Report
- MKBHD's Quantum Computing Video
- Adrian from Simple Analytics' Tip (Bookmark)
- Justin Anderson's Profile & OpenAI Cookbook Link (Bookmark)#AI #TechPodcast #ClaudeCode #AITalent #OpenAI #ContextEngineering #AICoding #AIEnergy #AISlop #BreakevenBrothers
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host -
On this Michael Jordan episode (23!), we kick things off with a classic tale of a "five-minute" project gone wrong. Bradley shares his ambitious attempt at a parking lot car battery replacement that quickly turned into a 30-minute fishing expedition for a single lost part. Meanwhile, Bennett recounts a white-knuckle flight experience made even more stressful by a massive, internet-wide outage. What happens when the Google Cloud services that underpin everything suddenly go dark right before your flight? We dive into the chaos, what caused it, and what it reveals about our dependency on just a handful of tech giants.
That tech meltdown is the perfect launchpad for our main event: getting our hands dirty building with the latest AI. Bennett gives his firsthand review of Google's new Agent Development Kit (ADK), comparing its simplicity to the granular control of LangGraph. We explore the frontiers of multi-agent workflows and the tricky art of getting them to actually talk to each other. Then, Brad details his journey of building a custom MCP server from scratch and reveals how he’s squeezed over $1,400 of value from his AI coding assistant this month alone. With tools this powerful, we have to ask the big question: Is the era of traditional SaaS over? Tune in to hear our take on the future of custom software and what it truly means to be a builder in the age of AI.
(00:00) - Introductions & updates(03:00) - Flying Fears and Internet Outages(05:52) - AI Model Releases and Developments(08:43) - Exploring Google ADK and Agent Development(11:36) - MCPs and Their Role in AI Agents(14:41) - Multi-Agent Frameworks and Structures(24:49) - Navigating Agent Handoffs and Protocols(29:23) - Challenges with OAuth and Authentication(34:44) - Comparing Google ADK and LangGraph(42:19) - Building an MCP Server for Laravel Telescope(47:29) - The Future of Natural Language Interaction(51:51) - Cost Analysis of Using Cloud Code(53:13) - The Rise of AI Tools in Development(55:44) - The Future of SaaS: Cloning vs. Custom Solutions(58:54) - The Shift from Subscription to One-Time Payments(01:04:19) - The Evolution of AI Workflows and Automation(01:08:04) - The Importance of Building vs. Consuming AI Tools(01:12:18) - Navigating Complex AI Tasks and Future Interactions
Links:
- Bradley's Telescope MCP Server
- LangChain's Interrupt Conference Videos
- Claude Code's MCP servers
- ONCE by 37signals
- Levels.fyi Tweet about Cursor outage
- Apple's "The Illusion of Thinking in LLMs" Paper#AI #SoftwareDevelopment #GoogleADK #LangGraph #ClaudeAI #TechPodcast #DeveloperLife #SaaS #Laravel #AgenticAI
Creators & Guests
Bennett Bernard - Host Bradley Bernard - Host - Laat meer zien
