ELECTE's Podcast: AI Frontiers
Frontier AI has outgrown the lab. The decisive questions now are about power — who builds the models, who controls them, and who gets to build on top of them. AI Frontiers is for the people doing the building: founders and operators creating products, companies, and strategy at the edge of what AI can do — on infrastructure owned by a handful of labs and governed from a handful of capitals. Each season charts where that frontier has moved, from the labs shipping the models to the capitals writing the rules, and what it means for anyone building something that lasts on ground that keeps shifting. Hosted by Fabio Lauria, founder of ELECTE. No hype, no jargon — strategy, stakes, and a builder's-eye view of the most consequential infrastructure of the century.
Episodes
64 episodes
The AI monopoly price you don’t see
AI can stay free while the monopoly problem moves elsewhere: data, prediction and switching costs decide who captures the value. We revisit consumer surplus under monopoly, then remove the price tag. Why every interaction is a second transaction, ...
If It Can’t Stop the Purchase, It Doesn’t Govern
An AI task force is only as powerful as the decision it can interrupt. We test five bodies against that standard: the DHS task force created in April 2023, the bipartisan House report of December 2024 with its 66 findings and 85 recommendations, t...
Delete the Tie. The Inference Stays.
You can delete a tie; the inference stays. Link-prediction models rebuild removed connections from the nodes around you, and topology alone re-identifies a stripped node. DataReportal counts 5.79 billion social media identities in April 2026, up 2...
Your Data Isn't the Asset. The Inference Is.
Privacy law governs what gets collected; the value is captured in what gets inferred. Three Court of Justice of the EU rulings — OT (August 2022), SCHUFA (December 2023) and Lindenapotheke (October 2024) — moved the regulated object from the recor...
When Execution Becomes Callable
BLS data shows programmer employment fell 27.5% in two years while software developers dropped just 0.3% — a 90x gap. When execution becomes callable, companies restructure around direction, taste, and accountability. But entry-level hiring is dow...
The price is zero. The extraction is real.
AI services priced at zero still extract real value. Consumer surplus isn't disappearing — it's being converted into the monopolist's asset. User prompts, corrections, and behaviour fuel model improvements and lock-in. A price-only view of competi...
You don't have an AI strategy. You have an exposure.
Three companies — AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — hold 63% of the cloud market that AI runs on, per Q1 2026 Synergy Research data. That is not competition; it is a trust structure. This episode maps how infrastructure concentration works,...
Truth is now a billable input
California's AI Transparency Act becomes law on 2 August 2026, and it marks a turning point: AI has broken the assumption that trusted systems produce trustworthy records. Integrity is no longer a control problem — it is a procurement, liability, ...
The AI Law That Won by Doing Less
TRAIGA, Texas's AI law, has been in force since January 2026 with no enforcement action announced. It bans a short list of intentional harms, offers a 60-day cure period, and carries no private right of action — the lightest comprehensive AI statu...
AI is Aggregating the Aggregators
The platforms that aggregated the internet for fifteen years are now becoming supply inputs for AI systems one layer above them. Generative AI captures intent-driven attention — answers, recommendations, decisions — the most monetisable share. Soc...
Nobody Pays Programmers for Code
Firms don't pay programmers for skill — they pay for proximity to revenue, control, and liability. AI makes that mechanism visible and compresses the implementation layer. The Peng et al. Copilot study showed 55.8% faster task completion; a 2025 M...
"Tuesday at 10 AM" it's not a strategy
"Tuesday at 10 AM" is an average, not a strategy. Fabio Lauria argues send time is a matching problem: aligning reader attention with what your email asks them to do. Benchmarks from Mailchimp and MailerLite are starting points only. Google's 2...
The Creativity Paradox Was a Decoy
Two federal judges ruled AI training on copyrighted books is fair use — but Anthropic still paid $1.5B for pirating copies. The real legal test was never creativity. It was provenance and substitution. Here is what that means for anyone buildin...
The Algorithm Didn't Change
Traditional media owned distribution. Then creators broke the gate open and built audiences on platforms. That was the first disruption. Now AI is doing the same thing to creators that creators did to media companies — commoditising the layer abov...
Google Killed the Click. I Didn't See It Coming.
In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the seismic shifts in digital engagement as we explore the implications of Google's latest changes that have seemingly "killed the click." What does this mean for businesses, marketers, and consumer...
The Subsidy IS the Strategy
In this eye-opening episode, we explore the provocative idea that subsidies are not just financial support but a strategic cornerstone in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence. As AI technology becomes increasingly commoditized...
The Evitable Conflict: Where Asimov Was Wrong
In this captivating episode, we challenge the visionary ideas of Isaac Asimov and explore where his predictions about artificial intelligence went awry. While Asimov envisioned a future of harmonious, aligned machines, our reality tells a differen...
AI's Treaty Tipping Point
Nine years of negotiations, 166 countries in favor, and a deadline seven months away. The autonomous weapons treaty will fail — and the reason why is the best predictor of how global AI regulation will play out over the next decade.
Google Can't Bundle Gemini Anymore. Now What?
In this thought-provoking episode, we dive into the recent ruling that has shaken the tech world: a US judge's decision to ban Google from bundling its Gemini AI with other services. What does this mean for the future of AI integration and competi...
The SaaS Repricing: Why European SMEs Are Walking Into a Trap
In this eye-opening episode, we uncover the alarming trends in the SaaS market that are putting European SMEs at risk. As software stocks dip below the S&P 500 for the first time ever, we explore the implications of the faltering per-seat pricing ...
The “Big Tobacco moment” of Social Media doesn’t exist
In this eye-opening episode, we challenge the notion that social media is facing a "Big Tobacco moment." With recent verdicts resulting in millions in damages, the parallels drawn between these industries are not only flawed but also oversimplify ...
Who Controls AI — Part 2
In this thought-provoking continuation of our exploration into AI governance, we shift perspectives to ask a crucial question: how much human judgment have we already outsourced to artificial intelligence? As we delve deeper into the complexities ...
Who controls AI?
In this compelling episode, we tackle a pressing question: who truly holds the reins of artificial intelligence? As the governance of AI increasingly shifts from legislative halls to corporate boardrooms, the implications for society are profound....
Layoffs Make Noise. Hiring Stops in Silence.
In this eye-opening episode, we explore the silent yet profound impact of AI on Europe’s workforce, where layoffs grab headlines, but the real story lies in the quiet transformation of hiring practices. As companies pivot towards automation and AI...
Layoffs Are the Headline. Hiring Collapse Is the Story
In this thought-provoking episode, we confront the narrative surrounding layoffs and the often-overlooked hiring collapse that’s reshaping the job market. While headlines scream about job losses, the real story lies in how artificial intelligence ...