After Things Podcast

The episode opens with a discussion of a possible biosignature on exoplanet K218b, with Andrew explaining that dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide were reported in the planet's atmosphere and are associated on Earth with marine microorganisms, while stressing that instrument error or unknown abiotic chemistry could still explain it. The hosts broaden that into a conversation about how exoplanet discovery and the search for life have advanced incrementally, and how it would not be surprising to eventually find simple life on some habitable-zone planets. The middle of the episode moves through robotics, AI benchmarks, prompting, and future compute. The hosts discuss Boston Dynamics' humanoid backflip and Andrew explains the Cheetah actuator, then spend a long stretch on model leaderboards, Llama 4/LM Arena concerns, Humanity's Last Exam, pricing, and how frontier models are leapfrogging quickly. They also cover prompt design, Andrew's fractional AI consulting business, fast image generation, likely video an