This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.

From Drones to Dystopia: The Future of Jobs, Fires & Meta’s AI Land Grab | E2140

Jun 18, 2025 • 72 mins

In this episode of This Week in Startups, Jason talks with Alex Wilhelm and Rishab Gupta about key tech and business issues. They discuss Andy Jassy's memo on labor, AI's role in workforce evolution, and challenges in job training for white-collar roles. They also examine the stock market's resilience amid changing media trends and strategic communication approaches. The episode explores future firefighting technology, AI's impact on insurance, and TikTok's implications for US-China relations. Rishab introduces Actuality's AI-driven RFP response platform, emphasizing its human-in-the-loop design and potential impact on the construction industry.

Key Points

Amazon's deployment of generative AI is expected to reduce its corporate workforce over the next few years due to efficiency gains, though it will also create new types of jobs.
The rise of AI and automation in sectors like drone deliveries and wildfire detection is poised to disrupt traditional job markets, necessitating societal and economic adjustments.
Startups like Actuality, which use AI to streamline complex tasks such as RFP responses in the construction industry, are gaining traction and showing that AI can significantly improve productivity and accuracy in specialized fields.

Speakers

Alex Wilhelm

Host • 20%

Jason Calacanis

Host • 69%

Rishab Gupta

Guest • 8%

Partners

Chapters

0:00	Labor discussion and Andy Jassy's memo
1:00	Sponsors: Squarespace, Inbound, Northwest Registered Agent
1:52	Jason and Alex's travel and laundry woes combined with Airbnb event
3:05	CO2 conference insights and Zipline drone deliveries
5:24	AI's impact on job disruption, automation, and white-collar job training
9:01	Sponsors: Squarespace
11:01	Andy Jassy on AI's role in workforce reduction and increasing teachers
13:23	Stock market resilience and changes in journalism and media consumption
18:55	Companies' direct communication and hybrid media strategies
20:10	Sponsors: Inbound
21:14	OpenAI's new podcast, corporate media trends, and Twist 500 companies
25:43	The future of fire prevention, firefighting technology, and selling to governments
30:20	Sponsor: Northwest Registered Agent
31:20	AI's impact on insurance, risk reduction, and OpenAI's business moves
41:11	Meta's AI acquisitions and Traversal's AI for site reliability engineering
42:15	Stealth mode startups and employee compensation transparency
48:57	TikTok's impact on US-China relations and data privacy concerns
55:15	US-China political and trade tensions discussion
56:43	Introduction and overview of Actuality's AI-driven RFP response platform
59:03	Human-in-the-loop approach and improvements in AI for RFP responses
1:04:10	Actuality's pricing strategy, customer feedback, and construction industry specialization
1:06:26	Final thoughts on Actuality's potential fundraising and data privacy
1:07:49	Enterprise pricing models, compliance benchmarks, and deployment options
1:11:00	Conclusion of interview with Rishab Gupta and episode wrap-up

Transcript

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