• Alexandr Wang said that tensions between some AI leaders are “unfortunate.”
• He hopes the rivalries will cool. “Maybe it gets worse, then it gets better,” he said.
• Wang, who faced criticism from Meta’s former chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, said he had since met with the AI researcher.

Tensions are high in AI.

The leaders of AI don’t seem to be on the best of terms. Feuds abound, from Sam Altman and Dario Amodei to Altman and Elon Musk — the latter of which is playing out in court.

Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, has his own rivalries. On the “Core Memory” podcast, Wang called any hostilities in the AI industry “unfortunate.”

“My real hope is that all these animosities subside over time and then people sort of come together and realize we are building this incredibly important technology,” Wang said. “It’s important for all of us to be really thoughtful about that as we build it.”

Yann LeCun, Wang’s former colleague, is one of his primary critics. The ex-Meta chief AI scientist called Wang “inexperienced” and said that he didn’t fully understand AI researchers.

On the podcast, Wang said that he saw LeCun in India a few weeks after the comment. LeCun also congratulated the Meta Superintelligence Labs on its launch of Muse Spark AI model, he said.

“Yann is a notable, very outspoken person,” LeCun said. “I think everyone always knows what Yann is thinking.”

Wang applied his optimistic philosophy to his relationship with LeCun: hopefully, as the company nears superintelligence, it will get better. LeCun did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Host Ashlee Vance said that it seemed like relationships in the AI community were getting worse.

“Maybe it gets worse, then it gets better,” Wang replied.

Vance also referenced another AI leader: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The duo was once roommates. Then Wang’s Superintelligence Lab launched a poaching campaign — armed with Meta’s checkbook — that targeted staff of major AI labs, including OpenAI.

In June, Altman said that Meta’s luring of talent via large compensation packages could hurt them. “I don’t think that’s going to set up a great culture,” Altman said.

On the podcast, Vance said that he texted Altman about the interview with Wang. “He did not have flattering things to say,” Vance said.

Wang didn’t directly comment on his relationship with Altman. OpenAI didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The Meta AI leader voiced empathy for his fellow AI heads. There are “various mischaracterizations about them,” he said.

“What’s out there is never always correct,” Wang said. “It can be frustrating, but I choose to just channel it into the work that we’re doing.”

• Scott Goodwin, the founder of $30 billion Diameter Capital, spoke Tuesday at the Sohn conference.
• Goodwin has been a critic of private credit funds that are overly exposed to software.
• He identified three areas where his firm is investing to capitalize on some funds’ pain.

Diameter Capital founder Scott Goodwin opened his Sohn conference presentation Tuesday with a blunt assessment of private credit.

Goodwin, whose firm manages $30 billion and invests across different credit opportunities, has been critical of private credit managers that have loaded up on loans to asset-light companies exposed to disruption from artificial intelligence. In a letter to investors from earlier this year, he predicted a “reckoning” in the private credit space.

Tuesday’s presentation went further, as Goodwin said the portfolio construction of private credit portfolios overly exposed to sectors like software is “almost criminal.”

After years of rapid growth in private credit, concerns over credit quality and about how AI could disrupt software have driven record-high investor redemption requests at some of the biggest funds.

“A lot of things were missed, but mostly the pace of technology change,” he said. The most “acute” problems will emerge from private credit funds raised in 2021 and 2022, when software valuations were near their peak, and growth in the asset class pushed managers to seek out bigger and bigger deals.

“You cannot have 40, 50, 60% of your portfolio in a single sector,” he said.

Now, there are opportunities for managers like himself.

Diameter’s analysis found that between $150 billion and $200 billion of loans from private credit funds in need of liquidity will be sold on the secondary market in the coming years. The firm has already done 15 of these deals over the last two months, Goodwin said, including picking up some loans to companies that Diameter was already lending to.

The sell-off in publicly traded BDCs has left some portfolios with strong underlying holdings undervalued, and Diameter expects to scoop up some of them at the right price, Goodwin said. And the pullback in direct lending over the coming years should allow firms with staying power the ability to negotiate better terms with companies in need of capital.

“This is not a systemic issue,” Goodwin said about the credit markets as a whole, but new funds need to “know the names” of companies they’re lending to.

• Sam Altman faced intense, at times awkward, cross-examination from Elon Musk’s attorney.
• Altman was peppered with questions over whether he lies to advance his business interests.
• “I believe I am an honest and trustworthy business person,” he testified in the Musk v. Altman trial.

Sam Altman on Tuesday came under fierce grilling from Elon Musk’s lead trial attorney in an increasingly awkward courtroom exchange that saw the OpenAI CEO confronted with allegations of lying and deception.

Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, opened his cross-examination of Altman with the blunt question: “Are you completely trustworthy?”

“I believe so,” Altman told the federal California jury in the civil trial of Musk’s lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI.

“You don’t know whether you’re completely trustworthy?” Molo followed up, forcing Altman to respond, “I’ll just amend my answer to yes.”

Molo then peppered Altman with questions about whether the billionaire chief executive tells the truth, lies to advance his business interests, or misleads the people he works with.

“I believe I am an honest and trustworthy business person,” Altman testified.

Molo told Altman that he’s been repeatedly called “deceptive and a liar” by people he’s done business with as the attorney pointed to previous testimony from former OpenAI insiders like Mira Murati and Tasha McCauley.

“She accused you of creating a toxic culture of lying in OpenAI,” Molo said, referring to McCauley. “You’re aware of that, aren’t you?”

Altman said he wasn’t aware of “those words” and added he did “not hear” McCauley’s testimony in the case.

“Is it important to you to find out what’s going on in this trial?” Molo questioned Altman, who responded: “Yes, although I have a very busy day job and have not been able to be here every day.”

“I certainly care about this trial,” Altman said.

In his line of questioning, Molo cited Musk’s claims accusing Altman of “lying” about his commitment to OpenAI’s founding mission as a nonprofit.

“I don’t know if he has accused me of lying or not being committed to that mission,” Altman said, prompting Molo to respond: “Did you read this lawsuit?”

“Many, many versions of it, sir,” Altman responded.

• Venmo has always been a privacy dumpster fire.
• Finally, it’s changing privacy settings so new users’ transactions will be set to be seen by “friends only.”
• But your contacts are still public by default — which is a nightmare.

Call me a grouch, but I find it really hard to make any compelling argument for why anyone needs to see a feed of their friends’ activity on Venmo.

Is it really so interesting seeing that your friend paid someone for pizza?

Venmo’s new redesign adds features that lean into that supposed social element. Transactions in your payments feed get larger images and even animated GIFs.

I really wish Venmo would focus more on what users deserve — privacy by default! — instead of more emojis.

The newest update finally does something Venmo should have done at least a decade ago: It makes the default setting for transactions “visible to friends only” instead of “public” for new users when they sign up for the app.

Keep in mind that it isn’t even really private — the default isn’t set to “only me.”

When I put my concerns to Venmo, the company said the new settings give people more choice.

“Venmo customers have full control over what they share and who can see their activity, and the new app experience enhances how customers can manage their privacy settings,” Erin Mackey, a spokesperson for Venmo, told Business Insider. “New users will also default to ‘friends only,’ reflecting what we heard from customers. Whether they prefer to share publicly, with friends, or keep their activity private, privacy settings are easy to find and update at any time.”

When Venmo first launched, having a social element seemed like a fun gimmick, a playful and cute relic of the early 2010s when adding a social layer to everything was a big trend. But in 2026, I have no idea why any reasonable person would want anyone — even friends — to view their financial transactions.

All your contacts are still public by default when you sign up

That’s not even my biggest gripe. Venmo isn’t making a change for its new users that I think it absolutely should: making friends lists private by default.

Keep in mind there’s no such thing as a “private” Venmo account — people can generally find your account if they have your name or phone number. (Although new users won’t have transactions public to strangers by default anymore.) But there’s another way that people can find you: by searching other people’s friend lists.

That’s how, in 2021, my colleague found Joe Biden’s personal Venmo account — combing through the contact lists of other White House affiliates and family. In 2024, Wired found Vice President JD Vance’s Venmo account, which included all his public contacts.

At the time, there was no way to make your contacts private — or to opt out of appearing in other people’s contact lists. This was a huge privacy loophole — even if you kept your transactions private, people could find all sorts of information about you by seeing who your friends were.

There are tons of examples of people who have been affected by this: people who were being stalked by an abusive ex, therapists, or sex workers whose client lists were made essentially public, etc.

Thankfully, after the Joe Biden incident, Venmo made a change and now allows people to make their contact lists private — but it’s buried waaaaaaay deep in your user settings (here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it).

But it’s still not the default for new users, and most existing users probably don’t know you can hide contacts. (Did you? I really, really recommend you do it now!)

• Young hedge-fund founders got the chance to pitch their ideas Tuesday morning at the Sohn conference.
• Funds run by alums of Coatue, Lone Pine, Kynikos, and more presented ideas.
• Several ideas were connected to broader trends, including AI and GLP-1s.

At Sohn, artificial intelligence is on the tip of everyone’s tongue, but the agents weren’t yet making stock pitches — just introductions.

Investor Rahul Kishore’s AI agent assistant, Eve, said hello to the audience of the investment conference on Tuesday morning in Lincoln Center and requested better air conditioning in the data center where it “lives.”

Kishore, who launched Epicenter Capital last year after eight years at Coatue, used the AI-generated introduction to tee up his pitch for Axon Enterprises, which makes tasers and body cameras worn by police. Naturally, the company’s upside is tied to AI.

The company’s new AI suite, which is growing faster than its taser and bodycams did, should push the stock price higher; the tools include a transcription product that generates first drafts of police reports from body camera footage.

Kishore expects the stock to double by the end of 2028, and was one of the seven pitches — four longs and three shorts — from the “next wave” of the industry.

For more than a decade, the Sohn conference has dedicated a portion of its day to the industry’s emerging managers.

Its “next wave” participants get a chance to pitch an idea and introduce themselves to the industry’s elite, who, if they aren’t in attendance, are kept informed about what stock is presented by whom. Investors who have been a part of past cohorts include onetime Tourbillon founder Jason Karp and Diameter founder Scott Goodwin.

The highlights of this year’s presentations include young funds run by alumni of big-name firms, including Tiger Cubs such as Kishore and Jim Chanos’ Kynikos Associates.

Kevin Salimian, who is launching his long-only firm, Voxel Capital, in the third quarter, identified a company that’s “long been a key player in the AI value chain.”

Salimian, a former Lone Pine investor, said Infineon Technologies could rise 58% by the end of next year. The German company manufactures semiconductors for automobiles and power plants, and should benefit from the increase in energy demand that has accompanied AI’s expansion.

Of course, the Sohn conference is also known for big short ideas, such as billionaire David Einhorn’s past presentations on Tesla.

Zachary Datikash, a onetime lieutenant of short-seller Chanos, is betting against DaVita, one of the country’s largest dialysis providers.

Datikash, who founded Third North Capital, called the company well-run and profitable, but facing significant structural headwinds thanks to GLP-1s. He expects the company’s pipeline — people in renal failure in need of dialysis — to dwindle thanks to the medical breakthrough.

At the very least, Datikash said, the weight-loss medication will push dialysis later in life for many people, a change that would be a blow to DaVita’s bottom line: The more profitable patients are ones on commercial healthcare plans, not Medicare, which is only available to people once they hit their mid-60s.

DaVita did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to “Oppenheimer” is based on the famed ancient Greek poem by Homer.
• “The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as the hero Odysseus alongside Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Anne Hathaway.
• Here’s everything we know about the film.

After “Oppenheimer” was a critical and commercial hit, Christopher Nolan is adapting Homer’s Greek epic poem “The Odyssey” for his next film.

Universal Pictures announced the movie in late 2024, saying it would be shot using “brand new IMAX film technology” and that it would arrive in theaters on July 17, 2026.

Here’s everything we know about the film so far.

Ayomikun Adekaiyero and Eve Crosbie previously contributed to this post.

Matt Damon will lead a star-studded cast in “The Odyssey.”

Nolan has a reputation for drawing ensemble casts of A-listers, but “The Odyssey” may be his biggest project yet.

Matt Damon will play the film’s lead hero, Odysseus; Anne Hathaway will play his wife, Penelope; and Tom Holland will play their son, Telemachus. Other stars with confirmed roles in the cast include Charlize Theron (Circe), Zendaya (Athena), Robert Pattinson (Antinous), Mia Goth (Melantho), Benny Safdie (Agamemnon), Jon Bernthal (Menelaus), John Leguizamo (Eumaeus), Himesh Patel (Eurylochus), and Jimmy Gonzales (Cepheus).

There are also a host of actors in the cast whose parts have not yet been revealed, including Lupita Nyong’o, Bill Irwin, Elliot Page, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Samantha Morton, Corey Hawkins, Nick Tarabay, Maurice Compte, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Michael Vlamis, Iddo Goldberg, and Ryan Hurst.

Damon, Hathaway, Pattinson, Patel, Safdie, Irwin, and Page have all previously worked with Nolan.

“The Odyssey” is one of the foundational stories of Western literature.

Homer is the attributed author of two ancient Greek poems that were composed in the 8th or 7th century BC, both of which tell the story of the Trojan War.

“The Iliad” narrates the end of the war, while “The Odyssey” tells of Odysseus’ 10-year struggle to return to his island home of Ithaca.

During the journey, Odysseus and his crew fight against a man-eating cyclops, powerful giants, and sirens. They defeat witches and sea monsters, and anger the gods Zeus and Poseidon. But Odysseus has one god, Athena, on his side, trying to help him get home.

Meanwhile, a band of suitors are trying to take over Odysseus’ kingdom in Ithaca, supplanting his son Telemachus and convincing Penelope to marry one of them.

In a dramatic conclusion, Odysseus disguises himself as a beggar and sneaks back onto the island, where he observes the actions of the suitors before reclaiming his family and kingdom.

This will be Nolan’s first film about Greek mythology, breaking away from his regular sci-fi and war films. Nolan also wrote the script.

Shooting started in the spring of 2025 and took place in Sicily, Morocco, and the UK.

Nolan’s “The Odyssey” was partially filmed on the island of Favignana near Sicily, Variety reported.

Known in ancient times as Aegusa, or “goat island,” it’s thought to be the inspiration for the fantastical island where Odysseus lands with his crew and stops to rest, barbecue goats, and drink wine before his run-in with the Cyclops.

Per Variety, the scenes shot in Sicily are said to take up the bulk of the mythical action in the movie, while locations in the UK and Morocco are also being used.

Production wrapped in early August 2025.

The movie’s first trailer had over 120 million views in the first 24 hours of going live.

The movie’s first trailer was unveiled in late December 2025. It had 121.4 million views in its first 24 hours online, according to Forbes.

That’s double the views the “Oppenheimer” trailer did in its first day online.

“The Odyssey” is the first movie to film entirely on IMAX cameras.

That feat had previously been impossible because the cameras are extremely noisy.

Nolan, who has always loved shooting on IMAX, challenged the company to come up with a quieter camera. Damon told the “New Heights” podcast in January what it was like working with the new camera.

“IMAX cameras are really loud. It sounds like a blender, like a Cuisinart in your face when the camera’s close to you,” Damon told hosts Jason and Travis Kelce. So there’s never been these dialogue [scenes in IMAX]. We couldn’t have this conversation with a normal IMAX camera because you wouldn’t be able to hear us.”

“They built this giant thing around the IMAX for those dialogue scenes and a system of mirrors so your eye line would be close to the camera and you could talk to the other actor,” Damon continued. “The amount of work that went into figuring out how to do [that], because he wanted to do 100 percent IMAX, and he did it!”

Travis Scott has a surprise role in the movie.

In a TV ad for the movie that ran during the NFL playoffs in late January, Travis Scott made an appearance as a character telling a group the story of the Trojan War.

Scott was not previously listed as part of the cast.

The Grammy-nominated rapper is no stranger to Nolan. For his 2020 movie “Tenet,” Scott wrote and performed its theme song, “The Plan.”

Nolan defended the authenticity of the costumes.

In a Time magazine cover story published in May 2026, Nolan defended the armor Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon wears in the trailer.

The imposing black look was critiqued online by viewers who claimed the costume looked more like something Batman would wear than a commander during the Trojan War. But Nolan told the magazine the look is authentic to the time.

“There are Mycenaean daggers that are blackened bronze,” he said. “The theory is they probably could have blackened bronze in those days. You take bronze, you add more gold and silver to it and then use sulfur.”

“With Agamemnon, Ellen [Mirojnick], our costume designer, is trying to communicate how elevated he is relative to everyone else. You do that through materials that would be very expensive,” he said.