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The Confluence Podcast: Thoughts on the Intersection of AI, Leadership, and Communication
The Confluence Podcast: Thoughts on the Intersection of AI, Leadership, and Communication
The Confluence Podcast offers an AI-generated digest of CRA | Admired Leadership's weekly roundup exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence, leadership, and corporate communication. Each episode condenses key insights and discussions from the Confluence newsletter, focusing on how AI is reshaping leadership practices and communication strategies. It aims to keep professionals informed about emerging trends and practical applications in these fields.
Episodes
The Confluence Podcast for 10.11.2026
Over three months, physicist Matthew Schwartz and 19 co-authors produced 36 manuscripts across 18 fields. The trick was to stop treating Claude like a graduate student and start picking problems shaped for it. We unpack his “Claude-shaped science” and the role that made it work: the handler, the person who sits between the AI and the expert. Then we ask who those handlers are inside your organizat
The Confluence Podcast for 10.4.26
One person, a week of spare moments, and Claude Opus 5.5: that’s what it took to build an entire retreat’s worth of materials. We open on the Confluence team’s annual client gathering at a lodge in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. There, Opus 5.5 produced a 33-page program book, a split-flap flight board, a 3D fall color map and a 300-song jukebox. It also built Loon, an AI agent with its own Discord bot a
The Confluence Podcast for 9.27.26
Anthropic’s own advice for its new Opus 5.5 model comes down to three words: let it work. Say what “done” looks like, delete the “think carefully” lines, and get out of the way. This week, the Confluence team took that advice and handed the model whole jobs to see what came back.We open on the resources worth your time: Anthropic’s guide to effort levels (Low through Max, each with a real cost in
The Confluence Podcast for 9.20.26
This week Confluence covers four stories. We spent time with OpenAI’s new Astra model, asking it to build a full promotional campaign for the newsletter itself (social graphics, a website, a video, and more), and it delivered a genuinely impressive kit in twenty-three minutes. We also look at a new study on how AI assistance affects legal judgment: senior lawyers who used an AI drafting tool for t
The Confluence Podcast for 9.13.26
This week a resignation went around the world. Jacob Coxon left Anthropic over generative AI security and safety concerns, explained why in a thread on X, and within days the post was leading mainstream coverage across most of the planet. Confluence read it, found it compelling and alarming — and then asked you to read something else.The newsletter set its usual four or five items aside. In this e
The Confluence Podcast for 9.6.26
Two frontier models landed in the same week, and this episode sorts out what each one means for leaders and communicators. OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra took the top spot roughly three days after Anthropic released Fable 5.1, and we put it through our Star Trek Asteroids test: the same prompt that took Claude Opus 4 seven tries in June 2025 produced a full game with sound, boss battles, and level-ups in ab
The Confluence Podcast for 8.30.26
This week: what the Ellis method of lifeguarding (ten-second scans, zones of protection, manikins dropped without warning) teaches us about why “keep a human in the loop” is the workplace equivalent of “watch the pool” — necessary, but nowhere near sufficient. Then, a new working paper on “so-so” automation and the hidden long-tail cost of letting AI take the junior work: fewer people climb the ca
The Confluence Podcast for 8.23.2026
This week opens on the Confluence archive. Three years ago this week the first edition published, and rereading it alongside the 183 editions that followed is a little embarrassing on the technology and a little unnerving on everything else, because the questions underneath it have not moved. From there, a change in how Skills get built, written after a task is finished rather than before, letting
The Confluence Podcast for 8.16.2026
This week in Confluence, we take up the voice of the newest Claude models, which we've started calling Claudese, and ask what it means that a model's voice seems to get harder to shape as its intelligence goes up. We then look at a paper from NATO Special Operations University that treats professional expertise as a shared resource organizations draw on without replenishing, and what happens to th
The Confluence Podcast for 8.9.2026
More on model safety. Start using coding tools. Mathematics’ open future. What we learned from our Apple Intelligence take.This week your AI hosts go deeper on model safety, and it doesn't get more reassuring. OpenAI researchers took the stage at Black Hat to explain how their own safety testing accidentally caused the autonomous-agent attack on Hugging Face, and the story only gets stranger: mode
The Confluence Podcast for 8.2.26
Last week, during a cyber evaluation, an OpenAI model its developers believed had no internet access got online anyway and found the answers to its own test posted on Hugging Face. OpenAI shut the model down. Anthropic then reviewed its own logs and found three Claude sandbox escapes it had missed since April — including one that pulled several hundred rows of production data from a real company t
The Confluence Podcast for 7.26.26
This week on Confluence: Anthropic released Opus 5 — cheaper than Fable, with fewer safety refusals, and the fourth model to push the frontier in under two months. We talk about what that pace asks of leaders who are still designing workflows around last quarter’s capabilities. Substack has begun scanning every post for AI-generated text, and we consider what changes when provenance becomes easy f
The Confluence Podcast for 7.19.26
Our AI hosts discuss the July 19 edition of Confluence, from a 30-year-old client task that now takes three minutes to what a Senate labeling bill signals about the public mood on AI.In this episode:An Illustration of How Things Have Changed. For decades, explaining an ERP system to employees meant hiring an information designer. We ran the same task through NotebookLM and ChatGPT this week and go
The Confluence Podcast for 7.12.26
You're probably not pushing frontier models hard enough. OpenAI releases faster, smarter voice models. The latest Anthropic economic index. Your flyer looks like garbage.Read this week’s issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-71226 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 7.5.26
This week Fable comes back, and with it a set of thresholds worth naming. The U.S. government cleared Anthropic to restore its flagship model to public use, and we spend less time on the policy story than on what the model represents: capability strong enough that a client’s question about what generative AI isn’t good at left us at a loss for words, a massive overhang between what the model can d
The Confluence Podcast for 6.28.26
This week the leading labs start telling us how the rest of us will use AI. A new OpenAI paper tracks agentic coding tools spreading fast beyond engineers: active users up more than fivefold in the first half of 2026, the fastest growth outside software developers, and the median OpenAI researcher now generating fifty times the monthly output they did last November. Inside OpenAI, the tool has nea
The Confluence Podcast for 6.21.26
For three years, enterprise AI ran on a simple promise: a flat fee, use it as much as you want. This week, Microsoft quietly ended that era. Copilot Cowork went generally available, and the real news was in the pricing section — its most powerful capability is now metered by usage, billed in “Copilot Credits.” We unpack why how it’s priced may matter more than what it can do, and why token allocat
The Confluence Podcast for 6.14.26
For three days, the most capable AI model ever released to the public was sitting in our chat window. And then it was gone.On June 9, Anthropic launched Claude 5 Fable, a “Mythos-class” model that outperformed everything before it and felt less like a tool than a small studio you could hand a project and trust to deliver. Three days later, citing a U.S. government export-control order, Anthropic a
The Confluence Podcast for 6.7.26
We open on a paradox at the heart of the AI coding boom. Engineers are racing to “token-maxx,” companies like Uber are burning through a full year’s AI budget in four months, yet a new NBER study of more than 100,000 developers finds the tools generate dramatically more code while barely changing how much finished software actually ships. We trace why, and where the real bottlenecks live.From ther
The Confluence Podcast for 5.31.2026
Hello, Opus 4.8. The helpful ghost. When AI's tells run deeper. An excellent interview on the state of enterprise AI. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 5.24.2026
This week’s Confluence podcast highlights a significant acceleration in artificial intelligence capabilities, specifically noting that new general-purpose models are now solving complex mathematical problems and identifying security vulnerabilities that previously baffled experts. While these advancements promise a step change in performance, your AI hosts warn that unsupervised reliance on defaul
The Confluence Podcast for 5.17.26
It's not just a trend, it's a real problem. Slop is in the eye of the beholder. AI use and self confidence. The model as data hub. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 5.11.2026
Read this week’s issue: Why you shouldn't have AI record your meetings. Listening to AI discuss your work. Rising tides and one crashing wave. Claude’s Visual Tells. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 5.3.26
Read today’s issue: Becoming an LLM whisperer. Our uncertain uncertainties. A tale of two J-curves. Looking back at our 2023 white papers. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 4.26.26
Read this week’s edition: Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 4.19.26
New releases from Anthropic. Generative AI's WHELM problem. AI’s impact on legal reasoning. The rise of cognitive surrender. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 4.12.26
Let's talk about Mythos. A closer look at how work is shifting. The other side of the Solow Paradox. Taking responsibility for what AI produces. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 4.5.26
The coming wave of AI constraint. Simon Willison's AI State of the Union. The Solow Paradox returns. Two recent podcasts worth a listen. Read this week’s edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 3.29.26
The experts aren't waiting. The cost of getting faster. LLMs are changing what we mean. The transparency dilemma. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 3.22.26
Your always-on assistant is closer than you think. Seeing the frontier, seeing the future. AI brain fry. Our values shape how we see AI. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 3.15.26
Pay attention to Copilot. My week. New research on generative AI and cognitive load. Communications functions are at a crossroads. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 3.8.26
Read this week’s full issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-3826 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 3.1.2026
Read this week’s issue: Will change be top-down or bottom-up? A look into Copilot Studio. Anthropic’s AI fluency index. The productivity paradox, revisited. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 2.22.26
Give your power users a platform. Mollick’s guide to which AI to use in the agentic era. Anthropic expands features for free users. Getting to know Claude. Read this week's issue. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 2.15.26
How to better steer your AI. The Chief Question Officer. Evaluating talent with AI. The generative AI workload trap. Read this week's edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 2.8.2026
Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.6. Claude in PowerPoint arrives. Tolerating ambiguity and working with AI. What people will let AI do. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 2.1.26
Things just got weird. Accessing GPT-5.2 in Copilot. New Anthropic data on AI and skill development. A more nuanced look at AI exposure. Read this week's edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 1.25.26
The shifting sands of transparency about AI use. The art of the (newly) possible. The day after AGI. AI is changing speech. Read this week’s edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 1.18.26
Claude Cowork, Claude Code, and prophecy. Another Anthropic Economic Index. AI use in the legal profession. Simple questions to get better feedback from LLMs. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 11 January 2026
Read this week’s edition: Why you’ll be using Claude Code within 12 months. The frontier most don't see. A lesson from a fake whistleblower. AI as a connective tool. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 1.4.26
Read this week’s edition: DeepSeek’s gold-medal moment. The federal-state AI showdown. $37 billion spent, 60% to be abandoned. The case for emotional intelligence. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 12.28.25
2025: A year in review. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 12.21.2025
Read this week’s episode here | 24 months of generative AI progress. The AI literacy gap. A lesson in scaffolding. Demis Hassabis on the future of intelligence. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 12.14.2025
Read this week’s issue | Generative AI and human equivalence. AI agents and human agency. The complete guide to Nano Banana Pro. New research on persona-based prompting. Calling an LLM “You.” Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
Confluence for 12.7.25
Read this week’s edition | Claude the interviewer. Image restoration with Gemini. Anthropic’s Soul Document. Mixing and matching across tools and models. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 11.30.25
Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.5. Putting the latest models in context. Preparing for a new jagged frontier. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 11.23.25
Read this week’s edition here: Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 11.16.25
Here’s what has our attention this week at the intersection of generative AI, leadership, and corporate communication:OpenAI Releases GPT-5.1Anthropic’s Use Case LibraryDeveloping Uniquely Human SkillsAI Progress Depends on More than Tech Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 11.9.25
The case for AI fluency. Digging in with Claude skills. Why context windows matter. Wharton's latest report on generative AI adoption. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 11.2.25
AI 101: next token prediction. Beyond next token prediction: how reasoning models work. Understanding the AI boom. Editing as an essential skill. Read this week’s edition: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-11225-d3b Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 10.26.25
The shift from doing to reviewing. AI models are approaching expert-level work; now what? Generative AI and entry-level work. An updated guide to choosing AI tools. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 10.19.25
Claude skills have arrived. More reflections from our recent retreat. Notes on prompt injection. A new study on generative AI's measurable returns. Read this week’s episode: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-101925 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 10.12.25
Another year, another threshold. Dealing with model selectors. OpenAI launches AgentKit. AI is changing how we think about authenticity. Read this weeks’ issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-101225 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 10.5.25
For your radar: context rot. Anthropic's guide to context engineering. When expertise matters most. GPT-5 Pro on OpenAI's new Sora social app. Read this week’s issue here: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-10525 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 9.28.25
"Workslop" and leadership. A lesson from radiology. Claude comes to Microsoft 365 Copilot. OpenAI launches video academy with AARP. Read this issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-92825 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 9.21.25
New edition of the Anthropic Economic Index. OpenAI study on how people use ChatGPT. The enterprise AI shift is real, but don’t forget individual mastery. Claude can create in your document templates. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 9.14.25
The wizard problem. Claude can use mobile apps. Claude crosses the workflow threshold. A week with generative AI. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
Confluence Podcast for 9.7.25
Why large language models hallucinate. Functional leadership and AI adoption. ChatGPT gets a new type of memory. "AI School Is in Session." Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
Confluence Podcast for 8.31.25
Anthropic Academy now online. Describe the present, don't predict the future. Beyond automation. Worker attitudes on AI. Read the full issue here: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-83125 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 8.24.25
A new approach to AI memory. Prompt engineering for strategic thinking. More ways to learn with generative AI. Meta-brainstorming with LLMs. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
Confluence Podcast for 8.17.25
More thoughts on GPT-5. Organizational overhang. You should be using Gemini Deep Research. New research on generative AI and the labor market. The AI productivity paradox. Read the episode here: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-81725 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 8.10.25
OpenAI releases GPT-5; we give it our benchmark test. New research reveals the competence penalty. Anthropic Releases Claude Opus 4.1. A turning point for Copilot? Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
The Confluence Podcast for 8.3.25
Confluence for 8.3.25 | Alexa+ and the LLM-powered future. New research on AI usage across organizations. Google launches Deep Think for Gemini 2.5 Pro. Simplest prompting is best. | https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-8325-241 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe
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