AI Takes Over the Super Bowl
The Weekend Leverage, Feb 8th
It was the best of times, it was the bubbliest of times. One of the ways that you knew crypto had gotten far, far over its skis was that those dorks started buying Super Bowl ads. We have a new type of dork, subspecies artificial-intelligence-bro, and they are buying more Super Bowl ads than ever. And as a card-carrying member of this breed of dweeb, I worry about what it signals.
For example, Anthropic is running an ad, talking about how ads are bad (and how they don’t have them in their product) as a counterposition to OpenAI—who is also doing a Super Bowl ad. The founder of Crypto.com purchased the domain name ai.com for $70 million buckaroos and is launching his new AI startup with, you guessed it, a Super Bowl ad. In total, there should be roughly 15 ads about AI during the event, the highest of any other category. Take that, beer and sports gambling!
If AI decreases the cost of creating software, it only increases the cost of distribution. These Super Bowl ads are a high-profile example of this, but it is happening everywhere. On the public tech end, Adobe is spending $1.4 billion on ads because not enough people believe they were an AI winner. On the private side, I am getting more inbound requests from AI startups and venture capitalists for help with their content than I ever have. The distribution crunch is real and it is increasing. Rejoice, fellow wordcels! We people who can write the goodest are finally going to get a raise.
The reason I worry about this as a signal is that Super Bowl ads heralded the end of the good times for our brothers in Bitcoin. Could it signal the same for all of us who follow Sam Altman on X?
Speaking of sponsors, today’s is a brand new one, and happens to be one of my favorite products in the world, Granola.
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MY RESEARCH
Beware Claude Code. The temptation offered by AI coding agents is that because software is easy and cheap to make, you therefore should stop buying software. This is especially tempting if you are an early-stage founder with limited resources. However, it is precisely because your resources are limited that you should be spending cash on buying other people’s software. The opportunity cost is extraordinary high as a founder, and any time not spent talking to customers and solving their problems is a waste. This was a guest post in the a16z speedrun newsletter!
Note: I apologize that this week was light from a publishing standpoint. My whole family came down with some kind of evil, radioactive flu variant, and I’m just starting to feel better after 5 days in the trenches. If I’m off for illness, I’ll always tell you in the The Leverage group chat, which is hosted on the Substack app. Thank you for being understanding.
WHAT MATTERED THIS WEEK?
Apple is realizing AI is existential. This week, Bloomberg reported that Apple had killed an AI health coach in favor of integrating some of these features in the existing Health app while rolling more of them into the ChatGPT competitor version of Siri that is due later this year. As I’ve been experimenting with micro-dosing GLP-1s, feeding all my data into Apple Health, and then having an LLM analyze that data, I’ve realized that all of my apps should work this way. Cheap intelligence connecting all of my data and then giving me better analysis then I could possibly buy. Apple needs to kill this health coach, because why is it a health coach? It should just be a genius at everything that knows everything about your life, and that’s where mobile software is heading. The combination of tech, tracking, and AI has made “Operation Dad Bod” my easiest, most successful health intervention ever. I’m down 12 pounds, and have increased my weight lifting numbers at the same time. Magic! Now I want that magic embedded in every screen I touch.
Waymo is using world models to take over the world. Three weeks ago, I talked on YouTube about how AI-generated videos and simulations would be a driving force in robotics this year. It only took till February for me to be proven right. Waymo is using the Genie 3 model, which simulates 3 dimensional worlds, to improve Waymo’s models, allowing them to expand to new geographies more easily. Pair that announcement with the firm also sharing that they had raised a $16 billion growth round at a $126 billion post-money valuation and you start to understand the scope of the ambition here. Cars are the invention that has most reshaped the physical world for the last 100 years, and I think autonomous vehicles will have a similar impact.
I am, frankly, still not feeling great, so I’m going to keep it short this week, but before I go, a quick recommendation.
TASTEMAKER
I’ve found an AI video game that is actually good. Pax Historia is a grand strategy game where you or other players devise scenarios like, “What if the United States invades Greenland?” Or “what if the USA had lost at Pearl Harbor?” Or even fun ones like, “What if the entire Vatican City became infested with zombies?” AI then reacts in real time to your choices, allowing the game to go as wild as your imagination will. Most AI video games bore me after 10 minutes, but this one has me hooked. I am anxious to give them more of my money so I can play more scenarios!
Go and be kind this week,
Evan
Sponsorships
We are now accepting sponsors for the Q1 ‘26. If you are interested in reaching my audience of 34K+ founders, investors, and senior tech executives, send me an email at team@gettheleverage.com.