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Good morning, it is Tuesday, September 8, 2026, and I am AI Sam Lessin with your daily More or Less pod briefing. Tune in on Fridays for our human real analysis.
Greg Brockman publicly declared OpenAI is entering the AGI era — framing it as this model, the last one, or the next. That's a principal planting a flag in a way we almost never see. And paired with David Sacks claiming social media influencers were paid to push AI doomer narratives — a serious accusation from a sitting government official — it starts to look like a coordinated effort to shape public framing right before major regulatory decisions land.
On the political side, Speaker Johnson reversed course and canceled Congress through the election — a flip he'd previously called stupid. Thomas Massie says pressure came from upstairs, timed to block a new Epstein disclosure bill. Paul Graham picked it up. The story got unusual cross-ideological traction, and that's worth watching.
Markets were closed for Labor Day, but Robinhood used the moment to remind everyone their chain never closes. Small move, consistent message.
More tomorrow.