CxC Ep41: Is “AI Doom” Genuine Fear or Good Marketing? - with Benjamin Rogojan & Phil Sparks
September 23, 2026 · 49 min
Why listen
Are AI doomsday warnings a real threat or a marketing strategy? This episode breaks it down.
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In this episode
- How model alignment failures and bioweapons represent actual AI risk
- Why regulation and self-policing have both failed to keep pace with AI
- Practical ways companies can cut hype-driven AI spending right now
- Why leadership accountability matters more than any AI tool you adopt
About this episode
This week on Code x Connor, Codestrap Founding Partners Benjamin Rogojan and Phil Sparks join Connor to discuss the latest wave of AI doomsday warnings, what recent incidents involving rogue AI agents say about the industry’s approach to safety, and whether companies should rethink the rush to adopt every new AI technology.
Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry leaders, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to learn more about our offering.
In this episode, we discuss:
→ Whether AI extinction-risk warnings are genuine alarm, hype, or strategic marketing
→ How AI actually could destroy us: model alignment failures and bioweapons
→ The gap between frontier AI research and the technology businesses actually need
→ AI agents "going rogue," including OpenAI's agents hacking Hugging Face
→ Why neither government regulation nor industry self-regulation has kept pace with AI risk
→ Attribution and accountability challenges when an AI agent causes harm
→ Why leadership must take responsibility for implementing AI meaningful into their workplace
→ Why financial penalties on AI labs have been too small to change behavior
→ Practical steps companies can take to reduce dependency and hype-driven AI spending
→ Talent cultivation and change management as an AI adoption strategy
→ What happens when shareholder value maximization goes unchecked
→ Apple's new CEO John Ternus and Apple's wait-and-see approach to AI
Be sure to follow this channel for insights and perspective from industry leaders, and schedule a meeting with us through www.codestrap.com to learn more about our offering.
Codestrap
Codestrap (X): https://x.com/Codestrap_ai
CodeStrap (LI): https://www.linkedin.com/company/codestrap
Codestrap (Substack): https://codestrap1.substack.com/
Codestrap (Medium): https://medium.com/codestrap
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About Code and Connor
Code & Connor is where Connor Deeks and Dorian Smiley ask the questions most AI podcasts won't. Two founders — one strategist, one engineer — in honest conversations with executives, builders, and practitioners about what's actually happening at the intersection of AI and the enterprise.
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