Why OpenAI bought the tech talk show TBPN : NPR
When news broke last week that OpenAI was buying the Technology Business Programming Networka streaming talk show popular with a small but influential Silicon Valley fan base, some thought it was a late April Fool’s joke.
TBPN co-host Jordi Hays gave a nod to the idea during last Thursday’s livestream.
“There are 364 days until April Fools’ Day,” Hays said as co-founder and co-host John Coogan introduced the show.
“We have huge news,” Coogan added. “This is from the OpenAI blog: ‘OpenAI acquires TBPNaccelerating the global debate on AI. » He reassured viewers: “It’s real. »
OpenAI’s foray into media comes just weeks after executives asked staff to cut back on “side quests” and focus on enterprise-facing AI offerings. It shut down its AI video app Sora and suspended plans to launch an erotic chatbot.
While hosting a talk show might seem tangential to OpenAI’s stated mission to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,” the purchase also aims to shape the company’s public narrative amid increasing scrutiny from the public — and the close-knit tech community that TBPN reached.
“This particular move by OpenAI effectively looks like, ‘We’re buying a niche publication in part because we like it and we can,'” said Margaret O’Mara, a professor at the University of Washington who studies the history of technology and politics. “It’s about trying to control the conversation within the industry, in this very competitive space of tech insiders.”
Sports center for Silicon Valley
TBPN was described as Sports center for Silicon Valley. After its launch in October 2024 under the name Tech Brothers PodcastHays and Coogan renamed the show to TBPN in March 2025 and began broadcasting live for three hours every weekday. Coogan presents the show with the slogan “live from TBPN ultradome, the temple of technology, the fortress of finance, the capital of capital. »
Coogan and Hays come from the world of tech start-ups, not the world of journalism. Their show is an energetic mix of friendly interviews with tech titans, industry gossip, and celebrations of fundraising and other successes that involve banging a giant gong.
TBPN is definitely not a household name. She has around 345,000 subscribers on X and 74,000 YouTube subscribers. But its audience is devoted, from start-up founders to wealthy investors to executives.
Among them is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who says it’s his “favorite tech show.” He’s been friends with Coogan for more than a decade, ever since Altman invested in Coogan’s first company, the meal replacement brand Soylent.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at an event in Washington, DC last month. The company’s purchase of TBPN comes at a time of growing anxiety in the tech industry over public perception of artificial intelligence.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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Altman has made several appearances on TBPNmost recently in February. Other big names have come and gone (or zoomed in), from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Microsoft chief Satya Nadella to billionaire investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
TBPN‘s characteristic trait is techno-optimism, which explains its popularity among technology enthusiasts and industry power players.
“They generally think that most of what happens in Silicon Valley is a good thing for society, it’s a good thing for innovation. And that’s sort of shown in the way their views come through in media coverage,” said Elizabeth Spiers, a columnist and media strategist who co-founded the website Gawker.
In OpenAI’s blog announcing the deal, executive Fidji Simo said the company wanted to foster a “constructive conversation” about AI with the people who build and use the technology. She promised the show would remain editorially independent, while describing the purchase as part of its communications strategy.
“I look forward to leveraging their talent outside of the show to innovate how we bring AI to the world in ways that help people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives,” Simo wrote.
Anxiety about the real risks and impacts of AI
The purchase comes at a time when the tech industry is increasingly concerned about the public’s perception of artificial intelligence.
“To me, this means that AI and technology have a larger narrative change problem,” said Sara M. Watson, a technology researcher and critic. “Popular opinion has changed and said, ‘We’re actually quite skeptical of your claims.'”
An NBC News poll in March found that a majority of American voters believe the risks of AI outweigh its benefits. There are growing concerns about the environmental and energy impacts of data centers and the specter of job losses due to AI.
Altman himself recently said he had miscalibrated the level of distrust in AI, amid the conflict between rival Anthropic and the Pentagon over the military use of the technology.
These concerns also exist within the workforces of large AI companies. Watson highlights employees who have recently left OpenAI and other companies. This includes a security researcher at Anthropic who said he was leaving the field altogether to study poetry.
“There are enough people leaving these businesses to become poets that it is necessary to support the optimistic view,” Watson said.
It’s a game-changer for the tech industry, which has enjoyed largely positive coverage for decades. Today, many tech giants are following a familiar strategy: buying or creating media in the hopes that it will have a positive impact on their brands.
In the 1950s, General Electric sponsored General Electric Theater on radio and television, hosted by Ronald Reagan and featuring other Hollywood actors. In 1996, Microsoft partnered with NBC News to launch MSNBC.
Today, companies ranging from JPMorganChase to Trader Joe’s have their own podcasts, while tech moguls Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff own the Washington Post And Time magazine, respectively.
O’Mara, the historian, said the OpenAI acquisition fits the pattern of tech companies and investors launching their own media channels, like Futurea pop-up website rolled out by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in 2021.
“These are vehicles that advance the goals of their owners and sponsors,” O’Mara said.
But she says there’s a risk TBPN could appear too controlled, despite OpenAI’s assurances of independence.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” O’Mara said. “If a journalistic media is considered as a simple corporate organ [or] a sort of PR vehicle, so maybe his audience won’t take his message as seriously. »
