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What about monkey do? There's over 50 to 100 species of monkeys in the Amazon rainforest. Okay. Well, a new lidar survey of the Amazon rainforest has uncovered evidence of a previously unknown civilization that may have supported as many as 3 million people, challenging decades of assumptions about the region's ancient history. So, I mean, we talked to a friend of the show who was doing this, scanning the rainforest with lidar, pulling, putting new sensor stacks on helicopters, flying them around on planes. But there's new evidence here. So. Using laser scanning technology capable of penetrating the dense forest canopy, researchers mapped more than 4,500 square kilometers of Brazil's Acre state. After flying over 4,400 kilometers of rainforest. The survey, which was published in Nature, identified 396 previously unknown geoglyphs, massive geometric earthworks made from deep ditches and raised embankments. The discoveries have provided the clearest picture yet of the Aquari civilization, which is believed to have emerged around 500 BCE and flourished until roughly 850 CE. Walls. Rather than serving as permanent settlements, the earthworks appear to have functioned as ceremonial and civic centers where people gathered for rituals, political meetings and other communal events while living in nearby multifamily longhouses and cultivating crops such as corn and squash. Based on the number of earthworks and the labor required to build and maintain them, the researchers estimate that the civilization's population peaked somewhere between 1.25 million and 3 million people. The findings? A growing body of evidence that the ancient Amazon was home to a large interconnected society with engineered landscapes, not just small isolated villages, as many archaeologists once believed. Even more remarkably, the surveyed area alone contains roughly as many earthworks as earlier estimates suggest existed across the entire Amazon basin. If future LIDAR surveys uncover similar densities elsewhere, scientists may have to dramatically revise estimates to of how many people once lived in the rainforest. Archaeologists still do not know why the civilization disappeared, though the abandonment of these ceremonial centers between 850 and 950 CE coincides with the decline of several other major societies in the Americas, including the Maya. Very interesting. I wonder where else people can scan with lidar, find interesting things. Gotta go to Antarctica or something. I don't know. Well, in other news,

Securing it CrowdStrike secures AI and stops breaches. That's very funny. Okay, wait, quick, we gotta switch gears because the price of lab monkeys in China is soaring as demand for pre clinical testing outpaces supply. The price of lab monkeys in China is soaring as demand for preclinical testing outpaces supply. Do you think it's time to ape in? Do you think it's time to ape strong together? Yeah. Yeah. Go long. The monkey trade. So this is the actual news. We got monkeys up here. There we go. The first picture was crazy, really sad. Yep. But it is happening and it is interesting because it tells you a lot about what's going on in drug testing, animal rights, obviously, and also just the broader economic market. So in June, a Chinese state Laboratory paid roughly 10, $26,000 per monkey for a purchase of 40 animals, nearly double what similar animals cost a year earlier. The price has doubled in the last year of monkeys. Biotech executives say the same trend is showing up across the industry, driven by a wave of new biologic medicines and next generation therapies that require far more primate testing than existing breeding capacity can currently support. The shortage could become a bottleneck for China's rapid drug development ecosystem because many experimental medicines must still undergo studies in non human primates before regulators will allow them to advance. While regulated monkey farms have maintained relatively steady production, demand has accelerated much faster than supply. A similar imbalance emerged during the COVID 19 pandemic when vaccine development sent prices sharply higher. But this time, the pressure reflects China's emergence as one of the leading centers for innovative drug discovery. The country now generates a third of the global pipeline of novel medicines and has become a major destination for clinical trials and licensing deals with US and European pharmaceutical companies. So monkeys remain essential for making many preclinical studies because their biology closely resembles that of humans. We know the monkey has remarkable resemblance to our particular makeup, but broad. Many people have said we have the minds of. Yes, yes. So if they're working on a brain, typically they would test on a golden retriever, but yes. So this makes them one of the best available models for evaluating a drug's safety, how it moves through the body, its effects on different organs, and the potential for serious toxic side effects before human trials begin. While a shortage may slow str some research programs, it's also a sign of an unprecedented surge in investment and innovation aimed at developing new, potentially life saving treatments. Tom in the X chat how long would it take infinite monkeys to make a one monkey billion dollar? Yeah, wait, that is an important question. That's a good thought experiment. How long would it take infinite monkeys to make a one monkey billion dollar company? There is a. That's a new paradox there. So, so there is a. There is a thought experiment related to this. It's the infinite monkey theorem. This is a real thing. It states that a monkey pressing keys at random on a typewriter for an infinite time will almost surely type any given text deeply relevant to LLMs. Are there any. Okay, get the tinfoil hat. What do you think's going on? Is it possible that our modern AI systems are monkeys just clacking a bunch of keys? And that's. And that's. This is just an AI bottleneck? Yeah. You think that when you go to ChatGPT, it's secretly a monkey on the other side? Yeah, yeah. That it's not. It's not a computer. Yeah, yeah. No one really goes in the data centers could just be a bunch of monkeys and computers. You know, a bunch of monkeys and bananas. You don't know. Okay, well, there's also news, so somewhat related. Are there monkeys in the Amazon rainforest? Almost certainly. Right? Almost certainly. Jack in the YouTube chat says, how long until monkey see about monkey dew? There's over 50 to 100 species of monkeys in the Amazon rainforest. Okay, well, a new.

Moving over to what is the story of the day in technology. Yes, this is the story of the day. Okay, hit us, John, you know what I'm talking about. Startup billionaire sued over super yacht broker fee. Everyone's talking about this. This is potentially bigger than what's going on at Google today. In London, the billionaire founder of one of the world's most valuable startups recently bought a super yacht valued at an estimated 400 million dol. Yeah, continue. Replete with a glass bottomed swimming pool and a helipad. Do they make. Wait, do they make super pontoon boats? Can you get a 400 million dollar pontoon boat? What does that do for you? Almost certainly. Can you imagine just a 300 foot pontoon? The world will create infinite ways to make you part with your hard earned money. Yeah. And I'm sure we could ARR almost half a billion dollar pontoon boat. Team AI Images I want to see what $400 million gets me if I'm going all in on a pontoon boat when I really dominate Lake Michigan. Is Lake Michigan too big for a pontoon boat? No, because you said lakes, so any lake. It works. Yeah, I think the pontoon boat is not for like big waves. Big waves. It can't be like. But there's not big waves on, on Lake Michigan. You can't surf or anything. I guess there's no. I don't think so. Surf. Yeah. Anyway, so it was a $400 million super yacht. It had a glass bottomed swimming pool and a helipad. There was just one problem. According to this reporting in the Wall Street Journal, he didn't pay the broker's fee. That is according to a top luxury yacht broker who is now suing Nick Staronski, a co founder and chief executive of digital banking giant Revolut, alleging the entrepreneur went behind their back to avoid paying commission on a purchase they had worked on. Cecil Wright and Partners, a luxury yacht broker, filed the legal action in London's High Court over Staranski's acquisition of Nixie, a 335 foot vessel with four terraces. The broker alleged in a court filing that it was negotiating the purchase for Staranski when his team secretly contacted the yacht seller directly and agreed to buy the boat, avoiding roughly $20 million in standard commission, the amount the dealer now claims it is owned, it is owed. In January, Staranski's team allegedly told Cecil Wright to hold off. Let's see. I'm not going to flip through this. To hold off. Hold off on contacting the vessel seller, Canadian Billionaire and former hockey player Patrick da Vinci and said they would talk again the following week, according to the filing. The filing claims that by next week, Staranski's team had already arranged to buy the boat directly from David, bypassing the broker entirely. It was Cecil Wright that brought the yacht to Staronski's attention and introduced the Revolut co founder and the owner Matt Young says, Unbelievable. Taking food off the table of that luxury yacht broker's family. A spokesman for the Sharonsky family office said, we are aware of the claim. It is without merit and it will be defended. He says he's not guilty. Nixie features a private wellness spa, indoor and outdoor cinemas, two movie theaters. Now we're talking. As well as a Japanese Teppanyaki grill, according to Boat International. Pull up this picture that Tyler just shared. I think this is what Nixie looks like. Yeah, let's see it. When chartered, is equipped with a variety of water toys, including a luxury seabob, water sled and inflatable blob launchers. Is this the Pond Dune boat? The luxury Pond Dune. Oh, sorry, that's. That's the. The $400 million pontoon boat that Tyler just generated. That's pretty good. I like it. I like it. That just looks like a normal yacht. That doesn't. That doesn't actually look that crazy. I don't know. Staransky is one of Europe's highest profile startup founders. Founded in 2015, Revolut is now the region's most valuable startup with a recent share value share sale valuing the digital bank at $115 billion. Wow. Revolut. What a tear. Originally built around low fee foreign currency transactions, Revolut is widely used by international travelers and migrants sending remittances home. The company gained a full UK banking license in March after a lengthy battle. Wow. It took them over a decade to get a banking license. That is crazy. But they did it after a lengthy battle. Now they're looking to expand into the United States, having recently applied for a national banking charter. It's crazy. It's crazy that they can't go faster. Like Erebor got a charter so fast. And then there's been other. There's been other companies that have explored, like buying a regional bank and then using that charter. It's almost certainly part of why Revolut is now such a massive company, because they don't have infinite competition in the way that many banks and neobanks have here in the US earlier this year, Revolut reported record annual profits and a jump in its customer numbers. At the same time, Revolut said it remained focused on its goal of increasing its customer base to 100 million users by mid-2027, from more than 70 million currently. Well, good luck in the luxury yacht battle. Hopefully everyone gets what they're owed and everyone is compensated fairly. Hate to see people fighting over that. Let me tell you about Railway. Railway is.

And almost. Even more positive news, the moment you've all been waiting for. CarPlay is coming to pontoon boats. Let's go. Finally, finally, finally, finally. Have you ever been on a pontoon boat? Yes. Explain. What context were you on a pontoon boat? What does a pontoon boat even look like? It's. This is a terrible thing. It's for cruising. It's for cruising. Team, pull up a pontoon boat. It's not. It's not like a mono hole, but it's not a catamaran. It's something between, like, a cigarette boat and a houseboat. Okay. That's a really wide gap. Well, it's right in the middle. Okay. No, you just kind of putz around. Mastercraft Boat holdings today said it's adding CarPlay to its upcoming Crest and Valise pontoons. The company is working with savvy Navy to bring CarPlay and on water navigation to boaters. And Mastercraft Boat Holdings, Inc. Of course, a public company experiencing a God candle. Up 0.72%. Up 18. 18. Okay. This is cool. This is very cool. See? Yeah. This is double decker. Double decker. See, out in California, we don't know anything about these pontoon boats because these don't work at the beach, Right? Correct. But I was sort of correct. Somewhere in between. A houseboat. Aren't you from the land of a thousand lakes? Right. Michigan. Isn't that the land of a thousand? No, me. Minnesota. Oh, you're from. Okay. Are you a pontoon boat guy? Pontoon boats are huge in Minnesota. Okay. Yeah. How many? They're for lakes. They're for lakes, basically. How many hours have you spent on pontoon boats in your life? 10,000. 10,000 hours. I'm an expert. The man put in life's work on the pontoon boat. Apparently. Just. You're in the wrong job, buddy. I think you got to become a pontoon boat. It is crazy to think in another life, Ben could have been the top pontoon boat salesman in the entire world. Hey, this one comes with Apple. CarPlay. They don't. They need to call it boat play at this point. They gotta come with something else. CarPlay. But they're doing navigation on water. Navigation like this. Okay.

Lead America as the president. You think he's running? Not quite, but I think we gotta get a researcher in there at this point. Be great. Yeah. I mean the big question now is are you voting? Are you voting Dean? I'd vote for Jeff Dean. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. No. So big question now. So Jeff Dean is out, Noam Shazir is out, Demis is out. Who is going to going to fill that void from a leadership standpoint? How are they going to be, how are they going to be able to recruit the best researchers in the world? That's a big question mark. Right. And so it does feel like. Sounds like Google's investing in Discovery Loop, Jeff Dean's new company. Very excited to see what they do. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Google just shift into more of an Nvidia style role as like a capital partner to a number of other labs as they continue to fall. It's maybe more of like an Amazon and Microsoft role where you have a great business. You're also great at building infrastructure. You also have a semiconductor team and a chip team and you can play up and down the stack. But maybe you're not as focused on this full stack, straight shot thing and you're partnering with other labs on different pieces of the puzzle. It'll be interesting to see where everything goes. Discovery Loop, the mission.

So enterprise workflows, which is. Yeah, so the, the at least. And so some type of shake, some, Some type of shakeup has been expected for a long time. Google, the DeepMind organization, has, you know, made some real contributions to the space, but has been lagging. It's been a point of embarrassment for, I would say, for Google for, I would say a year plus. They've always felt behind, even though they created so much of the fundamental research that is, you know, gone into this entire chapter of the, you know, certainly not behind on video. The video stuff's really good. Yeah, sure. But then you get kind of tied up because the Chinese models are like, actually, we will do Mickey Mouse. Yeah. But here's the thing. At no point has Google been breaking out their true AI revenue in a way that gets shareholders excited. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. And there's just been so many question marks. There was a moment, I mean, over a year ago, felt like Google had some real momentum, but that momentum was very much lost. And so there's this question of when Gnome left, which was about a month ago, that felt shocked. That was like more shocking in some ways than even this feels like expected. And then to leave what. What feels like a hole in the organization is pretty, pretty wild. Stocks down. It was down 5% around the Open. It's. It's recovered a little bit. Just down three and a half percent. Yeah, but I mean, the big thing is like, they just started, like Google as a company, I don't think was able to be at least sufficiently AI pilled. Right. They started selling compute. A lot of researchers, I'm sure, were frustrated with that, and that could have led to some of the historical. Tyler over there thinks Nvidia shouldn't sell the chips if they're really AGI pelled. The much more extreme version of Google should keep the TPUs for themselves, is Nvidia should keep the GPUs for themselves. And yeah, I mean, that was something that was, that was discussed as, okay, if you believe you're in the foothills of the singularity, you will want to scale your compute if you're seeing traction in the products that you're making. You want to be GPU rich. You don't want to be selling TPUs to other companies. And so that's gotta be. There's gotta be some tension. But Google's a big organization. There's multiple organizations within Google and they all have different KPIs. So one team might say, yeah, my mandate is to sell as many of these as possible externally. Other people might say my job is to keep as many of these internally, and there's a lot of debates there, so we'll see. Yeah, and obviously Google has made a massive bet on Anthropic and is becoming their largest financial backer, especially through some new reporting on some of the lease guarantees that they're doing. Yeah, but anyway, still so surprising. Google, obviously one of the greatest companies of all time, has every possible advantage in this race and yet has just consistently struggled. Susan Zhang, who is currently on leave from DeepMind, posted a little Somewhat of a Fable.