Covenant Exit Sparks BitTensor Panic

Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm unpack Covenant AI’s departure, decentralization accusations, and why TAO sold off sharply after the announcement.

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Today’s show:

TAO, the token associated with the Bittensor network, fell sharply last night after a major project declared it was taking its business elsewhere. Covenant AI had used Bittensor subnets 3, 39, and 89 before its abrupt and controversial decision to depart for other digital shores.

Gareth Howells, a co-founder of Vidaio (Bittensor Subnet 85), joined Jason and Alex to share the community perspective regarding Covenant’s decision to leave Bittensor, a choice that was especially bitter given that its recently-released Covenant-72B model trained using the network’s decentralized capabilities was hailed at the time as a demonstration of the crypto-AI hybrid’s potential. (Covenant’s Sam Dare was a recent guest on TWiST.)

Howells walked us through Vidaio’s product (AI models for high-quality video work, like upscaling)

Then it was time to bring new fan-favorite Ole Lehmann on. Ole took an Andrej Karpathy concept, and turned it into a skill that you can use in either OpenClaw or Claude Cowork.

Guests

Ole Lehmann: https://x.com/itsolelehmann

The AI Solopreneur newsletter: https://aisolo.beehiiv.com/

Vidaio: https://vidaio.io/

Vidaio on X: https://x.com/vidaio_

Timestamps:

0:00 Drama in the Bittensor space! Was there a rugpull?

1:01 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

1:47 Gareth Howells of subnet85 joins the show: https://x.com/GarethHowells

9:56 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/TWIST

11:37 Gareth reacts to the Covenant situation… Did Sam sell tokens?

14:33 How VidAIo (subnet85) optimizes video as cheaply as possible. https://vidaio.io/

20:06 Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://squarespace.com/TWIST

21:12 Demo: Gareth shows upscaled footage of our very own Lon Harris

27:09 Who is actually doing the computing on Bittensor?

28:15 How Bittensor recruits tech talent from emerging markets

29:42 Pilot - Visit https://pilot.com/TWIST and get $1,200 off your first year.

30:58 Jason's explains the Bittensor network. https://docs.bittensor.com/

37:28 Jason addresses "pump and dump" allegations

40:46 Ole Lehmann joins the show https://x.com/itsolelehmann

45:31 Jason's $1,000 "bounty" for enhanced show notes

49:35 Check out Ole's newsletter at aisolo.beehiiv.com !

59:50 CrowdHealth - CrowdHealth lets you ditch the bureaucracy with a peer-to-peer funding platform for your healthcare. Get started for $99 per month for your first three months by using the code TWIST at https://JoinCrowdHealth.com/twist.

1:00:46 Off Duty with Alex and J-Cal!

1:04:46 Reacting to the Maul trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkVepshZhGc

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LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

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