Ted and Charlie open with a news roundup covering Colossal Biosciences’ real-world take on a Snow Crash robotic companion, a secretly recorded OpenAI meeting, and the wave of tech billionaires suddenly pledging away chunks of their fortunes. From there they dig into Robert Downey Jr. joining Snap, the relaunch of VR fitness app Supernatural, and why training and simulation keep proving to be VR’s most durable use case.

Angela Yu, CEO and co-founder of StoReel, joins to break down the fast-growing world of AI-made vertical streaming. Angela explains how her platform builds entire micro drama series for a fraction of traditional production costs, why audience retention is the industry’s biggest unsolved problem, and how StoReel is using recurring characters and fan communities to keep viewers coming back. The conversation covers how China’s short drama boom is reshaping global entertainment, the economics of buying an audience through social platforms, and what happens as AI-made content moves from cheap and cheesy toward prestige projects with real studio partnerships.

Key Moments:

[00:01:28] A new robotic companion inspired by Snow Crash

[00:03:44] The secretly recorded meeting at OpenAI

[00:04:20] Elon Musk and Dario Amodei pledge away portions of their fortunes

[00:08:00] Character AI shuts down as its CEO becomes Disney’s new CTO

[00:10:17] Robert Downey Jr. joins Snap to help sell its new glasses

[00:11:00] VR fitness app Supernatural relaunches

[00:17:14] Angela Yu joins to talk about the vertical streaming boom

[00:25:39] How StoReel is built to fix the industry’s retention problem

[00:34:25] Inside StoReel hybrid model of in-house writers and outside creators

[00:48:04] The staggering scale of content StoReel produces each month

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Inside the Vertical Streaming Gold Rush ft. Angela Yu, CEO of StoReel

The AI XR Podcast.

Inside the Vertical Streaming Gold Rush ft. Angela Yu, CEO of StoReel