Episode
The AI Booster Tier List
- Podcast
- muckrAIkers
- Published
- May 4, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2811
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/e34725f5
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Summary
This week, Jacob and Igor swap the usual news breakdown for a complete taxonomy of AI boosters within the framing of a tier list. They run through every type, from the good-faith genuine enthusiast to the denial-prone deflector, the financially captured, corporate power-players, platform builders, and finally the model-building true believers. They also get into "crit-hype," the idea that some critics are inadvertently boosting the systems they're fighting against. No muck to separate this week, just the guys working through their framework and explaining why their opinions are S tier. Chapters (00:00) - Introduction (02:45) - Introducing the Booster Tier List (07:48) - A-Tier: The Genuine Enthusiast (11:36) - B-Tier: The Denial-Prone Booster (14:34) - C-Tier: The Financially Adjacent Booster (19:03) - D-Tier: The Corporate Booster (23:31) - E-Tier: The Product and Platform Booster (26:36) - F-Tier: The Model Builders (31:08) - Bonus Tier: Crit Hype (39:28) - So What Do We Actually Do With This? (46:04) - Outro (Igor's Challenge) Critical Links Below are the most important links for this episode. For more, visit the episode page on Kairos.fm. Ed Zitron Substack article - How to Argue with an AI Booster MIT Technology Review article - How Social Media Encourages the Worst of AI Boosterism The Telegraph article - AI isn’t magic. We’re just being taken for mugs