What if your coworkers were AI? What if AI agents, not humans, monitored security camera feeds? What if you had an AI tech recruiter to find motivated candidates, or an entirely autonomous recruiting firm? What if UPS, but AI, or finance, but DeepMind?

Does that sound like absolute hell on Earth? Well, too bad, because the giant Silicon Valley investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is giving companies up to $1 million each to develop every single one of these ideas as part of its Speedrun program. 

Speedrun is an accelerator program startups can apply to in order to receive funding from a16z as well as a “fast‐paced, 12-week startup program that guides founders through every critical stage of their growth,” according to Speedrun’s site. “It kicks off with an orientation to introduce the cohort, then dives into rapid product development—helping founders think through MVP while addressing key topics like customer acquisition and design partnerships.”

The program covers brand building, customer acquisition and launch, fundraising, team building, and more. The selected startups and founders meet each other, and receive the curriculum via workshops and keynote sections from “luminary speakers” such as Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Figma co-founder Dylan Field, a16z’s namesakes Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and others. 

Silicon Valley incubators and accelerators are common, but I’ve rarely seen such an unappetizing buffet of bad ideas as Speedrun’s AI-centric 2025 cohort. 

Last week, I wrote about Doublespeed, essentially a click farm that sells “synthetic influencers” to astroturf whatever product or service you want across social media, despite it being a clear violation of every social media platform's policy on inauthentic behavior. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. 

a16z’s Speedrun is also backing:

• Creed: An AI company “rooted in Christian Values” which produces Lenny, a “Bible-based AI buddy who's always got your back with wise words, scripture-inspired guidance, and a listening ear whenever you need it.”
• Zingroll: The “world’s largest Netflix-quality AI streaming platform,” which is another way of saying it’s a Netflix populated exclusively with AI Slop.
• Vega: which is building “AI-powered social orbits.” What does that mean? Not entirely clear, but the company has produced one of the most beautiful Mad Libs paragraphs I’ve ever seen: “We’re building the largest textual data moat on human relationships by gamifying the way people leave notes for each other. For the first time, LLMs can analyze millions of raw, human-written notes at scale and turn them into structured meaning, powering the most annotated social graph ever created.”
• Moona Health: an AI-powered Sleep care app the company says is covered by insurance. “Our AI-powered platform automates insurance claims and scheduling and analyzes sleep data – providing personalized session guidelines to therapists,” Moona says.
• Jooba: “The world’s first autonomous recruiting firm.”
• Margin: “The World’s first AI powered credit card.” Margin says “Customers earn points, with dynamic rewards that adapt to their preferences in real time.”
• First Voyage: A wellness app that gives you AI “mythological pets that turn wellness into play.”
• Axon Capital: billed as “DeepMind for Finance,” Axon says it has “pioneered brain-inspired, low-latency AI for financial markets.”

Part of the strategy for these types of accelerators and Silicon Valley venture capital firms more broadly is to place a lot of bets on a lot of startups with the knowledge that most of them are not going to make it. A million dollars is not a lot of money to a16z, especially when it only needs one of these companies to 100x its investment in order to make the whole endeavor profitable. What makes this Speedrun and the current moment we’re in with generative AI different is that a lot of AI implementations are going to be shoved down our throats before investors realize what AI is and isn’t good for. 

Are Doublespeed’s AI-generated social media accounts actually going to convince people to use whatever products they’re promoting? The accounts I’ve seen lead me to believe that the answer is no, but until then, they will continue to flood social media with garbage. Is Jooba going to entirely replace HR professionals and recruiters? I don’t know, but a whole bunch of people who are trying to get a job to pay rent are going to get caught up in a dehumanizing process until we find out. 

So the next time you find yourself asking why you're being inundated with AI wherever you go, remember that the answer is that someone with millions of dollars to spare paid for it on the off chance that it will yield a nice return.

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On Friday morning, Goodreads users who wanted to read reviews of the werewolf romance Mate by Ali Hazelwood were confronted by the cover of the new Eric Trump book Under Siege. One of the site's volunteer moderators had gone rogue and changed Mate’s cover, added the subtitle “Goodreads Censorship in Favor of Trump,” and altered Mate’s listing into an explanation of why. To hear them tell it, Goodreads was removing criticism of Trump’s book from the site.

“Silencing criticism of political figures—especially those associated with authoritarian movements—helps normalize and strengthen those movements,” the post that replaced Mate’s description said. “When we let powerful people’s books be protected from criticism, we give up the right to hold power accountable.”

Goodreads employs a volunteer staff of “Librarians” who act as moderators for the site and have the power to make changes to the listings. One of these librarians altered the titles, pictures, and blurbs of several popular books including the Mate, the Resse Witherspoon penned thriller Gone Before Goodbye, and the Nicholas Sparks bestseller Remain. The changes were up for a few hours before Goodreads caught on and fixed the listings.

Jana | Bookstagram (@janaandbooks) on Threads

Dearest Gentle Bookthreads, It’s time for our weekly wrap up of book discourse, drama, and terrible behavior! 1 Readers noticed a strange “glitch” on Goodreads Friday morning. Several books (including Ali Hazelwood’s “Mate” and Navessa Allen’s “Lights Out”) were instead showing the cover of Eric Trump’s memoir, and this message in the blurb:

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The rogue librarian claims Goodreads is censoring negative reviews of pro-Trump books. They said that Goodreads deleted negative reviews of Under Siege as they came in after its publication on October 14. “These were the honest opinions from real readers who disagreed with the book’s content,” the Librarian said in their post. “When people noticed and complained, Goodreads deleted ALL reviews of the book—positive and negative alike. This wasn’t an accident or a one-time glitch. It was a deliberate pattern.”

A Goodreads spokesperson confirmed that a Librarian had altered the covers and listings for the books. “We're aware of unauthorized edits made by a volunteer librarian to several book listings. All titles affected by the unauthorized edits have been restored to their correct information, and the librarian no longer has an account on Goodreads,” the spokesperson said.

In response to questions about reviews for the Eric Trump book, the spokesperson told 404 Media that Goodreads “has systems in place to detect unusual activity on book pages and may temporarily limit ratings and reviews that don’t adhere to our reviews and community guidelines. In all cases, we enforce clear standards and remove content and/or accounts that violate these guidelines.”

On Monday, the two week old Trump book had no reviews and no ratings. By Tuesday morning, Under Siege had begun to accumulate reviews and ratings again. The Kamala Harris campaign memoir 107 Days, by contrast, has been out since September 23 and has more than 14,000 ratings and more than 2,000 reviews.

Goodreads has done this kind of thing before and its review guidelines state it will delete “unusual” reviews or “limit the ability to submit ratings.” The idea behind this is to prevent review bombing of controversial figures, but the author’s Goodreads protects tend to be conservatives. In the summer of 2024, it temporarily halted reviews of JD Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy after people had begun to dunk on the Vice President by leaving reviews for the book. There are many “unusual” reviews still up for Harris’ memoir, including a one star review that says “Did not read but so sick of seeing this 💩 in my suggested 🖕🖕”

This kind of one-sided protection from review bombing is at the heart of the rogue Goodreads librarian’s complaint. “When a platform removes criticism of a political book while leaving praise, or removes everything to hide that [that] criticism existed, they’re not saying neutral—they’re picking a side,” their post said. “Goodreads is owned by Amazon, one of the world’s largest companies. When major platforms decide which opinions can exist and which must disappear, they shape what people think is true or acceptable.”

While show-stopping design is often equated with grand gestures – a sculptural sofa, a marble dining table – smaller objects shape our day-to-day just as meaningfully. Gejst’s newest designs, the Kydo tray and Sina salt and pepper mills, are small in scale but grand in intention – a testament that everyday tools can be just as impactful as statement pieces. Both embody the Danish brand’s quiet philosophy: that good design lives in the balance between simplicity, presence, and purpose.

Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of archery, the Kydo tray takes its name and silhouette from kyudo, the ritual of drawing the bow. “Kydo was born from an image of an archer preparing to release the bowstring,” shares Kydo’s designer, E-ggs. “That simple, precise movement became a metaphor for a handle: strong yet balanced, practical yet poetic.” This sculptural curve gives the piece both elegance and strength – a poised moment frozen in time, calm and purposeful. More than just a tray, Kydo becomes a toolbox for daily life, built to carry everything from kitchen essentials and office tools to fresh drinks for the garden party. Crafted from solid wood and available in three colorways, it moves effortlessly through the rituals of your day.

The Sina salt and pepper shakers also bring balance, but in a different way. “Sina is about harmony between function and form,” shares C.F. Møller Architects, designers of Sina. “With oak and brass, the grinder gains a new character – grounded in nature yet refined through crafted metal.” Originally introduced in oak and steel, the updated edition pairs warm oak with a brass top that catches the light just so, adding a soft, light-reflecting gleam to the table. Fitted with the precise CrushGrind® mechanism to control grind size and paired with a minimal tray that keeps surfaces clean, Sina transforms an everyday action into a small, meditative ritual.

While both Kydo and Sina are simple in purpose, their designs and expertly crafted details ground our daily rhythms with thoughtful intention. With Kydo’s poetic silhouette and Sina’s tactile movement, Gejst turns simple gestures into moments worth designing for.

To add the Kydo tray and Sina shakers by Gejst to your home, visit gejst.com.

Photography courtesy of Gejst.

Michael Kalus posted a photo: