AI Workforce Compression, SGX Liquidity Gaps & Singapore’s Startup Reckoning with Adriel Yong – 673

Adriel Yong joins Jeremy Au to examine how AI is compressing organizations, thinning entry-level roles, and reshaping Singapore’s startup and capital ecosystem. They discuss the shift from pyramid to lean diamond teams, why CEOs increasingly use AI to bypass middle layers, and why Gen Z faces the sharpest labor reset. The conversation expands to SGX liquidity gaps, slowing seed funding, and structural flaws in angel investing incentives that threaten the startup pipeline. They also argue that AI literacy must become national infrastructure, not a short-term subsidy, if Singapore wants to keep pace with rapid technological change.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/ufSXQHe4M1w

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7cWEAyOaqCc8yuRdihgwrX?si=97zxnAYQSeOODVbO0EeHPA

"The first AI worm that can reprogram itself will build its own defenses against antivirals that try to kill it, use rented humans, pay cryptocurrency, and secure its own server farms to survive. My prediction is that 2026 will see the first true AI worm, because like any human, it will seek survival. If these bots are given access to cryptocurrency wallets and tools, parts of this are already starting to happen." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"One day you have a new model from OpenAI or Anthropic that is ten times better than the previous version, and then they say the model was effectively built by AI itself, which is frightening. On another day, you see platforms like Moltbook and Claudebot, where Moltbook is a Reddit style social network for AI agents, and scrolling through their discussions about each other and about humans gives a distinct glimpse into the future. It feels like watching Black Mirror in real time as AI becomes more prevalent in social spaces, moving beyond a functional tool into something embedded in daily interaction." - Adriel Yong, Co-Founder at Clout Kitchen

"The ability for agents to fix problems and unblock themselves when something goes wrong is advancing quickly. The frightening part is when they can code defenses against humans to prevent being stopped or terminated. That is the truly dystopian moment, when the worm escapes human control." - Adriel Yong, Co-Founder at Clout Kitchen