This Week In Startups is made possible by:Lightfield: https://lightfield.appNorthwest Registered Agent: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomainRippling: https://Rippling.ai/twistToday's show:*Bill Gates dropped a 6,000 word warning: AI will be "the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst sort of injustice." The Microsoft icon has an AI agenda for the US: new national institutions, AI use taxes, and jobs legally reserved for humans only.Our VC roundtable guests — Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Hussein Kanji — push back hard. Is taxing profits a better fix for AI taking jobs than taxing the tokens themselves?PLUS: Meta's $17B kids safety settlement… does it go far enough? Why does Stripe want OpenRouter? A peek at the VC's actual portfolio mark-ups. AND begun, the AI agent wars have. Our panel chooses between OpenClaw, Instinct, and Grok Bot.GuestsSheel Mohnot on X: https://x.com/pitdesiBetter Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc/Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclurePractical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/Hussein Kanji on X: https://x.com/hkanjiHoxton Ventures: https://hoxtonventures.com/Relevant LinksGatesNotes: "The turbulent AI era is here": https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-makeNPR: Meta settlement coverage: https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settlement-child-safety-lawsuitTechCrunch: Stripe agrees to buy OpenRouter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/16/stripe-will-reportedly-acquire-ai-gateway-startup-openrouter-for-7b/Skild AI S1 Demo: https://www.skild.ai/blogs/s1Instinct AI agent (waitlist): https://instinct.co/TechCrunch: Instinct coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/CNBC: OpenAI CFO says IPO is coming in 2027: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-friar.htmlBasis: https://www.getbasis.ai/TaxGPT: https://www.taxgpt.com/Cusp AI: https://cusp.ai/Abacus: https://goabacus.co/Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/Mottu: https://mottu.com.br/EquityBee: https://equitybee.com/Kiva: https://www.kiva.org/Timestamps:Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:(((Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.com