Techstrong Gang

The September 17, 2026 edition of Techstrong Gang features host Alan Shimel with guests Jon Swartz, Jaime Hampton and Jiewen Wang for three conversations about the direction of enterprise technology: human control of AI, Salesforce’s Dreamforce announcements, and the next steps in quantum computing. Recorded September 17, 2026. Watch the full conversation above.

Unconscious AI and human control

Microsoft’s AI chief is warning that Anthropic’s strategy for building “conscious” models threatens human control. Meanwhile, OpenAI has published six new incidents of concerning model behavior and a plan to track future misalignment.

The discussion explores how AI developers can identify and respond to behavior that departs from their intended goals, and what meaningful human control should look like as models become more capable.

• Microsoft AI Chief Warns Anthropic’s ‘Conscious’ AI Strategy Threatens Human Control
• OpenAI Flags Six New Incidents of Concerning Behavior and Unveils Plan to Track It

Salesforce’s AI ambitions at Dreamforce

Salesforce’s announcements span data, models and governance. AIforce decouples CRM data for the AI era, while the Salesforce and NVIDIA Koa reasoning model targets CRM workloads. A new Enterprise AI Harness aims to govern agents from multiple vendors.

Salesforce is also reportedly in talks to acquire AI startup Listen Labs for $2 billion. Alongside those announcements, an outage during Dreamforce put service reliability in the spotlight. The panel examines the practical questions these developments raise for enterprise customers.

• Salesforce Unveils AIforce at Dreamforce, Decoupling CRM Data for the AI Era
• Salesforce, NVIDIA Debut Koa Reasoning Model for CRM
• Salesforce Debuts Enterprise AI Harness to Govern Multi-Vendor Agents
• Salesforce in Talks to Acquire AI Startup Listen Labs for $2 Billion: Report
• Salesforce Hit by Outage During Dreamforce Conference

Quantum computing moves beyond the chip

IBM’s Anderon facility is beginning quantum wafer runs as its $1 billion CHIPS Act award is finalized. Java 27 addresses post-quantum security and a faster patch cadence, while another source story challenges the idea that a quantum computer should be understood simply as a chip.

Together, the three stories frame a discussion of quantum computing as a broader manufacturing, software and systems challenge.

• IBM’s Anderon Begins Quantum Wafer Runs as $1B CHIPS Award Is Finalized
• Java 27 Tackles Post-Quantum Security and a Faster Patch Cadence
• Stop Thinking of a Quantum Computer as a Chip