Avsnitt

  • Today, I’m talking to Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky Social, which is a decentralized competitor to Meta’s Threads, Mastodon, and X. Bluesky actually started inside of what was then known as Twitter — it was a project from then-CEO Jack Dorsey, who spent his days wandering the earth and saying things like Twitter should be a protocol and not a company. Bluesky was supposed to be that protocol, but Jack spun it out of Twitter in 2021, just before Elon Musk bought the company and renamed it X.

    Bluesky is now an independent company with a few dozen employees, and it finds itself in the middle of one of the most chaotic moments in the history of social media. There are a lot of companies and ideas competing for space on the post-Twitter internet, and Jay makes a convincing argument that decentralization — the idea that you should be able to take your username and following to different servers as you wish — is the future.

    Links: 

    Twitter is funding research into a decentralized version of its platform — The Verge


    Bluesky built a decentralized protocol for Twitter — and is working on an app that uses it — The Verge


    The fediverse, explained — The Verge


    Bluesky showed everyone’s ass — The Verge


    Can ActivityPub save the internet? — The Verge


    The ‘queer.af’ Mastodon instance disappeared because of the Taliban — The Verge


    Usage Of Elon Musk’s X Dropped 30% In The Last Year, Study Suggests — Forbes


    Bluesky snags former Twitter/X Trust & Safety exec cut by Musk — TechCrunch


    Bluesky and Mastodon users are having a fight that could shape the next generation of social media — TechCrunch


    Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech — Mike Masnick




    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23872913

    Credits: 
    Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Both the EU and US have spent the past decade looking at Big Tech and saying, "someone should do something!" In the US, lawmakers are still basically shouting that. But in the EU, regulators did something.

    The Digital Markets Act was proposed in 2020, signed into law in 2022, and went into effect this month. It's already having an effect on some of the biggest companies in tech, including Apple, Google, and Microsoft. In theory it's a landmark law that will change the way these companies compete, and how their products operate, for years to come. How did we get here, what does the law actually say, and will it work half as well in practice as it does on paper? Verge reporter Jon Porter comes on Decoder to help me break it down. 

    Links: 

    The EU's new competition rules are going live — here's how tech giants are responding | The Verge

    Apple hit with a nearly $2 billion fine following Spotify complaint | The Verge

    Experts fear the Digital Markets Act won’t address tech monopolies | The Verge

    Dirty tricks or small wins: developers are skeptical of Apple's App Store rules | The Verge

    Google Search, WhatsApp, and TikTok on list of 22 services targeted by EU’s tough new DMA | The Verge

    The EU’s Digital Services Act is now in effect: here’s what that means | The Verge




    Credits:
    Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Saknas det avsnitt?

    Klicka här för att uppdatera flödet manuellt.

  • We’ve got a fun one today — I talked to Figma CEO Dylan Field in front of a live audience at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. And we got into it – we talked about everything from design, to software distribution, to the future of the web, and, of course, AI. 
    Figma is an fascinating company – the Figma design tool is used by designers at basically every company you can think of. And importantly, it runs on the web. It became such a big deal that Adobe tried to buy it out in 2022 for $20 billion dollars, a deal that only just recently fell through because of regulatory concerns. 
    So Dylan and I talked a lot about where Figma is now as an independent company, how Figma is structured, where it’s going, and how Dylan’s decisionmaking has changed since the last time he was on the show in 2022.

    Links:

    Why Figma is selling to Adobe for $20 billion, with CEO Dylan Field — Decoder


    Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma — The Verge


    Adobe’s Dana Rao on AI, copyright, and the failed Figma deal — Decoder


    Figma’s CEO on life after the company’s failed sale to Adobe — Command Line


    Amazon restricts self-publishing due to AI concerns — The Guardian


    Wix’s new AI chatbot builds websites in seconds based on prompts — The Verge


    Apple is finally allowing full versions of Chrome and Firefox on the iPhone — The Verge


    What Is Solarpunk? A Guide to the Environmental Art Movement. — Built In



    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23866201

    Credits: 
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James. 
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • If you’ve been listening to Decoder or the Vergecast for a while, you know that I am obsessed with Google Search, the web, and how both of those things might change in the age of AI. But to really understand how something might change, you have to step back and understand what it is right now. 

    So today I’m talking with Verge platforms reporter Mia Sato about Google Search, the industries it’s created, and more importantly, how relentless search engine optimization, or SEO, has utterly changed the web in its image. Mia and I really dug into this to explain why search results are so terrible now, what Google is trying to do about it, and why this is such an important issue for the future of the internet.

    Links: 

    How Google is killing independent sites like ours — HouseFresh


    How Google perfected the web — The Verge


    The people who ruined the internet — The Verge


    A storefront for robots — The Verge


    The end of the Googleverse — The Verge


    The unsettling scourge of obituary spam — The Verge


    What happens when Google Search doesn’t have the answers? — The Verge


    The AI takeover of Google Search starts now — The Verge


    AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born — The Verge


    Google is starting to squash more spam and AI in search results — The Verge


    Ethics Statement — The Verge



    Credits: 
    Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James. 
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I’m talking to Kyle Chayka, a staff writer for The New Yorker, a regular contributor to The Verge, and author of the new book Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. Kyle has been writing for years now about how the culture of big social media platforms bleeds into real life, first affecting how things look, and now shaping how and what culture is created and the mechanisms by which that culture spreads all around the world. 

    If you’ve been listening to Decoder, this is all going to sound very familiar. The core thesis of Kyle’s book — that algorithmic recommendations make everything feel the same — hits at an idea that we’ve talked about countless times on the show: that how content is distributed shapes what content is made. So I was really excited to sit down with Kyle and dig into Filterworld and his thoughts on how this happened and what we might be able to do about it.

    Links: 

    Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture — Kyle Chayka


    Welcome to AirSpace — The Verge


    The Stanley water bottle craze, explained — Vox


    TikTok and the vibes revival — The New Yorker


    Why the internet isn’t fun anymore — The New Yorker


    The age of algorithmic anxiety — The New Yorker


    Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube — The Verge


    Taylor Swift has encouraged her fans' numerology habit yet again — AV Club


    How fandom built the internet as we know it, with Kaitlyn Tiffany — Decoder



    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23858379

    Credits: 
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Our Thursday episodes are all about big topics in the news, and this week we’re wrapping up our short series on one of the biggest topics of all: generative AI. In our last couple episodes, we talked a lot about some of the biggest, most complicated legal and policy questions surrounding the modern AI industry, including copyright lawsuits and deepfake legislation. But we wanted to end on a more personal note: How is this technology making people feel, and in particular how is it affecting how people communicate and connect?
    Verge reporter Miya David has covered AI chatbots — specifically AI romance bots — quite a bit, so we invited her onto the show to talk about how generative AI is finding its way into dating. We not only discussed how this technology is affecting dating apps and human relationships, but also how the boom in AI chatbot sophistication is laying the groundwork for a generation of people who might form meaningful relationships with so-called AI companions.

    Links: 

    Speak, Memory — The Verge


    A conversation with Bing’s chatbot left me deeply unsettled — NYT


    Google suspends engineer who claims its AI is sentient — The Verge


    The law of AI girlfriends — The Verge


    Replika’s new AI therapy app tries to bring you to a zen island — The Verge


    Replika’s new AI app is like Tinder but with sexy chatbots — Gizmodo


    Don’t date robots; their privacy policies are terrible — The Verge


    AI is shaking up online dating with chatbots that are ‘flirty but not too flirty’ — CNBC


    Loneliness and suicide mitigation for students using GPT3-enabled chatbots — Nature


    Virtual valentine: People are turning to AI in search of emotional connections — CBS



    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23856679


    Credits: 

    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • On this special episode of Decoder, science educator and YouTuber Hank Green is guest hosting. And the guest? It’s Nilay Patel, who sat down with Hank to discuss building The Verge, the state of media, and the future of the web. Also: whether the fediverse is worth investing in, and how social platforms’ control of distribution has shaped the internet.

    In the words of Hank: “Nilay has got some weird ideas about the internet. For example, that he’s going to revolutionize the media through blog posts. He keeps saying it, but what the hell does he mean? While I was busy building my business on other people’s platforms, Nilay has built something very rare in the year 2024: a website that publishes content and isn’t behind a paywall yet still makes money. How does he do it? How does he make decisions? How is The Verge structured? The tables have turned.”


    Links:

    Why Hank Green can’t quit YouTube for TikTok — Decoder


    Platformer’s Casey Newton on surviving the great media collapse and what comes next — Decoder


    Just buy this Brother laser printer everyone has, it’s fine — The Verge


    Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers — Futurism


    The fediverse, explained — The Verge


    Can ActivityPub save the internet? — The Verge



    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23851875

    The Vergecast and Decoder are live at SXSW this weekend, March 8th and 9th. SXSW attendees can see both shows live on the official Vox Media Podcast Stage at the JW Marriott, presented by Atlassian. Learn more at voxmedia.com/live.

    Credits:
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Our new Thursday episodes of Decoder are all about deep dives into big topics in the news, and this week we’re continuing our mini-series on one of the biggest topics of all: generative AI. Last week, we took a look at the wave of copyright lawsuits that might eventually grind this whole industry to a halt. Those are basically a coin flip — and the outcomes are off in the distance, as those cases wind their way through the legal system. 

    A bigger problem right now is that AI systems are really good at making just believable enough fake images and audio — and with tools like OpenAI’s new Sora, maybe video soon, too. And of course, it’s once again a presidential election year here in the US. So today, Verge policy editor Adi Robertson joins the show to discuss how AI might supercharge disinformation and lies in an election that’s already as contentious as any in our lifetimes — and what might be done about it.


    Links: 


    How the Mueller report indicts social networks

    Twitter permanently bans Trump

    Meta allows Trump back on Facebook and Instagram

    No Fakes Act wants to protect actors and singers from unauthorized AI replicas

    White House calls for legislation to stop Taylor Swift AI fakes

    Watermarks aren’t the silver bullet for AI misinformation

    AI Drake just set an impossible legal trap for Google

    Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet




    Credits:

    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.


    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I’m talking with Rahul Purini, the president of Crunchyroll, a streaming service focused entirely on anime — and really, the biggest anime service still going. Rahul has a long history with anime: he spent more than seven years at Funimation, a company that started in the 90s to distribute Dragon Ball Z to US audiences, before getting the top job at Crunchyroll.Anime might seem like niche content, but it’s not nearly as niche as you might think – our colleagues over at Polygon just ran a huge survey of anime viewers and found that 42% of Gen Z and 25% of millennials watch anime regularly. And Crunchyroll is growing with that audience — like most entertainment providers, the service absolutely exploded during the pandemic, going from 5 million paying subscribers in 2021 to more than 13 million as of last month. But interestingly Rahul says Crunchyroll’s growth isn’t being driven by more and more people watching anime, but more and more anime fans — especially those watching pirated content — choosing to pay for it.Links: Anime is huge, and we finally have numbers to prove it — PolygonFunimation is shutting down — and taking your digital library with it — The VergeSony completes acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T — The VergeFunimation’s anime library is moving over to Crunchyroll — The VergeCrunchyroll now has more than 13 Million subscribers — Cord Cutters NewsCrunchyroll's CEO Colin Decker leaves company; Rahul Purini becomes new president — Anime News NetworkPlayStation keeps reminding us why digital ownership sucks — The VergeSony’s Crunchyroll launches free 24-hour streaming channel — VarietyCrunchyroll is adding mobile games to its subscription — The VergeHow Is Funimation producing so many simuldubs? — Anime News NetworkTranscript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23845221Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • The Decoder team is off this week. We’ll be back next week with both the interview and the new explainer episodes; we’re really excited about what’s on the schedule here. 

    In the meantime, I thought you all might enjoy a conversation I had with Kara Swisher, the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman about the Apple Vision Pro. All of us have been covering Apple for a very long time, and we had a lot of fun swapping impressions, talking strategy, and sharing what we liked, and didn’t like, about Apple’s $3,500 headset. 

    Links: 

    Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not — The Verge

    The shine comes off the Vision Pro — The Verge

    Everything we know about Apple’s Vision Pro — The Verge

    Why some of Apple’s biggest fans are returning their Vision Pros — Bloomberg

    Apple’s Vision Pro Is an iPad killer, but not anytime soon — Bloomberg

    I worked, cooked and even skied with the new Apple Vision Pro — WSJ

    Vision Pro review: 24 hours in Apple’s mixed-reality headset — WSJ


    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Our new Thursday episodes are all about deep dives into big topics in the news, and for the next few weeks we’re going to stay focused on one of the biggest topics of all: generative AI. There’s a lot going on in the world of generative AI, but maybe the biggest is the increasing number of copyright lawsuits being filed against AI companies like OpenAI and StabilityAI.

    So for this episode, we’re going to talk about those cases, and the main defense the AI companies are relying on: an idea called fair use. To help explain this mess, I talked with Sarah Jeong. Sarah is a former lawyer and a features editor here at The Verge, and she is also one of my very favorite people to talk to about copyright. I promise you we didn’t get totally off the rails nerding out about it, but we went a little off the rails. The first thing we had to figure out was: How big a deal are these AI copyright suits?

    Links: 

    The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement --- The Verge

    The scary truth about AI copyright is nobody knows what will happen next — The Verge

    How copyright lawsuits could kill OpenAI — Vox

    How Adobe is managing the AI copyright dilemma, with general counsel Dana Rao --- The Verge

    Generative AI Has a visual plagiarism problem - IEEE Spectrum

    George Carlin estate sues creators of AI-generated comedy special — THR

    AI-Generated Taylor Swift porn went viral on Twitter. Here's how it got there — 404 Media

    AI copyright lawsuit hinges on the legal concept of ‘fair use’ — The Washington Post

    Intellectual property experts discuss fair use in the age of AI — Harvard Law School

    OpenAI says it’s “impossible” to create useful AI models without copyrighted material — Ars Technica


    Credits: 
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I’m talking with Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice. Alongside FTC chair Lina Khan, Jonathan is one of the most prominent figures in the big shift happening in competition and antitrust in the United States. This is a fun episode: we taped this conversation live on stage at the Digital Content Next conference in Charleston, South Carolina a few days ago, so you’ll hear the audience, which was a group of fancy media company executives. You’ll also hear me joke about Google a few times; fancy media execs are very interested in the cases the DOJ has brought against Google for monopolizing search and advertising tech — and Jonathan was very good at not commenting about pending litigation. But he did have a lot to say about the state of tech regulation, he and Khan’s track record so far, and why he thinks the concepts they’re pushing forward are more accessible than they’ve ever been.Links: The top Biden lawyer with his sights on Apple and Google — PoliticoJudge blocks a merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster — NYTFTC’s Khan and DOJ’s Kanter beat back deals at fastest clip in decades — BloombergGoogle will face another antitrust trial September 9th, this time over ad tech — The VergeIn the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing — The VergeGoogle Search, Chrome, and Android are all changing thanks to EU antitrust law — The VergeAggregation Theory — StratecheryAdobe explains why it abandoned the Figma deal — The VergeHow the EU’s DMA is changing Big Tech — The VergeEpic Games CEO calls out Apple’s DMA rules as ‘malicious compliance’ — TechCrunchTranscript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23831914Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • We’re very excited for today’s episode, because from now on we’ll be delivering you two Decoders every week. On Monday’s we’ll have our classic interviews with CEOs and other high-profile guests. But our new shorter Thursday episode – like today’s – will explain big topics in the news with Verge reporters, experts, and other friends of the show. 
    The big idea we’re going to jump into today does in fact have a lot of problems: electric vehicle adoption in the US. We invited Verge Transportation Editor Andy Hawkins, who’s been covering the EV transition for years, to walk us through what’s happening. 
    Late last year, Andy wrote a fantastic article called, “The EV Transition trips over its own cord.” It was all about the kind of paradox of the EV market right now: The momentum for electric cars in America feels like it’s started to hit serious snags, even though more people than ever before are going fully electric. The stakes are high, and there’s a lot going on. Let’s get into it. 

    Links: 

    The EV transition trips over its own cord — The Verge

    We’re down to just a handful of EVs that qualify for the full US tax credit — The Verge

    Electric cars were having issues. Then things got political — WSJ

    Tesla is becoming a partisan brand, says survey — Eletrek

    16 Republican governors urge Biden EPA to roll back proposed electric vehicle standards — USA Today

    Slow rollout of national charging system could hinder EV adoption — NYT

    Want to stare into the Republican soul in 2023? — Slate

    Biden vetoes Republican measure to block electric vehicle charging stations — NYT

    The Biden administration is pumping more money into EV charging infrastructure — The Verge

    GM should just bring back the Chevy Volt — The Verge



    Credits: 
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I’m talking with Casey Newton, the founder and editor of the Platformer newsletter and co-host of the Hard Fork podcast. Casey is also a former editor here at The Verge and was my co-host at the Code Conference last year. Most importantly, Casey and I are also very close friends, so this episode is a little looser than usual. 
    I wanted to talk to Casey for a few reasons. One, the media industry overall is falling apart, with huge layoffs at almost every media organization you can think of happening weekly, but small newsletters seem to be a bright spot. So I wanted to talk about how Platformer started, how Casey got it to where it is, and how much farther he thinks it can go. And then, I wanted to talk about Substack. It’s the newsletter platform Paltformer used to call its home, but content moderation problems — including its decision to allow Nazis to monetize on the platform — have pushed away a number of its customers, including Platformer. 
    This episode goes deep, but it’s fun — Casey is just one of my favorite people, and he is not shy about saying what he thinks.
    Links: 

    Can Substack CEO Chris Best build a new model for journalism? — The Verge

    Substack launches its Twitter-like Notes — The Verge

    Substack Has a Nazi Problem — The Atlantic

    Substack says it will remove Nazi publications from the platform --- Platformer

    Substack keeps the Nazis, loses Platformer — The Verge 

    Why Platformer is leaving Substack — Platformer

    The Messenger to close after less than a year — The New York Times

    Do countries with better-funded public media also have healthier democracies? — Nieman Lab

    AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born — The Verge

    The Biden deepfake robocall Is only the beginning — WIRED


    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23823565

    Credits:
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I’m talking with Senator Brian Schatz, of Hawaii. We joke that Decoder is ultimately a show about org charts, but there’s a lot of truth to it. We talked about the separate offices he has to balance against each other, and the concessions he has to make to work within the Senate structure.
    We also talked a lot about two of the biggest issues in tech regulation today. One is Europe, which is doing a lot of regulation while the US does almost none. How does a senator think about the U.S. all but abdicating that space? The other is one of the few places the US is trying to take action right now: children’s online safety. Schatz is involved with two pieces of child safety legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act and the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, that could fundamentally reshape online life for teens and children across the country. But the big stumbling block for passing any laws about content moderation is, of course, the First Amendment.
    Links: 

    Strict Scrutiny — LII / Legal Information Institute

    The Uniquely American Future of US Authoritarianism — WIRED

    How the EU’s DMA is changing Big Tech: all of the news and updates — The Verge

    AI Labeling Act of 2023 (S. 2691) — GovTrack.us

    Mark Zuckerberg testimony: senators seem really confused about Facebook — Vox

    Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis — Senate Judiciary Committee

    AI tools will make it easy to create fake porn of just about anybody — The Verge

    They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam — The Washington Post.

    Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S, 1291) — GovTrack.us

    Kids Online Safety Act (S. 1409) — GovTrack.us

    Kids Online Safety Shouldn’t Require Massive Online Censorship and Surveillance — EFF

    TikTok ban: all the news on attempts to ban the video platform — The Verge


    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23818699

    Credits:
    Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.  
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I’m talking with Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California. He’s been in Congress for eight years now, representing California’s 17th District, which is arguably the highest-tech district in the entire country. You’ll hear him say a couple of times that there’s $10 trillion of tech market value in his district, and that’s not an exaggeration: Apple, Intel, and Nvidia are all headquartered in his district, along with important new AI firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. 

    I wanted to know how Khanna thinks about representing those companies but also the regular people in his district; the last time I spoke to him, in 2018, he reminded me that he’s got plenty of teachers and firefighters to represent as well. But the politics of tech have changed a lot in these past few years — and things are only going to get both more complicated and more tense as Trump and Biden head into what will obviously be a contentious and bitter presidential election.

    Links: 

    Democrats must not repeat the mistakes of globalization

    California bill to ban driverless autonomous trucks goes to Newsom's desk

    In labor snub, California governor vetoes bill that would have limited self-driving trucks

    A lawyer used ChatGPT and now has to answer for its ‘bogus’ citations

    Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet

    Music streaming platforms must pay artists more, says EU

    Sideloading and other changes are coming to iOS in the EU soon

    Clock running out on antitrust bill targeting big tech

    Silicon Valley’s Rep. Ro Khanna talks Congress’ plans to regulate Big Tech

    Trump pushing Microsoft to buy TikTok was ‘strangest thing I’ve ever worked on,’ says Satya Nadella


    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23810838

    Credits: 

    Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. 
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Today, I'm talking to Dana Rao, who is General Counsel and Chief Trust Officer at Adobe. Now, if you're a longtime Decoder listener, you know that I have always been fascinated with Adobe, which I think the tech press largely undercovers. If you're interested in how creativity happens, you're kind of necessarily interested in what Adobe's up to. And it is fascinating to consider how Dana's job as Adobe's top lawyer is really at the center of the company's future. 
    The copyright issues with generative AI are so unknown and unfolding so fast that they will necessarily shape what kind of products Adobe can even make in the future, and what people can make with those products. The company also just tried and failed to buy the popular upstart design company Figma, a potentially $20 billion deal that was shut down over antitrust concerns in the European Union. So Dana and I had a lot to talk about.

    Links: 

    Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma

    Adobe explains why it abandoned the Figma deal

    Why Figma is selling to Adobe for $20 billion, with CEO Dylan Field

    Figma’s CEO laments demise of $20 billion deal with Adobe

    Adobe proposes anti-impersonation law

    Adobe’s Dana Rao doesn’t want you to get duped by A

    The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft

    Adobe’s Photoshop on the web launch includes its popular desktop AI tools


    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23791239

    Credits:
    Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • 2023 will go down as the year that Elon Musk killed Twitter. First he did it in a big way, by buying the company, firing most of the employees, and destabilizing the platform; then he did it in a small, but important, symbolic way, by renaming the company X and trying to make a full break with what came before. So now that the story of the company named Twitter is officially over, it felt important to stop and ask: What was Twitter, anyway, and why were so many powerful people obsessed with it for so long?
    In this special episode, I sat down with Marty Baron, former executive editor of The Washington Post, and Zoe Schiffer, managing editor of Platform and author of Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter. We discussed how two of Twitter’s most dedicated power users – Donald Trump and Elon Musk — were addicted to the platform, defined it, changed it, broke it, and then put it to rest.

    Links: 
    The year Twitter died: a special series from The Verge
    Extremely softcore
    Inside Elon Musk's “extremely hardcore” Twitter
    How Twitter broke the news
    Trump vs. Twitter: The president takes on social media moderation
    Martin Baron recounts leading The Washington Post during the Trump era

    Credits: 

    Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright. 

    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport, which makes software to optimize shipping everything from huge containers to ecommerce deliveries. It’s a fascinating company; we had Ryan on to explain it last year.
    Right around the first time we spoke, Ryan handed off the CEO role to 20-year Amazon veteran Dave Clark. Then, barely a year later, Dave got fired, and Ryan returned after CEO. I always joke that Decoder is a show about org charts… so why did Ryan make and then unmake the biggest org chart decision there is? 

    Links: 
    Can software simplify the supply chain? Ryan Petersen thinks so - The Verge
    Amazon consumer chief Dave Clark to join Flexport as its new CEO
    Flexport CEO Dave Clark resigns from logistics startup after one year in the role
    Flexport founder publicly slams his handpicked successor for hiring spree, rescinds offers
    Ousted Flexport CEO Dave Clark strikes back
    The real story behind a tech founder's 'tweetstorm that saves Christmas'
    Panama Canal has gotten so dry and backed up after brutal drought that shippers are paying up to $4m to jump the queue
    When Shipping Containers Sink in the Drink | The New Yorker

    Transcript:
     https://www.theverge.com/e/23770977

    Credits:
    Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • The US Digital Service has a fascinating structure: it comprises nearly 250 people, all of whom serve two-year stints developing apps, improving websites, and streamlining government services. You could call USDS the product and design consultancy for the rest of the government.

    The Obama administration launched the USDS in 2014, after the disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov and the tech sprint that saved it. USDS administrator Mina Hsiang explains to Decoder how it all works, and what she hopes it can do next.

    Links: 
    Here’s Why Healthcare.gov Broke Down (2013)
    Obamacare's 'tech surge' adds manpower to an already-bloated project (2013)
    Decoder: Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet
    Jeff Bezos Confirmed the "Question Mark Method"
    A comprehensive list of 2023 tech layoffs
    Tech to Gov
    U.S. Digital Corps
    Presidential Innovation Fellows
    AI.gov
    United States Digital Service

    Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23761681

    Credits:

    Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
    Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
    The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.  
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices