Author: Alex Kantrowitz

Kyle Chayka is a New Yorker staff writer and author of FILTERWORLD: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. Chayka joins Big Technology Podcast to talk about his book — which debuts this week — and dig into whether algorithms really do make our culture flatter. In this spirited conversation, we interrogate the role of algorithms in society, ask how they reflect in the real world, and ponder how products would be redesigned to take back control. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss Chayka's story on people falling in love with AI bots.

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Bill Ackman’s crusade against Harvard & Business Insider 2) Why you shouldn’t plagarize 3) Was Ackman’s wife fair game for reporting 4) Whether Axel Springer should’ve gotten involved 5) Carta ending secondary share sales 6) SEC’s hacked tweet ahead of Spot Bitcoin ETF 7) Bitcoin’s price drop 8) Rabbit wins CES 9) Quora raises $75 million for a new chatbot 10) Is Apple helping Meta?

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, and author of The World After Capital. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a frank conversation about whether AI will lead to job loss and what to do about it. In an unusual setup, the journalist in this conversation (Alex) argues that we have less to worry about AI automating jobs than the popular narrative, and the VC (Wenger) makes the case that it will definitely happen and how we should adjust. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Wenger's five year experiment with UBI.

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Whether generative AI is a feature or the underlying tech of new powerful applications 2) Robin AI's recent fundraising 3) Big Technology's latest piece on Snapchat+ 4) Jeff Bezos investing in perplexity AI 5) Google execs investing in a Gen AI search competitor 6) Microsoft copilot app debuts 7) Microsoft and OpenAI's weird competitive dynamic 8) Can Web3 still happen? 9) The implications of bitcoin's recent price rise 10) Pig butchering crypto scams 11) Substack's baffling position toward nazis 12) Peloton patterns with Tiktok 13) Crypto CEO was totally fake

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Meredith Whittaker is the President of Signal and chief advisor to the AI Now Institute. She joins Big Technology Podcast for a lively discussion about the state of Google, whether AI is for real or a marketing gimmick, whether the online advertising business model is ethically broken, and the state of the Signal messaging app. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss the mysterious nature of Telegram. And enjoy the cool-headed arguments throughout.

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) The New York Times' Lawsuit against OpenAI 2) Whether the Times' case stands a chance 3) How the lawsuit will change perceptions of AI 4) How it will also create a strange realignment of the tech culture war 5) Will the New York Times build its own ChatGPT? 6) How much does news really contribute to AI? 7) Who is really at fault when a model generates copyrighted material? 8) Is AI in a trust crisis? 9) Where The Apple Watch ban goes from here 10) Big Tech's year of accountability 11) Is it safe to count on the vision pro 12) Amazon's big advertising move in prime video 13) Snapchat+ is the first successful consumer AI product 14) Year end predictions and thanks!

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Vera Bergengruen is a senior correspondent at Time. She joins Big Technology Podcast after a recent trip to Ukraine, where she reported on how Palantir and Clearview are putting their technology in the Ukrainians’ hands, and using the war as a way to enhance their offering. We also discuss how Ukraine is embracing the moment and positioning itself as a military tech powerhouse with plans to export what it’s learned.

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Casey Newton is the editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork. He joins Big Technology Podcast for our annual look back and forward at the year that was and the year to come. In this episode, we both go through our standout moment from 2023, then make predictions on Gemini, GPT-5, the future of Google Search, Apple’s Vision Pro, X vs. Threads, Falling in love with bots, autonomous driving, and plenty more. Tune in for a fun lively discussion to close out 2023.  

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Scott Belsky is the chief strategy officer and executive vice president of design and emerging products at Adobe. He joins Big Technology Podcast to examine the impact of generative AI on creativity. In this interview, we discuss whether AI homogenizes creativity or creates more possibilities. We talk about how Adobe is baking it into its products with generative fill. We also discuss creative attribution for images used to train generative AI models and how friction is actually good. Tune in for one of the most fascinating discussions on the podcast in 2023.

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover 1) Alex’s meeting with Sam Altman 2) Publishers using AI to rip off other articles and getting caught 3) The impressive performance of Anthropic’s Claude 4) SI fires execs after AI scandal 5) Is Generative AI good for news? 6) Did Twitter destroy news? 7) Uber finds profitability by squeezing drivers 8) Uber drivers trying to circumvent the system 9) Why can’t Lyft capitalize on Uber’s practices 10) Tesla’s autopilot recall 11) Why we need a new word for recall 12) Epic’s win vs. Google 13) Apple’s increasing service fees 14) Timeshare presentation at Vegas 15) The Sphere! 16) NVIDIA’s rich employees don’t want to work as hard 17) NVIDIA’s competitive threats 

---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/

Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com