Author: Alex Kantrowitz

Palmer Luckey is the founder of Oculus VR and the founder of Anduril, a military technology company. Luckey joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss Meta’s Metaverse ambitions, whether they’re misguided, and how Apple is poised to compete. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss the prospects — and advisability — of AI warfare, how the technology might spill over to police departments, and what a just war is. We discuss the prospects of sentient AI's threat to humanity at the very end.

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Eric Newcomer is the founder and author of Newcomer. Louise Matsakis is the tech and China reporter for Semafor. Both join Big Technology podcast to break down the week's news. We cover: 1) The SEC's notice to Coinbase that enforcement action might be coming. 2) Hindenberg Research targeting Block. 3) Character AI raising $150 million at a $1 billion valuation with no revenue. 4) Tiktok's day before congress 5) TikTok's future in the U.S. 6) Cow and Zebra escapes this week.

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

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Kevin Systrom is the co-founder of Instagram and co-founder of Artifact, a news app that uses AI to determine your preferences and show stories you might be interested in. Systrom joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the implications of all social media — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter — starting to look like each other. We speak about how the rise of AI recommendation feeds impacts the future of competition among these apps, creativity upon them, and distribution for people looking to get a message across. Tune in for a fun, in-depth discussion about social media's future in a new era.

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

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Ranjan Roy of Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the week's tech news. We cover: 1) SVB's depositors' role in the collapse 2) The over-financialization of tech 3) The continuing risk to the rest of the banking system 4) The re-rerating of late-stage startup valuations 5) Stripe's down round 6) The release of GPT-4 7) GPT-4 in Microsoft Office 8) How AI might eliminate modern apps vs. be a feature 8) TikTok's potential sale or ban 9) How AI might help you date.

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

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Om Malik is a partner emeritus at True Ventures and a former tech journalist. Chris Tolles is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former CEO of Topix. The two longtime tech insiders join Big Technology Podcast to discuss the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. We cover not only what the bank meant to the tech industry — and how its failure will change the landscape — but why so many people were happy to see it fail, and sought to prevent a bailout. Join us for a nuanced discussion of Silicon Valley's place in society, and whether it can continue operating effectively with its favorite bank in shambles.

Dan Primack is the business editor at Axios. He joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for a special edition of our Friday podcast. We typically run through the week's news in this edition of the podcast, but there is really only one tech story this week, the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, and we dive into it in depth. This episode was recorded right before the government shut down SVB, so a sale was still an option, but as you listen you'll learn exactly what contributed to the bank's collapse and what it impacts from here.

Benedict Evans is a star tech analyst who’s spent years at Andreessen Horowitz and is now independent. Evans joins Big Technology Podcast to highlight some big, surprising new shifts in the tech industry, which he covers in a new presentation called the New Gatekeepers. In this episode, we discuss how media and retail are blending, with a focus on Amazon's ad business. Stay tuned for the second half, where Evans goes into depth about the potential for AI APIs, especially ChatGPT's.

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

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You can find Evans' presentation here.

The Wall Street Journal’s Tom Dotan joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover: 1) Salesforce’s recent struggles 2) Salesforce’s ‘monster quarter’ 3) Amazon hitting pause on HQ2 4) State of the market 5) OpenAI’s ChatGPT API 6) OpenAI vs. Microsoft? 7) Tinder robberies.

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

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Rajan and Alex at SXSW: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2023/events/PP122865

Ben Smith is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, and the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral (available for preorder now). He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion of social media's divorce from the news industry, and what it means for the platforms and publishers. We talk plenty about Semafor, including how it's working to build an audience, distribute its work, run a business, and get scoops. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Elon's Twitter, chatbots, the lab leak hypothesis, and Trump's potential in 2024. Yes, we cover a lot. Hit play for a fun listen!

The Information's Sr. Reporter Cory Weinberg joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover 1) Paying for social media 2) What's next for the struggling IPO market 3) Whether private tech companies like Stripe can keep compensating through RSUs 4) DOJ moves to block Figma sale 5) What happened to voice computing? 6) The prospects of the four-day workweek.

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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