Perplexity
The ad model is coming to AI
Perplexity’s plan to add sponsored questions could be the future of chatbots — if it doesn’t destroy users’ trust
Casey Newton
Founder and editor of Platformer, a publication about the intersection of tech and democracy. Prior to founding Platformer in October 2020, Newton was the longtime Silicon Valley editor of The Verge.
AI
The indie AI companies are falling apart
From Stability to Inflection, would-be challengers to the giants are failing to execute
Florida’s new age verification push
States want platforms and websites to verify users' ages — but there's a better solution available
Apple
The Department of Justice comes for Apple
One way or another, real competition may be coming to the iPhone
Reddit goes public
It’s a pillar of the social web — but will it make a good investment?
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court considers jawboning
Plus: the TikTok ban slows down
Meta
How CrowdTangle predicted the future
Meta is killing off a pioneering tool for platform transparency — but the movement it kickstarted is just beginning
AI
The rise of mediocre AI
It only kind of works. It’s everywhere anyway
OpenAI
Sam Altman gets what he wants
He has his board seat back, and a new vote of confidence. Will he keep it?
TikTok
A new TikTok ban gains steam
After a year of laying low, ByteDance’s crown jewel faces a serious new threat
Google's India problem
From developer fees to chatbot criticisms, the Modi government is ratcheting up the pressure on platforms
Apple
Europe takes a bite out of Apple
The company accuses Spotify of being greedy — but fails to acknowledge how its own greed got us here
Google's risky new news tool
The company says it wants to free up journalists to do better work — but it might be automating more jobs away
Content Moderation
Content moderation comes to the Supreme Court
Justices seem skeptical that the Florida and Texas laws are constitutional
Google hits pause on Gemini’s people pictures
After a diversity initiative proved disastrous, it’s time to loosen chatbot guardrails
AI
The AI-generated propaganda is working
Nearly half of people found influence campaigns written by GPT-3 effective, a new study finds