Decoder with Nilay Patel

My guest today is Robert Hart, The Verge’s London-based AI reporter. Robert recently wrote a fantastic story for us about the debate raging inside the world of mathematics — and the existential crisis over what it means that new frontier AI models have become very good at math in a shockingly short period of time.

I wanted to dive into all of this with Robert, who actually spoke to some of the most accomplished mathematicians working today to figure out what’s hype and what’s real — and to get a sense of just how exciting, and how scary, all of this is.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

The AI takeover of mathematics has begun | The Verge

Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science | OpenAI

An unreleased Anthropic model made progress on the Riemann hypothesis| TechCrunch

OpenAI’s amazing — but vastly oversold — new model Astra | Gary Marcus

OpenAI’s math breakthrough played to AI’s strengths | Understanding AI

Why the legendary Erdős problems are falling to AI | Quanta

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Credits:

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

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our supervising producer is Greg Ott, and our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today I’m talking to Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor. Ben ran BuzzFeed News at the height of the Facebook traffic boom, and even wrote a book about it, called Traffic, which he discussed with me on Decoder back in 2023.

Semafor, which is only four years old, is now a fast-growing and profitable media company, which makes about half of its revenue from events. So I wanted to talk to Ben about how that all works, and what it feels like to navigate the ethical conflicts that seem to be everywhere in media right now.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

Jonah Peretti explains why he sold BuzzFeed | Decoder

What’s after the social media era in news? | Decoder (2023)

Semafor raises $30 Million after first profitable year | The Wrap

Semafor’s new AI tool helped boil down its flagship conference | Nieman Lab

Semafor launches Silicon Valley & The World | Semafor

Semafor takes aim at Davos as events surpass half Its revenue | Adweek

Semafor Is Betting Big on 'Anti-Scale' Video | Adweek

Semafor wants to be ‘business outlet of record in the Gulf” | Press Gazette

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

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

Decoder’s producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our Supervising Producer is Greg Ott and our Editorial Director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is The Verge’s Hayden Field, and we’re discussing a question that’s been rocketing around the tech industry for the past week: Is Google losing the AI race?

That's because last week, the company announced a bombshell reorganization of its AI division. You can read these moves, and Google’s reaction, in a lot of different ways. So I really wanted to sit down with Hayden to dig into some of the smartest analysis we’ve seen this past week, and what we think is really going on here.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

The messy politics behind Google’s big AI shakeup | The Verge

Gemini is cooked but GCP is cooking | SemiAnalysis

Google announced a major shakeup of its top AI leadership | The Verge

AI lab musical chairs hits Google the hardest | Axios

Demis Hassabis said this might be the ‘foothills of the singularity.’ What? | The Verge

Google’s AI architect lived rent-free in Elon Musk’s head | The Verge

Sundar Pichai on AI, search, and the future of the web | The Verge

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

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

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our supervising producer is Greg Ott, and our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Lila Snyder, the CEO of Bose. Lila was last on the show about four years ago, and since then she’s dramatically rearchitected the company — she sold off Bose Professional, acquired the high end audio brands McIntosh Labs and Sonus faber, and, perhaps most importantly, started licensing all that core Bose technology to other companies.

That big change in the business comes with a big change in structure. Becoming a software company in addition to a product company comes with a whole new set of challenges, and Lila and I got into how it’s all working.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

How Bose competes with AirPods, with CEO Lila Snyder | Decoder (2022)

Bose thinks it can be a media company for some reason | The Verge

Bose acquires premium audio brand McIntosh | The Verge

Bose reinvented itself just in time. Now comes the tricky part | Wired

Bose sells off its premium division after 50 years | Bose

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

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

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our supervising producer is Greg Ott, and our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our guest today is Gaby Del Valle, a policy reporter here at The Verge, and we’re discussing the growing backlash against AI data centers. Gaby recently reported a fantastic piece about Hernando County, Florida, where last month the county commission unanimously approved a year-long moratorium on data center construction.

So I wanted Gaby to talk me through what these protests look like on the ground, from voters whose party affiliations have typically aligned them with big business.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

Right-wingers protesting data centers have a lot in common with the left | The Verge

No data centers in my backyard | Jasmine Sun

Who’s afraid of the big, bad GPU? | The Verge

NY becomes the first state to enact a data center moratorium | The Verge

The fight against AI data centers is just beginning | The Verge

Florida gives millions in tax breaks to data centers under DeSantis-backed law | Tampa Bay Times

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

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

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our supervising producer is Greg Ott, and our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices