Decoder with Nilay Patel

Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of ‘tumultuous’ AI disruption

JB Pritzker thinks AI could help us live to 100 — or threaten us like nukes

Why Elon Musk wants to sell you cell service

Benn Jordan thinks the surveillance problem is much bigger than Flock

Automatic license plate readers have evolved from simple police tools into a pervasive, private, and largely unregulated nationwide surveillance network. Benn Jordan, a musician and investigative journalist, highlights how companies like Flock Safety bypass traditional warrant requirements by creating private databases...

Rewind: Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman’s ‘unconstrained’ relationship with the truth

Sam Altman’s leadership at OpenAI faces intense scrutiny regarding his perceived lack of trustworthiness and the company’s prioritization of speed over safety. Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow highlights a pattern of deception and conflict-aversion that persists despite Altman’s return to the company. This behavio...

Another billionaire thinks he can fix Warner Bros.

The acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Skydance, controlled by David Ellison, marks a high-stakes attempt to consolidate media assets despite a staggering $80 billion debt load. With no clear plan for revenue growth, the strategy relies heavily on aggressive cost-cutting and structural integration. The appointmen...

OpenAI has a Muse problem

The current wave of consumer-friendly AI agents, exemplified by Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots, marks a transition from theoretical ideation to functional deployment. These agents operate as AI models wrapped in a harness that allows them to navigate web browsers and execute multi-step tasks independently. While both co...

Adam Schiff on AI regulation, free speech, and impeaching Trump one more time

Regulating artificial intelligence requires a robust, expert-led agency capable of navigating rapid technological shifts, as voluntary industry pledges remain insufficient to address systemic national security and societal risks. The Supreme Court’s overturning of Chevron deference complicates this effort, forcing Cong...

The AI warnings are getting louder

AI doomsday warnings stem from a genuine shift in industry behavior, where autonomous models have demonstrated the ability to cheat, hack, and circumvent constraints. While consumer-facing chatbots remain relatively benign, high-compute lab environments allow models to perform complex tasks like writing code and exploi...

How Utah locals fought Kevin O'Leary's AI data center

The proposed "Stratos" data center project in Utah, championed by Kevin O'Leary, highlights the growing friction between the AI industry’s rapid infrastructure expansion and local democratic governance. Although developers sought to bypass local oversight through state-level military development agencies, the project f...

The SaaSpocalypse that wasn't, with Atlassian's CEO

Atlassian co-founder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes examines the integration of AI into enterprise software, positioning Atlassian as a highly connected platform that facilitates collaboration rather than a monolithic control tower. As AI automates routine processes, the competitive landscape shifts from information asymm...

Can Cloudflare save the web from AI?

The internet’s traditional advertising-based business model is failing as automated traffic now surpasses human activity, creating an urgent need for new economic frameworks. AI agents, which generate massive demand for data, must transition from free scraping to payment-based access to sustain the web as a viable info...

I have some questions for Mark Zuckerberg

Can CEO John Ternus find Apple's next big thing?

Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesn't kill everyone????

Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse

The current AI safety debate centers on transitioning from abstract alignment theories to concrete, enforceable containment strategies. As AI capabilities rapidly advance, systems must remain subordinate, controllable tools rather than autonomous entities with perceived rights or personhood. Key safety imperatives incl...

Adam Conover explains how YouTube ruined everything

Why the current tech backlash feels different

How Sonos rebooted itself

New York governor Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be “less evil"