David Pierce

In this (very good!) story about Mattel’s recent history and its plans to become a massive generator of intellectual property is a truly wild number:

We talked a lot on this episode about what it means when the web is overrun by AI — the news sites, the social networks, the search engines, everything. It’s robots all the way down, y’all. Then we talked Macs, AirPods, Call of Duty, and much more. Alex may have brought up Plex a few times.

The FTC’s trial against Microsoft continues to rage, as do the fights in Congress over how best to protect kids online. Meanwhile, is the Pixel Fold the foldable we’ve been waiting for? And can the Razr be the coolest phone on the planet again? All that, and a lot of feelings about IP ratings, on this episode of The Vergecast.

If you haven’t read Josh Dzieza’s story on the grueling, extremely human work required to make AI systems work, you really should. And then you should catch up on all The Verge’s Smart Home Week coverage, because we have some big ideas about garage door openers on this podcast.

Reddit needs to make money. That’s fair! It’s a company! Companies that don’t make money stop being companies! But Reddit is also more dependent on the good will of its users than most companies — and is at odds with some of those users as we speak. Can Reddit the company and Reddit the community both survive? That’s the question of the week.

Its latest ultra-dramatic sports drama, Quarterback, is scheduled to hit the service on July 12th.