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Nilay Patel

Nilay Patel

Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief

    More From Nilay Patel

    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    “Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser.”

    Sometimes the entire story about Trump and RFK’s attitudes towards public health is right there in the headline. CNN reports:

    Before he joined the Trump administration last year, [Dr. Brian] Christine was an Alabama-based urologist who specialized in penile implants […] He’s said the Covid pandemic led to a wider government plot to control people, compared the Biden administration to Nazi Germany and suggested the Covid vaccine had little effect in stopping the pandemic.

    Oh, and of course, “he once hosted a YouTube show called ‘Erection Connection,’ a professional YouTube series on erectile dysfunction for fellow urologists.”

    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Sony... these photos look terrible.

    Sony’s trying to show off the AI Camera Assistant on the new Xperia 1 VIII, but I’m not sure a bunch of blown-out photos with weird ideas about highlights and shadows will convince anyone this is worth it. Our own Dominic Preston says he saw better results in his briefing, but this is looking pretty grim. (h/t Manideep!)

    How companies weaponize the terms of service against you
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    Brendan Ballou discusses his new book on the rise, and hopefully fall, of forced arbitration.

    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Conde Nast calls Google Zero.

    Google is sure to tell us that the web is healthier than ever next week at IO, but out here on the streets everyone knows search traffic is collapsing — a phenomenon we’ve been calling Google Zero for years now. Well, here’s Conde Nast CEO Roger Lynch on TBPN saying they are assuming all search traffic will be zero from now on. I’m just saying — give us credit for naming the concept, bro.

    Joanna Stern is not a robot, but she lived with them
    Play

    The journalist and author of I Am Not a Robot on her year living with AI and starting a new media company.

    Nilay Patel
    Dara Khosrowshahi on replacing Uber drivers — and himself — with AI
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    Uber’s CEO on his plan to make Uber an everything app and take over travel.

    Nilay Patel
    How to win — and lose — Decoder
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    Nilay joins as the guest to discuss our AI coverage, controversial episodes, and what it takes to succeed or fail on Decoder.

    Nick Statt and Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Joanna vs the Robots.

    Joanna Stern’s first video as a indie YouTuber is a look at the Unitree G1 robot, which a New York company called Robostore is importing for all kinds of customers. There is also a very romantic moment with saxophone music.

    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Inside the AI ad boom at Google and Meta.

    All the ad people I know keep saying “the content is the targeting” lately, and now I know why: Google and Meta are using AI to flip the online ad model upside down. Big dive in the NYT:

    But the real business breakthroughs have come from targeting. It used to be that an advertiser would say, for example, “I want to target women in New York between the ages of 24 and 35.” Now it’s the opposite: Meta and Google are using A.I. to recommend customers the brands should be going after.

    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    Sergey Brin, MAGA warrior.

    The NYT has a deep dive into the Google co-founder’s hard turn to the right, which is either because he hates the proposed billionaire tax in California or because he’s super into his hardcore MAGA girlfriend. (Or both.) In any case, he’s having “intimate” dinners with Trump — and bringing Sundar Pichai along for the ride.