Decoder with Nilay Patel

4.8 (8)
Business
Twice a week

Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas — and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.

14 min ago

AI broke the cybersecurity world. Now what?

I’ve always enjoyed talking to security expert Alex Stamos because he’s so direct — and he doesn't mince words about how the multibillion dollar cybersecurity industry as we’ve known it is all but doomed thanks to the unrelenting, AI-boosted waves of hacks, breaches, and attacks. That much disruption means a lot of places where bad guys can get in while everyone else is left scrambling. Alex isn’t a doomer in the long run, but he does think we've got a dark age to get through before things get better. Links: Attack of the killer script kiddies | The Verge Alex Stamos on AI's coming cybersecurity dark age | Ground Level AI Palo Alto’s CEO Said ‘AI Must Fight AI’ | Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity vets protest ‘dangerous’ ban on Anthropic’s Mythos | TechCrunch Binance: $6.3B heist used fake job interviews, internal AI tool | The Verge A thousand fewer paths to root | OpenAI 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 Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. Our editors are Xander Adams and Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
2 days ago

The hidden supply chain costs of the AI boom

My guest today is Willy Shih, an economist, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, and the author of the upcoming book, Where Does My Stuff Come From? The Powerful Economics Behind Global Supply Chains. Willy’s new book is all about the economics underlying global trade, which our politicians and regulators seem to insistently ignore. So we got into Trump’s tariffs, why the markets have reacted to supply chain disruptions the way they have, and why China remains a global manufacturing powerhouse even though every other country thinks that’s so risky. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: Where Does My Stuff Come From? | Willy Shih RAM price hikes: the latest on the global memory shortage | The Verge Tariffs didn’t bring manufacturing jobs back to the US | Decoder Trump tariffs mean chaos for consumers | Harvard Crimson Why the global chip shortage is making it so hard to buy a PS5 | Decoder (2021) Inside Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises | The Verge (2020) 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 Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Eileen Felix. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
5 days ago

Why Peacock is making a huge bet on YouTube

There’s been a whole lot of organizational and structural change at NBCUniversal since the last time Matt Strauss joined Decoder. First, Comcast spun most of the cable channels off into something called Versant, and Matt became the chairman of the entire NBCU Media Group. Next year, Comcast is splitting off NBCU into an entirely separate company. That's a lot to have going on all at once — and Matt's the guy who has to make sure broadcast, Peacock, and every other platform keeps making you watch. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: Comcast plans major layoffs as it preps for NBCU spinoff | Variety YouTube Premium will include Peacock starting next year | The Verge Pipes dream: Why Comcast gave up on NBCU | Decoder Langley, Strauss unveil new executive structures at NBCU | Variety NBCU’s streaming chief isn’t worried about you cancelling cable | Decoder 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 Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. The show is editors by Ursa Wright and Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
29 Oct

Inside Anthropic’s trillion-dollar AI gamble

Today, I’m joined by Joey Brookhart, an analyst at the chip and AI research firm SemiAnalysis, to help me dig into the story inside the massive Anthropic IPO filing. This isn’t just about a single company’s financials, or its lofty ambitions or frankly ludicrous risk factors, which include maybe automating every job or, you know, killing everyone. It’s also the clearest look yet at how the business of frontier AI actually works and who’s really paying for it. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: Anthropic files for its IPO | The Verge Five weird details from Anthropic’s IPO filing | The Verge Anthropic’s elaborate plan to keep Wall Street at bay | The Verge Anthropic revenue jumps to $16.8B in quarter before IPO | Bloomberg Anthropic raises concerns | Matt Levine Anthropic reveals skyrocketing growth in IPO filing | NYT The Anthropic IPO financials sneak peak | SemiAnalysis 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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
26 Oct

Kevin Roose is AGI-pilled. Why aren't you?

My guest today is Kevin Roose, a journalist and author of the new book The AGI Chronicles. Kevin was a longtime New York Times reporter and host of the popular podcast Hard Fork, but he and friend of the show Casey Newton just left The Times to start the all-new tech podcast Machine Gods, which launched last week. Kevin and I talked about launching Machine Gods and what it’s like to go from mainstream media to being an independent creator. Of course, we also talked about his book, which is excellently reported dive into the companies racing to build machine intelligence. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: The AGI Chronicles | Kevin Roose Can AI replicate in your smart TV? | Machine Gods (YouTube) Introducing Machine Gods | Platformer Inside the biggest feud in artificial intelligence | The Atlantic The essay that started the AI race | Kevin Roose A conversation with Bing’s chatbot left me deeply unsettled | NYT 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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
22 Oct

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

My guest today is Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. You may have noticed Bill in the news more lately — he’s been on something of a tour for the past few months talking about AI risk, and how crucial it is that we start taking this seriously. So I was excited to sit down with him and really dig into this subject. I came with many questions, about AI policy, the technical aspects of alignment, and what it means for future generations that we’re building something this disruptive and potentially dangerous. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical. | Bill Gates "OG" Bill Gates returns to wage war on AI risks | Axios Bill Gates’s blunt warning on AI | The Ezra Klein Show Ben Horowitz criticizes Bill Gates, Anthropic over AI safety | All-In Pod Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’ | The Verge Microsoft AI CEO says Anthropic is making AI risks worse | Decoder Bill Gates has a good feeling about AI | The Verge (2024) The risks of AI are real but manageable | Bill Gates (2023) 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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
19 Oct

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

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, has a lot of thoughts about AI, tech, and privacy. Those issues are driving a big and maybe kind of unexpected political realignment — and with the midterms coming up next month, and early voting already underway in a lot of places, the stakes are pretty high right now. And as he notes, some problems are just collective action problems that require a government. We can’t solve everything one at a time, or even one state at a time. And of course, I had to ask him: Are the Bears gonna stay in Illinois? Links: How ordinary Utahns fought the biggest data center in the world | The Verge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be ‘less evil’ | Decoder YouTube CEO: ‘We’re focused on internal safety efforts’ | CNN Pritzker signs landmark AI regulation bill | Capitol News Illinois Pritzker establishes AI Cabinet amid calls for regulation | NPR Ilinois 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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by [TK EDITOR]. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
17 Oct

Why Elon Musk wants to sell you cell service

My guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing SpaceX’s plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, the company agreed to buy a big chunk of low-band spectrum in its bid to build “the world’s most advanced mobile network.” So I wanted to dig into whether SpaceX can pull this off, why Walt thinks the existing telecoms have fumbled their response to Starlink’s growing threat, and what happens when Elon Musk’s rocket company jumps headfirst into a business everyone loves to hate. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: SpaceX announces plan to become a ‘major mobile carrier’ | The Verge SpaceX has a plan. Do the telcos? | LightShed Partners EchoStar offloads satellite spectrum to SpaceX for $17 billion | The Verge FCC Grants SpaceX Approval for 15,000 Direct-to-Device Satellites | Via Satellite AT&T CEO says Elon Musk's SpaceX phone strategy not "viable" | Axios SpaceX Sends Telecom Providers a Shot Across the Bow | WSJ Verizon: No to an MVNO with Starlink | Fierce Network 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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Eileen Felix. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Trailer

Welcome to Decoder

It may seem like a strange time to launch a podcast about business when the pandemic has frozen so many things in place, but the future is still coming — people are building technology and making policy for it right now. And it’s important to talk to them. This is Decoder with Nilay Patel. New episodes coming November 10th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nilay Patel

Host
Matt Strauss

Guest
Joey Brookhart

Guest
Kevin Roose

Guest
Bill Gates

Guest
J. B. Pritzker

Guest
Walter Piecyk

Guest
Ronan Farrow

Guest
Peter Kafka

Guest
Hayden Field

Guest

4.8

out of 5

8 Ratings

Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas — and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.