Decoder with Nilay Patel The Verge

IBM made some announcements this week about its plans for the next ten years of quantum computing: there are new chips, new computers, and new APIs. Quantum computers could in theory entirely revolutionize the way we think of computers… if, that is, someone can build one that’s actually useful.

Jerry Chow, director of quantum systems at IBM, explains to Decoder just how close the field is to actual utility.  

Links: 
What is a Qubit? | Microsoft Azure
IBM Quantum Summit 2023
The Wired Guide to Quantum Computing
IBM Makes Quantum Computing Available on IBM Cloud to Accelerate Innovation (2016)
Multiple Patterning - Semiconductor Engineering
IBM Quantum Roadmap (2023)
That viral LK-99 ‘superconductor’ isn’t a superconductor after all - The Verge
NIST to Standardize Encryption Algorithms That Can Resist Attack by Quantum Computers

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23752312

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today I’m talking with Avishai Abrahami, the CEO of Wix. You might know Wix as a website builder. It’s a competitor to WordPress and Squarespace. Tons of sites across the web run on Wix. But the web is changing rapidly, and Wix’s business today is less about web publishing, and more about providing software to help business owners run their entire companies. It’s fascinating, and Avishai has built a fascinating structure inside of Wix to make all that happen.  
Wix is also an Israeli company. Avishai joined from the company’s headquarters in Tel Aviv. And I’ll just tell you right up front that we talked about Israel’s war with Hamas and its impact on the company. And that this conversation was not always comfortable. But the main theme of our conversation was, of course, the future of the web, especially a web that seems destined to be overrun by cheap AI-generated SEO spam.
Links: 

Doom runs on Excel

Wix will let you build an entire website using only AI prompts

Wix.com Launches Wix ADI and Delivers the Future of website creation

YouTube is going to start cracking down on AI clones of musicians

The people who ruined the internet

The restaurant nearest Google

OpenAI can’t tell if something was written by AI after all

AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born

Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena on why anyone makes a website in 2023

What will changing Section 230 mean for the internet?



Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23742026

Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright. 
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What actually happened at OpenAI in the last three days? Decoder host and Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks with Verge editors Alex Heath and David Pierce to break it down and try to work out what's next.

Further reading:


Sam Altman fired as CEO of OpenAI

OpenAI’s new CEO is Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear

OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO

Emmett Shear named new CEO of OpenAI by board

Microsoft hires former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Hundreds of OpenAI employees threaten to resign and join Microsoft

Sam Altman is still trying to return as OpenAI CEO


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Credits:

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

Today’s episode was produced by Liam James, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. It was edited by Andru Marino. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, I’m talking to Jim Rowan, the CEO of Volvo Cars. Now, Jim’s only been at Volvo for a short time. He took over in 2022 after a decades-long career in the consumer electronics industry. Before Volvo, his two longest stints were at BlackBerry, whose QNX software is used in tons of cars, and then at Dyson, which once tried and failed to make an electric car. Jim and I talked a lot about how that unique experience has influenced how he thinks about the transformational changes happening in the world of cars.

For Volvo, the stakes are high. The company has pledged to be all-electric by the end of the decade, and Jim is also making some very different bets on software and revenue than the rest of the car industry. Jim’s view is that automakers are undergoing three major shifts all at once: electrification, autonomy, and direct-to-consumer sales. With Volvo, Jim is trying to steer the ship through these changes and come out an EV-only carmaker on the other end.

Links:

Volvo plans to sell only electric cars by 2030

Volvo’s EX90 is a powerful computer that also happens to be an impeccably designed EV

Can Polestar design a new kind of car company?

The EV transition trips over its own cord

Volvo’s upcoming EVs join the Tesla Supercharger bandwagon

Future Volvo cars to run on Volvo operating system

Audi and Volvo will use Android as the operating system in upcoming cars

Volvo’s first EV will run native Android

The rest of the auto industry still loves CarPlay and Android Auto

The future of cars is a subscription nightmare

Everybody hates GM’s decision to kill Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for its EVs



Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23722862


Credits:

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

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve got a good one today. I’m talking to former President Barack Obama about AI, social networks, and how to think about democracy as both of those things collide. 

I sat down with Obama last week at his offices in Washington, DC, just hours after President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order about AI. You’ll hear Obama say he’s been talking to the Biden administration and leaders across the tech industry about AI and how best to regulate it. My idea here was to talk to Obama the constitutional law professor more than Obama the politician. So this one got wonky fast. 

You’ll also hear him say that he joined our show because he wanted to reach you, the Decoder audience, and get you all thinking about these problems. One of Obama’s worries is that the government needs insight and expertise to properly regulate AI, and you’ll hear him make a pitch for why people with that expertise should take a tour of duty in the government to make sure we get these things right.

Links: 

Biden releases AI executive order directing agencies to develop safety guidelines

Clarence Thomas really wants Congress to regulate Twitter moderation

Google CEO Sundar Pichai compares impact of AI to electricity and fire

Sam Altman sells superintelligent sunshine as protestors call for AGI pause

The Skokie case: How I came to represent the free speech rights of Nazis

Disinformation is a threat to our democracy

World leaders are gathering at the U.K.'s AI Summit. Doom is on the agenda.

George R.R. Martin and other authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

A conversation with Bing’s chatbot left me deeply unsettled

Introducing the AI Mirror Test, which very smart people keep failing


Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23712912

Credits: 
Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright. 
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today I'm talking with Golnar Khosrowshahi, the founder and CEO of Reservoir Media, a newer record label that I think looks a lot like the future of the music industry. As Golnar explains, Reservoir thinks of individual songs as assets, and after acquiring them, the company sets about monetizing those assets in various ways. This is a copyright-based business in an age where copyright is under a lot of pressure — from TikTok, generative AI, and all of the now-familiar threats to the music business.

If you're a Decoder listener, you know that I love thinking about the music industry. Whatever technology does to music, it does to everything else five years later. So paying attention to music is the best way I know to get ahead of the curve. I also just love music. Golnar is herself a musician. She obviously cares about music a lot, and she's clearly given a lot of thought to what happens next. So this was a great conversation. 

Links:

Drake’s AI clone is here — and Drake might not be able to stop him

Hipgnosis made mega deals for song catalogs. Its future Is unclear.

Reservoir acquires iconic Tommy Boy Music for $100 million

Ed Sheeran wins copyright case over Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’

Spotify is reportedly making major changes to its royalty model

Hipgnosis shareholders vote against continuation of UK-listed music investment trust

AI can actually help protect creativity and copyrights

Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright

No Fakes Act wants to protect actors and singers from unauthorized AI replicas

‘Glocalisation’ of music streaming within and across Europe


Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23702539

Credits: 

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

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices