Highlights

 

Splitting the AI Fork 🍴

10/25/2022 • #270

Not long after Getty Images comes out against AI-generated art, a major competitor decides to wholeheartedly embrace it—including as a source for royalties.

If it feels like a month ago that I was mentioning how much I respected Getty Images for drawing a line in the sand on AI art, that’s because it was. But one of the… Read More

10/24/2022

Pulling a Bono 📲 : 

In its fight to win some ground on the messaging ecosystem, Google appears to be intentionally borrowing from the stupidest idea U2 ever came up with—upsetting the iPhone user base.

#269

10/20/2022

Meet Lex ✍️ : 

The new AI-helped word processor Lex has been getting a lot of attention this week, and I have to admit I was curious how the word processor felt about all the attention, so I did an interview. With Lex.

#268

10/18/2022

Dressing Up The News 🥗 : 

On Olivia Wilde, Kanye West, and why a solid news diet needs to go beyond special salad dressing. Not every important story will have an interesting hook.

#267

10/17/2022

Podcast Risk 🎙 : 

The consolidation of the podcasting space, as highlighted by the plight of Gimlet, raises concerns about whether large acquirers are as committed to the creative work as much as the reach.

#266

10/13/2022

Fake Leg Empire 🦵 : 

Why is Meta spending so much money trying to make legs happen? And what lessons can you learn from this so that your own projects maintain a reasonable scale?

#265

10/11/2022

The Plastic McRib? 🎃 : 

McDonald’s brings back one of its standby Happy Meal classics just in time for Halloween, which makes one wonder why they got rid of them in the first place. They should offer them every year from now on.

#264

10/10/2022

Burning the Beans ☕️ : 

The ready-to-retire Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has had a respectable career, but his hard-line stance against unionization, and the fact that he’s making it about him, seems destined to leave a permanent mark on his legacy.

#263

10/06/2022

No More Walled Gardens 🪴 : 

Amid Twitter’s forthcoming purchase, I find myself wondering if platforms like Substack, which appear to be moving in a walled-garden direction, can be discouraged from doing so for the public good. We saw the mistakes of the Web 2.0 era. No need to repeat them.

#262

10/04/2022

The Power to Change Things 🏛 : 

Contrasting the tough actions of the FCC in light of a Supreme Court case that potentially threatens Section 230. It’s a great reminder of the power the government wields to change our communications.

#261

10/03/2022

Why I Signed ✍️ : 

A quick explanation of why I broke a decades-old rule for myself and signed an open letter to support libraries and the Internet Archive.

#260

09/29/2022

Fast Hack 🔓 : 

The popular business magazine Fast Company is smarting from a brutal hack this week—an incident that highlights the need for stronger security, but also a strong dose of empathy.

#259

09/27/2022

It Came From an Old Patch 🐞 : 

A decades-old workaround in the Linux kernel held back the full potential of modern AMD chips—until recently, when it was caught by AMD.

#258

09/26/2022

Shoryuken Slots 🕹 : 

Trying to make sense of the fact that the Virginia Lottery now offers an online lottery game based on Street Fighter II.

#257

09/22/2022

Not Too Artificial 🖼 : 

Getty Images sets a line in the sand on AI-generated images, citing copyright concerns. The image it presents of itself to its customers might also be a factor.

#256

09/20/2022

Serial Disconnect 🎙 : 

Adnan Syed’s conviction was vacated, and a podcasting giant returns to the case after many years away. What should we make of the sour feelings some listeners have about Serial?

#255

09/19/2022

The Suicide Cable 🔌 : 

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns the public about a very specific kind of cable being sold on Amazon that has a telling nickname.

#254

09/15/2022

Work History Go Poof 💨 : 

Legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher reveals that even she is not immune to having her old work removed from the internet by short-sighted content management.

#253

09/13/2022

Pixelbook on Pause 💻 : 

Google’s decision to stop development on a new Pixelbook and disband the team working on the hardware line highlights how the strategy never gelled—despite the original model still having a head-turning design all these years later.

#252

09/12/2022

Wiki-Defense 📚 : 

A high-profile history and politics YouTuber takes direct aim at Wikipedia. I’ve taken my own jabs over the years—but I’ll be quick to defend it.

#251