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News at the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 5PM Pacific.
Platformer
• Casey Newton
In winning a $167 million judgment against NSO Group, the company has struck a significant blow against illegal surveillance
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The company is dropping an effort to separate itself from its nonprofit parent — but courts may still be skeptical of its new plan
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Meta's CEO has some surprising takes on "healthy" bot companions, loneliness as a market opportunity, and that whole benchmark cheating controversy
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Meta AI, ChatGPT, and the dangers of being glazed and confused
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Celebrities, minors, and sexually explicit chats are a dangerous combination — a lesson the company is determined to learn the hard way
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The beleaguered body’s influence has been waning — and now its independence may be, too
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Revelations that the company pursued exclusive deals for Gemini are giving the government fresh ammunition just as the trial heats up
Platformer
• Casey Newton
After two blistering losses in court, a new era for the internet may be coming into view
Platformer
• Casey Newton
And other revelations from day two of Meta's antitrust trial. PLUS: the OpenAI social network
Platformer
• Casey Newton
More than four years after it was first filed, the government's case is only getting harder to prove
Platformer
• Casey Newton
From Meta to Nvidia, tech CEOs are paying the president to get the outcomes they want — and it's working
Platformer
• Casey Newton
"Llama con" just got a whole new meeting
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Seemingly caught gaming a key benchmark, and defending allegations it taught to the test, Meta sees a rocky launch for its latest AI model
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Trump is holding out ByteDance's app as a bargaining chip. Will China take the bait?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Scrapers caused the online encyclopedia's bandwidth to increase by 50 percent last year — and its plan to fight back may not be enough
Platformer
• Casey Newton
A new book offers the most thorough explanation to date. Would it have mattered if we knew at the time?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Exclusive data from Anthropic about Claude usage finds that AI is both automating and augmenting human labor — and people are increasingly using it to educate themselves
Platformer
• Casey Newton
A parable about responsibility in the AI age
Platformer
• Casey Newton
New research from OpenAI shows that heavy chatbot usage is correlated with loneliness and reduced socialization. Will AI companies learn from social networks' mistakes?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Tech platforms got a rare opportunity to present President Trump with a wishlist — and they're using DeepSeek's success to push for controversial policies
Platformer
• Casey Newton
New data from Adobe offers evidence for a big shift away from traditional search engines. Will the internet's vast public commons survive?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Crowdsourced moderation is better than nothing — but how much better remains an open question
Platformer
• Casey Newton
One has been banned by the federal government and awaits a forced sale. The other keeps shipping
Platformer
• Casey Newton
What the hype cycle around a new Chinese AI model tells us about the state of competition in agents
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The next phase of AI's takeover of search offers plenty of links to the web — but will anyone click?
Platformer
• Casey Newton
For companies that rely on Google, the company's collapse offers a warning
Platformer
• Casey Newton
PLUS: What AI policy is for
Platformer
• Casey Newton
In creating an age assurance API, the company raises hopes that platforms can keep kids safer without sacrificing everyone else's privacy
Platformer
• Casey Newton
Making app stores verify kids' ages could save everyone a lot of grief — but some worry it will introduce new risks
Platformer
• Casey Newton
The company once warned users when they might be seeing low-quality results — but weeks before the 2024 election, the feature was quietly turned off
