Jamie Simonoff, founder of Ring, won't let me call him the CEO. He says his title is and always has been 'chief inventor.' His mission with Ring is to make the world safer, and he has a pretty expansive view of what that means. He told The Verge last month he thought Ring could 'almost zero out crime' in some neighborhoods within a year or two.
That's a big promise — and also potentially a very troubling one, as we face the erosion of privacy and a surveillance panopticon that only ever seems to expand.
Links:
Ring CEO: Cameras can almost ‘zero out crime’ within 12 months | The Verge
Ring plans to scan everyone’s face at the door | The Washington Post
Ring’s Search Party is on by default; should you opt out? | The Verge
Ring now works with video surveillance company Flock | The Verge
US spy agencies getting a one-stop shop to buy personal data | The Intercept
Do Video Doorbells Really Prevent Crime? | Scientific American
Ding Dong: How Ring went from Shark Tank Reject to Everyone’s Front Door | Amazon
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Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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1:10:17
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1:10:17
The company at the heart of the AI bubble
So a lot of people think AI is a bubble. So we sent Verge senior reporter Liz Lopatto out to report on the AI bubble — whether it's real, how it might pop, and what all of this means. She’s joining the show today to talk about a particular company that sits right in the middle of all of it. That company is called CoreWeave, and Liz has spent considerable time diving into its history, its financials, and the truly fascinating story that all of that tells us about the modern AI boom.
Links:
CoreWeave CEO plays down concerns about AI-spending bubble | WSJ
Why debt funding is ratcheting up the risks of the AI boom | NYT
Inside the data centers that train AI and drain the electrical grid | The New Yorker
How a crypto miner transformed Into the multibillion-dollar backbone of AI | Wired
CoreWeave signs $14 billion AI infrastructure deal with Meta | Reuters
CoreWeave, Nvidia sign $6.3 billion cloud computing capacity order | Reuters
Nvidia turned CoreWeave into major player in AI years before saving its IPO | CNBC
CoreWeave inks $6.5 billion deal with OpenAI | CNBC
‘Project Osprey:’ How Nvidia seeded CoreWeave’s rise | The Information
For this startup, Nvidia GPUs are currency | The Verge
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 Kate Cox and Nick Statt and 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
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37:56
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37:56
Sir Tim Berners-Lee doesn’t think AI will destroy the web
Today, I’m talking with a very special guest: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Tim is a legend in the history of the internet. He created HTML and HTTP. It doesn’t really get more foundational than that — Tim was there at the very very beginning of the modern internet.
He also has a new memoir out called This Is For Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web. So Tim joined the show to talk about the state of the web, as well as his current work at the decentralization startup Inrupt, and, of course, where AI fits into the conversation.
Read the full interview on The Verge.
Links:
This Is For Everyone | Macmillan
The Semantic Web | W3C
Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, now wants to save it | The New Yorker
Why I gave the world wide web away for free | The Guardian
Amazon, Perplexity kick off the great AI web browser fight | The Verge
Web War III | The Verge
Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ | The Verge
Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default | The Verge
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 Kate Cox and Nick Statt and 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
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55:25
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55:25
How AI is fueling an existential crisis in education
We keep hearing over and over that generative AI is causing massive problems in education, both in K-12 schools and at the college level. Lots of people are worried about students using ChatGPT to cheat on assignments, and that is a problem. But really, the issues go a lot deeper, to the very philosophy of education itself.
We sat down and talked to a lot of teachers — you’ll hear many of their voices throughout this episode — and we kept hearing one cri du coeur again and again: What are we even doing here? What’s the point?
Links:
Majority of high school students use gen AI for schoolwork | College Board
Quarter of teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork | Pew Research
Your brain on ChatGPT | MIT Media Lab
My students think it’s fine to cheat with AI. Maybe they’re on to something. | Vox
How children understand & learn from conversational AI | McGill University
‘File not Found’ | The Verge
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.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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39:37
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39:37
Lyft CEO David Risher on paying drivers more and the shift to robotaxis
David Risher was on Lyft's board for years, but only stepped in as CEO in 2023, to help turn the company around. He's done pretty well so far, but there are still a lot of open questions for him to face. It's not just competition for riders and drivers Lyft has to deal with; it’s the future of transportation itself, and new AI tools that might take apps like Lyft out of the equation entirely.
Links:
Lyft’s first ‘robotaxis’ are live in Atlanta | The Verge
Tensor robocar will be “Lyft ready” out of the factory | Engadget
Congrats, Lyft | The Verge
Lyft’s AI assistant offers drivers advice on how to make money | The Verge
Lyft gets toehold in Europe with FreeNow acquisition | The Verge
Lyft co-founders to step down as company struggles | New York Times
How Silicon Valley enshittified the internet | 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.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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.
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