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 ...
Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava on why push-button AI is “insulting” to musicians
Today, I’m talking with Kakul Srivastava, CEO of music creation platform Splice, which is one of the biggest marketplaces around for loops and samples. You can just go sign up, pay the money, and download these loops to try to make pop hits all day long. Take, for instance, Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso, which was composed almost entirely out of Splice loops.
Now, if you’re a Decoder listener, you know that some of my favorite conversations are with people building technology products for creatives, and that I am obsessed with how technology changes the music industry, because it feels like whatever happens to music happens to everything else five years later. So this one was really interesting, because Splice is all wrapped in all of that.
Links:
Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso highlights the way new music is made | Bloomberg
Major record labels sue AI company behind ‘BBL Drizzy’ | Verge
Splice CEO’s message for AI sceptics? “Trust the artists” | MusicTech
Splice launches voice recording on Splice Mobile at SXSW | Splice
OpenAI & Google ask government to let them train AI on content they don’t own | Verge
AI Drake just set an impossible legal trap for Google | Verge
Pharrell Williams: $7.3 million Blurred Lines verdict threatens all artists | Verge
Lady Gaga, nostalgia, and the ‘reheated nachos’ phenomenon in pop culture | Her World
AI music startups say copyright violation is just rock and roll | Verge
Suno CEO says musicians don’t actually like making music | Vice
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/632036
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
--------
1:10:37
The movement to take down Tesla
Today we're talking about the Tesla Takedown protest movement, which has emerged as a way for people to express how deeply unhappy they are with Elon Musk installing himself as a not-so-shadow president who is tearing the federal government apart, leaving confusion and destruction in his wake.
Tesla's stock price is sinking, new car registrations and down, and hype around the company is fading rapidly. There's an opportunity there for the protestors, and I asked Ed Niedermeyer on the show to help me pull it all apart.
Links:
Is Tesla cooked? | Verge
Elon Musk Has Become Too Toxic for YouTube | New York Magazine
‘Tesla Takedown’ wants to hit Elon Musk where it hurts | Verge
The Tesla protests are getting bigger — and rowdier | Verge
‘Tesla Takedown’ protesters planning ‘biggest day of action’ | Verge
Tesla registrations — and public opinion — are in a free fall | Verge
Multiple Teslas set on fire in Las Vegas and Kansas City | Verge
Mark Rober’s Tesla video was more than a little weird | Verge
Tesla sales fell year-over-year for the first time | Verge
The cybertruck isn’t all it’s cracked up to be | Verge
Tesla autopilot, FSD linked to hundreds of crashes, dozens of deaths | Verge
Tesla crash victims’ families worried about Musk influence on investigations | Verge
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
--------
51:05
How Trump's tariff chaos is already changing global trade
I'm talking to Evan Smith, who started Altana in 2019 because he predicted the first wave of globalized manufacturing and trade would end, and that companies would want new powerful tools to adapt their supply chains as the world grew more complex. Here in 2025, that looks like a pretty good bet — even if the way it's playing out is more stressful and chaotic than anyone really wants it to be.
There are some big, unsettling ideas here, but talking about them directly and with clarity at least made me feel like I had a framework to understand the endless on-again, off-again news cycle on tariffs and trade.
Links:
Globalization 2.0 Manifesto | Altana
The ‘giant sucking sound’ of NAFTA | The Conversation
‘Offensive Realism’: The never-ending struggle for power | American Diplomacy (2002)
Foreign Affairs Big Mac I | NYT (1996)
The end of the Golden Arches Doctrine | Financial Times
Trump could scale back tariffs, Lutnick says | CNBC
China joined rule-based trading system — then broke the rules | Politico
Open Source and China: Inverting Copyright? | Wisconsin International Law Journal
How the US lost out on iPhone work | NYT
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
--------
1:11:26
Why the Take It Down Act is a not a law, but a weapon
Today, I’m talking to Verge policy editor Adi Robertson about a bill called the Take It Down Act, which is one in a long line of bills that would make it illegal to distribute non-consensual intimate imagery, or NCII. This is a real and devastating problem on the internet, and AI is just making it worse.
But Adi just wrote a long piece arguing that giving the Trump administration new powers over speech in this way would be a mistake. So in this episode, Adi and I really get into the details of the Take it Down Act, how it might be weaponized, and why we ultimately can’t trust anything the Trump administration says about wanting to solve this problem.
Links:
The Take It Down Act isn’t a law, it’s a weapon | Verge
A bill combatting the spread of AI deepfakes just passed the Senate | Verge
Welcome to the era of gangster tech regulation | Verge
FTC workers are getting terminated | Verge
Bluesky deletes AI protest video of Trump sucking Musk's toes | 404 Media
Trump supports Take It Down Act so he can silence critics | EFF
Scarlett Johansson calls for deepfake ban after AI video goes viral | Verge
The FCC is a weapon in Trump’s war on free speech | Decoder
Trolls have flooded X with graphic Taylor Swift AI fakes | Verge
Teen girls confront an epidemic of deepfake nudes in schools | NYT
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
--------
52:14
Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour on AI, press freedom, and the future of news
Almar Latour is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and also CEO of its parent company, Dow Jones — itself a part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Almar's been with the paper since the 90s, and now he's got insight into all the modern messes. He's made a big deal with OpenAI, while also suing Perplexity — all while building his own AI data products for Dow Jones customers.
He's also a strong defender of press freedom who fought to have Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich released from Russia after being imprisoned for more than a year — while News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch famously has deep ties to Trump and has overseen a vastly polarized and politicized era of news media.
Links:
Here are the WSJ journalists whose jobs were eliminated | Talking Biz News
OpenAI, WSJ parent strike content deal valued at over $250M | Wall Street Journal
News Corp sues Perplexity for ripping off WSJ, New York Post | The Verge
Dow Jones negotiates AI usage rights with 4,000 publishers | Nieman Lab
Rupert Murdoch joins Trump in Oval Office | The Hollywood Reporter
WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich is free | Wall Street Journal
Trump sues Iowa newspaper and top pollster | Reuters
The FCC is a weapon in Trump’s war on free speech | The Verge
CBS considers caving on Trump lawsuit to save Skydance merger | The Verge
Why The Atlantic signed a deal with OpenAI | Decoder
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/626229
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.
New Zealand