It seems strange that the tools we have for creating synthetic media are much more restrictive about what we can create than the platform that host and distribute the resulting material. My column on YouTube opening its doors to deepfakes today: platformer.news/p/youtube-open…

New from me: Etsy secretly banned the phrase “from the river to the sea” on sellers’ wares, and some employees aren’t happy.

A story about content moderation in wartime: platformer.news/p/how-banning-…

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week, FTC Chair Lina Khan on regulating AI, open vs. closed development, and when she's going to get around to suing X. PLUS: We build our first GPTs, and Kevin talks to one of the ApeFest attendees who got his eyes burned nytimes.com/2023/11/10/pod…

I tried out Humane's long-awaited new AI pin. While there are some undoubtedly novel new features in its interfaces, I think 'AI hardware' may turn out to be a dead end

platformer.news/p/humane-pins-…

From people to servers, Elon Musk is borrowing from across his empire to build Grok. Zoë Schiffer and I report: platformer.news/p/how-musk-is-…

I wrote about the experience of building a custom GPT (in my case, a copy editor) and how OpenAI is paving a path toward powerful AI agents, for better and for worse platformer.news/p/how-openai-i…

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week, my trip to the White House and the debate over how to regulate AI. Then, copyright expert Rebecca Tushnet on whether artists have a fighting chance against image generators training on their work. And finally: HatGPT nytimes.com/2023/11/03/pod…

I wrote about the argument that this week’s AI regulations represent “regulatory capture” and make the case that if even Elon Musk is asking the government to do something, we have every right to mandate a little transparency. platformer.news/p/the-case-for…

I asked Arati Prabhakar, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, how the federal government was thinking about the debate in AI between open-source and closed models. Here’s what she told me platformer.news/p/biden-seeks-…

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week, we discuss the states’ lawsuit against Meta over child safety. Then, YouTube legend Marques Brownlee joins us to discuss how to succeed there in 2023. And finally, we use DALL-E 3 to make HOT DADS. nytimes.com/2023/10/27/pod…

One year after Elon Musk let that sink in, an elegy for the platform that was — and some notes on the one that is poised to succeed it. With Zoë Schiffer platformer.news/p/twitter-is-d…

Let’s talk about the big new lawsuit against Meta over child safety. platformer.news/p/the-states-s…

At a time when the pace of AI development feels hard to grasp, I suggest using a text-to-image generator like DALL-E 3. However you feel about synthetic media, the pace of improvement is readily apparent from a single prompt platformer.news/p/how-to-see-t…

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week, three new ways of understanding AI models. THEN: who's the real techno-optimist?? And finally, how we're using AI to read ancient scrolls 👀 nytimes.com/2023/10/20/pod…

I wrote about Discord’s fascinating experiment in trying to rehabilitate wayward teenage trolls. It’s a welcome reminder that trust and safety teams can innovate ➡️ platformer.news/p/inside-disco…

I wrote about the seemingly impossible challenge of moderating content in wartime. platformer.news/p/why-no-one-c…

In her first interview on the subject, former Twitter engineer Yao Yue talks to Zoë Schiffer about getting the National Labor Relations Board to file a complaint against X alleging that it illegally fired her over a tweet. platformer.news/p/how-one-form…

It’s Hard Fork Friday!! This week, is news legal on Threads???? Then, Kevin narrowly avoids an orgy at a predictions markets conference. And finally, Osmo CEO Alex Wiltschko joins to discuss his quest to build an AI that can smell 👃🏻 nytimes.com/2023/10/13/pod…

How might AI gradually replace the internet we know today? I wrote about Raycast, GPT-4, and the glimpse they offer of life after the web platformer.news/p/how-to-use-f…

I wrote about some recent cases of deceptive audio and video on platforms and wondered whether Meta’s Oversight Board is taking the right case. platformer.news/p/should-meta-…