Decoder with Nilay Patel

My guest today is Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. You may have noticed Bill in the news more lately — he’s been on something of a tour for the past few months talking about AI risk, and how crucial it is that we start taking this seriously.

So I was excited to sit down with him and really dig into this subject. I came with many questions, about AI policy, the technical aspects of alignment, and what it means for future generations that we’re building something this disruptive and potentially dangerous.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical. | Bill Gates

"OG" Bill Gates returns to wage war on AI risks | Axios

Bill Gates’s blunt warning on AI | The Ezra Klein Show

Ben Horowitz criticizes Bill Gates, Anthropic over AI safety | All-In Pod

Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’ | The Verge

Microsoft AI CEO says Anthropic is making AI risks worse | Decoder

Bill Gates has a good feeling about AI | The Verge (2024)

The risks of AI are real but manageable | Bill Gates (2023)

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Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was 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

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, has a lot of thoughts about AI, tech, and privacy. Those issues are driving a big and maybe kind of unexpected political realignment — and with the midterms coming up next month, and early voting already underway in a lot of places, the stakes are pretty high right now. And as he notes, some problems are just collective action problems that require a government. We can’t solve everything one at a time, or even one state at a time.

And of course, I had to ask him: Are the Bears gonna stay in Illinois?

Links:

How ordinary Utahns fought the biggest data center in the world | The Verge

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be ‘less evil’ | Decoder

YouTube CEO: ‘We’re focused on internal safety efforts’ | CNN

Pritzker signs landmark AI regulation bill | Capitol News Illinois

Pritzker establishes AI Cabinet amid calls for regulation | NPR Ilinois

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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by [TK EDITOR]. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing SpaceX’s plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, the company agreed to buy a big chunk of low-band spectrum in its bid to build “the world’s most advanced mobile network.”

So I wanted to dig into whether SpaceX can pull this off, why Walt thinks the existing telecoms have fumbled their response to Starlink’s growing threat, and what happens when Elon Musk’s rocket company jumps headfirst into a business everyone loves to hate.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

SpaceX announces plan to become a ‘major mobile carrier’ | The Verge

SpaceX has a plan. Do the telcos? | LightShed Partners

EchoStar offloads satellite spectrum to SpaceX for $17 billion | The Verge

FCC Grants SpaceX Approval for 15,000 Direct-to-Device Satellites | Via Satellite

AT&T CEO says Elon Musk's SpaceX phone strategy not "viable" | Axios

SpaceX Sends Telecom Providers a Shot Across the Bow | WSJ

Verizon: No to an MVNO with Starlink | Fierce Network

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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Eileen Felix. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, I’m talking with Benn Jordan, musician, YouTuber, researcher, and investigative journalist. In the last couple of years, Benn has become a high-profile face in the creator and media spaces for his work investigating Flock Safety, the maker of automatic license plate readers and the software that powers them.

Benn recently testified in front of Congress at a hearing dedicated to Flock and other ALPR systems. So of course I wanted to dig into all of that with Benn, not just because of his role as a Flock critic, but because he’s also become in some ways the face of a new front in the broader debate about surveillance and privacy.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

Benn Jordan testifies in front of Senate | Benn Jordan (YouTube)

Flock values their privacy. Oh well | Benn Jordan (YouTube)

We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds | Benn Jordan (YouTube)

Lawmakers introduce multiple laws to curb Flock | 404 Media

The fight over Flock and other ALPRs | The Verge

Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras | Politico

Cities terminate Flock contracts at record pace in August | Ars Technica

Flock to cut several hundred jobs amid backlash | Reuters

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’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was 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

Hey everybody, it’s Nilay. We’re off today for the holiday, and we’ll be back this Thursday with new episodes. In the meantime, we wanted to revisit a conversation from earlier this year I had with investigative journalist and New Yorker contributor Ronan Farrow, all about the in-depth feature on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman he co-authored with Andrew Marantz.

The conversation holds up remarkably well, and I think it tells us a lot about the current moment, as calls for meaningful federal AI oversight have ground to a halt yet again. Enjoy.

Links:

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? | The New Yorker

Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman’s ‘unconstrained’ relationship with the truth | Decoder

Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesn’t kill everyone? | Decoder

Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety | The Verge

Here’s what AI leaders are saying about Trump’s new safety plan | 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 Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. The show is 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