logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2018
42m 26s

Maran Nelson scares us about AI

The Verge
About this episode
Clara Labs cofounder and CEO Maran Nelson tells us there is real reason to be worried about AI — and not for the reasons that science fiction has trained us to expect. Clara’s approach to AI is innocuous to the point of being dull: it makes a virtual assistant that schedules meetings for people. (This week, it added a bunch of integrations designed to posit ... Show More
Up next
Aug 2018
Eoghan McCabe chats about bots
The hype cycle for bots exploded in 2016 as developers poured time and money into the dream of personal digital assistants. Facebook and Microsoft announced major investments into conversational user interfaces, and Slack launched a fund to capitalize on the bots hoping to build ... Show More
46m 10s
Aug 2018
Pandora’s Roger Lynch makes us a playlist
Breaking down music into its component parts helped Pandora build personalized music playlists years before services like Spotify even existed. Could taking a similar approach with podcasts help the streaming-audio company regain the users it has lost to newer services? That’s th ... Show More
45m 39s
Jul 2018
Taggart Matthiesen takes us for a ride
Should ride-sharing companies build a “quiet mode”? “We have thought about it,” Taggart Matthiesen, head of product for autonomous driving for Lyft, told me. “I think it’s interesting. At some point, we may play around with that idea, but that’s unfortunately not a feature at thi ... Show More
47m 44s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 26
Tick Tock, TikTok
After more than five years of backing and forthing, secret meetings and loud screeds, it appears the fate of TikTok in the US has finally been decided. Maybe. There are still a lot of unknowns, but we're pretty sure we know the bones of the deal — and we know which of President T ... Show More
1h 36m
Jul 2024
Gadgets are getting weird — and so are iPhone homescreens
Nilay, Alex, and David talk about what's happening on social media — and around the web — in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Then they talk about their early impression of Apple's public betas, from the redesigned homescreens to the iPad's fancy new math ... Show More
1h 21m
Mar 2025
Apple's chip bumps, big and small
Apple's new gadgets this week were pretty minor updates, so of course we talk about them for a long time. Nilay and David are joined by The Verge's Jake Kastrenakes, and the three hosts discuss the latest iPad, iPad Air, MacBook Air, and Mac Studio. All three have... a lot of tho ... Show More
1h 53m
Feb 2025
The ups and downs of the iPhone 16E
Lots of gadget news this week! David, Jake Kastrenakes, and Allison Johnson start by talking about the iPhone 16E, which is both the cheapest compelling iPhone in a long time and a deeply odd addition to Apple's phone lineup. They also discuss the end of the Humane AI Pin, the la ... Show More
1h 52m
Jun 2025
Truth, lies, and the Trump Phone
Starting a wireless carrier is easier than you might think. So is building a half-decent Android phone! But doing all the things Trump Mobile promises, at the price and on the schedule it says, seems awfully close to impossible. While Nilay's out, David and Jake chat with The Ver ... Show More
1h 42m
Nov 2024
The PS5 Pro made us sit closer to the screen
Nilay and David talk about the election, and how The Vergecast plans to cover and talk about the next four years of the Trump administration. But only for a minute. Then it's onto our reviews of the new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro, which reset Apple's desktop and laptop lineup in an ... Show More
1h 39m
Mar 2025
Trump's confusing crusade against Big Tech
Starlink is in the White House, Siri is still bad, Pebble is back, up is down, everything is chaos. In this episode, Nilay and David start the show by running through some big gadget news, from a Siri-related shakeup at Apple to the new Google Pixel 9A. After that, The Verge's La ... Show More
1h 54m
Mar 2025
The fake promise of better Siri
Big tech companies are forever making promises about the future. And you might (or might not) be surprised how often they don't come true. On this episode, Nilay and David start by discussing the good and bad of Apple's new iPads and Macs, before diving into the supposedly AI-pow ... Show More
1h 47m
Mar 2025
OpenAI has a Studio Ghibli problem
In this episode, we do a Studio Ghibli-like rendition of The Vergecast. First, Nilay and David discuss some big news in the gadget world, from the mysteriously viral midrange Canon camera to the upgrades we're expecting out of Apple in the next few months. Plus, is it over for Am ... Show More
2h 4m
Jun 2024
Apple and OpenAI make a deal
The Verge's Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce discuss takeaways from WWDC, this week's gadget news, and Elon Musk dropping his lawsuit against OpenAI. Further reading: Apple and OpenAI aren’t paying each other yet, says Bloomberg MKBHD interviewed Tim Cook. Tim Cook is ‘n ... Show More
1h 37m