AI will fix everything, right? In this episode, friend of The Verge (and Waveform co-host) David Imel joins Nilay and David to talk all about Alexa Plus, and the AI-powered voice assistant Amazon thinks can do everything from turn on your lights to order your friend an Uber. The hosts also talk about the other gadgets of the week, from the wild new Sigma BF ... Show More
Sep 1
What the AI overlords get wrong about being alive
Elizabeth Lopatto recently wrote about Mark Zuckerberg's 6,500-word AI manifesto in her piece, "Mark Zuckerberg doesn't understand how to live." Today, she joins guest host David Imel and senior wearables reviewer Victoria Song for a freewheeling discussion about what happens whe ... Show More
40m 53s
Aug 31
Can Fairphone survive the US market
Skyrocketing RAM prices put a spotlight on product longevity and repairability, which makes this a particularly apt time for Fairphone to launch its first smartphone sold directly in the United States. Today, David Imel talks to CEO Raymond van Eck about the Fairphone 6+, the com ... Show More
25m 44s
Sep 2023
Alexa Gets an AI Makeover
Alexa was due for an upgrade, and now it has gotten one. This week, Amazon held its annual media event where it debuted a slate of new hardware, software, and services. The company reserved the spot at center stage for Alexa, the voice assistant powering all of Amazon’s smart hom ... Show More
34m 27s
Jan 2025
Tech Talk: AI Supremacy, TikTok’s Fate, and Crypto Decadence
Today, tech talk with an old friend of the pod, Kevin Roose of The New York Times, who is also host of the 'Hard Fork' podcast.
This is a show about everything. And it’s going to remain a show about everything because I’m a little bit interested in everything. But one cost of th ... Show More
1h 2m
Sep 2019
Wed. 09/25 - It's Alexas All The Way Down!
Amazon’s hardware event gives us more Alexa in just about anything you can think of, Oculus has some news on the VR front, the 2020 iPhones might echo the iPhone 4 design, and those dog like robots from Boston Dynamics are finally leaving the lab, but to adopt one, you need to th ... Show More
16m 6s
Sep 2023
Meta’s Quest 3, AI chatbots and Ray-Ban smart glasses
This week, it’s Meta’s turn to highlight AI during its device event. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn dive into all of the news from Meta’s Connect 2023 event, where it unveiled Meta AI and accompanying celebrity-powered chatbots. Oh yah, and it introduced the Meta Quest 3 ... Show More
1h 6m
Mar 2023
Verified Badges are Gone and AI gets Too Real
This week, Marques, Andrew, and David discuss each of the products from the latest Dope Tech video before jumping into a ton of weird celebrity AI deepfakes that we can all agree are way too weird. After that, they talk about how Elon Musk has promised a bunch of changes to Twitt ... Show More
1h 35m
Aug 2025
GPT-5 Arrives, and We Try the New Alexa+
<p>This week, OpenAI released its much-anticipated flagship model, GPT-5. We break down what we know about the upgrade, drawing from our initial testing and a special news briefing with Sam Altman. Then, we explain why we were underwhelmed by Amazon’s new Alexa+, which is powered ... Show More
1h 12m