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Nilay Patel

Nilay Patel

Editor-in-Chief

When Nilay Patel was four years old, he drove a Chrysler into a small pond because he was trying to learn how the gearshift worked. Years later, he became a technology journalist. He has thus far remained dry.

Nilay was a co-founder of The Verge and the site's first Managing Editor before taking over as Editor-in-Chief. He also was the acting Managing Editor for the launch of Vox.com. Before that, he spent four years as Managing Editor of Engadget, where he drew upon his background as a lawyer to report and explain complex legal situations in everyday terminology — a niche that led to SAY Media naming Nilay one of 10 "voices that matter" in technology journalism.

Nilay co-hosts the Webby Award-winning Vergecast podcast, and has appeared on CNN, CNN International, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, Sky News, NHK, G4TV, TWiT, and many others. Nilay received an AB in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2003 and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2006.

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The voices of kids killed in school shootings are being recreated by AI to lobby elected officials for gun control.

The WSJ’s Joanna Stern reports on The Shotline, which uses AI from a company called ElevenLabs to recreate the voices of kids murdered in school shootings and have them call elected officials. Take some time with this one; there are infinite layers here.


Jay-Z, Instagram Dad.

Some things are universal.


The TikTok music situation, explained.

The longer the TikTok / UMG battle drags on, the more I think UMG’s leverage increases. Talked about it on Today, Explained with my pal Sean Rameswaram — and Cory Doctorow also joined this episode, so it’s a fun one.


DOJ’s Jonathan Kanter says the antitrust fight against Big Tech is just beginning

The assistant attorney general says ‘the resonance these issues have is something that I’ve never witnessed in my lifetime.’

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Swaggy AI Pope inspired the real Pope to learn more about AI.

The NYT has a profile of Father Paolo Benati, the “self-professed geek” leading the Vatican’s thinking about AI. A good piece but this jumped out:

[Pope] Francis — who Father Benanti said has become more literate on A.I., especially after an image of the pope sporting an A.I. designed white puffer coat went viral — then became more animated. The pope liked when the discussion was less about the technology, Father Benanti said, and more on “what he can do” to protect the vulnerable.

Last month Adobe’s Dana Rao told me the Swag Pope was a “catalyzing event” for AI safety. One puffer jacket really can change the world.


Welcome to the first Thursday Decoder.

This week marks the launch of Decoder’s second episode, which will explain big topics in the news with Verge reporters, experts, and other friends of the show. (The other Decoder you know and love, featuring big interviews with CEOs and others, now publishes every Monday.)

For this episode, I sat down with Verge Transportation Editor Andy Hawkins, to discuss a fantastic article he wrote called, “The EV Transition trips over its own cord.” It’s all about how the momentum for electric cars in America has started to hit serious snags, even as more people than ever before go fully electric. Check it out.


How are we feeling about EyeSight on the Vision Pro?

Now that people have Apple’s headset, there are so many funny videos and interesting thoughts about it floating around out there, but there’s almost no mention of the goofy low-res eyes on the front that are supposed to make other people feel like you’re looking at them. Did this just not work? I’m dying to know what you all think.


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“Wherever you get your podcasts.”

Anil Dash:

Being able to say, “wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement. Because what it represents is the triumph of exactly the kind of technology that’s supposed to be impossible: open, empowering tech that’s not owned by any one company, that can’t be controlled by any one company, and that allows people to have ownership over their work and their relationship with their audience.

I just said this on this week’s Decoder with Casey, but at this point it’s easy to see how algorithmic media platforms tend to push people and content into being more or less the same, but open distribution protocols like email and podcasts tend to allow for a much richer set of creators and formats. It feels like that’s an important lesson for the next generation of the internet!