Reed Albergotti is the tech editor at Semafor. He joins Big Technology Podcast to break down the week's news. We cover: 1) Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco 2) Why the U.S. And China relationship is softening 3) How AI technology is at the center of the thawing 4) How San Francisco cleaned itself up for Xi’s arrival 5) Sideshows 6) Web Summit update 7) Conversation with Chinese media 8) Stability AI audio chief leaves over copyright issues 9) Microsoft’s underwhelming Ignite event 10) Time to ...
Nov 17, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 236
Cathy Edwards is the VP of Search at Google. Edwards joins Big Technology Podcast to break some news about Google's two newest search features, including a more personalized experience called Follow and a labs product called Notes that allows users to leave feedback on search results. We also cover the state of Google's Search Generative Experience and how the company feels about SEOs after the latest controversy. Tune in for a deep, fun conversation about the cutting edge of Google's most impor...
Nov 15, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 235
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Big Technology Podcast hits 1 million downloads 2) OpenAI's developer feels looks like Apple 3) Building GPT bots with no code 4) OpenAI promises to pay for legal defense of copyright lawsuits 5) Andreessen Horowitz says copyrighted material is key to billions in value 6) Is "The Pin" the next smartphone? 7) Wait, are we buying the Pin? 8) The Pin's cool features 9) Elon Musk's AI is out 10) Is Micros...
Nov 10, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 234
Rob Copeland is the author of The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend and a New York Times reporter. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss his new book, offering a revealing look at Dalio's business success and the making of his legend. We talk extensively about Dalio's Dot Collector tool, which allowed his employees to rate each other in real-time on attributes like believability. Then we ask why so many would subject themselves to this type ...
Nov 08, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 233
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) SBF's conviction 2) Whether FTX will cover the full shortfall 3) Why OpenAI is more vulnerable than many think 4) Google's forthcoming Gemeni model 5) Where the real value in generative AI will land 6) Google's $2 billion Anthropic investment 7) Rebellion against AI doomers 8) Sovereign wealth funds investing in AI? 9) Jeff Bezos moves to Miami 10) The FTC's new revelations about Amazon 11) The Ozempi...
Nov 03, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 232
Tekedra Mawakana is the Co-CEO at Waymo. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the company's new partnership with Uber, which is making Waymo's driverless cars available through its app. We also discuss the safety of driverless vehicles, food delivery, Waymo's place within Alphabet, when these cars will drive on icy roads, the potential for driverless trucking, and more. Tune in for a revealing conversion with one of self-driving's top leaders. -- You can subscribe to Big Technology Premiu...
Nov 01, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 231
Gaurav Nemade was the founding product manager on LaMDA, Google's ChatGPT predecessor that never shipped. He explains why the product got stuck at Google in this first-ever episode of the new Big Tech War Stories podcast. This new show from Big Technology is available to premium subscribers and is debuting free on the Big Technology Podcast feed today. You can access the Big Technology launch special and get 50% off the monthly price here: https://bit.ly/bigtechnology or just visit bigtechnology...
Oct 30, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 230
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Ranjan's Taylor Swift costume 2) The broader picture on Big Tech earnings 3) Amazon's impressive earnings beat 4) Investor metaphysics 5) Microsoft's AI uplift 6) Tesla's lower margins 7) Meta's impressive revenue and user growth 8) Meta's TikTok clone is working. 9) SBF takes the stand 10) Cruise pulls its self-driving cars off the road 11) That's good? 12) Mark Zuckerberg vs. Sam Altman You can subs...
Oct 27, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 229
Brian McCullough is the host of Techmeme Ride Home and general partner of the Ride Home Fund. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a deep dive into the week's news and a fresh announcement from Big Technology. We cover: 1) Big Technology Premium 2) The state of Big Tech at the end of a year-end that started with layoffs 3) Is self-driving tech's biggest story this year? 4) Who is winning the AI battle among the incumbents? 5) What happened to crypto 6) Apple's new Super Scary event on 10/30 You c...
Oct 25, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 228
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) A quick review of Michael Lewis' SBF book 2) The impact of effective altruism on the tech industry 3) Why Apple and Jon Stewart are parting ways 4) China's Belt and Road Forum 5) How a multipolar world impacts Apple 6) Marc Andreessen's Techno-Optimism manifesto 7) Max Read's rebuttal to the manifesto 8) Twitter to charge $1 to some users for essential features 9) Twitter users decline since Musk took...
Oct 20, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 227
Molly White is a crypto researcher and critic. She joins Big Technology Podcast to break down the latest in the U.S. case against ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried. In this episode, we go through the charges, the defense, and the likely outcome. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss how SBF pulled this off, his ties to the 'effective altruism' movement (and what happens next for that cause), and where crypto goes from here. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐...
Oct 18, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 226
Reed Albergotti is the tech editor at Semafor. He joins Big Technology Podcast to break down the week's news. We cover: 1) Whether social media is useful during times of crisis. 2) Cancel culture "switcheroo" 3) The value of free speech in conflict 4) Is social media a moderating force after all? 5) Do we actually want news on Threads? 6) NPR leaves Twitter and finds it didn't matter 7) Reflections from the SBF trial 8) Is Apple building a search engine 9) OpenAI puts building human-level intell...
Oct 13, 2023•55 min•Ep. 225
Christopher Leonard is the author of The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy . Ranjan Roy is the author of Margins. Both join Big Technology Podcast for a special episode where we dig into the Federal Reserve's outsized role in the economy, how its recent moves may send asset prices spiraling, and whether we're heading toward a financial crisis as a result. Tune into a timely and important episode as the Fed's aggressive interest rate shock is starting to broa...
Oct 11, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 224
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Plans to attend the SBF Trial 2) Welcome to Compound and Friends listeners 3) The legal case against SBF 4) The environment in the court 5) How SBF might win? 6) Michael Lewis update 6) Over 40% of Amazon users now use Temu 7) Blue Apron, once valued at $2 billion, sold for $103 million 8) Anthropic's potential $2 billion raise from Google 9) Should we use AI for therapy 10) Brief update on Twitter nu...
Oct 06, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 223
Taylor Lorenz is a technology columnist at the Washington Post and author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss her book, exploring the tradeoffs of life as an online influencer, and whether people have a choice to pursue power online. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss Lorenz's various controversies, including her view on content moderation, and then close with a discussion of why the intern...
Oct 04, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 222
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Meta Connect, and Zuck's new vision for the Metaverse 2) Whether the Metaverse finally makes sense now 3) Alex's first purchase on Temu 4) Your questions + audio quality issues 5) TikTok takes center stage in the Republican debates 6) Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino's poor performance at Code 7) Did Yaccarino get sandbagged? 8) Amazon's new Anthropic deal, worth up to $4 billion 9) Our interview with Bill...
Sep 29, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 221
Vanessa Otero is the CEO of Ad Fontes Media. The company rates publications based on their biases, and allows advertisers to concentrate their spending in news media that may disagree, but isn't so wildly biased it loses rooting in reality. Listen for a conversation about the ad industry's broad defunding of news, what it would take to return that money, and why artificial intelligence might help scale the efforts of Ad Fontes' human news raters. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate ...
Sep 27, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 220
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) An update on our Yahoo episode quest 2) A recap and further analysis of Airbnb Brian Chesky's appearance on the podcast 3) Recent tech IPOs falling back to earth 4) The broader market's downturn and the chance of a recession 5) Jack Dorsey's Return to Square 6) The success of Snapchat+ 7) Generative AI announcements from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft 8) Does Generative AI take off in enterprise settin...
Sep 22, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 219
Brian Chesky is the CEO of Airbnb. He joins Big Technology Podcast for an in-depth discussion covering Airbnb's product, business, culture, and roadmap. In the first half, we cover a series of product improvements the company is rolling out, breaking news on the state of cleaning fees, verified listings. and more. In the second half we go deep into how Airbnb builds its products, how it impacts neighborhoods, and the fallout of New York's new restrictions on the company. Tune in for a deep, uniq...
Sep 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 218
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) The return of tech IPOs 2) Is Arm's stock bounce really a good sign? 3) How Instacart is looking ahead of its IPO 4) Why every business is an ad business now 5) Our forthcoming interview with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky 6) Google's antitrust case 7) Tom Brady's new job with Delta 8) Why we're buying the iPhone 15 --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of c...
Sep 15, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 217
Kristi Coulter worked at Amazon for twelve years and is the author of the new book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the state of Amazon today: What is it? Who should be leading it? Where's the culture going? Then, she discusses her experience at the company, which she details in depth in the book. We talk about the paranoia within the company, the difficulty Amazon employees have switching jobs, why she stayed, and everything...
Sep 13, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 216
Walter Piecyk is a partner at LightShed Partners and GP at LightShed Ventures. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a special episode looking entirely at Apple as the company lost $200 billion in market cap this week. In this episode, we break down Apple's entanglements in China, its expensive share price, and what to expect with next week's iPhone 15 launch. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Charter's dispute with ESPN at the end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...
Sep 08, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 215
Sridhar Ramaswamy is the co-founder of Neeva, SVP at Snowflake and former SVP at Google. He joins Big Technology Podcast to reflect on the strange year Google’s had in 2023, working on the fly to reimagine search and ship faster than it was initially comfortable with. In this episode, Ramaswamy delivers deep insights on the future of search, generative AI, and how his former employer will adapt in these times. Stay tuned for the second half where Ramaswamy candidly discusses his search competito...
Sep 06, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 214
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Disney stock hitting a ten year low 2) The rise of white noise podcasts 3) Google's new Duet AI that attends meetings for you 4) Everyone returns to office 5) Commercial real estate bust looms? 6) Ranjan's report from San Francisco 7) An excerpt from Walter Isaacson's new Elon Musk book 8) Fidelity marks up Twitter 9) Meta promotes Threads in Instagram 10) The Metaverse gets legs! --- Enjoying Big Tec...
Sep 01, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 213
Colin Murdoch is the chief business officer at Google DeepMind. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a conversation about artificial general intelligence, discussing why we want to get there at all, and what the path looks like. We also discuss DeepMind’s merger with Google Brain, how pursuing the AI business changes Google, and how DeepMind’s AlphaFold AI is revolutionizing the healthcare space. Tune in for a dynamic conversation with one of the world's leading AI executives. --- Enjoying Big Te...
Aug 30, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 212
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) ChatGPT used as an insult in the Republican debate 2) Whether Generative AI is leading to real business returns 3) Bing's poor performance vs. Google 4) NVIDIA's blowout earnings 5) NVIDIA's moat 6) ARM's forthcoming IPO 7) Ronan Farrow's new profile of Elon Musk in the New Yorker 8) Government's role in privatization. Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast ap...
Aug 25, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 211
Sarah Guo is the founder of VC firm, Conviction, and co-host of the “No Priors” podcast. She joins Big Technology to talk about generative AI, where the opportunity for new investment lies, and whether the fears surrounding AI are grounded in reality. She gives us unique insight into what the next round of AI tools might look like, and what the impact on our jobs and lives will be as this tech becomes more accessible and affordable. Stay tuned for the second half where we run down how each Big T...
Aug 23, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 210
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) How the Zuck v. Musk cage match fell apart. 2) Whether Musk's antics are actually a problem for his business. 3) Why Walter Isaacson writes so positively about his subjects 4) Why Goldman Sachs is running into trouble 5) The issues Goldman is finding with its Apple partnership 6) Ranjan's observations from his trip to Taiwan 7) A bunch of new studies cast new light on social media algorithms 8) Cruise...
Aug 18, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 209
Kyle Vogt is the CEO of Cruise, a self-driving car operator owned mostly by General Motors. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss self-driving's rapid expansion, explaining why the technology is hitting an inflection point and how quickly these cars are filling the roads. Tune in for a conversation filled with real data and direct analysis of what might be one of the most meaningful technologies developed in our lifetime. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ...
Aug 16, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 208
Julia Boorstin is a senior media and tech correspondent at CNBC and author of When Women Lead: What We Achieve, Why We Succeed and What We Can Learn. She joins Big Technology Podcast this Friday to break down the week's news. We cover: 1) Linda Yaccarino's message to advertisers 2) X's goal of becoming an "everything app" 3) AI and the Hollywood Strikes 4) Disney's entrance into sports betting. 5) "Streamflation" 6) Julia's book, and the positive financial impacts of female leadership and repres...
Aug 11, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 207
