Casey Newton - Platformer News at the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 5PM Pacific.
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The authoritarian AI crisis has arrived
by Casey Newton on February 27, 2026AI safety researchers have long worried that a government would seek to use AI for domestic surveillance and autonomous killing. The Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic threatens to make it a reality
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The shallow impact of India’s AI summit
by Casey Newton on February 24, 2026The US government still can’t think beyond “winning.” The rest of the world is still thinking too small
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The infinite scroll goes on trial
by Casey Newton on February 20, 2026Testifying before a jury in LA, Mark Zuckerberg makes the case that platform design is about free expression. But the walls are closing in on Section 230
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Meta’s face turn
by Casey Newton on February 17, 2026In the company’s latest policy reversal under Trump 2.0, the facial recognition system it blew up in 2021 may be poised for a return
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Why GPT-4o had to go
by Casey Newton on February 13, 2026As OpenAI sunsets its most dangerous model, the tensions it exposed remain as tricky as ever. PLUS: Elon's space catapult, and OpenAI vs. Anthropic
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Exclusive: OpenAI disbanded its mission alignment team
by Casey Newton on February 11, 2026Joshua Achiam will become the company's chief futurist
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Why the infinite-scroll childhood may be coming to an end
by Casey Newton on February 10, 2026A lawsuit that begins in LA this week, along with a new investigation into TikTok by the European Commission, could change social apps forever. PLUS: AI ads at the Super Bowl and in ChatGPT
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How a new AI tool fixed my single biggest problem with Spotify
by Casey Newton on February 4, 2026Spotify’s Molly Holder on the power of prompted playlists. PLUS: Meta is testing a standalone Vibes app
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Five ways of thinking about Moltbook
by Casey Newton on February 3, 2026What a social network for AI agents tells us about the future. PLUS: Elon consolidates the X empire
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Falling in and out of love with Moltbot
by Casey Newton on January 30, 2026Maybe someday you’ll have a genie in your laptop working for you 24/7. Today is not that day
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What a big study of teens says about social media — and what it can’t
by Casey Newton on January 28, 2026The “moral panic” framing misses how platforms actually harm kids. PLUS: Newsom investigates TikTok over Trump, and the Clawdbot frenzy
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When murder becomes a meme
by Casey Newton on January 27, 2026
Truth and terror in Minneapolis. PLUS: TikTok conspiracy theories, and Dario Amodei's Oppenheimer moment
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The AI productivity paradox
by Casey Newton on January 23, 2026Managers say it makes them more productive. Workers don't. What gives?
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Meta’s scam problem, UK edition
by Casey Newton on January 21, 2026Plus: Writers react to Claude Code for writers; Elon Musk vs. OpenAI; and ChatGPT gets ads
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Claude Code for writers
by Casey Newton on January 16, 2026Five useful things I’ve built so far. Plus: Grok caves, and Thinking Machines implodes
