Better Offline

In the second of this week's two-part series, Ed Zitron walks you through how SoftBank is mortgaging its future to keep OpenAI alive - and the dangerous consequences of over-funding an unprofitable, unsustainable company.

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In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks through how reckless members of the media continue to inflate the AI bubble - and the detailed notes he's been taking along the way.

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In the first of this week's two-part series, Ed Zitron walks you through how Microsoft pulling back from over a gigawatt of compute capacity is a dark omen for the so-called AI Revolution. 

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In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron goes through the underwhelming release of OpenAI's GPT-4.5 - and how OpenAI's rumored new pricing structure suggests this company is in trouble.

Here's the article cited from The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-plots-charging-20-000-a-month-for-phd-level-agents?rc=kz8jh3

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Gita Jackson and Nathan Grayson of worker-owned games site Aftermath to talk about how the growth-at-all-costs mindset is destroying games, how fandom culture naturally feeds extremism, how Aftermath does games journalism differently, and how despite everything, great games are still being made.

Gita Jackson:
https://bsky.app/profile/xoxogossipgita.bsky.social 
https://aftermath.site/author/gita-jackson 

Nathan Grayson: 
https://aftermath.site/author/nathan-grayson
https://bsky.app/profile/nathangrayson.bsky.social

Stream Big: The Triumphs and Turmoils of Twitch and the Stars Behind the Screen
https://www.amazon.com/Stream-Big-Triumphs-Turmoils-Twitch/dp/1982156767

Article on Skin Deep from Aftermath: https://aftermath.site/skin-deep-steam-next-fest-demo-impressions-pc 

The New York Times: Video Games Can’t Afford to Look This Good
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/arts/video-games-graphics-budgets.html

Aftermath - Fuck WB
https://aftermath.site/warner-bros-discovery-games-wonder-woman-monolith-shut-down

Pyre - https://www.supergiantgames.com/games/pyre/
Supergiant Games - https://www.supergiantgames.com
Avowed - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2457220/Avowed/

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In the second of this week's two-part episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the dark truth of the generative AI industry - that consumer adoption of Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity is incredibly small, and it’s time to accept that there is nothing coming to justify the ruinous costs of Large Language Models. 

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In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through what's making everybody worried about the bubble bursting - and what other signs might tell you that the party's over for AI.

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In this episode (the first of a two-parter), Ed Zitron walks you through how OpenAI isn’t a real company, but a venture-backed welfare recipient that spent $9 billion to lose $5 billion in 2024 with little product-market fit and a stagnant API business that suggests that there’s little adoption of generative AI.

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the how the tech media misses the stories that hurt billions of people every day - and how deep down, most people really do like technology and miss when it wasn’t so actively harmful.

---

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In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the early days of OpenAI - and the simmering war between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over its non-profit status.

Suit: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69013420/musk-v-altman/

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the growth-at-all-costs Rot Economy has used software to poison so many parts of our lives - and how the tech media can rise to the challenge and fight for a better Silicon Valley by aligning with consumers against big tech.

---

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In this week's monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through how the AI industry’s limp Super Bowl commercials show how little this industry has to offer - and how much contempt they have for consumers.

OpenAI: The Intelligence Age: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIhb5pEo_j0

Google: Dream Job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7e6g11BJc0

Salesforce: Gate Expectations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqmBcqDkyw

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In a live-to-tape recording in Ed Zitron's living room, Wide Left writer Arif Hasan and Western Kabuki Host Caleb Wilson explain in detail the cultural power of sports, and how software has been used to poison every corner of sports with predatory gambling schemes. 

The Athletic story on sports gambling: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5777632/2024/10/14/sports-betting-addiction-problem-fans/

Wide Left article about sports gambling: 
https://www.wideleft.football/p/has-legalized-gambling-poisoned-the

Arif Hasan: 
https://bsky.app/profile/arif.bsky.social
https://x.com/ArifHasanNFL
Wide Left: https://www.wideleft.football

Caleb Wilson:
https://bsky.app/profile/birdrespecter.bsky.social
Western Kabuki: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/western-kabuki/id1647062210

The 60 Minute Drill Podcast (Ed, Arif and Caleb’s NFL podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/60-minute-drill/id1768225605

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In the first of a new series of weekly monologues, Ed Zitron breaks down what exactly happened with DeepSeek, and how it threatens to pop the AI bubble.

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In this episode, Ed Zitron explains how the emergence of a much-more-efficient generative AI model has become an existential threat to the future of OpenAI and Anthropic - and tells a dark story about the death of innovation in Silicon Valley.

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron explains how DeepSeek, a relatively-unknown Chinese model AI developer incubated in a hedge fund, has punctured the generative AI bubble, throwing the US startup scene (and markets) into disarray.

---

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined by Jeremy Kaplowitz of the podcast Quorators to talk about Quora, which he describes as “Reddit with a gas leak.”

www.youtube.com/@Quorators

www.patreon.com/Quorators

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how lax regulation and all-too-chummy media coverage has empowered Mark Zuckerberg and other tech companies to intentionally make every digital experience worse for profit. 

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the latest "right-wing turn" for Mark Zuckerberg and Meta is really just formalizing policies on Facebook and Instagram that actively protected and elevated right-wing voices - and how we're entering a new era of rot for two of the world's largest social networks.

---

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Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.

Ed Zitron is joined by Paris Martineau of The Information and media critic Jeff Jarvis to talk about Paris' story around the horrible consequences of an anonymous dating app, Meta's slop-filled right-wing future, and what the media industry might look like in ten years' time.

Jeff Jarvis: https://jeffjarvis.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/jeffjarvis.bsky.social

Paris Martineau: https://bsky.app/profile/paris.nyc
Paris' story she talks about: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-a-casual-sex-website-left-the-door-open-to-teens

---

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

Phil Broughton and Ed Ongweso Jr. join Ed Zitron for an epilogue on the Consumer Electronics Show and the 12+ hours of audio we've recorded - and what we're planning to do next.

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
Phillip Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/

---

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Part 2 of our 5th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by Robert Evans of Cool Zone Media, Gare Davis of Cool Zone Media, Kyle Chouinard of Las Vegas, Nevada, to talk labor, the true vibe of CES, and how growth-at-all-costs thinking crowds out real solutions to problems. And, of course, how much Ed loves everybody.

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/ bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849 
Kyle Chouinard, Las Vegas Sun https://lasvegassun.com/staff/kyle-chouinard/ 
Gare Davis https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jm6ufvsw3hg5zgdpnd3zb4tv 
Robert Evans https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social 
Phil Broughton https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social/post/3kmolcb3bmx2r 
Our wonderful producer: https://www.mattosowski.com/ 

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Part 1 of our 5th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by writer Ed Ongweso Jr, David Roth of Defector, Cherlynn Low of Engadget and Health Physicist Phil Broughton to talk about men and their lack of vulnerability about sex, the sex toy industry, age tech, exoskeletons…and lasers!

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849
Cherlynn Low, Engadget: https://bsky.app/profile/cherlynn.bsky.social https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/cherlynn-low/
Engadget’s Best Of CES: https://www.engadget.com/ces/

Washington Post story about AVNs: https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/2024/02/25/ai-porn-avn-industry/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Part 2 of our 4th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by writer Ed Ongweso Jr, David Roth of Defector, Karissa Bell of Engadget, reporter Rob Pegoraro and Senior Transportation Reporter at TechCrunch Sean O’Kane to discuss mobility at CES, violent robots, furry robots, electric boats and, well, varying levels of potential fraud.

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849 
Defector: Defector.com 
Karissa Bell, Engadget https://bsky.app/profile/karissabe.bsky.social 
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/karissa-bell/ 
Rob Pegoraro: https://bsky.app/profile/robpegoraro.com 
Sean O’Kane: https://bsky.app/profile/seanokane.bsky.social 
https://techcrunch.com/author/sean-okane/ 

---

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Ed's Socials:

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. 

In Part 1 of our 4th day covering CES, Ed Zitron is joined by Senior Review of Wearable Tech Victoria Song of The Verge, Ed Ongweso Jr, David Roth of Defector and Devindra Hardawar of Engadget to talk about the male-centric coverage of CES, personal nuclear reactors, useful wearables and tech companies that fantasize about making all of our decisions for us. 

Victoria Song: https://www.theverge.com/authors/victoria-song
https://bsky.app/profile/vicmsong.bsky.social
Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/
David Roth, Defector: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social
Defector: Defector.com
It’s Christmastown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-christmastown/id1407429849
Devindra Hardawar, Engadget: https://bsky.app/profile/devindra.bsky.social
https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/devindra-hardawar/
Devindra’s coverage of the ASUS Zenbook A14 https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-unveiled-the-zenbook-a14-at-ces-2025-and-its-the-macbook-air-competitor-ive-been-dreaming-of-173026277.html
Phillip Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/

---

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https://www.threads.net/@edzitron

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the second episode, 

In this episode Ed Zitron is joined by David Roth of Defector, reporter Edward Ongweso Jr., Ed Niedermeyer of the Autonocast, and tech freelancer Jared Newman to talk about the consequences of spending days at the Consumer Electronics Show, how a show gets away with having so many booths that don’t actually seem to sell things to consumers, and an idea for generative AI that I deeply apologize for.

David Roth: https://bsky.app/profile/davidjroth.bsky.social 
Jared Newman: https://bsky.app/profile/advisorator.com 
Ed Ongweso Jr: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 
Ed Niedermeyer: https://bsky.app/profile/niedermeyer.io 
The Autonocast: https://www.autonocast.com/ 

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the second episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Jesse Farrar and Michael Hale of Your Kickstarter Sucks, Henry Casey of CNN Underscored, Max Cherney of Reuters, Matt Binder of Mashable, Tom McKay of ITBrew and journalist Ed Ongweso Jr. to talk about trying to find something useful that AI does in a show where everybody uses AI so liberally that it's effectively stopped meaning anything.

Your Kickstarter Sucks: https://www.patreon.com/yourkickstartersucks 
Jesse Farrar: https://bsky.app/profile/jessefarrar.com 
Michael Hale: https://x.com/dogboner 
Ed Ongweso Jr: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 
Max Cherney: https://www.reuters.com/authors/max-a-cherney/ 
Matt Binder: https://bsky.app/profile/mattbinder.bsky.social 
Henry Casey: https://bsky.app/profile/henrytcasey.net 
Tom McKay: https://bsky.app/profile/catturd2.bsky.social 
---

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the second episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Health Physicist Phil Broughton, actual priest Gabriel Mosher, journalist Ed Ongweso Jr., and eventually Robert Evans and Gare Davis of It Could Happen Here, to talk about turning our health into an analytics nightmare, the amount of made-up stuff on the floor, how we beat the generative AI slop, and something called a "suicide helicopter." 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social
Gare Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/hungrybowtie.bsky.social
Gabriel Mosher: https://bsky.app/profile/eighthway.com
Phil Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social

Linda Yaccarino’s CES Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R9LtHiZ74w
Meta ends fact-checking program: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468

---

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Venetian with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor. In the first episode, Ed introduces you to Better Offline’s coverage, bringing in writer Edward Ongweso Jr., as well as It Could Happen Here’s Robert Evans and Gare Davis. 
We’ll be here all week - two episodes a day, with a finale on Saturday. A talk show in the center of the Rot Economy. 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social
Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social
Gare Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/hungrybowtie.bsky.social

---

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In part 2 of the 2024 Better Offline finale, Ed Zitron tells you how to fight back against the growth-at-all-costs Rot Economy and its destruction of the tech ecosystem - by pushing the media to improve their coverage, telling everybody you know who's responsible, and remembering what it is you truly love about technology.

---

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In this year's two-part finale, Ed Zitron enumerates the damage being done to billions of people by the growth-at-all-costs Rot Economy - and why you need to have solidarity with your fellow user.

---

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FTC Chair Lina Khan joins Ed Zitron to talk about competitiveness in the tech industry, controlling the cloud giants, and what should give you hope as we head into 2025.

---

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In a special live-to-tape episode of Better Offline, Ed is joined by The Verge's Alex Cranz and YouTube influencer Michael Fisher to talk about what they're actually enjoying in the tech industry - and why things don't feel quite as magical and exciting as they used to.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheMrMobile

https://www.theverge.com/authors/alex-cranz 

Original Air Date: 6.26.24

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by 404 Media's Jason Koebler to talk about the state of both the tech industry and the tech media, and how 404 Media has built a worker-owned outlet that genuinely works.

Follow Jason:

https://www.404media.co/ https://x.com/jason_koebler https://bsky.app/profile/jasonkoebler.bsky.social

---

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Ed Zitron is joined in-studio by Ryan Barwick of Marketing Brew to talk about how the entire tech ecosystem is controlled by ads - and whether companies like OpenAI and Perplexity can hope to plug the gaps in their leaky revenue models.

Follow Ryan: 

https://x.com/Ryanbarwick

https://www.marketingbrew.com/contributor/ryan-barwick

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We're approaching the end of the line for generative AI as big tech realizes that spending $200bn on chips and data centers isn't going to create any good products. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through what might happen - and why we should still have hope.

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron discusses big tech's discovery of the diminishing returns in training generative AI models - and how we may have finally have reached peak AI.

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron tells you the disgraceful story of how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to the outright decay of the most important website on the internet. 

Original Air Date: 4.25.24

---

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Blame the tech industry for the rise of authoritarianism. Blame a news media handicapped by a deference to power and a fear of bias. Blame the fact that our digital lives are unchecked ecological disasters. In this episode, Ed Zitron draws a direct line from the rot of the digital ecosystem for what happened on November 5.

---

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Recorded live at Web Summit Lisbon, Ed Zitron is joined by William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, who is also the co-founder and president of the Academic-Industry Research Network, to talk about how the incentives of shareholder capitalism and stock buybacks are destroying innovation. 

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Mike Masnick, CEO and Founder of Techdirt, inventor of the Streisand effect, and member of the board of Bluesky to...well...talk about quite literally that. A banger episode.

https://www.techdirt.com/user/mmasnick/ https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Daron Acemoglu, MIT Economist and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, to talk about his daring - and likely effective - plan to tax all digital advertising revenue over $500m at 50% as well as how we might adjust incentives to bring big tech under control.

PAPER: https://shapingwork.mit.edu/research/the-urgent-need-to-tax-digital-advertising/ 

---

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Last week, Prabhakar Raghavan, The Man Who Destroyed Google Search, was removed from his position at Google and made a "Chief Technologist," benching him in favor of a McKinsey-Google Lifer. In this episode, Ed ZItron walks you through how the removal of Prabhakar Raghavan shows that Google is in deep, deep trouble - and may finally be falling apart. 

---

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In this episode, Ed is joined by Paris Marx, author of the Disconnect Blog and the host of Tech Won't Save Us, to talk about the historic - and horrifying - push of hyper-scalers to build out and control vital parts of the world's infrastructure.

Tech Won't Save Us: https://techwontsave.us/episodes

Data Vampires Ep 1: https://techwontsave.us/episode/241_data_vampires_going_hyperscale_episode_1

Data Vampires Ep 2: https://techwontsave.us/episode/243_data_vampires_opposing_data_centers_episode_2

Paris on Twitter: https://x.com/parismarx 

---

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In this episode, Ed is joined in the iHeartRadio studios in New York City by Zephyr Teachout, Fordham Law Professor and Author of "Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money" to talk about corruption, the ways in which we can curb the power of corporations - and why there's renewed hope for a better world.

Zephyr on X: https://x.com/ZephyrTeachout

Zephyr's book: https://www.amazon.com/Break-Em-Up-Recovering-Freedom/dp/125020089X 

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the brewing subprime AI crisis. The entire generative AI market is run on the back of unprofitable tech run at prices subsidized by big tech, and when OpenAI and others have to charge the actual costs underlying their services, there may be terrible consequences.

---

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As of last week, OpenAI is now worth $157 billion - yet below the hood is a far darker story. In this episode, Ed Zitron explains the cold, hard truth - that OpenAI is a terrible business that burns billions of dollars, and its failure to scale its cloud business tells a dark tale about the wider generative AI industry. 

---

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Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN and Arielle Garcia, Director of Intelligence at CheckMyAds, for the final episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google. The case alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies."

Here's a great explainer about how this all works from the Better Offline Reddit.

For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/, follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint & follow Arielle at https://x.com/ArielleSGarcia

---

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Just over a month after the CrowdStrike debacle, Ed Zitron is joined by journalist and author Chris Stokel-Walker to "stokel-walk" through the brittle patchwork of open source, non-profit and for-profit entities that hold up the internet - and how calamitous it would be if any of them buckled.

Article: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/crowdstrike-trigger-global-meltdown-cyber-fail-amazon-b2586523.html

Follow Chris: https://x.com/stokel 

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Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN and Arielle Garcia, Director of Intelligence at CheckMyAds, for the third episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google, one that alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies."

This is the third episode of our ongoing coverage of the trial, which Jason and Arielle have been attending in-person in Washington DC. Here's a great explainer about how this all works from the Better Offline Reddit.

For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/ & follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint

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Ed Zitron is once again joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN, for the second episode of Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google, one that alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies." This is the second episode of our ongoing coverage of the trial, which Jason will be attending in-person in Washington DC. For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/ and follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint

LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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After earnings failed to reassure investors about their concerns around generative AI's return on investment, NVIDIA's stock suffered a record $279 billion loss in the space of a day. Nevertheless, the most important NVIDIA story is that of Chief Executive Jensen Huang, who appears to be one of the few tech executives that knows how to dress himself. In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by fashion expert Derek Guy (AKA @dieworkwear on Twitter) to talk about Jensen's swag, and why more men should find ways to enjoy fashion.

Derek on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dieworkwear

https://www.dieworkwear.com/

https://www.putthison.com/

---

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Jason Kint, CEO of DCN, to set the scene for Better Offline's coverage of the Department of Justice's second antitrust case against Google, one that alleges that "through Serial Acquisitions and Anticompetitive Auction Manipulation, Google Subverted Competition in Internet Advertising Technologies." This is the first in our ongoing coverage of the trial, which Jason will be attending in-person in Washington DC. For more information, visit https://usvgoogleads.com/ and follow Jason at https://x.com/jason_kint

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

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Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how Google used their monopolies over search and search advertising to scam advertisers - and why the entire tech industry should demand that Google is broken up and forced to compete like the rest of us. 

LINKS: http://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

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A few weeks ago, a federal judge declared that Google has a monopoly over the search industry and text-based advertising. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the many monopolies of big tech hurt you on a daily basis.

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In this episode, Ed Zitron sits down with Matt Stoller, author of the BIG Newsletter and Research Director of the American Economic Liberties Project to explain what a monopoly is, why they're so pervasive, how America entered a "monopoly crisis," and what all of this means for Google, Apple, Meta, and the rest of big tech.

Want to read the transcript of this episode? Go to wheresyoured.at/stoller

BIG by Matt Stoller https://www.thebignewsletter.com/

Matt Stoller on Twitter https://x.com/matthewstoller 

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In the fourth live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron sits down with the BBC's Thomas Germain to talk about breaking up big tech, and how we can find hope in the hopelessness of multiple monopolies and algorithms.

LINKS:

Thomas Germain: https://x.com/thomasgermain

vkgoeswild: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbKM5fcSsaEFZRP-bjH8Y9w

Dan Yang: https://www.instagram.com/realdanyang

Cities By Diana: https://www.instagram.com/citiesbydiana

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As the AI bubble collapses, it's time for the tech industry to repent, and to recognize that the future cannot be decided entirely by four or five trillion-dollar firms that are no longer capable of innovation, only copying other people's ideas. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the generative AI boom shows how little big tech cares about actual innovation - and how this might eventually lead to their collapse.

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After a year of opulent spending, the markets have begun to sour on big tech's $200 billion bet on generative AI, unfortunately timing with the delay of Nvidia's new AI-specialized "blackwell" chips. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the pale horses of the AI apocalypse - and what this means for the tech industry at large.

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In the third live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron is joined in-studio in Los Angeles by Cory Doctorow and Brian Merchant to talk about the forces that have turned the tech industry away from innovation - and how we might turn the tide against them.

CORY DOCTOROW:

https://pluralistic.net/

https://x.com/doctorow

BRIAN MERCHANT: 

Blood In The Machine Book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown

Newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/

https://x.com/bcmerchant

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In the second live-to-tape episode of Better Offlive, Ed Zitron is joined in-studio by the New York Times' Mike Isaac and The Verge's Kylie Robison to discuss the current state of tech journalism.

KYLIE: https://x.com/kyliebytes https://www.threads.net/@kylie.robison

MIKE: https://x.com/MikeIsaac https://www.threads.net/@mike_isaac?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/mike_isaac

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

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In this episode, Ed Zitron sits down with famed MIT economist Daron Acemoglu to talk about the economics of the tech ecosystem, the ridiculousness of generative AI's promises, and the realities of tech's growth-at-all-costs ecosystem.

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On Friday July 19, millions of Windows PCs entered a doom-loop that rendered them non-functional thanks to an update sent by a little-known company called CrowdStrike - and in this emergency Better Offline dispatch, Ed Zitron walks you through exactly what happened, why it's so bad, and why both CrowdStrike and Microsoft executives should face criminal prosecution for such a catastrophic managerial failure. These are the dark consequences of the growth-at-all-costs movement.

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LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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In a paper released earlier this year, three academics from the University of Glasgow classified ChatGPT's outputs not as "lies," but as "BS" - as defined by philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt in "on BS" (and yes I'm censoring that) - and created one of the most enjoyable and prescient papers ever written. In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by academics Michael Townsen Hicks, James Humphries and Joe Slater in a free-wheeling conversation about ChatGPT's mediocrity - and how it's not built to represent the world at all.

LINKS:

Paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5

Michael Townsen Hicks: https://www.townsenhicks.com/

Joe Slater: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/joeslater/

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When the money gets nervous, so should you. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through a remarkable report from global investment bank Goldman Sachs where multiple economists call BS on the AI movement - and why it's time for the rest of the world to follow suit.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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The shareholder supremacy has eaten the tech industry, driving private and public companies to chase unprofitable, unsustainable ideas like generative AI as a means of expressing eternal growth to the markets. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how this destructive mindset has created an entirely new kind of manager - one disconnected from labor and creation - and how the dark hand of shareholder supremacy is behind everything strange and bad in tech in the last few years

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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In this episode, Ed Zitron tracks the history of the growth-at-all-costs rot economy to a court case in 1916 that established the Shareholder Supremacy, and set the terms for General Electric's Jack Welch to fundamentally break capitalism, an era where companies moved away from building lasting, sustainable companies that created things and instead began focusing on pleasing shareholders - and how it leads to today's terrible tech companies and leaders.

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Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

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Discord chat.wheresyoured.at

Ed's Socials - http://www.twitter.com/edzitron  instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/zitron.bsky.social  https://www.threads.net/@edzitron  

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A few weeks ago, an Australian tech worker called Nik Suresh wrote an evisceration of the current AI hype boom called "I Will F**king Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again." Ed Zitron and Robert Evans sat down to talk about the blog - and the wider problems that Nik sees in the tech industry at large.

LINKS:

Nik's blog: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/

Newsletter: wheresyoured.at

Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/betteroffline

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In a special live-to-tape episode of Better Offline, Ed is joined by The Verge's Alex Cranz and YouTube influencer Michael Fisher to talk about what they're actually enjoying in the tech industry - and why things don't feel quite as magical and exciting as they used to.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheMrMobile

https://www.theverge.com/authors/alex-cranz 

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In April, The Onion was acquired by a new entity called Global Tetrahedron, revealed shortly thereafter to be a joint venture between billionaire Jeff Lawson and former NBC disinformation reporter Ben Collins, now its CEO. Ben joins Ed to talk about buying The Onion, keeping its Chicago roots, and how we can save digital media. 

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Last week, Apple announced that they're integrating artificial intelligence into your iPhone and Mac in a stunningly demure and reserved presentation. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through whether you should trust Apple - and how OpenAI agreed to the worst deal in tech history to integrate ChatGPT in the least-prominent way.

EPISODE LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks 

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks through how Sam Altman's ridiculous promises about the future of artificial intelligence could be ruinous for Silicon Valley, and speaks with Bloomberg's Ellen Huet about how Sam Altman - a non-technical founder with little business success - accumulated so much power.

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Sam Altman has used his power and influence to become a multi-billionaire with stakes in hundreds of startups, but behind the curtain, he's never run a successful company, fired from both Y Combinator and, briefly, OpenAI. In this episode, Ed Zitron digs into the history of Silicon Valley's most popular confidence man, and talks to the Wall Street Journal's Tom Dotan about Altman's many, many investments. EPSIODE LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through what happens when tech's growth-at-all-costs epoch begins to collapse, and how the only way to save Silicon Valley is to put power back in the hands of those who actually build things - and reject the management consultant mindset killing innovation.

Episode Links: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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Tech's hyper-growth era is ending, with online 100 million new people getting online between 2022 and 2023, and almost every major web platform seeing a decline in growth since 2021. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how tech's decline is driving the tech industry to try and sell you useless products like the metaverse, cryptocurrency and generative AI.

Episode Links: https://tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks

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On May 14th 2024, Google introduced their Search Generative Experience, a service that uses hallucination-prone artificial intelligence to generate answers to queries rather than just presenting links, all so that they could Wall Street that they're innovative and future-forward. The result is an even-more-broken search experience, and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the rotten state of Google, and speaks with Lily Ray, a 15-year veteran of the search engine optimization industry, about how Google abandoned the web.

LINKS:

Lily Ray: https://lilyray.nyc/ https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc

The Verge's Interview With Sundar Pichai: https://www.theverge.com/24158374/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-ai-search-gemini-future-of-the-internet-web-openai-decoder-interview 

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For three years, Facebook's monthly active users have been declining dramatically, with Facebook.com losing 397 million unique monthly visitors since May 2021. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how Mark Zuckerberg's abominable growth-at-all-costs mindset has turned Facebook into a dystopia of AI-generated slop, dangerous misinformation and outright pornography, all as a result of Zuckerberg's intentionally harmful approach to social media.

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In the last decade, Mark Zuckerberg and his internal growth team have repeatedly and intentionally made Facebook and Instagram harder and more dangerous to use in the pursuit of perpetual growth, and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through multiple horrifying insider stories about Facebook's disgusting approach to user happiness.

LINK for documents: https://www.wheresyoured.at/killingfacebook/ 

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Earlier in the year, OpenAI debuted Sora, an AI that can generate videos that almost look realistic. In this episode, Ed walks through why generating video with AI is a near-impossible task, and speaks with Walter Woodman of Shy Kids, who made a movie called "Air Head" using the tool. LINKS: Shy Kids' Air Head - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4wJ4WeJrz4 Mira Murati Interview with Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/joanna-stern-personal-technology/openai-made-me-crazy-videosthen-the-cto-answered-most-of-my-questions/C2188768-D570-4456-8574-9941D4F9D7E2 

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On April 26 2024, the NHTSA, the government body responsible for keeping roads safe, found Tesla's Autopilot and Full-Self-Driving software created a "critical safety gap" with drivers, killing and injuring people in the process, in the very same week that Elon Musk fired most of Tesla's team behind their Supercharger electric vehicle charging moment. Ed Zitron brings on E.W. Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, to explain exactly what the hell is going on.

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Ed Zitron walks you through how career manager Adam Mosseri pushed out Instagram's original founders, turning it into an ultra-profitable app that barely works, and how Sam Altman, the so-called hero of the AI boom, is a lobbyist dressed as a technologist best-known for being an absent, self-obsessed demagogue.

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In this episode, Ed Zitron tells you the disgraceful story of how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to the outright decay of the most important website on the internet. 

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The growth-at-all-costs management consultant mindset has turned most of the modern internet into a painful and profitable social experiment - and in this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how these disconnected, growth-hungry personalities have made Google and Meta abdicate any responsibility toward their users and products.

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In the last few weeks TikTok and other social networks have been flooded with memes about a chinese glycine manufacturer called Donghua Jinlong, all thanks to one innocent promotional video. Ed Zitron is joined by journalist Louise Matsakis and writer/researcher Tianyu Fang to talk about why young people are talking about glycine. Read more of Louise's work at https://youmayalsolike.beehiiv.com/ and you can find Tianyu at https://twitter.com/tianyuf 

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Every major tech firm is betting billions of dollars that the generative AI revolution will change society - yet when you look under the hood, the reality of generative AI might be far grimmer. Ed Zitron walks you through the many signs that we're on the verge of the AI bubble popping - and what the consequences might be if it does.

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It’s been just under a year and a half since ChatGPT - an AI-powered chatbot launched by so-called non-profit OpenAI - ushered in a new era of investor and media hype around how artificial intelligence would change the world. But what if this we're actually at the peak of what generative AI can do? In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through the four intractable problems that are stopping Large Language Models like ChatGPT in their tracks - and why they're all-but-impossible to overcome.

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Wikipedia, a non-profit encyclopedia that anybody can edit, remains one of the few trustworthy and reliable websites left online. Ed Zitron is joined by critic, researcher and 18-year veteran of the Wikipedia editing community Molly White to discuss how Wikipedia actually works, and why you should care about its future.

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The media industry has laid off over 30,000 people in the last three years as a result of an executive sect that doesn't read, write, or meaningfully contribute to society. Ed Zitron walks you through how the startup mindset destroyed Sports Illustrated, VICE and The Messenger - and how journalism can turn the tide and survive.

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Ever wonder why Silicon Valley stopped making anything new or interesting? It's because of the same growth-at-all-costs mindset that's destroyed the rest of the tech ecosystem. Ed Zitron is joined by Robert Evans to discuss how venture capital demolished tech's ability to innovate by forcing the smartest people in the world to work on the dumbest things ever invented.

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A New York Times investigation revealed this week that Musk's $7 billion "Musk Foundation" regularly fails to donate enough money to get its multi-billion dollar tax break. Ed brings on Pullitzer-prize winning reporter David Fahrenthold of the New York Times to walk through the extremely questionable world of Elon Musk's non-profit.

Link to the New York Times story: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html

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In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook to Meta, claiming that it was now a "Metaverse company," throwing the entire tech industry into one of its most specious hype cycles. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the tech industry wasted nearly two years chasing a concept that nobody could define, burning billions of dollars on an idea that would cost thousands of people their jobs.

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Though the Winklevoss brothers are best known for their role in the early days of Facebook, you'll be surprised to learn that they recently lost customers at their cryptocurrency exchange over a billion dollars through a shady loan scheme. In this episode, Ed Zitron walks you through how the two identical riverboat giants went from being conned by Mark Zuckerberg to conning over a hundred thousand people into putting their cryptocurrency in the hands of the world's worst investor. 

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Ever wonder why Google results are getting worse, or why you aren't seeing your friends on Instagram? It's all because of the growth-at-all-costs economy that's swallowed the tech industry, where the user experience takes a back seat to monetizing every interaction with the platforms you used to love. Ed Zitron is joined by Cool Zone Media's Robert Evans to walk you through the economic theory that's destroying the tech industry from within.

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Apple's $3500 face computer is here, and after spending far too many hours inside it, Ed Zitron has found Apple's vision of the future to be equal parts exciting and frustrating - and a dark omen for the future of tech. He also sits down with the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern to talk about her experience as one of the early reviewers of the Vision Pro.

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Better Offline is a weekly show exploring the tech industry’s growing influence over society, and how startups, venture capitalists and big tech firms are looking to change the future - for better or for worse.

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