TikTok
TikTok’s fate could be decided by tariffs
Trump is holding out ByteDance's app as a bargaining chip. Will China take the bait?
Casey Newton
Founder and editor of Platformer, a publication about the intersection of tech and democracy. Prior to founding Platformer in October 2020, Newton was the longtime Silicon Valley editor of The Verge.
AI
How AI bots are suffocating Wikipedia
Scrapers caused the online encyclopedia's bandwidth to increase by 50 percent last year — and its plan to fight back may not be enough
OpenAI
We finally know why Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI
A new book offers the most thorough explanation to date. Would it have mattered if we knew at the time?
Anthropic
People are using AI to learn more
Exclusive data from Anthropic about Claude usage finds that AI is both automating and augmenting human labor — and people are increasingly using it to educate themselves
AI
These founders realized their bot was unsafe — and actually shut it down
A parable about responsibility in the AI age
OpenAI
How chatbots could spark the next big mental health crisis
New research from OpenAI shows that heavy chatbot usage is correlated with loneliness and reduced socialization. Will AI companies learn from social networks' mistakes?
AI
America crafts an AI action plan
Tech platforms got a rare opportunity to present President Trump with a wishlist — and they're using DeepSeek's success to push for controversial policies
AI
Chatbots have started to reshape the web
New data from Adobe offers evidence for a big shift away from traditional search engines. Will the internet's vast public commons survive?
Meta
How Meta’s take on Community Notes misses the mark
Crowdsourced moderation is better than nothing — but how much better remains an open question
TikTok
There are two TikToks now
One has been banned by the federal government and awaits a forced sale. The other keeps shipping
AI
Manus of the hour
What the hype cycle around a new Chinese AI model tells us about the state of competition in agents
Google's new AI Mode is a preview of the future of search
The next phase of AI's takeover of search offers plenty of links to the web — but will anyone click?
How AI stole Chegg's homework
For companies that rely on Google, the company's collapse offers a warning
OpenAI
Early thoughts on GPT-4.5
PLUS: What AI policy is for
Apple
Apple's clever answer to child safety concerns
In creating an age assurance API, the company raises hopes that platforms can keep kids safer without sacrificing everyone else's privacy
Child Safety
Why app stores are resisting a good idea to make kids safer online
Making app stores verify kids' ages could save everyone a lot of grief — but some worry it will introduce new risks