Essays
88 essays
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AI Pricing Trends
When Disney launched Disney+ in 2020, it came to market with a really low price: $6.99 per month. The strategy was obvious—use a bargain price to quickly build a subscriber…
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iPhone Air
Watching Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 17 lineup, I was impressed by the incredible thinness of the Air. This screenshot from the product website really illustrates how compact the design…
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Un-Social Media
This is the bonkers opening of Meta's response to the FTC's claim of monopoly status for the company: Today, only a fraction of time spent on Meta’s services – 7%…
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Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives
The Cloudflare Blog: Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives (August 3, 2025) Internet utility, Cloudflare, accuses Perplexity of obscuring its browser user agent (the way…
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At Amazon’s Biggest Data Center, Everything Is Supersized for A.I.
NY Times: At Amazon’s Biggest Data Center, Everything Is Supersized for A.I. (June 23, 2025) Amazon is constructing a massive data center complex in Indiana, powered by 2.2 gigawatts of…
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What Would a Real Friendship With A.I. Look Like? Maybe Like Hers.
NY Times: What Would a Real Friendship With A.I. Look Like? Maybe Like Hers. (July 19, 2025) MJ, a college student with autism, used Character.ai to chat with simulated Teenage…
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NY Times: Your Job Interviewer Is Not a Person. It’s A.I.
NY Times: Your Job Interviewer Is Not a Person. It’s A.I. (July 6, 2025) If you thought the interview process couldn't get any worse, you were wrong. HR organizations looking…
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WSJ: ‘Vibe Coding’ Has Arrived for Businesses
WSJ: ‘Vibe Coding’ Has Arrived for Businesses (July 8, 2025) Vibe coding (using AI tools to create code) has exploded in popularity this year, speeding prototyping and development considerably. But…
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WSJ: Your Prize for Saving Time at Work With AI: More Work
WSJ: Your Prize for Saving Time at Work With AI: More Work (July 8, 2025) It's the age-old tension between employee satisfaction and employer-demanded productivity. I (optimistically) believe it's possible…
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Ed Zitron: Anthropic Is Bleeding Out
Ed Zitron: Anthropic Is Bleeding Out (July 10, 2025) AI and technology critic Ed Zitron explores the possibility that Anthropic's pricing model is insufficient for long-term sustainability. His predictions are…