Blue Origin Rocket Explodes in Apocalyptic Mushroom Cloud - Week in Tech

Blue Origin's latest rocket test ended in what the company called "an anomaly" — and what everyone else would call an explosion. Reed Albergotti (Semafor) explains why blowing things up is just part of the process and why the US Space Program is probably going to be fine. Then, Kyle Chayka (The N…

The Man Building the Last AI Humans Will Need to Design - The Story

What if the fastest path to superintelligence is AI that builds itself? That's the bet Richard Socher is making — and he has the track record to back it up. A double unicorn founder and early investor in eight unicorn companies (including Perplexity and Hugging Face), Richard has spent 15 years bui…

Inside the Octagon: How AI Brings UFC’s Fastest Moments into Focus

Most of what happens inside the UFC Octagon is too fast for the human eye to follow. Enter Alon Cohen, Executive Vice President of Innovation for TKO, who has spent 15 years building the data and AI systems that expose the hidden moments that help decide a match. Malcolm Gladwell sits down with Alo…

Shell Game: Quality Assurance

This is the story of what happens when Evan Ratliff, a longtime tech journalist, makes a digital copy of himself, powered by AI, in order to understand how amazing and scary and utterly ridiculous the world is about to get. In Episode 1, Evan clones his voice, hooks it up to a chat bot and his phon…

The Pope vs. AI? It’s Complicated - Week in Tech

The Pope called for AI to be "disarmed" — then gave Anthropic a seat on the dais. Nitasha Tiku (The Washington Post) unpacks what the Vatican's landmark intervention means for Silicon Valley. Then, get off Nextdoor, Kyle Chayka (The New Yorker) says hyperlocal publications are in vogue and a respit…

How AI Almost Led To This Tech Reporter’s Divorce - The Story

What happens when you let technology take over your life? Joanna Stern (Fmr. Wall Street Journal / New Things) found out. She spent all of 2025 letting the robots in: Waymos, AI therapists, robot massagers, assistant researcher agents… During that yearlong experiment, Joanna Stern chronicled her f…

Google's AI chief: We're Living in the “Foothills of the Singularity” - Week In Tech

What does it mean to be at the “foothills of the singularity”? That’s how DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis ended his speech at Google I/O, prompting questions and scratched heads. Oz and Reed Albergotti (Semafor) attempt to dissect the meaning behind Hassabis’s confounding statement. They also discuss w…

The ‘Steroid Olympics’ Brought to You By Big Tech - The Story

What if Olympic athletes could use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, legally? They can now, at the Enhanced Games. The Enhanced Games take place on May 24th and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen. Unless you’re Chris Gayomali, host of the new podcast SuperHuman, which is an inside …

Jensen Crashes Trump's China Trip, Elon's Baby Mama Takes the Stand - Week in Tech

This week has it all: geopolitical FOMO, major AI deals, more courtroom drama, and a hacker group that just won't quit. Reed Albergotti (Semafor) breaks down why AI tokens are the new oil, and why Anthropic is buying compute straight from SpaceX. Nitasha Tiku (The Washington Post) takes us inside t…

Inside Formula One’s Speed Hunt with Atlassian Williams F1 Team Principal James Vowles - The Story

How did nine rejection letters and “boring” data lead to “the biggest transformation in sport”? Americans might know Formula One Racing from the hit Netflix show “Drive to Survive.” But F1 has long been a fan favorite in Britain and Europe. Today’s guest, team principal James Vowles, sits down with…