The Big Read

Page 5
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

The Sora Saga Has Only Just Started

By Margaux MacColl · Mar 15, 2024 9:00am PDT · 4 comments
A month ago, Greg Pilon, a 44-year-old visual effects artist on such films as “Deadpool 2,” thought he heard the tick-tock of a doomsday clock for his industry. What set the gears in motion? His initial glimpse of Sora, OpenAI’s new text-to-video artificial intelligence tool, unveiled by CEO Sam Altman. In a 10-minute demo... A month ago, Greg Pilon, a 44-year-old visual effects artist on such films as “Deadpool...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

The Startup Investor Who Earned Andreessen’s Ire

By Kate Clark · Mar 8, 2024 6:00am PST · 2 comments
The inner sanctum of one of Silicon Valley’s most intriguing investors is a small, bland room in Los Altos Hills, Calif., filled on a recent morning by little more than a marble-top conference table, a whiteboard and a stack of bagged spicy chili potato chips. The home office belongs to General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, and... The inner sanctum of one of Silicon Valley’s most intriguing investors is a small,...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

Investor Neil Mehta Answers the Panic Button

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 1, 2024 9:00am PST · 3 comments
The Clay Theatre, a Pacific Heights landmark constructed shortly after the 1906 earthquake, has stood empty for four years on a busy stretch of Fillmore Street, the exterior poster frames as vacant as the adjacent ticket booth. Given the venue’s storied past and the area’s tony reputation as a place filled with Gettys and... The Clay Theatre, a Pacific Heights landmark constructed shortly after the 1906 earthquake,...
Art by Clark Miller
The Ultimate Insiders’ Guide to AI: How Founders, Investors and Executives Really Use the Technology
By · Feb 23, 2024 9:00am PST · 13 comments
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

The Ultimate Insiders’ Guide to AI: How Founders, Investors and Executives Really Use the Technology

By · Feb 23, 2024 9:00am PST · 13 comments
We’re deep into an era-defining boom in artificial intelligence, and with so much attention falling on the money and mania generated by this fast-evolving technology, it’s worth stepping back to ask: How do people really use it? And moreover, what are the people at the epicenter of this surge using AI to do? They use it for quite a... We’re deep into an era-defining boom in artificial intelligence, and with so much attention...
Iosotaluno photo courtesy of Match Group. Art by Clark Miller.
The Big Read

‘I Want My Daughters to Be on Tinder’: A New CEO Hopes to Make Everyone Fall in Love Again

By Annie Goldsmith · Feb 16, 2024 9:00am PST · 3 comments
Faye Iosotaluno initially envisioned her family’s December trip to New Zealand as a holiday-time sojourn, but a week before they left, she learned they’d have another reason to celebrate. She’d gotten the top job at Tinder, after a lengthy stretch as its chief operating officer. For Iosotaluno, the role would mean a plunge... Faye Iosotaluno initially envisioned her family’s December trip to New Zealand as a...
Franceschi and Dubugras photo courtesy of Brex. Art by Clark Miller.
The Big Read

The Brex Boys’ Uncomfortable Reckoning

By Abram Brown · Feb 9, 2024 9:00am PST · 5 comments
When pain clouds the present, the past can provide a welcome escape—a reality I see reflected on Pedro Franceschi’s face as we headed down Market Street in San Francisco last week. With the Muni trams crawling past us, he pointed out several of Brex’s former offices, narrating his startup’s high-speed rise: one at 580... When pain clouds the present, the past can provide a welcome escape—a reality I see...
Art by Clark Miller, Nilekani via Getty Images.
The Big Read

The Bill Gates of India Has A Grand Plan to Outfox Amazon—And Change the World

By Anita Raghavan · Feb 2, 2024 9:00am PST · 11 comments
Few places present a more vibrant study of contrasts than modern India, with the archaic and the modern, the wealthy and the poor, the digital and the physical all increasingly intersecting and interweaving. As so often happens, I watched these forces converge one December afternoon on a shady, tree-lined street in the posh Koramangala... Few places present a more vibrant study of contrasts than modern India, with the archaic and the...
Art by Clark Miller, Hastings: Getty Images
The Power and The Powder: Inside Reed Hastings’ Life After Netflix
By Julia Black · Jan 26, 2024 9:00am PST · 5 comments
Art by Clark Miller, Hastings: Getty Images
The Big Read

The Power and The Powder: Inside Reed Hastings’ Life After Netflix

By Julia Black · Jan 26, 2024 9:00am PST · 5 comments
Up nearly 9,000 feet in the Utah sky, the yurt-shaped lodge atop Powder Mountain offered an expansive vista when I arrived in mid-January, showing dozens of icy peaks stretching across four states. A blizzard had just dumped several feet of snow across the 10,000-acre luxury ski resort, worsening travel on the mountain’s infamously steep... Up nearly 9,000 feet in the Utah sky, the yurt-shaped lodge atop Powder Mountain offered an...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

How Silicon Valley Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Middle East Money Again

By Margaux MacColl and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 19, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment
How do you know when a venture capitalist or founder is in Saudi Arabia looking to get a piece of the country’s piles of petro cash for their latest funds or startups? A telltale sign is the procession of Mercedes-Benz cars and SUVs weaving through the streets of Riyadh from the city’s Four Seasons Hotel to grand royal meeting rooms... How do you know when a venture capitalist or founder is in Saudi Arabia looking to get a piece of...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

How a Snap Sleeper Hit Got In the Heads of Its Young Subscribers

By Erin Woo · Jan 12, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment
As a home-schooled teenager in Agoura Hills, Calif., Jordyn Gilbert’s social life revolves around Snapchat. The app—known for the disappearing photos and videos called Snaps that its users share with others—is the default mode of communication for Gilbert and her friends. She estimates she has 70 Snapchat “streaks”... As a home-schooled teenager in Agoura Hills, Calif., Jordyn Gilbert’s social life revolves...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

5 Predictions About How AI Will (and Won’t) Affect the 2024 U.S. Election

By Alexandra Lindsay and Greg Dale · Jan 5, 2024 9:03am PST · 3 comments
Want to feel old? It was more than five years ago that director Jordan Peele teamed up with BuzzFeed to create a viral deepfake video of Barack Obama uttering a series of improbable lines, a clip meant to serve as a public service announcement for the dangers of how technology could be used to manipulate public opinion. “It may sound... Want to feel old? It was more than five years ago that director Jordan Peele teamed up with...
Art by Clark Miller
The Information’s 2023 Exit Survey of Tech Leaders
By The Information Staff · Dec 29, 2023 9:00am PST · 2 comments
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

The Information’s 2023 Exit Survey of Tech Leaders

By The Information Staff · Dec 29, 2023 9:00am PST · 2 comments
It has been a year of extremes in tech—mass layoffs, society-rattling advancements in artificial intelligence, fraud convictions and record-breaking fundraises. We don’t blame you if your head is still spinning. With 2024 around the corner, we gave tech leaders a chance to reflect on the past 12 months by filling out our 2023 Exit... It has been a year of extremes in tech—mass layoffs, society-rattling advancements in...
Nick Pickles photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images. Art by Clark Miller.
The Big Read

Musk’s Mouthpiece: How Nick Pickles Fights Governments on Behalf of X

By Nancy Scola · Dec 22, 2023 9:00am PST · 2 comments
Nick Pickles has spent much of the last decade getting beaten up before legislative bodies. But one day this August, appearing via video in Canberra, Australia, he was having a particularly brutal time. The Australian Parliament was wrapping up a long-running inquiry into online child sexual exploitation, and David Shoebridge, a Green Party... Nick Pickles has spent much of the last decade getting beaten up before legislative bodies. But...
Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya have set their sights well beyond their Silicon Valley sphere of influence. Art by Clark Miller
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The Besties’ Revenge: How the ‘All-In’ Podcast Captured Silicon Valley

By Julia Black · Dec 15, 2023 9:05am PST · 29 comments
On December 1, seven months after he’d been fired from Fox News and days before he announced the launch of his own paid streaming service, Tucker Carlson appeared on the “All-In” podcast, the most talked about show in Silicon Valley. Joining Carlson for a freewheeling 93-minute-long conversation were the podcast’s... On December 1, seven months after he’d been fired from Fox News and days before he...
The Big Read

Vinod Khosla Can See the Future. It Just Got Hazy for a Minute

By David Kirkpatrick · Dec 1, 2023 9:06am PST · 14 comments
Only minutes after Sam Altman was fired by the board of OpenAI on the afternoon of November 17, Vinod Khosla got a call from a major OpenAI investor. “What is going on?” the person asked. In the ensuing days, puzzled calls and texts from various principals continued streaming in. But even Khosla, one of OpenAI’s earliest... Only minutes after Sam Altman was fired by the board of OpenAI on the afternoon of November 17,...
Art by Clark Miller
From King to Exile to King Again: The Inside Story of Sam Altman’s Whiplash Week
By Paris Martineau and Julia Black · Nov 22, 2023 10:00am PST · 4 comments
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

From King to Exile to King Again: The Inside Story of Sam Altman’s Whiplash Week

By Paris Martineau and Julia Black · Nov 22, 2023 10:00am PST · 4 comments
Late Thursday afternoon, on what would become the eve of his firing from OpenAI, Sam Altman joined rivals from Google and Meta Platforms on stage at the APEC CEO Summit in San Francisco to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. In an uncanny foreshadowing of the drama to come, the event’s moderator was Laurene Powell Jobs, whose... Late Thursday afternoon, on what would become the eve of his firing from OpenAI, Sam Altman...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

Healthcare Without Health Workers: A Unicorn Pivots to an AI Doctor-in-a-Box

By Annie Goldsmith · Nov 15, 2023 4:30am PST · 3 comments
If Adrian Aoun has his way, the next time you visit the doctor’s office, you won’t see a single medical professional. In fact, he said, “I don’t even believe a doctor’s office should exist.” Instead, the outspoken founder and CEO of primary care startup Forward wants you to entrust your health to a landmark... If Adrian Aoun has his way, the next time you visit the doctor’s office, you won’t...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

A Front-Row Seat at the Sam Bankman-Fried Circus

By Aidan Ryan · Nov 3, 2023 9:00am PDT · 9 comments
Shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning, while most people were tucked in bed ahead of the new week, I stepped into an Uber outside my apartment in Brooklyn. I was on my way to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan with the hopes of snagging one of the 21 courtroom seats to see Sam Bankman-Fried testify in his own criminal... Shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning, while most people were tucked in bed ahead of the new...
The Ai Pin by Humane will feature a laser projector in place of a screen. Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

Has Humane Created the Next iPhone—or the Next Google Glass?

By Julia Black · Oct 27, 2023 6:00am PDT · 13 comments
In late September, a stakeholder in Humane received a humbled message from the startup. The Information had just broken the news that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had been secretly meeting with renowned former Apple designer Jony Ive. The duo was dreaming up the “iPhone of artificial intelligence,” according to later reports,... In late September, a stakeholder in Humane received a humbled message from the startup. The...
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes things are far from settled in the AI race: “We are like three steps into this marathon.” Art by Clark Miller; photo Getty.
Amazon’s Andy Jassy Plans to Crash the AI Party
By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 20, 2023 7:00am PDT · 13 comments
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy believes things are far from settled in the AI race: “We are like three steps into this marathon.” Art by Clark Miller; photo Getty.
The Big Read

Amazon’s Andy Jassy Plans to Crash the AI Party

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 20, 2023 7:00am PDT · 13 comments
I’m nine minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Andy Jassy when it becomes clear why the CEO has invited me to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Like everyone else in business these days, he wants to talk about artificial intelligence. Unless you’ve been under a rock this year, you know that the breakthroughs in... I’m nine minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Andy Jassy when it becomes...