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2024-10-30
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A Requiem for Prabhakar Raghavan

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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2024-10-25
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Data Vampires with Paris Marx

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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2024-10-23
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Zephyr Teachout On Corruption

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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2024-10-16
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The Subprime AI Crisis

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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2024-10-11
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Why OpenAI Is A Terrible Business

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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2024-10-09
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The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 4

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

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2024-10-02
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How To Break the Internet with Chris Stokel-Walker

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.

Follow Chris: https://x.com/stokel

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2024-09-27
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The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 3

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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2024-09-25
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The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 2

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

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2024-09-18
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Silicon Valley Fashion With The Menswear Guy

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.putthison.com/

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2024-09-13
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The Department of Justice V Google Ads: Part 1

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

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2024-09-09
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How Google Cheated Their Way To Billions

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.

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2024-09-06
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How Monopolies Are Making Tech Worse

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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2024-09-04
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Matt Stoller Explains Monopolies

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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2024-08-28
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Algorithms and Oligopolies with Thomas Germain

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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2024-08-21
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Big Tech Is The Enemy of Innovation

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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2024-08-16
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How The AI Bubble Bursts

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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2024-08-14
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Enzittification with Cory Doctorow & Brian Merchant

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

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

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2024-08-07
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The State of Tech Journalism with Kylie Robison and Mike Isaac

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

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2024-07-31
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Rot Economics with MIT's Daron Acemoglu

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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2024-07-24
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CrowdStruck

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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2024-07-22
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The Academics That Think ChatGPT Is BS

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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2024-07-19
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Pop Culture

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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2024-07-17
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How Shareholders Are Destroying The Tech Industry

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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2024-07-12
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The Shareholder Supremacy

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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2024-07-10
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I Will Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again Ft. Nik Suresh & Robert Evans

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/

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