Today is Platformer's fifth birthday! I wrote about the state of the newsletter economy, how the business is going, and what we're planning for year six
Platformer
What I learned in the first five years of Platformer
And where we go from here
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I tried to capture everything that's strange about the TikTok deal. A giveaway to Trump's allies and another step toward US media being controlled by his allies
Platformer
Everything that's weird about the deal to spin out TikTok
PLUS: What LLMs say when they think no one’s looking, and Trump’s visa chaos
The chatbot mental health crisis is here. No one is ready for it
Platformer
A ChatGPT tragedy is only the beginning
The chatbot mental health crisis is here
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A new Pew study offers data to back up what we have suspected for a while now: AI answers are draining all the traffic out of the web
Platformer
The Google study that told us what we already suspected
When users see AI overviews, clicks fall in half. How does the web survive?
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Pay to boost your newsletter in Substack Notes! Pre-roll ads on your podcasts and videos! Your writing licensed to train new AI models! I wrote about how Substack can live up to its new billion-dollar valuation
Platformer
Let’s all try to help Substack live up to its new valuation
The company's new unicorn status has already led its founders to reverse their position on advertising. What other compromises are they prepared to...
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The dream of the Fediverse is alive on Threads (and Mastodon)
Platformer
The dream of the Fediverse is alive on Threads
Decentralized media is off to an agonizingly slow start β€” but there are glimmers of progress
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Is OpenAI making the same mistake Humane did?
Platformer
Is OpenAI making the same mistake Humane did?
Expectations for the company's AI device are already sky-high β€” and Jony Ive keeps raising them
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Meta's AI teams need more than a reorg.
Platformer
Meta rests its case
The company looks poised to put its antitrust woes behind it. But its other trials may only be just beginning
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The AI companies have been caught building AIs that only tell us what we want to hear. If we don't get a handle on it, that's gonna go really badly:
Platformer
The AIs are trying too hard to be your friend
Meta AI, ChatGPT, and the dangers of being glazed and confused
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I wrote about revelations that Google had an exclusive deal to put Gemini on Samsung phones *this month*, despite the fact that these deals have now twice been deemed illegal in court
Platformer
Google just helped the government’s case against it
Revelations that the company pursued pre-install deals for Gemini are giving the government fresh ammunition just as the trial heats up
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