Mastodawn

A year ago today, Trump threatened to jail Zuckerberg for the rest of his life. Today, Trump is fighting Meta's battles around the world.

I wrote about everything that Zuckerberg has gotten from Trump 2.0 so far: https://www.platformer.news/trump-zuckerberg-meta-partnership-eu-dsa-ai-dma/

Casey Newton Aug 27

The chatbot mental health crisis is here. No one is ready for it https://www.platformer.news/chatgpt-suicide-lawsuit-openai-safety/

Casey Newton Aug 26

Can Musk sue his way to the top of the App Store? I asked Stanford Law Prof. Mark Lemley about Musk's new lawsuit against OpenAI and Apple https://www.platformer.news/musk-sues-apple-openai-grok/

Casey Newton Aug 22

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week: the AI bubble, Jeff Horwitz on Meta's child-romancing chatbots, and a filthy song that is NOT the no. 1 country song in America right now https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/podcasts/is-this-an-ai-bubble-metas-missing-morals-tiktok-shock-slop.html

Is This an A.I. Bubble? + Meta’s Missing Morals + TikTok Shock Slop

“It’s beyond enormous. It’s unprecedented.”

The New York Times

Casey Newton Aug 22

It's my annual productivity post! What I'm still doing, what I stopped doing, and what I'm trying. Plus, the mundane and non-transformational ways I am using AI https://www.platformer.news/productivity-tools-ai-2025/

Casey Newton Aug 20

wakest ⁂Aug 19

Just listened to a great interview about @obsidian between @kepano and @caseynewton on Decoder podcast

https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/760522/obsidian-ceo-steph-ango-kepano-productivity-software-notes-app
(the show is also followable at @2123 thru podcast index)

How the head of Obsidian went from superfan to CEO

Steph “kepano” Ango on becoming the CEO of Obsidian and why he thinks you don’t need AI to be more productive.

The Verge

Casey Newton Aug 20

I wrote about the seeming contradiction in two new survey findings: 71 percent of Americans fear AI will take their job; and 95 percent of AI tests at companies are failing to generate money. https://www.platformer.news/ai-job-loss-surveys-mit/

Americans fear AI will take their jobs — but companies can’t quite get it to work

What new surveys tell us about the messy state of AI diffusion

Platformer

Casey Newton Aug 19

Chatbots can provide something *like* therapy, but it's not the genuine article — so I think it's good more states are cracking down on how companies present them https://www.platformer.news/ai-therapy-paxton-meta-character/

Casey Newton Aug 15

This evening, I joined a small group of reporters for a wide-ranging, on-the-record dinner with Sam Altman and some of his top lieutenants. And yeah, Altman said — we're in an AI bubble https://www.platformer.news/sam-altman-gpt-5-interview-lightcap-turley/

Casey Newton Aug 14

Note to Platformer subscribers: this week's final edition will be going out *Friday* to accommodate some reporting this evening.