is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
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YouTube is the most powerful platform in entertainment, and as such it has outsize influence on what kind of entertainment people make and watch. When YouTube adds a mid-video ad break, videos get longer to accommodate it. When YouTube tells podcasters to make video, podcasters make video. And for its next act, it appears the company is prepared to turn all its creators into livestreamers.
On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Mia Sato takes us through all the news from last week’s Made On YouTube event, and explains why live content is so important — and so hard to cultivate. YouTube’s other big focus this year appears to be AI, again, and Mia helps us figure out whether all this AI is going to make YouTube better or make it utterly unwatchable. Maybe both.
After that, it’s time for the second and final round of Summer Takes, in which David subjects The Verge’s Jake Kastrenakes and Hayden Field to his spicy feelings about podcast speeds, phone calls, Threads, and more. Jake and Hayden agree with a few, set David straight on a few others, and seem utterly bewildered by at least one of them.
Finally, Hayden sticks around to answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email [email protected]!) about the words we use when we talk about AI. When everything is AI, AI loses all meaning — and that’s exactly where we’re headed.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started: