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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Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 101, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you like silly accessories, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I also have for you a new way to use ChatGPT, a terrific new video game podcast, Tim Robinson’s new show, the latest Battlefield, and much more. Let’s dig in.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into this week? What should everyone else be reading / watching / playing / sticking on the wall / cutting up with scissors? Tell me everything: email [email protected], or hit me up on Signal @davidpierce.11. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe to The Verge and come hang out with us.)
The Drop
Apps in ChatGPT . OpenAI is starting to talk about ChatGPT as an operating system, which is both an obviously smart and ruthless tactic — it’s good business owning the OS! — and a way to make the product itself make more sense. Open the bot, address an app, and ask Spotify to make you a playlist or Expedia to find you flights. This… works for me. OpenAI is starting to talk about ChatGPT as an operating system, which is both an obviously smart and ruthless tactic — it’s good business owning the OS! — and a way to make the product itself make more sense. Open the bot, address an app, and ask Spotify to make you a playlist or Expedia to find you flights. This… works for me.
Hidden Levels . Two of my favorite podcasts — 99 Percent Invisible and Endless Thread — are teaming up to make a six-part podcast about the fascinating real-world effects of video game mechanics and gadgets. This is all of my interests colliding, I will take a thousand more episodes please and thank you. Two of my favorite podcasts — 99 Percent Invisible and Endless Thread — are teaming up to make a six-part podcast about the fascinating real-world effects of video game mechanics and gadgets. This is all of my interests colliding, I will take a thousand more episodes please and thank you.
“ A cartoonist’s review of AI art .” A really lovely, and poignant, take from The Oatmeal on the current state of generative AI. (Now that is a sentence I never thought I’d write.) It’s about what art feels, both to make and to consume, and whether AI stuff will ever feel the same. A really lovely, and poignant, take from The Oatmeal on the current state of generative AI. (Now that is a sentence I never thought I’d write.) It’s about what art feels, both to make and to consume, and whether AI stuff will ever feel the same.
The Chair Company . Tim Robinson has, at least for me, entered the “I will watch anything they make no matter what” realm of comedians. Plus, what’s a more current premise than a relatively normal thing happening to a guy that sends him down a world-bending conspiracy theory rabbit hole? Tim Robinson has, at least for me, entered the “I will watch anything they make no matter what” realm of comedians. Plus, what’s a more current premise than a relatively normal thing happening to a guy that sends him down a world-bending conspiracy theory rabbit hole?
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