
Casey Newton
Founder of Platformer; co-host of Hard Fork
Independent technology journalist who founded the Platformer newsletter after years at The Verge, covering AI labs, platform power and content moderation. Co-hosts Hard Fork with Kevin Roose.
Key arguments & positions
- Covers AI as a platform-power story: who controls distribution, moderation and the rules users never see.
- Argues independent reporting on AI labs needs sources inside them, and has broken several internal-policy stories that way.
- Publicly skeptical of both AI-will-save-us and AI-is-nothing framings, arguing the honest position is narrower than either.
Accomplishments
- Founded the Platformer newsletter in 2020 after a decade at The Verge and CNET.
- Co-hosts Hard Fork with Kevin Roose.
- Left Substack publicly in 2024 over its moderation policies, moving Platformer to Ghost.
Papers & key writings
Links
In the library
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The Rise of the Neolab (Radical Ventures)
Venture firm Radical Ventures on "neolabs" — new, research-first AI labs founded outside the big companies.
Why this: Also about AI labs
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
A joint MIT and IBM research lab publishing work on AI models, efficiency and applications.
Why this: Also about AI labs
Introducing System One Models and Jev
TypeSafe AI announcement from founder Diogo Almeida (formerly OpenAI) introducing System One models and Jev, aimed at cheaper automation rather than better chat.
Why this: Also about AI labs
