Goodbye, X! Find me on Bluesky:

"AI could summarize our findings after the fact. But it couldn’t ask the right questions, collect the data, or confront the sources. Journalism’s value has never been in the quantity of our output, but in the rigor behind it. Machines can predict, remix, and regenerate. Only

this is so bleak! very hard to understand why big tech companies are spending tens of billions of dollars to try to ruin the internet for everyone

NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out tested recipes—collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving. Gift link:

Deep dive by @daveyalba + Bloomberg colleagues into the growing number of small businesses marketing products around conservative political identity and their relationship with the right-wing influencer universe on YouTube https://t.co/KUMzAgInWo

If you care about what goes into your home and your body, this quiz is for you. Tap through and answer a few questions and we’ll match you with the right sauna.

Grateful as always to co-authors @acookiecrumbles @LeonYin @ashleyrcarman @byJuliaLove Graphics geniuses @rachaeldottle @elena___mejia And editor geniuses @sarahfrier @YueQiu_ for all the work behind this ❣️

YouTube has eased content rules in the Trump era, narrowing removals & letting controversial creators return—a shift experts say lets more hateful content persist. The platform is now where the politics of consumption flow freely.

There's a lot more in our story; hope you’ll read. What I hope isn’t lost is how YouTube’s scale has let this niche content universe flourish. As George Farmer, who runs the Candace podcast told us—“YouTube is the printing press of the digital age, if you want to call it that.”

Podcast ads are heavily themed, depending on the show: Candace Owens had 90%+ anti-establishment ads; Kelly/Carlson/Shapiro 80%+ ideology; Nelk Boys 96% masculinity/hobbies. Major brands like DoorDash & BetterHelp also appeared on Rogan & Von's shows. https://t.co/KQefgFP5Js

And, using data from Podscribe, a 3rd party podcast analytics firm, we made an effort to quantify spending on right-leaning podcasts. The top 10 conservative brands quadrupled monthly ad spend from 2023 to 2025, reaching ~$5M/month in 2025. https://t.co/KQefgFP5Js

We also tracked themes used by the 188 unique advertisers to sell, sorting them into 5 buckets: 3/10 used ideological appeals ~1/4 leveraged alternative health ~1/5 each used anti-establishment or security messages 13% appealed to masculinity https://t.co/KQefgFP5Js

The ads we reviewed were fascinating. They revealed products like Republican Red Winery, Black Rifle Coffee, & XX-XY Athletics—all targeting ideological consumers. Other ads included gold cos, debt services counseling for issues like porn addiction & more. https://t.co/KQefgFP5Js

This was a follow-up to our story in Jan when we dug into how YouTube��s conservative podcasts led young men to the right. We listened to 876 episodes from 8 popular podcasters, noting every host-read ad. At least one ad with a political message appeared in 91% of videos reviewed.

NEW: For months, my colleagues and I dug into YouTube's conservative airwaves and found a flourishing network of host-read ads on right-leaning podcasts. This phenomenon has enriched hosts, YouTube, and businesses that use ideology to sell. https://t.co/KQefgFP5Js

RT @EdLudlow: Google and Anthropic have confirmed our reporting: arrangement for 1 million TPUs giving Anthropic access to keep than 1GW ca…

Anthropic is in discussions with Alphabet’s Google about a deal that would provide the artificial intelligence company with additional computing power valued in the high tens of billions of dollars, according to people familiar with the matter.

And its a wrap on the DOJ's Google search antitrust case, as closing arguments end. Next stop likely August with a ruling that could force the company to sell Chrome, license critical data to rivals, and bar $20b + in annual payments to Apple w @daveyalba https://t.co/XVGP0U4JsC

Bloomberg @daveyalba just reported on this exhibit two weeks after it posted which is great and a reminder to everyone there is a lot of important evidence still being analyzed in Google and Facebook court cases. https://t.co/cRcarGJ5Dd

The top deepfake porn site is apparently shutting down, via @404mediaco. A critical service provider terminated service. @technology previously reported that Cloudflare, Amazon and GitHub have have provided services for many of the top 20 deepfake sites.

US v. Google: Google says its controls for publishers to opt out of AI training only cover work by Google DeepMind, not training by its other units for search (@daveyalba / Bloomberg) https://t.co/v3KcC9So9d https://t.co/FIqBNGx2uW https://t.co/ZOzeer1FAj

Source: Alphabet's Q1 profit was boosted by $8B in unrealized gains from an investment in SpaceX; Alphabet has been a major SpaceX investor since at least 2015 (@daveyalba / Bloomberg) https://t.co/zkQDZAH83L https://t.co/kdUNNfYXAg https://t.co/ZOzeer1FAj