Navigating Subscription Models in Digital Media

Nilay and David talk a bit about this week’s launch of the Verge subscription, plus what’s coming next. (There’s still time to send questions for next week! 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com.) Then they talk about the streaming news of the week, and the ways streaming services are continuing to act like cable companies. Then Kylie Robison joins to talk about the lowering stakes for AGI, shipmas at OpenAI, and more. Finally, in the lighting round, it’s crypto and browsers and Intel. And more crypto.

Further reading:

• Here we go: The Verge now has a subscription
• ESPN is coming to the Disney Plus app starting today
• Max is testing always-on HBO channels
• Max is finally about to start cracking down on password sharing.
• Walmart bought Vizio 
• OpenAI’s 12 days of ‘shipmas’ include Sora and new reasoning model
• Sam Altman says AGI will “matter much less” than people expect
• Sam Altman on Elon Musk and OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft.
• ChatGPT’s search results for news are ‘unpredictable’ and frequently inaccurate
• Stop using generative AI as a search engine
• Misinformation expert admits ChatGPT added fake details to his anti-deepfake court filing
• Bitcoin just hit $100,000 
• Dia is the The Browser Company’s AI-powered follow-up to Arc
• Threads takes an important baby step toward true fediverse integration
• Threads’ next update is a search feature that finds the post you’re looking for
• Meta says it’s mistakenly removing too many posts
• Intel’s CEO is out after only three years
• What happened to Intel?
• Trump picks two nominees who could decide the fate of Big Tech and crypto 
• Spotify Wrapped 2024 adds an AI podcast to recap your listening habits
• Apple Music’s yearly recap is finally available in the app

Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.

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