Screaming in the Cloud

Replay - Speaking Truth to Power in Tech with Dai Wakabayashi

Jan 2, 2025

In a captivating discussion, Dai Wakabayashi, a seasoned tech journalist at The New York Times, dives into the intricacies of tech reporting. He reflects on his 2019 article about AWS and how the platform’s role shifted dramatically. The conversation highlights the challenges of capturing the nuances of open source in journalism and why Amazon should welcome scrutiny as a trillion-dollar giant. Dai shares insights on negotiating relationships with tech companies and underscores the vital role of journalists in speaking truth to power.

34:27

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Episode guests

Dai Wakabayashi

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

AWS has evolved into a dominant competitor, raising questions about its responsibilities toward smaller tech entities in an increasingly competitive landscape.

The challenges journalists face in reporting on complex tech issues underline the necessity of maintaining transparency and accountability from powerful companies like Amazon.

Deep dives

Amazon's Evolving Power Dynamics

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has significantly shifted its role in the technology landscape, transitioning from a mere platform for other companies to a dominant force that directly competes with them. This evolution has led many software companies, once excited for new opportunities, to feel increasingly strained as they now vie for market share against AWS, which leverages open-source innovations for its own services. The implications of this power shift raise questions about the responsibilities of a platform, particularly related to its influence on smaller entities in the tech ecosystem. Such dynamics highlight the balance between innovation and competition, marking a profound change in how AWS operates and positions itself within the industry.

Intro

2min

The Competitive Dynamics of AWS in the Tech Landscape

2min

Navigating Nuances in Open Source Journalism

15min

Negotiating Relationships with Tech Giants

4min

Navigating Public Critique in Tech

5min

Navigating Journalism in the Tech Age

7min

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by accomplished tech journalist Daisuke Wakabayashi to explore the world of tech reporting. The pair discuss Dai’s 2019 article on AWS while touching on a number of topics, including how AWS evolved from a platform everyone built on top of to one that runs everything built on top of it. Both explore why it’s incredibly difficult to capture all the nuances of the world of open source in a single article, the collaborative nature of writing the news, and how a journalist can tell when they’ve written a story that doesn’t have mistakes. Dai and Corey also unpack why Amazon as a trillion-dollar company should expect more scrutiny, what it was like to try to get people to go on the record talking about AWS, and more.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:29) The Duckbill Group Sponsor read

(1:02) A brief look at Dai’s background as a journalist

(2:00) Dai’s article covering AWS’s business practices

(3:47) Unpacking the discussion around Dai’s article

(6:09) The careful thought and nuance that goes into writing an investigative news article

(8:59) How AWS insiders are responding to Dai’s article

(11:50) The importance of disclosures in journalism

(14:32) AWS’s blog post responding to Dai

(18:41) The Duckbill Group Sponsor read

(19:24) How criticism affects relationships with AWS

(23:36) Corey’s reaction to getting mentioned in Dai’s article and the NYT style guide

(27:18) Why it’s still important for journalists to speak truth to power

(32:22) Where you can find more from Dai

About Dai Wakabayashi
Daisuke Wakabayashi was born in Singapore, lived in Tokyo, and spent the bulk of his childhood in New Jersey. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Daisuke’s journalism career started at Reuters in Tokyo. He also worked for Reuters in Boston and Seattle, covering everything from industrial conglomerates to natural disasters. He returned to Japan with The Wall Street Journal covering technology and then returned to the United States to cover Apple. Wakabayashi joined The New York Times in 2016 and covered Google from the paper’s San Francisco bureau. In 2022, he moved with my family to Seoul to take his current job as an Asia business correspondent for The Times.

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