People vs Algorithms · Aug 1, 2025 · 1:16:25
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These aren’t companies operating in a different industry than media; they’re different universes. They’re hoarding compute, restarting nuclear reactors, and offering $1 billion pay packages to AI superstars—while laying off hired help.
Meanwhile, The New York Times gets over $20 million a year from Amazon in an AI licensing deal that almost no other publisher can touch. The superintelligence economy is starting to look like the ultimate winners-take-all system.
We also debate whether the American Eagle Sydney Sweeney ad campaign was designed to provoke, Astronomer’s quick turnaround to make lemonade out of its CEO and HR head’s Coldplay dalliance and why AI models are inevitable but won’t be like what we saw in the Guess campaign in Vogue.
* Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter
* Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter
* Alex Schleifer's Human Computer
* Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter
Chapters:
* 00:00 Open
* 00:50 Welcome
* 04:36 Vox Media
* 15:08 NY Times Deal
* 20:01 Meta Returns
* 28:04 Superintelligence
* 47:02 Advertising & New Path To Attention
* 01:05:12 Good Product
* 01:15:27 Outro
Episodes: People vs Algorithms