U.S. v. Google

09/11/23 • 24 min

18 Listeners

For years, the government has been trying to rein in Big Tech, pursuing some of the largest and most powerful companies on the internet. This week, the government takes on Google in the first monopoly trial of the modern internet era.

David McCabe, who covers technology policy for The Times, discusses the case against the internet giant and what it might mean for the future if the it loses.

Guest: David McCabe, a technology policy correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

The 10-week trial amps up efforts to rein in Big Tech by targeting the core search business that turned Google into a $1.7 trillion behemoth.
A federal judge said that the Justice Department could not move forward with a number of claims in antitrust complaints, narrowing the scope of the trial.

For more information on today’s episode, visit

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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David McCabe, who covers technology policy for The Times, discusses the case against the internet giant and what it might mean for the future if the it loses.

Guest: David McCabe, a technology policy correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

The 10-week trial amps up efforts to rein in Big Tech by targeting the core search business that turned Google into a $1.7 trillion behemoth.
A federal judge said that the Justice Department could not move forward with a number of claims in antitrust complaints, narrowing the scope of the trial.

For more information on today’s episode, visit

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Previous Episode

The Sunday Read: ‘Wikipedia’s Moment of Truth’

In early 2021, a Wikipedia editor peered into the future and saw what looked like a funnel cloud on the horizon: the rise of GPT-3, a precursor to the new chatbots from OpenAI. When this editor — a prolific Wikipedian who goes by the handle Barkeep49 on the site — gave the new technology a try, he could see that it was untrustworthy. The bot would readily mix fictional elements (a false name, a false academic citation) into otherwise factual and coherent answers. But he had no doubts about its potential. “I think A.I.’s day of writing a high-quality encyclopedia is coming sooner rather than later,” he wrote in “Death of Wikipedia,” an essay that he posted under his handle on Wikipedia itself. He speculated that a computerized model could, in time, displace his beloved website and its human editors, just as Wikipedia had supplanted the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which in 2012 announced it was discontinuing its print publication.

Recently, when I asked this editor if he still worried about his encyclopedia’s fate, he told me that the newer versions made him more convinced that ChatGPT was a threat. “It wouldn’t surprise me if things are fine for the next three years,” he said of Wikipedia, “and then, all of a sudden, in Year 4 or 5, things drop off a cliff.”

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Next Episode

A Breaking Point for the U.S. Auto Industry

Later this week, as many as 150,000 U.S. autoworkers may walk out in a historic strike against the three Detroit automakers, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. The United Auto Workers union and the Big Three are still far apart in talks, and have only two days left to negotiate a new labor contract before the deadline.

Neal Boudette, who covers the auto industry for The New York Times, walks us through a tangled, decades-long dynamic and explains why a walkout looks increasingly likely.

Guest: Neal E. Boudette, an auto industry correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

An auto strike is looming that threatens to shut down Detroit’s Big Three.
The United Auto Workers has said it is prepared to strike at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis if a deal is not reached before current contracts end.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.