YouTube adds new podcast features, including an AI recommendation tool and ‘Auto speed’

The update signals YouTube’s ongoing efforts to compete with other platforms for podcast audiences.

Rivian’s software chief thinks you don’t need CarPlay or buttons
Rivian’s software chief thinks you don’t need CarPlay or buttons

Today, I’m talking with Wassym Bensaid, the chief software officer at Rivian, and the co-CEO of Rivian’s platform joint venture with Volkswagen, which everyone just calls RV Tech. That joint venture kicked off about a year and a half ago with a nearly $6 billion investment from Volkswagen. It effectively puts Wassym in charge of […]

Spotify now lets you ‘clip’ moments from your favorite podcast

With the new scissors icon, you can clip favorite moments from podcasts and share them with your audience.

How clips ate the internet
How clips ate the internet

Once upon a time, you could probably guess why most things appeared on your feed. Maybe you followed the creator who posted it; maybe you’d liked their stuff in the past; maybe all your friends were into them. That’s not how it works anymore, though. The stuff you see on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and […]

Sundar Pichai on AI, the future of search, and what’s happening to the web
Sundar Pichai on AI, the future of search, and what’s happening to the web

Today, I’m talking with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, in a conversation we recorded just after the Google I/O developer conference. This is the fifth year Sundar and I have sat down after I/O, and it’s become one of my favorite Decoder traditions. There’s always a lot of news at I/O, and this year […]

The post-search Google era begins
The post-search Google era begins

Google is many things, but most of the time it’s a verb: It is what it is to search the internet for information. But what if it’s an AI agent doing the searching? And it’s doing it proactively? Without even telling you about it? In the world Google imagines, in which so much of the […]

Spotify takes on Google’s NotebookLM with its new app

Spotify is releasing the new desktop app as a research preview in more than 20 markets

Musk v. Altman: Much ado about nothing
Musk v. Altman: Much ado about nothing

Today I’m talking with Liz Lopatto, who spent the last month covering the Musk v. Altman trial in all its chaos. You’ll hear her describe the courthouse as a “zoo” and explain that there were protests of one kind or another happening outside every day. Both Elon Musk and Sam Altman are big personalities, and […]

We react to Google I/O 2026
We react to Google I/O 2026

What better way to unwind from a two-hour keynote presentation than to pore over the weirdest and wildest details, from a Gmail bot you can converse with to DeepMind’s leader saying the singularity is near. The Vergecast went live right after the show, with senior AI reporter Hayden Field joining me to discuss the highlights. […]

Amazon’s new Alexa feature generates entire podcast episodes using AI and licensed journalism from 200+ newsrooms
Amazon’s new Alexa feature generates entire podcast episodes using AI and licensed journalism from 200+ newsrooms

  Amazon has launched a feature that uses artificial intelligence to generate entire podcast episodes on demand. Called Alexa Podcasts, the tool allows users to ask Alexa+ to create a podcast on any topic, and the system will research the subject, prod…