How the Apple Watch defined modern health tech

How the Apple Watch defined modern health tech

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they’re going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. You can trace the state of health tech today to a single gadget: the Apple Watch Series 4. … Read more

Fake or real, the “inside traders” on Polymarket are great engagement bait

Fake or real, the “inside traders” on Polymarket are great engagement bait

In mid-March, conspiracy theories swirled claiming Benjamin Netanyahu had been replaced by an AI clone. Though there was no actual proof that the Israeli Prime Minister had been injured or killed, on X this spurred a flurry of posts promoting prediction markets where people bet on whether he would be out of office by March … Read more

Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me

Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me

Today, I’m talking with Shishir Mehrotra, who is CEO of Superhuman — that’s the company formerly known as Grammarly, which is still its flagship product. Shishir also used to be the chief product officer at YouTube, and he’s on the board of directors at Spotify. He’s a fascinating guy, and we actually scheduled this interview … Read more

Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie

Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie

I admit, this is an innovation I did not see coming: Silicon Valley has invented the philosophical zombie from the classic thought experiment “lol how crazy would it be if there were a philosophical zombie.” Until recently, the philosophical zombie was a concept closely associated with Australian philosopher David Chalmers, who defines it as “someone … Read more

Oh, you think the government will regulate Kalshi and Polymarket? Wanna bet?

Oh, you think the government will regulate Kalshi and Polymarket? Wanna bet?

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has a problem: It’s not very good at policing insider trading. And insider trading has become a pressing concern for prediction markets. Even Kalshi’s recently publicized fines for insider trading — levied against a politician and an employee of YouTube influencer MrBeast — were effectively self-policing. The exchange says it’s … Read more