Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

What happens when Silicon Valley tries to optimize everything, from AI and politics to dating, reproduction, friendship and even human behavior?
SUPPORT MY WORK: 
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at https://www.usermag.co         
Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz
Every year, hundreds of technologists, rationalists, AI researchers, startup founders and prediction market obsessives gather in Berkeley for Manifest. Officially, it’s a conference about prediction markets. But the ideas circulating there offer a fascinating window into a much bigger worldview that is becoming increasingly influential across Silicon Valley and the AI industry.
In this episode of Power User, freelance journalist Alex Bronzini-Vender joins me to explain what he saw inside Manifest and the strange world of Silicon Valley rationalism. We discuss prediction markets, AI existential risk, effective altruism, embryo selection, radical transparency, dating experiments, Manifold, Polymarket, Eliezer Yudkowsky, the paperclip maximizer and why some attendees see markets as a tool for optimizing nearly every aspect of life.
We also get into the growing political and cultural influence of the rationalist movement, why Manifest has been compared to Davos, and what happens when ideas that once existed on obscure blogs and internet forums begin moving into the mainstream of technology and politics

The New Global Plan To Control What You Post
SUPPORT MY WORK: 
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at https://www.usermag.co         
Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz
A new United Nations cybercrime treaty is being sold as a way for governments to fight hacking, phishing, and online fraud. But its sweeping language could also help countries identify anonymous users, obtain data from technology companies, and punish political speech across national borders.
In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I speak with Sarah McLaughlin, senior scholar of global expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, about the UN Convention against Cybercrime and the growing number of governments hiding censorship powers inside cybercrime legislation.
We discuss how online satire, criticism of government officials, adult content, AI-generated images, and so-called misinformation could be treated as serious crimes carrying years in prison. We also examine new and proposed cybercrime laws in Malaysia, Namibia, China, South Sudan, and more, and how authoritarian governments could use international data-sharing systems to pursue political critics.
 
Cybercrime is real. But when governments define ordinary online speech as "cybercrime," laws created to catch hackers will become tools for censorship, surveillance, and the destruction of online anonymity.

Why does everyone suddenly think AI could kill humanity?SUPPORT MY WORK: 
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at https://www.usermag.co         
Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz
In this episode of Power User, I'm joined by tech journalist Natasha Tiku to investigate the viral claim that AI has a 10% chance of causing human extinction. From the halls of Anthropic and OpenAI to the corridors of Washington, D.C., we uncover how the insular, billionaire-funded Effective Altruism (EA) movement transformed sci-fi doomsday theories into mainstream media panic and undemocratic policy proposals.
  
We break down the math behind the so-called "10% extinction risk," expose how dark money and ideological fellowships shaped mainstream AI coverage, and discuss why big tech labs actively benefit when lawmakers regulate frontier models out of fear rather than tackling immediate, real-world harms like wage discrimination, data privacy violations, and corporate consolidation.

Who is really behind the fastest-growing political channels on YouTube? 
SUPPORT MY WORK: 
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at https://www.usermag.co         
Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz
 
To listen to the full episode and get access to more bonus episodes, an ad-free listening experience, and my weekly newsletter, subscribe to my Patreon or Substack 👇🏻
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at ⁠https://www.usermag.co⁠         
Support my work on Patreon: ⁠http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz⁠ 
Over the past few months, a massive network of sensational, formulaic channels has pulled in tens of millions of views by gaming the YouTube algorithm. They look like independent journalists reporting on breaking political news, but they’re actually "ghost creators" aka paid actors hired for as little as $26 on platforms like Fiverr to read AI-generated scripts full of exaggerations, rage bait, and outright falsehoods.
Semafor media reporter Max Tani joins me for this week's Free Speech Friday to explain how these fake news channels operate, who is building them, why their videos outperform established media outlets, and how AI is transforming political misinformation into a highly profitable business. We also examine the rise of viral channels like New York Reports, William Reports, and other synthetic news anchors, YouTube growth hackers, and the older audiences being targeted by this content.
 
As the next election approaches, cheap AI content and algorithmically amplified political videos could make it even harder to distinguish journalism from manufactured outrage. So please support my independent reporting by buying a subscription to User Mag!!  https://www.usermag.co

Why are people buying OpenAI sweatshirts, Claude “Thinking” hats and Palantir chore coats?
SUPPORT MY WORK: 
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at https://www.usermag.co         
Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz
To listen to the full episode and get access to more bonus episodes, an ad-free listening experience, and my weekly newsletter, subscribe to my Patreon or Substack 👇🏻
Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at ⁠https://www.usermag.co⁠         
Support my work on Patreon: ⁠http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz⁠ 
I sat down with Throwing Fits co-host Lawrence Schlossman to unpack the rise and fall of tech company merch. From Apple’s bizarre 1980s catalog lifestyle flop to dot-com bubble eBay relics, the rise and fall of the infamous corporate Patagonia fleece vest, and today’s ultra-hyped drops from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Palantir, we discuss why the most powerful AI companies on earth are suddenly trying to buy their way into high fashion, menswear, and cultural relevance.
We also talk about OpenAI, Anthropic, Palantir, Apple, Meta, Patagonia, Cash App, tech bro fashion, menswear culture and the influencers making AI merchandise aspirational.
Subscribe to User Magazine at usermag.co to support this show!!