Brian Merchant is the Los Angeles Times’ technology columnist. He’s the author of “The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone” and the forthcoming “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.” Merchant is the co-founder of Terraform, Vice Media’s speculative fiction website, and the co-editor of the anthology “Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn.” Previously, he was a senior editor at Motherboard, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, WIRED, the Atlantic, Fast Company, and Slate, among others.
Latest From This Author
The bizarre renaming of Twitter is the latest and most pointed example of how Silicon Valley is losing touch with reality.
Inspired by the success of Netflix, Hollywood studios pursued Silicon Valley-style hypergrowth with tactics borrowed from the likes of Uber and Lyft.
There’s a paradox at the heart of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other companies that rely on user-generated content — and it’s leading to their downfall.
Google and Facebook say they will stop hosting news content if new laws pass requiring them to compensate publishers. This is a bluff.
Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley tycoons are boosting RFK Jr. as a challenge to the establishment. But he is the establishment — and so are they.
Two years after Mark Zuckerberg bet his company on a virtual reality future, Apple in effect declared that vision dead with its announcement of a decidedly antisocial face computer.
After Uber and other gig giants failed to pay a mandated rate hike, two eagle-eyed drivers started asking questions — and won a jackpot for California gig workers.
Companies all over are laying off workers while experimenting with new AI-powered productivity tools. The connection is both obvious and maddeningly hard to pin down.
A state bill would require device manufacturers to make it easier for consumers to get their gadgets fixed. It has strong support from voters — but not tech companies.
Artists, journalists and screenwriters are leading the fight against employers who would seek to replace them with the products of ChatGPT and other generative AI software.