The People Who Make OpenAI Run FastSee the Org Chart

Brian Robbins talks about 'SpongeBob SquarePants' at an investor day event for Paramount+. Screengrab via Vimeo.

Why Disney+, Paramount+ and Legacy Media Streamers Can’t Escape the Past

Photo: Brian Robbins talks about 'SpongeBob SquarePants' at an investor day event for Paramount+. Screengrab via Vimeo.

PARQOR is part of The Information’s newsletter network. To receive it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, sign up here.

Cultural criticism is not investment advice. But investors with emerging concerns about the future of streaming business models will find their echo in a criticism of streaming services’ vast content libraries from journalist and author Chuck Klosterman.

Klosterman gave a must-listen interview to the “Longform” podcast on his recently released book, “The Nineties,” in which he mused on “the slow cancellation of the future.” Movies in the 1980s looked dramatically different from movies in the 1960s, he claimed, whereas movies today are all but indistinguishable from movies in the aughts. The same goes for music.

“Maybe there’s nothing inherently bad about it,” Klosterman said. But the consequence is that “because we have such immediate access to the entire history of all art, all political thought, all literature, all of that, it’s very difficult to come up with something that is sort of a move beyond what is already there.”

And the culprit? “It’s got to be the internet. That’s the only explanation.” Culture has become “a very shallow ocean,” vast but eminently searchable. While the internet originally “seemed like the ultimate accelerant of culture,” when it became ubiquitous, “it made it so difficult to get beyond the present moment in a creative way,” he said.

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
The Electric electric vehicles
The Electric: A Rift Over the Climate Law Bursts Into the Open
Sen. Joe Manchin thinks the spirit of the Inflation Reduction Act is being violated. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty
Tension over the $369 billion climate law boiled over Wednesday, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threatening to sue to stop implementation of the legislation if he believes the White House is doing it the wrong way. His admonishment came ahead of the Biden administration’s scheduled release of guidance Friday for which electric vehicles will qualify for $7,500 per vehicle in consumer tax...
Latest Briefs
 
Alphabet’s DeepMind and Google Brain Set Aside Rivalry, Target OpenAI
Startup Wiz Finds Critical Azure Flaw Tied to Bing Search
ByteDance Promoting Lemon8, New Community App in U.S.
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
From left, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Google Brain chief Jeff Dean. Photos by Getty, Bloomberg
Exclusive google ai
Alphabet’s Google and DeepMind Pause Grudges, Join Forces to Chase OpenAI
OpenAI’s success in overtaking Google with an artificial intelligence–powered chatbot has achieved what seemed impossible in the past: It has forced the two AI research teams within Google’s parent, Alphabet, to overcome years of intense rivalry to work together.
Art by Clark Miller.
Opinion startups
Don’t Build the Wrong Kind of AI Business
At a catch-up coffee a few weeks ago, a founder friend asked me, “What AI thing should we build?” It was the third time that week a founder had asked me the same question.
Bill Gurley in 2019. Photo by Bloomberg
Exclusive
Good Eggs Cuts Its Valuation 94% in Lifeline Financing as More Startups Get Desperate
As more startups struggle to raise money from venture capitalists and approach bankruptcy, they are going to extreme lengths to stay afloat.
Block chairman and co founder Jack Dorsey. Photo by Getty
markets
Fintech’s Big Wakeup Call
Fintechs were supposed to transform banking by making it dead simple for users to open savings accounts or pay their bills.
Art by Clark Miller.
Market Research e-commerce culture
The Skin-Tech Devices Helping Execs Beautify in a Hurry
I’m always 29 at heart,” said Liyia Wu, CEO of ShopShops, a livestream shopping app for fashion, beauty and lifestyle products.
Art by Clark Miller
Surreal Estate real estate
Silicon Valley’s Realtors, Like Its Bankers, Are Having a Tough Month
In early March, Ken DeLeon, founder of DeLeon Realty, a Silicon Valley–based brokerage that sold more than $1 billion in homes in 2021, called one of his venture capitalist clients to discuss the purchase of a $20 million–plus megamansion.