Dan Ackerman

Circling back on this point, which I don't see enough people talking about -- AI is essentially a commodity product. There will be no loyalty for particular LLM models and versions. More in my most recent newsletter: danackerman.substack.com/p/ai-is-a-co...

Spotify Wrapped is out. I assume this number means I have younger listening tastes than 73% of listeners, right?

I looked up a book I just started reading to send someone a link about it…and the automatic Google AI overview gave away the main plot twist in the first sentence. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

YouTube video by Dan Ackerman Why Do They Call it Cyber Monday?

Just for kicks, I did a quick explainer of why Cyber Monday is called that -- it dates all the way back to 2005 (but no, it didn't sound cool back then, either...) www.youtube.com/shorts/lW55u...

Techlandia: a game of smartphones and supernatural horror Silicon Valley meets Lovecraft in Techlandia, a modern dungeon crawl adventure. You’re a tech blogger who sees something others ignore. So you and your crew infiltrate the high-tech headquarters of th...

My personal Black Friday sale -- Get a copy of my pandemic-era, solo-friendly Kickstarter tabletop game, Techlandia, for half off the original price -- now just $19! techlandia-shop-2025.myshopify.com/products/tec...

AI is a Commodity Product At the end of the day, an LLM is the aluminum soda can or the HFCS inside it, not the fizzy branding that separates Dr Pepper from Mr. Pibb.

ICYMI, from my newsletter: The mostly unspoken third rail of the AI industry is that, in the long run, AI is a commodity product...and that’s a very different business than the one most people in the AI industry think they’re in. danackerman.substack.com/p/ai-is-a-co...

Saw a question on LinkedIn about how many unread emails you have...and it reminded me that about 10 years ago a lot of companies (I worked for what was then CBS) just decided to automatically delete any email older than 90 days unless you specifically saved it long-term. That was a crazy time...

AI is a Commodity Product At the end of the day, an LLM is the aluminum soda can or the HFCS inside it, not the fizzy branding that separates Dr Pepper from Mr. Pibb.

In my latest newsletter: Maybe we're thinking about the AI Bubble all wrong. I went back to my long-ago days as a trade magazine reporter and it struck me...perhaps the big reckoning is going to come when we realize that AI is a commodity product. danackerman.substack.com/p/ai-is-a-co...

Grammy-nominated Mega Ran is returning to the 15th Annual New York Game Awards for another epic performance!

Catch him live on 1/18 at 7pm, only at SVA Theatre!

Tickets: tinyurl.com/yxd9ak2c

The Olivia Nuzzi Comeback Is Everything Wrong With Modern Media Olivia Nuzzi’s comeback isn’t a personal scandal story—it’s proof that today’s media rewards access, personality, and controversy more than ethics.

So many great quotes in this piece, too. I'll stick to one: "None of it matters. In our attention economy, ambiguity is an asset. Controversy is content. Every piece of criticism is also marketing." www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-...

Great overview of the whole rotten mess, but I especially love the description of a media exec who "clocked in at the take factory to share his perspective."

Never change, Google AI overview…

A Legendary Giveaway! Celebrate 30 years of Pokémon with us at the #NYGameAwards. One attendee will take home a Deluxe Pokémon Prize Pack after the show!

Don’t wait — get your tickets now!

Tickets: tinyurl.com/yxd9ak2c

Great explainer on LLM quantization: What hardware you're running affects which versions of models you can run, which in turn affects the output. Going to become a bigger deal as people turn to running AI on local hardware b/c of cost, privacy, flexibility, etc. www.microcenter.com/site/mc-news...

Alienware Steam Machine (2015) review: A new gaming console with the heart of a PC The Alienware Steam Machine is a bold experiment in PC/console crossover gaming, but you may just want to stick with the larger game library on the Windows version of this hardware.

Here's what the original Steam Machine devices from Valve looked like, from my 2015 (!) review of the Alienware Steam Machine. At the time, the hardware, SteamOS, and the Steam Controller weren't all there yet, but it feels like everything is coming together this time. www.cnet.com/reviews/alie...

There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business I learned many surprising lessons from my 20 months as editor-in-chief of...

I'm always 100% here for another Herb takedown. "One of the most influential companies in the history of digital media was finally, mercifully dead." talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/priva...

Dear Sonder Guest, Your Hotel Is Closed

This Sondor/Marriott mess has got to be one of the insane things I've seen -- this NYT story barely scratches the surface. The key takeaway is that no one, at any point, from any org involved, has shown any interest in their obligations to the actual paying customers. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/t...

Unintentionally existential SMS spam.

I haven’t seen seen GDT’s Frankenstein yet, but because Frankenstein and Dracula are so closely linked in public consciousness, it’s interesting to note the first was published in 1818, The latter in 1897. That’s like pairing a book from 1918 with one from 1997. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

What happened today at the *official* Grand Opening of Micro Center Phoenix (after two wild VIP Early Access Days)? See it here, from Intel, AMD, and MSI tents outside to @mryeester and @austinnotduncan PC builds inside, all via MC News: www.microcenter.com/site/mc-news...

Great video walkthrough of the new Micro Center Phoenix store from the Phoenix New Times (with a little talking head action from me, of course). www.tiktok.com/@phoenixnewt...

YouTube video by Dan Ackerman Micro Center Phoenix: Walking the Early Access Line

It took me almost five minutes to walk the line of people waiting to get into Micro Center Phoenix today (and this is just Early Access, the official Grand Opening is Nov 7). youtube.com/shorts/yAcmC...

Is the future of AI local or cloud? A lot of people are betting on the former, but it requires a big hardware investment, especially an understanding of VRAM and memory bandwidth. This MC News explainer lays it all out: www.microcenter.com/site/mc-news...

YouTube video by Dan Ackerman Visiting The Twisted Spine: Brooklyn's Horror Bookstore!

Just in time for Halloween, I finally made it to Williamsburg to check out The Twisted Spine, a very cool new horror-themed indie bookstore! www.youtube.com/shorts/-N6gh...

What's a computer? What's a console? What's an Xbox? We've been asking these questions for years. Suddenly the answers matter again.

ICYMI, from my latest free newsletter: Hands-on with the Asus Xbox Ally and Lenovo Legion Go 2, two gaming devices that blur the line between console and computer. danackerman.substack.com/p/whats-a-co...

What's a computer? What's a console? What's an Xbox? We've been asking these questions for years. Suddenly the answers matter again.

Recent talk about what counts as an Xbox reminds me of the 2010 launch of the original iPad, and the endless debates about what counts as a computer. From my new newsletter, more on the shifting definitions of computers, consoles and more: danackerman.substack.com/p/whats-a-co...

DGX Spark walkthroughs and demo sessions, including model training, video analysis, and a multi-agent chatbot.

Excited that the Micro Center team just interviewed a group of Nvidia AI experts about the new DGX Spark. We’ve got walkthroughs and demo sessions, including model training, video analysis, and a multi-agent chatbot. Article and full video here: microcenter.com/site/mc-news...

Line from an email pitch I received today: "This means some of NBCU’s biggest shows could become AI-generated games, letting players step into the worlds they know and love – unlike ever before." 🤔

Someone’s rocking the giant 12-foot Home Depot skeleton right on Smith Street.