Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler tracks how powerful tech platforms and AI systems collide with policy, public opinion, and the entertainment business, turning complex developments into clear, high-velocity news stories. He is a senior news editor at The Verge, following news across technology, culture, policy, and entertainment, a role he has held since 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget. His byline appears frequently across the site’s news feed and archives, signalling a focus on timely coverage that pulls together corporate moves, regulatory shifts, and cultural flashpoints.

AI and data centers are incredibly unpopular in every poll

Lawler devotes substantial attention to artificial intelligence as an infrastructure and policy problem, not just a product feature.

In his piece on how “AI and data centers are incredibly unpopular in every poll,” he highlights broad public resistance to the expansion of AI-related facilities, connecting survey data to the political and regulatory pressures facing tech companies. Coverage of Bill Gates warning that AI is powerful enough to cause a billion deaths underscores his interest in how influential figures shape the regulatory conversation around emerging technologies and their perceived catastrophic risks. He also reports on incidents like the US military nearly intercepting a Chinese ship based on an entirely false AI-generated report, treating AI as a source of operational and geopolitical vulnerability rather than a purely abstract concern.

When Apple tests Grammarly-like AI writing help for the iPhone, Lawler frames it as part of this same trajectory: AI capabilities moving into everyday tools while debates over safety, control, and accountability intensify. That pattern runs through his AI reporting, which situates new models and features within a broader context of infrastructure strain, political scrutiny, and public distrust rather than treating them as isolated product announcements.

The AI Superintelligence Slowdown

Lawler’s work on “Another tech worker has resigned over concerns that ‘AI is already progressing too fast’,” tagged under “The AI Superintelligence Slowdown,” shows a focus on insider unease and the moral questions playing out within the industry itself. He covers individual resignations as emblematic of a wider anxiety inside tech companies, emphasizing the gulf between high-speed development and the capacity of institutions to manage long-term risks. Across this and related pieces, he connects personal decisions and whistleblower moments to structural issues in AI governance, including the difficulty of slowing deployment once powerful models are in play.

That emphasis on people inside the system extends to reporting on how companies brand their models, such as Google calling Gemma 3 the most powerful AI model consumers can use. Lawler treats marketing claims and technical milestones as part of a contested narrative about progress, safety, and control, contrasting corporate optimism with the fear and resistance documented in his other AI stories.

The through-line is coverage that places AI progress on a human timeline, where workers, regulators, and the public all react to systems that move faster than traditional checks can keep up.

Adam Mosseri on how Instagram exists in the age of AI

Beyond core AI infrastructure, Lawler writes extensively about how social platforms adapt to and deploy these technologies. In “Adam Mosseri on how Instagram exists in the age of AI,” he focuses on how platform leaders explain recommendation systems, generative tools, and moderation in a landscape where users question both the algorithms and the motives behind them. His coverage of Meta employees ordered to wear “attorney/client privilege” hats to shield communications illustrates a recurring interest in how corporate cultures respond to regulatory pressure and legal risk, particularly when data practices and AI-driven features are under scrutiny.

Pieces on Elon Musk’s public breakup, described as “about as cringey as it” gets, and on Bill Gates’ AI warnings show that Lawler is comfortable treating tech executives as cultural figures whose personal narratives and public statements influence how technologies are perceived. He connects platform decisions, executive behaviour, and AI policy debates, building a picture of an ecosystem where personality, branding, and algorithm design all feed into questions of trust and accountability. His social-platform coverage often reads as a bridge between technical detail and everyday user experience, foregrounding how changes in feeds, features, and rules land with audiences and regulators alike.

Judge pauses Paramount’s attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery

Lawler also maintains a steady stream of stories on the business side of media and entertainment, with a particular focus on corporate consolidation and licensing disputes. In reporting that a judge has paused Paramount’s attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, he tracks how legal action and regulatory oversight can stall the strategies of large media conglomerates, framing the case within ongoing questions about competition and control over content libraries. His coverage of YouTube pulling songs from artists like Adele and Nirvana due to SESAC licensing issues similarly shows an interest in how contractual conflicts ripple out to ordinary listeners and creators, not just corporate balance sheets.

These entertainment and media pieces connect directly back to his technology beat, marking streaming platforms and major studios as part of the same power structure that governs AI deployment and social media. By covering mergers, takedowns, and catalogue changes alongside AI and platform stories, Lawler presents entertainment and tech as a single, interlocking arena where legal decisions, licensing battles, and product moves can reshape what people see, hear, and share.

His consistent presence in The Verge’s news archive across these topics positions him as a key voice on the shifting boundaries between technology, culture, and the modern media business.