The Honest Broker

Outlet metrics

Domain Authority

N/A

Ranking

Global

#158950

United States

#55272

News and Media

#2295

Traffic sources

Monthly visitors

Articles

Tens of Thousands of AI Users Now Believe ChatGPT Is God

4 days ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

A growing number of tech users now believe that AI is God. They think they are accessing “the secrets of the universe through ChatGPT,” warned journalist Mike Lee last month. Do you think this is a tiny fringe of lunatics? No, not in the least. Just five days ago, the moderator of a pro-AI Reddit announced that they are now banning these fanatics—more than a hundred have already been blocked. They didn’t have a choice.
Beauty Is Stone Cold in the Arts, but Hot as a Consumer Product

6 days ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

If I do a search for beauty online, where does Google send me? Does it bring me to Michelangelo? Will it serve up the Taj Mahal or the Parthenon? Does it showcase a painting by Van Gogh or a nocturne by Chopin? Nope. None of the above. If I’m on a quest for beauty, Google will send me to a hair stylist or maybe a dermatologist. Those folks own beauty nowadays—not the artists. And certainly not the critics.
Substack Has Changed in the Last 30 Days

1 week ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

Everything happens so quickly at Substack. And in just the last few days, something big has changed. By my measure, we’ve suddenly reached stage four in the evolution of this platform. And I expect we will quickly get to level five (more on that below). But first let’s look at how we got here. In the first stage, people ignored us. That was easy enough—Substack was small and out on the very fringes of the media world. When I told people I published a Substack, I got blank stares.
5 Ways to Stop AI Cheating

1 week ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

The level of AI cheating has reached such an extreme that many fear we’ve reached a point of no return. “Everyone is cheating their way through college,” New York magazine recently announced. “ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.” The Wall Street Journal has reached a similar conclusion: “There’s a good chance your kid uses AI to cheat,” declared a recent article.
Welcome to the Worldwide Wall

1 week ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

Around the year 250, people in the Roman Empire started building walls. And it happened everywhere. What was going on? Not long before, cities had spread over open territory. People could enter or leave easily. They felt safe. But now, over the course of just a few years, everything changed. “By the end of the third century every sizeable city within the empire had acquired a wall,” explains historian Adrian Goldsworthy. “Almost all were very thick,” he adds. This happened even in Rome itself.
I'm Recommending These 10 New Albums

2 weeks ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

I listen to new music every morning, and again late at night. It’s a blissful adventure, because I never know what I’m going to find. I don’t always get a chance to tell you what I’m hearing—because there’s so much new music out there. And there are many other things happening at The Honest Broker. But today I’m alerting you to ten new albums of exceptional merit (and there’s a little extra at the end). Happy listening!I really should tell you about the music, and not the piano.
A Major Newspaper Publishes a Summer Reading List-but the Books Don't Exist

2 weeks ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

Critics aren’t perfect. Sometimes they get facts wrong. Sometimes their judgment is faulty. Sometimes they dangle their modifiers or split their infinitives with everybody watching. I’ve been there. And it’s awkward. But I’ve never seen anything as embarrassing as the “Summer Reading List for 2025” in the Chicago Sun-Times. It gave glowing reviews to books that don’t exist. And I bet you can guess why. Yes, the newspaper relied on AI to write the article.
Can You Fool the Audience?

2 weeks ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

Unlike a famous rock band, I often get fooled again. When my new boss turns out the same as the old boss, nobody is more shocked than me. But I learn from my mistakes. I made my worst judgment errors before the age of 30. But by 40, my track record as decision-maker and forecaster was reliable. And I believe it has improved since then. So I’ve gotten better at judging people and situations over time. It helps that I analyze the bad decisions I’ve made in the past.
14 YouTube Videos I'm Enjoying Right Now

3 weeks ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

Here’s a roundup of new YouTube videos I’ve been enjoying. If you have others to suggest, let us know in the comments. I used to make money playing piano in British pubs, and it’s a whole different vibe from bars and clubs in other nations. The pianos are lousy, but the clientele is aimable (and the beer is first rate). I learned that that the English react differently to alcohol. When Americans drink too much, they want to fight.
The Anti-Tech Canon: 30 Books

3 weeks ago | honest-broker.com | Ted Gioia

Back in 2024, I felt an urgent need to challenge the new doctrine of techno-optimism. This ideology told people to shut up and keep scrolling. Silicon Valley would build utopia for us. We just needed to stare into those tiny screens 24/7, download all the apps, and upload all our private information. They would do all the rest. Around that time, some tech leaders started sharing reading lists.