297 · Tier 5 — High-leverage niche and emerging figures

Alex Heath

Deputy editor; author, Command Line

AI position

Aware of x-risk

Covers AI bubble and safety-adjacent topics with lab CEOs but frames coverage around business strategy, not x-risk arguments.

Why influential

Defines how AI and technology power are understood by policymakers, investors, researchers, workers and the broader press. Primary policy lanes: ai companies; platforms; hardware; technology strategy.

Who pays attention

AI and platform executives, investors, regulators, policymakers, lawyers and specialist journalists

Work samples

AI-world contacts

  • Demis Hassabis — Co-founder & CEO, Google DeepMind

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Jan 27, 2026 — Demis Hassabis on what's next for Google DeepMind — "My full Sources Live conversation with Google's AI chief during the World Economic Forum in Davos." The piece covers "what's coming for Gemini, the new Apple partnership that will

  • Sam Altman — CEO, OpenAI

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Jun 2025 — Command Line: Sam Altman interview on ChatGPT, social media, Chrome — "I had dinner with Sam Altman, a few other OpenAI executives, and a small group of reporters in San Francisco." The piece is built around this on-the-record dinner conversation, wi

  • Wojciech Zaremba — Co-founder, OpenAI

    • Wrote aboutsource · profile · Jun 2, 2026 — OpenAI's quiet co-founder steps out — "Zaremba and I spoke ahead of a post the OpenAI Foundation published Monday morning." / "'Even if OpenAI makes the safest models out there, that doesn't solve the problem of jobs [

  • Mike Krieger — Head of Anthropic Labs (former Chief Product Officer, Instagram co-founder), Anthropic

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · May 15, 2026 — ACCESS podcast: Anthropic's hunt to find the next Claude Code (Mike Krieger) — "Anthropic's Mike Krieger joins the podcast: We discuss his focus on AI and health, unifying Claude Code and Cowork, and his drama with Figma."
    • Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified — Sat down for a full ACCESS podcast interview with Heath about Anthropic's post-Claude Code roadmap.

  • Chris Lattner — Co-founder & CEO, Modular

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Mar 2026 — Trying to break Nvidia's lock-in (live interview at GTC/Nebius booth) — "Chris Lattner was leaning against a demo table at the Nebius booth, where we spoke in front of a live audience for about 30 minutes." / "The creator of LLVM and Apple's Swift — bo

  • Ioannis Antonoglou — Co-founder and CTO, Reflection AI (former DeepMind, AlphaGo co-creator)

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Feb 1, 2026 — The new AI lab that's coming for DeepSeek — "Antonoglou tells me that the startup plans to release what it hopes will be 'the most powerful open-weight model in the world' later this year." Also: "Antonoglou also discusses h

  • Alexandr Wang — Chief AI Officer, Meta

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Jan 2026 — Sources newsletter coverage of Meta AI lab reorganization under Alexandr Wang — Article subtitle: "My chat with Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang." Direct quotes obtained by reporter Alex Heath include Wang describing the token market as "gigantic and growing very,

  • Anjney Midha — Founder, AMP PBC, AMP PBC (formerly Andreessen Horowitz)

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · 2026 — ACCESS podcast: Anjney Midha on zero-sum thinking in AI — "Alex and Ellis sit down with Anjney Midha, a venture capitalist, Stanford AI lecturer, and founder of AMP, to discuss why zero-sum thinking is holding the AI industry back." (via

  • Jordan Taylor — Founder, Vizcom (AI design tool)

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Nov 2025 — ACCESS with Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger — Jordan Taylor of Vizcom — "Alex and Ellis sit down with Jordan Taylor, founder of Vizcom, to talk about the AI design tool that lets anyone go from a rough sketch to a finished product. They discuss how Jor

  • Greg Brockman — Co-founder/President, OpenAI

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Oct 2025 — Q&A: OpenAI's Stargate Man — Title "Q&A: OpenAI's Stargate Man" — article is a Q&A/interview with Greg Brockman conducted by the journalist at OpenAI's DevDay, including his direct quote: "People need to reall

  • David Luan — , Head of Amazon AGI research lab; cofounder of Adept; former VP of Engineering at OpenAI

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Aug 21, 2025 — Amazon is betting on agents to win the AI race (Decoder, guest-hosted by Alex Heath) — "'Amazon is betting on agents to win the AI race' is a Decoder podcast episode featuring David Luan, head of Amazon's AGI research lab, a cofounder of Adept, and a former VP of eng

  • Andy Konwinski — , Co-founder of Laude Institute (AI research funding nonprofit); co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Jun 2025 — The fight to keep AI research in the open / ACCESS podcast interview with Andy Konwinski — "Earlier this week, Ellis Hamburger and I sat down with him in Pasadena for the podcast." (referring to Andy Konwinski, confirming he was the interviewed guest on the ACCESS podcas

  • Chris Cox — Chief Product Officer, Meta (oversees Meta's Generative AI, AI Research orgs)

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · May 2025 — Command Line dispatch: Worldcoin launch + Q&A with Meta CPO Chris Cox about the company's AI app — Tweet text (title of the dispatch, confirmed via search): "My dispatch from the Worldcoin US launch in SF, plus a Q&A with Meta CPO Chris Cox about the company's AI app." The piece

  • Nathan Benaich — Founder, Air Street Capital (AI-focused venture fund; State of AI Report)

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Dec 5, 2024 — AI is a money pit — here's why investors don't mind (Decoder, guest-hosted by Alex Heath) — "AI is a money pit — here's why..." is a Decoder episode guest hosted by Verge Deputy Editor Alex Heath, featuring Menlo Ventures partner Tim Tully and AirStreet Capital founder Na

  • Mark Zuckerberg — CEO, driving Meta's 'personal superintelligence' AI strategy, Meta

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Sep 27, 2023 — Mark Zuckerberg on Threads, Elon Musk, AI, the Quest 3, and more — "In a rare interview, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined The Verge's deputy editor, Alex Heath, to discuss where AI is going next, the new Quest 3 headset, Threads, and other topics"

  • Thibault Sottiaux — OpenAI, Engineering/Product lead for Codex

    • Quoted / citedsource · direct quote · Apr 3, 2026 — Inside OpenAI's super app plan — Thibault Sottiaux, head of Codex, told the author during an interview at OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters: "I get more coding done than ever before, yet I don't actually write a

  • Dario Amodei — Co-founder & CEO, Anthropic

    • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Mar 2026 — Anthropic or Misanthropic — Tried: direct WebFetch (paywalled, only got photo caption "Dario Amodei onstage at the Claude Code conference in SF" and subtitle "Plus: Dario's 80x admission, and the clause no on

  • Yann LeCun — Chief AI Scientist, Meta AI

    • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Jan 2026 — Sources newsletter coverage of Yann LeCun's Meta AI departure and comments on Alexandr Wang — Routes tried: (1) direct fetch of sources.news homepage — no article body, only header/subscribe prompt; (2) r.jina.ai mirror of homepage — found only headline "Why Meta is selling

  • Fidji Simo — CEO of Applications, OpenAI

    • Wrote aboutmention · secondhand · Jul 2026 — OpenAI closes the Simo chapter — The article reports that Simo "announced yesterday that she isn't returning to her job as the company's number two," that she is "staying on as an advisor while she continues to wo

  • Emmett Shear — Interim CEO, OpenAI (Nov 2023); AI safety-oriented founder

    • Wrote aboutmention · directness unverified · Nov 22, 2023 — Command Line coverage of OpenAI board crisis, Emmett Shear's brief tenure — Tried: (1) direct WebFetch to theverge.com — blocked/refused by tool; (2) r.jina.ai proxy — returned only a 404 "Page Not Found" for that URL; (3) archive.ph/newest — WebFetch refu

  • Elon Musk — Founder, xAI

    • Quoted / citeddirectness unclassified · Apr 28, 2026 — Heath commentates on CNBC about the Musk-Altman OpenAI lawsuit/trial, drawing on his sourcing of both camps.