As Puck's A.I. Correspondent, and the author of The Hidden Layer, I am focused extensively on helping our audience make sense of the complex and often frightening world of artificial intelligence. I am as fascinated by the investment cycle that keeps these companies afloat as I am by the complex geopolitics that drive the deployment of the tech, and the niche scientific disciplines that inform where it is, what it is, and where it can all go.

Devoted to sussing out what’s real in a world of synthetic hype, I have become a sought-after moderator, panelist, analyst, and speaker at events, shows, and broadcasts across different facets of the A.I. industry and beyond. The Hidden Layer was also named to InsideHook’s list of the best new newsletters in November of 2025.

I have previously written for TheStreet, CNBC and Patch.com, among others. I served as the Editor-in-Chief of the fast-growing, AI-focused newsletter, The Deep View, until May of 2025. I hosted the podcast, The Deep View: Conversations, also, until May of 2025.

You can contact me securely on Signal with tips or speaking requests at 732-804-1223, or at ian@puck.news. 

Puck •

Id, Ego & A.I.

When I told “Ash,” an A.I. therapist, that one of my best friends had just moved to Boston, it spit out something that, to my surprise, sort of had an impact on my life. Ash acknowledged the loss, and asked whether we had tried to keep in touch over the phone. I admitted that we could do a better job. And while it felt strange taking advice from a chatbot—and while I was fully planning on doing this anyway—I sent my friend a text the next day. In the end, the suggestion acted as a timely reminde...
Puck •

Amazon’s A.G.I. Prime

Dr. Danielle Perszyk, a cognitive scientist at Amazon’s AGI Labs, can’t help but feel anxious every time she opens her computer, where she is greeted by all the usual pop-up nonsense: email alerts, Slack messages, social media updates, “productivity” app notifications. Of course, her frustration with these distractions was hardly evident in the 45 minutes we spent chatting about her research. But it’s certainly one of the factors driving her interest in A.I. “I think that part of the solution is...
Puck •

The A.I. Moratorium War Is Just Beginning…

Last week, after a tumultuous few days, a provision in Trump’s sprawling, 900-page Big Beautiful Bill Act barring states from regulating A.I. for the next five to 10 years was stripped out. The yanking of the so-called A.I. moratorium was, to put it mildly, a shocking twist—not least because its removal was supported by 99 senators. Adam Thierer, the think tank analyst who first proposed a federal moratorium on state A.I. laws, called the volte-face a “major turning point in U.S. technology poli...