NY Times hires Metz to cover emerging tech

New York Times business editor Dean Murphy sent out the following announcement on Friday afternoon:

He reads technical papers for fun — and understands them. He knows what Google’s TensorFlow is. He has taken an artificial intelligence class with Facebookers. And he can readily explain the difference between machine learning and deep learning and where neural networks fit in.

Cade Metz is coming to the San Francisco bureau as our emerging technologies reporter, to give us a peek into the technologies that will shape our future.

Cade joins The Times from Wired, where he has been a senior staff writer for the past six years, covering the rise of artificial intelligence, autonomous cars and virtual reality, as well as many other technologies that he calls “era defining.” Looking ahead, he sees quantum computing as a potential next wave.

Cade’s knowledge of technology springs from covering the topic for almost two decades, first at PC Magazine, and later at science and technology website The Register. At Wired, he worked with Mike Isaac, who recalls a time where he needed advice reporting out a tricky situation based on a tip from a source at a company that >Cade was very familiar with. Cade’s strategizing helped Mike land the story. “He’s the real deal,” says Mike.

Cade has a knack for translating esoteric technologies into plain English. This may partly be because he studied English at Duke and has a thriving sideline as a fiction writer and playwright. He is now at work on a narrative non-fiction book about the small group of A.I. researchers who are changing the tech landscape after moving into the world’s biggest tech companies. He lives with his wife and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Cade starts next month.