Bobby Allyn Bobby Allyn is a technology correspondent at NPR based in Los Angeles.
Bobby Allyn
Stories By

Bobby Allyn

Wanyu Zhang/NPR
Bobby Allyn
Wanyu Zhang/NPR

Bobby Allyn

Reporter

Bobby Allyn is a technology correspondent based in Los Angeles.

He reports on Big Tech, startups, social media, artificial intelligence, surveillance and privacy issues, tech litigation, Silicon Valley culture and other tech-related topics.

He's covered TikTok's battle against U.S. regulators, the fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes and Elon Musk's hostile take-over of Twitter.

He came to Los Angeles after stints in San Francisco, Washington and Philadelphia where he covered criminal justice at member station WHYY. He helped lead NPR's reporting of Bill Cosby's two criminal trials.

At other points in life, Allyn has been a staff reporter at Nashville Public Radio and daily newspapers including The Oregonian in Portland and The Tennessean in Nashville. His work has also appeared in BuzzFeed News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

A native of Wilkes-Barre, a former mining town in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Allyn is the son of a machinist and a church organist. He's a dedicated bike commuter and long-distance runner. He is a graduate of American University in Washington.

Story Archive

Friday

Microsoft, which hosts cloud services with businesses and governments, said it was grappling with service outages after a glitch triggered by software distributed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Haven Daley/AP hide caption

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Haven Daley/AP

Major Microsoft outage disrupts flights and banking around the world

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Wednesday

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio shakes hands with former President Donald Trump during a rally in Delaware, Ohio in 2023. Vance has ties to tech billionaires who are endorsing his vice presidential nomination. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Vance's early roots are in Appalachia. Now he has ties to Silicon Valley

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Tuesday

Vance's early roots are in Appalachia. Now he has ties to Silicon Valley

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Sunday

The music industry is coming for AI

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Friday

Elon Musk says he will fight charges of violating Europe's Digital Services Act. Musk during a visit at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair in Paris, on June 16, 2023 and (R) the new Twitter logo rebranded as X, pictured on a screen in Paris on July 24, 2023. Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images

The music Industry is coming for AI

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Friday

Artificial intelligence web crawlers are running amok

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Monday

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put two social media laws on hold, sending the Texas and Florida cases back to lower courts for more review. Both laws sought to regulate social media platforms. Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images hide caption

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Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images

Monday

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WDC) in June. Many of the features Apple announced there will duplicate the services of 3rd-party apps, a practice known as "Sherlocking." Nic Coury/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Nic Coury/AFP via Getty Images

APPLE ACCUSED OF 'SHERLOCKING'

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APPLE ACCUSED OF 'SHERLOCKING'

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Saturday

The week in AI: Apple announces AI features in new iPhone, Musk drops OpenAI lawsuit

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Friday

Artificial Intelligence and Trump on trial. David McNew/AFP; Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images hide caption

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David McNew/AFP; Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images

Monday

2 artists claim credit for ‘All eyes on Rafah.’ The internet's most viral AI image

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Amirul Shah (left) is a college student and photography enthusiast. Zila Abka is a science teacher, anAI art hobbyist and a pro-Palestinian activist. Amirul Shah and Zila Abka hide caption

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Amirul Shah and Zila Abka

Friday

Scarlett Johansson arrives at the BAFTA Film Awards in London last year. Johansson says she was stunned when OpenAI unveiled a voice assistant that sounded eerily similar to her. New lab analysis suggests she has a point.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Wednesday

OpenAI faces new scrutiny on AI safety

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Friday

Will AI search engines lead to the death of the website? Some fear they will

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Tuesday

Scarlett Johansson demands answers about the voice for ChatGPT's personal assistant

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Monday

When OpenAI announced its latest ChatGPT last week, the AI voice it used in its demo was quickly compared to Scarlett Johansson's voice in the 2013 sci-fi film "Her," but now the company says it is pulling the voice. Leon Bennett/Getty Images hide caption

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Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Thursday

OpenAI releases latest ChatGPT — it can talk, laugh and even sing like a human

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Tuesday

TikTok sued the Biden administration in response to a new law that bans the video app in the U.S. unless it is sold in the next 12 months. Michael Dwyer/AP hide caption

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Michael Dwyer/AP