Amazon on Thursday became the latest tech company to announce swelling investments in A.I. amid stumbling share prices.

© Nathan Howard for The New York Times

• Barry Diller says he tried to buy all of MGM because real-world experiences like a trip to Las Vegas are a strong hedge against AI.
• He said the deal fell apart because he didn't want to take on debt or raise money from third parties.
• Diller spoke to Chief Correspondent Peter Kafka at Business Insider's The Long Play.

Media mogul Barry Diller thinks businesses that operate in the real world have a strong protective moat against AI.

That was the inspiration for his company People Inc.'s June bid for MGM Resorts International's casino and hotel business, which he called "forever assets."

As some consumers turn to AI chatbots to complete tasks like buying plane tickets or managing subscriptions, digital-only businesses could get boxed out. That creates real risks for internet brands like Expedia Inc., where Diller is an investor and board member. It's less of a problem for companies whose businesses exist in the real world, he said.

Nothing is going to replace Las Vegas, Diller said — and no one's going to buy another one. Gaming is only part of the equation, he said.

"No disintermediation is coming between a person who wants to go to a place, and that place," he said, speaking to BI's Chief Correspondent Peter Kafka at Business Insider's The Long Play event in New York on Thursday.

People Inc. first took a 27% stake in MGM in 2020. The company, which operates magazines such as Food & Wine, People, and Southern Living, later offered to buy the Las Vegas brand outright in June but withdrew its bid in September.

Diller said the deal fell apart after he became uncomfortable with the proposed structure, which involved taking on debt and asking third parties for money.

MGM later offered to buy People Inc. instead, but told investors on Wednesday that it had shelved the plan. Diller said it was "highly unlikely" that MGM was interested in People's magazine assets, but rather it had hoped to buy back People's MGM shares.

People remains MGM's largest investor, though it has agreed not to buy more than a 29.9% stake in the company and to vote with MGM's board in connection with a change-of-control transaction.

People, which, beyond its magazine portfolio, also owns stakes in The Daily Beast and the car-rental company Turo, laid off 195 workers on Thursday, per a memo from CEO Neil Vogel, which Business Insider viewed. The vast majority of impacted staffers worked on its "print and legacy web businesses," the memo said. The company has "added 320 new employees so far in 2026," it said.

Diller told Kafka that the layoffs were a sign of a healthy company that has a profitable print business in a "steady kind of decline."

"We've been transferring out people in these legacy businesses and transferring in people to do the new work," he said.

Diller is a longtime media operator. He served as chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures in the 1970s and 80s, before joining Fox Inc. and helping to start Fox Broadcasting with Rupert Murdoch in the mid-1980s. He then worked at QVC before serving as CEO of IAC and taking on roles at Expedia Group. He is on the board of directors at MGM.

A.I. has uncovered a horde of software flaws, which engineers are racing to fix before they can be exploited and abused by hackers.

© Ariel Davis

With street talk and tactics from the far-right’s playbook, André Janones used a WhatsApp channel to help organize millions of Brazilians online.

© Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

We can learn a lot from a long-dead labor leader about how to reckon with technology that threatens our jobs.

Long before its baroque décor and class identity became midterm talking points, this durable restaurant chain survived some withering critiques.

© Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images for The Cheesecake Factory

Steve Jobs and Tim Cook both dismissed the idea, but Apple’s new chief executive is reimagining some of the company’s most important products.

© David Fouts for The New York Times

The chatbot helped a woman taper off a lifesaving drug and hide the plan from her doctors.

The latest Silicon Valley billionaire club is a $333 million political ad machine that is heavily engaged in next week’s elections.

© Ben Jones

The latest Silicon Valley billionaire club is a $333 million political ad machine that is heavily engaged in next week’s elections.

© Ben Jones

Anthropic named the Wall Street firms lead underwriters on its upcoming public offering, a role that will generate generous fees and enormous prestige.

© Victor Llorente for The New York Times

A prominent researcher claims to have a revolutionary approach to “interpretability,” or the science of why A.I. models do what they do. Other experts aren’t so sure.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won another term on Sunday, with the help of a seismic social media campaign that convinced Brazilians to reject his rival.

© Rodrigo Paiva/Getty Images

In Congress and in several states, officials have been questioning online gambling companies about their use of artificial intelligence.

© Tony Luong for The New York Times

Apps that match personalities — for a price — have surged in popularity amid a loneliness epidemic.

© Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times

The race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure is consuming increasingly enormous amounts of cash at the biggest tech companies.

© Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times

A.I. will reshape our world. But does that mean the people who make the technology get to control our imagination, too?

Five experts on how best to limit a rapidly evolving technology.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva triumphed over Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the right-wing leader he defeated four years ago.

© Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images

Beth Wilkinson is a Washington lawyer who has thrived representing the Trump administration’s enemies and allies alike. Does she represent a vanishing type?

© Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Noah Berger/Associated Press