is this tech?

It’s soul-destroying and it uses DRM, therefore Peloton is tech

"I mean, the pedals go around if you turn off all the tech, but Peloton isn't selling a pedaling product."

A peloton bike on a yellow background

Is this tech? Or is it just a bike with a screen?

Image: Peloton and Protocol

One of the breakout hits from the pandemic, besides Taylor Swift's "Folklore," has been Peloton. With upwards of 5.4 million members as of March and nearly $1.3 billion in revenue that quarter, a lot of people are turning in their gym memberships for a bike or a treadmill and a slick-looking app.

But here at Protocol, it's that slick-looking app, plus all the tech that goes into it, that matters. And that's where things got really heated during our chat this week. Is Peloton tech? Or is it just a bike with a giant tablet on it? Can all bikes be tech with a little elbow grease?

Even our executive editor weighed in.

Karyne Levy: is PELOTON tech?

Megan Rose Dickey: are we doing these every week or what's the deal?

Karyne: yes! it is a weekly series

Megan: yes, i knew that lol

Kate Cox: Anything you can control remotely with DRM and a subscription fee has to qualify, yes?

Karyne: i will go first: peloton is for sure tech. without the technology that runs peloton (leader boards, streaming, the big tablet on the bike, the app) it is just a bike.

Tom Krazit: never saw this one coming

Kate Cox: Yeah, its whole thing is the connected software, that's what they're selling. With an expensive bike.

Karyne: right. i mean really they're selling a LIFESTYLE but it's a tech lifestyle 😎

Karyne: obviously i'm obsessed with peloton, i'm an evangelist

Tomio Geron: Yes it is a lifestyle because you can hook your bike up to zwift or other software for much less

Kate: I am the opposite of obsessed with Peloton, and I am deeply antisocial in my working out, but I agree that its whole deal is aspirational and techy

Karyne: oh i don't talk to anyone

Amber Burton: I would like to venture that it is just a bike with tech attached

Karyne: amber no

Amber: yes

Meg Morrone: Is my treadmill that is not connected to the internet tech?

Amber: im sorry lol

Karyne: please explain further

Amber: it's a bike with bad tech attached

Karyne: no @Meg, your treadmill is just a treadmill, i'm so sorry

Karyne: BAD TECH????

Karyne: AMBER

Megan: ahahah

Amber: yes

Meg: But it has a chip in it.

Megan: you tell em, amber!!!

Karyne: a chip does not a tech product make

Karyne: or something

Kate: What pushes me over to Peloton being tech is the way they retroactively turned off features for treadmill users when they added a subscription fee

Kate: That's Internet of Things behavior right there, which is tech

Karyne: lol killed by google vibe

Sarah Roach: If I fasten my phone to my bike, did I make my bike tech? Or did I just decide to use tech while riding my bike

Amber: I have a schwinn and it's basically the same. But I guess my point is that Peloton is bad tech. Is that fair?

Amber: Sarah, that's exactly it!

Kate: does your bike still work if you disable the software or stop using your phone? (yes)

Tim Grieve: I feel that I am the elephant in the room.

Sarah: Or is the bike tech too? Are bikes tech?

Amber: I'm waiting to hear Tim's take

Kate: tim's hot bike take

Tim: I say it's tech. I mean, the pedals go around if you turn off all the tech, but Peloton isn't selling a pedaling product. It's selling the whole package – bikes and classes, and readouts on the bike that tell you whether you're doing the things you're supposed to be doing.

Karyne: you can connect an ipad to any bike and attend the classes, but then you're using peloton's app, in which case that, too, is tech

Tim: My kid spent weeks hacking a bricked Flywheel bike so it would work with Peloton classes. That feels like tech!

Kate: Peloton is the software product, right? That's what really matters. Where something like Tesla is both software (updating your car) and hardware (the literal four wheeled car), Peloton is, as you say, something you can make work on any bike if you're determined but the experience is all the software bits

Amber: Ugh ok maybeeeee

Tim: A meeting isn't tech, but Zoom is. A spin class isn't tech, but Peloton is.

Karyne: right. and when you do a peloton ride on a peloton, you can see your cadence and resistance on the screen

Karyne: that's tech, it's using a sensor!

Biz Carson: Can we now talk about how Cody Rigsby is our favorite Peloton instructor and I will accept no substitutes?

Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby wearing a burgundy shirt Is Cody Rigsby tech?Image: Peloton and Protocol

Kate: Peloton is as much tech as my Fitbit is, I think

Sarah: 🤔

Tim: I hope we're tagging all the instructors so we get the traffic.

Karyne: you know i will. SEO 4 eva

Tim: What time is Emma Lovewell's Peloton class?

Karyne: that's our headline

Biz: for the internet records, i do believe peloton is tech and will go a step further and say it is also a media company

Karyne: omg

Amber: oh man that hurts my soul

Karyne: Peloton is tech and media and hurts Amber's soul

Tom: well, soul-destroying = tech

Amber: The takeaway for the day

Tim: Also, who's up for Soul Cycle in Marin tonight at 5:15?

Megan: big yikes

Megan: i mean, no thanks lol

Megan: those classes seem so intense

Karyne: perfect. if something is soul-destroying, kills features without warning, has a sensor and an app and DRM and cody rigsby, then it is tech.

Karyne: i'm going to make t-shirts

 Karyne Levy

Karyne Levy ( @karynelevy) is the deputy managing editor at Protocol. Before joining Protocol, Karyne was a senior producer at Scribd, helping to create the original content program. Prior to that she was an assigning editor at NerdWallet, a senior tech editor at Business Insider, and the assistant managing editor at CNET, where she also hosted Rumor Has It for CNET TV. She lives outside San Francisco.

and
 the Protocol team
Protocol focuses on the people, power and politics of tech, with no agenda and just one goal: to arm decision-makers in tech, business and public policy with the unbiased, fact-based news and analysis they need to navigate a world in rapid change.
peloton exercise biking drm is this tech?
Fintech

Judge Zia Faruqui is trying to teach you crypto, one ‘SNL’ reference at a time

His decisions on major cryptocurrency cases have quoted "The Big Lebowski," "SNL," and "Dr. Strangelove." That’s because he wants you — yes, you — to read them.

The ways Zia Faruqui (right) has weighed on cases that have come before him can give lawyers clues as to what legal frameworks will pass muster.

Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Cryptocurrency and related software analytics tools are ‘The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic.’”

That’s not a quote from "The Big Lebowski" — at least, not directly. It’s a quote from a Washington, D.C., district court memorandum opinion on the role cryptocurrency analytics tools can play in government investigations. The author is Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

Keep Reading Show less
Veronica Irwin

Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.

cryptocurrency blockchain bitcoin lawsuit
sponsored content
Sponsored Content

How is technological innovation breaking down barriers and increasing access to financial services?

The financial technology transformation is driving competition, creating consumer choice, and shaping the future of finance. Hear from seven fintech leaders who are reshaping the future of finance, and join the inaugural Financial Technology Association Fintech Summit to learn more.

Keep Reading Show less
FTA
The Financial Technology Association (FTA) represents industry leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-centered financial services and advocate for the modernization of financial regulation to support inclusion and responsible innovation.
sponsored sponsored content
amazon web services
Enterprise

AWS CEO: The cloud isn’t just about technology

As AWS preps for its annual re:Invent conference, Adam Selipsky talks product strategy, support for hybrid environments, and the value of the cloud in uncertain economic times.

Photo: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

AWS is gearing up for re:Invent, its annual cloud computing conference where announcements this year are expected to focus on its end-to-end data strategy and delivering new industry-specific services.

It will be the second re:Invent with CEO Adam Selipsky as leader of the industry’s largest cloud provider after his return last year to AWS from data visualization company Tableau Software.

Keep Reading Show less
Donna Goodison

Donna Goodison (@dgoodison) is Protocol's senior reporter focusing on enterprise infrastructure technology, from the 'Big 3' cloud computing providers to data centers. She previously covered the public cloud at CRN after 15 years as a business reporter for the Boston Herald. Based in Massachusetts, she also has worked as a Boston Globe freelancer, business reporter at the Boston Business Journal and real estate reporter at Banker & Tradesman after toiling at weekly newspapers.

aws amazon web services cloud computing analytics data analytics adam selipsky

Farewell from Protocol

Image: Protocol

We launched Protocol in February 2020 to cover the evolving power center of tech. It is with deep sadness that just under three years later, we are winding down the publication.

As of today, we will not publish any more stories. All of our newsletters, apart from our flagship, Source Code, will no longer be sent. Source Code will be published and sent for the next few weeks, but it will also close down in December.

Keep Reading Show less
Bennett Richardson

Bennett Richardson ( @bennettrich) is the president of Protocol. Prior to joining Protocol in 2019, Bennett was executive director of global strategic partnerships at POLITICO, where he led strategic growth efforts including POLITICO's European expansion in Brussels and POLITICO's creative agency POLITICO Focus during his six years with the company. Prior to POLITICO, Bennett was co-founder and CMO of Hinge, the mobile dating company recently acquired by Match Group. Bennett began his career in digital and social brand marketing working with major brands across tech, energy, and health care at leading marketing and communications agencies including Edelman and GMMB. Bennett is originally from Portland, Maine, and received his bachelor's degree from Colgate University.

machine learning
Enterprise

Why large enterprises struggle to find suitable platforms for MLops

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, and as larger enterprises go from deploying hundreds of models to thousands and even millions of models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

Photo: artpartner-images via Getty Images

On any given day, Lily AI runs hundreds of machine learning models using computer vision and natural language processing that are customized for its retail and ecommerce clients to make website product recommendations, forecast demand, and plan merchandising. But this spring when the company was in the market for a machine learning operations platform to manage its expanding model roster, it wasn’t easy to find a suitable off-the-shelf system that could handle such a large number of models in deployment while also meeting other criteria.

Some MLops platforms are not well-suited for maintaining even more than 10 machine learning models when it comes to keeping track of data, navigating their user interfaces, or reporting capabilities, Matthew Nokleby, machine learning manager for Lily AI’s product intelligence team, told Protocol earlier this year. “The duct tape starts to show,” he said.

Keep Reading Show less
Kate Kaye

Kate Kaye is an award-winning multimedia reporter digging deep and telling print, digital and audio stories. She covers AI and data for Protocol. Her reporting on AI and tech ethics issues has been published in OneZero, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, CityLab, Ad Age and Digiday and heard on NPR. Kate is the creator of RedTailMedia.org and is the author of "Campaign '08: A Turning Point for Digital Media," a book about how the 2008 presidential campaigns used digital media and data.

mlops ai machine learning
Latest Stories
Bulletins