Steven Levy

Steven Levy
Born	1951
Birthplace	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Journalist, author, editor
Title	Editor at large
Employer	Wired
Known for	Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, technology journalism
Alma mater	Temple University (BA)
Website	http://www.stevenlevy.com/

Steven Levy (born 1951) is an American journalist, author, and editor at large for Wired magazine who has spent more than four decades covering the intersection of technology and society. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Levy emerged as one of the foremost chroniclers of the digital age with his 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, a work that documented the early hacker culture and articulated an enduring set of principles known as the "hacker ethic." Over the course of his career, he has published eight books on subjects ranging from computer hacker culture and artificial intelligence to cryptography and the inner workings of some of the world's most powerful technology companies, including Apple, Google, and Facebook. His journalism has appeared in numerous publications, and he has conducted extensive interviews with leading figures in the technology industry, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Bill Gates. As editor at large at Wired, Levy continues to produce long-form reporting and analysis, including his regular "Backchannel" and "Plaintext" columns, which draw on decades of accumulated context and a deep network of industry contacts to interpret the significance of major developments in technology.

Early Life

Steven Levy was born in 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Details of his early upbringing and family background remain largely private, though his roots in Philadelphia would later prove to be a lasting connection; decades into his career, he returned to the city to deliver a commencement address at his alma mater, Temple University, in May 2025.

Growing up during a period of rapid technological change in the United States, Levy developed an early interest in how new tools and machines shaped human experience. While specific details of his childhood interests and influences have not been extensively documented in public sources, his subsequent career trajectory — beginning with an interest in writing and journalism and evolving into a singular focus on the culture and consequences of computing — suggests formative exposure to both the literary and scientific currents of the era.

Education

Levy attended Temple University in Philadelphia, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. His connection to the university has endured throughout his career. In May 2025, Levy returned to Temple University to deliver the commencement speech to graduating students, in which he addressed the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market and encouraged new graduates not to view AI as an insurmountable threat to their careers. In the speech, he shared his perspective on how new college graduates could compete with powerful artificial intelligence systems, drawing on his extensive experience covering technology to offer a measured and optimistic assessment of the human role in an increasingly automated world.

Career

Early Journalism

Levy began his career as a journalist and writer, gravitating toward subjects at the intersection of technology, culture, and society. His early work established him as a keen observer of the nascent personal computer revolution and the communities of enthusiasts, engineers, and programmers who were reshaping the world from garages, university labs, and corporate research centers.

One of Levy's early notable works was his exploration of the story of Albert Einstein's brain. The resulting book, Einstein's Brain, investigated the peculiar posthumous journey of the physicist's preserved brain and the scientific and ethical questions it raised. The project demonstrated Levy's ability to blend narrative journalism with rigorous reporting on scientific subjects.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Levy's breakthrough work came with the publication of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution in 1984. The book chronicled the early days of the computer underground, tracing the development of hacker culture from the Tech Model Railroad Club at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1950s and 1960s through the emergence of the personal computer industry in the 1970s and early 1980s. In Hackers, Levy identified and articulated what he termed the "hacker ethic" — a set of principles that included the belief that access to computers should be unlimited and total, that information should be free, and that authority should be mistrusted and decentralization promoted.

The book profiled key figures in the history of computing and hacker culture, presenting them as creative and often iconoclastic individuals whose work had profound consequences for the development of modern technology. Hackers became a foundational text in the literature of technology culture, and its influence has persisted for decades. The concept of the hacker ethic that Levy described has been widely discussed in academic, journalistic, and popular contexts as a framework for understanding the values and motivations of early computer enthusiasts and their successors in the open-source software movement and beyond.

Coverage of Cryptography and Digital Privacy

Following Hackers, Levy expanded his focus to include the emerging fields of cryptography and digital privacy. His 2001 book Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government — Saving Privacy in the Digital Age examined the conflict between government agencies seeking to maintain surveillance capabilities and the cryptographers and technologists who developed encryption tools to protect individual privacy. The book covered the development of public-key cryptography and the political battles over encryption policy in the United States during the 1990s, including the debates over the Clipper chip and the efforts of figures such as Whitfield Diffie and others in the cypherpunk movement.

Levy's reporting on cryptography and cybersecurity established him as one of the leading journalists covering the policy and technical dimensions of digital privacy — subjects that have only grown in importance in the decades since.

Artificial Intelligence

Levy has also written extensively about artificial intelligence. His 1992 book Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology explored the scientific efforts to create computational systems that simulate biological processes, examining the work of researchers who sought to understand the principles of life through digital simulation. The book brought the emerging field of artificial life — a discipline situated at the intersection of computer science, biology, and philosophy — to a general audience.

His interest in AI has continued throughout his career. In his 2025 commencement address at Temple University, Levy addressed the anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence's impact on employment and creativity, arguing that new graduates should not view AI as having ended their careers before they began. Drawing on his decades of reporting, he offered a perspective grounded in historical context, noting that previous waves of technological change had similarly prompted fears of obsolescence that ultimately proved overstated.

In his ongoing work at Wired, Levy has continued to report on AI developments. In January 2026, he wrote about a research paper suggesting that AI agents are "mathematically doomed to fail," while also presenting the industry's counterarguments, exemplifying his approach of presenting multiple perspectives on complex technical debates.

Apple, Google, and Technology Industry Reporting

A significant portion of Levy's career has been devoted to long-form reporting on major technology companies. His 2011 book In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives provided an in-depth account of Google's corporate culture, business strategies, and technological innovations. Based on extensive access to the company's leadership and employees, the book examined how Google's approach to organizing the world's information had transformed industries ranging from advertising and media to communications and transportation.

Levy's reporting on Apple has also been a hallmark of his career. He conducted interviews with key figures in the company's history and covered the development of its products and corporate strategy over many years.

In 2013, Levy conducted a notable interview with Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton for Wired, exploring the intersection of technology, philanthropy, and public policy.

Facebook: The Inside Story

Levy's most recent book, Facebook: The Inside Story, was the product of three years of interviews with current and former employees of Facebook (now Meta Platforms). The book recounted the history and rise of the social media company from its founding through its emergence as one of the most influential and controversial corporations in the world. Among those Levy interviewed for the project were Mark Zuckerberg, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer; Sheryl Sandberg, its former chief operating officer; and Chamath Palihapitiya, an early senior executive at the company. The book examined not only the company's growth and technological innovations but also the crises and controversies it faced, including concerns about privacy, misinformation, and the platform's effects on democratic processes.

Role at Wired

Levy serves as editor at large at Wired, where he writes long-form features, profiles, and analytical columns. His "Backchannel" column draws on what the publication describes as his "unmatched context — and industry contacts — to put the week's biggest tech news in perspective." He has also written the "Plaintext" column for the publication.

In his role at Wired, Levy has continued to produce major feature articles on a range of subjects. In 2025, he wrote an obituary and tribute for Bill Atkinson, the Macintosh pioneer and inventor of HyperCard, who died at the age of 74. In the article, Levy described Atkinson's contributions to the development of the Macintosh computer, including his work on the graphical user interface that enabled users to draw on computer screens and access information via links.

Levy has also covered subjects including defense technology and artificial intelligence in military applications. In November 2025, he published a major profile of Alex Karp, the chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies, exploring the company's work with government agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its involvement in defense and intelligence contracts. The article examined the tensions between Karp's stated commitment to human rights and the applications of Palantir's technology in military and immigration enforcement contexts. In March 2026, he reported on Palantir's developer conference and the company's vision of AI built for battlefield advantage.

Perspective on Technology Journalism

In a May 2025 interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, Levy discussed his perspective on the relationship between the technology industry and the press. As the interview noted, this relationship had deteriorated in recent years, and Levy offered reflections drawn from his decades of experience covering the industry. The interview explored his views on access to major technology companies and the challenges facing journalists in an era of increased corporate communications management and declining media trust.

Levy's approach to technology journalism has been characterized by a combination of deep access to industry leaders and a willingness to examine the broader social and political implications of technological change. His work has spanned the full arc of the personal computing revolution, from the early hacker culture of the 1960s and 1970s to the rise of artificial intelligence in the 2020s.

Published Works

Levy has authored eight books over the course of his career. His published works include:

• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (1984)
• The Unicorn's Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius (1988)
• Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology (1992)
• Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything (1994)
• Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government — Saving Privacy in the Digital Age (2001)
• The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness (2006)
• In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives (2011)
• Facebook: The Inside Story (2020)

His books have covered subjects including hacker culture, artificial intelligence, cryptography, Apple products and corporate history, Google, and Facebook. Several of his works have been based on extended periods of access to the companies and individuals he profiled.

Personal Life

Levy has maintained a relatively private personal life throughout his career. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Temple University in that city. He has appeared on C-SPAN's Q&A program, discussing his work and career in technology journalism.

Levy has also discussed his interest in the film The Big Lebowski in podcast appearances, suggesting a range of cultural interests beyond his professional focus on technology.

Legacy

Steven Levy's career in technology journalism spans more than four decades, a period during which he has documented many of the most consequential developments in the history of computing and the digital economy. His 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution is considered a seminal work in the literature of technology culture, and the concept of the "hacker ethic" that he articulated in the book has become a widely referenced framework for understanding the values and motivations of early computing communities and their influence on subsequent movements including open-source software development.

Through his multi-year reporting projects on Apple, Google, and Facebook, Levy produced detailed accounts of how these companies operated internally and how their products and business practices shaped public life. His books on these subjects drew on levels of access to corporate leadership that reflected his standing within the technology journalism community.

Levy's ongoing work at Wired, including his coverage of artificial intelligence, defense technology, and the evolving relationship between technology companies and the press, has continued to contribute to public understanding of how emerging technologies are being developed and deployed. His 2025 commencement address at Temple University, in which he encouraged graduates to view artificial intelligence as a tool rather than a threat, demonstrated the extent to which his perspective on technology — informed by decades of firsthand observation — continues to resonate with new audiences.

The Columbia Journalism Review's 2025 interview with Levy, focused on his approach to reporting on major technology companies, reflected his status as a central figure in the history of American technology journalism and a practitioner whose methods and body of work have contributed to defining the field.