Thu, Feb 9, 2023
Microsoft's release of a ChatGPT-powered Bing signifies a new era in search. Then, a disastrous preview of Bard - Google's answer to ChatGPT - caused the company's stocks to slide 7 percent. The A.I. arms race is on. What "Nothing, Forever," the 24/7, A.I.-generated "Seinfeld" parody, says about bias in A.I. Kevin Scott of Microsoft also guests.
Thu, Feb 23, 2023
A Washington Post reporter asked Bing AI its opinion of Kevin Roose. Its response was eerie. Microsoft made changes to Bing's chatbot capabilities after the Chatbot's unsettling behavior with some users. The company is already loosening some of those restrictions. The Supreme Court heard a case challenging Section 230. Reddit is among many social media companies that have filed "friend of the court" amicus briefs against changes to the law. Facebook plans to sell "Meta verified" accounts.
Thu, Mar 23, 2023
"It's different because it's Google." Bard, Google's answer to ChatGPT, could prove to be more consequential than any large language model to date -- but it isn't there yet. Then, we hear from listeners on how they are using A.I. to negotiate their rent, understand medical results and affirm their gender identity. Why Spotify's A.I. D.J. may be a tipping point for artificial intelligence taking control of our lives.
Thu, Apr 6, 2023
The New York Times Opinion columnist Ezra Klein has spent years talking to artificial intelligence researchers. Many of them feel the prospect of A.I. discovery is too sweet to ignore, regardless of the technology's risks. Today, Mr. Klein discusses the profound changes that an A.I.-powered world will create, how current business models are failing to meet the A.I. moment, and the steps government can take to achieve a positive A.I. future. Also, radical acceptance of your phone addiction may just help your phone addiction.
Thu, Apr 27, 2023
A song featuring A.I.-generated versions of Drake and the Weeknd went viral -- before being taken down by streaming services. Is censorship of A.I.-generated songs the way forward? Or can singers benefit from synthetic voices, as some artists like Grimes are suggesting? Kevin and Casey pull headlines out of a hat and generate their own takes on the news. Ben Smith, the former BuzzFeed News editor, discusses the end of the 2010s digital media era.
Thu, May 4, 2023
The Twitter look-alike Bluesky, started by the former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, is doing the impossible: making social media fun again. Then, A.I. is coming for jobs but not in the way you think. Kevin and Casey moonlight as advice columnists in a new Hard Fork segment called Hard Questions.
Thu, Jun 8, 2023
Apple kicked off the week with the announcement of a mixed-reality headset: the Apple Vision Pro. Putting a computer on your face may seem weird AF, but if there's one company that knows how to make nerdy stuff into the thing that everyone wants, it's Apple. Will these fancy goggles be the next Apple revolution? Then, crypto had (another) terrible week after the S.E.C. filed lawsuits against the cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance.
Thu, Jun 22, 2023
This week, advertisers swarmed the beaches of southern France for the Cannes Lions advertising festival. Kevin says artificial intelligence is all anyone there can talk about, but admits the conference is making him rethink how quickly generative A.I. will take over the industry - despite the buzz. Then, the New York Times reporter Emma Goldberg on when remote work stopped being the future for tech companies. What does the newest season of "Black Mirror" tell us about what's next for TV?
Thu, Jun 29, 2023
Whether it's on TikTok or Twitter, A.I.-generated content is already flooding the web. So, what happens when the technology - prone to confidently making things up - starts ingesting itself? Then, the New York Times reporter Joe Bernstein talks about why Mark Zuckerberg wants to fight Elon Musk in a cage match. Plus, we put ChatGPT's recipe generation to the test with A.I. cocktails.
Thu, Aug 17, 2023
When Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in December, he was confined to his parents' house - but he was left free to roam the internet. Today, the New York Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany talks about how access to the cyberworld allowed Mr. Bankman-Fried to violate his bail terms and land himself in ail. Then, how universities can manage a generative A.l. world.
Thu, Aug 24, 2023
Are New York City's new rules for short-term rentals like Airbnb effectively a ban? And will they accomplish what proponents want them to? Then, The New York Times tech reporter Erin Griffith on Silicon Valley's mad dash for GPUs. And finally, we take stock of the A.I. songs of the summer and discuss YouTube and Universal Music Group's plan to make synthetic voices profitable.
Thu, Sep 7, 2023
How tech executives' favorite place to take their pants off turned into a muddy hellscape. We talk to one executive who couldn't just call a helicopter to escape. Then, Jonathan Greenblatt, C.E.O. of the Anti-Defamation League, on how his organization went from having a "productive" meeting with X's C.E.O., Linda Yaccarino, last week to being threatened with a lawsuit by Elon Musk on Monday.
Thu, Sep 14, 2023
Is Google allowed to spend billions of dollars to make its search product the default browser? That is the question at the center of U.S. et al. v. Google -- the most important tech trial of the modern internet era -- and Kevin and Casey disagree on the answer. Then, a conversation with the journalist who spent the last two years shadowing Elon Musk.