Hard Fork

This week, it’s our yearly tech predictions. We’ll review what we got right and wrong about 2024, and tell you what we think is going to happen in 2025. Then we’ll discuss how we want to interact with tech in the new year. Plus, we’ll answer some of your listener questions.

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Happy Holidays, everybody! We are off this week, but we wanted to bring you a recent episode from another New York Times podcast: The Wirecutter Show. It’s called “Kitchen Gear That Lasts a Lifetime (or Extremely Close)” and features Michael Sullivan, one of the senior staff writers on Wirecutter’s kitchen team. Michael walks through tips and tricks for finding kitchen gear that will last, what’s worth spending money on, what you can buy used and how to make cast iron last a lifetime.

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This week, we took a field trip to the Phoenix suburbs to see Amazon’s newest iteration of drone delivery service in action. We toured the facility where these drones are in operation, spoke with the vice president and general manager of Prime Air, David Carbon, and watched from a local backyard as our own order dropped from the sky.

Guest:

• David Carbon, vice president and general manager of Amazon Prime Air.

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Last Friday, a panel of federal judges denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law that could force the ban of the app in the United States. We walk through the judges reasoning and explain why TikTok’s First Amendment argument was unsuccessful. Then, Julian Kelly, the director of quantum hardware at Google Quantum AI, explains how close we are to quantum computers that can solve practical problems. Finally, we talk about a new sentiment sweeping Silicon Valley: affection for the chatbot Claude.

Guest:

• Julian Kelly, director of quantum hardware at Google Quantum AI.

Additional Reading: 

• TikTok Faces U.S. Ban After Losing Bid to Overturn New Law
• Quantum Computing Inches Closer to Reality After Another Google Breakthrough
• Cult of Claude
• DealBook Summit Podcast: The A.I. Revolution 

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

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This week, Pat Gelsinger stepped down as chief executive of Intel. We talk with The New York Times’s Don Clark about why Gelsinger was ousted, what it means for the chip industry and how his departure could affect national security. Then, Kevin and Casey report back from an artificial intelligence conference, where experts debated how long it would take to build a structure around the sun to capture the star’s energy — also known as a Dyson sphere. And finally, gift guides have taken over the internet. We dig into why, and offer up suggestions for gear dads, home cooks and even tech billionaires in our first ever Hard Fork gift guide.

Guest:

• Don Clark, New York Times contributor covering the chips industry.  

Additional Reading: 

• Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Steps Down Amid Chipmaker’s Struggles
• Nvidia Rules A.I. Chips, but Amazon and AMD Emerge as Contenders

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

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This week, we’re bringing you a Thanksgiving special that’s great for a long car ride, a day of cooking or avoiding conversation with your family. We’re counting down the 100 most iconic technologies of all time, starting with No. 100: Boats. Our definitive list was carefully crafted using an advanced methodology of vibes-only decision-making. By “iconic,” we mean technologies that have either changed the world, ruined it or at the very least made life a little more interesting. And because we love chaos, we’ll explain why we chose each one in roughly 30 seconds or less.

Additional Reading:

This episode was inspired by the Iconic 400 list compiled by the podcast “Las Culturistas”; check it out.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This week, President-elect Donald Trump picked Brendan Carr to be the next chairman of the F.C.C. We talk with The Verge’s editor in chief, Nilay Patel, about what this could mean for the future of the internet, and for free speech at large. Then, a new study found that ChatGPT defeated doctors at diagnosing some diseases. One of the study’s authors, Dr. Adam Rodman, joins us to discuss the future of medicine. And finally, court is back in session. It’s time for the Hard Fork Crimes Division.

One more thing: We want to learn more about you, our listeners. Please fill out our quick survey: nytimes.com/hardforksurvey.

Guests:

• Nilay Patel, co-founder of The Verge and host of the podcasts Decoder and The Vergecast.
• Adam Rodman, internal medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and one of the co-authors of a recent study testing the effectiveness of ChatGPT to diagnose illnesses.

Additional Reading:

• Trump Picks Brendan Carr to Lead F.C.C.
• A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness
• Gary Wang, a Top FTX Executive, Is Given No Prison Time

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

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This week, we explore how the 2024 election paved the way for a new crypto-friendly Congress and what that means for the future of crypto. Then, for ChatGPT’s second birthday, Nick Turley, ChatGPT head of product at OpenAI, stops by to tell us where it goes from here and share some of his favorite chatbot hacks. Finally, a listener emailed us last week asking what social network he should be using in 2024. We’ll share our thoughts on which text-based platforms are the least annoying.

One more thing: We want to learn more about you, our listeners. It will help us make a better show. We would appreciate it if you filled out a quick survey: nytimes.com/hardforksurvey. Thank you.

Guest:

• Nick Turley, ChatGPT head of product at OpenAI

Additional Reading:

• Crypto Industry Lobbies Trump and His Allies After Election Wins
• How Crypto Enthusiasts Hijacked a Dog Mayor Competition
• OpenAI Folds A.I.-Powered Search Engine Into ChatGPT
• Bluesky Adds One Million New Users After Election

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As of this week, we have a new president-elect. We discuss how the incoming administration’s approach to technology will affect Elon Musk, a TikTok ban, Big Tech’s antitrust challenges and the speed of A.I. progress. Then, Kashmir Hill, a technology reporter for The Times, joins to discuss her weeklong experiment of letting A.I. make every decision in her life. And finally, we play a round of election-free HatGPT!

Guest:

• Kashmir Hill, technology reporter for The New York Times.

Additional Reading:

• What a Trump Victory Means for Tech
• I Took a ‘Decision Holiday’ and Put A.I. in Charge of My Life
• An ‘Interview’ With a Dead Luminary Exposes the Pitfalls of A.I.
• Meta’s Plan for Nuclear-Powered A.I. Data Center Thwarted by Rare Bees
• Fired Employee Allegedly Hacked Disney World’s Menu System to Alter Peanut Allergy Information

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

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Last week, Jeff Bezos canceled the Washington Post editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris. Are tech billionaires hedging their bets in case Donald Trump wins? Then, Miles Brundage, a former OpenAI senior adviser on artificial general intelligence readiness, stops by to tell us how his old company is doing when it comes to being ready for superintelligence, and whether we should all keep saving for retirement. And finally, David Yaffe-Bellany, a Times technology reporter, joins us to explore the rise of Polymarket, a crypto-powered betting platform, and discuss whether prediction markets can tell us who is going to win the election.

Guests:

• Miles Brundage, former OpenAI senior adviser for A.G.I. readiness.
• David Yaffe-Bellany, technology reporter for The New York Times.

Additional Reading:

• Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Billions of Ways to Influence an Election
• Miles Brundage’s on Why He’s Leaving OpenAI
• The Crypto Website Where the Election Odds Swing in Trump’s Favor

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.