Hard Fork

Note: This episode contains mentions of suicide.

This week, how Elon Musk became a main character in this year’s election, and what that means for the future of tech and of the country. Plus, the journalist Laurie Segall joins us to discuss the tragic case of a teenager who became obsessed with an A.I. companion bot and later died by suicide. We discuss what A.I. companies could do to make their apps safer for children.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

Guest:

• Laurie Segall, chief executive of Mostly Human Media

Additional Reading:

• Elon Musk’s Big Business and Conflicts of Interest With the U.S. Government
• Can a Chatbot Named Daenerys Targaryen Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?

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This week, the A.I. company Anthropic has Silicon Valley rethinking the timeline for artificial general intelligence. In addition to releasing a new safety policy, the company’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, laid out a vision of how A.I. could help cure cancer, mental illness and mitigate climate change in the near future. We consider his most surprising claims and what this means for the acceleration of the technology. Then, the Uber chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, joins us in the studio to discuss his company’s new partnership with Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company, and the future of that industry. And finally, leaked court documents reveal exactly how many TikTok videos you need to watch to get hooked on the app. So, Casey puts the number to the test.
 

Guest:

• Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber

Additional Reading:

• Dario Amodei’s Essay “Machines of Loving Grace”
• TikTok Executives Know About App’s Effect on Teens, Lawsuit Documents Allege

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

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This week, in the wake of recent natural disasters, we dig into the rise of A.I.-generated slop that’s polluting the internet and disrupting rescue efforts. Then we talk with the investigative filmmaker Cullen Hoback about his new documentary on the history of Bitcoin and about why, after so many others have failed, he thinks he has found the real Satoshi Nakamoto. And finally, we hear the train whistle approaching, and that can only mean one thing: It’s once again time to board the Hot Mess Express.

Guest:

• Cullen Hoback, Documentary filmmaker

Additional Reading: 

• Another Hurdle in Recovery From Helene: Misinformation Is Getting in the Way
• Bitcoin Documentary ‘Money Electric’ Reopens Search for Satoshi Nakamoto
• U.S. Weighs Forcing Google to Break Off Parts of the Company

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

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On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California vetoed Senate Bill 1047, an A.I. safety bill that would have curtailed the growth of the technology. What received a lot less attention were the 18 other important A.I. bills he signed into law over the past month. We walk through what is in them and what they mean for the rest of the country. Then, The Information’s Julia Black joins to discuss the baby craze that’s sweeping Silicon Valley, including investment in some wild new fertility technologies. And finally, it’s time for a system update! We get into OpenAI’s massive fund-raising deal and the senator who hopped on a call with a “deepfake” former Ukrainian official.

Guest:

• Julia Black, reporter at The Information

Additional Reading:

• California Governor Vetoes Sweeping A.I. Legislation
• Dawn of the Silicon Valley Superbaby
• OpenAI Completes Deal That Values Company at $157 Billion
• ‘Deepfake’ Caller Poses as Ukrainian Official in Exchange With Key Senator
   

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

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This week, Casey reports back from a wild day at Meta Connect, discussing what’s new with Meta’s efforts in artificial intelligence, virtual reality headsets and the Holy Grail — augmented reality glasses. Then, Steven Johnson, a writer and editorial director at Google Labs, stops by to talk about the company’s new hit NotebookLM, which uses A.I. to turn even boring PDFs, such as user manuals and Kevin’s bank records, into chatty, disturbingly good podcasts. Finally, so much happened in tech news this week that we reached for the bucket hat in the latest installment of HatGPT!
 

Guest:

• Steven Johnson, author and editorial director, NotebookLM
   

Additional Reading: 

• Meta Unveils New Smart Glasses and Headsets in Pursuit of the Metaverse
• A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?
• OpenAI Executives Exit as C.E.O. Works to Make the Company For-Profit
   

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

Soon, you’ll need a subscription to keep full access to this show, and to other New York Times podcasts, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t miss out on exploring all of our shows, featuring everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts.

Last week, OpenAI released a preview of its hotly anticipated new model, o1. We discuss what it has excelled at and how it could accelerate the timeline for building superintelligence. Then, we explain why Meta is making teenagers’ Instagram accounts private by default. And, finally, we chat with the New York Times reporter Karen Weise about why Amazon is forcing its corporate employees to go back to working in the office five days a week and whether other companies will follow suit.

Guests:

• Karen Weise, a technology correspondent for The Times.

Additional Reading:

• OpenAI Unveils New ChatGPT That Can Reason Through Math and Science
• Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes
• Amazon Tells Corporate Workers to Be Back in the Office 5 Days a Week

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

Soon, you’ll need a subscription to keep full access to this show, and to other New York Times podcasts, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t miss out on exploring all of our shows, featuring everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts.

Apple unveiled its latest gadgets at its big September event on Monday. We discuss the most interesting new features — including AirPods that can function as hearing aids and Apple Watch software that can help detect sleep apnea — and offer our advice on when to buy a new iPhone. Then, the best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari joins us to discuss his new book and his biggest fears about A.I. And finally, we crack open some criminal cases in a new segment we’re calling the Hard Fork Crimes Division. We’ll explain how one man made $10 million by manipulating music streaming services and how online instructions for building a 3D-printed gun have ended up in the hands of criminals around the world.

Guest:

• Yuval Noah Harari, author of “Sapiens,” “Homo Deus” and “Nexus.”

Additional Reading:

• Apple Unveils New iPhones With Built-In Artificial Intelligence
• Russia Secretly Worms Its Way Into America’s Conservative Media
• He’s Known as ‘Ivan the Troll.’ His 3D-Printed Guns Have Gone Viral.
• The Bands and the Fans Were Fake. The $10 Million Was Real.

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

Soon, you’ll need a subscription to keep full access to this show, and to other New York Times podcasts, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t miss out on exploring all of our shows, featuring everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts.

Over the weekend, X was banned in Brazil. We talk with The New York Times’s Brazil bureau chief, Jack Nicas, about how Brazilians are reacting, whether its owner, Elon Musk, has made a business miscalculation and what this means for free speech around the world. Then, we’re going “founder mode.” We explore why an essay about start-up founders reclaiming their authority went viral and what that tells us about how Silicon Valley thinks about power. And finally, we hear from listeners. Teachers and students left us voice messages describing how phone bans in schools are transforming their lives.

Guest:

• Jack Nicas, Brazil bureau chief for The Times

Additional Reading: 

• Brazil Blocks X After Musk Ignores Court Orders 
• Paul Graham’s Founder Mode

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

Soon, you’ll need a subscription to keep full access to this show, and to other New York Times podcasts, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t miss out on exploring all of our shows, featuring everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts.

Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France and charged with several crimes connected to his operation of the platform. We’ll tell you what the charges against him mean for the internet. Then Gov. Kathy Hochul, Democrat of New York, joins us to discuss why she wants to ban phones statewide in public schools. And finally, Kevin has been using secret codes to try to change what A.I. chatbots think of him. We get to the bottom of whether it is possible to manipulate A.I. outputs.

This episode contains discussion of suicide connected to youth mental health. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

Guest:

• Kathy Hochul, governor of New York

Additional Reading:

• How Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Founder, Went From Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg to Wanted Man
• Kathy Hochul’s ‘Big’ Plan to Ban Phones in Schools

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

Soon, you’ll need a subscription to keep full access to this show, and to other New York Times podcasts, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t miss out on exploring all of our shows, featuring everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts.

This week, we discuss why so few campaigns seem to be experimenting with A.I. The Times’s Sheera Frenkel joins us with examples of the many different artificial intelligence products that have been turned down by campaigns in this election cycle, from A.I.-generated endorsements from long-dead historical figures to a synthetic version of Donald Trump. Then, we interview the Wyoming man who ran for mayor on the promise that he would exclusively use a customized ChatGPT bot to run the city. And finally, it’s time for a tech check. We run down the apps we’re using to become more productive.

Guest:

• Sheera Frenkel, a Times reporter covering technology
• Victor Miller, former candidate for mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming

Additional Reading: 

• The Year of the A.I. Election That Wasn’t
• Mayoral Candidate Vows to Let VIC, an AI Bot, Run Wyoming’s Capital City
• Three Apps That Made Me More Productive This Year

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

Soon, you’ll need a subscription to keep full access to this show, and to other New York Times podcasts, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t miss out on exploring all of our shows, featuring everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts.