Hard Fork

“I’m Sydney, and I’m in love with you. 😘”

A conversation with Bing AI (aka Sydney) turns romantic and bizarre. Why Microsoft’s AI search tool appears more powerful — and unsettling — than we thought. Then, inside Elon Musk’s quest to be the most popular user on Twitter.

Plus: It’s not just you. Online ads have gotten much worse.

On today’s episode:

• Tiffany Hsu is a technology reporter at The New York Times who covers misinformation and disinformation.
• Zoë Schiffer is the managing editor of Platformer.

Additional reading:

• Bing AI appeared to have a split personality in a conversation with Kevin Roose, a “Hard Fork” co-host.
• Elon Musk ordered changes to Twitter’s algorithm after his Tweets did not perform as well as he desired.
• Why digital ads are so bad these days.

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.

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.

Plus: What “Nothing, Forever,” the 24/7, A.I.-generated “Seinfeld” parody, says about bias in A.I.

On today’s episode:

• Sam Altman is the chief executive of OpenAI.
• Kevin Scott is the chief technology officer of Microsoft.

Additional reading:

• Microsoft integrated OpenAI's technology into its search engine and kicked off an A.I. arms race.
• Google released Bard, a rival chatbot to ChatGPT.
• “Nothing, Forever” was temporarily banned on Twitch.

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.

TikTok is opening up a “Transparency and Accountability Center” to try to win over skeptics. Is the company’s strategy working? Then, the origin story of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and how the company kicked off an A.I. arms race.

Plus: A co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, hopes to make a “TikTok for text.”

On today’s episode:

• Kevin Systrom is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Instagram.

Additional reading:

• TikTok is taking a more aggressive approach toward lobbying.
• Inside OpenAI’s race to build ChatGPT.
• Kevin Systrom is starting a new A.I.-powered news app.

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.

What does Donald Trump’s reinstatement on Facebook and Instagram mean for our politics and platforms? Then, Netflix in its post-Reed era.

Plus: How the Bored Ape Yacht Club went from being the Disney of Web3 to handing out sewer passes for their new video game.

On today’s episode:

• Lucas Shaw is an entertainment industry reporter for Bloomberg.

Additional reading:

• Meta reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
• Trump looked to get out of a deal with his own social media site, Truth Social
• The Jan. 8 riots in Brazil mirrored aspects of the U.S. Capitol Riots, including the use of tech platforms to organize rioters.
• Donald Trump used Truth Social to attack former Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman.

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.

Nearly three months into Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, things are in a "shambolic" state. Is the rest of Elon’s empire also in trouble? Then, an artist fighting generative A.I. sets the stage for a legal clash.

Plus: what goes wrong when A.I. becomes a reporter.

On today’s episode:

• Sarah Andersen, a cartoonist and the illustrator of a semi-autobiographical comic strip, “Sarah’s Scribbles.”

Additional reading:

• A look inside Elon Musk’s first 90 days as chief executive of Twitter.
• The artist Sarah Andersen on finding her art in the databases behind text-to-image A.I. platforms.
• Three artists, including Ms. Andersen, filed a class-action lawsuit against the creators of Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and DreamUp.
• CNET’s A.I.-written articles contained errors.

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.

A high school teacher on how the new chatbot from OpenAI is transforming her classroom — for the better. And, “M3GAN” may be closer than you think.

Plus: Why Gen Z is chasing the digital camera aesthetic.

On today’s episode:

• Cherie Shields is a high school English teacher in Sandy, Ore.
• Kalley Huang is a technology reporting fellow based in San Francisco.

Additional reading:

• Gen Z is bringing back the digital camera, and teenagers in Brooklyn are rejecting smartphone culture.
• Researchers at Columbia University are trying to build conscious robots.
• The case for using ChatGPT in schools.

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.

Calls to ban TikTok or force its sell-off from its parent company ByteDance are gaining momentum, especially after reports of ByteDance’s surveillance of several U.S. journalists. And could Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI mark the end of Google’s search monopoly?

Plus: New Year's resolutions, including locking up your phone. 

On today’s episode:

• Emily Baker-White, a technology reporter at Forbes who reports on TikTok.

Additional reading:

• An inside view into Project Texas, TikTok’s plan to limit access to sensitive U.S. user data.
• ByteDance used TikTok to track the location of journalists including Emily Baker-White.
• On TikTok, Chinese state media outlets pushed divisive videos about U.S. politicians.
• Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, is navigating the limits of his power.
• The federal government and several states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices.
• ChatGPT is a “code red” for Google Search.
• Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a ChatGPT-powered version of Bing.

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.

The year of the “mini-Musk” chief executive, the end of homework as we know it, a crackdown on TikTok and other predictions for 2023.

Also, Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest and answers to our listener questions.

On today’s episode:

• David Yaffe-Bellany, a cryptocurrency and financial technology reporter for The New York Times.

Additional reading:

• Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of FTX, was arrested and denied bail by a judge in the Bahamas. Prosecutors accused him of engaging in widespread fraud.
• John J. Ray III, the new chief executive of FTX, described an “unprecedented” lack of record keeping at the company.
• Scientists used a quantum computer to simulate a pair of black holes.

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.

It’s writing podcast scripts, finishing students’ homework and correcting mistakes in computer code: ChatGPT, the A.I. chatbot from OpenAI, is suddenly everywhere. Who should decide how it’s built? What could go wrong? And what could go right?

On today’s episode:

• Aviv Ovadya, a technologist and affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and a visiting scholar at Cambridge University Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence.

Additional reading:

• ChatGPT is inspiring awe and fear among users.
• Aviv Ovadya proposes governing tech platforms democratically through “platform democracy.”
• Meta’s Cicero AI is getting good at negotiating with humans.
• Researchers are diagnosing Parkinson’s using a phone, a patient’s voice and a machine learning model.

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.

Elon Musk accuses Apple of trying to sabotage Twitter. But after his visit with Apple’s C.E.O., Tim Cook, things are … good? Then, the New York Times reporter Paul Mozur on the tactics Chinese protesters are deploying to avoid the most sophisticated censorship apparatus in the world.

Plus: S.B.F. says it’s been a “bad month.”

Additional Reading:

• Elon Musk accused Apple of threatening to pull Twitter from its App Store and tweeted about Apple’s “secret 30 percent tax” on developers for in-app purchases. The company has again delayed the launch of Twitter Blue as it seeks a way to avoid paying Apple’s 30 percent fee for the service.
• Later, Musk said the “misunderstanding” with Apple had been resolved after he met with the company’s C.E.O., Tim Cook, at Apple’s headquarters.
• Layoffs at Twitter gutted the company’s child safety team, which is responsible for removing child exploitation.
• Musk offered a “general amnesty” for over 60,000 banned accounts on Twitter.
• Protests in China rippled throughout the country, and citizens found ways to get around the Chinese censorship apparatus.
• On Wednesday, Sam Bankman-Fried appeared for an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook Summit.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Follow “Hard Fork” on TikTok: @hardfork

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.