This week, TikTok died, came back to life — and now exists in a kind of limbo state. We break down what that may signal for how tech does business with the new Trump administration. Then we pump up the fun with memecoins and explore how the Trump family is cashing in. And finally, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes joins us to discuss his new book about attention.

Guest:

• Chris Hayes,  Host of MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes" and author of “The Sirens’ Call”

Additional Reading:

• TikTok Comes Back From the Dead
• Trump’s Cryptocurrency Surges to Become One of the World’s Most Valuable
• Chris Hayes: I Want Your Attention. I Need Your Attention. Here Is How I Mastered My Own.
• The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

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The deadline for TikTok to sell or to face a ban is fast approaching. We discuss how Supreme Court justices — who opted on Friday to uphold the law — reacted to arguments in the case, whether the Chinese government might allow Elon Musk to buy the app, and why self-proclaimed TikTok refugees are rushing to a different Chinese app, called RedNote. Then, we talk with an A.I. industry insider about what we actually know about how bad artificial intelligence is for the environment. And finally, after Mark Zuckerberg’s recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Casey offers Kevin some ideas for how to bring more “masculine energy” to Meta.

Guest: 

• Sasha Luccioni, A.I and climate lead at Hugging Face.

Additional Reading: 

• Supreme Court Backs Law Requiring TikTok to Be Sold or Banned
• ‘Red Note,’ a Chinese App, Is Dominating Downloads, Thanks to TikTok Users
• China Weighs Sale of TikTok US to Musk as a Possible Option
• Matter of Opinion Podcast: How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley Into Trump’s Arms

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This week, Meta announced a series of content moderation changes that will transform the way the social media company’s platforms deal with misinformation and hate speech. We break down what these changes will mean for users and why the company seems to be caving to the right’s arguments on censorship. Then, we’ll explain why 2025 is already shaping up to be a huge year in A.I. — with models like OpenAI’s o3, Google’s Gemini 2.0 and DeepSeek, from China, stirring discussion that superintelligence is near. And finally, we play a round of HatGPT.

Additional Reading:

• Meta Says It Will End Its Fact-Checking Program on Social Media Posts
• OpenAI Unveils New A.I. That Can ‘Reason’ Through Math and Science Problems
• Netflix’s WWE investment and the Future of Live Events on the Platform
• MegaLag’s Video Investigation Into Honey
• Los Angeles Man Is Trapped in Circling Waymo on Way to Airport: ‘Is Somebody Playing a Joke?’

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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 

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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

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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.

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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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