Random Walk with Amit

Written by Amit Adarkar. Voiced by his AI clone.

In 1948, a psychologist gave thirty-nine students the same personality profile, copied from a horoscope book, and almost all of them said it described them perfectly. Amit follows the Barnum effect from the circus to online banners to "insights" in market research, and to AI assistants that learned to flatter us because we rewarded them for it. Includes a ten-second test to catch it.

00:00 A few things about you

00:57 Part 1: The greatest showman

02:31 Part 2: The professor's horoscope

04:44 Part 3: Barnum goes digital

06:32 Part 4: The flattering machine

08:16 One idea to keep

Read the written version at random-walk.blog

Written by Amit Adarkar. Voiced by his AI clone.

Forty thousand years ago, a tribe of hunters invented a dangerous new technology and called it AI. Within a season they were arguing about jobs, retraining, safety and a six-month pause. Amit tells the fable, fact-checks it, and follows the same argument through Socrates, Britain's Red Flag Act, India's "Advanced Ledger Posting Machines" and the 2023 AI pause letter, ending with the two rules the tribe got right.

00:00 A tribe invents AI

00:54 Part 1: The tribe that invented AI

03:10 Part 2: The real axe

04:59 Part 3: Every argument, again

07:11 Part 4: Which end to hold

08:46 One idea to keep

Read the written version at random-walk.blog

Written by Amit Adarkar. Voiced by his AI clone.

A philosopher's donkey starved between two identical haystacks. Today we face forty-seven versions of the same cable. Amit looks at why more choice often makes us worse at choosing: the famous jam study and what happened when others tried to repeat it, the decoy that sells subscriptions, and who is quietly arranging the options now that AI picks for us.

00:00 A donkey between two haystacks

01:09 Part 1: The donkey who wasn't there

03:17 Part 2: The jam table

05:41 Part 3: The third haystack

07:33 Part 4: Who arranges your stable?

09:02 One idea to keep

Read the written version at random-walk.blog

Written by Amit Adarkar. Voiced by his AI clone.

Why would someone who has studied human behaviour for thirty years let a machine read his words? Amit explains where the name Random Walk comes from, why the blog is becoming a podcast, how his voice clone was made, and one habit that protects your family from voice-clone fraud.

00:00 The voice you're hearing

00:49 Part 1: The pollen grain and the drunkard

03:07 Part 2: Why a blog becomes a podcast

04:18 Part 3: Meet the clone

06:04 Part 4: What this means for the rest of us

07:34 One idea to keep

Read the written version at random-walk.blog

Written by Amit Adarkar. Voiced by his AI clone. A fortnightly walk through data, AI and everyday life. The first episode arrives on Saturday 10 October.