TechStuff

Are you a gift go-getter, or a holiday procrastinator? This week, Karah spoke with Kyle Chayka, tech writer for The New Yorker and author of the book “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture”. They talk about his gadget gift guide, how analog products are back in style, and why books are his preferred gift of choice. Oz also shares the hottest toy of the year: a console that helps the whole family stay active. 

Additional Reading: 

• The Hottest Toy of the Year Is Made by a Tech Startup You’ve Never Heard Of
• A Holiday Gift Guide: The Newest Strangest Gadgets and Apps

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Is nuclear fusion the clean energy we need? Oz speaks with Commonwealth Fusion Systems' scientist and engineer Alex Creely and fashion designer Gabriela Hearst about why the public should get excited about nuclear fusion. Together, they discuss what it will take to commercialize fusion, how Gabriela’s 2022 fashion show changed the public conversation, and whether we’ll have nuclear fusion by 2030.

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Should LLMs monitor crime? This week, Oz tells us why the US pharmaceutical industry may have competition… and why we’ve yet to see a flood of new products from AI drug discovery companies. Then, Karah explains how a telecommunications company is feeding recordings of inmate phone calls into LLMs that can then monitor future calls for planned crimes. Also, the UK government wants to cross-reference CCTV footage with the passport photo database, there’s a new self-made female billionaire in town — the youngest yet — and the newest billion dollar company sells blueberries the size of golf balls. And then, on Chat and Me, a deep fake interview has international consequences. 

ADDITIONAL READING: 

• Art Basel show by Beeple has realistic Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg robot dogs pooping NFTs | Page Six  
• Why is AI struggling to discover new drugs? | Financial Times 
• Will the next blockbuster drug come from China? | Financial Times 
• An AI model trained on prison phone calls now looks for planned crimes in those calls | MIT Technology Review 
• Live facial recognition cameras planned for every town centre | Telegraph
• Kalshi’s Cofounder Is Now World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire | Forbes 
• Ray Dalio is backing a $1 billion blueberry unicorn that sells berries nearly the size of golf balls | Fortune

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What does the death of restaurants look like? Ellen Cushing, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins Karah to talk about the rise of delivery apps and the fall of the in-person dining experience. They discuss how delivery apps became part of the millennial lifestyle subsidy, how they reshaped what’s on the menu, and why this feels all too similar to what’s happening to movie theaters. 

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Is unplugging from your phone the ultimate luxury? This week, Oz introduces us to the businesses that specialize in “dimming the sun” and Karah introduces us to “LinkedIn Face.” Polymarket’s bets lead to disinformation about Russia’s war with Ukraine. 23andMe reveals secret families — and secret inheritances. And Oz and Karah almost cry over the latest invention from Japan: a human washing machine. Finally, we celebrate ChatGPT’s 3rd birthday (and possible decline) with Axios technology reporter, Megan Morrone. 

If you’ve used a chatbot in an unusual or surprising way, send us a 12 minute voice note at [email protected].

Additional Reading: 

• Being hot is now a job requirement - Business Insider 
• Climate Geoengineering: Dimming the Sun Is a Terrifying New Industry COP30 - Bloomberg  
• What Really Happened in the Storm Clouds Over Dubai? - Bloomberg 
• How Unplugging Became Luxury’s Most Valuable Currency - Vogue Business
• 'Unauthorized' Edit to Ukraine's Frontline Maps Point to Polymarket's War Betting - 404 Media 
• Japan Launches Human Washing Machine For Public Use After Expo Success -NDTV
• They Found Relatives on 23andMe and Asked For A Cut of the Inheritance - WSJ

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Can you run a billion dollar company with only one human employee? Journalist Evan Ratliff, along with technical advisor Maty Bohacek, join Oz to answer this question. Evan is host of the hit podcast Shell Game. In Season 1, he used AI agents to imitate his voice, which he sent out into the world to interact with customer service agents, scammers, and his own family and friends. This season, Evan co-founds a company… and employs five AI agents to keep it running. How effective are the agents at doing their jobs? And why do they love hiking so much?

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The Unshakeables podcast from Chase for Business and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio dives into the unbelievable “What are we gonna do now?” moments that changed everything for small business owners. From mom-and-pop coffee shops to auto-detailing garages, every small business owner knows that the journey is full of the unexpected. A single make-or-break experience can change the course of your business forever. Those who stand firm in their resolve have a special name. We call them The Unshakeables. These are their stories. Join Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business, and a lineup of special co-hosts as they speak with small business owners across America who’ve gone through some of the most unexpected situations anyone can face and walked away stronger for it. These aren’t stories about the darlings of Silicon Valley or titans of Wall Street. These are real stories from real people behind the small companies powering their communities every day.

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This is the first episode of the second season of Shell Game. Journalist Evan Ratliff tells a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age; or, how he tried to build a real company, run by fake people.

Meet Kyle Law and Megan Flores, Evan’s AI agent cofounders, as he puts to the test the claims about an emerging future in which AI employees work alongside — or instead of — humans.

Over the course of the season, the three cofounders will grind it out in a sprint that would sound familiar to any start-up founder. They’ll churn out software code, hire interns, and even sit down with investors. But first, they need to come up with a name for their company. And make sure that Kyle and Megan can remember it.

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This week, what does defense technology look like in 2025? Oz talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dexter Filkins about his recent piece in The New Yorker titled “Is the US ready for the next war?” They discuss how the Ukraine and Israel are reimagining what warfare looks like in the 21st century, Silicon Valley’s race toward fully autonomous killer robots, and how it all might affect the potential conflict in Taiwan.

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Would you buy a boat or a midcentury sideboard from your high school pals? Because Oz’s alma mater has opened an exclusive online marketplace for just this purpose! This week, Oz spins a yarn about Kitkat, the San Francisco cat killed by a Waymo. Locals are furious. Karah fills us in on Blued and Finka, the gay dating apps being censored by the Chinese government. Tech bros are obsessed with building statues, the FBI tries to unmask the owner of a popular internet archiving site, and we check out a flight app that could make your holiday travel more data-driven, if not less hectic. Finally, on Chat and Me, we talk about Kim Kardashian’s use of Chat—and whether it’s really her friend.  

Additional Reading: 

• Eton’s old boy network app is like eBay for ex-prime ministers - The Times UK 
• Waymo Was Thriving in San Francisco. Then One of Its Driverless Cars Killed a Cat. - The New York Times 
• Apple Pulls China’s Top Gay Dating Apps After Government Order - WIRED 
• FBI orders domain registrar to reveal who runs mysterious Archive.is site - Ars Technica 
• The Smartest Fliers Use This App to Survive America’s Travel Hell - WSJ 
• America’s Tech Rich Is Obsessed with Building Giant Statues - Bloomberg

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