TechStuff

Should facial recognition be available to everybody? This week, Oz shows off his new swag from the company of the moment, Colossal Biosciences, and tells us about his visit to the labs’ responsible for Woolly Mice and Dire Wolves. Then, Oz and Karah unpack how facial recognition is being used by viral sites like Cheaterbuster AI and investigate the Trump family crypto empire. They warn about satellites leaking data, Ubers new gigs within gigs, and a new health tracker that goes in your bowl. And finally, an international Chat and Me that will inspire your green thumb! 

Additional Reading: 

• Viral ‘Cheater Buster’ Sites Use Facial Recognition to Let Anyone Reveal Peoples’ Tinder Profiles 
• How the Trump companies made $1bn from crypto
• Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data | WIRED 
• Uber wants drivers to train AI in their free time 
• Kohler’s new toilet camera provides health insights based on your bathroom breaks

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This week, we’re joined by tech analyst and researcher, Dan Wang, to help analyze the evolving relationship between the US and China. In Dan’s new book, Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, he introduces a new framework, comparing and contrasting China's “engineering state” to the US’s “lawyerly society”. We also hear Dan’s take on China’s rise as a production superpower, what lessons America can learn from the country and how the current administration's tariff policies (and its ties to tech billionaires like Elon Musk) have shifted the dynamics between these global heavyweights.

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Is it no longer ‘borderline illegal’ to be Christian in Silicon Valley? This week, Oz and Karah are diving deep into Peter Thiel’s 4-part lecture series on the Antichrist and they unpack why the tech industry might be getting more religious. Plus, Oz spills the tea on the Dutch-China microchip drama. Space junk is falling from the sky. The cops are getting called over AI pranks gone wrong. And Karah updates Oz on the latest dating trend. For Chat and Me, one listener gets in over her head, and gives it all up.  

Additional Reading: 

• Police Say People Keep Calling 911 Over an 'AI Homeless Man' TikTok Prank 
• Christianity Was “Borderline Illegal” in Silicon Valley. Now It’s the New Religion | Vanity Fair 
• What billionaire Peter Thiel said in his private ‘Antichrist lectures’ - The Washington Post 
• Why has the Dutch Government taken control of Chinese Owned Chipmaker Nexperia | Al-Jazeera
• Elon Musk's Satellites Now Constantly Falling Out of the Sky 
• ‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder

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This week, it’s all about Sora. OpenAI’s updated video generator and the invite-only social media app. AI Video just got so much easier to make, and harder to detect… Karah and her guest, Jeremy Carrasco, who runs the social media accounts showtoolsAI, demo how Sora works and how you can determine if a short video you’re watching was created with AI. They discuss why it’s a necessary skill in a post-Sora world, what OpenAI might be trying to accomplish with this social app and why you shouldn’t become desensitized to Deepfakes. 

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Are you ready to bond over AI videos? This week in tech news, OpenAI dominates the game. Their new social media app is the talk of the internet, they signed a massive chip deal that rocked the industry, and they just released tech that gets ChatGPT one step closer to becoming the 'everything app'. Then, Oz answers the question, “Have we passed peak social media?” and introduces Karah to “wetware.” Karah explains how robots are helping make babies. And finally, a sneak peek at a new podcast, How to Raise Kids in the Age of AI.

Also, we want to hear from you: If you’ve used a chatbot in an unusual or surprising way, send us a 12 minute voice note at [email protected].

Additional Reading: 

• Day One YouTube
• OpenAI’s social video app Sora makes fake clips of real people - The Washington Post 
• Sam Altman Shoplifting AI Video - Sora  
• The Great Slopification, Powered by OpenAI - Prof G Markets  
• Have We Passed Peak Social Media? - The Financial Times 
• Scientists race to make 'living' computers powered by human cells
• Robots are learning to make human babies. Twenty have already been born.

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This week, we check in on the CIA and how it’s faring in the age of AI. Oz sits down with David Ignatius, a foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Post to discuss his article, “A Band of Innovators Reimagines the Spy Game for a World with No Cover.” Ignatius has been covering US foreign policy and the CIA for almost four decades and he recently had a realization that the “future of intelligence was going to be written in zeros and ones.” Which means the intelligence community needs to adapt and adapt quickly. But how does a government agency do this and what happens if it doesn’t? And who is responsible for dragging the bureaucracy-addled CIA into the AI future? 

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Do you know the definition of a friend? This week in tech news, workplaces may not be getting a good return on their AI investments and a new wearable goes all in on advertisements, but they are getting defaced. Then, Italy has a new AI regulation law and there’s a buzzy new “actress” in Hollywood. On Chat and Me, how one listener is personalizing AI to help his students learn Spanish.

Also, we want to hear from you: If you’ve used a chatbot in an unusual or surprising way, send us a 12 minute voice note at [email protected].

Additional Reading: 

• The hottest workplace policy at startups right now: No shoes | Fortune 
• AI Generated Workslop is Destroying Productivity 
• I went to an anti-tech rally, where Gen Z dressed as gnomes and smashed iPhones. Here's what I learned. 
• AI Startup Friend Bets On Foes With $1M NYC Subway Campaign 
• $55 Billion Deal for Electronic Arts Is Biggest Buyout Ever - The New York Times
• Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms | TechCrunch
• Italy enacts AI law covering privacy, oversight and child access | Reuters
• AI Actress Tilly Norwood Draws Backlash From Melissa Barrera, Lukas Gage and More Hollywood Names as Creator Defends Her as a ‘New Tool’ and ‘Not a Replacement for a Human Being’  

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This week, we explore Hollywood’s open secret — that everyone is using AI, they just aren’t talking about it. Karah sits down with Lila Shapiro, a features writer for New York Magazine, about what Hollywood, itself, thinks of AI. She shares what she’s learned from her extensive interviews with studio executives, directors, writers, vfx artists, actors, and AI entrepreneurs. They discuss whether AI is making creative jobs easier, or threatening to destroy them entirely. 

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Who are the teens debugging in the bathroom? This week in tech news, there’s a Gen Z-led revolution in Nepal and Discord made it possible. Early 2000s hustle culture is so back in Silicon Valley — at least for teen tech founders. Then, there’s a new AI-generated political satire show airing on Russian state TV. And Albania gets an AI-avatar to seek out corruption. Finally, on Chat and Me, how ChatGPT is helping one user through a new diagnosis.

Also, we want to hear from you: If you’ve used a chatbot in a surprising or delightful (or deranged) way, send us a 12 minute voice note at [email protected].

Additional Reading: 

• Nepal Currently Being Run Via Discord After Gen Z Uprising
• AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula—No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun
• The Trump Admin Is Suing Amazon for Tricking People Into Prime Subscriptions. Here’s How That Might Affect You
• Albania’s AI-generated chatbot, called Diella, was named to the country’s cabinet
• Russian State TV Launches AI-Generated News Satire Show

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This week, we’re bringing you the first episode of Season 3 of the podcast ON CRISPR. Walter Isaacson — the bestselling biographer behind Musk, Einstein and Steve Jobs and journalist Evan Ratliff (Shell Game, Mastermind, Longform) take a behind-the-scenes look at the story of Jennifer Doudna, one of the scientific pioneers behind the gene editing software, CRISPR. 

In this episode, Evan sits down with Walter Isaacson to discuss Doudna’s upbringing, the history of DNA’s discovery and gene editing, and Baby KJ, a CRISPR patient who represents a milestone for both researchers and patients.

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