TechStuff

What does the viral video of Charlie Kirk’s assassination say about the state of content moderation on social media? This week, Oz and Karah unpack the complexities of moderating graphic-but-newsworthy content, and why tech companies commitment to moderation has waned in recent years. Then, Karah talks to a student in New York about how they’re adjusting to not having access to their phone during the school day. Then, on Chat and Me, a woman uses ChatGPT to diagnose her mother’s mysterious ailment.

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].

Sources:

Charlie Kirk Was Shot and Killed in a Post-Content-Moderation World

From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens are adjusting to the smartphone ban

Larry Ellison’s personal fortune soars on back of Oracle’s share price surge

5,000 Podcasts. 3,000 Episodes a Week. $1 Cost Per Episode — Behind an AI Start Up’s Plan

Labour MPs accused of using ChatGPT to write speeches

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This week, we take a deep dive into why Gen Z isn’t having sex. Karah talks with Carter Sherman, a reproductive health and justice reporter for The Guardian, and author of the book The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future. They unpack how tech factors into the “Sex Recession,” sex as a proxy measure for empathy and human connection, and how all of this is a lot more political than you might think. 

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What does getting older actually feel like? This week, Oz and Karah discuss MIT Researchers who are using technology to simulate aging. Then, Oz tells the story of an activist who used China’s surveillance state as a form of protest. Karah dives deep into the weird world of humans quietly training chatbots. And finally, on Chat and Me, is replacing your therapist with ChatGPT a good idea? 

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].

Sources:

My Day as an 80-Year-Old. What an Age-Simulation Suit Taught Me.

She Sacrificed Her Youth to Get the Tech Bros to Grow Up

A Hidden Camera Protest Turned the Tables on China’s Surveillance State

Inside the lucrative, surreal, and disturbing world of AI trainers

Sam Altman, Tim Cook, and other tech leaders lauded Trump at a White House AI dinner

“First of its kind” AI settlement: Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion

AirPods Pro 3 arrive with heart-rate sensing and live translation using Apple Intelligence

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This week, we’re all in. Oz chats with Kit Chellel, a Bloomberg writer who focuses on gambling, technology, and sports betting. He wrote an article about a secret Russian bot farm that infiltrated the world of online poker in the early 2000s.  We follow Kit from Siberia to Armenia, and get a peek into just how bots can make or break the future of online poker.

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This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Visit us at https://www.ibm.com/think/podcasts/smart-talks

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We’re taking this week off! But don’t worry, we’ll be back with new episodes starting September 10th. In the meantime, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews from the year so far. This week, Oz talks with writer Nathaniel Rich about one of the biggest challenges of sending humans to Mars: isolation.

Nathaniel Rich is a novelist, essayist and writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine. Rich sits down with Oz to talk about his essay, “Can Humans Endure the Psychological Torment of Mars?” The piece explores NASA's CHAPEA (“Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog”) mission, a simulation meant to test a major challenge of Mars missions isolation.

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We’re taking this week off! But don’t worry, we’ll be back with new episodes starting September 10th. In the meantime, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews from the year so far. This week, Oz talks with journalist Ben Taub about Russia’s ice-cold testing ground for new espionage tech.

Ben Taub is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker. His piece, “Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic,” covers tensions at the Russian border with Norway, an area Russia uses as a testing ground for future intelligence operations. Taub sits down with Oz to discuss the technology being used for survival and for espionage, as the war in Ukraine has escalated tensions.

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We’ve all read the headlines that AI will take over white-collar jobs. But this week, Oz and Karah spoke with journalist Robert Capps about the 22 new roles that might exist in an AI-partnered workplace. Plus, Robert tests AI’s journalism skills. There’s not much to worry about.

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This week, we went to the doctor. Oz speaks with Dr. Matthew Lungren, the Chief Scientific Officer for Microsoft Health & Life Sciences, who co-authored a study showing that AI diagnosed complex medical cases four times faster than human doctors. Dr. Lungren walked us through how multiple AI agents worked together to generate their diagnoses, what that means for the future of medicine—and how human doctors and AI could collaborate to build a more democratized healthcare system.

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How will we send memes when the world ends? This week, Oz and Karah recap the first ever World Humanoid Robot Games the Olympics for Androids. Then, Oz explains why the US might be putting secret tracking devices inside shipments of advanced microchips. Karah explains a texting network built for the Apocalypse. And finally, on Chat and Me, how TikTokers are using ChatGPT to inspire their makeovers.

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].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.