AI & the Future of Humanity

Hard Fork

Mayhem at OpenAI + Our Interview with Sam Altman

The hosts of Hard Fork, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, are two of the best reporters covering the AI industry, and their guests are often excellent tech reporters as well. They bring a mix of AI enthusiasm and tech industry skepticism to their coverage.

In this classic interview, they have a long, frank conversation with Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, that I find very revealing.

Intelligent Machines

Cory Doctorow, Fake Meta Benchmarks, AI Therapy

Cory Doctorow makes an philosophical argument about the difference between thinking and an AI's prediction:

"Art is the process of taking a big irreducible numerous feeling that is in the creators head, imbuing some intermediate medium with that numerous thing, and hoping that some facsimile of that materializes in an audience member's head when they experience the work."

Today, Explained

Your Phone Is Banned, Fellow Kids

Reporter Miles Bryan hits the hallways to interview students during the early months of mobile phone bans.

This is not directly about AI, but it is about how society reacts when we realize a technology most of us embraced has impacts we did not anticipate.

The Ezra Klein Show

The Author Behind ‘Arrival’ Doesn’t Fear AI. ‘Look at How We Treat Animals.’

Ezra Klein talks with Ted Chiang, the brilliant sci-fi writer behind what I think is the best speculative story about AI, The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Chiang is not exactly opposed to AI, but he raises important questions about how powerful AI will test humans ethically.

“I tend to think that most fears about A.I. are best understood as fears about capitalism.”

TeachLab Presents The Homework Machine

"Buckle Up, Here it Comes!"

Most education technologies are invited into schools.

Generative AI crashed the party and started rearranging the furniture. In a moment when tech leaders are telling us ChatGPT and other AI tools will transform education for the better, The Homework Machine takes listeners inside real classrooms and conversations.

Another F*cking Horror Podcast

Looking for a true crime and paranormal podcast that isn’t murder to get through?

Check out Another Fucking Horror Podcast. Each week, bffs Monique Sanchez and Amy Traydon deliver a fun and expletive-filled spin on lesser-known true tales of murder, mayhem, and things that will leave you saying “what the actual f*ck?” Is it safe for work? Should you listen to it in the car with the kids? Fuck no! It’s Another F*cking Horror Podcast.