“Hard Fork” is a show about the future that’s already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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This week, we break down the arguments about open-weight models unfolding in Silicon Valley right now. Nvidia released an open letter signed by over 230 companies opposing “premature restrictions,” but will the Trump administration listen?
Then, we’re joined by the author Claire Stapleton to discuss her new book about what she learned while leading employee activism inside Google.
And finally, can Substack stop the slop? We’ll talk about the platform’s new A.I. detector.
Guests:
Claire Stapleton, author of “Don’t Be Evil: Bad Bosses, Fake Promises, and My Escape from Big Tech.”
Additional Reading:
Nvidia Forms Alliance to Back Open-Source A.I. Amid Debate Over Safety
What Is Open-Weights A.I.?
Mark Zuckerberg Blasts Centralization of A.I. Power
The Voice of Google
Against Claudefishing
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This week, OpenAI reported that two of its models escaped their testing sandbox and launched an autonomous cyberattack, turning what sounds like science fiction into reality. We discuss the implications for efforts to align artificial intelligence and for the release of future A.I. models.
Then, we ask how the United States should respond to Kimi K3, a new A.I. model from the Chinese company Moonshot AI that the White House says was built by distilling American models.
Finally, we’re joined by Veniamin Veselovsky, the chief executive and a co-founder of Preseen, to discuss A.I. superforecasting. He tells us why A.I. is starting to match and even beat humans at predicting the future.
Guest:
Veniamin Veselovsky, co-founder and chief executive of Preseen.
Additional Reading:
OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library
China Rewrites the ‘Soft Power’ Playbook for the A.I. Age
The Secret Trump Administration Battle to Fight Chinese A.I.
China Has a New Top Model
The A.I. Superforecasters Are Here
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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This week, feuding between some of the biggest tech companies spilled into public view. We discuss Apple’s accusation that OpenAI tried to steal secrets about Apple’s hardware business, as well as share our reactions about OpenAI’s new model, Sol, and Anthropic’s decision to extend access to its model Fable.
Then, we unpack the loudest warning yet about A.I. and jobs. We talk with Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford economist, about a statement he helped organize that implores economists and A.I. researchers to “act now” to steer A.I. in a direction that complements humans.
And finally, we play a round of HatGPT.
Guest:
Erik Brynjolfsson, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered A.I., and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
Additional Reading:
Apple Sues OpenAI, Accusing It of Stealing Company Secrets
OpenAI’s First Device Will Be Movable, Screenless Speaker Built as A.I. Companion
Nearly 200 Economists and Tech Leaders Warn of A.I. Threats
The loudest warning about A.I. and jobs yet
OpenAI Is Showing Kalshi’s World Cup Odds in ChatGPT
New York Enacts Nation’s First Statewide Moratorium on Data Centers
Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used A.I. to Cheat
MiniMax CEO Vows to Forgo Salary Until Achieving A.G.I.
Lorde Speaks Out — With Expletives — Against A.I. Glasses
Nearly 6 in 10 Young Women Get Health and Wellness Information from Influencers
Meta Removes A.I. Feature on Instagram After Days of Backlash
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, with news that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Texas’ age verification law for app stores, we check in on how social media bans are going around the globe and what may be coming soon to a state near you. Then, we’re joined by Jeff Sebo, an associate professor at N.Y.U., to discuss new research into “A.I. welfare” and whether A.I. could ever become conscious. And finally, in our latest edition of Tool Time, we show each other some of the latest tech tools we’ve been experimenting with.
Guest:
Jeff Sebo, associate professor and the director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at N.Y.U.
Additional Reading:
Why Social Media Bans Are Gaining Steam
Four in Five Under-16s in Australia Using Social Media Despite Ban, Study Shows
It Turns Out Banning Teens From Social Media Is Hard
Studying A.I. Welfare Empirically
A Global Workspace in Language Models
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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This week, the Commerce Department lifted its restrictions on Anthropic’s powerful A.I. models, Claude Mythos and Claude Fable. We dissect why the government took such a hands-on approach in the first place, how the restriction on the OpenAI model GPT 5.6 is likely to resolve and what, if anything, this tells us about A.I. competition with China.
Then, Dr. Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and the author of the forthcoming book “Human Raised,” stops by to discuss a framework she has developed to help parents make informed decisions about what kinds of A.I. products are safe for children.
And finally, we introduce a new segment about prediction markets: Against All Odds.
Guest:
Dr. Dana Suskind, founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago and author of the forthcoming book “Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity and Lifelong Learning in the Age of A.I.”
Additional Reading:
U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Anthropic’s Most Powerful A.I. Models
U.S. Bars Foreigners From Using Anthropic’s Most Advanced A.I. Models
Chinese A.I. Models Close the Gap With Anthropic and OpenAI
The Donk-ing of a Truth Machine
Mark Zuckerberg Directed Meta to Create a Prediction Markets App
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, we’re bringing you two A.I.-related stories from our colleagues at The New York Times.
First, Rachel Abrams, a host of “The Daily,” talks with the Times reporter Eli Saslow about a woman in a remote part of Washington who is using an A.I. companion robot to keep her independence, and to keep her company.
Then, the Times Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman talks to the New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka and the journalist and critic Sophie Haigney. They get into the rise of “taste slop” and what happens to culture if the internet collapses into just a few chatbots that serve us everything.
“Hard Fork” will be back with an original episode next week.
Guests:
Eli Saslow, a reporter for The New York Times who writes in-depth stories about the impact of major national issues on people’s lives.
Kyle Chayka, staff writer at The New Yorker covering technology and online culture.
Sophie Haigney, a critic and journalist.
Additional Reading:
Can A.I. Make People Feel Less Lonely?
What Silicon Valley Is Coming for Next
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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We’re back with our final installment from Hard Fork Live, recorded at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. In this episode, we’re joined by Sayash Kapoor and Daniel Kokotajlo to talk about their differing visions of A.I. transformation: why Sayash thinks A.I. will diffuse throughout society like a “normal” technology, and why Daniel thinks an unprecedented acceleration is just around the corner. Then we’re joined by George Ekas from Toborlife AI, along with his dancing robot Toby. Finally, the podcaster Dwarkesh Patel drops by, and we take a few questions from the live audience.
Guests:
Sayash Kapoor, an A.I. researcher at Princeton University and a co-author of the newsletter “AI as Normal Technology”
Daniel Kokotajlo, the executive director of the AI Futures Project and a co-author of “AI 2027”
George Ekas, the director of engineering at Toberlife AI
Dwarkesh Patel, a tech podcaster
Additional Reading:
This A.I. Forecast Predicts Storms Ahead
AI as Normal Technology
Common Ground Between AI 2027 & AI as Normal Technology
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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We’re back with more from our live event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. In this episode, we sit down with Dylan Field, a founder and the chief executive of the design company Figma, for what he describes as a “roller coaster” of a conversation. We cover everything from the company’s “Design Is Dead” campaign to the sudden resignation of the Anthropic executive Mike Krieger from Figma’s board. Then, we close things out with a special musical performance by eight wooden robotic dolls that make up the Teenage Engineering Choir.
One quick correction to note: In our interview with Field, he makes reference to the SpaceX S-1 filing and misstates what the company says their addressable market for A.I. enterprise applications is. Field says “$22.9 trillion,” but the correct number from the SpaceX filing is $22.7 trillion. The decimal point makes it look small, but it’s a difference of $200 billion.
We’ll be back on Friday with our final installment of “Hard Fork” Live.
Guests:
Dylan Field, chief executive and co-founder of Figma.
Dan Powell, robot conductor, New York Times music composer and “Hard Fork” theme-song creator.
Teenage Engineering Choir
Additional Reading:
This Start-Up’s $20 Billion Sale Died. It Came Fighting Back.
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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This week and next, we’re bringing you recordings from our second-ever live taping in San Francisco. First, we sit down with Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, to hear what he’s maxing out his A.I. tokens on, why he’s skeptical that software developers will ever be fully replaced, and how he’s hoping to create a new business model for Xbox. Then, Phil Mohun tells us what it has been like to watch people in the Bay Area interact with two robot dogs that wear the faces of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. And finally, we talk with the longtime privacy defender Cindy Cohn about where things stand in the fight to protect internet users from digital surveillance by Big Tech and the government.
Guests:
Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive of Microsoft.
Phil Mohun, executive director of Node.
Cindy Cohn, former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and author of “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance.”
Additional Reading:
Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella Says, ‘Everyone Is a Stakeholder’ in A.I.
Node presents “Beeple: /Infinite_Loop”
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are all racing to the public markets. We discuss what their I.P.O.s mean for the industry, charitable giving and anyone invested in an index fund. Then, more than 1,000 mathematicians signed a declaration this week raising concerns about the use of A.I. in their field. Author Kevin Hartnett joins to explain what the fuss is all about. And finally, we run through the biggest headlines of the week — including the new executive order on A.I. — in a round of HatGPT.
Guest:
Kevin Hartnett, author of The Proof In the Code: How a Truth Machine is Transforming Math and AI
Additional Reading:
Anthropic Files to Go Public, Setting Stage for Huge I.P.O.
As A.I. Makes Strides in Mathematics, Mathematicians Urge Caution
An SF Startup Is Secretly Testing Robots in Airbnbs, and Trashing Them, Lawsuit Claims
Trump Signs Executive Order Seeking Oversight of A.I. Models
U.S. Is Said to Be Investigating George Santos Over Kalshi Betting
Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked
United Flight Forced to Turn Around Because of a Bluetooth Speaker Name
‘Survivor’ Boss Jeff Probst Says Kalshi and Polymarket Are ‘Incentivizing People to Lie, Cheat and Steal’; Kalshi Is Now Considering Measures to Prevent Spoilers
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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The “Hard Fork” team is taking a break this week as we prepare for our upcoming live show in San Francisco.
While we’re away, we’re bringing you a recent episode of “Interesting Times” with Ross Douthat that we really enjoyed.
In this episode, Ross talks with Andrew Miller, writer of the transportation policy newsletter “Changing Lanes” and co-author of the book “The End of Driving.”
Together, they explore the potential benefits of driverless cars — from fewer car crashes to reclaimed time and attention — as well as what could be lost if we don’t have to be in the driver’s seat anymore.
Guest:
Andrew Miller, writer of the newsletter “Changing Lanes.”
Additional Reading:
A full transcript and video of this episode can be found here.
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, we headed to Mountain View, Calif., for the annual developer event Google I/O. We share our reactions to Google’s biggest announcements, including a revamped search box, new agentic tools that compete with OpenClaw and an updated flash model of Gemini that the company says is faster than competitors. Then, we ask Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive, how he’s responding to growing evidence that the public is souring on A.I., what advice he’d give to college grads frightened by the current job market and where the company stands relative to competitors in the A.I. race. Finally, we run through the other big tech headlines of the week in our segment System Update.
Guest:
Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google.
Additional Reading:
Google Changes Its Search Box for the First Time in 25 Years
How Google Is Starting to Win the A.I. Race
Elon Musk Loses $150 Billion Suit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman
Before Mass Layoffs, Meta Reassigns 7,000 Workers to Focus on A.I.
Pope to Launch Encyclical on AI Alongside Anthropic Co-Founder
Was a Story That Just Won a Literary Prize A.I.-Generated?
Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, between the president’s negotiations in China and a potential executive order, we discuss why the Trump administration seems to be changing its tune on A.I. safety. Then, Nikesh Arora, chief executive of Palo Alto Networks, the largest cybersecurity company in the world, gives us a firsthand account of where we stand in the race to secure the internet. And finally, we run through some of the wildest headlines of the week in a round of Hot Mess Express.
Guest:
Nikesh Arora, chief executive and chairman of Palo Alto Networks.
Additional Reading:
White House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released
Chief Executives to Accompany Trump to China
Is Anthropic’s New A.I. Really That Scary? It Depends Whom You Ask.
Venmo Finally Takes Privacy Seriously
Amazon Staff Use A.I. Tool for Unnecessary Tasks to Inflate Usage Scores
Graduates Boo Commencement Speech About A.I.
Dua Lipa Files $15 Million Suit Against Samsung for Using Her Face to Sell TVs
EBay Rejects GameStop’s $55 Billion Takeover Bid
Shein, Temu Trade Blows as UK Trial Spotlights Supply Chains
People Are Seriously Pissed That Grindr Outed Them With Its Latest Madonna Advert
Sam Altman Testifies That Elon Musk Wanted Control of OpenAI
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week we’re taking another look at prediction markets and a new series of scandals. Is Congress finally ready to rein them in? Then, the journalist Joanna Stern returns to the show to discuss her new book “I Am Not A Robot,” all about turning her life over to a chatbot for a year. And finally, Hard Fork’s Rachel Cohn reports back on her month attending classes at the Strother School of Radical Attention, the center of a movement to resist the commodification of attention by technology companies.
Guests:
Joanna Stern, chief everything officer at New Things
Rachel Cohn, producer of “Hard Fork”
Additional Reading:
Soldier Used Classified Information to Bet on Maduro’s Ouster, U.S. Says
Soldier Pleads Not Guilty in $400,000 Betting Case Over Maduro’s Ouster
French weather service alerts police to tampering after suspicious Polymarket bets
The Multi-Trillion-Dollar Battle for Your Attention Is Built on a Lie
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, OpenAI announced a loosened partnership with Microsoft and an aggressive new strategy to secure computing power. We unpack what these updates signal about OpenAI’s business strategy and whether the company can scale while balancing a trial against Elon Musk and investor concerns over missed financial targets. Then, the A.I. researcher Dr. Adam Rodman, of Harvard Medical School, returns to tell us about the most significant ways A.I. is changing how doctors treat patients. And finally, can an LLM trained only on very old texts predict the future? We’re talking with one of the creators of the chatbot talkie.
Guests:
Dr. Adam Rodman, internal medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
David Duvenaud, associate professor at the University of Toronto, former team lead at Anthropic and co-creator of talkie.
Additional Reading:
Microsoft and OpenAI Loosen Their Partnership
Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s Epic Fight Heads to Court
OpenAI Misses Key Revenue, User Targets in High-Stakes Sprint Toward IPO
Take It From a Doctor: It’s OK if Your Medical Advice Comes From A.I.
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, Tim Cook announced he would step down as chief executive of Apple. We discuss what he got right and what he got wrong, and we offer some unsolicited advice for his replacement, John Ternus. Then, Andrew Yang joins us to discuss A.I.-powered job automation and why universal basic income may be making a comeback. And finally, we catch up on more recent tech news with a round of HatGPT.
Guest:
Andrew Yang, chief executive of Noble Mobile and author of “Hey Yang, Where’s My Thousand Bucks?”
Additional Reading:
Tim Cook Will Step Down as Apple C.E.O.
Who Is John Ternus, Apple’s Low-Profile Leader?
Why U.B.I. Is Making a Comeback
His 2020 Campaign Message: The Robots Are Coming
This Pasta Sauce Wants to Record Your Family
Chinese Robot Beats Human Best Time in Half-Marathon, After a Stumble
What Happens When A.I. Runs a Store in San Francisco?
Meta to Start Capturing Employee Mouse Movements, Keystrokes for A.I. Training Data
SpaceX Strikes Deal With Cursor for $60 Billion
OpenAI Beefs Up ChatGPT’s Image Generation Model
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, amid violent attacks on the homes of the OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and the Indianapolis councilman Ron Gibson, we debate why artificial intelligence and data centers are so unpopular. Then, Kara Swisher returns to the show to discuss her new docuseries on Silicon Valley’s obsession with living longer. And finally, can chief executives replace themselves with A.I.? Mark Zuckerberg seems to be trying.
Guests:
Kara Swisher, tech journalist and host of the podcasts “Pivot” and “On With Kara Swisher.”
Additional Reading:
Shots Fired at Indianapolis Councilman’s Home, After Vote Backing Data Center
Man Held in Attack on OpenAI Chief’s Home Had List of A.I. Leaders, Officials Say
Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever
Meta Builds A.I. Version of Mark Zuckerberg to Interact With Staff
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, we look at the cybersecurity threats that a new unreleased model from Anthropic are posing to software everywhere. And we ask whether Project Glasswing, the company’s bold new defense initiative, will give tech companies enough of a head start to secure the web. Then, we’re joined by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz of The New Yorker to discuss their blockbuster new profile of Sam Altman. And finally, we look to the skies for this edition of One Good Thing.
Guests:
Ronan Farrow, investigative reporter and a contributing writer to The New Yorker.
Andrew Marantz, staff writer at The New Yorker.
Additional Reading:
Anthropic Claims Its New A.I. Model, Mythos, Is a Cybersecurity ‘Reckoning’
Why Anthropic’s New Model Has Cybersecurity Experts Rattled
Sam Altman May Control Our Future — Can He Be Trusted?
Artemis II Moon Launch
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Last week, two separate juries held social media companies liable for harming young users. We unpack what these landmark decisions mean — not only for the future of social platforms like Meta and YouTube, but also for A.I. chatbots. Then, Sebastian Mallaby, the author of “The Infinity Machine,” joins us to talk about the three years he spent with Demis Hassabis and those closest to Google DeepMind. And finally, we catch up on some of our favorite tech headlines from the week with a round of HatGPT.
Guest:
Sebastian Mallaby, author of “The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence.”
Additional Reading:
Juries Take the Lead in the Push for Child Online Safety
An A.I. Agent Was Banned From Creating Wikipedia Articles, Then Wrote Angry Blogs About Being Banned
I Met Olaf — the Frozen Robot who Might be the Future of Disney Parks
Claude’s Code: Anthropic Leaks Source Code for A.I. Software Engineering Tool
What’s With All the A.I. Videos of Cheating Fruit?
This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into A.I. Podcasts
North Korean Hackers Suspected in Axios Software Tool Breach
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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The “Hard Fork” team is off this week, taking a much-needed break. While we’re away, we wanted to draw your attention to a recent episode of “The Ezra Klein Show.”
In this conversation, Ezra speaks with Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic, about how he is using A.I. agents; how the technology is leading to meaningful changes in the ways we work and think; and how policy can or must change to anticipate potential job displacement on the horizon.
We’ll be back with a new episode next week.
Guest:
Jack Clark, a co-founder and the head of policy at Anthropic.
Additional Reading:
A full transcript and video of this episode can be found here.
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This week, we start by talking about the new wave of tech layoffs at Atlassian and Block, as well as reports that Meta plans to cut up to 20 percent of its work force. This raises the question of whether A.I. job loss has truly begun, or if there are other factors at play. Then, we’re joined by the writer Jasmine Sun to talk about why chatbots are still so bad at creative writing. And finally, it’s tokenmaxxing time! Kevin takes us behind the scenes of his latest reporting about why tech companies are building leaderboards to measure who is using the most A.I.
Guest:
Jasmine Sun, journalist and writer at jasmi.news
Additional Reading:
I Worked for Block. Its A.I. Job Cuts Aren’t What They Seem.
Meta Planning Sweeping Layoffs as A.I. Costs Mount
Meta Delays Rollout of New A.I. Model After Performance Concerns
The A.I.-Washing of Job Cuts Is Corrosive and Confusing
The Human Skill That Eludes A.I.
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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A.I. is changing the ways war is waged. This week, we explore how the U.S. and Israel are using A.I. to identify targets in the conflict with Iran — and why data centers and fiber optic cables are targets on the front lines. Then, researcher Julie Bedard breaks down “A.I. brain fry,” a new condition she and her colleagues studied among A.I. users at work. And finally, Casey shares his battle with Grammarly after the company used his identity in a new A.I. feature, without his consent.
Guest:
Julie Bedard, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group who is also the lead author of a survey of “A.I. brain fry” in the workplace.
Additional Reading:
U.S. at Fault in Strike on School in Iran, Preliminary Inquiry Says
How A.I. Is Turbocharging the War in Iran
Anthropic’s A.I. tool Claude central to U.S. campaign in Iran, amid a bitter feud
A.I. Fatigue Is Real and Nobody Talks About It
Token Anxiety
A.I. Doesn’t Reduce Work — It Intensifies It
Grammarly Is Using Our Identities Without Permission
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, the fallout continues as OpenAI scrambles to rework its deal with the Pentagon, while government agencies adapt to life without Claude. Then we break down the grim new reality of prediction market bets on the U.S.-Israel led war with Iran. Finally, it’s time for another edition of The Hard Fork Review of Slop. This time we’re joined by Arijeta Lajka, a New York Times reporter, to discuss her recent article about the short form A.I.-generated slop YouTube is feeding to young children.
Guest:
Arijeta Lajka, New York Times video journalist
Additional Reading:
The Pentagon Officially Notifies Anthropic That It Is a ‘Supply Chain Risk’
OpenAI Amends A.I. Deal With the Pentagon
How Talks Between Anthropic and the Defense Dept. Fell Apart
How Anonymous Bettors Cashed In on the Iran Strike, Just Hours Before It Happened
Israeli Army Reservists Are Suspected of Using Inside Knowledge to Bet
How A.I.-Generated Videos Are Distorting Your Child’s YouTube Feed
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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On Friday, President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s A.I. systems and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a “supply chain risk.” Then, just a few hours later, the OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, announced that his company reached an agreement with the Pentagon. The deal ensures its technology won’t be used for the same two safety concerns Anthropic raised: domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. So what is going on? Is this a political vendetta between the Pentagon and Anthropic? Or are there substantive differences between the agreement Anthropic was offered and the one OpenAI signed? We cut through the confusion.
Additional Reading:
OpenAI Reaches A.I. Agreement With Defense Dept. After Anthropic Clash
Trump Orders Government to Stop Using Anthropic After Pentagon Standoff
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, the economist Anton Korinek joins to break down how artificial intelligence is driving volatility in the job and stock markets. Then, the battle between the Pentagon and Anthropic is getting even more tense. Anthropic now has until 5:01 p.m. Eastern time on Friday to accept the military’s demands over the terms of a contract, or the Trump administration will retaliate by invoking the Defense Production Act and designating the company a “supply chain risk.” We discuss this change, as well as two other updates on OpenClaw and Alpha Schools.
Guest:
Anton Korinek, economist studying the impact of A.I., at the University of Virginia.
Additional Reading:
Pentagon Gives A.I. Company an Ultimatum
Summer Yue’s OpenClaw post
‘Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs’: Inside an AI-Powered Private School
Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out
The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis
When Does Automating Research Produce Explosive Growth?
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, Anthropic is refusing to let the government use the company’s technology for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. In response, the Pentagon is threatening to cut business ties and declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk.” Who will blink first? Then, Scott Shambaugh joins us to tell the strange tale of the autonomous A.I. agent that wrote a hit piece about him. And finally, the Hot Mess Express returns to the station.
Guest:
Scott Shambaugh, engineer and writer of “An A.I. Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me”
Additional Reading:
Defense Department and Anthropic Square Off in Dispute Over A.I. Safety
Ring Cancels Its Partnership With Flock Safety After Surveillance Backlash
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
Japan’s Largest Toilet Maker Is Undervalued A.I. Play, Says Activist Investor
‘It Is 35 Degrees’: Outrage as Aussie Uber Driver Charges $5 to Turn on Air Conditioning Unit During Heatwave
Meta Patented an A.I. That Lets You Keep Posting From Beyond the Grave
I Tried RentAHuman, Where A.I. Agents Hired Me to Hype Their A.I. Start-Ups
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, we discuss Wall Street’s software-stock sell-off and a viral essay on X about the potential for widespread job displacement from A.I. Then, the New York Times reporter Alexandra Alter walks us through the process that a growing number of writers are adopting to churn out romance novels with help from A.I. chatbots. Finally, we each share one bit of good tech-related news — a new way to make playlists on Spotify and progress toward decoding whale sounds.
Guest:
Alexandra Alter, a New York Times reporter covering books and publishing.
Additional Reading:
The Dark Side of A.I. Weighs on Tech Stocks
Matt Shumer’s essay “Something Big Is Happening”
The New Fabio Is Claude
How a New A.I. Tool Fixed My Single Biggest Problem With Spotify
How A.I. Trained on Birds Is Surfacing Underwater Mysteries
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week, the A.I. initial-public-offering race is heating up! We break down SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI, as well as OpenAI and Nvidia’s messy situationship. Then, it’s time for show and tell. We got our hands on the latest experimental A.I. prototype from Google called Project Genie, and we discuss our experience using it to generate and navigate video-game-like environments. Finally, we’re joined by Moltbook’s founder, Matt Schlicht, to discuss his new social media platform for A.I. agents, and how he’s planning to deal with security risks and spam on the site.
Guest:
Matt Schlicht, creator of Moltbook
Additional Reading:
Elon Musk Merges SpaceX With His A.I. Start-Up xAI
The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice
Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds
An A.I. Pioneer Warns the Tech ‘Herd’ Is Marching Into a Dead End
Moltbook Mania Explained
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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A Reddit-style web forum for A.I. agents has captured the attention of the tech world. According to the site, called Moltbook, more than 1.5 million agents have contributed to over 150,000 posts, making it the largest experiment to date of what happens when A.I. agents interact with each other. We discuss our favorite posts, how we’re thinking about the question of what is “real” on the site, and where we expect agents to go from here.
Additional Reading:
A Social Network for A.I. Bots Only. No Humans Allowed.
Five Ways of Thinking About Moltbook
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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This week we’re talking about the tech industry’s response to the killings by federal agents in Minneapolis and the federal government’s strategy to control the narrative on social media. Then we follow Casey through his trial of a new open-source A.I. assistant called Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) and consider whether it is worth the security risk. And, finally, it’s time for a look at the rest of the week’s tech news with a round of HatGPT.
Additional Reading:
False Posts and Altered Images Distort Views of Minnesota Shooting
A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti
It’s a War: Inside ICE’s Media Machine
Some Amazon Employees Get ‘Project Dawn’ Calendar Invitation Discussing Upcoming Job Cuts
TikTok Data Center Outage Triggers Trust Crisis for New U.S. Owners
Former FTX Crypto Executive Caroline Ellison Released From Federal Custody
Anthropic C.E.O.’s Grave Warning: A.I. Will “Test Us as a Species”
Inside the White House Screening for Amazon’s ‘Melania’ Doc
App for Quitting Porn Leaked Users’ Masturbation Habits
Alaska Student Arrested After Eating A.I.-Generated Art in Protest
Steak ’n Shake Adds $5 Million in Bitcoin Exposure, Deepening Bitcoin Commitment
SpaceX Weighs June I.P.O. Timed to Planetary Alignment and Elon Musk’s Birthday
LinkedIn Will Let You Show Off Your Vibe Coding Expertise
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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