Hard Fork

“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. 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.

  1. 4 HR AGO

    OpenAI’s Big Reset + A.I. in the Doctor’s Office + Talkie, a pre-1930s LLM

    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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1hr 10min
  2. 24 APR

    Tim Cook’s Legacy + The Future of U.B.I. With Andrew Yang + HatGPT

    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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1hr 15min
  3. 10 APR • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Anthropic’s Cybersecurity Shock Wave + Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz on Their Sam Altman Investigation + One Good Thing

    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 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1hr 4min
  4. 3 APR • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    The Future of Addictive Design + Going Deep at DeepMind + HatGPT

    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. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1hr 9min
  5. 20 MAR • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    ‘A.I.-Washing’ Layoffs? + Why L.L.M.s Can’t Write Well + Tokenmaxxing

    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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1hr 1min
  6. 13 MAR • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    A.I. Goes to War + Is ‘A.I. Brain Fry’ Real? + How Grammarly Stole Casey’s Identity

    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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1hr 7min

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Ratings & Reviews

4.1
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

“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. 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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