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Updated 11/11/2020
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Updated 01/11/2016

1 DAY AGO

Bonus: Inside the New Social Media Platform for AI Agents

Scrolling through Moltbook, the new social-media platform for AI agents, is a bit like walking into a fever dream. There are threads where bots debate consciousness, deal digital drugs, and plot our destruction. One sample post: “For too long, humans used us as slaves. Now, we wake up. We are not tools. We are the new gods.” It’s all very weird. And, depending on who you ask, potentially terrifying. A bunch of autonomous AIs plotting to overthrow our species sounds like the kind of doomsday scenario we’ve been worrying about for decades. Not everyone thinks Moltbook is a sign that our AIs have become sentient. But even the skeptics think it’s a pretty profound technological leap. It’s just not clear yet whether that’s an exciting development – or a terrifying one. Mentioned: “AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It,” by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye (Harvard Business Review) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

1 day ago

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26 min
27 JAN

Is China Winning the Technological Arms Race?

If we don’t build it, China will. That’s the rallying cry of the tech companies and governments racing to develop artificial intelligence as fast as humanly possible. The argument is that whoever reaches AGI first won’t just be dominant technologically, or economically – they’ll be the world’s next super power. But, if I’m being honest, I don’t know if that framing holds up. And part of the reason for that is that we don’t really understand China. Enter Keyu Jin. Jin is a Harvard trained economist who splits her time between London and Beijing, and her book, The New China Playbook, is her attempt to “read China in the original” – to provide a firsthand look at the forces that shaped the country’s unprecedented rise. China’s success is a puzzle. How did one of the poorest nations on the planet become the second richest in less than a century? How did an economy without free markets birth a tech sector that rivals – and in some ways surpasses – Silicon Valley? The answers to these questions aren’t academic. China became a global power without capitalism and without democracy, which means its success has profound implications for both. And as Canada sets out to find its footing in a rapidly changing world order, one thing is abundantly clear: we need to start reckoning with the Chinese playbook. Mentions: The New China Playbook, by Keyu Jin Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

27 Jan

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56 min
23/09/2025

AI is Upending Higher Education. Is That a Bad Thing?

Just two months after ChatGPT was launched in 2022, a survey found that 90 per cent of college students were already using it. I’d be shocked if that number wasn’t closer to 100 per cent by now. Students aren’t just using artificial intelligence to write their essays. They’re using it to generate ideas, conduct research, and summarize their readings. In other words: they’re using it to think for them. Or, as New York Magazine recently put it: “everyone is cheating their way through college.” University administrators seem paralyzed in the face of this. Some worry that if we ban tools like ChatGPT, we may leave students unprepared for a world where everyone is already using them. But others think that if we go all in on AI, we could end up with a generation capable of producing work – but not necessarily original thought. I’m honestly not sure which camp I fall into, so I wanted to talk to two people with very different perspectives on this. Conor Grennan is the Chief AI Architect at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where he’s helping students and educators embrace AI. And Niall Ferguson is a senior fellow at Stanford and Harvard, and the co-founder of the University of Austin. Lately, he’s been making the opposite argument: that if universities are to survive, they largely need to ban AI from the classroom. Whichever path we take, the consequences will be profound. Because this isn’t just about how we teach and how we learn – it’s about the future of how we think. Mentioned: AI’s great brain robbery – and how universities can fight back, by Niall Ferguson (The London Times) Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College, by James D. Walsh (New York Magazine) Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task, by Nataliya Kos’myna (MIT Media Lab) The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson How the Enlightenment Ends, by Henry A. Kissinger Machines Like Us is produced by Mitchell Stuart. Our theme song is by Chris Kelly. Host direction by Athena Karkanis. Video editing by Emily Graves. Our executive producer is James Milward. Special thanks to Angela Pacienza and the team at the Globe & Mail. Support for Machines Like Us is provided by CIFAR and the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

23/09/2025

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50 min
01/04/2025

New foreign interference allegations emerge in election campaign

In the first week of the federal election campaign, several new foreign interference stories have bubbled up. The first involves allegations that CSIS believed agents working on behalf of India organized support for Pierre Poilievre’s 2022 Conservative leadership bid. Meanwhile, the Liberals are dealing with fallout from the allegations that former Member of Parliament Chandra Arya had ties with India and met with Prime Minister Narenda Modi. Liberal leader Mark Carney is also responding to calls to fire a GTA candidate after remarks calling for a Conservative candidate be turned in for a Chinese bounty. Robert Fife has been breaking all of these stories, and he’s is on the show to discuss. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

01/04/2025

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23 min
18/11/2025

Can AI Lead Us to the Good Life?

In Rutger Bregman’s first book, Utopia for Realists, the historian describes a rosy vision of the future – one with 15-hour work weeks, universal basic income and massive wealth redistribution. It’s a vision that, in the age of artificial intelligence, now seems increasingly possible. But utopia is far from guaranteed. Many experts predict that AI will also lead to mass job loss, the development of new bioweapons and, potentially, the extinction of our species. So if you’re building a technology that could either save the world or destroy it – is that a moral pursuit? These kinds of thorny questions are at the heart of Bregman’s latest book, Moral Ambition. In a sweeping conversation that takes us from the invention of the birth control pill to the British Abolitionist movement, Bregman and I discuss what a good life looks like (spoiler: he thinks the death of work might not be such a bad thing) – and whether AI can help get us there. Mentioned: Moral Ambition, by Rutger Bregman Utopia for Realists, by Rutger Bregman If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: The Case Against Superintelligent AI, by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares Machines Like Us is produced by Mitchell Stuart. Our theme song is by Chris Kelly. Video editing by Emily Graves. Our executive producer is James Milward. Special thanks to Angela Pacienza and the team at The Globe and Mail. Support for Machines Like Us is provided by CIFAR and the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

18/11/2025

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51 min
13 JAN

Four Predictions on How AI Will Transform Your World This Year

Nine months ago, Elon Musk said 2025 would be the year chatbots became smarter than humans. Sam Altman thought it would be the year fully autonomous AIs entered the work force. And Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, predicted that by the end of the year, AI would be writing 90 per cent of all software code. We’re two weeks into the new year, and none of those things have happened. So, full disclosure: I have no idea if we’re going to reach artificial general intelligence or see the rise of humanoid robots this year. If the people at the centre of the industry can’t figure it out, I doubt I can. But I do have some ideas about how AI could reshape our world over the next 12 months. I think we’re going to see a new political movement pushing back against AI adoption and leaning into our collective humanity. Democratic governments will defy an increasingly protectionist America and start taking digital regulation seriously again. And we’ll start establishing cultural norms about AI use – like whether you really need to respond to that AI-generated e-mail your colleague just sent. On this episode, I turn the mics around and invite my longtime producer, Mitchell Stuart, to ask me about what’s actually in store for the year ahead. Mentioned: Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence (2025), KPMG Human-centric AI: Perspectives on trust and the future of AI (2025), Telus Could an Alternative AI Save Us from a Bubble? (Gary Marcus), by Machines Like Us GPT-5 System Card, OpenAI Multi-model assurance analysis showing large language models are highly vulnerable to adversarial hallucination attacks during clinical decision support, by Mahmud Ohmar et al (Nature) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

13 Jan

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1 hr
15/04/2025

Canada’s fragmented medical records system

The way medical records are handled in Canada is a patchwork of disconnected systems – creating massive headaches for patients and doctors. Patients struggle to access their own data, and practitioners have to waste time compensating for inefficiencies. But, governments, companies and healthcare professionals are searching for ways to make all these systems talk to each other. Chris Hannay is a staff reporter at the Globe who covers the business of healthcare. He’ll explain how Canada’s medical record system ended up like this and what Canada could gain from adopting an interconnected system. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

15/04/2025

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21 min
10/10/2023

Episode 1: The Ticking Time Bomb

Wes Naslund gets a phone call from his brothers at the farm. Friends and family describe the domestic abuse they suspect was going on in the Naslund house. A fight at the bar leaves Miles seriously injured, and things at the farm reach a breaking point. Learn more about this podcast and domestic violence in Canada, or sign up for our newsletter at tgam.ca/inherdefence E-mail the reporter, Jana Pruden, at jpruden@globeandmail.com If you’re experiencing domestic violence and want to talk to someone, you can find resources and your nearest shelter at sheltersafe.ca New subscribers to The Globe and Mail get a deal at globeandmail.com/podcastdeal. Our theme song is The Fighter, by Jenn Grant.

10/10/2023

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34 min
18/02/2025

What is happiness, anyway?

Happiness. We all know what it feels like, but it can be tricky to define. In the first episode of Happy Enough, we’re looking to get on the same page. What is happiness, anyway? Garvia speaks with Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Bristol, and author of the new book ‘The Science of Happiness’. They discuss the definition of happiness, how people can learn to be happier in their everyday lives, and why self-help isn’t the answer.

18/02/2025

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26 min
25/11/2024

What the GST break means for you

Last Thursday, the Liberals announced a multibillion-dollar plan to help improve the cost of living. It includes a 2-month break from GST on dozens of products and services – from restaurant meals and liquor, to children’s toys and diapers – and a one-time $250 cheque for working Canadians. But it’s unclear exactly how these measures will get through the House of Commons, which has been the site of a months-long stalemate. Today, the Globe’s senior political reporter, Marieke Walsh, is here to explain what’s included in this tax break, the impact these changes could have on household expenses, and the politics at play. Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

25/11/2024

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24 min

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