Podcast
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.
Episodes
56:14
Published: Fri May 05 2023
Description
The Twitter look-alike Bluesky, started by the former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, is doing the impossible: making social media fun again.Then, A.I. is coming for jobs but not in the way you think.Plus: Kevin and Casey moonlight as advice columnists in a new Hard Fork segment called Hard Questions.Additional reading:Bluesky is vying to replace Twitter.IBM announced a pause in hiring, anticipating that A.I. would replace thousands of jobs at the company in the coming years.The chief executive of the education company Chegg said student interest in the chatbot ChatGPT was hurting its sales.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
1:01:26
Published: Fri Apr 28 2023
Description
A song featuring A.I.-generated versions of Drake and the Weeknd went viral — before being taken down by streaming services. Is censorship of A.I.-generated songs the way forward? Or can singers benefit from synthetic voices, as some artists like Grimes are suggesting?Then, HatGPT: Kevin and Casey pull headlines out of a hat and generate their own takes on the news.And Ben Smith, the former BuzzFeed News editor, discusses the end of the 2010s digital media era.On today’s episode:Ben Smith is a journalist and co-founder of the digital media company Semafor. He was a New York Times media columnist and the first editor in chief of BuzzFeed News.Additional reading:An A.I.-generated song made to sound like Drake and the Weeknd went viral before being taken down by streaming services.Grimes invited fans to make songs using A.I.-generated versions of her voice.Snapchat saw a spike in one-star reviews after users criticized its “My AI” feature.Taylor Swift did not invest in FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange company.Researchers turned a goldfish into a cyborg.The Republican National Committee released an A.I.-generated ad slamming President Biden.The U.K. blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for the video game company Activision.Ben Smith’s book, “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” is an origin story of digital media.A BuzzFeed article set off a viral debate on the color of a dress.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
1:03:24
Published: Fri Apr 07 2023
Description
The New York Times Opinion columnist Ezra Klein has spent years talking to artificial intelligence researchers. Many of them feel the prospect of A.I. discovery is too sweet to ignore, regardless of the technology’s risks.Today, Mr. Klein discusses the profound changes that an A.I.-powered world will create, how current business models are failing to meet the A.I. moment, and the steps government can take to achieve a positive A.I. future.Also, radical acceptance of your phone addiction may just help your phone addiction.On today’s episode:Ezra Klein is a columnist at The New York Times and host of “The Ezra Klein Show.”Additional reading:Ezra Klein outlined the dramatic shifts that A.I. will enable.In a 2022 survey of A.I. researchers, nearly half of the respondents said that there was a 10 percent or greater chance that the long-run effect of advanced A.I. on humanity would be “extremely bad.” This year, an A.I. researcher argued that natural selection favors A.I. over humans.A 2017 article in The New Yorker said that, for some, the risks of artificial intelligence are outweighed by the prospect of discovery.Meghan O’Gieblyn’s book “God, Human, Animal, Machine” explores the human experience in the age of artificial intelligence.The White House released a Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights to guide the development of A.I. technology.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
43:01
Published: Mon Mar 20 2023
Description
Jonathan Kanter, who heads up the Justice Department’s antitrust division, believes that antitrust laws are critical for innovation — from ad tech to A.I. The assistant attorney general is bringing a new philosophy to enforcing those laws. So, how is his new approach to protecting competition playing out?Plus: Can you guess whether that was a bot, or not?On today’s episode:Jonathan Kanter is the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s antitrust division.Additional reading:Jonathan Kanter has long been a critic of big tech.The Justice Department has accused Google of abusing a monopoly over online advertising.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
1:01:49
Published: Fri Feb 03 2023
Description
TikTok is opening up a “Transparency and Accountability Center” to try to win over skeptics. Is the company’s strategy working? Then, the origin story of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and how the company kicked off an A.I. arms race.Plus: A co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, hopes to make a “TikTok for text.”On today’s episode:Kevin Systrom is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Instagram.Additional reading:TikTok is taking a more aggressive approach toward lobbying.Inside OpenAI’s race to build ChatGPT.Kevin Systrom is starting a new A.I.-powered news app.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
1:00:54
Published: Fri Jan 20 2023
Description
Nearly three months into Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, things are in a "shambolic" state. Is the rest of Elon’s empire also in trouble? Then, an artist fighting generative A.I. sets the stage for a legal clash.Plus: what goes wrong when A.I. becomes a reporter.On today’s episode:Sarah Andersen, a cartoonist and the illustrator of a semi-autobiographical comic strip, “Sarah’s Scribbles.”Additional reading:A look inside Elon Musk’s first 90 days as chief executive of Twitter.The artist Sarah Andersen on finding her art in the databases behind text-to-image A.I. platforms.Three artists, including Ms. Andersen, filed a class-action lawsuit against the creators of Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and DreamUp.CNET’s A.I.-written articles contained errors.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
51:21
Published: Fri Dec 02 2022
Description
Elon Musk accuses Apple of trying to sabotage Twitter. But after his visit with Apple’s C.E.O., Tim Cook, things are … good? Then, the New York Times reporter Paul Mozur on the tactics Chinese protesters are deploying to avoid the most sophisticated censorship apparatus in the world.Plus: S.B.F. says it’s been a “bad month.”Additional Reading:Elon Musk accused Apple of threatening to pull Twitter from its App Store and tweeted about Apple’s “secret 30 percent tax” on developers for in-app purchases. The company has again delayed the launch of Twitter Blue as it seeks a way to avoid paying Apple’s 30 percent fee for the service.Later, Musk said the “misunderstanding” with Apple had been resolved after he met with the company’s C.E.O., Tim Cook, at Apple’s headquarters.Layoffs at Twitter gutted the company’s child safety team, which is responsible for removing child exploitation.Musk offered a “general amnesty” for over 60,000 banned accounts on Twitter.Protests in China rippled throughout the country, and citizens found ways to get around the Chinese censorship apparatus.On Wednesday, Sam Bankman-Fried appeared for an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook Summit.We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Follow “Hard Fork” on TikTok: @hardfork
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
PodcastHard Fork
47:08
Published: Fri Nov 18 2022
Description
The balance sheet contains an apology, the in-house coach is concerned that company executives are “undersexed” and billions in customer funds remain in jeopardy. The wreckage at FTX goes from bad to worse.Plus: Elon’s “extremely hardcore” plan for Twitter 2.0.Additional Resources:George K. Lerner, FTX’s in-house performance coach, said he was shocked by the collapse of FTX.In an interview with Matt Levine, a Bloomberg columnist, Sam Bankman-Fried described his strategy to restore faith in the crypto ecosystem.Bankman-Fried reflected on his actions as chief executive of FTX in a series of Twitter messages with Kelsey Piper, a Vox reporter.Elon Musk told Twitter employees in an email that the company would become an “extremely hardcore” operation. Employees were asked to click yes to be part of the new Twitter or take severance.Musk’s social calendar includes courting comedians and hopping on yachts.We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Follow “Hard Fork” on TikTok: @hardfork
https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork