Uncanny Valley | WIRED

The debate of whether AI can kill us has been everywhere lately, but how exactly would an actual AI catastrophe look like? This week, the team went looking for answers and found the three real-world scenarios experts worry the most about — including hacked water supplies, bioweapons, and autonomous robots. We also discuss the highlights of Salesforce’s annual conference, where OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei defended their positions on AI safety. Plus — Leah tells us how this backlash against AI has become a rare bipartisan flashpoint, to the point that Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon shared a stage over it this week.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

China Isn’t Buying Silicon Valley’s Call for an AI Slowdown | WIRED

Washington Won’t Be Regulating AI Anytime Soon | WIRED

Why So Many AI Researchers Think the Machines Could Kill Everyone | WIRED

OpenAI Wants to Know if an AI Industry Slowdown Would Even Be Legal | WIRED

Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from the newest ventures to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.

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Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel, Station Eleven, turned her into something of a pandemic prophet. This month, she’s releasing her newest novel, Exit Party, which imagines two possible American futures—totalitarian state and post-civil-war chaos.

Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian’s newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.

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This week, an AI researcher's resignation from Anthropic went viral on social media after he claimed there's a real chance AI could wipe out humanity by decade's end. WIRED’s Will Knight joins Brian and Leah to assess whether the doom narrative is overblown or overdue. We also discuss Apple’s debut of its $2000 foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, and the new "always listening" Apple Watch features that have Brian feeling more than a little uneasy. Plus — a WIRED investigation found that the US Census Bureau used faulty data to create a misleading report touted by the Trump administration.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

OpenAI Just Claimed a Huge Math Discovery. Some Academics Are Crying Foul

The AI Researcher Who Just Quit Anthropic Says It’s ‘Crunch Time for Humanity’

A US Census Report on Noncitizen Voting Used Bad Data to Reach Faulty Conclusions | WIRED

Apple Debuts the iPhone Duo, Its First Folding iPhone | WIRED

Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from the newest ventures to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.

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When Rebecca Kutler accepted the job as president of cable news channel MS Now, formerly known as MSNBC, she knew what she was getting into. The top 3 cable news channel, MS was about to go into a massive re-brand having been spun off from NBC. Despite those betting against her, the rebrand has had continuous double-digit audience growth. No small feat these days for TV news. Katie talks to Rebecca about her plans to leverage its massive audience to create a fan community. First up: letting you chat with Rachel Maddow.

Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian’s newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.

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We're back! This week, the team discusses the two incidents that have been making noise in prediction markets: George Santos getting lifetime ban from Kalshi, and a Google engineer's Polymarket insider-trading case. Plus, WIRED reporters reverse-engineered Flock's AI-powered person-search tool, and the hosts unpack the online meltdown over how to talk about "rogue" AI agents.

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