A few days after a lawyer used ChatGPT to write a brief filled with made-up cases, a group of A.I. experts released a letter warning of the “risk of extinction” from the technology. But will A.I. ever be good enough to pose such a threat?Then, FAANG is now MAAAN, with the addition of Nvidia. Here’s how the GPU company became a trillion-dollar behemoth.Plus: Kevin, Casey and the New York Times tech reporter Kate Conger answer Hard Questions from listeners.Today’s Guest:Kate Conger is a technology reporter in the San Francisco bureau of The New York Times.Additional Reading:A lawyer used ChatGPT the same week that A.I. leaders released a 22-word statement about the existential risk A.I. poses to humanity.The chip company Nvidia hit a $1 trillion market cap, powered by A.I. demand.The podcast “Acquired” did a two-part series on the history of Nvidia. 

The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, says social media poses a “profound risk of harm” to young people. Why do some in the tech industry disagree?Then, Ajeya Cotra, an A.I. researcher, on how A.I. could lead to a doomsday scenario.Plus: Pass the hat. Kevin and Casey play a game they call HatGPT.On today’s episode:Ajeya Cotra is a senior research analyst at Open PhilanthropyAdditional reading:The surgeon general issued an advisory about the risks of social media for young people.Ajeya Cotra has researched the existential risks that A.I. poses unless countermeasures are taken.Binance commingled customer funds and company revenue, former insiders told Reuters.BuzzFeed announced Botatouille, an A.I.-powered kitchen assistant.A Twitter bug caused the platform to restore deleted tweets.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced his presidential campaign in a Twitter Spaces event rife with glitches.Two former rivals, Uber and Waymo, are teaming up to bring driverless ride-hailing to Phoenix.

In a congressional hearing this week, OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, appeared to be on the same page as lawmakers: It’s time to regulate A.I. But like so many other proposals to regulate tech, will it actually happen? The Times’s technology reporter Cecilia Kang helps us understand whether Congress will actually act, and what that could look like.Then, Casey talks with Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, before and after Elon Musk took over the company.On today’s episode:Cecilia Kang is a reporter at The New York Times covering technology and regulation.Yoel Roth is the former head of trust and safety at Twitter.Additional reading:Sam Altman urged Congress to pass legislation to regulate A.I., including the proposal that A.I. developers should be required to get licenses from the U.S. government to release their models.Casey Newton reported for This American Life on Roth’s time at Twitter, before and after Musk took over. 

At its biggest event of the year, Google announced an avalanche of A.I. product releases: A.I. in search, A.I. that writes emails and A.I. that generates slides. Is Google pulling ahead in the A.I. arms race?And, after years of hype, self-driving cars are finally hitting the streets of American cities. Kevin and Casey take a ride through San Francisco in Banana Slug — an autonomous vehicle from the self-driving car company Cruise. After their ride, they sit down with Cruise’s chief executive, Kyle Vogt, to discuss the role he thinks self-driving cars will play in the future of transportation.On today’s episode:Kyle Vogt is the chief executive of Cruise, a self-driving car company.Additional reading:At their annual conference, Google announced dozens of A.I. products and featuresIn a leaked memo, a Google researcher argued that the company did not have a strong A.I. moat because of open-source A.I. companies.Self-driving cars are expanding their footprint. 

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.