IM 838: Fat Bears Live Now! - Inside the AI Gold Rush
Are we repeating the mistakes of the dot-com boom with today's AI gold rush? Intelligent Machines tackles why runaway spending, circular investments, and looming government deals could mean a hard reckoning for tech's biggest promise yet.
Interview with Steven Levy
Levy: Wasn't Sure I Wanted Anthropic to Pay Me for My Books—I Do Now
Steven Levy: I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
OpenAI Teams Up With Oracle and SoftBank to Build 5 New Stargate Data Centers
Can We Afford AI?
Meta's AI system, Llama, has been approved for use by U.S. federal agencies
China's DeepSeek says its hit AI model cost just $294,000 to train
Seeing Through the Reality of Meta's Smart Glasses
Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man
Former NotebookLM devs' new app, Huxe, taps audio to help you with news and research
Fat Bear Week is back—and the bears are bigger than ever
* "My Boyfriend is AI": A Computational Analysis of Human-AI Companionship in Reddit's AI Community
ChatGPT is 3-8% of Google's search volume
The Lovelace Test of Intelligence: Can Humans Recognise and Esteem AI-Generated Art?
Data-Driven Analysis of Text-Conditioned AI-Generated Music: A Case Study with Suno and Udio
The LLM Has Left The Chat: Evidence of Bail Preferences in Large Language Models
More! Shrimp!
Wounded robots
Pope nixes 'virtual pope' idea, explains concerns about AI
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau
Guest: Steven Levy
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2:49:16
IM 837: Could Should Might Don't - Why Tomorrow Doesn't Feel Like Sci-Fi
With AI hype everywhere, are we confusing slick projections and sci-fi clichés for real progress? This episode exposes the flawed thinking behind tech's boldest predictions and dives into what your future with "intelligent machines" might actually look like—waffles and all.
Interview with Nick Foster
AI's $344 Billion 'Language Model' Bet Looks Fragile
Yann LeCun's mondo preso
Elon Musk's xAI Lays Off 500 Data Annotation Workers
Bessent: TikTok deal 'framework' reached with China, Trump and Xi will finalize it Friday
The OpenAI paper on usage
Generative AI at the Crossroads: Light Bulb, Dynamo, or Microscope
ChatGPT Will Guess Your Age and Might Require ID for Age Verification
Generative AI at the Crossroads: Light Bulb, Dynamo, or Microscope
A Maslow-Inspired Hierarchy of Engagement with AI Model
I Wasn't Sure I Wanted Anthropic to Pay Me for My Books—I Do Now
How an AI Giant Became Obsessed With an Albino Alligator
Amazon invests over $1 billion to raise employee pay, lower healthcare costs
The Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers
Rest of World: A hidden network handles chats for OnlyFans stars. AI could soon take over
How Americans View AI and Its Impact on People and Society
Roadwarden
David Lynch's quirky house
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau
Guest: Nick Foster
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2:25:58
IM 836: I See OJ and He Looks Scared - Modern Oracles or Modern BS?
AI isn't just the ultimate nonsense generator—it's also a powerful tool students and teachers can't afford to ignore. In this episode, professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West reveal how their new "BS Machines" curriculum helps the next generation stay sharp and skeptical in a world overflowing with synthetic "facts."
Interview with Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West
Warner Bros. Discovery Sues AI Giant Midjourney for Copyright Infringement In Major Legal Battle
AI Watchdog
At Least 15 Million YouTube Videos Have Been Snatched by AI Companies
Most Scraped Websites of 2025
AI surveillance should be banned while there is still time.
Alterego
I Hate My Friend
R-Zero: Self-Evolving Reasoning LLM from Zero Data
AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton says a girlfriend once broke up with him using a chatbot
Business Insider yanked 40 essays with suspect bylines. Are they related?
OpenAI's post on the paper
Gina Trappani starts a new blog
Schnitzel press
NFL Debut on YouTube Draws 17.3 Million
Set a two TikTok toilet limit to reduce haemorrhoid risk, doctors advise"
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau
Co-Host: Harper Reed
Guests: Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West
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2:43:11
IM 835: Glitch Lord - Inside OpenAI's Secret Struggles and the 'Empire of AI' With Karen Hao
Go behind the curtain at OpenAI as bestselling author Karen Hao shares stories of infighting, ego, and shifting agendas. Find out why even OpenAI's security had her face on alert during her investigation.
Karen Hao reveals OpenAI's secretive culture and early ambitions
OpenAI's shifting leadership and transparency: from nonprofit roots to Big Tech power
Defining AGI: moving goalposts, internal rifts, and philosophy debates
OpenAI's founders dissected: Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever's styles and motives
Critiquing the AI industry's resource grabs and "AI imperialism"
How commercialization narrowed AI research and the dominance of transformers
China's AI threat as Silicon Valley's favorite justification, debunked
Karen Hao details reporting process and boardroom chaos at OpenAI
GPT-5 skepticism: raised expectations, lackluster reality, and demo fatigue
Karen Hao's bottom line: AI's current trajectory isn't inevitable — pushback is needed
Harper Reed shares vibe coding workflows using Claude Code
AI commoditization—why all major models start to feel the same
Western vs. Chinese open-source models and global AI power shifts
Google antitrust ruling: AI's rise dissolves traditional search monopoly
"Algorithm movies" spark debate over art, entertainment, and AI's creative impact
Meta's AI talent grab backfires amid exits and cash-fueled drama
Anthropic's "historic" author settlement likely cements fair use for AI training
DIY facial recognition: Citizen activists unmask ICE using AI tools
Picks: Byte Magazine's 50th, AI werewolf games, Berghain bouncer AI test, and arthouse film
"Perfect Days"
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Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau
Co-Host: Harper Reed
Guest: Karen Hao
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2:44:34
IM 834: Gewgaw - Google's Nano Banana Model
Interview with M.G. Siegler.
Google improves Gemini AI image editing with "Nano Banana" model.
THIS is why large language models can understand the world.
Building a16z's personal AI workstation with four NVIDIA RTX 6000 Pro Blackwell Max-Q GPUs.
Elon Musk says xAI has open sourced Grok 2.5.
Google says it dropped the energy cost of AI queries by 33x in one year.
We must build AI for people; not to be a person.
AI "deadbots" are persuasive — and researchers say they're primed for monetization.
AI robots are helping South Korea's seniors feel less alone.
College student's "time travel" AI experiment accidentally outputs real 1834 history.
Forget Uber Eats—Chipotle's latest delivery option might shock you.
There are two types of dishwasher people.
Would you go on a tour of your local Amazon warehouse?
Perplexity has cooked up a new way to pay publishers for their content.
Wired and Business Insider remove articles by AI-generated "freelancer".
The South Slope Derby.
Checking in on the Internet Roadtrip.
TikTok.
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau
Guest: M.G. Siegler
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The 21st Century began with the rise of the Internet and social media. The next decade will mark the rise of the Intelligent Machines. AI will inhabit all our devices from cars and appliances to smart phones and robots. The Intelligent Machines podcast explores the most exciting revolution humanity has ever seen, filled with promise and peril. More than ever we need to understand what these new devices will bring to our lives and how to make best use of them as the 21st century unfolds. On this show you'll meet the AI pioneers, inventors, and innovators who are about to disrupt every aspect of modern life. You'll learn what's real and what's hype, and you'll come away with a deep understanding of the intelligent future that awaits us all.
Records live every Wednesday at 5:00pm Eastern / 2:00pm Pacific / 21:00 UTC.
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