IM 839: Cogsuckers and Clankers - Radio's New Golden Age or Apocalypse?

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 Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: fieldofgreens.com Promo Code "IM" zscaler.com/security pantheon.io

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 Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: pantheon.io threatlocker.com/twit

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 Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: Melissa.com/twit spaceship.com/twit

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" Get "Empire of AI" (Amazon Affiliate): https://amzn.to/4lRra9h Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Co-Host: Harper Reed Guest: Karen Hao Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: threatlocker.com/twit monarchmoney.com with code IM helixsleep.com/twit pantheon.io

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 Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: helixsleep.com/twit zscaler.com/security pantheon.io