What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future
by Slate Podcasts
Latest episode
Inside Jensen Huang’s Ouster
Inside Jensen Huang’s Ouster
About this podcast
Every Friday, Slate’s popular daily news podcast What Next brings you TBD, a clear-eyed look into the future. From fake news to fake meat, algorithms to augmented reality, Lizzie O’Leary is your guide to the tech industry and the world it’s creating for us to live in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 702 episodes
- Inside Jensen Huang’s Ouster · 31 minBetween the midterm elections and the ouster of Jensen Huang from Nvidia, the future of artificial intelligence—including how it will be regulated and who gets to participate—has…
- The Midterms Techlash · 29 minAs an electoral issue during the midterms, artificial intelligence was tied up with money in politics, with industry and government in cahoots, and with data centers feeling…
- The First Real A.I. Test · 33 minWhat is AGI—and is it crazy to say it’s already here? Anthropic’s targeted IPO valuation indicates that many don’t think it’s far off. Guest: Kevin Roose, author of “The AGI…
- When A.I. Regulates Itself · 36 minEveryone wants A.I. to be regulated—including the major A.I. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. There’s just one problem… they want to have a say in what regulation looks like…
- How Hormones Took Over Your Feed · 25 minPerimenopause’s journey from little-understood phase before menopause to the subject of every ad on social media for women of a certain age was quick—and impossible to imagine…
- The Making of Elon Musk · 39 minAn exchange of insults on X was all that director Alex Gibney got directly from the main character of his new documentary, “Musk.” But by interviewing his business partners…
- ChatGPT Doesn't Love You · 31 minA.I. large language models are prompt, attentive, positive and frictionless—in short, much easier to deal with than humans with their own needs, wants, and moods. But, as long as…
- Is the A.I. Race Real? · 28 minArtificial intelligence is pitched as a potential economic powerhouse—and also a potential bringer of the apocalypse. Can two economic and military rivals cooperate enough to…
- But HOW Might A.I. Kill Us All? · 30 minWhy did the “Hugging Face Incident” scare A.I. researchers so much? And if they are so confident artificial intelligence needs to be slowed down, why aren’t they slowing it down?…
- A.I-pocalypse Now? · 28 minAfter OpenAI agents hacked a rival company this summer, the word from Silicon Valley was “That’s it! They’re almost ready to kill us all!” But…are they? Really? Guest: Paul…
- Meta Settled. Is it a "Reckoning?" · 28 minDoes Meta’s $17 billion (give or take) settlement address people’s concerns about social media and its impact on teenagers… or is it already too late? Guest: Paresh Dave, senior…
- A.I. Enshittifies Everything (Still) · 33 minThrough stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very futuristic sounding problem. It may…
- Can the Midterms Withstand Prediction Markets? · 34 minHundreds of millions of dollars, desperation for insider info, fury and accusations of conspiracy when it doesn’t go your way—is this gambling or elections? Through the magic of…
- Are Flock Cameras Watching You? · 27 minIn a world where everyone is carrying smartphones and setting up Ring cameras, you could be forgiven for thinking the war is over and the surveillance state won. But Flock…
- Artificial Intelligence, Very Real Debt · 32 minInvestments in—and among—artificial intelligence companies have pushed the S&P 500 to record highs. It’s also introduced a volatility to the markets that may be unprecedented. Is…
- Can We Trust the Jobs Report? · 33 minThe Bureau of Labor Statistics is a department for wonks, by wonks. But under the dual pressures of the changing nature of work—like the growing gig economy—and an administration…
- Off-the-Record: Wait, You Ran THAT Boston Marathon? · 6 minWhy are kids getting faster? Is it the shoes? Also, running the Boston Marathon is obviously a huge accomplishment, but if you ran the 2013 Boston Marathon, you should lead with…
- Trump’s Only Friend · 24 minSteve Witkoff is a real estate investor, an attorney, and now America’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. It may seem like a weird career shift for Witkoff, but he’s such an…
- A.I. Vs. Eh, I’m Walkin’ ‘Ere! · 5 minAh, New York—where it’s hot, loud, and the air is barely breathable. So it’s not especially surprising that Governor Kathy Hochul is opting out of adding to all of that and…
- Game Over for Video Games? · 29 minIs Microsoft laying off 3,200 employees from the Xbox division just a new boss coming in and pruning an overgrown asset, or is it a sign that console gaming is coming to the end?…
- Should You Take Trump’s Free $1,000? · 21 minIf you’ve seen ads for Trump Accounts for kids, but also know anything about Donald Trump, you might be wondering “Free $1,000 per baby? Okay, what’s the catch?” It’s a classic…
- Diving In | How Food Delivery Killed Competition (And Took Your Budget With It) · 16 minThanks for joining us during the holidays. White our team is taking a break, we want to share a series with you that we think you’ll love. It’s called Diving In. Getting food…
- A.I. Enshittifies Everything · 32 minThrough stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very futuristic sounding problem. It may…
- Can ChatGPT Be a Criminal Accomplice? · 28 minPeople are asking artificial intelligence large language models how to do everything—even how to harm themselves and others. And while companies claim there are guardrails in…
- IPO to the Moon · 30 minIs Elon Musk’s SpaceX leading humanity to Mars? Or is that just grandiose window-dressing for an A.I. company leading several other A.I. companies to IPOs? Guest: Max Chafkin…
- Gradu-AI-tion Day · 26 minIt’s an awkward time to have a Department of Education that seems so disinterested in, uh, education. It’s leaving teachers to grapple with how to integrate artificial…
- Trump's Disney Shakedown · 29 minHow the Trump administration has tried to put pressure on Disney for opinions expressed by Jimmy Kimmel and the hosts of The View—and how the Mouse is fighting back. Guest: Anna…
- Can Patreon Build a Better Internet? · 34 minThe promise of an “internet for niche communities” and “the empowered independent creator” has been taking a beating as the web has become less open and increasingly dominated by…
- TBD Tries…Roblox · 34 minUnder fire for what critics say is inadequate protection of its young user base, Roblox nevertheless remains incredibly popular. Are the company’s new ballyhooed protections up…
- Trump Visits the First World · 22 minBetween artificial intelligence, the Iran War, and the future of Taiwan, there’s a lot for the United States and China to hash out—not least of which being the pecking order…
- Does Anyone Like A.I.? · 32 minEveryone would probably hate A.I. less if we could just see some upside to it. But despite all the investment—into the companies, into infrastructure like data centers, so much…
- Buy Your Flights Now · 21 minThe not-always-beloved-but-indisputably-useful Spirit Airlines has given up the ghost. What does this mean for the airline industry and your summer travel plans? Guest: Will…
- Big Tech’s Climate Fight…on Pause? · 23 minIn the early 2020s, Microsoft committed to buying 75 million tons of carbon removal—somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of the entire carbon removal market. But the company just…
- Musk v. Altman · 24 minThis week marks the beginning of the jury trial between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. There are massive implications for the A.I. industry here, but at the end of the day, the…
- How Mark Zuckerberg Finds Your Perfect Pair of Shoes · 23 minThe era of ads following you around the internet via cookies might be coming to an end. What’s replacing it? Guest: Sara Fisher, Axios' media correspondent, and media analyst at…
- MAGA's A.I. Schism · 26 minIs artificial intelligence a blessing to all humanity, or a demon sent to lead us astray from God’s path? MAGA is choosing between two extremes. Guest: Kiera Butler, national…
- Iran's Memes Are Winning · 27 minThis very online administration is facing push back from Iran in their own home territory: the world of insipid memes, A.I. videos, and online mockery. Guest: Ali Breland, staff…
- Everyone Is Lying to You For Money · 35 minBack in the depths of the pandemic, what was an actor to do? Ben McKenzie started looking into cryptocurrency—and his research yielded both a book and a new documentary. The…
- Who is Sam Altman Anyway? · 31 minIf you had as much trouble getting along with other humans as Sam Altman does, you too might be eager to issue in the artificial intelligence revolution. Guest: Andrew Marantz…
- Why OpenAI Bought a Talk Show · 21 minAs OpenAI prepares for its IPO, the company decided to…pay millions of dollars for a tech talk show? Is this just what rich tech guys like Sam Altman are like now? Guest: Mike…
- TBD Tries... Vibe Coding · 31 minOne of artificial intelligence’s most hyped “abilities” is how it writes computer code. So much so that seemingly anyone can do it. So we figured… why not us? Guests: Greg…
- Why Everyone Is Freaking Out About Private Credit · 30 minIn the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, private credit or “shadow banking” grew as an alternative to the regulations and shared risk that institutional banks operate within…
- How to Rein in ICE and A.I. · 31 minArtificial intelligence is working its way into every aspect of our lives, including law and immigration enforcement, and the industry is spending millions of dollars to ensure…
- Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment · 24 minWhat YouTube and Meta’s loss in the “social media addiction trial” could mean for your feed. Guest: Ryan Mac, business and technology reporter for the New York Times. Want more…
- War Dot Com · 28 minWhy Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp views working with Western militaries not just as a business opportunity, but as a higher calling. Guest: Jacob Silverman, journalist…
- Hank Green Still Believes · 31 minHank Green recently pulled a “reverse OpenAI” - he took his education platform Complexly and made it a nonprofit. In a world where outrage, A.I. slop and “brain rot” are all…
- Why He Sued Roblox · 33 minA half dozen state attorneys general have sued the online gaming platform Roblox after multiple investigations found child predators on the site and more than 20 people were…
- Are We Ready for A.I. Warfare? · 26 minDrone warfare has evolved immensely since Ukraine. The use of artificial intelligence in combat has evolved just since Venezuela. Guest: Steven Feldstein, political scientist…
- Why Hollywood Is Afraid of the Paramount-WBD Deal · 26 minHow does Paramount, an old-guard studio and media institution, buying Warner Bros., another of the same, change the landscape in Hollywood, on cable, and in news? Guest: Julia…
- War in Iran, Shockwaves in Markets · 34 minWhen you’re sending troops to war, it seems like there are more important things to consider than how it will impact the stock market. However, it doesn’t seem coincidental that…
