Hard Fork

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban TikTok if its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it off. We talk about why, what happens next, and how likely it is that the app will be banned. Then, how a photoshopped image of Kate Middleton undermines trust in photography. And finally, a new report reveals how your car may be tracking you without your knowledge — and how that might raise your insurance bill.

Today’s guest:

• Kashmir Hill, features writer at The New York Times

Additional Reading:

• What to Know About the TikTok Bill That the House Passed
• Even Photoshop Can’t Erase Royals’ Latest P.R. Blemish
• Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

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OpenAI responded to Elon Musk’s lawsuit this week, with a blog post that included emails dating to 2015. We talk about whether the lawsuit could have any impact on the company, and who stands to benefit from it. Then, will the European Union’s Digital Markets Act make the tech industry a more competitive environment for entrepreneurs? We look at how some of the biggest tech giants are changing their services to comply with the law. And finally, Kevin Roose and the Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern compare notes on using the Apple Vision Pro.

Today’s guest:

• Joanna Stern, Wall Street Journal Personal Tech columnist

Additional Reading:

• Open AI Says Elon Musk Tried to Merge It With Tesla
• Forced to Change: Tech Giants Bow to Global Onslaught of Rules
• One Month With Apple Vision Pro: In the Air, on a Train … in a Drawer

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Warning: This episode contains strong language.

Google removed the ability to generate images of people from its Gemini chatbot. We talk about why, and about the brewing culture war over artificial intelligence. Then, did Kara Swisher start “Hard Fork”? We clear up some podcast drama and ask about her new book, “Burn Book.” And finally, the legal expert Daphne Keller tells us how the U.S. Supreme Court might rule on the most important First Amendment cases of the internet era, and what Star Trek and soy boys have to do with it.

Today’s guests:

• Kara Swisher, tech journalist and Casey Newton’s former landlord
• Daphne Keller, director of the program on platform regulation at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center

Additional Reading:

• Google CEO calls AI tool’s controversial responses ‘completely unacceptable’
• Kara Swisher Is Not Here to Make Friends in Her New Memoir
• Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher
• Daphne Keller’s FAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].
Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

This week’s episode is a conversation with Demis Hassabis, the head of Google’s artificial intelligence division. We talk about Google’s latest A.I. models, Gemini and Gemma; the existential risks of artificial intelligence; his timelines for artificial general intelligence; and what he thinks the world will look like post-A.G.I.

Additional listening and reading:

• A.I. Could Solve Some of Humanity’s Hardest Problems. It Already Has.
• This interview was recorded on Wednesday. Since then, Google has temporarily suspended Gemini’s ability to generate images of humans, following criticism of images the chatbot generated of people of color in Nazi-era uniforms.
• Google Is Giving Away Some of the A.I. That Powers Chatbots

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

A year ago, a chatbot tried to break up Kevin Roose’s marriage. Ever since, chatbots haven’t been the same. We’ll tell you how. Then, we’ll talk through the latest ways the world is adapting to artificial intelligence. And finally, Aravind Srinivas, the chief executive of Perplexity, will discuss his company’s “answer engine,” a challenger to Google’s search engine that could reshape the web as we know it.

Today’s guest:

• Aravind Srinivas, chief executive of Perplexity

Additional Reading:

• The Year Chatbots Were Tamed
• OpenAI Gives ChatGPT a Better ‘Memory’
• Google Releases Gemini, an A.I.-Driven Chatbot and Voice Assistant
• Sam Altman Seeks Trillions of Dollars to Reshape Business of Chips and AI
• Lawmakers propose anti-nonconsensual AI porn bill after Taylor Swift controversy
• Sarah Silverman’s lawsuit against OpenAI partially dismissed
• Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? It Has for Me.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

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Bluesky, the Twitter spin-off, is now open for public sign-ups. Can its dreams of decentralization fix social media? We talk with CEO Jay Graber. Then, New York Times reporter Erin Griffith on how Adobe’s failed acquisition of Figma has spooked tech companies and upset Silicon Valley’s startup pipeline. And finally, updates on ancient scrolls and artificial intelligence, Google’s chatbots, and the fight between record companies and TikTok.

Today’s guests:

• Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky
• Erin Griffith, reporter for The New York Times

Additional Reading:

• What Is Bluesky and Why Are People Clamoring to Join It?
• After Its $20 Billion Windfall Evaporated, a Start-Up Picks Up the Pieces
• First passages of rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed
• Google Releases Gemini, an A.I.-Driven Chatbot and Voice Assistant
• Universal Music Group Pulls Songs From TikTok

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset is now for sale in stores. Will it live up to the hype? Kevin Roose and Casey Newton tried it out to see. Then, in a high-profile congressional hearing on child safety and social media, Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, made an apology to families of victims of online child abuse. Is new legislation on the horizon? And finally, what the collapse of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company, means for the future of self-driving cars.

Additional Reading:

• Apple readies its Vision
• ‘Your Product Is Killing People’: Tech Leaders Denounced Over Child Safety
• Cruise Says Hostility to Regulators Led to Grounding of Its Autonomous Cars

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

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Layoffs are hitting newsrooms and publishers again, as tech platforms, ad markets and artificial intelligence reshape the internet. Kevin Roose and Casey Newton have ideas for solutions. Then, one of the most influential investors in crypto companies lays out where the industry went wrong, and why he still thinks blockchains are the future. And finally, a round of HatGPT with the week’s tech headlines, including a spicy LinkedIn post and an A.I. test that disturbs Kevin and Casey’s sense of reality.

Today’s guest:

Chris Dixon, partner at Andreessen Horowitz

Additional Reading:

• Layoffs hit publishers including The Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated, while Pitchfork is being wrapped into GQ.
• “Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet,” by Chris Dixon
• Test Yourself: Which Faces Were Made by A.I.?

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

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OpenAI has released its plan to fight disinformation in elections in 2024, but will its policies be consequential compared to those of other generative A.I. companies? Then, a watershed moment had crypto fans celebrating for the first time in maybe more than a year. And finally, what one writer’s attempt to sell a used mechanical pencil on TikTok says about how the platform is changing.

Today’s guests:

• David Yaffe-Bellany covers the crypto industry for The New York Times
• John Herrman covers technology for New York Magazine

Additional Reading:

• How OpenAI is approaching 2024 worldwide elections
• $4 Billion of New Bitcoin Funds Change Hands in First Trading Day
• What I Learned Selling a Used Pencil on TikTok Shop

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Casey is taking his newsletter Platformer off Substack, as criticism over the company’s handling of pro-Nazi content grows. Then, The Wall Street Journal spoke with witnesses who said that Elon Musk had used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, worrying some directors and board members of his companies. And finally, how researchers found a new class of antibiotics with the help of an artificial intelligence algorithm used to win the board game Go.

Today’s guests:

• Kirsten Grind, enterprise reporter for The Wall Street Journal
• Felix Wong, postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T. and co-founder of Integrated Biosciences

Additional Reading:

• Why Platformer is leaving Substack.
• Elon Musk has used illegal drugs, worrying leaders at Tesla and SpaceX.
• Researchers have discovered a new class of antibiotics using A.I.

We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.