This week Human vs. Machines is sharing an episode of Click Here, a podcast about the people and ideas shaping our digital world. In this episode, Click Here explores the latest generation of AI-enabled email scamming. It’s smarter, faster and can read like it’s coming from your boss. The only thing that might stop it? AI itself. More episodes are available at Click Here. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn...

In our final episode, Host Gary Marcus shares his hopes for and fears about an AI-driven future. On the one hand, AI could accelerate solutions to some of society’s most difficult problems; on the other, it could deepen existing problems and create new existential risks to humanity. Getting it right, Marcus emphasizes, depends on establishing both national and international standards for the industry as soon as possible. He is joined by Dr. Alondra Nelson, who led the White House Office of...

Some people use chatbots for therapy. Others have fallen in love with them. And some people argue that AI systems have become sentient and are entitled to certain rights. In this episode, Gary Marcus explores our relationship with AI technology —  how it’s changing and where it might lead. He speaks with Blake Lemoine, an engineer who believes that a Google program has achieved sentience and even has feelings, Eugenia Kuyda, the founder and CEO of Replika, Anna Oakes, a lead producer and...

The emergence of generative AI threatens to automate millions of jobs, potentially ushering in a new and unprecedented wave of job displacement. In the past, newly created jobs replaced those lost. Will that happen this time? To discuss this, Gary Marcus is joined by Amy Winter, a concept artist who sees generative AI as a threat to her career, Brian Merchant, the technology columnist for the Los Angeles Times and author of “Blood in the Machine: the Origins of the Rebellion against Big...

Misinformation has already influenced our elections, ruined reputations and fundamentally changed society’s relationship with the truth. Now, large language models like GPT have the potential to create and spread misinformation at a speed and scale we’ve never seen before. As new technologies allow bad actors to imitate the way we write, the way we speak and the way we appear in photos and videos, the question won’t be, ‘What we can believe in?’ but whether we’ll be able to believe in...

New large language models are capable of writing essays, drafting marketing pitches and having human-like exchanges on chat apps. But can they make us laugh the way a human can? To explore this, host Gary Marcus is joined by Dr. Naomi Saphra, an AI researcher and comedian, Bob Mankoff, former Cartoon Editor of The New Yorker magazine and Yejin Choi, a computer science professor at the University of Washington and 2022 MacArthur Fellow. While artificial intelligence systems can generate far...

We've been promised wide-scale driverless cars for more than a decade, but a true driverless experience still remains out of reach. It turns out that taking humans out of the loop is putting everyone on the road at risk. Host Gary Marcus talks to Cade Metz, a tech reporter for The New York Times and Dr. Missy Cummings, former senior safety advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to explore requirements that would make self-driving cars reliable and secure for everyone. ...

After its victory on Jeopardy, IBM made a billion-dollar bet on Watson: cancer. But it turned out that diagnosing patients isn’t the same as answering questions on a game show. Gary Marcus talks to journalists, doctors and computer scientists to find out how and why IBM’s experiment failed to live up to expectations, then looks at a new AI project that is showing promise at treating one of the world’s leading causes of hospital death.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy...

In 2011, Watson, a computer built by IBM, shocked the world by becoming the first non-human contestant to win Jeopardy. An immediate sensation, Watson became the symbol of the seemingly limitless horizons of artificial intelligence. Host Gary Marcus retells this amazing story with the help of Dave Ferrucci, the genius behind Watson’s success, and Ken Jennings, the all-time Jeopardy champion and the inspiration behind IBM’s project. A transcript of their conversation can be found at...

From the producers of The World as You’ll Know It, a new series about the perils and promise of artificial intelligence with cognitive scientist, Gary Marcus. For all the progress in artificial intelligence over the last 70 years — computers can now beat people at chess and Go, detect fraud, give driving instructions and write like Shakespeare — we still don’t know how to build AI we can trust. The risks are serious, but the potential benefits of AI are too great to be ignored. In this...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Matthew Johnson about the state of psychedelic research today and the likelihood that certain drugs — MDMA and psilocybin specifically — could soon be approved for the treatment of conditions like addiction and PTSD. Psychedelics have long been known for their abilities to alter perception, but renewed interest by major research institutions in psychedelics’ ability to treat a range of common disorders has brought some of them to the precipice of FDA...

One out of five Americans suffer from chronic pain and a new approach to treatment could transform their lives. Judith Warner speaks with Drs. Yoni Ashar and Tor Wager, neuroscientists who are at the forefront of a new way to understand and treat chronic pain that looks to the brain rather than the body as pain’s source. The treatment is relatively new, but growing rapidly in acceptance, thanks in part to a groundbreaking study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, about the failures in mental healthcare and how technology could be an important tool in addressing them.  DR. THOMAS INSEL was the head of the National Institute of Mental Health from 2002 to 2015, during which time he grew concerned about the lack of improvement in mental health outcomes despite great leaps forward in technology and brain science. He left for Silicon Valley, where, most recently, he founded...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a neurologist and professor at Harvard University, about the possible causes of and coming treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease. One of the most complex and mysterious diseases ever known, Alzheimer’s has been the focus of Dr. Tanzi’s professional life for forty years; in 1987 he co-discovered the first gene that causes early onset Alzheimer's as a graduate student.  DR. RUDOLPH TANZIi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. John Donoghue about recent advancements in brain computer interface, or BCI, a technology that allows paralyzed people to move and communicate through the power of their thoughts. DR. JOHN DONOGHUE, the H.M. Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University, has been a pioneer in the field of BCI research for over four decades, contributing to many of the breakthroughs that have made today’s progress possible. A transcript of their...

The last decade has seen astonishing advancements in brain science that have opened doors to new ways of treating trauma, depression, and pain. Each week, host Judith Warner talks to leading brain experts about how their research is making possible the kinds of things that, just a few years ago, might have seemed like science fiction. The World as You'll Know It returns for a third season on August 16. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit:...

Kurt Andersen speaks with economist and author, Mariana Mazzucato, about how governments should be proactive investors in and stewards of technological innovation in order to increase technology’s benefits for the common good.  MARIANA MAZZUCATO is a professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP).  She is the author of three books: The Entrepreneurial...

Kurt Andersen speaks with computer scientist Stuart Russell about the risks of machines reaching superintelligence and advancing beyond human control.  In order to  avoid this, Russel believes, we need to start over with AI and build machines that are uncertain about what humans want. STUART RUSSELL is a computer scientist and professor at University of California Berkeley. He is the author, most recently, of Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control. He has...

Kurt Andersen speaks with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and founding director of The School of Cybernetics, about how people adapt to changes in artificial intelligence and the way these technologies impact the way we live. GENEVIEVE BELL is an Australian anthropologist and the founding director of The School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University. She is also a Senior Fellow in the Advance research and development labs at Intel. A transcript of this episode is...

Kurt Andersen speaks with Roger McNamee, the author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, about the evolution of Facebook and other big tech companies, and what measures might be taken to curb their influence.      ROGER MCNAMEE is a buѕіnеѕѕmаn, іnvеѕtоr, vеnturе саріtаlіѕt, muѕісіаn and author. He іѕ thе fоundіng раrtnеr оf thе vеnturе саріtаl fіrm, Еlеvаtіоn Раrtnеrѕ, and the co-founder of the рrіvаtе еquіtу fіrm, Ѕіlvеr Lаkе Раrtnеrѕ. He was an early investor in Facebook,...

Host of this season’s The World as You’ll Know It, Kurt Andersen, speaks with Alison Gopnik, cognitive scientist, author, and professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley, about the way technology is shaping the way we think, learn and make decisions.  ALISON GOPNIK is a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley. Gopnik is a psychologist and cognitive scientist specializing in the study of children’s learning and development. She’s the author of...

Host of this season’s The World as You’ll Know It, Kurt Andersen, speaks with Sinan Aral, professor at MIT and author of “The Hype Machine,” about the promise and peril of social media, and the ways it tricks our brains into wanting more.  SINAN ARAL is the David Austin Professor of Management, Marketing, IT, and Data Science at MIT; director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; and head of MIT’s Social Analytics Lab. He is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the author of...

Technology is at an inflection point. Can we harness it to make life better...or will it harness us? Join Kurt Andersen as he and a world-class selection of thinkers explore this question as it pertains to our brains, our personal lives, our laws and our government. The World as You'll Know It returns for a second season on August 24th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week features two conversations. In the first, Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic for The New York Times, speaks to Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, Texas and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, about the housing crisis and the role cities play in national politics. Then Michael speaks with Janette Sadik-Khan, former Commissioner of New York City Department of Transportation, about how public transit can drive economic recovery in cities.  JULIAN CASTRO...