Black Box
Black Box

Black Box

The Guardian

Overview
Episodes

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At some point in the past few years, humanity collided with a new kind of intelligence. And things are getting strange. People are being accused of crimes by algorithms; falling in love with digital beings; pioneering new ways to fight old diseases; turning to machines for comfort in their worst moments, and using artificial intelligence to commit – and hide from – terrible crimes. The Guardian’s Michael Safi investigates the story of a technology so complex that its own creators have no idea what it is thinking, and captures a snapshot of the era when people first made contact with AI • Black Box has been selected as one of Apple Podcasts Favourites of 2024

Recent Episodes

Shut it down?
MAR 21, 2024
Shut it down?
For decades, Eliezer Yudkowsky has been trying to warn the world about the dangers of AI. And now people are finally listening to him. But is it too late?
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41 MIN
The white mask
MAR 18, 2024
The white mask
In January 2020, Robert Williams was arrested by Detroit police for a crime he had not committed. The officers were acting on a tip not from a witness or informant. In fact, not from a person at all
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36 MIN
Bing and I
MAR 14, 2024
Bing and I
Two stories about the way AI could – in fact, already is – making the world better. In Montana, when Lee Johnson discovered his wife, Yokie, had cancer, he turned to AI – and was surprised by the answers he got. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts Prof Regina Barzilay’s experience with cancer has led her to build an AI system that can detect the disease years before a human
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42 MIN
Repocalypse now
MAR 11, 2024
Repocalypse now
When Eugenia Kuyda created Replika, the AI companion app, she had no idea how popular it would become. The results were powerful … but so was the backlash
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34 MIN
The hunt for ClothOff: the deepfake porn app
MAR 7, 2024
The hunt for ClothOff: the deepfake porn app
For the past six months, Guardian journalist Michael Safi has been trying to find out who is behind an AI company that creates deepfakes. Deepfakes that are causing havoc around the world, with police and lawmakers baffled about how to deal with them. And in trying to answer one question, he has been left with a bigger one: is AI going to make it impossible to sort fact from fiction?
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45 MIN