Machine Gods

OpenAI has angered scientists (again) after its AI cracked three of the hardest problems in math, computer science, and physics. But researchers are pushing back on how the company is sharing the results, from proofs that are hard to verify to OpenAI handpicking who reviews them first. We break down what OpenAI is claiming, how its release process is changing, and what’s left for human scientists if AI keeps solving problems that stumped experts for decades. Then, in the first installment of Humans in the Loop, our new listener mailbag, we answer your questions: What do you tell a teenager who thinks AI is evil when your job requires you to use it? How do you shut down a rogue AI agent swarm? And is it ever OK to secretly change your partner’s ChatGPT settings? For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods. You can watch this full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple. And if you’ve got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected] See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has released the most detailed account of its business yet, as it prepares for its IPO. We break down the biggest surprises in its S-1 filing and explain what the numbers tell us about the AI bubble. Then, Signal President Meredith Whittaker joins us in the studio to discuss the existential threat facing private messaging and end-to-end encryption. Between governments demanding backdoor access to private conversations and AI agents that can see everything on our devices, she warns, “we are looking at the elimination of the possibility to provide privacy.” For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods. You can watch this full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple. And if you’ve got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected] See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Fired OpenAI safety researchers Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak give us their first interview since their dramatic dismissal. They take us inside the company during METR’s investigation into the Hugging Face hack, explain why OpenAI’s rebuttal doesn’t add up, and describe how the fight over AI safety is still playing out inside the company. Plus, we introduce our new segment, Pandora’s Box. Elon Musk wants to give every kid in America a SpaceX share, new filings in the OpenAI bugging case reveal the suspect’s chats with a Saudi royal, and more fresh horrors unleashed on us all by Silicon Valley. For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods. You can watch this full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple. And if you’ve got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected] See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

On the first episode of Machine Gods, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton ask: How worried should we be about rogue AI agents? After OpenAI’s Hugging Face breach, we discuss the first sighting of a rogue AI agent fleet linked to a Chinese AI company, Anthropic’s Claude sending a bogus homicide tip to Philadelphia police, and a new Anthropic report warning AI agents may be months away from self-replicating on smart TVs and other home devices. Then, who’s going to rein this in? We size up President Trump’s new Super Intelligence Force, the FTC subpoenas and EU AI Act investigations into OpenAI and Anthropic, and ask whether regulators are anywhere close to getting this right. And finally, Kevin investigates his sloppelganger. Someone made an AI-generated rip-off of his new book, The AGI Chronicles, and sold it on Amazon. Now he’s coming for them. For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods. You can watch this full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple. And if you’ve got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected] See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

The official podcast of the singularity. News, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the AI future. New episodes twice weekly starting the week of October 19th, wherever you get your podcasts and at youtube.com/@machinegodspod See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy