The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat

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This week we dig into the ways chatbots are starting to manipulate us, including ChatGPT’s sycophantic update, Meta’s digital companionship turn and a secret experiment run on Reddit users. Then Kevin reports back from the unveiling of a new eye-scanning orb. And finally, we’re joined by PJ Vogt for a brand-new segment called Group Chat Chat.

Tickets to “Hard Fork Live” on June 24 are sold out. You can join the wait list here to be alerted if additional tickets become available.

Guest:

• PJ Vogt, host of the podcast “Search Engine”

Additional Reading:

• Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex With Users — Even Children

• Reddit Issuing ‘Formal Legal Demands’ Against Researchers Who Conducted Secret A.I. Experiment on Users

• The Group Chats That Changed America

• The Ice Bucket Challenge Worked. Why Not Try It Again?

Credits

“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones and Rachel Cohn. This episode was edited by Matt Collette. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Diane Wong and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado. Our executive producer is Jen Poyant.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Dahlia Haddad and Jeffrey Miranda.