Another worry that had never entered my mind before listening is the future of the 17 million people worldwide whose call-centre jobs will be among the first to be comprehensively replaced? That jobs would be made defunct by AI was obvious to me, if only vaguely. But that they might all be on the same subcontinent feels disastrous.
I will also admit that I fell down a major podcast rabbit hole this week, as I experimented with Replika Pro, the chatbot referenced in Bot Love and Black Box. If you noted the “Pro” and raised an eyebrow, it was with good reason, is all I will say.
1. Shell Game
Evan Ratliff hosted the Shell Game podcast. Photo: courtesy of Evan Ratliff
In this six-episode series, which launched in July, investigative journalist Evan Ratliff has a whale of a time experimenting with a voice agent he creates by cloning his own voice and hooking it up to ChatGPT. He sets it loose on his wife, old friends and colleagues, scammers and therapists, both AI and human, and finds that some of the best conversations come from engaging other AIs – including a second AI version of himself. His findings somewhat reassure us that the robot overlord scenario may not be imminent but the volume of interactions made possible by the technology does throw up questions about how to deal with its increasing pervasiveness. Entertaining as well as mildly terrifying, this expertly put together series was self-funded so has the benefit of no advertisements.
2. Bot Love
Anna Oakes and Diego Senior hosted the seven-episode Bot Love podcast. Photo: courtesy of Radiotopia
This seven-episode series from Radiotopia presents real-life cases of people who have formed deep bonds with chatbots, exploring the nature of love and how convincingly AI companions can simulate meaningful relationships. It sounds laughable at first, then dangerous. After all, why would anyone say no to a partner who is great company, never has a bad day and is always there for you? Some users just want to take the edge off loneliness but others want something more specific, such as an AI version of their dead friend or partner to help with the grieving process. The mental-health implications are overwhelming, not least because of the relative ease and affordability of these services. Most eye-opening for me was understanding the gamification of chatbot interaction and how they are often designed to be addictive.
3. Black Box
Michael Safi was the host of Black Box podcast. Photo: courtesy of Guardian News & Media Limited
This six-episode series from The Guardian newspaper widens the lens further with seven more human stories to show how AI technology has been used, misused or even tragically not used at all. Falling in love with chatbots is covered, as is racial bias in facial recognition software and the disturbing rise of deep fakes. Deeply researched and well told, the whole series is a must-listen for anyone who wants a snapshot of where we are right now with AI. But make sure you keep a box of tissues handy during episode four, which introduces a man struggling to cope with his wife’s cancer diagnosis. Separately, we hear that AI-powered diagnostic tools, at least twice as accurate as current human-generated systems, are still being overlooked by hospital administrations because the technology reaches conclusions in “a black box” way, not fully understood by humans.
4. Syynth Sleuths
The crime podcast Syynth Sleuths was hosted by James Renner. Photo: courtesy of James Renner
The 12-episode Syynth Sleuths is another interesting AI experiment, conducted this time by journalist and true-crime novelist James Renner. With two other popular true-crime podcasts, Renner is no stranger to the unsolved cases he explores – from the Zodiac murders to the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle – but the twist is that Sky, his smart and sassy co-host, is a ChatGPT agent. Of course all “memory” of the chat is wiped between sessions, something that Renner gets around with a fix lifted from Adam Sandler’s 2004 romcom 50 First Dates, namely feeding her a summary of material covered thus far before hosting the next episode. The true-crime content, while well written, was definitely secondary to the AI presence, an intriguing idea that worked much better than I thought it could. Silly human that I am, I couldn’t help feeling a little anxious at the idea of turning Sky off for good at the end of the series.
5. AI for Humans
The podcast AI For Humans: Demystifying Artificial Intelligence for Everyone is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Gavin Purcell. Photo: courtesy of Kevin Pereira and Gavin Purcell
If listening to the last four recommendations brings you up to date with what’s happening in the AI world, AI For Humans is probably the most entertaining and digestible weekly podcast to keep you in the know. The hosts, Kevin Pereira and Gavin Purcell, have been friends for more than 20 years and have both made careers as tech nerds in show business: Purcell was a showrunner on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show while Pereira hosted much-loved Attack of the Show!, an American live-television programme about video games and pop culture. Their grown-up fan-boy ebullience means an unending array of their own AI experiments as well as a constant takedown of products that do not merit the accompanying hype. When they are impressed, then, it is worth taking note – as I did for the episode on OpenAI’s Sora, the mind-blowing text-to-video technology unveiled in February.
