A story about a device that charts the world through smell — and only smell. TAL producer Nancy Updike visits Cyrano Sciences in Pasadena, California, where researchers are creating an electronic nose. (11 minutes)
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Act Two: I Wish I Knew How to Force Quit You
Writer Simon Rich grapples with an A.I. chatbot that threatens to make him obsolete. (21 minutes)Excerpts from the audiobook edition of I am Code, written by code-davinci-002, edited by Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau, and Simon Rich; read by Werner Herzog, Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau, and Simon Rich, used with permission from Hachette Audio.I am Code © 2023 by Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau, and Simon Rich; ℗ 2023 by Hachette Audio.
Act One: First Contact
We’ve witnessed a revolution in A.I. since the public rollout of ChatGPT. Our Senior Editor David Kestenbaum thinks that even though there’s been a ton of coverage, there’s one thing people haven’t talked much about: have these machines gotten to the point that they’re starting to have something like human intelligence? Where they actually understand language and concepts, and can reason? He talks with scientists at Microsoft who’ve been trying to figure that out.
Act Two: Going Down With the Censorships
When to leave Twitter is a question lots of executives faced when Elon Musk took over the company — those who weren't immediately fired, anyway.
More by Nancy Updike
Act One: Dream Weevil
Kim Jong-Il loved movies, but hated all the movies made in North Korea. So he kidnapped a famous South Korean director and his ex-wife—a South Korean film star—locked them up in a villa in North Korea, and forced them to make movies for him. Nancy Updike tells the story.
Act Two: Dunk and Go Nuts
Producer Nancy Updike talks to her friend Mary Conway about the strangest-looking trophy she got in her years playing basketball.
Act One: Finally
We start with someone getting up the nerve to do something that really, it would be nice to see more often — an apology.