Hard Fork

The deadline for TikTok to sell or to face a ban is fast approaching. We discuss how Supreme Court justices — who opted on Friday to uphold the law — reacted to arguments in the case, whether the Chinese government might allow Elon Musk to buy the app, and why self-proclaimed TikTok refugees are rushing to a different Chinese app, called RedNote. Then, we talk with an A.I. industry insider about what we actually know about how bad artificial intelligence is for the environment. And finally, after Mark Zuckerberg’s recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Casey offers Kevin some ideas for how to bring more “masculine energy” to Meta.   Guest:  * Sasha Luccioni [https://www.sashaluccioni.com/], A.I and climate lead at Hugging Face.   Additional Reading:  * Supreme Court Backs Law Requiring TikTok to Be Sold or Banned [https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/17/us/tiktok-ban-supreme-court] * ‘Red Note,’ a Chinese App, Is Dominating Downloads, Thanks to TikTok Users [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/business/tiktok-rednote-xiaohongshu-app.html] * China Weighs Sale of TikTok US to Musk as a Possible Option [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-14/china-discusses-sale-of-tiktok-us-to-musk-as-one-possible-option] * Matter of Opinion Podcast: How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley Into Trump’s Arms [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/opinion/marc-andreessen-trump-silicon-valley.html]   We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com [hardfork@nytimes.com]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This week, Meta announced a series of content moderation changes that will transform the way the social media company’s platforms deal with misinformation and hate speech. We break down what these changes will mean for users and why the company seems to be caving to the right’s arguments on censorship. Then, we’ll explain why 2025 is already shaping up to be a huge year in A.I. — with models like OpenAI’s o3, Google’s Gemini 2.0 and DeepSeek, from China, stirring discussion that superintelligence is near. And finally, we play a round of HatGPT.   Additional Reading: * Meta Says It Will End Its Fact-Checking Program on Social Media Posts [https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/07/business/meta-fact-checking] * OpenAI Unveils New A.I. That Can ‘Reason’ Through Math and Science Problems [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/technology/openai-new-ai-math-science.html] * Netflix’s WWE investment and the Future of Live Events on the Platform [https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6035603/2025/01/05/netflix-wwe-raw-interview/] * MegaLag’s Video Investigation Into Honey [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4yL3YTwWk] * Los Angeles Man Is Trapped in Circling Waymo on Way to Airport: ‘Is Somebody Playing a Joke?’ [https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-05/los-angeles-man-trapped-in-circling-waymo-says-he-missed-his-flight-home]   We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com [hardfork@nytimes.com]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This week, it’s our yearly tech predictions. We’ll review what we got right and wrong about 2024, and tell you what we think is going to happen in 2025. Then we’ll discuss how we want to interact with tech in the new year. Plus, we’ll answer some of your listener questions. We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com [hardfork@nytimes.com]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Happy Holidays, everybody! We are off this week, but we wanted to bring you a recent episode from another New York Times podcast: The Wirecutter Show. It’s called “Kitchen Gear That Lasts a Lifetime (or Extremely Close)” and features Michael Sullivan, one of the senior staff writers on Wirecutter’s kitchen team. Michael walks through tips and tricks for finding kitchen gear that will last, what’s worth spending money on, what you can buy used and how to make cast iron last a lifetime.   We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com [hardfork@nytimes.com]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This week, we took a field trip to the Phoenix suburbs to see Amazon’s newest iteration of drone delivery service in action. We toured the facility where these drones are in operation, spoke with the vice president and general manager of Prime Air, David Carbon, and watched from a local backyard as our own order dropped from the sky. Guest: * David Carbon, vice president and general manager of Amazon Prime Air. We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com [hardfork@nytimes.com]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.