Do Social Media Bans Work? + A Conversation About A.I. Consciousness + Tool Time

Do Social Media Bans Work? + A Conversation About A.I. Consciousness + Tool Time

This week, with news that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Texas’ age verification law for app stores, we check in on how social media bans are going around the globe and what may be coming soon to a state near you. Then, we’re joined by Jeff Sebo, an associate professor at N.Y.U., to discuss new research into “A.I. welfare” and whether A.I. could ever become conscious. And finally, in our latest edition of Tool Time, we show each other some of the latest tech tools we’ve been experimenting with.   Guest: * Jeff Sebo [https://jeffsebo.net], associate professor and the director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at N.Y.U.   Additional Reading: * Why Social Media Bans Are Gaining Steam [https://www.platformer.news/social-media-bans-candice-odgers-haidt/] * Four in Five Under-16s in Australia Using Social Media Despite Ban, Study Shows [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/24/australia-under-16-social-media-ban-no-substantial-effects-study] * It Turns Out Banning Teens From Social Media Is Hard [https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/it-turns-out-banning-teens-from-social-media-is-hard.html] * Studying A.I. Welfare Empirically [https://nonhumanminds.org/studying-ai-welfare-empirically/] * A Global Workspace in Language Models [https://www.anthropic.com/research/global-workspace]   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]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher]. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fable Ban Reversed + Dr. Dana Suskind on Parenting With A.I. + Prediction Market Drama

This week, the Commerce Department lifted its restrictions on Anthropic’s powerful A.I. models, Claude Mythos and Claude Fable. We dissect why the government took such a hands-on approach in the first place, how the restriction on the OpenAI model GPT 5.6 is likely to resolve and what, if anything, this tells us about A.I. competition with China. Then, Dr. Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and the author of the forthcoming book “Human Raised,” stops by to discuss a framework she has developed to help parents make informed decisions about what kinds of A.I. products are safe for children. And finally, we introduce a new segment about prediction markets: Against All Odds. Guest: * Dr. Dana Suskind [https://humanraised.org/about-the-author/], founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago and author of the forthcoming book “Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity and Lifelong Learning in the Age of A.I.”   Additional Reading: * U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Anthropic’s Most Powerful A.I. Models [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/technology/us-lifts-restrictions-anthropic.html] * U.S. Bars Foreigners From Using Anthropic’s Most Advanced A.I. Models [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/technology/anthropic-mythos-fable5-blocked.html] * Chinese A.I. Models Close the Gap With Anthropic and OpenAI [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/technology/zai-china-artificial-intelligence-models.html] * The Donk-ing of a Truth Machine [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/business/donk-polymarket-prediction-markets.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tlA.dG28.6wbIdOocZNzV&smid=url-shar] * Mark Zuckerberg Directed Meta to Create a Prediction Markets App [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/technology/meta-prediction-markets-app.html] We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher]. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

‘The Daily’ and ‘The Opinions’: How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste

This week, we’re bringing you two A.I.-related stories from our colleagues at The New York Times. First, Rachel Abrams, a host of “The Daily,” talks with the Times reporter Eli Saslow about a woman in a remote part of Washington who is using an A.I. companion robot to keep her independence, and to keep her company. Then, the Times Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman talks to the New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka and the journalist and critic Sophie Haigney. They get into the rise of “taste slop” and what happens to culture if the internet collapses into just a few chatbots that serve us everything. “Hard Fork” will be back with an original episode next week.   Guests: * Eli Saslow [https://www.nytimes.com/by/eli-saslow], a reporter for The New York Times who writes in-depth stories about the impact of major national issues on people’s lives. * Kyle Chayka [https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/kyle-chayka], staff writer at The New Yorker covering technology and online culture. * Sophie Haigney [https://www.sophiehaigney.com/bio], a critic and journalist. Additional Reading: * Can A.I. Make People Feel Less Lonely? [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/podcasts/the-daily/ai-robot-elderly-loneliness.html] * What Silicon Valley Is Coming for Next [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/opinion/silicon-valley-ai-taste-culture.html] We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher]. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

‘Hard Fork’ Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future

We’re back with our final installment from Hard Fork Live, recorded at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. In this episode, we’re joined by Sayash Kapoor and Daniel Kokotajlo to talk about their differing visions of A.I. transformation: why Sayash thinks A.I. will diffuse throughout society like a “normal” technology, and why Daniel thinks an unprecedented acceleration is just around the corner. Then we’re joined by George Ekas from Toborlife AI, along with his dancing robot Toby. Finally, the podcaster Dwarkesh Patel drops by, and we take a few questions from the live audience.   Guests: * Sayash Kapoor [https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~sayashk/], an A.I. researcher at Princeton University and a co-author of the newsletter “AI as Normal Technology” * Daniel Kokotajlo [https://x.com/DKokotajlo], the executive director of the AI Futures Project and a co-author of “AI 2027” * George Ekas, the director of engineering at Toberlife AI * Dwarkesh Patel [https://www.dwarkesh.com/], a tech podcaster   Additional Reading: * This A.I. Forecast Predicts Storms Ahead [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/technology/ai-futures-project-ai-2027.html] * AI as Normal Technology [https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology] * Common Ground Between AI 2027 & AI as Normal Technology [https://asteriskmag.substack.com/p/common-ground-between-ai-2027-and] Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher]. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

‘Hard Fork’ Live, Part 2: Dylan Field on Standing Out in the A.I. Era

We’re back with more from our live event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. In this episode, we sit down with Dylan Field, a founder and the chief executive of the design company Figma, for what he describes as a “roller coaster” of a conversation. We cover everything from the company’s “Design Is Dead” campaign to the sudden resignation of the Anthropic executive Mike Krieger from Figma’s board. Then, we close things out with a special musical performance by eight wooden robotic dolls that make up the Teenage Engineering Choir. One quick correction to note: In our interview with Field, he makes reference to the SpaceX S-1 filing and misstates what the company says their addressable market for A.I. enterprise applications is. Field says “$22.9 trillion,” but the correct number from the SpaceX filing is $22.7 trillion. The decimal point makes it look small, but it’s a difference of $200 billion. We’ll be back on Friday with our final installment of “Hard Fork” Live.   Guests: * Dylan Field, [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/] chief executive and co-founder of Figma. * Dan Powell [https://www.nytimes.com/by/dan-powell], robot conductor, New York Times music composer and “Hard Fork” theme-song creator. * Teenage Engineering Choir [https://teenage.engineering/products/choir?srsltid=AfmBOoq1CKbYW4sSZ5zDMEX17U-Zbep_tmUCydfK1n9n-wSMuWL51MGM]   Additional Reading: * This Start-Up’s $20 Billion Sale Died. It Came Fighting Back. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/technology/figma-ipo.html]   We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/hardfork] and TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher]. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.