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

‘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.

‘Hard Fork’ Live, Part 1: Satya Nadella and Cindy Cohn

This week and next, we’re bringing you recordings from our second-ever live taping in San Francisco. First, we sit down with Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, to hear what he’s maxing out his A.I. tokens on, why he’s skeptical that software developers will ever be fully replaced, and how he’s hoping to create a new business model for Xbox. Then, Phil Mohun tells us what it has been like to watch people in the Bay Area interact with two robot dogs that wear the faces of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. And finally, we talk with the longtime privacy defender Cindy Cohn about where things stand in the fight to protect internet users from digital surveillance by Big Tech and the government. Guests: * Satya Nadella [https://news.microsoft.com/source/exec/satya-nadella/], chairman and chief executive of Microsoft. * Phil Mohun [https://www.philmohun.com/], executive director of Node. * Cindy Cohn [https://www.eff.org/about/staff/cindy-cohn], former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and author of “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance.” Additional Reading: * Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella Says, ‘Everyone Is a Stakeholder’ in A.I. [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/technology/microsoft-satya-nadella-artificial-intelligence.html] * Node presents “Beeple: /Infinite_Loop” [https://nodefoundation.com/program/infinite-loop] 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.

Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT

SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are all racing to the public markets. We discuss what their I.P.O.s mean for the industry, charitable giving and anyone invested in an index fund. Then, more than 1,000 mathematicians signed a declaration this week raising concerns about the use of A.I. in their field. Author Kevin Hartnett joins to explain what the fuss is all about. And finally, we run through the biggest headlines of the week — including the new executive order on A.I. — in a round of HatGPT.   Guest: * Kevin Hartnett [https://kevinstenhartnett.com/], author of The Proof In the Code: How a Truth Machine is Transforming Math and AI [https://www.quantabooks.org/books/the-proof-in-the-code/] Additional Reading: * Anthropic Files to Go Public, Setting Stage for Huge I.P.O. [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/technology/anthropic-ipo.html] * As A.I. Makes Strides in Mathematics, Mathematicians Urge Caution [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/science/ai-mathematics-leiden-declaration.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share] * An SF Startup Is Secretly Testing Robots in Airbnbs, and Trashing Them, Lawsuit Claims [https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/28/sf-startup-secretly-testing-robots-airbnbs-trashing-lawsuit-claims/] * Trump Signs Executive Order Seeking Oversight of A.I. Models  [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/technology/trump-executive-order-ai.html] * U.S. Is Said to Be Investigating George Santos Over Kalshi Betting [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/us/politics/george-santos-investigation-prediction-markets.html] * Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked [https://www.404media.co/hackers-simply-asked-meta-ai-to-give-them-access-to-high-profile-instagram-accounts-it-worked/] * United Flight Forced to Turn Around Because of a Bluetooth Speaker Name [https://www.theverge.com/transportation/940486/united-flight-236-bluetooth-speaker-name-bomb] * ‘Survivor’ Boss Jeff Probst Says Kalshi and Polymarket Are ‘Incentivizing People to Lie, Cheat and Steal’; Kalshi Is Now Considering Measures to Prevent Spoilers [https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/survivor-jeff-probst-kalshi-polymarket-spoilers-1236757354/]   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.