Hard Fork

This week, we’re talking about the new A.I.-generated video tools and social media feeds from Google, Meta and OpenAI. Is this how A.I. is going to cure cancer? Then, the psychotherapist Gary Greenberg stops by to discuss his recent New Yorker essay about treating ChatGPT as a patient, and why what he saw left him unsettled. And finally, all aboard the Hot Mess Express! It’s time to rate the messiest stories in tech.   Guests: * Gary Greenberg [https://www.garygreenbergonline.com/], writer and psychotherapist   Additional Reading: * OpenAI Launches a Social Network [https://www.platformer.news/sora-2-hands-on-openai-social-network/] * OpenAI’s New Video App Is Jaw-Dropping (for Better and Worse) [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/technology/openai-sora-video-app.html] * Putting ChatGPT on the Couch [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/putting-chatgpt-on-the-couch] * What My Daughter Told ChatGPT Before She Took Her Life [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/opinion/chat-gpt-mental-health-suicide.html] * Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html] * YouTube Settles Trump Lawsuit Over Account Suspension for $24.5 Million [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/technology/youtube-trump-lawsuit-settlement.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]. 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.

This week, an eye-popping $100 billion deal between OpenAI and Nvidia — along with an announcement about the construction of five new American data centers — has us re-examining our predictions of an A.I. bubble. Then, we try to make sense of the Trump administration’s changes to the H-1B visa program, which generated mixed reactions from tech leaders; the immigration expert Jeremy Neufeld joins us to explain why the new $100,000 visa fee is likely to hurt start-ups, universities and the broader U.S. economy. And finally, we take a look at one of the latest trends sweeping TikTok: planning for a biblical Rapture. Guests: * Jeremy Neufeld [https://ifp.org/author/jeremy-neufeld/], director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress Additional Reading: * Nvidia to Invest $100 Billion in OpenAI [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/technology/nvidia-openai-100-billion-investment.html] * OpenAI to Join Tech Giants in Building 5 New Data Centers in U.S. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/technology/openai-data-centers-united-states.html] * $100,000 Per Employee: How the H-1B Visa Fee Could Reshape Work Forces [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/25/business/economy/h1b-visa-fee.html] * A $100,000 Per Worker Visa Fee Tips the Balance to Big Tech [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/technology/trump-h1b-visa-tech-start-ups.html] * The Rapture Was Predicted to Happen Today. TikTok Has Some Advice. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/us/rapture-tiktok-sept-23.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] 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.

This week, we discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk, freedom of speech and the terrifying new reality of extremely online violence. Then The Times’s David Yaffe-Bellany brings us inside the blockbuster New York Times investigation into a $2 billion investment in Trump’s crypto company World Liberty Financial and a controversial deal to send the most powerful A.I. chips to the United Arab Emirates. And finally, it’s time to round up This Week in A.I.   Guests: * David Yaffe-Bellany [https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-yaffe-bellany], New York Times technology reporter covering the crypto industry   Additional Reading: * Trump Administration Wields Its Full Toolbox to Bring Media to Heel [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/business/media/trump-kimmel-cancel-culture-free-speech.html] * Social Platforms Duck Blame for Inflaming Divisions Before Charlie Kirk’s Death [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/technology/charlie-kirk-meta-x-tiktok.html] * In Giant Deals, U.A.E. Got Chips, and Trump Team Got Crypto Riches [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chips-witkoff-world-liberty.html] * A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/technology/chatgpt-openai-suicide.html] * OpenAI’s Risky Step to Protect Teens [https://www.platformer.news/openai-teen-accounts-safety-senate-hearing/]   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.

Apple’s yearly iPhone event took place this week, and it left us asking, Is Apple losing the juice? We break down all the new products the company announced and discuss where it goes from here. Then, Eliezer Yudkowsky, one of the most fascinating people in A.I., has a new book coming out: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.” He joins us to make the case for why A.I. development should be shut down now, long before we reach superintelligence, and how he thinks that could happen. Guests: Eliezer Yudkowsky, founder of Machine Intelligence Research Institute and a co-author of “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” Additional Reading:  * A.I.’s Prophet of Doom Wants to Shut It All Down [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/technology/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-book.html] * AI as Normal Technology, revisited [https://www.platformer.news/ai-normal-technology-timelines-education/] * Apple’s misunderstood crossbody iPhone strap might be the best I’ve seen [https://www.theverge.com/report/775498/apple-iphone-crossbody-strap-magnetic-reaction]   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.

This week, we check in on the state of artificial intelligence in education. We talk with a co-founder of Alpha Schools, MacKenzie Price, about how her private K-12 schools are using A.I. to generate personalized lesson plans and enabling teachers to spend their time motivating rather than teaching students. Then, the Princeton historian D. Graham Burnett joins us to discuss the existential threat that A.I. poses to the traditional humanities degree and why he believes we’ll see thousands of new schools emerge outside the university system to carry on the exploration of what it means to be a person in the world. And finally, we hear directly from students who are on the front line of technological change. Guests: * MacKenzie Price [https://2hourlearning.com/founder/#:~:text=MacKenzie%20Price%2C%20Co%2DFounder%20of,for%20a%20change%20was%20now.], co-founder of Alpha Schools * D. Graham Burnett [https://history.princeton.edu/people/d-graham-burnett], historian of science and technology at Princeton University Additional Reading: * A.I.-Driven Education: Founded in Texas and Coming to a School Near You [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/us/politics/ai-alpha-school-austin-texas.html] * Will the Humanities Survive Artificial Intelligence? [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/will-the-humanities-survive-artificial-intelligence] * OpenAI and Microsoft Bankroll New A.I. Training for Teachers [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/technology/chatgpt-teachers-openai-microsoft.html] * Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/technology/chatgpt-openai-colleges.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]. 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.