logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2023
29m 28s

Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter

Financial Times
About this episode
tail spinning
Up next
Mar 4
Artificial intimacy: The AI therapist that ended a marriage
When Kirsty turned to a chatbot for help, she was feeling trapped and isolated. Something in her marriage wasn’t right - a constant feeling of tension that would sometimes erupt into arguments, even violence. When she asked ChatGPT for advice, it told her that her relationship wi ... Show More
31m 24s
Feb 25
Artificial intimacy: A teenager’s last conversation
Megan Garcia’s son Sewell died by suicide when he was just 14 years old. In the months leading up to his death he had been in a relationship with a chatbot on a platform called Character.ai. Megan was convinced it had something to do with his death, and set out to hold the compan ... Show More
34m 11s
Feb 18
Artificial intimacy: The delusion machine
Paul Hebert knew too much. He had to lie low in his house because OpenAI had identified him as a threat. At least, that’s what ChatGPT had told him. In this second episode of Artificial intimacy, FT technology reporter Cristina Criddle speaks to people whose sense of reality has ... Show More
33m 41s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter
<p>Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s destroying Twitter’s culture and driving it to bankruptcy. How much danger is the company really in? In the first episode in a n ... Show More
29m 28s
Jul 2023
Peak social media: The ads machine
<p>Mark Zuckerberg used advertising to turn Facebook into the first global social media giant, boasting 3bn users around the world. But today there are questions about the business model that has powered it for the past 15 years, and what Zuckerberg’s new focus on building the Me ... Show More
27m 5s
Jul 2023
Peak social media: The power of influencers
<p>Social media today is less about making friends and more about following popular content creators. While those creators are starting to hold some power over the platforms themselves, they’re also looking to become less reliant on the platforms that have enabled them to find fa ... Show More
26m 42s
Aug 2023
Peak social media: The future
<p>In the final episode of this Tech Tonic season, FT correspondents weigh in on the trends that will determine the future of social media. From Meta’s Threads to artificial intelligence, we ask how platforms will look and feel in years to come. The FT’s deputy Lex editor, host E ... Show More
21m 17s
Apr 2022
Spotlight — A Bigger Picture on Elon & Twitter
If Elon Musk owns Twitter, what are the risks and what are the opportunities? In order for Twitter to support democracy — and Musk’s goal of becoming a multi-planetary civilization — we need a radical redesign that goes beyond free speech. Note: this conversation was recorded on ... Show More
13m 42s
Jul 2023
Peak social media: The debate over young users’ mental health
<p>There’s a growing feeling that social media is bad for us: bad for society and bad for our wellbeing. That trend has culminated in a new wave of legislation in the United States aiming to address social media’s impact on young people’s mental health. But in this episode, Elain ... Show More
26m 13s
Apr 2022
Elon Musk Might Break Twitter. Maybe That's a Good Thing.
<p>If Elon Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter comes to fruition, the world’s richest person will own one of its most important communications platforms. Twitter might have a smaller user base than Facebook, Instagram and even Snapchat, but it shapes the dominant narratives in key ind ... Show More
1h 5m
Apr 2022
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover
Three major stories could change the way we get our news. The multi-million-dollar streaming service CNN+, once billed as the broadcaster’s future, has shut down after less than a month. Over in Silicon Valley, Elon Musk has signed a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. And the UK ha ... Show More
27m 50s
Oct 2022
Emergency Pod: Elon Musk Owns Twitter
<p>We look into the company’s weird new future with Times tech reporter Kate Conger. Plus, how Apple is single-handedly deciding the future of the digital economy, and a social media death watch. </p><p>Guest today:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/kate-conger">Kate ... Show More
56m 59s
Nov 2022
Elon’s Twitter is in the Sh*tter with Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel, Editor-in-Chief of The Verge and host of the Decoder podcast, talks with Jon about Elon Musk’s newest and thorniest business venture: purchasing Twitter. In a recent article, “Welcome to Hell, Elon,” Patel describes the quandary that awaits the Tesla founder and argu ... Show More
41m 33s