logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2024
1h 29m

Gemini's Culture War + Kara Swisher Burn...

The New York Times
About this episode

Warning: This episode contains strong language.

Google removed the ability to generate images of people from its Gemini chatbot. We talk about why, and about the brewing culture war over artificial intelligence. Then, did Kara Swisher start “Hard Fork”? We clear up some podcast drama and ask about her new book, “Burn Book.” And finally, the legal expert Daphne Keller tells us how the U.S. Supreme Court might rule on the most important First Amendment cases of the internet era, and what Star Trek and soy boys have to do with it.

Today’s guests:

  • Kara Swisher, tech journalist and Casey Newton’s former landlord
  • Daphne Keller, director of the program on platform regulation at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center

Additional Reading: 

We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com
Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Up next
Aug 22
Is This an A.I. Bubble? + Meta’s Missing Morals + TikTok Shock Slop
Note: This episode contains sexually explicit music.This week, the whole tech world seemed to be asking: Are we in an A.I. bubble? We’ll explore the cases for and against, including who we think stands to lose most. Then we’re joined by the journalist Jeff Horwitz to discuss his ... Show More
1h 6m
Aug 15
GPT-5 Backlash + Perplexity C.E.O. Aravind Srinivas on the Browser Wars + Hot Mess Express
OpenAI spent the week responding to outcry from users who miss the behavior of the old ChatGPT, before the latest flagship model was released.We discuss the criticism, why it caught the company by surprise and what it indicates about the deepening emotional relationships that peo ... Show More
1h 11m
Aug 8
GPT-5 Arrives, and We Try the New Alexa+
This week, OpenAI released its much-anticipated flagship model, GPT-5. We break down what we know about the upgrade, drawing from our initial testing and a special news briefing with Sam Altman. Then, we explain why we were underwhelmed by Amazon’s new Alexa+, which is powered by ... Show More
1h 12m
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2023
Feed Drop: AI Doomsday with Kara Swisher
There’s really no one better than veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher at challenging people to articulate their thinking. Tristan Harrris recently sat down with her for a wide ranging interview on AI risk. She even pressed Tristan on whether he is a doomsday prepper. It was so g ... Show More
55m 34s
Mar 2024
The Miseducation of Google’s A.I.
When Google released Gemini, a new chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, it quickly faced a backlash — and unleashed a fierce debate about whether A.I. should be guided by social values, and if so, whose values they should be.Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The Time ... Show More
30m 31s
Oct 2019
Recode Decode: "Antisocial" author Andrew Marantz
Andrew Marantz, a staff writer at the New Yorker, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno‑Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. He discusses the danger of designing social media platforms around emotional enga ... Show More
1h 7m
Dec 2023
Kara Swisher's Tech Tell-All
This week on The Enemies List, Rick is joined by tech journalism powerhouse Kara Swisher. Together, they discuss her much anticipated upcoming book, "Burn Book." She dives deep into the heart of the tech industry, shedding light on the colossal impact of titans like Steve Jobs, M ... Show More
32m 48s
Dec 2022
Casey Newton, Kara & Nayeema Talk Tech
From the high speed train wreck that is Twitter 2.0, to the extradition of a fallen crypto kingpin and AI that can rewrite your dating profile, there’s a lot happening in tech right now. Nayeema Raza moderates a conversation with Kara Swisher and Casey Newton, the founder and edi ... Show More
53m 12s
Apr 2018
Kara Swisher’s problem with men in tech
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg heads to Congress, one dogged tech reporter has some advice for Capitol Hill and the reporters who cover it: Take off the kid gloves when dealing with the Silicon Valley executive. “He’s one of the richest people on earth. He’s an adult. He’s 30-so ... Show More
30m 12s
Jan 2023
TWiT 911: You Toot Too, Right? - Twitter API fallout, Section 230, TikTok ban, tech layoffs, AmazonSmile RIP
Twitter API fallout, Section 230, TikTok ban, tech layoffs, AmazonSmile RIP Twitter's new developer terms ban third-party clients. Twitterrific: End of an Era. In Memory of Tweetbot. Extremely Hardcore. Looming Twitter interest payment leaves Elon Musk with unpalatable options. G ... Show More
2h 38m
Sep 2023
Code Drama, WGA Revisited, and The Taylor Swift Effect
After a headline-making Code Conference, Kara discusses her interview with Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter, and also talks about X CEO Linda Yaccarino's interview with CNBC Correspondent Julia Boorstin. Then, Scott addresses his critics and explains what ... Show More
56m 58s
Nov 2023
Superintelligent AI: The Utopians
If even AI companies are fretting about the existential threat that human-level AI poses, why are they building these machines in the first place? And as they press ahead, a debate is raging about how we regulate this emergent sector to keep it under control. In the second episod ... Show More
24m 48s
Jun 2023
Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter
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 new ... Show More
29m 28s