Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines (#320)

What if AI becomes easier to talk to than another person?And what happens to us when it does?MIT professor Sherry Turkle has spent decades studying what technology does to the way we think, work, and love. Now she says there are two parts of our lives we should never let AI into.She discusses:Why ordinary conversation has started to feel like workThe surprising reason people may prefer talking to chatbotsHow AI will change what we expect from other peopleWhy “pretend empathy” may be more dangerous than it seemsWhat happens when relationships become frictionlessWhat it could mean for a child to have an AI friendWhether AI could make us worse at being with each otherThe question isn’t just what AI can do. It’s what AI may do to us.

Mark Cuban told people that television would eventually be delivered over the internet. Everybody thought he was an idiot.Now, Cuban is making another prediction that runs counter to what we all believe, but this time it's about A.I.Few people have made as many big bets across as many industries as Mark Cuban. The billionaire entrepreneur and investor has built businesses in technology and media, transformed the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, and is now taking on prescription drug companies with Cost Plus Drugs.He discusses:● What everyone may be getting wrong about AI● What he sees happening to jobs and where the real opportunity may be● The one thing he believes AI will never replace● How he decides whether a seemingly crazy idea is actually an opportunity● The quality he looks for after seeing thousands of entrepreneurs● The mistake incredibly smart people make again and again● Why one of his biggest decisions required him to become “the younger Mark Cuban” again● Why being wrong repeatedly may not matter nearly as much as we think● What success means to him now that money is no longer the measure● What he thinks most Americans still don’t understand about healthcareMark Cuban saw streaming coming and almost nobody believed him. What does he see now that the rest of us may be missing? 

What if the president can act before Congress has time to stop him?As former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, former General Counsel of the Department of Defense, and a member of the National Security Council, Jeh Johnson has advised presidents on war, terrorism, cyber threats, and some of the country’s most consequential national security decisions.He has seen what happens when the pressure to “do something” collides with incomplete intelligence, rapidly changing facts, political pressure, and enormous presidential power.He discusses:● Why “Mr. President, do something” can be dangerous advice● Why Congress has formally declared war in only five conflicts in U.S. history● How much military force a president can order without first going to Congress● What happens to constitutional checks and balances when weapons can strike in minutes● Why presidential power looks different from inside the Oval Office● What actually happens inside the Situation Room when the intelligence is incomplete and the stakes are enormous● The threat that worries him the mostThe Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. But modern military strikes and warfare can move extraordinarily fast. So who can stop a president from starting a war? Where are the limits on presidential power when a decision has to be made in minutes? And when the law leaves enormous discretion in the hands of one person, how much ultimately depends on that person’s judgment and restraint?

What if trying harder is sometimes exactly the wrong thing to do?Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania psychologist, MacArthur Fellow, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Grit, has spent years studying achievement. In her new book, Situated, she explores why perseverance alone isn't enough.She discusses:How Angela and her husband nearly “gritted” their way out of their marriageHow much your environment shapes who you becomeThe small change that can make good habits easierWhy parents may be asking the wrong question about their childrenHow peer pressure can become a force for goodWhether AI could make us worse at thinkingWhen changing your situation matters more than changing yourselfWe spend enormous energy trying to improve ourselves. Angela Duckworth asks a different question: what if the more important thing is to change what’s around us?

What can we do when doing the morally “right” thing produces worse outcomes?And what if some of society’s strongest moral instincts are preventing us from solving problems we all agree are terrible?Alvin Roth is a Stanford professor and Nobel Prize-winning economist whose work has helped redesign real-world systems, including kidney exchanges and the way doctors are matched with hospitals. His new book, Moral Economics, tackles a harder category of problems: markets and behaviors we find morally objectionable, even when banning them may create consequences we don’t want.He discusses:Why nearly 100,000 Americans can be waiting for a kidney What prohibitions of alcohol and heroin can teach us What happened when Rhode Island accidentally legalized indoor prostitutionWhether paying kidney donors could save lives without creating an ethically unacceptable marketWhy evidence becomes especially important when reasonable people disagree about moralityWhether performance-enhancing drugs could eventually become as ordinary as coffeeSome policies sound obviously right when judged by their intentions. But what happens when you judge them by their actual consequences?Roth pushes into the uncomfortable territory between those two questions: when banning something creates a black market, when changing a rule may save more lives than inventing a new technology, and what we should do when the outcome we believe is morally necessary turns out to be something we cannot actually achieve.

Could America build the world’s best AI and still lose the AI race?What if the biggest threat to America’s lead isn’t China’s technology, but our own fear of using it?Katrina Mulligan is Head of National Security Partnerships at OpenAI and previously served in senior roles at the Department of Defense, National Security Council, and Department of Justice. Few people have seen both Washington and frontier AI development from the inside.She argues that AI is no longer a technology question for the future. It is becoming core infrastructure for economic strength, national security, and the way we work.She discusses:●  Why America could win the race to AGI but lose on adoption●  Why trust in AI is dramatically higher in China and the developing world●  How China and the U.S. are taking fundamentally different approaches to AI●  Why AI may ultimately transform society as profoundly as electricity●  The biggest mistake leaders make when trying to adopt AI●  Why AI transformation cannot simply be delegated to the IT department●  How she has used AI to become at least 30% more effective at her own job●  Why using AI like a search engine means dramatically underestimating what it can doAmerica may currently have the advantage in building the most advanced AI.Katrina explains in today's 3 Takeaways™ conversation why that lead is far from guaranteed, how fear could become a strategic disadvantage, and why the countries and organizations that learn to redesign themselves around AI may ultimately have the most to gain.

What if your brain isn’t showing you the world as it truly is?Journalist, professor, and author of "A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness" Michael Pollan explores one of the deepest questions of all: why do we experience anything in the first place? He discusses:What consciousness actually isWhy the brain predicts reality instead of simply taking it inHow perception may be a kind of “controlled hallucination”Why we may see the world in the most useful way, not the most accurate wayWhat animals, plants, and AI reveal about consciousnessWhy feelings may be central to being consciousWhy attention may be one of our most precious resourcesHow social media and AI are putting consciousness under siegeWhy consciousness is something we may need to protect and cultivateThe world you see may feel solid, obvious, and real.But Michael Pollan explains why the experience of being conscious is far stranger, more fragile, and more mysterious than most of us realize.

Why would the world’s largest country risk everything to destroy a smaller neighbor?What is it about Ukraine that poses a greater threat to Vladimir Putin than any army?Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and The Atlantic writer Anne Applebaum has spent decades studying Russia, Ukraine, and authoritarian regimes. She argues that the war is being fought over far more than territory and that the outcome will reshape democracy, military power, and global politics.She discusses:● What Putin was really trying to prevent when he invaded Ukraine● Why nearly everyone underestimated the Ukrainian people● How architects, engineers, and entrepreneurs began reinventing modern warfare● What drones have revealed about the future of war● The first warning sign that a democracy is beginning to fail● How modern propaganda works without persuading anyone● Why leaders often become dramatically richer as democracy weakensThe maps don’t tell the whole story of this war.Anne Applebaum explains what’s actually at stake, why Putin hasn’t achieved what he expected, and what Ukraine may reveal about the hidden strengths of democracy.

How does someone steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and simply walk away? And how did an even more brazen crew rob the same museum in broad daylight last year with just a cherry picker and some power tools?The real stories are stranger than Hollywood and best-selling author Noah Charney knows them all. One of the world’s leading experts on art crime, he has advised museums, governments, and law enforcement agencies around the world.  It turns out that stealing priceless art is often surprisingly easy. It’s turning the art into money that’s nearly impossible.He explains:◼ How a thief had unwitting Louvre workers help him walk out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa◼ How a brazen team used a cherry picker, power tools, and high-visibility vests to rob the Louvre in broad daylight◼ Why most real art thieves are nothing like the elegant masterminds portrayed in movies◼ How Napoleon turned art looting into an organized instrument of empire◼ Why criminals steal art and how they get themselves apprehended◼ How movies, fiction, and even the media can unintentionally help art criminals

Artificial intelligence could change almost everything.John Hennessy thinks we're still asking the wrong questions.As Chairman of Alphabet and one of the pioneers of modern computing, Hennessy has helped shape some of the biggest technology revolutions of the past half century. He explains what today's AI can - and can’t - actually do, what would qualify as artificial general intelligence, and why the greatest impact of AI may come from amplifying human capability rather than replacing it.He discusses:The one capability that still separates humans from machines.What would have to happen before we can truly say we've reached artificial general intelligence (AGI).How AI could transform scientific discovery.The real risks that concern him most.Why leadership and human judgment may become even more valuable in the age of AI.How to prepare for a future where AI becomes part of almost every profession.Few people have witnessed as many computing revolutions as John Hennessy. This episode explores what the AI conversation is getting right - and what almost everyone is getting wrong.