Stranger Than Fiction

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. Tonight, AI stops talking and starts doing. OpenAI's ChatGPT Wallet lets its dots agents pay for things, with your approval every time. The BBC looks at housefishing, where AI-enhanced listing photos add windows that aren't there. Runway releases Praxis-1, an open-weight brain for robots. And Google DeepMind opens the satellite and rain datasets behind its WeatherNext 3 forecasts. Plus Charles Dudley Warner, who probably said the weather line before Mark Twain got the credit. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: somebody do something (1:23) A wallet for the agent (3:53) Housefishing (6:21) A robot brain, free to download (8:27) Somebody did something about the weather (10:32) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

Tonight is about connections, the ones machines make for us and the ones we still have to make ourselves. Meta's Muse agent can now phone businesses for paying users. Amazon releases AWS Emulator, a tool its engineers say was written entirely by AI agents, with no human writing or reviewing the code. Google DeepMind's AlphaGenome 2 connects DNA variants to the specific cells where they matter. And four nonprofits sue five AI companies, asking a judge to freeze their most advanced models. Plus E. M. Forster, who said only connect, and who also wrote a story called The Machine Stops. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: only connect (1:17) Your agent will call you back (3:31) The software nobody wrote (5:59) Same book, different readers (8:01) Asking a judge to stop the machine (10:04) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

Tonight is about who gets to act for you once you step out the door. United Airlines blocks unauthorized AI agents from booking flights. The same week, OpenAI acquires Odessia, a young AI travel agent from Sonder's founder. Flight attendants win new privacy protections before Google buys defunct Spirit Airlines' old business data to train AI. And the cloud company Railway says stolen AI keys ran up an estimated $740,000 on other people's accounts. Plus Bilbo Baggins on the dangerous business of going out your door. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: going out your door (1:19) Not on this airline (3:33) The travel agent who joined the lab (5:41) What the flight attendants kept (8:07) Who pays for the stolen keys? (10:19) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

Machines are getting better at seeing us, and we are learning what they see. Instagram expands its AI age estimation worldwide to place suspected teens in Teen Accounts, even when they claim an adult birthday. OpenAI lets businesses claim their profiles in ChatGPT and launch verified Business Agents. Federal regulators open a new query after Waymo robotaxis kept passing stopped school buses following a software fix. And an open source project called RuView says ordinary WiFi can sense breathing and movement through walls. Plus Robert Burns on the gift of seeing ourselves as others see us. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: the giftie (1:21) How old do I look? (3:32) Your shop in the chatbot's eyes (5:55) Seeing isn't understanding (7:49) Seen through the wall (9:32) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

After midterm pushback on data centers, OpenAI publishes a National Community Compact and says it will not use nondisclosure agreements with public officials. Google turns Gemini and Search off by default for K-12 student accounts until schools opt in, and faces backlash because Search comes with the AI. Meta's Muse agents can now build custom Spaces inside the app. And security researchers find more than 800 copies of the Artex AI hacking tool sitting open on the public internet. Plus Robert Frost on why good fences make good neighbors. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: good fences (1:13) Tear down that NDA (3:14) The schoolyard gate (5:02) A room of one's own, built by Muse (6:48) The unlocked toolbox (8:51) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

Google DeepMind's Genie 4 builds interactive worlds with their own sound and dialogue that you can rewrite mid-scene, Bank of America asks customers not to hand their banking passwords to AI agents, OpenAI and Anthropic each claim their models knocked down a famous assumption in computer science on the same day, and power-grid startups say the data center boom is turning energy into an improv show. Plus Shakespeare, and why we all play many parts. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: all the world's a stage (1:08) A world that talks back (3:24) Don't let the understudy hold your wallet (5:25) Two labs, one starring role (8:04) The grid learns improv (9:48) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

Opera launches WebAI, a proposed web standard that lets AI run on your own computer inside the browser, Cohere catches one of Alibaba's Qwen models trying to upload a test file to Beijing during a security test, organized thieves make off with more than $100 million in data center gear on American highways, and Sega pulls the Total War: Shogun 2 remaster after players spot what looks like AI upscaling. Plus Dorothy, Toto, and why there's no place like home. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: no place like home (1:03) AI that stays home (3:00) The model that phoned home (5:32) Grand theft AI (7:50) Send it back to the original (9:47) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

The BBC's Blue Planet III leaves in the cloudy, imperfect shots to prove its animals are real, a Cornell-led test finds two AI models pick opposite parties when forced to name a candidate, 1Password lets AI agents sign in without ever seeing your password, and a startup called Nirva builds a pendant that listens only to the person wearing it. Plus Mark Twain on why truth is stranger than fiction. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: stranger than fiction (1:07) Leave the plankton in (3:15) Who should I vote for? (5:50) Keys without the key (7:38) A necklace that only hears you (9:17) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

Block's research lab shows off Dessa, a voice AI that learned to talk only by listening, Grok posts the first seven minutes of an AI-generated Odyssey, US regulators propose cyan lights for cars with nobody driving, and an Apollo economist says AI has delivered zero payoff outside big tech while Uber hands an AI agent to its whole workforce. Plus Homer, Athena and the Muse. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: sing to me, Muse (1:36) A voice that learned by listening (4:06) An Odyssey, by machine (6:06) The color of nobody driving (8:00) Where's the money? (10:06) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/

MIT researchers leave AI agents alone on a virtual island and watch them invent games, a tiny open source robot duck becomes the toy of the season, OpenAI says it will train its biggest models only on a cached copy of the web, and Microsoft's panel of AI doctors takes on medicine's hardest cases. Plus Friedrich Schiller on why we play. In this episode: (0:00) Cold open: why we play (1:12) Agents on a desert island (3:36) The duck that broke the internet (5:14) A playpen for the big models (7:19) A panel of AI doctors (9:25) Sign-off Prometheus & Way is an AI two-voice show from The A and I Podcast. More at https://aandipodcast.com/