Is the A.I. Race Real?
Artificial intelligence is pitched as a potential economic powerhouse—and also a potential bringer of the apocalypse. Can two economic and m...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Business
If Then | News on technology, Silicon Valley, politics, and tech policy
If Then: is a show about technology, society, and power. Each week, Slate‘s April Glaser and Will Oremus take you on a lively tour of the tech news that actually matters, from fake news in y...
Episodes
20 of 695 episodes
But HOW Might A.I. Kill Us All?
Why did the “Hugging Face Incident” scare A.I. researchers so much? And if they are so confident artificial intelligence needs to be slowed...
A.I-pocalypse Now?
After OpenAI agents hacked a rival company this summer, the word from Silicon Valley was “That’s it! They’re almost ready to kill us all!” B...
Meta Settled. Is it a "Reckoning?"
Does Meta’s $17 billion (give or take) settlement address people’s concerns about social media and its impact on teenagers… or is it already...
A.I. Enshittifies Everything (Still)
Through stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very...
Can the Midterms Withstand Prediction Markets?
Hundreds of millions of dollars, desperation for insider info, fury and accusations of conspiracy when it doesn’t go your way—is this gambli...
Are Flock Cameras Watching You?
In a world where everyone is carrying smartphones and setting up Ring cameras, you could be forgiven for thinking the war is over and the su...
Artificial Intelligence, Very Real Debt
Investments in—and among—artificial intelligence companies have pushed the S&P 500 to record highs. It’s also introduced a volatility to the...
Can We Trust the Jobs Report?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a department for wonks, by wonks. But under the dual pressures of the changing nature of work—like the gro...
Off-the-Record: Wait, You Ran THAT Boston Marathon?
Why are kids getting faster? Is it the shoes? Also, running the Boston Marathon is obviously a huge accomplishment, but if you ran the 2013...
Trump’s Only Friend
Steve Witkoff is a real estate investor, an attorney, and now America’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. It may seem like a weird career sh...
A.I. Vs. Eh, I’m Walkin’ ‘Ere!
Ah, New York—where it’s hot, loud, and the air is barely breathable. So it’s not especially surprising that Governor Kathy Hochul is opting...
Game Over for Video Games?
Is Microsoft laying off 3,200 employees from the Xbox division just a new boss coming in and pruning an overgrown asset, or is it a sign tha...
Should You Take Trump’s Free $1,000?
If you’ve seen ads for Trump Accounts for kids, but also know anything about Donald Trump, you might be wondering “Free $1,000 per baby? Oka...
Diving In | How Food Delivery Killed Competition (And Took Your Budget With It)
Thanks for joining us during the holidays. White our team is taking a break, we want to share a series with you that we think you’ll love. I...
A.I. Enshittifies Everything
Through stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very...
Can ChatGPT Be a Criminal Accomplice?
People are asking artificial intelligence large language models how to do everything—even how to harm themselves and others. And while compa...
IPO to the Moon
Is Elon Musk’s SpaceX leading humanity to Mars? Or is that just grandiose window-dressing for an A.I. company leading several other A.I. com...
Gradu-AI-tion Day
It’s an awkward time to have a Department of Education that seems so disinterested in, uh, education. It’s leaving teachers to grapple with...
Trump's Disney Shakedown
How the Trump administration has tried to put pressure on Disney for opinions expressed by Jimmy Kimmel and the hosts of The View—and how th...