Hard Fork

This week, the A.I. initial-public-offering race is heating up! We break down SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI, as well as OpenAI and Nvidia’s messy situationship. Then, it’s time for show and tell. We got our hands on the latest experimental A.I. prototype from Google called Project Genie, and we discuss our experience using it to generate and navigate video-game-like environments. Finally, we’re joined by Moltbook’s founder, Matt Schlicht, to discuss his new social media platform for A.I. agents, and how he’s planning to deal with security risks and spam on the site.
 
Guest:
Matt Schlicht, creator of Moltbook
 
Additional Reading: 
Elon Musk Merges SpaceX With His A.I. Start-Up xAI
The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice
Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds
An A.I. Pioneer Warns the Tech ‘Herd’ Is Marching Into a Dead End
Moltbook Mania Explained
 
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A Reddit-style web forum for A.I. agents has captured the attention of the tech world. According to the site, called Moltbook, more than 1.5 million agents have contributed to over 150,000 posts, making it the largest experiment to date of what happens when A.I. agents interact with each other. We discuss our favorite posts, how we’re thinking about the question of what is “real” on the site, and where we expect agents to go from here.
 
Additional Reading:
A Social Network for A.I. Bots Only. No Humans Allowed.
Five Ways of Thinking About Moltbook
 
We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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This week we’re talking about the tech industry’s response to the killings by federal agents in Minneapolis and the federal government’s strategy to control the narrative on social media. Then we follow Casey through his trial of a new open-source A.I. assistant called Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) and consider whether it is worth the security risk. And, finally, it’s time for a look at the rest of the week’s tech news with a round of HatGPT.

Additional Reading: 
False Posts and Altered Images Distort Views of Minnesota Shooting
A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti
It’s a War: Inside ICE’s Media Machine
Some Amazon Employees Get ‘Project Dawn’ Calendar Invitation Discussing Upcoming Job Cuts
TikTok Data Center Outage Triggers Trust Crisis for New U.S. Owners
Former FTX Crypto Executive Caroline Ellison Released From Federal Custody
Anthropic C.E.O.’s Grave Warning: A.I. Will “Test Us as a Species”
Inside the White House Screening for Amazon’s ‘Melania’ Doc
App for Quitting Porn Leaked Users’ Masturbation Habits
Alaska Student Arrested After Eating A.I.-Generated Art in Protest
Steak ’n Shake Adds $5 Million in Bitcoin Exposure, Deepening Bitcoin Commitment
SpaceX Weighs June I.P.O. Timed to Planetary Alignment and Elon Musk’s Birthday
LinkedIn Will Let You Show Off Your Vibe Coding Expertise
 
We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Ads are coming to ChatGPT’s free and low-cost subscription tiers. We explain what they’ll look like, why OpenAI is taking this approach and whether the company can court advertising dollars without compromising quality and user trust. Then, Amanda Askell, Anthropic’s in-house philosopher in charge of shaping Claude’s personality, joins us to discuss the company’s newly released “Claude Constitution” and what it takes to teach a chatbot to be good.

As a bonus, if you’re interested in learning how to get started with Claude Code, you can check out our tutorial on YouTube.

Guest:
Amanda Askell, a member of Anthropic’s technical staff

Additional Reading: 
OpenAI Starts Testing Ads in ChatGPT
Claude’s Constitution

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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This week, Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation,” returns to the show to discuss new research about how social media is harming teens and what it’s been like to become the face of a global movement against the platforms. Then, we asked what you were building with Claude Code, and you blew us away. We’ll share some of our favorite projects that you sent us. And finally, we’re joined by PJ Vogt, the host of “Search Engine,” to talk about our early adventures in the Forkiverse and what we’ve learned so far about running a social media network.
 
Guests:
Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation"
PJ Vogt, host of “Search Engine”
 
Additional Reading: 
Mountains of Evidence 
Meta’s Internal Research
An NYT Event in LA - Trump: The First Year of His Second Term
 
We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.