This column mentions AI.
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column → mention → AI
My fiancé works at Anthropic.
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fiancé → work → Anthropic
On Wednesday we announced Machine Gods.
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we → announce → Gods
It’s a new podcast from Kevin Roose and me, in partnership with NPR.
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It → ’ → NPR
If you enjoyed Hard Fork, we think you’ll enjoy this show, too.
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you → enjoy → show
And on the eve of Hard Fork’s final episode, I wanted to say a few words about the show we made at the New York Times and the one we hope to make with NPR.
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we → want → NPR
One of my favorite podcasting truisms comes from Search Engine’s PJ Vogt, whom I once heard say that you learn what your show is by making it.
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show → come → it
When Kevin and I pitched Hard Fork in 2021, Silicon Valley was in the throes of crypto mania, and we assumed that the podcast would cover the effort to rebuild our existing internet on the blockchain.
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podcast → pitch → blockchain
But by the time the show launched in the fall of 2022, crypto had already entered its decline.
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crypto → launch → decline
(One of the first episodes of Hard Fork chronicled the collapse of FTX.
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One → chronicle → FTX
I remain haunted by the fear that, had we started only a little bit earlier, Sam Bankman-Fried would have come on the show and beguiled us.)
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Fried → remain → us
As it so happened, though, a few weeks into our run, OpenAI launched ChatGPT.
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OpenAI → happen → ChatGPT
It did not take much time using the product for us to begin taking large language models and the companies building them extremely seriously.
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us → take → them
We began having executives of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other AI companies on the show regularly.
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executives → begin → show
And from the beginning, we quizzed them on how they planned to build their systems safely.
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they → quiz → systems
Four months into our run, my cohost’s long conversation with an unhinged version of Microsoft Bing captivated the world and brought AI safety discussions into the mainstream.
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conversation → captivate → mainstream
(It also drew a fair amount of ridicule, previewing the ways in which the commentariat would continually twist itself into pretzels to deny that anything important was happening with LLMs.)
And from there on out, Hard Fork went after the AI moment harder than any other story.
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Fork → draw → story
In addition to company executives and founders, we interviewed academic researchers, high school teachers, college professors, students, doctors, and other people whose work gave them an early taste of the disruptions that AI would bring.
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AI → interview → that
We tested early companion chatbots, tried our hand at vibe-coding, and spent a memorable afternoon in Google’s robot lab.
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We → test → lab
The more we talked about AI, the more people listened.
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people → talk → AI
And while we made room for other stories, for most of our run, the organizing principle of our show was to better understand AI.
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principle → make → AI
Making the show at the New York Times was amazing.
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Making → make → Times
As a daily reader of the paper since college, I was thrilled to be invited inside the building to collaborate with the dizzyingly talented people who work there.
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who → thrill → people
And people worked so, so hard on our show before it even launched.
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it → work → show
Kelly Doe and her design team came up with the show’s electric yellow-green color palette and pixelated, pictogram-heavy visual treatments.
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Doe → come → palette
Dan Powell wrote the perfect theme song, which more than a handful of listeners have sought me out to say they will miss.
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they → write → me
Paula Szuchman, who was running the entire Times audio department when we launched, woke up before dawn for the first several months of the show to edit each week’s episode and get it ready for publishing.
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it → run → publishing
The team that worked on the show each week was small, scrappy, and ferociously intelligent.
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that → work → show
Our founding producer, Davis Land, came up with our cold-open format and the idea that you should always hear someone laughing before you hear our theme song.
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you → come → song
Whitney Jones took our chaotic creative process and transformed it into something calmer and more sustainable.
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Jones → take → something
Rachel Cohn was an indefatigable voice for the audience, quick to highlight ideas that might bore, confuse, or annoy them — and reliably offered much better alternatives.
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that → highlight → alternatives
(We are thrilled that Rachel has joined us as a senior producer at Machine Gods.)
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Rachel → thrill → Gods
Jen Poyant, our first executive producer, was the sort of boss every creative person wants and so few get: asking all the right questions to help you understand the thing you wanted to make, and then clearing a wide lane for you to go do it.
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you → want → it
And when Jen moved on, we were so lucky to get to work with Vjeran Pavic, a colleague of mine for many years at The Verge, who successfully overhauled our approach to putting the show on video while also contributing his considerable expertise and passion for tech journalism.
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who → move → journalism
I’m forever grateful to these and so many other folks: Sam Dolnick for greenlighting our show and championing us throughout our run; Joy Robins for helping us grow the business; the crack Times events team who helped us produce two sold-out shows in San Francisco; and every reporter who came on to talk about their great journalism, to name only a few.
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who → ’m → few
I’m also grateful to Kevin, who was my casual work friend when all this started and who has now become my co-founder and something closer to a brother.
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who → ’m → brother
He indulges my good ideas and my bad ones; laughs at my jokes; and has my back when I’m flailing.
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I → indulge → back
Everyone in their working life deserves someone to support them the way Roose has supported me.
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Roose → work → me
I won’t let him read this on the air, but he really is very cool.
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he → let → air
One thing Kevin and I have in common is that we are steeped in Silicon Valley founder culture, and over time I have learned that it’s quite contagious.
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it → have → time
…and 52 more, not listed.
The Aporia
