Let’s look at a couple of new podcasts looking at technology (and its pitfalls)
Black Box, a compelling new podcast by The Guardian, looks at the rise of its artificial intelligence and its unintended consequences. It starts by looking at the life of Geoffrey Hinton, a celebrated computer scientist who with researchers developed a ‘brain’ so powerful and complex even they can’t understand how it works (don’t listen to this directly before going to bed.) The second episode, which was released earlier this week, looks at the disturbing rise of porn deep fakes and who might be behind them.
Meanwhile podcast publisher Tortoise has a new series called Who Trolled Amber?, looking at an orchestrated online hate campaign that ran against Amber Heard during the Depp v Heard trial. Narrated by Alexi Monstrous, behind the viral Hoaxed and Sweet Bobby series, investigates who could be behind it and why. And you should know, this is not a celebrity podcast, but rather a thoughtful investigation into how our opinions on other people and issues could be swayed without us even knowing. Three episodes are available to listen to, with early access to the others if you are subscribers to Tortoise+.