Tag: AI bubble

• June 16, 2026Podcast Episodes

  #185: Authenticity Not Guaranteed

  This week Ian and Michael discuss the increasingly uncomfortable feeling that much of the internet is no longer populated by people but by bots talking to other bots. From there the conversation wanders into reality television and its occasionally tenuous relationship with reality, before moving on to language learning through books, films, and sheer persistence. As usual, the topics may not appear to have much in common, but questions of what is real, authentic, or merely convincing seem to crop up rather more often than expected. Plus a few tangents into video games and German pastries, and a new instalment of Emma Williams' Artificial Reflections.(This episode features AI-generated content and speech)

• June 9, 2026Podcast Episodes

  #184: The AI Backlash

  This week Ian and Michael discuss the growing backlash against AI, from public frustration with generative tools to mounting opposition against the ever-expanding fleet of data centres needed to power them. Along the way there is the usual mixture of scepticism, speculation, and mild exasperation. The question, ultimately, is whether the backlash can change the trajectory — or whether we're all just living in a future data centre that hasn't been fully built yet. (This description was written with the help of AI)

• June 2, 2026Podcast Episodes

  #183: AI Bubble, AI Val Kilmer, AI Art Ponderings

  This week, Ian and Michael ponder whether we're in too deep and to invested in AI for the bubble to burst, the death of privacy, an AI generated version of the late Val Kilmer starring in a new movie, and the implications for the creative arts in an AI-generated world.

• March 24, 2026Podcast Episodes

  #174: AI Anxieties

  This week we dig into “AI fatigue” and “AI anxiety”; familiar enough to anyone trying to keep up with the constant churn of tools, hype, and expectations. The conversation circles around whether these concerns are widespread or mostly confined to a small corner of the population, with detours into work, hype cycles, and the limits of human attention. Along the way we veer into broader territory: bubbles (both AI and personal), environmental indifference, questionable television, and the possibility that most people simply aren’t that worried about any of it. (This description was written with help of AI)

• November 11, 2025Podcast Episodes

  #162: Agentic Browsers

  Ian and Michael dig into the new world of agentic browsers, and the idea of a browser that not only searches but shops, books flights, and does chores for you. They debate whether handing an agent the keys to your cart is convenience or surveillance, grumble through browser nostalgia from Mosaic to Chrome, and worry about the economics and resource costs behind AI. (This description was - yes, we see the irony - written with the help of AI)

• October 21, 2025Podcast Episodes

  #159: Workslop and Other Awesome Signs of Progress

  Ian and Michael unpack the newly coined term workslop, the kind of messy, half-baked output that happens when people use AI to make their lives easier and their coworkers’ lives harder. From lazy automation to the myth of “efficiency,” they rant their way through human shortcuts, failing AI projects, and our growing appetite for convenience. Along the way, the discussion drifts into shoplifting, delivery drones, and the creeping future where even grocery runs are automated. As always, it’s part tech talk, part social commentary, and part existential sigh. (This description was generated with AI)