The Pentagon vs. Anthropic + An A.I. Agent Slandered Me + Hot Mess Express
2/20/20261 hr 4 min
This week, Anthropic is refusing to let the government use the company’s technology for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. In response, the Pentagon is threatening to cut business ties and declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk.” Who will blink first? Then, Scott Shambaugh joins us to tell the strange tale of the autonomous A.I. agent that wrote a hit piece about him. And finally, the Hot Mess Express returns to the station.
Guest:
- Scott Shambaugh, engineer and writer of “An A.I. Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me”
Additional Reading:
- Defense Department and Anthropic Square Off in Dispute Over A.I. Safety
- Ring Cancels Its Partnership With Flock Safety After Surveillance Backlash
- Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
- Japan’s Largest Toilet Maker Is Undervalued A.I. Play, Says Activist Investor
- ‘It Is 35 Degrees’: Outrage as Aussie Uber Driver Charges $5 to Turn on Air Conditioning Unit During Heatwave
- Meta Patented an A.I. That Lets You Keep Posting From Beyond the Grave
- I Tried RentAHuman, Where A.I. Agents Hired Me to Hype Their A.I. Start-Ups
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. 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.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
Most all-in-one HR systems are a patchwork of disconnected and manual tools. Rippling is totally automated. If you promote an employee, Rippling can automatically handle necessary updates, from payroll taxes and provisioning new app permissions, to assigning required manager training. That's why Rippling is the number one rated human capital management suite on G2, Trust Radius, and Gartner. If you're ready to run the backbone of your business on one unified platform, head to rippling.com/hardfork and sign up today. That's R-I-P-P-L-I-N-G.com/hardfork to sign up.
Kevin Roose· Host0:34
Well, you know, speaking of Kim Jong, have you heard about his successor?
Casey Newton· Host0:38
No.
Kevin Roose· Host0:39
Well, it appears that he is preparing to name his daughter, who we believe is just 13 years old, as his successor.
Casey Newton· Host0:46
Hmm.
Kevin Roose· Host0:46
And the reason that we know this is because state media has shown photos of the two of them, where she is walking in front of him and appears taller than him.
Casey Newton· Host0:56
Whoa!
Kevin Roose· Host0:56
And the thinking is, they would not do this unless they were prepping her to rule a country. So we are about to get the greatest sequel to The Princess Diaries- [laughing] ... of all time. [laughing] Imagine The Princess Diaries, but you are in charge of a nuclear state- [laughing] Yeah ... that is a global pariah.
Casey Newton· Host1:12
Yeah. I'll say it, I think 13 is too young to run a dictatorship.
Kevin Roose· Host1:16
Kevin, stop gatekeeping. [laughing] If, if it's old enough to look at Instagram Reels, you're- It's not!
Casey Newton· Host1:21
[laughing] [laughing] In Australia and several other places, it is not old enough to look at Instagram Reels.
Unknown speaker1:28
[laughing]