← Uncanny Valley | WIRED
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- [00:01]
A
Hey, it's Brian. Zoe, Leah and I have really enjoyed being your new host these past few weeks and we want to hear from you. If you like the show and have a minute, please leave us a review in the podcast or app of your choice. It really helps us reach more people. And for any questions and comments, you can always reach us@ uncannyvalleyired.com thank you for listening onto the show. How did everybody spend their three day weekend?
- [00:27]
B
Brian, I obviously saw Wuthering Heights.
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A
Obviously.
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B
Wait, was it really bad?
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C
I saw that post that was like, nope, everyone's wrong. Charlotte Bronte died from tuberculosis.
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B
Emily. This was an Emily Bronte joint. It was her only book.
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A
First of all, first of all, Zoe,
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C
I'm actually ashamed because this book was an important part of my early adulthood.
- [00:49]
B
When I first read this book at age 14, 15, whatever it was, I was like, this is trash. This is poorly written. The story is bad. It's jumping around time. Like, this is not good. This is. This is not. And I specifically remember talking to whatever teacher assigned it and I was like, you shouldn't assign bad books. It was a whole book.
- [01:06]
C
Leah was an editor even then.
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A
This is a lot of insight into middle school, Leah.
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B
Everyone's still working through it. Myself, my parents.
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A
None of it's surprising. None of it's surprising.
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C
But just she's like, I brought you another syllabus. Have you thought about this instead?
- [01:21]
B
Yes. All sounds great. Shout out to any teachers. Hopefully not listening to this show. But all to say, I went into this being like, I am here for Jacob Elordi and Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie alone. And like, these beautiful shots of the Moores. Who doesn't love a Misty Moore? Love a Moore. I love a Moore. It had nothing to do with the book, which is fantastic because like I said, the book was terrible and it was perfect. It was a perfect movie. They should win an award for set design.
- [01:50]
C
Okay, I'm just gonna say Leah speaks for herself. Uncanny Valley is not anti Wuthering Heights, the book. But we can move on.
- [01:58]
A
I am happy to be Switzerland in this situation. I have no feelings about Wuthering Heights.
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C
Welcome to Wired's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoe Schiffer, Director of Business and Industry.
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A
I'm Brian Barrett, Executive Editor.
- [02:11]
B
And I'm Leah Fiker, Senior Politics editor.
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C
Okay, so one thing that has been very much on my mind the past week, but honestly, it feels like the past year is that we keep seeing this trend of top researchers or, you know, researchers at the top AI companies resigning and Often quitting in these very, like, public ways. So last week, a former OpenAI researcher, Zoe Hitzig, wrote an op ed for the New York Times, basically saying that she was leaving the company because she had deep, deep reservations about how OpenAI was going to be rolling out ads. Did you guys see this op ed? I thought it was actually quite interesting.
- [02:57]
B
As we all know, AI is like, perhaps not my favorite topic. It's not the topic I gravitate towards in my news consumption, but I love gossip. I read this and was like, I need to know what Zoe thinks immediately. Because like you said, everyone's doing this. It's not enough to quit your job. It's not enough to have a cute little LinkedIn post anymore. You have to tell the entire world why your company is in fact going to ravage human existence altogether.
- [03:20]
C
Right? Right. But oftentimes I will leave it a little bit more mysterious. You'll see a long goodbye. Note that they obviously post on X or wherever else and they'll say like, I'm leaving because I couldn't follow my values or I couldn't, you know, it'll be something kind of vague. This one was not vague. This one was like, we are rolling out ads, we're prioritizing kind of the business model over these other values. And I'm uncomfortable with it. And one thing that I thought was cool is that Zoe actually offered solutions. So basically she laid out a couple options because she admits that, like, AI is very, very expensive. It makes sense to want to try and, you know, monetize it in some way to kind of offset the costs. And she was like, well, you know, a subsidy model could be an option. We could also have ads, but then also have like an independent oversight board. Lol. That's like, worked very well for meta.
- [04:18]
A
Well, the meta thing is really the direct comparison to Facebook I thought was really interesting in a lot of ways, both for what she explicitly says around, you know, their concerns, around. Trying to monetize user data in these sensitive spaces is a bad road to go down. Every social media platform has gone down this road. AI shouldn't do the same thing. It also, again, ring the bell. I get to say inshitification, again, which is less of her concern, but it is something where ads will inherently, I think, degrade this experience in a way, however safely or responsibly you put them in at first, if this is the way you're going, they're going to become more intrusive, they're going to become more reliant on these ads. So it is a combination of a worse experience for the user both in terms of their exposure and in terms of their actual day to day what they got out of this thing.
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B
I wonder if Anthropic's super bowl ad team is taking this as just like an entire win.
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C
So I was literally just going to say, you know, who agrees with Brian Barrett? Anthropic. Because they had a Super bowl ad that seemed to directly attack OpenAI on this very point.
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A
Hey, can I get a six pack quickly? Perfect. That is a clear and achievable goal. Would you like me to tailor a personalized workout plan? Yes. Perfect. Let me personalize this for you. Let's start with your age, weight and height. Whenever you're ready. 5, 7, 23 years old, 140 pounds. Got it. I'll create a plan that focuses on aesthetic strength training. But confidence isn't just built in the gym. Tri step boost Max the insoles that add one vertical inch of height and help short king stand tall. What use code HEIGHTMAXING10 for big discounts. Also a very sneaky way to get Anthropic to get wired. Uncanny Valley to run their ad.
- [06:22]
B
We did. We're not even getting paid for this.
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C
I thought that ad was really funny, personally.
- [06:27]
A
I'll say the same thing I said in Slack when Anthropic said that they weren't doing ads and they said they were in a super commercial, which is, I look forward to checking back on this in 18 months.
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C
100%. 100%.
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A
When they have completely either backtracked or have collapsed.
- [06:41]
C
Yeah, I feel like Anthropic is doing a couple things that we see happen on the Internet frequently and they always end badly. One is that it's like the content moderation run where every company starts out and they're like, we're for free speech. And then, oh my gosh, people start posting CSAM or illegal content or whatever and they're like, okay, okay, we're for free speech. But except for these things. And then like, you know, whatever. They all seem to end up in the very same place no matter how high minded they start out. It's like Anthropic is the good AI company in quotes. Like they've really positioned themselves as the one that is like never gonna, you know, roll out ads, never gonna, you know, let their AI be used in these bad use cases. And yet we see that they're fundraising from Gulf states. They are taking money like it's expensive to create this technology. And I think that when you Think, as many Anthropic leaders seem to, that AI is going to result in like it's going to be the tide that lifts all boats. Like you're willing to make compromises along the way to make that happen.
- [07:48]
B
Where do the people who leave these companies, either citing ethical concerns or internal squabbles, where are they going? Is this just like, are we just jumping ship actually to the ship right next door? Like, is there. What are the differences here that we're really looking at?
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A
I'm curious. There's always thoughts here. My impression is that it's a bit of a revolving door. You kind of just go to anthropic and then you leave anthropic and you go somewhere to superintelligent. You just keep hopping over to somewhere that has your quote unquote values until you feel like they don't anymore and then you just cash a check somewhere else. Is that fair to say?
- [08:24]
C
I think that that's basically it, yeah. I mean, I think researchers tend to come from academia and I think they more so than some of the other positions that we see at these companies, like they are very values driven people. They have a lot of ideals that they come in the door with. And then I think what it seems like is that they realize, oh shit, we're just working for a tech company. And that tech company, like I always thought it was very telling when people would say, well, meta puts profits over people.
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B
It's like, so does everyone.
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C
Yes, that is the definition of a for profit enterprise, publicly traded.
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B
Right.
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C
But you know, it's. It's also, I think fair to say that with AI companies, as with social media companies a decade ago, like the way that they talk about what they're doing is not in terms of just trying to make money for shareholders. It's, you know, a much loftier vision of what they're doing and why.
- [09:18]
B
Well, it's a claim that it's entirely mission driven. But even with that, didn't Anthropic have someone who left recently as well?
- [09:24]
C
That was one of those notes that was like very vague and we were like, okay, well what, I mean, every time this happens, I think Brian and me are both in Slack being like, can someone find out what's going on here? Like, what does it mean that you couldn't pursue your values at Anthropic?
- [09:36]
A
There's just so much drama inside these companies, both related to this and related to everything else. It is remarkable how much money they have to burn and how consequential their products are. Given the levels of dysfunction that we're seeing. And that's just what we know, right? And we know a lot because it's so dysfunctional, but, man, messy in there.
- [09:58]
C
I know. It's interesting because, you know, reportedly OpenAI is gearing up to go public in the next year. There's a lot that needs to happen behind the scenes for the company to be ready for that, to be ready for that level of scrutiny. But I think, like, you know, this is also, at least in terms of advertising, like, this is something that Fiji simo, who's the CEO of applications at OpenAI, has been really concerned with because she was brought over after she was the CEO of Instacart, but before that spent years and years at Meta working quite closely with Mark Zuckerberg. And people were really nervous when she joined OpenAI that, like, she was going to kind of run the Meta playbook, their little AI lab. I'm putting little in quotes, too. You knew, I spoke to her a few months ago. It sounded like she was trying to be quite thoughtful about this. But I think this is a point that both Fiji and OpenAI at large is, like, very sensitive about being the, like, bad AI company, being the one that's, like, you know, running at and shinification faster than its competitors. Like, I think Anthropic is kind of hitting it where it hurts with that ad. And so, frankly, is this researcher who penned the letter in the New York Times.
- [11:11]
A
And we're still just a few weeks or so away from OpenAI going to adult companionship with AI models. Right. Like, they're doing the Speedrun. Speaking of lofty goals in AI, I do want to ask Zoe and Leah, have you all heard of the website rentahuman?
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C
Unfortunately, yes.
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B
Yeah. And kind of. I didn't want to. I didn't want to know that our AI overlords had already figured out how to rent us. I mean, explain this further, please, Brian. But, like, that's. That's the gist of it, right? They figured out how to have us do their tasks for them.
- [11:47]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's. It's right there in the name. It's Rent a Human, and it's a site where AI agents can hire human beings to do all of those things in the real world that they can't do because they are AI. The tasks range from the ridiculous to the more ridiculous. Someone was offering. By someone, I mean, Some. It. Some AI agent was offering someone 30 bucks an hour to count pigeons in Washington D.C. another delivering CBD gummies for $75 an hour. All of this is just things, again, that a disembodied AI agent cannot do. There's still a human behind them who set up the agent in the first place, but then the agent pays the human to do the thing. There are 4 million visits on this site, over half a million users. And by users, I mean people who said, yes, please, I would like to do the bidding of a bot and get paid for it. And it's only growing from here.
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B
Rent me.
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A
Yeah, it's basically, if you're familiar with Fiverr, it's Fiverr, but with bots.
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C
But. Okay, we have to have a caveat in here, because the article lays out in meticulous detail how a lot of these jobs the writer was applying to them and not hearing back. When he actually got a job, it seemed like the job was just like a marketing ploy for an AI startup. Like, what is actually going on?
- [13:03]
A
Our colleague Rhys Rogers actually rented himself out as a human and wrote about it on Wired. And, yeah, his experience was exactly what you said. He had a hard time getting a gig to begin with. By the time he finally got one, it was transparently a marketing gig. Didn't get paid that much for it. He felt kind of used. I think part of that, though, is a function of so many humans want to do this. It's maybe not surprising that I think there's more humans that want to do this than bots that want to assign.
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C
Isn't this just about the state of the economy right now, though? I'm like, if we're thinking this is a new form of gig work and people want it as just, like, a way to make money on the side, is it not a sign that people are unable to find jobs in other areas?
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B
Probably right? I mean, this is. There's. How many other gig work apps can you sign yourself up for? You know, every time that I talk to an Uber driver, they're like, yes, I'm also a Lyft driver and I do postmates, and I do this and this and this. And then like, Like, I don't know, the rent to human as much as it, like, appears to be this bizarro publicity stunt, who knows where it could go from here, right? I keep thinking about people that are like, wait, hold on now. AI is supposed to be doing the art for us while we do their menial tasks like that. That is the final direction of this. In my very doomer mindset, I think
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A
what's a little bit. Well, there's a lot that's kind of silly about all this, but what seems extra silly to me is that AI agents, if not right now, like the direction we're headed is they're just going to use Fiverr, they're just gonna use Amazon Prime. Like they're just gonna use these existing infrastructure sites on people's behalf. You don't need a separate site. That's just for bots. Bots are gonna be roaming the web or agents are gonna be roaming the web freely. So it's a little bit of a. It's a taste of what's to come in a centralized form with a goofy name. But ultimately I think it is a look at what's more troubling to me. A future where you don't know if you're being assigned by a bot or by an agent or not. You don't know what's on the other end of that line.
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C
Okay, well, as someone who took once the practice test for the LSAT a single time when I debated going to law school, I have to ask, who is liable if you get hurt on your little bot task job? If you mess something up and someone else gets hurt? Are we talking about the bot being liable? I feel like there's an interesting legal question here.
- [15:25]
B
The bot is an individual though, right? Like this is. I'm sorry, this is. Right, like they're still being set out and even given the instructions to assign someone to these varying tasks. Right? So surely it would be whatever business, whatever, AI startup, whatever. Crypto wallet something that is encouraging people to count Washington's pigeons.
- [15:49]
C
Crypto wallet something. You heard it here first, folks.
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B
Crypto wallet is on the brain because you need a crypto wallet to get paid for tasks by Rent a Human.
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C
That was a huge red flag to me.
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A
Are we shocked that there's a crypto tie in?
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B
There has to be a crypto tie in. There's always a crypto tie in.
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A
I will say we also talked to the founders of Rent a human, a 26 year old Argentinian software engineer, Alexander Liteplo and his co founder, Patricia Tani. Would it surprise either of you to know again that this website was vibe coded in a day by an AI agent?
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C
That makes so much sense.
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A
It's agents all the way down.
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B
All right, I'm removing AI from the chat. You guys, this is way too much for me today. I feel like I was an incredible sport about the last 20 minutes of my life. Thank you so much. And to be clear, these are all really, really important stories, but I want to talk about a very different story that I think could have maybe not as much of an impact as AI on the rest of the world, but a sizable cultural and political impact nonetheless. Let's get into the midterms, and more
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A
specifically, Leah, it's so early. It's February. Do we have to.
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C
I also feel like you made us do this, like, two weeks ago.
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B
Okay. But this is a really different way into it. So polls are not looking great for the gop. In the last couple of weeks, we've seen a number of issues not track super well, whether that was, you know, ICE's invasion of Minneapolis economy, as we have been talking about, not so great no matter what President Donald Trump says. So in classic Republican fashion, they have, like, backups on backups on backups. We have the manosphere on one side, which is plugging away. We have our hardy podcasters that Wired has been covering for a long, long time. But I want to look a little bit at a different side of this and how Republicans are appealing to young women right now. And that's EV Magazine, which is a digital and print magazine with conservative women as their main audience target. They have quite literally called themselves the conservative Cosmo before they were founded in 2019. And the entire point was to have an alternative. It was this idea that conservative women were, like, sitting down, reading Marie Claire and Vogue and Cosmo and being like, stop throwing your liberal ideas at me. I miss these, like, makeup ads and. And that, like, I'm. I'm totally serious. And so you have EV Magazine, which, if you're scrolling through their online right now, you see things that are like, is this actually political? It's articles like, 7 questions to ask early if you want a serious relationship or how to dress like Olivia Dean on a budget. But so much of it is a classic example of soft power in action. This is so many of the other articles running alongside are, like, critiques of birth control or woman sharing experiences about, you know, why before marriage actually doomed all of their relationships. It's this, like, very interesting space that's actually been picking up quite a bit of attention. You have Republicans across the spectrum that are pretty obsessed with it. Candace Owens, Steve Bannon, and Brett Cooper, a conservative commentator, all champion Yvie. So Brett Cooper and I actually have something really important in common, you guys. We were both at YV magazine's very first live event on Sunday night in New York City. This was their live event at New York Fashion Week. It was held at the Standard Hotel's Boom in Chelsea. And it was so bizarre. I wrote an article about it. Did you read it? Tell me what you think.
- [19:18]
C
I read it. The detail about the room smelling like burnt hair really got me. That was very evocative, very evocative. I felt like I was there. I was also, because I read a profile on Brett Cooper a while back and I was very curious what she's like in person.
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B
Many of the women at this event gave off the appearance of trying really, really hard to look very, very glamorous and very, very with it. And very, very much at this function that was, in quotes, attempting to celebrate the romantic era. It wasn't inherently political. Like, that's the wild thing. If you walked in off the street, you were not going to go, oh, this is. This is conservatism.
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C
Like, we're not talking about like MAGA hats or whatever.
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B
No, no, no, no. If you're talking conservatism, you're talking like Sydney Sweeney rather than ice patrolling streets. That was more the vibe, which is really important because that's actually how they're winning hearts and minds here. This is soft power.
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A
Leah, I have a chicken and an egg question here, which is that there was clearly a market for this, right? Because it's doing well. So how much of ev and they've been around for seven years or so and growing, how much of their success is they've just tapped into a market that didn't have a magazine like this, but they always wanted one. And how much of it is they are winning people over to conservatism who wouldn't have otherwise been there?
- [20:47]
B
I think it's both. I really think it's both the talking to the people that were at the party you had. I talked to conservative commentators who certainly were conservative long before EV was founded and will be around long after the Internet. I. But what I was also taken with were like random young women who were like, no, I really like the aesthetic. I love their soft focus photography, I love their focus on these models. And also they have great celebrity content. So it was really running the gambit here. But to be entirely clear, like there is no way to actually separate EV from politics. Like the magazine traffics and conspiracy theories, shares anti vaccine content, has trad wife inspo like every other article. Remember Ballerina Farm? Like they helped bring it into a lot of the main sphere. Like they have articles about rejecting, quote, unquote, modern feminism and pushing modern femininity instead. And maybe in some ways the most explicit part of what they're doing is they also push an app that was founded by the editor in chief and co founders of EV. The app is called 28. It was founded in part by Peter Thiel. And in the app, users log information about their periods to calculate their menstrual cycle, and advertisements for it quite literally run next to articles that criticize hormonal birth control. One of the co founders and editor in chief, Brittany Hugoboom, actually told the New York Times that when she originally pitched Peter Thiel on funding this part of her pitch was about the quote, unquote, fertility crisis, which is, as we know, something that, like, a lot of conservatives are really, really concerned about, for whatever reason.
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C
I feel like it seems from the outside like there's a bit of a contradiction. And I'm wondering if it felt like this at the event between people like Brett Cooper and Brittany, this co founder, who are modern entrepreneurial women who seem like they're working really hard and building kind of a business. And then this message that women should take the more traditional female role in the family and perhaps not be a work. I mean, I don't know what else you mean by being anti feminist, but do those things feel like they clash? They. They seem like they do.
- [23:00]
B
They absolutely feel like they clash. But the explanation of that, like from women I spoke to at the event or even in the articles that they're running on their website is. Is in fact, no, it's about choice and it's about women's right to choose if they would like to be at home with their children or they would like to be out in events. And something that caught my eye, honestly, in the last few days that I haven't been able to look away from and is other outlets have put out their descriptions of the party as well, and very little of their descriptions. I'm thinking of this Wall Street Journal article in particular, talked very much about politics. And the bigger focus was on Evie being in this conservative space, but, like this glamorous, glamorous event. And it really sanitized everything. And that is so much of this, to me, is that Yvie already, through their articles, is sanitizing all of their stances here. And the party was doing the exact same. It was really, really wild to watch.
- [23:55]
A
And yeah, and to your point, it's not just about Evie. There is such a huge ecosystem of influencers in this space that have huge followings that are pushing a very similar line.
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B
We're in a moment right now, I think, where media is still figuring out how we talk about political influencers. Do we glamorize? Do we sanitize? Do we give them the platform? Do we give them the pedestal? Evie has created its own ecosystem for this, somewhat in the same way that, like the Republican manosphere did as well. When it comes to the midterms, we're looking at an entire range of young woman voters who perhaps are not that interested in, like, what the Republican mainstream is offering them, but can look at Yvie and can look at influencers like Brett Cooper and buy what they're selling. I am very, very, very curious to see how this plays out in the elections this year.
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C
Coming up after the break, we'll share our Wired Tired picks for the week. Stay with us.
- [25:02]
D
As a listener of Uncanny Valley, we know you want to stay on top of today's biggest stories in tech. And if you're curious about how tech and innovation are changing the healthcare landscape, check out Mayo Clinic's chart topping podcast Tomorrow's Cure Back for a brand new season, host and award winning journalist Kathy Werzer dives into the breakthroughs, challenges and human stories shaping the future of medicine, from advances in AI and cancer research to the rise of chronic disease and autoimmune disorders. Not sure where to start? We Recommend the season four premiere where dermatologist Dr. Saranya Wiles and biomedical engineer Dr. Adam Feinberg explore how 3D bioprinting is revolutionizing medical research and accelerating breakthroughs in healthcare. Whether you're a healthcare professional, patient, or simply curious about what's ahead, Tomorrow's Cure invites you to imagine what healthcare could look like and shows you the future is already here. Find Tomorrow's Cure on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now.
- [26:06]
B
How is your credit score calculated? Why is healthcare more expensive in the US Than any other country? We answer those questions and more on Control F, a new podcast that uses data to reveal the hidden stories, stories in our daily lives. Every episode we tell you about the data that companies and the government track about us and how that data shapes our reality. Join the Search Listen to Control F from KUOW in Seattle. Wherever you get your podcasts,
- [26:38]
C
It's time for our Wired Tired segment. Whatever is new and cool is Wired. Obviously, whatever is passe is tired. Are we ready?
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A
I'm going to be ripped from the headlines. This might be a controversial pick. I think my wire this week is LEGO's Smart Brick. So I don't know if you guys have been following this, but Lego has introduced a brick that has all kinds of sensors in it, an accelerometer. It can basically you integrate it into an existing system and it can say if you're playing with, like, your Millennium Falcon build, it'll know if you, like, have a crash landing, it'll make some sort of noise. It sort of brings a level of interactivity to lego, which I think purists are probably saying, no, don't do that. Lego's fine. And that's true for you. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to. But I think it is nice to see that they're still trying new things. Whether it works or it doesn't. I appreciate the effort, and I'm curious to try it out for myself.
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C
I like that we're still on the magnetiles phase, but I'm excited for that. Once we can get over the tiny choking hazard, then I feel like we'll launch into the LEGO phase.
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A
Unstoppable. Yeah, no, they're great.
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B
Okay. For anyone that actually knows me, this is a very, very difficult one for me. What is tired is resi and OpenTable and any app I need to use to get a reservation for anything ever. I have become a caricature of myself, you guys. I am setting alarms like, seven times a day to try and get different reservations. I love food, I love going out to eat. And in New York, it has just become hell on earth.
- [28:24]
C
This is gonna be Leah's entrance into AI agents once she figures out how to deploy clodblats.
- [28:31]
A
Just vibe code. An agent. Vibe code, an agent.
- [28:33]
B
Already tried. Already tried. Already asked a friend of mine. I'm like, honestly, not even kidding. This is something that I have absolute looked into. This would solve so many things for me. And I'm devastated because, as Zoe in particular knows, I love reservations. I actually love having a plan and knowing that I'm going to be able to get in. So when I say that my Wired is walking into a restaurant, that's, like, not actually true because I would have so much anxiety in, like, the two hour lead up. I'm like, maybe we just won't eat tonight. And that's fine, that's fine. I'll be okay with that. No, my Wired doesn't, in fact, exist yet, which is just like a restaurant that entirely refuses reservations or has a different system altogether. There's a restaurant in Maine that's absolutely amazing called the Lost Kitchen. They had, like, a whole TV show about them. I mean, Erin French, unbelievable, chef. This is how they take reservations, you guys. You mail in a postcard. I thought that was a gimmick before, but now I think that's it. I think that's where I'M at. It's too much. They appified my favorite hobby and now I can't do it anymore.
- [29:33]
C
I'm sorry.
- [29:34]
B
It's okay. I say this, though, and like, I for sure have an alarm going off in 15 minutes to try and get in somewhere. But, like, will it work?
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C
I was gonna say completely still rely on you. When I'm in New York, I'm like, I expect every evening to be a cool culinary experience.
- [29:47]
B
Yes. And it will be. And it will be. Trust me. It's just. I think it's just a phase. Talk to me in a week or so. I'm annoyed. I'm just annoyed.
- [29:55]
A
After you've vibe coded your AI agent to make reservations.
- [29:58]
C
Yeah, exactly.
- [29:59]
B
Yeah. This is my path to the dark side.
- [30:02]
C
This is AGI, baby.
- [30:04]
B
What's yours?
- [30:05]
C
Okay, this is my tired. I don't want to get in trouble with every member of my family, but my kids have discovered how to FaceTime with their grandparents. My older daughter now spends a lot. She's constantly asking to call my dad in particular. It's very cute. But do I love the fact that she, like, now fully knows how to work an iPhone? I do not. I do not love that. We are on the wait list for the tin can phone. And guys, that's my wired. I'm really excited for this future. A wi fi connected phone that just makes calls. What? Yes. The marketing is made in a lab to get me to spend money. I love it so much. And supposedly it ships in April.
- [30:45]
B
I'm looking it up right now. The colors are so cute. This actually looks like a tin can phone. This is not like a Motorola razor. This is adorable.
- [30:54]
A
It's huge. And once you get your parent network on it, all the kids in the school can call each other in a nice controlled way.
- [31:03]
C
Wait, Brian, do your kids have it?
- [31:05]
A
I think my kids are a little older, so everyone's already on smartwatches and stuff, so we just missed it. But also check wired.com in a couple of weeks, a week for a really nice story about this.
- [31:18]
B
Wait, this is really. I want one. Should we get them and call each other?
- [31:23]
C
I know.
- [31:24]
B
Are they encrypted?
- [31:25]
C
Probably no. Probably no.
- [31:28]
B
That's our show for today. We'll link to all the stories we spoke about today in the show notes. If you have any comments, you can find the episode transcripts@wired.com to discuss. Uncanny Valley is produced by Kaleidoscope Content. Adriana Tapia produced this episode. It was mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Mark Leyda was our San Francisco studio engineer. Pran Bandy is our New York studio engineer, Kate Osborne is our executive producer, and Katie Drummond is Wired's global editorial director.
- [32:06]
C
Now more than ever, technology is a dominating force in our lives. Then there's the threat of AI everywhere. And yet, tech can be inspiring and help level playing fields. I mean, a YouTuber with a self funded debut movie just dominated the box office.
- [32:24]
A
I thought, hey, if you interview me, it'd be good for your publication. And that's not ego. I just have a lot of followers that. But it's that stigma. It's like YouTubers, they're not real.
- [32:35]
C
Join me Lizzie O', Leary, the host of what Next TBD, Slate's podcast focused on technology, power and the future. Follow what Next TBD Now.
- [32:45]
B
Wherever you get your podcasts.
- [32:52]
C
From prx.