Welcome back to Uncanny Valley! This week, …’s Brian Barrett and Leah Feiger are joining the show as the new cohosts, alongside Zoë Schiffer. And our attention has been drawn to the drama going down in the quaint little town of Davos. Zoë tells us how at the World Economic Forum’s event in Switzerland, major AI players like Anthropic have been the protagonists—sharing the spotlight with President Donald Trump, who insists on invading Greenland. Brian has been looking at how ICE activity is developing, and Leah is forcing us to think about this year’s midterms, because tech giants are already pouring millions into it. Plus, we dive into why OpenAI’s decision to roll out ads in ChatGPT was a long time coming.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
- Pro-AI Super PACs Are Already All In on the Midterms
- ‘I’m Witnessing a Lot of Emptiness’: How ICE Uprooted Normal Life in Minneapolis
- Ads Are Coming to ChatGPT. Here’s How They’ll Work
You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at uncannyvalley@….com.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to …'s Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, …'s director of business and industry.
Today, we're starting a bit of a new chapter here on the show, and I want to introduce you to my brand-new cohost, Brian Barrett, our executive editor here at …, and Leah Feiger, our senior politics editor. Brian and Leah, welcome to the show.
Brian Barrett: Hi, Zoë.
Leah Feiger: Hey, guys. So thrilled to be here.
Zoë Schiffer: So longtime listeners know the show has taken on a bunch of different formats since it launched. We had the Gadget Lab days, the roundtable, news episodes. We really created this podcast because we want to bring you the best stories and the best takes about what's happening in tech and politics.
Leah Feiger: That's all going to stay the same, but this time we're going to go even deeper. We're peeling back the curtain and telling you what we're hearing from our sources across Silicon Valley and in DC. What trends you should be watching for, the news that's already happened or about to break, and how we are thinking about all of it. Basically, you're going to be added to the group chat on Slack.
Brian Barrett: God, help us all. No, it's going to be great. Mostly what we hope is that we can give you a sense of this rapidly-changing world from a … lens. We're going to be honest, we're going to be curious, we're going to be looking towards the future and taking you there with us.
Zoë Schiffer: OK. So we have a bunch of stuff to discuss today. The World Economic Forum kicked off this week in Switzerland, and it's already produced a ton of drama.
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