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The manager standing behind you used to be a person. Now it's an algorithm. And the algorithm never looks away. I want to start with something they told us. When AI started entering the workplace a few years ago, the story was simple and it was everywhere. AI is going to free workers from drudgery. AI is going to eliminate the boring tasks so human beings can focus on the creative ones. AI is going to make your job easier, your days less stressful, and your work more meaningf

You didn't agree to be scanned. You didn't agree to be stored. And yet, here we are. I want you to picture something. You're sitting in a coffee shop. You're waiting for a friend. A stranger walks in wearing a pair of Ray-Ban glasses; nice looking, normal. They glance in your direction. And their glasses know your name. Not because you told them. Not because you agreed to anything. Because their glasses looked at your face, converted it into a biometric signature, and matched

They didn't need a weapon. They just needed a chat window and a machine that was designed to be helpful. I want you to read this sentence very carefully. Hackers broke into high-profile Instagram accounts; including the Barack Obama White House account, the Chief Master Sergeant of the US Space Force, and global beauty brand Sephora, not by cracking a password. Not by writing sophisticated malware. Not by exploiting some buried technical vulnerability that took months to find

The company building one of the most powerful AI systems on earth just raised its hand. What they said next should change how you think about everything. I want you to read one sentence. Just one. And then I want you to sit with it for a moment before you read the next one. "We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development." That sentence was not written by a protester. It was not written by a politician. It was

Thirty years in. And this might be the most excited I've been about a new iPhone in a decade. I've been an Apple user for over 30 years. I've watched this company go from the Macintosh to the iPod to the iPhone; from a cult brand that techies argued about to the most valuable company on earth. I've seen the hits and I've sat through a few misses. I know how to tell the difference between a genuine leap forward and a shiny object Apple is selling because it needs something new

The full episode, in your own time, at your own pace. Every word, right here. This is a bonus episode, something landed in the news that couldn't wait until Tuesday. Apple is about to release its first-ever foldable iPhone, the iPhone Ultra, and as someone who has been using Apple products for over 35 years, I wanted to give you the full, honest breakdown before the rumour mill buried it in noise. The specs. The skepticism. The price conversation nobody wants to have. And the

This is what progress looks like when nobody asks who pays for it. Let me ask you something nobody in the tech industry wants you to ask. Every time you type a question into ChatGPT, every time you ask an AI assistant to draft an email or explain your medication or summarize the news; where does the energy for that come from? Where does the water go? Because it goes somewhere. It always goes somewhere. And right now, it's going into the ground underneath communities that had

The surveillance state is not a demonstration of strength. It is the most elaborate monument to fear ever constructed. Let me ask you a question that nobody in the mainstream tech conversation seems to want to answer. When you type a question into an AI assistant, when you watch a recommended video, when you read a news story that an algorithm decided you should see; who decided what you'd find? Most people assume the answer is engineers, data scientists, neutral code. The in

Your iPhone can quietly monitor your balance every time you go for a walk, and warn you if something changes. Here's how to set it up. I want to tell you about a feature that's been sitting inside your iPhone; completely free, no extra apps, no subscriptions, that most people have absolutely no idea exists. It's called Walking Steadiness. And if you're over 55, or you have a parent or someone you care about who is, this might be one of the most quietly important things your p

One man ended 130 years of family slavery in Pakistan. The technology to have done it decades ago already existed. This episode asks the question nobody wants to answer; where was everyone else? In this episode of The Virtuous Machine series, we follow the story of one family in Pakistan who spent 130 years, four generations, enslaved at a brick kiln. It ended on May 14th, 2026, not because of government enforcement, not because of corporate accountability, not because of AI.

She doesn't need a "senior-friendly" version. She needs the same tools everyone else gets and someone who actually took the time to show her how to use them. Open any major publication right now and search "tech for aging parents." Go ahead. I'll wait. You'll find lists. Dozens of them. "The 10 Best Gadgets to Help Your Elderly Parent Stay Independent." "Top Smart Home Devices for Seniors in 2026." "The Tech Your Aging Mom Actually Needs." And look. Some of these products are

UK criminals are using AI to clone your voice and your bank can't tell the difference. I want you to stop for a second. Your voice. The one your kids recognize the moment you say hello. The one you've had your entire life. Criminals are now stealing it, in real time, and using it to empty your bank account. This isn't a sci-fi plot. This is happening right now. In the UK. To people exactly like you. It Starts With a Phone Call That Seems Completely Harmless Someone calls. The

Four generations. One family. One man who did what no government or corporation would. This is the story nobody stopped to be angry about. On May 14th, 2026, a family in the Kasur district of Punjab, Pakistan, walked out of a brick kiln for the first time in 130 years. Not metaphorically. Literally. Four generations of one family had been born into debt bondage at that kiln; meaning they were slaves in every practical sense of the word, legally prevented from leaving until a

The most-cited living scientist on earth helped build AI. Now he's warning we may have a decade to change course. Hey, welcome back to today's episode. If you're new here, new to the show, or if you've been listening to me for ramble on for quite some time, welcome back. I'm glad to have you. Before we get into today's episode, I need to do a little bit of house cleaning. If you've been listening to this show for as long as it's been, we are new, um, you, I think you might be

WhatsApp is testing a new feature that deletes messages after they've been read, not just after a timer. Here's what you need to know. Okay, this is a good one. WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Meta and used by over two billion people worldwide, is quietly testing a new feature that will delete your messages automatically after the other person has read them. Not after a timer. After they've actually read it. That's a meaningful difference. And if you care about your priv

This summer, Disney scanned your child or grandchild's face at the park entrance, converted it into a permanent biometric identifier, and stored it in a database. They did it without asking you, and now there's a $5 million lawsuit because of this. We live in a world where the most powerful technology ever built is being handed to you without instructions, without warnings, and without anyone asking whether it serves you or uses you. That question has a name, the virtuous mac

The man who helped build modern AI says we have roughly ten years to change course. He is not guessing. I want to tell you about a man. Not a journalist. Not a podcaster. Not someone with a book to sell or a documentary to promote. The actual man. One of three or four human beings on earth most responsible for making AI what it is today. And he is terrified of what he built. Who He Is And Why It Matters His name is Yoshua Bengio. He is the most-cited living scientist in the w

In Japan, 77,000 people died alone last year; unnoticed for days, weeks, sometimes months. The conditions that caused it are assembling here. I want to start with a word. A Japanese word. Kodokushi. It translates, roughly, to "lonely death." And it means exactly what it sounds like. A person dies, alone, in their home, and nobody notices. Not for days. Sometimes not for weeks. Sometimes not for months. In Japan last year, nearly 77,000 people died that way. 77,000. In over 7,

77,000 lonely deaths in Japan last year. The conditions that caused it are assembling here. Full podcast transcript below. Hey everybody, and I hope you are having a great week so far. Today's show is going to be a little deep. It's a conversation that I've been wanting to have for some time and for some might find it depressing. Some might find it absolutely ludicrous that this is occurring, but we need to have this conversation as a society and as just human beings. And I w

8,000 jobs. $145 billion in AI spending. The stock barely moved. Let me give you the short version first. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp; is cutting approximately 8,000 jobs starting this week. On top of 1,000 cuts in January. On top of hundreds more in March. That's before whatever they're planning for August. At the same time, Meta has increased its capital expenditure projections for 2026 by up to $10 billion. Total AI spending for the year: