Kevin Roose

Transcript This transcript was generated by AI. Kevin Roose: What's the real reason these safety researchers were fired by OpenAI?

Fired OpenAI safety researchers Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak give us their first interview since their dramatic dismissal. They take us inside the company during METR's investigation into the Hugging Face hack, explain why OpenAI's rebuttal doesn't add up, and describe how the fight over AI safety is still playing out inside the company. Plus: we introduce our new segment, Pandora's Box. Elon Musk wants to give every kid in America a SpaceX share, new filings in the OpenAI bugging case reveal the suspect's chats with a Saudi royal, and more fresh horrors unleashed on us all by Silicon Valley.For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods. You can watch this full episode on YouTube Spotify or Apple . And if you've got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected]

In their first interview since being fired, OpenAI safety researchers Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak say they were terminated for prioritizing safety over the short-term interests of the company.

In their first interview since being fired, OpenAI safety researchers Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak say they were terminated for prioritizing safety over the short-term interests of the company.

AI discovered a vulnerability in part of the internet's architecture, called PHP2SHELL. Security researchers rushed to fix it, but news of the vulnerability leaked and hackers have swooped in.

AI discovered a vulnerability in part of the internet's architecture, called PHP2SHELL. Security researchers rushed to fix it, but news of the vulnerability leaked and hackers have swooped in.

Transcript Kevin Roose: What does the Anthropic S-1 tell us about whether AI is a bubble? How can privacy survive the AI agent era?

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has released the most detailed account of its business yet, as it prepares for its IPO. We break down the biggest surprises in its S-1 filing and explain what the numbers tell us about the AI bubble. Then, Signal president Meredith Whittaker joins us in the studio to discuss the existential threat facing private messaging and end-to-end encryption. Between governments demanding backdoor access to private conversations and AI agents that can see everything on our devices, she warns, “we are looking at the elimination of the possibility to provide privacy.” For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods. You can watch this full episode on YouTube Spotify or Apple . And if you've got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected]

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has released the most detailed account of its business yet, as it prepares for its IPO. We break down the biggest surprises in its S-1 filing and explain what the numbers tell us about the AI bubble. Then, Signal president Meredith Whittaker joins us in the studio to discuss the existential threat facing private messaging and end-to-end encryption. Between governments demanding backdoor access to private conversations and AI agents that can see everything on our devices, she warns, “we are looking at the elimination of the possibility to provide privacy.”For a transcript of this episode, check out npr.org/machinegods.You can watch this full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple. And if you’ve got a question you want us to answer, you can drop us a comment on any of those platforms or email us at [email protected]