Karen Hao

Watch us on YouTube if you're outside the UK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVH...

Or anyone can listen wherever you get your podcasts: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...

YouTube video by BBC Podcasts Is Havana Syndrome REAL?

Remember Havana Syndrome? In 2017 US diplomats in Cuba started mysteriously suffering brain damage after hearing a noise.

Many thought it a conspiracy theory. After investigating, @nickywoolf.bsky.social concluded it wasn't.

He was right.

This week on The Interface youtube.com/watch?v=UYVHzkq2X7Y

So excited to join the board of this phenomenal organization. AI Now has played a defining role in shaping how I understand my work as a journalist: to hold the AI industry accountable and radically reimagine how this technology could distribute, rather than consolidate, power.

"During one site visit in early 2025, OpenAI employee Keith Heyde joked with colleagues that he could assess the amount of clay in the soil just by tasting it. Then he crouched down, grabbed a pinch of earth and put it in his mouth. The moment became an inside joke, but it also showed just how determined the team was to understand the locations where they wanted to build data centers. (Heyde left OpenAI a few weeks ago.)"

Incredible reporting from @anissa.bsky.social in @theinformation.com about OpenAI's struggle to get more computing power as Stargate—its $500B data center buildout—has floundered.

theinformation.com/articles/ins...

It also includes this detail. We are in the dirt-eating phase of the AI hype cycle.

Goertzel vs Epstein Addressing questions regarding the Epstein Files and my AGI work

Ben's response on his Substack: bengoertzel.substack.com/p/goertzel-v...

YouTube video by BBC Podcasts We HACKED ChatGPT and it was easy

And for those of you outside the UK, watch us on YouTube. youtu.be/_fUzhlLJ5hY?...

My co-host Thomas Germain on our BBC podcast The Interface hacked ChatGPT in 24 hours.

The story is hilarious! And deeply concerning.

We also discuss the massive data center expansion around the world and the secret Starlink deployment to Iran.

Catch Ep 2 here:
app.magellan.ai/listen_links...

Goertzel to Epstein: Hey, so I'll be in New York for a few days... my SingularityNET colleagues and I are organizing a small invitation-only event Mon Dec 10 6-9PM for which an invite is attached (in a friend's penthouse apartment)... agenda of the event is to discuss the AI/blockchain intersection in general, and our new Singularity Studio enterprise-AI spinoff of SingularityNET in particular (we are planning an Equity Token Offering for Singularity Studio)... But if you'll be around we could perhaps alternately or additionally meet up 1-1 sometimes, I am free Sunday Dec 9 but also could find some time Dec 7 or the morning of Dec 10 ... let me know if you're in town and might spare a few moments... it's been a while! thx ;) ben

Goertzel invites Epstein to "small invitation-only event" to discuss AI/blockchain after Miami Herald investigation.

Goertzel to Epstein: About the issue of allowing conversion of real $$ into AGI Tokens.... I do understand there is greater legal/regulatory risk in doing it this way=.. On the other hand, I don't see any other way to make the thing really grow to exceed Google, FB etc. in size (or even become self-supporting)... Basically, we need real-world users who need Al services for their businesses to outsource their work to Agents in the SingularityNET and these real-world businesses have their assets in fiat currency... ...the world needs to have ways to turn fiat back and forth into AGI tokens... Eventually maybe not, if the AGI economy overtakes the normal-world economy. But for the AGI parasite to overcome to regular-human-economy host (so it can grow to be more than a parasite and eventually gain its own superhuman autonomy) it first needs to suck off the resources of the host, and these resources are now mainly expressed in fiat currency...

Goertzel discusses with Epstein future scenario for "an AGI economy":

"for the AGI parasite to overcome to regular-human-economy host (so it can grow to be more than a parasite and eventually gain its own superhuman autonomy) it first needs to suck off the resources of the host"

Goertzel to Epstein: Oh, by the way, I was so concerned about my AI project I didn't notice you mentioned your birthday in the chat... Happy birthday!! ;-) Now if you want to have 100000 more birthdays you should fund my AI project so we can create a thinking machine that will solve the problem of mortality!!! ;-D ben

Goertzel wishes Epstein happy birthday with request for more money.

"Now if you want to have 100000 more birthdays you should fund my AI project so we can create a thinking machine that will solve the problem of mortality!!! ;-D"

Epstein to Goertzel: "please send details i will send 50k monday" Goertzel to Epstein: "many many thanks! ... You won't regret it ;) The AI we build will thank you one day!"

Geortzel asks for more after Epstein is out of prison. Epstein says he will send another 50k

Goertzel to Epstein: "You won't regret it ;) The AI we build will thank you one day!"

Goertzel to Epstein: "Mechanically: a check for $2K should be sent to =he Singularity Institute for Al (a nonprofit), at my =ome address... " Epstein to Rich Kahn: "Send 5k"

Some notable exchanges:

Goertzel requests funding from Epstein while Epstein is in prison. Epstein directs 5k to be sent to the Singularity Institute.

Email from Epstein to Goertzel: "free and home" Goertzel replies: ";-))) Congratulations!!!! Actually, I was just about to send you an email summarizing my recent progress, current situation, and future hypothetical plans...I'll probably do so tomorrow. I'm sure you're super-swamped, but it would be great to get together when you have the chance... ben" Goertzel continues: "p.s. Also, the Singularity Summit (futurist conference, but with some good scientific speakers this year) will be in NY this year, Oct 3-4...and Oct 5-6, afterwards, there will be a brainstorming workshop I think you might enjoy (where, basically, the ~20 speakers from the Summit will get together and try to make conceptual progress on various future-science issues). I'll remind you again when the date gets closer!"

Ben Goertzel, popularizer of the term AGI and creator of the Sophia robot, congratulating Jeffrey Epstein the day after Epstein was released from prison.

Goertzel is mentioned in the files nearly 800 times, including well after the Miami Herald investigation in 2018.

I am so excited too!! Noami Klein is my hero. I will be fangirling hard.

YouTube video by BBC Podcasts The AI beef that CHANGED THE WORLD | Episode 1 | The Interface

And if you're outside the UK, you can watch us on YouTube too!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn_W...

Episode 1 is OUT!! 🥳 🙌

This week on The Interface, we discuss:
* That insane Superbowl ad for Ring
* The US TikTok takeover
* And the beef that launched ChatGPT

Listen wherever you get your podcasts: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...

I could not have imagined a better partner to capture this book in its entirety – not just the words and their literal meaning, but its spirit and mission.

Korean readers can order the book here 💗
product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S0002...

Fast forward to March of 2025, I was readying the launch of the English edition when Boyoung asked me if I had a Korean version in the works. I did not. She once again became my advocate, translating a sample of the book and pitching it to Korean publishers.

An MIT Technology Review Series: AI Colonialism An investigation into how AI is enriching a powerful few by dispossessing communities that have been dispossessed before.

In 2021, Boyoung was working at the @pulitzercenter.org when I applied for a grant to work on a series called “AI Colonialism.” Little did I know that the series would form the thesis of my book – and the inspiration for its title. www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/a...

The Korean edition of EMPIRE OF AI AI 제국: 권력, 자본, 노동

The Korean edition of EMPIRE OF AI is out — and this one is really special. 🥹

It was translated by my dear friend Boyoung Lim, who played a crucial role in making my book possible in the first place.

product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S0002...

It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.

Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”

New BBC Studios podcast The Interface explores how tech is changing everything The podcast will launch on 12th February

First episode comes out next Thursday Feb 12 wherever you get your podcasts. Like and subscribe and all that good stuff 💗

www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...

As the world feels more and more off kilter, we're going to navigate it with you and hopefully leave you feeling just a little more agency. We won't always have the answers, but we promise probing questions and therapeutic laughs along the way.

It's been a delight to work with my co-hosts @thomasgermain.bsky.social and @nickywoolf.bsky.social on creating this show. Collectively we've spent some three decades thinking & writing about the intersection of tech and society across its many faces.

Karen Hao

Nicky Woolf

Thomas Germain

I'm co-hosting a new BBC podcast! It's called The Interface, and it's all about how tech is rewiring your week and your world.

www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...

Later this month, I'll be headed to Delhi to participate in the AI Impact Summit with @ainowinstitute.bsky.social. I spoke with @themaybe.org as part of their series exploring the kinds of narratives we might expect to hear, and how to move away from the harmful ones that entrench global inequality.

Quilicura, Chile, one of the communities I wrote about in EMPIRE OF AI, has launched a brilliant initiative to inspire more responsible AI prompting. Today, don't use AI; ask the townspeople instead: quili.ai. So heartened to see this creative act of resistance.

IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...

I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.

Biden himself said they were fabricated!

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Inside an AI start-up’s plan to scan and dispose of millions of books Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.

Absolutely damning from @aaronschaffer.com, @willoremus.com, & @nitasha.bsky.social.

To get more data, Anthropic:
* "destructively scanned" millions of books
* downloaded the shadow library LibGen
* hailed another shadow library's arrival as "just in time!!!"

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

YouTube video by More Perfect Union OpenAl Showed Up At My Door. Here’s Why They’re Targeting People Like Me

Last summer, as OpenAI sought to transition from nonprofit to for-profit, civil society groups pressed the company for accountability.

Tyler Johnston, the founder of an AI watchdog, was among them.

Then OpenAI showed up with a subpoena at his door.

My latest for @moreperfectunion.bsky.social.